Michael Sheehy: Radio Veteran Adapting to Changes

Michael Sheehy has spent a nearly 40-year career in radio yet does not listen to radio himself. The 57-year-old has no interest in talk radio and the scope of his musical tastes cannot be met by what comes out of a car radio. “They can’t keep up with me,” Sheehy said. “I don’t blame them. You can’t be everything to everyone.” Now a freelance producer, Sheehy worked at KNX-FM as an on-air personality, music director and program director and spent 12 years at KTWV The Wave as an on-air personality and creative/production director. He still counts 15 radio stations across the country as clients for his voiceover work, and can be heard on local stations in commercials for Sport Chalet. In April, Sheehy and a group of talented friends debuted Planet Pootwaddle, an online radio station with a playlist all over the musical map. Broadcasting from a converted stable in the backyard of Sheehy’s Burbank home, Planet Pootwaddle plays everything from Frank Sinatra to Stevie Ray Vaughn to the comedy bits from Monty Python and The Firesign Theatre. The creative team includes radio and TV veteran Gary Owens, voice actors Wally Wingert and Mona Marshall, and Dave Hall, of “CSI.” Sheehy borrowed the term “pootwaddle” from the Spike Jones radio show of the late 1940s. In polite terms, it means to pass gas. “There is a certain zaniness and craziness that goes along with Spike Jones,” Sheehy said. “It’s the essence of that energy we try to put into what we are doing.” Q: What’s been your background in the radio business? A: When I started in radio it was in 1968. Free-form radio was the thing; there was no format. If there is anything on the programming side of radio I’ve done it. Maybe not well, like being a newscaster I’m awful at it. I’ve been a program director, I’ve been a disc jockey, and I’ve been a transmitter babysitter. A lot of the people in broadcasting today don’t have the benefit of that experience because that experience doesn’t exist today. Q: Why do you think that is? A: The technology and everything else has changed. In the old days you used to have a first class FCC license. It was a totally different deal. I’ve been in the Wild West of radio and for the people out there now it is a totally different feel. Q: Is that because of the corporations? A: Somebody who has been there a long time and have had a successful following but are making too much money whoop! A bean counter doesn’t give credit for the people who have been listening to you for 30 years. All they are looking at is the bottom line. The bean counter mentality has altered the way things go about. Q: Do you think it takes away from the creativity of the on-air personalities? A: Absolutely. It sucked the soul right out. One old radio adage is ‘Never ask permission; ask forgiveness.’ When you’re a morning guy you never want to ask, ‘Would it be okay if I did ‘ because you know the answer is going to be no. So you do it. (Fired morning radio talk show host) Don Imus he was hired to do what he does. He’s got millions of listeners. But when he does what he does he gets in trouble and the company jumps on him. That doesn’t make any sense. They were paying him to do what he does. Q: Is Internet radio how radio was when you first started? A: No because a lot of the Internet people are normal civilian people who don’t have a radio background. They probably have a lot of talent, they don’t have the radio mindset which could be a good thing or a bad thing. We basically have a troupe of people who like to come together and have fun. Normally they are doing serious stuff. It’s a place for our people to kick their shoes off and have fun. You can’t get this thing on terrestrial radio. Q: Give your take on the royalty rate issue for Internet radio stations. A: It’s a tussle between the have and have nots; corporate entities versus the little guy. I think the guys trying to charge these royalties are going to go after the big guys too and I think the big guys realize that. I am just waiting out the storm. The funny thing is there are ways to get around the royalty issue. People can start broadcasting right out of Sweden, which a lot of them are going to do. I have no problem with everyone getting their fair share. It’s their work; of course they should get a taste. I have no problem paying it. What’s going is more political than anything else. It’s a matter of control.