Ep. 4 From Beats to Broadcast w/Jahi Whitehead

• Transcript

  [00:00:00] Jahi Whitehead: Let's say if I'm head of HR at somewhere, you know how many messages I might get about someone wanting a job? Like it's, it's going to be that one person I always see that's going to stick out. Like I keep seeing this person. Let me reply because if I don't, that person is going to continue to hit me, keep hitting me back.

  [00:00:19] Sidney Evans: So let me reply. Tune in. As we give flowers to black men and women making waves in the audio industry. I'm your host Sidney Evans, and this is Beyond the Threshold.

  [00:00:43] Sidney Evans: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Beyond the Threshold. I'm your host Sidney. Sidney Evans, an award winning audio editor, mixer, and producer. For those of you who don't know on this show, I interview black men and women working in the audio industry to highlight the lessons and experiences it takes to achieve success in the field.

  [00:01:02] Sidney Evans: We got another amazing episode in store for today, and I will introduce today's guest shortly, but before I do, I just wanted to take the time to. Say thank you to anyone who has listened to the show so far. I appreciate your support and I hope you continue to support as we continue to grow the platform.

  [00:01:24] Sidney Evans: All right. So today's guest is actually someone that I did not know prior to the interview, but he was. Uh, introduced to me by Dante Hodge, who I had on a previous episode of the podcast. So immediately I reached out to him and because of the relationship that he and Dante has, we made it happen pretty quickly and he was happy to come on.

  [00:01:48] Sidney Evans: So, uh, to give a little bit of a background on him. He is a Howard university alum originally from East Orange, New Jersey, now living in the Atlanta area. He has over two decades of media and audio production experience ranging from DJing, studio engineering, audio book recording and editing, radio producing and podcast producing and editing.

  [00:02:14] Sidney Evans: He's the current podcast producer at Urban One Podcast Network. So, uh, I'd like to introduce our guest for today. Whitehead. Welcome to the show, brother. 

  [00:02:27] Jahi Whitehead: All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Sidney. I'm glad to be here. Glad to be here, man. 

  [00:02:32] Sidney Evans: Yes, sir. I'm glad we were able to make it happen so quickly.

  [00:02:35] Sidney Evans: So, uh, we're going to jump right into things, man. Could you share a little bit about your background and what were some of the experiences that led up to you discovering your passion for audio production? And then we're going to get into the nitty gritty. 

  [00:02:51] Jahi Whitehead: So I would say that probably started with, uh, the movie Juice.

  [00:02:54] Jahi Whitehead: Are you familiar with Juice? I am. Okay, cool. So that's probably where, like, I believe it probably all started. I was a big fan of that movie and particularly I wanted to DJ. So if you watch that movie, the whole DJ battle, that's, that sparked, uh, my interest in, uh, DJing. Wanted to be a DJ a little known fact.

  [00:03:16] Jahi Whitehead: I want to say a little known fact, but the thing about me I when I was growing up, I was a singer So that was the other thing that always got me pretty much involved into like music art studios to all that stuff like that, so Process fast forward till I got to the age of 13 I bought my first, uh, set of turntables.

  [00:03:40] Jahi Whitehead: So from there I started buying little equipment and building like this makeshift studio in, in my, at my father's house, which I had no idea what I was doing. I promise you like zero, like I had no idea as far as like really doing it. Like I had this, um, tape recorder that we used to record, uh, stuff on.

  [00:04:02] Jahi Whitehead: This is before we had a lot of digital stuff before we had a lot of that out. Probably dating myself by saying all these things. But, um, it was around that time. So, uh, after that started actually recording with local groups around, around the city, one group. So. I actually got to like, I won't say like a, it wasn't a real studio either.

  [00:04:24] Jahi Whitehead: It was still someone's basement, but they had Pro Tools. Started seeing that. Then stopped messing with them for a little bit and then got along with this other group and we actually signed a deal. It did end up not working out, but we was working with some people, but in the process of that, we finally got into like a, a studio studio.

  [00:04:44] Jahi Whitehead: So working with, uh, uh, big boys, uh, the SS, the SSL, and finally working on Pro Tools. And I remember this, there was this, uh, bass player who was also the engineers. He was the one that really tried to Teach me about like engineering and plug is like the first one that initial started teaching me then I started working with my boy who at the producer the group Tyree and He got this program called Cubase and we started recording at his house and I started learning how to do that and I began to start running the session because I had a knack for a knack for audio just because, just because of my DJ stuff.

