DOXing Maneuvers:
WDOX's Tom McNally
by Sean Carolan

For the folks that follow the ins and outs of radio, the last few days in the New Jersey markets have been the equivalent of the kind of plotline-shifting, character-incinerating shenanigans usually reserved for the season-ending cliffhanger on "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer". The dust hasn't fully settled yet, but from what we can see through the haze, a pile of New Jersey stations have been bought up by a hitherto little-known entity called Millennium Broadcasting. It's the kind of seismic shift that, in comparison, makes a career in the Internet look like lifetime employment.

Into the middle of all this foofahrah comes a little tower at the southern tip of New Jersey. The signal coursing from that tower is WDOX 106.7, three whole kilowatts serving the glorified sandbar known as Cape May. The format, a resurrection of the Modern Rock mix they played when they had a previous chance back in 1998, is homegrown. It's programmed by the seat of its pants, and its attitude evokes that of pirate radio, right down to the complete lack of airstaff. ALTROK got a chance to trade e-mails with Tom McNally, its program director, and he was happy to shed some light on the station, its philosophy, and the place such an entity can occupy in this latest brave new world.

ALTROK: Introduce yourself - who are you, and what business do you have doing this sort of thing?

Tom McNally: I've been in radio since I was 18, and that was a long time ago. I've been on the air at WOND in Atlantic City, was Program Director at WMGM, Rock 104 in Atlantic City for about 10 years. Program Director at WMID-FM, Atlantic City "Classic Rock Plus" for 7 years. Did weekends on a part time basis at WYSP, WIFI-92 (now WXTU) and EAZY 101 (now B-101 WBEB) in Philadelphia for most of the 80's and early 90's. I took over a fledgling WDOX (then on 93.1 in Wildwood Crest) Alternative/Modern Rock format that was based on 30 cassette tapes and automated it, with Frank Lario as Music Director (WMMR, Philadelphia now) who worked for me as Music Director at WMID-FM. I am currently Chief Engineer for Citadel Broadcasting in Atlantic City at WFPG AM/FM, WKOE and WPUR. I'm on the air as a DJ on weekends at New Jersey 101.5 (WKXW) and of course, WDOX is back on 106.7 in North Cape May ... so I'm back at it.

ALTROK: What is DOX, physically?

McNally: WDOX started out on 93.1 in Wildwood Crest, owned by Don Powers. WDOX was sold to Margate Communications in 1998, and I was PD there for about a year. After 6 months, and no increase in ratings (it stayed flat) the owner decided to try a satellite alternative format, which sucked and buried the station. The format was dumped in January of 1999 when it became a simulcast of an Urban station, WTTH.

We had the opportunity to bring it back on 106.7, so here we are. Sales efforts are gearing up; it's Summer at the Jersey Shore.

ALTROK: How about philosophically?

McNally: A careful balance of the best music; no annoying jocks. An irreverent "pirate station" sound. No sweepers with laser zaps like everyone else.

ALTROK: On a scale of one to ten, one being "hobby" and ten being "career", where would you put the effort that's going into DOX? (Remember, there's no shame in having a lucrative hobby.)

McNally: "One". It's a hobby. I'm not doing it for the money.

ALTROK: Speaking of "lucrative", what sort of goals (financial, cultural, or personal) do you have for the station? Any dreams of moving from automation to an airstaff? Feel free to completely compromise any trade secrets you're keeping.

McNally: We'll all profit financially if the sales effort goes as planned. An airstaff is not a dream; it's a nightmare. Not necessary.

ALTROK: Being a former disc jockey, I cringed at the idea of an airstaff being a nightmare. But being a technical person, I see your point. If I were to hazard a guess about the "nightmare" of having an airstaff, I'd guess it'd have to do with your having a certain number of eggs in your basket, financially speaking, and given the choice between spending the money on things like signal, equipment, and general station quality, vs. paying people to sit in the room and cue discs, you'd have to pay a lot more to get the level of talent and commitment that would set you apart, versus doing a lot of killer imaging that would differentiate you just as well. Am I on the right track?

McNally: Besides the financial aspects, we don't need a lot of DJ drivel. Our competition does that nicely. We are tight and to the point. No "killer imaging" - just silly movie clips and D O X!!

ALTROK: The audience for DOX is fairly local, and limited by the encroachment of the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay. In another sense however, with your presence on the Internet, you can legitimately claim a global audience, limited only by your access to bandwidth. Any interest in devoting effort to expanding your listenership via the Internet?

McNally: We may pursue a deal with SurferNetwork or a similar company. The AFTRA problem [where the union representing announcers and commercial voice workers has demanded a license fee triple that of their normal fees if a commercial featuring union talent is webcasted - Ed.] shouldn't affect us, as we have state of the art automation that can handle spot insertion systems

ALTROK: Anything you'd like to say about DOX that you were hoping I'd ask about, but didn't?

McNally: What you hear now on DOX will only get better as we get things together. It's only a week old, and caught me by surprise. I didn't know it was going to happen until 4 hours before I actually put it back on the air. I just happened to have an automation system sitting here with the format on it ready to go. All I had to do was record a Legal ID. (Actually two ... one with the old call letters than ran for four days before we got WDOX back)

ALTROK: That's very rock 'n' roll; plug it in, say a prayer and go! It kind of sets the tone for the station, doesn't it?

McNally: That's the way I do things. Works for me!

ALTROK: Wanna buy an ALTROK T-shirt?

McNally: I'll trade you for a DOX shirt when we get them! :o)

[Oop, now I'll have to buy one. Serves me right, opening my big mouth. - Ed.]

©2001 Sean Carolan