Brad Lane is back working in Minneapolis. He returns to the city known for the hat-tossing Mary Tyler Moore, the Vikings, and the land of 10,000 lakes– give or take a few.
He’s not all that far from Lake Superior, but he was born nearly 1,000 miles away in Razorback country.
“I grew up all over but was born in southern Arkansas,” Lane said. “I guess I worked hard to lose the accent. In this business, you have to.”
It may read Arkansas on his birth certificate, but his heart is where the stars at night are big and bright.
“Dallas and Fort Worth were our home base,” Lane said. “My grandparents had a ranch there. The other side of the family was from Houston and Beaumont. I hate that side of Texas with all its humidity. Dallas has much more culture and interesting people. If I ever moved back, that’s where I’d go.”
Lane appears to love Texas. He said Austin is a great town. “It’s the capital; it has 6th Street, the topography and culture is beautiful.”
He said if you go, March is the best month to see the bluebonnets, SXSW; you get to enjoy great food.
“You don’t have to deal with 1,000-degree temperatures. I always saw myself as a Texas kid, even though I was born in Arkansas. Austin is like a progressive bastillon, an island in the red meat state of Texas.”
His father was a pastor, and he wasn’t afraid to use his son’s experiences in his sermons.
“That’s probably my first illustration of being completely transparent,” Lane said. “Everything is fodder for conversation. Everything is up for discussion. There’s no filter, and I mean that in a good way. I was used as an example frequently. I never thought anything was out of balance.”
Constant coaching of talent is something Lane says is part of the job.
“If we talk about Roe v Wade, we have to do it with balance,” he said.
“Hosts will come to me and ask how they should approach a specific topic. I tell them to think of the topic as why it’s important.”
“Everything you hear about preacher’s kids is probably true. My father was a Baptist minister in Texas. We went to church just about every night. Sunday mornings, of course. My father would visit homes. You just couldn’t do that today. We were at church constantly.
He said he revered his father. “At the same time, I was scared to death of him. He was an imposing figure with a bigger-than-life personality.
Lane went to Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia and majored in mass communications in 1992.
“I chose that school and program because of a specific instructor, Jim Reppert,” Lane explained. “He was instrumental in my going there. It was a small program combined with the theater department. Many of the classes you had to take were crossovers.”
Lane also gravitated toward photography. He said that was back in the day when darkrooms were still utilized.
“I took my favorite during my senior year. It was an advanced black and white photography class. The instructor told us we had to create ten photos by the end of the semester, all using darkroom techniques to achieve the intended outcomes.”
Lane said one of those pictures included him playing poker against himself. It’s a little complicated, so bear with me.
He had to photograph himself as though he was playing against himself in three different chairs.
“All you needed was a good 35 mm camera with a flash,” Lane said. “Many of us had to beg, borrow and steal to get the right camera. So, we set up a card table with three chairs around the table. You had to have a partner to take the shot, and I was the subject playing poker.”
Lane and his student partner made the room as dark as possible and opened the aperture on the camera, which is essentially exposing the film. They dropped the playing cards on the table; then, his partner began to take Lane’s picture.
“I’d make a face like I was looking at my cards for the first shot,” Lane said. “For the second shot, I’d get up and move to the next chair. Keep in mind the aperture was still open. I’d make a different expression; maybe I was looking at the other cards. Then another flash.”
Lane said this was done a third time to complete the photo.
“Since we had to take the film to the darkroom to process, we didn’t know what we had. If we had accomplished the assignment.”
I’m assuming he did, but it didn’t come up. Lane said he wrote and produced his play in this rather hybrid degree.
“Jim Reppert was strongly encouraging me to go into television. I was doing ENG reporting. Then I got my first job offer for $11,700. A whopping figure to be a one-man-band reporter.”
Lane’s return to Minneapolis at WCCO, as joyous as it was for his family, was preceded by trying experiences.
“In 2018, my wife Liv was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer,” Lane explained. “It’s a kind of breast cancer that does not have any of the receptors that are commonly found in breast cancer. The doctors threw the kitchen sink at her, and right now, she’s doing okay.”
Lane said this type of cancer does not stem from genetics. It essentially comes out of nowhere. To compound matters, Liv’s medical concerns were realized just as Lane was let go from a job in Minneapolis. So not only was his wife struggling with her illness, he was faced with sending out resumes.
“Fortunately, Good Karma Broadcasting had a position as program director for me in Milwaukee at WTMJ and ESPN,” Lane said. “I talked with Steve Wexler, vice president, and market manager, and we hit it off right away. I think the world of Steve. We have similar ideas about content and execution.”
Before he met with Wexler, Lane even contemplated getting out of the business to be with his wife. He moved to Milwaukee alone while his wife and two sons remained in Minneapolis. Sure it was a formidable distance, but it could have been much further.
“She allowed me to do it,” Lane said. “To take the job while she convalesced. I worked things out with Wex and Craig Karmazin, owner of Good Karma.”
Lane said the cancer treatments are exhausting and can do a number on a person’s body. The effects will remain with his wife for the rest of her life.
“I spent two years in Milwaukee. I loved it but wanted to get back to my family and come to WCCO,” Lane said. “I think we were able to pick up where we left off. My wife was ecstatic. She didn’t really have energy. I do all the laundry, dishes.”
He’s also proud of his boys and recognizes what they had to go through for two years.
