Rachel McGrath, Clear Channel, Atlanta, GA, PlayOnPlanetNominal
By Jerry Vigil
Women in production. How many really good ones are there? The ratio of men to women is overwhelming. Why? That’s one question we ask this month’s interview subject, Rachel McGrath, at Clear Channel Atlanta. There are so few exceptional ones, women at the top of the game, you’d probably have fingers left over if you tried to count them on one hand. Rachel McGrath is certainly one of them. If you’re not familiar with her or her work, join us as we introduce you to this extraordinary talent, and the latest to join the diminutive number of ladies hanging with the best of the best amongst the men in our side of the profession. Still in her 20s, Rachel has a long and prosperous career ahead of her, but already commands achievements most of her male counterparts spend decades reaching. Rachel is currently at Clear Channel’s Atlanta cluster, but one gets the impression this is nothing more than a waypoint on a journey that appears to have no destination outside of tremendous success. With only six years in the biz, you can bet your bottom dollar this is one lady you’ll be hearing lots of in the decades to come. Be sure to crank up the RAP CD for some awesome audio from Rachel.
JV: How did you get your start in radio, and what were some of the stops along the way to Atlanta?
Rachel: This sounds horrible. I’m completely arrogant, but I was one of those kids for which school came really easy. I got bored with school by the time I was 16 and knew, in fact, that I was not going to go to college because I felt like I had already done it, and got to a point in my life at the age of 22 where I really didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. So I decided I was going to go to the Air Force, but thank God, by a stroke of good luck, I couldn’t get in. Then I went to the Illinois Center for Broadcasting, and from there got an internship at 979 The Loop, in Chicago. I was a promotions intern, and the one thing I learned from there was I absolutely did not want to work in promotions, ever. (Laughter)
But then they let me sit in with the jocks, and I was like, “Ooh, I want to be a jock. I totally want to be a jock.” So, I became a jock -- got hired two weeks out of school, thank God, at a little station in the suburbs of Chicago and became a jock there. Everybody was really, really great to me and nice to me. However, the afternoon girl was a complete bitch to me at that station. I’m just going to keep it real with you the whole interview. She was a bitch, and she was not that attractive. So, she saw me walking up in there, and she immediately hated me, did not try to help me with anything, didn’t try to be nice, smile, friendly, nothing. So, my goal was to take her job, and I took it, like I knew I would. Then after I took her job, they got a new Program Director and I was let go.
I decided I wanted my own station to program, so I moved to Parkersburg, West Virginia. I was like, “Oh, screw this. I’ll just get my own station.” I moved to Parkersburg and was a Program Director there. It was a very interesting experience, and that’s where I decided I wanted to be a producer because the first voice guy I met there was Rich Van Slyke, and he was like, “Hey, Rachel, what are you doing on the air? Why are you not a voice girl/producer? It’s obvious that’s what you’re meant to do.” I was like, “Oh, I never thought about that.” So I decided that’s what I would do because being on the air was just not for me, and I think I sucked at it. I wanted to do something a little bit more creative.
Then, from Parkersburg, West Virginia -- where, by the way, I cried every night in my little, $400 a month apartment – I moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, where I joined Clear Channel, and the story really starts from there because at Clear Channel I took advantage of a resource that Clear Channel has that nobody else does; it’s called the Production Forums. On the Production Forums, you interact with producers from across America, other Clear Channel producers, and they’re like, “Hey, I need your voice for this.” It’s basically a voice share, and through there, people I guess heard my voice. I was still totally green, completely sucked, but I got coached by some of the boys here in Atlanta at the Clear Channel Creative Services Group. They heard me and they just basically took me under their wings and were like, “Wow, you know, you’re really good.” So I got to be friends with them, and nine months later, a production job opened here in Atlanta, and I went from Market zero to Market 8 in eight months. That was in April of ’07.
JV: How long were you a Program Director?
Rachel: I would say about five months, but it was enough to know I absolutely loathed it. I’m the kind of person that likes to sit in my safe studio all day with my safe soundproof walls and not have to interact with the public at all.
JV: What is your official title now?
Rachel: Because I’m so sick of changing my signature, it just says Clear Channel Atlanta Production, but it’s really Imager 94.9 The Bull, Commercial Production, Voiceover Girl. So, it’s everything.
