After 7 and a half years, the longest gap between appearances in Sound Off Podcast history, Leslie Scott finally returns. And to say things have changed is a massive understatement.
Back in 2016, Leslie was the PD for 107.7 The End in Seattle, driving the station to huge success in the millennial market. Since then, she's taken on a few more stations, been elevated to overseeing programming of Audacy's exclusive streaming-only channels... And like so many people in radio, been restructured out of a job. Their loss. We discuss where Leslie's currently at both life and career wise, but mainly this is a time for us to catch up and learn how Leslie's thoughts and predictions from 2016 have aged.
For the most part, Leslie's values remain the same: Radio and digital should be friends, not enemies; Radio stations need to focus on curating personalities above all else; and the youngest generation is a giant well of untapped potential listeners who should be catered to. However, interestingly, Leslie is no longer a part of that youngest generation. She once was a sort of "Millennial Whisperer" in the radio industry, but Gen Z is a whole different beast, which we discuss at length. 7 years doesn't sound like a long time, but it really is, especially in an industry that's been scrambling so hard to keep up with the youth, and Leslie has a lot of thoughts about the way things have changed.
We also discuss women's progress in the radio industry, or rather, its stagnation in recent years. Fred Jacobs of Jacobs Media published his AQ6 survey earlier this year, which you can read about here. It showed that women's representation in radio hasn't really improved since 2019. Being both a woman herself and serving on the board of directors for mentoring and inspiring women in radio, Leslie shares some interesting insights into why that might be.
If you haven't heard our original 2016 interview with Leslie, and you'd like to compare for yourself, you can listen to it below. If nothing else, it's an interesting time capsule to a world before TikTok.