“I may have underestimated the impact of my absence,” Lane said. I grew up with a father who was constantly gone. He was taking care of his flock at church. He was away speaking. I don’t remember my dad making it to any of my baseball games. I tried to be different. I have coached Ryder in baseball since he was five years old. I’m incredibly proud of Ryder and my younger son Truman.”
His neighbors in Minneapolis were incredibly giving when they saw their friends in need of some help.
“They created a schedule to drive my son to high school. We’re in a good spot. Now I’m back in Minneapolis at a legendary station. With my energy and vision, I hope to keep this a relevant and vital platform. I’m surrounded by great talent.”
Lane constantly mentors talkers and guides producers.
Lane began at WCCO in April 2021. He’s had the chance to take inventory of his talent, and his overall experience allows him to reflect on others in the business.
“Many talkers know they can talk; not many know how to listen,” he said. “They’re thinking about what they’re going to say next. They miss what somebody just said. They try to think of something to say that makes them sound cool.”
“They’re underpaid, underappreciated,” said Lane. “Oftentimes, we don’t search for the best and brightest. Many producers are talk show wannabes and love the sound of their own voice. Others talk too little and are basically board ops and button pushers.”
Lane explained how you could take an amazingly gifted and talented host and pair them with a poor producer. You’ll end up with a less than satisfactory show.
“You can also take a mediocre host with instances of brilliant work, pair them with a great producer, and have a more relevant and successful host. You can find a producer who will chime in or challenge a host.”
He said while preparing for a show, a producer has to be nimble and fast at the draw.
“The producer must deduce if they need a guest at a certain point for content, or are they better off without them. Another aspect of a good producer is production and the use of sound design. We call it a show for a reason. Maybe a bell when you’re right or a buzzer when you’re wrong.”
Lane is aware of the impact of a well-timed actuality that can feed the dialogue.
“That all equals a better reaction. I think we’ve lost some of that along the way.
It’s not easy to stay on top of the on-air folks all the time. It’s the equivalent of being a coach of two teams simultaneously. I tend to gravitate to more local content. “
He continued–” A good producer knows when to react and respond. They know how to show rather than tell. Come in to the show with a plan. If things go awry, a producer must be as quick as the host. If they can’t find a guest, they have to determine which way to go. Know how to pivot.”
Lane explained how one of his employees stepped in to save the day.
“The guest didn’t show. The producer answered the call by mentioning Bruce Springsteen was coming to town. That quickly shifted the focus of the show and saved the moment. You have to be able to tap dance in a moment’s notice.”
The veteran program director always knew he wanted to be in some form of public forum. He would go to sleep with a transistor radio under his pillow and had a quaint idea of what radio was. What he did know about it was that radio was both engaging and relevant.
“Those are two words we try to push in every conversation.
Expanding on that, I tell each of my hosts to touch an emotion in any way, shape, or form. Make listeners laugh, cry, even angry. You need to do that on a segment basis. Provide depth range, a balance between fun and funny.”
As a content shaper, Lane said he needs to find personalities who are interesting and engaging. But they must elicit emotions. Expand on touching the heart and the many emotions we feel on a daily basis.
“When you make people think by asking provocative questions,” Lane explained.” We need to make them angry. Provide experiences that are hitting the brain. It’s unscripted. We must provide for entertainment and investigation.
When a host can come to the table with how they’re feeling, be quick. Trigger the audience with a lead-in. Don’t bury the lead; tell me what you’re thinking right out of the gate. Know why we’re talking about this.”
To Lane, hosts are all about personality and topic selection. They also get to the crux of what’s happening.
“I would say WCCO is a little different from when I came on board. I’ve made some tweaks, and I’m always assessing what we’re putting out over our air. The relevance.”
He thinks overall; in terms of talk radio, the host is personality driven. Maybe 30 percent of the hosts in the country have the right combinations innately. Those that don’t, he tries to coach and teach them.
“Some are talking about the right things,” Lane said. “Some have a sense of what’s important. Things people are talking about at the kitchen table. They just know how to do it. Other times, I’ll explain what they could have done in a particular situation.”
He said they have only one chance to get it out right and fast.
“In every office, I’ve ever had, there’s been a radio on my desk to the right. I’ve never been sure why it has been on the right; it just always has. I always tell my hosts, if you can get me to turn toward the radio and I wonder where we are going with this, you’ve got my attention. Talk radio was never intended to be in the background. That’s the beauty of good radio.”
The way people consume content is so different from what it was back in the day. You have to have a digital footprint. Connect with your audience in a different way.
“Maybe you’re not doing nearly as many in-person events as you may be used to,” said Lane. “You have to find other ways for your fans to ‘touch you.’ It can happen by Facebook or Instagram. Twitter doesn’t have nearly as many people as Instagram does. You can’t believe how important that stuff is.”
On-air phone calls are not as prevalent as they used to be. I’m trying to get that back on the air. We don’t live in a day and age where the phone is the only way to communicate with hosts. Old crusty veteran hosts might say, ‘I don’t do that social media stuff. They must realize its importance.”
“We need to make an effort to keep younger people interested. I have two children that never listen to terrestrial radio. Even though their father works in radio.. They listen to stuff off Itunes. One of my sons loves the Pat McAfee Show. He likes YouTube. We still need to get the attention of the younger set. It gives me a chance to get our platform in front of those who are not necessarily terrestrial listeners.”