JV: And you’re doing voiceover for…
Rachel: A lot of my voiceover is for PlayOnPlanetNominal, which is my own business. But as far as the Clear Channel stuff, it’s commercials and the imaging voice for The Bull, which is amazing. That will probably change here in a few months. Ann DeWig is actually our female imaging voice. When I first switched over to doing mainly imaging, they didn’t want to lose me on the commercial side, and if I was going to be the voice of The Bull, then I couldn’t do any commercials. So that will probably change.
JV: So, your responsibilities there are voice work, imaging The Bull, and then commercial production?
Rachel: Yes, but recently it has skated over to 90 percent imaging for The Bull. The Bull needed a lot of babying, and I’ve fully fallen in love with it, so I devote most of my time to The Bull now.
JV: Did you say you were also writing commercials?
Rachel: Yeah. I’ve been writing commercials for a long time.
JV: Are you writing the liners and the drops and such for The Bull?
Rachel: It’s actually a group effort. Most of the time our Operations Manager, who is also the Program Director, also writes them because I’m just too busy with all my other stuff to write them. However, I have been very, very lucky; the Program Director does not micromanage me at all. So I get away with more stuff at a country station than I think any other country station in America would allow, and it is awesome. I image the station mainly with CHR ChaseCuts and whatever else I deem necessary. But I will not do anything to our country station that sounds country, and I know that sounds like it makes no sense, but that’s why I was brought in to do it, to give the modern feeling. I was brought in to get all the twang out of the country. We went from a .1 share to almost beating the Number 1 heritage country station in town, and they’re about to go down.
Before I never even cared about the music because I’m a producer. I’m like, “Whatever music, who cares. As long as I have a job.” But to see the station go from just not having any direction at all to a rocking, upbeat, young, fun country station is great.
JV: There are six stations in the Clear Channel cluster there; are you basically dealing with commercial production for all of them?
Rachel: That’s correct. Most of the time though, I end up doing the rock station slots because everybody wants a young, sexy female. It’s cute; all the little AEs will knock on the door and be like, “Hey, Rachel, we know you’re already on this and that, but can we use you on this too.” You always want to say yes to make them happy.
JV: Do you have other producers helping with the commercial load there?
Rachel: Yes, there are three full-time producers besides me, and Barbara Scott Sherry is our Production Manager.
JV: When did the freelance work start to take off?
Rachel: The freelance work is where I get the biggest smile on my face. Again, I was super duper lucky when I got here because of everybody downstairs in the CSG, Clear Channel Creative Services Group. I was lucky to work in the same building as the boys -- and when I say the boys, I’m not referring to everybody there. I’m referring to just some of the producers there. I guess I came in and was bouncing off the walls and ready to learn. This was it, and once I have fallen in love with something, that’s it. I am going to do it to the nth degree, and I knew this was my opportunity to build my own business.
So, I asked them, “Hey, what can I do for you guys? What can I do to make extra money? How can I learn from you?” aside from voicing everything they wanted me to voice, which you get paid for. The sales leader of CSG at the time, the Client Director was like, “Hey, you need to be on the swat team,” and the swat team is something that when they get overflowed with work they will hand out their overflow to Clear Channel producers. Well, somehow I became almost like a one-woman swat team, and I started getting every single one of the projects and establishing relationships with these AEs all across the country, in huge markets. Lite FM is my biggest client in New York.
JV: For commercial work?
Rachel: Yes, and voice work too. And Clear Channel LA is a huge client of mine, and Florida. I established so many lasting relationships. These are people that I still talk to. It got to the point where they would just call me and say, “Hey, Rachel, we need a commercial written, produced and voiced,” and they knew because I could do all three, they were only going to have to deal with one person. And I was never going to do their spot super duper fast just to get it done. I was going to labor over it until it was absolutely perfect and everybody was happy, because otherwise, you just have to redo it. What’s the point?
JV: Writing, voicing, production… what’s your favorite of the three?
Rachel: The one thing I love about all of it the most is the voice work. I am a true voice girl at heart. I love producing. I love writing, but I want to get to the point where I do those things for fun and not because I have to. Honestly -- I’m not going to lie -- I favor the voicework because you can make the most money in the fastest amount of time.
JV: But you have some serious production chops, too.
Rachel: Oh my god, tons.
JV: Granted, production takes a lot more time and it doesn’t pay nearly as much, but I get the impression your production skills had a lot to do with moving you along the path.