  [00:05:17] Jahi Whitehead: So I was also DJing around. So I still had a knack for audio, but I ended up buying a MPC, uh, uh, 2000, like right after him, um, working on that and started doing production. Fast forward, uh, going to school, started DJing at Howard, started working at the radio station. And while doing that, I think that's when I realized that I can take this audio production thing, just audio in general and.

  [00:05:43] Jahi Whitehead: Actually be a professional outside of just making music or just DJing. Like I can, I can use this as a career path if I wanted to. 

  [00:05:53] Sidney Evans: Let me pause you real quick. Cause I got a question. So did you actually study media production when you were at Howard or? Was your major in something else? 

  [00:06:03] Jahi Whitehead: So my initial major Well, I was initially when they undecided so then I switched to I was going into music business it was more so music business along the side along the lines of being a performer And being able to manage yourself as a performer, not necessarily the business of the music business.

  [00:06:28] Jahi Whitehead: So it was a little bit different than what I was trying to do at the time. More along the lines of what I was trying to do was more in communication and media. So my degree is actually in more so broadcast media production. Um, so I did get a lot of hands on training with, um, Pro to even final cut writing in general, script writing, um, broadcast performance, learning how to actually actually speak.

  [00:06:53] Jahi Whitehead: Public speaking was a, was definitely a class that we had to take. 

  [00:06:56] Sidney Evans: Okay. So first off, let me say when I was in college and I found out I had to take public speaking, I literally considered changing my major because I don't know what I thought, but I didn't think taking public speaking was going to be a part of that process.

  [00:07:12] Sidney Evans: So let me just say that first and second, I hated taking the writing classes when I was in college, but now looking back on it, I'm glad that I did take them and I kind of wish I would have put more into it, but in knowing what I know now, the writing part was probably the most important out of all the classes I took.

  [00:07:34] Sidney Evans: So for those of you who. Or maybe in college or your early in your career, or maybe even if you're later in your career And you don't think your writing chops are up to par. I would recommend you take some courses do whatever you got to do to Increase that skill because if you can write Well, you'll be more valuable than most of the people working in the industry Especially those who can 

  [00:08:02] Jahi Whitehead: write.

  [00:08:02] Jahi Whitehead: One thousand percent me being able to write or learning how to Descript writing classes or learning how to write just various things scripts for advertisers those things have Help me taking me further than some of my peers in the same and same situations, just because I have that skill to be able to write along with producing.

  [00:08:23] Jahi Whitehead: Writing is super important and super, super important. So, yeah. 

  [00:08:27] Sidney Evans: All right. So you end up at Howard, you touched on your major in some of the courses that you took, but we all know the most important thing are the activities that you. Involve yourself in so what were the some of the things that you got involved in at Howard?

  [00:08:44] Sidney Evans: And how did that help you moving forward in your career? 

  [00:08:48] Jahi Whitehead: Oh, man, it was great because see how we have, we have, uh, WHBC, which is our, um, college radio station, but we also have WHUR, which is our terrestrial radio station, which is like our bigger station, which is our commercial radio station, Steve Harvey's on there and stuff like that.

  [00:09:05] Jahi Whitehead: So they do big numbers, right? So, but those are, yeah, But our counterpart, we would have to go and like pretty much intern with them. So when I was the music director at WHBC, I would have to go intern with the music director at WHUR. Uh, vice versa, same thing with, um, the program director when I was program director at WHBC.

  [00:09:25] Jahi Whitehead: I had to go intern at the program directors w at WHUR, so at the same time and, and us interning there when, this is only for the managers for primarily but us interning there, it wasn't a situation where we're just doing like grunt work and they just want us to do stuff. We're really learning how to.

  [00:09:41] Jahi Whitehead: Running a radio station, no particular job. So when it comes to scheduling music for entire radio station, I've done that already. Before I was 20, I was able to have a leg up on a lot of, a lot of people, which honestly didn't bear fruit. So later on, I thought that will help me out right when I graduate right out the gate.

  [00:09:59] Jahi Whitehead: And it, it didn't necessarily work that way for me. So I had to use, like, after graduation, I used other, there were other means to, you know, to financially support myself. I did, definitely took other jobs outside of audio, but one of the, one things I did, I started engineering at a studio in Maryland while I, while I was finishing my last semester.

  [00:10:19] Jahi Whitehead: And that taught me more about just the music side of, like, engineering. Like before, at Howard and at school, we were doing more media production and broadcasting and stuff like that. While I'm engineering, there's more music side, a little more emphasis on the music, even though I've done it before. Um, now I'm, I'm strictly an engineer.

