Those of you who have watched or listened to Winfluence for a while know that I got my professional start in radio. I marched myself into the local radio station at 14-years-old and said, “I wanna be a deejay!” And for some reason they said, “Okay. You start Friday.”

I pursued radio through high school and college, navigated the world of broadcasting and sports hoping to one day land at ESPN. I actually interviewed there the same week I interviewed for its parent company, ABC. My first full-time job out of college wound up as a producer at ABC Radio Sports in New York.

My experiences included working on a nationally syndicated radio show, managing stringers and reporters for day-to-day sports coverage, producing longer-form feature pieces you could argue were essentially podcasts. But this was well before most people had access to the Internet and devices, bandwidth and such were affordable. Or even possible.

We talk about influence on this show and radio is one of those mediums that we’re quick to overlook. My mother developed a nationally recognized, award-winning communications program a few years back in my small hometown in Eastern Kentucky. It wound up being a success because she knew what most of us don’t know. In a rural community, the local morning show deejay is probably the most influential person in town outside of the county judge.

Tony Garcia knows the power of radio. Like me, he worked in the broadcasting industry back in the 1990s. He is the co-founder of a company called Now! Media. You may not recognize that company. But the other “company” he co-founded in conjunction with it is the Bob and Sheri Show.

It is a nationally syndicated radio show hosted by Bob Lacey and Sheri Lynch. They’re based in Charlotte, but are syndicated on 70 affiliates across the U.S. The weekday morning show is also heard in 177 countries and on 150 ships at sea along the American Forces Network.

Now, a traditional, terrestrial radio show isn’t something you’d think would flourish in our on-demand, always connected, internet world. But the Bob and Sheri Show is different. Not only have they spun the show and segments of it into podcasts and an active social media presence that includes a Facebook Group number over 115,000 members. But they have hacked the advertising and sponsorship model for even small businesses.

When I learned that, I knew we had to have Tony on the show. Because what they’ve built is a hidden gem of influence, both online and off. And we can learn from them.

This episode of Winfluence is presented by CIPIO.ai. We are helping brands transform their digital marketing with user-generated content videos and images at scale. Come see us at CIPIO.ai. If you want me to personally show you the platform and how we can solve your digital marketing performance problems with high-performing UGC, just go to jasonfalls.co/cipio … fill out that form and I’ll personally set up time to chat with you.

Find show notes for this episode at jasonfalls.co/tonygarcia.

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