Rachel: One hundred percent completely. Like when I got the call from Eric Chase, of all people, good Lord. He’s like the god of production. Everybody knows who Eric Chase is. This is the man who built Chase Cuts, which is a hugely known and respected imaging service. And he’s a triple too; he can write, produce and voice. So when a man like that calls you and says, “Hey, I’d like to put you on retainer,” you kind of fall off your chair. I was having a party and putting up streamers and blowing kazoos in here when that happened.
I’m still with him. I’ve backed off the production side a little bit, just because I am so busy with The Bull; it needs love. But I’m still with him doing voices, and I’ll get listener audio from my friends to use. I guess you just learn after a while, it’s instinctive the questions to ask to get good listener audio, to get the responses that you want, to fool the listener into saying what you really wanted them to say all along and thinking it was their idea to say it. I go out with my little Zune and throw it in people’s faces, and everyone knows when that comes out it’s time to all shut up so there’s no background noise and Rachel’s going to ask all her little questions.
JV: That’s an excellent idea and something I think a lot of producers should be doing. How would you describe your style of production?
Rachel: I like to relate the style of my production to the style of my life. I do not want to label myself with one style because I feel like that would be putting myself in a corner and not being able to come out. It’s just like if I wake up in the morning, and if I feel like putting on a mini skirt and hot pink high heels with full makeup and curled hair, that’s what I’m going to do. I may be different the next day. It’s whatever I feel like that morning.
JV: How do you approach a piece of production? Are you the kind of person that likes to have it laid out in your head before you go to the computer, or do you create as you go?
Rachel: I absolutely do not have it in my head first. And I guess I do have a certain way of doing it, especially when I’m doing imaging. I am so fortunate to work with an amazing voice talent named Cousin Deke, who’s in Dallas. He’s our voice guy on The Bull. He is unbelievable. We also voice a station together for the first Program Director I ever worked for in Lafayette, Indiana. We’re the voice guy and girl team on that station, so he and I have known each other for years. He just knows what The Bull needs. He knows it needs to be upbeat, and he goes nuts with adlibs. Then, what I’ll do is listen to his voice track first, and then as soon as I’m done dying from the comedy routine that he gives me, I’ll lay that down. Then I’ll get all the sound effects. Then I’ll gather the music and put it all together. But I guess I don’t go into it with any kind of plan because I feel like it would take away from the creativity of whatever jumps into my mind at that moment.
JV: How would you describe your voiceover skills?
Rachel: Definitely versatility is the thing I think has enabled me to be so successful at such a young age. In the Atlanta market, people might hear me and think I am just the sexy girl, but what they don’t know is all over the country and even outside the country, I’m working with companies where I might play a soccer mom one day. The next day I might play a teenager who’s mad at the world, and the day after that I might play a regular 20-something female who has just been burned by a guy for the tenth time. It’s definitely versatility that is the key to making it.
JV: Are you represented by an agent at this point?
Rachel: I am. I have two agents here in Atlanta. I’m represented by Richard Hutchinson and Houghton Talents. And I work for tons of production houses all over, from the ma and pa shops to the big ones, from the infomercial big guys who have worked with George Foreman to the small production companies that are struggling to make it.
JV: So, do you sleep?
Rachel: (Laughter) You know, there was a point where I was starting to become a burnout, which was about a year and a half ago. I was starting to become a complete burnout, and people joked, “Why don’t you just get a cot and put it in your studio?” I had no time for my friends. I had no time for anything, and I realized that was not going to work out in the long run. So, I’d say about eight or nine months ago, I took a break and I started working eight-hour days, which for me is a break. I started working eight-hour days for probably about two or three months, just so I could come away from it all, take a deep breath and remember all the things about it that I absolutely adore. And it worked, because now the fire burns even hotter than before.
JV: Are you a techno geek to the point you’re in there tweaking the plug-ins and checking out the different microphones and such?
Rachel: Well, I will say this. People always ask me how I learned to produce the way I do because I guess some people think my production is good. I don’t know. But they always ask how I learned it and how I learned it so quickly. I have to tell you, I was the kid in broadcasting school that was scared of Cool Edit. Remember Cool Edit back in the day? I was the one that was like, “Oh my god, get me away from that. I hate it. I’m going to suck at it. I have no idea what’s going on.” Then one day, a very nice guy taught me just the beginnings of it, and instead of being the kid that was afraid of Cool Edit, I ended up being the girl that people would drop hundreds on to produce their demos. So, I went from being afraid of any kind of technology whatsoever to mastering it.