  [00:10:38] Jahi Whitehead: I'm here to mix, master, record, mix and master, all your stuff like that. So, um, and now, Helping, putting like records together too, cause it was like an A and R position as well. And it was, it was good. It taught me a lot. It was fun. It was able, I was able to, um, didn't make a lot of money, um, going into, going into doing this.

  [00:10:58] Jahi Whitehead: That's the one thing I would learn. I would teach anybody or tell anybody that's in the audio space and in this media space, um, learn how to use your skills to make, to find other ways to make money. Go back to how I met, met Dante. Um, a reason why I got into audio books in the first place is because. Out of college, while I was still looking for certain things, I got a job at Audible in New Jersey, their main headquarters is in New Jersey, North New Jersey, um, not too far from where I'm from.

  [00:11:26] Jahi Whitehead: And I worked there for about two years. Once that contract ended, I kinda, I moved, that's when I moved to Atlanta. So one of the first things when I thought, when I got here, when I couldn't find work, Like I thought I wouldn't be able to find was, um, I couldn't really find work. One of the first things I saw was an audio book engineer position.

  [00:11:48] Jahi Whitehead: I was like, audio books. Okay, cool. I did audio books before. I'm familiar. You know, I worked on this. Cool. Let me do that. And that's how I was able to survive. Survive until I was able to find some steady work. Um, so yeah, so that's, that's how I inevitably inevitably got into that. 

  [00:12:05] Sidney Evans: Cool. So you're in Atlanta, you got the audio book gig that's providing some decent work for you.

  [00:12:11] Sidney Evans: So did things take off immediately afterwards or was there still like a waiting or a transition period to where you can find something more full time and more stable? 

  [00:12:24] Jahi Whitehead: Um, yeah, it was, I was working there for about, like I said, I worked there for about three years, but in the process of working there, uh, I I believe after the first year and a half or so, I started working in radio part time and sports, uh, sports radio, which initially I was trying to get to, um, if you're familiar with Atlanta, initially, I'm not even gonna lie about this, not to tell you this, if my ex boss ever hears this, Sean, initially I was trying to get to V 103, which is the urban, the hip hop station out there, one of the bigger, bigger hip hop stations out in Atlanta.

  [00:12:56] Jahi Whitehead: Um, A friend of mine from college knew someone at 92. 9 The Game. So fast forward, that's when I was at, uh, so I went to 92. 9 The Game. Their radio station is literally the floor above V 103. Um, so I thought eventually I'd go down there. But I got into at 92. 9 The Game because at the day, rather I did all this music stuff.

  [00:13:17] Jahi Whitehead: Audio stuff through high school and all that. I also did sports. Like I was, I played football. I wrestled, I ran track. So yeah, so I was, uh, I was like a sports head too. So it wasn't, it wasn't necessarily a hard thing to adjust to all of that. Radio was radio. I want you to learn how to. You can produce. So the radio aspect of it was, was not the hard part.

  [00:13:39] Jahi Whitehead: It was actually getting, getting my bones together and like producing, putting together a whole radio show talking about sports. Because when you're in sports radio and you sports talk radio in particular, like for that hour block. Or you, you got a show for four hours. You're talking predominantly for those four hours, like, or someone's talking for those four hours.

  [00:13:58] Jahi Whitehead: So you got to make sure that we got enough stuff to talk about within those four hours. So putting that show together. So that's really where, that's where I got my skills at. There a little bit better, even with the writing stuff that I was starting to write better there. Um, Working with that and not that was a real goal.

  [00:14:16] Jahi Whitehead: I was the executive network producer for the Hawks and the Falcons So I did all their foot football and basketball games I have my own show on the weekends with Sam and Greg shout out to those guys. Love them even still Still working another job. So I'm still probably engineering for someone else, uh, like doing audio editing, uh, I was working with this company, which I'm not going to say their names.

  [00:14:37] Jahi Whitehead: I don't, they don't need to say their names, but, uh, pretty much it was a company that, um, that, that did Siri is the initial company that recorded Siri, editing that stuff. Right. So. I wanted to, I saw the landscape of radio while I was in radio and I saw that I should probably leave radio. Um, but the, but the natural progression, if you're doing talk radio, obviously it's podcasting, right?

  [00:15:03] Jahi Whitehead: So, and, and quite frankly, while we're there, while we're there at, um, 9 to 9 game, we're producing podcasts as well, like on the side, like for our digital team. So even while there, we're still working on podcast, podcasting. And this is one thing I tell people. And because of radio, because of the people that I've met, I was able to parlay that and to network with other people and able to get jobs on the quick, uh, easier after that.

