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Radio with Byte
David Radin's internet know-how lands him a syndication
deal
by Chris Metinko
David Radin must have always known radio was his calling. When he was a teen-ager, he developed a closed-circuit radio station for his New Haven, Conn., high school.
While working on degrees at Yale and Duke University, he spent time behind the microphone spinning jazz and rock ’n’ roll records and hosting a morning talk show.
Now, after a 15-year hiatus from the airwaves, the 42-year-old Mount Lebanon resident is once again on the radio. This time though, his audience is bigger — and about to grow larger still.
His WTAE-AM-produced show, “Internet Insider with David Radin,” is set for syndication in 1999.
Not bad for a guy who got his Pittsburgh radio break as a guest answering questions about the Internet on KDKA’s Rob Pratt Show four years ago.
“I guess I’m just lucky,” Mr. Radin said. “I’ve been in the right place at the right time.”
His show, which airs on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to noon, will soon be available in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York through a Harrisburg-based syndicator, Radio Pennsylvania Network. The show is also available on RealAudio on the Internet.
Mr. Radin’s show explains technical aspects of the Internet and computers. But don’t call with questions about the latest video game or your personal Web site. The show is strictly business, or at least the business aspects of the Internet and computers.
“The thing I want to do is make it entertaining, informative and fun,” he said. “I want people to come back every week. But this is not a morning show.”
However, there is no denying that Mr. Radin, who seems to be quite at home behind the microphone, tries to add a bit of wit and humor to the show. That is exemplified in his nickname for the on-air effort, “radio with byte.”
Mr. Radin began a career in consulting and marketing upon graduation from Duke’s School of Business, taking a job with a Denver computer-aided design company. A year later, the company asked him to transfer and gave him a choice of cities. He picked Pittsburgh and says he immediately fell in love with the city.
In the mid-’80s, Mr. Radin changed jobs and moved to Brantford, Conn., where he worked to break down technical terms into a “non-techie” language in order to successfully market his new employer’s products. It was this ability to translate computer jargon that would serve him well when radio came calling again.
In 1991, when his employer’s assets were sold, Mr. Radin had to make a choice — either keep moving from company to company, or go into business for himself. He chose the latter.
“If you take the same path as everyone else, there’ll never be innovation,” Mr. Radin said.
He started his company, M. Masters Corp., in his hometown of New Haven. It was a home-based consulting firm that built upon the contacts he had made at his prior job.
In 1994, he decided to return to Pittsburgh to expand his business and raise his family. Once here, Mr. Radin took note of a new entity — the Internet. He started giving business seminars on how companies could effectively use the Internet and develop their own software.
Joan Knudson, director of the Bell Atlantic Knowledge Center, hired Mr. Radin to give one of his seminars about business and the Internet back in 1995.
Ms. Knudson said the seminars were packed and people had to be turned away.
“People couldn’t get enough information,”she said. “People were frustrated. He was there to help them.”
When Mr. Radin called KDKA to seek Internet consulting work, a sales rep was so impressed with his ability to break down computer terms that Mr. Radin was asked to answer questions about the Information Superhighway on a radio show hosted by Mr. Pratt.
“The switchboards lit up,” Mr. Radin said. “After six months, I had been on every show on KDKA.”
His guest spots led him to his own show in early 1995, KDKA Radio On-line. Mr. Radin moved to WTAE in November of last year and contacted Radio Pennsylvania about a possible syndication deal.
“David came to us and said, ‘I don’t know a lot about radio,’ ” said Scott LaMar, director of affiliates and programming for Radio Pennsylvania. “He knows what he’s talking about. We wouldn’t have gotten involved with just some yahoo.”
Currently, the show reaches up to 12 percent of its target audience, local computer-literate professionals who are radio listeners. Radio experts typically consider that percentage a good one for a new entity.
The show consists of regular features, such as “Frustration Buster” and “Web Site of the Week.” Guests have included Larry Teitlebaum, manager of strategic marketing for Netscape Communications Corp., and Steve Bass, founder of Compuvisions.
Mr. Radin also has plans to expand his two-person consulting company and has considered creating a second radio show, perhaps focusing on personal computers.
But for now, Mr. Radin will concentrate on his current show.
“I want to be the No. 1 technology radio show,” he said.
It is a goal Mr. LaMar seems to believe is possible.
“We do have some big expectations for Internet Insider,” Mr. LaMar said. “Technology shows are popular, and this is a good one.”
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