However, at the same time, I have to drop a name here. There’s a man here named Forrest Martin, who is one of the best producers in the country, period, hands down, and he has literally helped me with anything and everything relating to technology -- plug-ins, production. He taught me all of Pro Tools. He took three hours out of his day and did a Pro Tools lesson, helps me with plug-ins. If I can’t seem to quite get the right sound on a spot or the right sound on imaging, I’m like, “What is wrong? What’s going on here? How come I can’t make this person sound warm?” He knows exactly what that is and tells me. So, without him, I definitely would have had a much more difficult time in the technical aspect of it.
JV: I would say you’re quite the sponge.
Rachel: Yes, and I’m so, so lucky. I know I keep saying this, but I am so lucky that there have been so many very, very nice men – and I say men because I work with all men – there have been very, very nice men that have just completely and totally taken me under their wings and gone out of their way to help me. I think a lot of the times, like in any career, sometimes people just don’t want to learn or they don’t give their 100 percent. I just think those people need to stay home.
JV: Do you have a home studio as well?
Rachel: Yes. I have Pro Tools and Adobe Audition because I use them both. And because I have an apartment, my studio consists of a StoneBooth In A Bag. Do you know what I’m talking about? It was designed by Steve Stone, the imaging guy. He had a voiceover box named after him. It’s like a portable sound booth. If you go on vacation, you can take it with you. I was lucky enough to meet Steve, and he took us to his hotel room, and I fell in love with the box immediately. So, I’ve got one of those, and I’ve got the Pro Tools rig and the mic stand and the mic. And honestly, I don’t feel like microphones are quite as important as they used to be because, with the effects that I put on my voice afterwards, I can make it sound like I’m using whatever kind of mic that I want. So I’m not busy spending thousands and thousands of dollars on shotgun mics or the latest Neumann. I’ll do it in post if I need to. I find that most of the time, the only person who cares about the mic is the VO person, not the client.
JV: Are you doing much processing to VO work that you send out, or is it pretty much dry?
Rachel: It depends. I think it’s an insult to a producer if you’re going to send them your voice already processed, because to me, that’s like saying, “Here, you have no idea what you’re doing, so I’m going to go ahead and process my voice, just so you don’t screw it up. Thanks and have a great day.” I don’t like to do that to people. What I will do is… let’s say I’m sending it out to one of my agents for an audition and I know my agent is not going to process it afterwards. Yes, I will send it out processed, 100 percent of the time. But if I’m sending it to one of my fellow producers, whether it be for the on-hold company I work for or the production company in Chicago that’s going to put it on TV, I don’t know if they want it processed or not, so I leave it dry.
JV: I’ve yet to figure out why there is such a disproportionate number of women in production versus men, and especially in imaging. Do you have any insight into that?
Rachel: Well, it’s true, because the only two females I can think of that do this along with me – voice, produce and write – on a level to have their own business and all that stuff are Kelly Doherty and Ann DeWig. Both of those females have been, of course, unbelievably nice to me. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting them both. Ann DeWig took an hour out of her day to answer all the questions that I had, and I feel like girls tend to stick together in this business because it is a disproportionate number. But I will say this, and some people are not going to like this at all -- there are a lot of women that are not going to like this at all -- but from where I stand, right now in 2009, the fact that I am a female has been nothing but an advantage to me my entire career. It has gotten me jobs that I would normally have not had, if I had more competition. It has provided me a built-in uniqueness in that I am a female, and that, in and of itself, makes me stand out. I am the female that can do voice, production and imaging and go out to lunch with the boys and swear and curse and look at that girl’s ass and laugh. And then I’m also the female who can go and put on my little high heels and my makeup and so on. I try and take that stigma of the ugly female producer, who’s overweight and hides in her house all day, I try and take that and throw it out the window. I think people really, really grab onto that attitude, and in turn, give you more jobs. I really do.
JV: There's few women in production, I think there's even fewer fat and ugly ones.