  [00:15:30] Jahi Whitehead: Um, I was. After that, I was recommended for a job at Georgia Public Broadcasting to edit podcasts. Now it's like, all right, so we're really putting these audio documentaries together, for the most part. Even though it's for an interview, it's still like an audio documentary. And now, now I'm really learning.

  [00:15:50] Jahi Whitehead: This like podcasting world, not just this free form. We're just talking and we're, and we're just recording something. Now I'm getting a full landscape of how, how to really put together a podcast and all, all those things. Um, and. From there, I just, just got better and got better at it. 

  [00:16:08] Sidney Evans: Um, real quick, I want to dive into the radio and podcast and thing, especially the differences between the two.

  [00:16:16] Sidney Evans: So obviously they're different mediums, but the skill set is somewhat of an overlap, but can you really pinpoint based on your experience, the differences between working in radio and then transitioning into the podcast industry? 

  [00:16:34] Jahi Whitehead: Okay. So the thing about radio, when you do local radio. Your topics are generally localized.

  [00:16:41] Jahi Whitehead: So you're, you're going to do topics based on pretty much where you're at. When it comes to podcasting, you're a little bit more, you got a little bit more freedom to talk about more, a wider range of topics, and you can expand a little bit more on particular topics. You don't have to worry about. Going to commercial break.

  [00:17:03] Jahi Whitehead: There's nothing to hurry up here. We can, we can talk, we can flush this topic completely out to this. No more to talk about. And then we can move on to the next thing. I think sometimes in radio, uh, regardless of whatever, what format you have, there are times when you're talking about a topic and you cannot completely talk about it the way that you want to, because you have the restrictions of the commercials.

  [00:17:23] Jahi Whitehead: You have restricts of SEC. You have a lot, you have a lot of different restrictions that you have to, that you have to. Go through the only restrictions that you have in podcasts and other restrictions that you put on yourself. So the restriction that you put on your show the restriction that you put on your network So those are the restrictions that you have.

  [00:17:39] Jahi Whitehead: So once you abide by those things You have a free range that to do as much as you want as far as a particular topic particular subject or whatever whatever the case may be and you have Your niche audience that is going to like you because with terrestrial radio That's always on. They're going to be on regardless.

  [00:18:01] Jahi Whitehead: So I can just, if I'm in my car was, and people say radio is dying, which it is, but radio is still listened to a whole heck of a lot. So if you go into your car and just pushing something, it's just always there. I'm not searching for that necessarily. When it comes to podcasting, I have to search that out.

  [00:18:17] Jahi Whitehead: That is something that I, I've become a fan of now, like it doesn't just pass my day. Now I have to search out for that. You a little bit more community built in the podcasting world than in radio. 

  [00:18:29] Sidney Evans: That makes a lot of sense. Um, and surprisingly, I never actually thought of it that way. So I'm glad you pointed that out, but, uh, I wanted to back up a little bit and touch on something that you said as far as.

  [00:18:42] Sidney Evans: Build their relationships are highlighted as far as building relationships or networking, depending on what you want to call it. But I call them two different things because I feel like networking is more of the go to an event with the intent of meeting a lot of people, have your business cards ready, being ready to shake hands, you know, give you a spiel about what you do and how you can help people.

  [00:19:06] Sidney Evans: And then there's the relationship building part of it. Where it's kind of more organic. Like you have jobs, you connect with people for those that are for you, y'all build relationships and you stay in touch and continue to nurture those relationships. Or it could just be you going to a social event and by happenstance, you kind of hit it off with somebody and you start a relationship or building a relationship that way.

  [00:19:33] Sidney Evans: So what is. Your approach to whether you want to use the term networking or building relationships and which approach has been more helpful for you. 

  [00:19:47] Jahi Whitehead: I will say sometimes just going out, handing out business cards, like depending on, and now when you go and do that, if you go on a network and you go and hand out business cards and stuff like that, I think you have to be going somewhere where that is.

  [00:19:59] Jahi Whitehead: Well, that's the goal, like if you're going to like a summit or a conference or something like that, that's the goal at some of those places, right? So when you're going there, you're actually going there to network, people are coming there, knowing that you're going to network with them, and the ones that are going to stand out, they are going to take interest in it.

  [00:20:21] Jahi Whitehead: There have been good experiences with that, there have been bad experiences with that, everything is not the same. But what I will say, my networking came from, a lot of that came from work. Well, like when I say when I was what, uh, 92, nine, the game, they got me to Georgia public broadcasting. That was literally the person that I worked with on a show.

  [00:20:38] Jahi Whitehead: I would talk we were having conversations. We went to a to a baseball game and I was telling them some things that I wanted to do as far as podcasting and things like that. Next thing I know is hey, give this person a call. There's a job open for podcasting, I told them about you, they're interested.

