MORNING SHIFT JASON
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o say that Jason Marck has taken a strange path on his way to becoming an acclaimed NPR producer , is an understatement . He got his start in radio as an alternative rock jock .
“ I was going to school in Lawrence , Kansas ,” Jason explains , “ and there was an amazing music scene there at the time . It was on par with what was going on in Seattle or Chicago or Austin , and there were tons of places to see live music at the time , and our college station was really killing it . Then just as I was graduating , a local AM / FM combo had been family owned and was doing adult contemporary , and the guy who ran it had the foresight to notice what we were doing – and thought ‘ These kids may just be up to something ’. They became one of the first commercial alternative stations in the country . I just walked in , and said ‘ this is what I want to do , and I ’ ll do anything .’ They said ‘ OK , you ’ re hired .’”
The great advantage of working in small town radio is it forces you to learn about every aspect of the business . “ I DJ ' ed on the FM side , and then ran down the hall and flipped the cassettes of the church services that were being aired on the AM . I was the jock , the engineer , the imaging director , the production director , and ran the Kansas Jayhawks games because we were the flagship . I learned about floating breaks , and hard breaks , and network breaks , and I was doing everything .”
After a stint as a producer for the nationally syndicated Tony Bruno Show ( sports talk ) in Los Angeles , Jason made his way back to his hometown of Chicago , and tried to convince the powers that be at WBEZ to take a chance on him . “ They didn ’ t want to hire me at first at WBEZ . They thought I was tainted by commercial radio , and they might be better off trying to train an 18-year-old kid to think like they think . But the truth is , I already sort of did . I have always brought a public radio mentality to my commercial radio gigs . I ’ m not a journalist . I ’ m not a broadcaster . I ’ m a radio guy . My radio motto that I live by is be ‘ smart without being boring , and be entertaining without being stupid .’ If we hit that , we have had a good day .”
Although , Marck admits the change from commercial radio to public radio was a challenge at first . He cut his teeth on the show 848 . " There were eight or nine producers plus the host and the director at that time ," he says , providing a great glimpse into the different environment . “ They were producing these lengthy sound rich pieces , and those required a lot of time to correctly put together . We ’ re talking an eight minute segment that was written , scored , produced , and had gone through the editorial process . It could take a week or two to
By Rick Kaempfer
produce one segment . Well , slowly but surely over the years , producers left and their positions were not filled , and it evolved into more of a talk / conversation / topics of the day show , and we got a lot leaner .”
He is now part of the team that puts together the highly-rated Morning Shift on WBEZ , and that show has also evolved . “ We used to be very Chicagocentric , and now we do more generalinterest or national-interest stories . We never used to have callers on the show , but now we do all the time . We ’ ll still do a very newsy , hard hitting A-segment , but the middle segment now often has more of a pop-culture bent that involves the listeners , and we try to build conversations around what people are actually talking
Jason Marck
about . The C-section is usually more artsy – and we book bands , and artists and authors and what have you . The ratings have responded , and we are so pleasantly surprised and thrilled by this . These people running the place these days are not only passionate about public radio , and passionate about Chicago , but they also happen to really know what they are doing ! Imagine that !”
Jason also considers himself lucky to be working with host Tony Sarabia . “ Tony and I are friends in addition to being colleagues . We have a similar sense of humor . We ’ re both hard-core music guys . He is game for virtually anything ! If you come to him with an idea , and sell it to him , he ’ ll say ‘ I ’ ll give that a try .’ You have to remember that he was a reporter before becoming a host . He still makes calls and books guests . This is a total team effort , and he ’ s a team player . It doesn ’ t matter if anyone is buried with work , we ’ ll help the other person out . It ’ s the brotherhood of the never-ending show . There ’ s another one to do tomorrow , and the day after that , and the day after that . We believe in our mission . We believe in our show . And we believe in each other . That ’ s just the way we do it , and approach it , and it makes for a really healthy and fun work environment .”
But despite the awards and the accolades he has received in this role , Marck remains incredibly humble about his place in the business . “ You know those people who run the rides at the carnivals in church parking lots ? I ’ m one step above that guy on the entertainment food chain .”
18 illinoisentertainer . com august 2016