Rachel: (Laughter) Well, there is a stigma. I’m not trying to subtract anything from what the women before me had to do because I know it was hard to push down all those walls and all those barriers of the men laughing at you saying, “Ha, ha, ha, you can’t be our producer. You’re a woman.” But I really feel like those days are gone – with the exception of a couple of ignorant people, but there are ignorant people in every business, not just radio. I really feel like it’s an advantage being a woman. Every time I see a young female trying to do what I’m doing, I completely try to take her under my wing and help her out and motivate her in any way possible.
JV: Well, I guess my question will remain unanswered. What you said is very interesting, but it still doesn’t tell me why there are so many men in radio production versus women.
Rachel: Here, I’ll tell you why. I know what you mean, and I didn’t answer the question. I’ll tell you what it is. I would say that most females that get into the business, as a female, they gravitate towards the jobs they think are for them. There is a preconceived notion in the world of radio, and it starts in broadcasting school, and nobody puts it in your head. The teachers aren’t standing up there saying, “Okay, only the boys can be producers and voice guys and imagers, and the girls can be on-air talent and promotions.” That’s not the way it goes. I just think it is a natural human instinct to follow what those before you have done, and somehow, it may be a fluke, the girls went one way and the boys went the other. The girls definitely didn’t go on the production way. So, I think with the girls, it’s just a natural thing to follow what they see, and they don’t see any female producers. I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault or anybody has been holding the females back. I just think it takes a female with a lot of guts to cross the boundary of, “Okay, I’m working in a department where there are ten guys and me, and you know what? I’m going to stand out and be better than these guys.” It takes a lot of guts to do that, so maybe that’s why.
JV: Excellent answer. What do you think a female imaging voice, such as your own, brings to the table for a radio station? Obviously there’s a contrast from the stations with the male imaging voices. But what do you think a female voice does for the audience? Does it attract more males, more females? Does it impart an overall image about the radio station that a male voiceover simply cannot do? Do you have a sense of any of that?
Rachel: I definitely don’t think it’s something that a male cannot do, because I think they’re both capable of either doing a male-oriented or a female-oriented station. Take Lifetime TV. Lifetime TV was just ordered to not have any female voiceovers on the station because it was getting too, quote/unquote, female, even though Lifetime is a female station. But I definitely think both males and females can do either/or. Like I am the voice of a sports station – very small market – Ithaca, New York, and they specifically wanted a female. They said, “We don’t want you to be be-bopping around like, ‘He-he-he-he, 1160 ESPN.’” They’re like, “We want you to be a strong female with a little twinge of sex in your voice,” and I really think if it’s geared towards a guy, a female brings something unique. You are not expecting to turn on 1160 ESPN radio in Ithaca New York and have me [a female] come on and say, “1160 ESPN Ithaca.” You don’t expect that. You expect Jim Cutler to come on and – boom, “1160 ESPN!” That in and of itself can make your station stand out.
JV: Would you say you’re right-brain or left-brain dominant?
Rachel: Goodness. Let’s just put it this way. My worst nightmare would be for you to sit me down and put a bunch of numbers in front of me and tell me to either put them into the right angles on the triangles or whatever. I’m definitely a right brain. When I was 18 I decided that I lived on my own planet, and thank God I had discovered it. I always think people take themselves way too seriously. The numbers people are not anybody I can associate with, although I do have good friends that are numbers people, but that is not conducive to doing a good job at this career. It’s just not. I’ve never met a left-brained, good producer. I’ve met some left-brained producers, but they sucked.
JV: Interesting. I’ve never asked that question, but it might be worthwhile to keep that in the back of my mind when I’m talking to other producers. I would think the left-brain would come into play a lot when it comes into the mechanical production side of it, but maybe not.
Rachel: Luckily for me, I guess, I hold up my “I’m a female card” when I need to, and I jump up and down and go, “Help, help,” and a left-brained male producer will come in here and help me. (Laughter)
JV: What’s down the road for you? Any plans? Taking it a day at a time?
Rachel: I definitely 100 percent want to branch out. I’m already in Canada. I’m actually all over Canada, but I definitely want to branch out internationally and be the voice of a lot of other TV and radio stations internationally. So, that’s definitely number one.
I’d also say that my goal of producing and writing just for fun and having voiceover work be my number one source of income, that’s the path I’m headed down now, and if I can get there – not if I can, when I get there -- then that will be one goal that’s achieved. But I tend to have the personality that, once I have achieved one thing, I’m already bored and onto the next. So, who knows?