  [00:20:56] Jahi Whitehead: Simple as that. Two days later, I got the job. No real big interview, no nothing, two days later, simple as that, I got the job. Part of networking is you actually going out working and one of it is being persistent. Like if, uh, even with job at the radio station, my first job in a radio station after college.

  [00:21:14] Jahi Whitehead: That, I had to be persistent with that. I had to keep caught like, hey, it took me about a few months to get to for that to happen. You do have to be persistent, persistent to the point where, um, you're almost at a point where they are tired of you. So they was like, you know what? I'm tired of this person just hitting me up, let me do something about this.

  [00:21:34] Jahi Whitehead: Be respectful but be persistent. If you gotta DM someone, if you gotta go on their LinkedIn page, be respectful but be persistent. Like, let's say if I'm head of HR at somewhere. You know how many messages I might get on LinkedIn or whatever that, whatever the case may be about head of HR or about someone wanting a job.

  [00:21:53] Jahi Whitehead: Like it's, it's going to be that one person I always see that's going to stick out. Like I keep seeing this person. Let me reply. Let me eventually reply because if I don't, that person is going to continue to hit me, keep hitting me back. So let me reply. Oh, that is something that's really important.

  [00:22:10] Jahi Whitehead: Networking, doing good work. I can't stress that enough doing good work because if the host of my show can't vouch that I do a good job, he's not going to, you know what I'm saying? He's not going to put his neck out there for someone that's not like that. You know what I mean? Your work has to speak for itself.

  [00:22:32] Jahi Whitehead: And, uh, and I'm going to answer your question even before we even get to that. This is part of the urban one, because it's the same situation happened. I never had a job interview with them, the official job interview. I started working with them mainly because I got laid off at a, um, as a podcast producer for another company who was named, I won't mention, um, but I got laid off there.

  [00:22:54] Jahi Whitehead: And while I'm late getting laid off, one of the people that worked there, one of my coworkers called me up and said, Hey, heard you just got laid off. I'm starting somewhere new soon. I'm about to give them my two weeks notice. Anyway, I'm starting somewhere new. I think you'll be a good fit there. 

  [00:23:13] Sidney Evans: So the most important thing to me that stood out about what you just said is letting the work take care of itself because essentially it's the only thing you can really control no matter what career field you're in.

  [00:23:28] Sidney Evans: You have to deal with things like politics and unfortunate circumstances as you know, maybe you're getting laid off or flat out fired or. You're going through an interview process and you get far along in the process, but you don't ultimately end up getting hired and you start kind of stressing out about and reflecting on why things happened and didn't happen.

  [00:23:52] Sidney Evans: And a lot of this stuff is timing, man. Like you might have the skillset, you might be the perfect candidate, but things may not work out for you. But you can't control those things, but if you spend as much time and effort as you can and just perfecting the craft and Letting the good word that you do speak for itself.

  [00:24:13] Sidney Evans: I honestly feel that you'll end up where you're supposed to end up and things will actually end up working out for you in the long run. 

  [00:24:21] Jahi Whitehead: Absolutely. Absolutely. I agree with that wholeheartedly because I'm telling you that situation was just like that. I, I was like, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm getting laid off.

  [00:24:31] Jahi Whitehead: Like it was so crazy. Like I got laid off. On, uh, Wednesday and the next day they were like, someone told me, it's like, Hey, you should go to this. Like they gave me a free tickets to this concert. I was like, Hey, you can go. I was like, ah, I shouldn't go. But I'm like, nah, I'm gonna go. Cause it was my favorite.

  [00:24:46] Jahi Whitehead: It was Nas. It was Nas and Wu Tang. I'm a big Nas fan. So I was like, I'm gonna go. The next day, uh, literally while I'm at the concert, I get a text like, Hey. This is blah, blah, blah from Urban One. I want to talk to you tomorrow. Talk to you tomorrow. Started freelancing literally within the next week. A couple of months from there, they said, we want to hire you full time.

  [00:25:07] Jahi Whitehead: That process right there, like it literally was just, it's one of them things that, again, that was something that was out of my control, but again, it was networking and just being a good person. Um, half of that, like that's the other half of networking. Just be a good, being a good person. Like no one wants to work with someone that's just not a good person.

  [00:25:25] Jahi Whitehead: Like that don't, that you don't like to work with, that you don't, you're not cool with, you don't mesh with, you don't work well with, like have a good attitude. Like. Like it's okay to be a good person. You don't have to, you don't have to try to snake everybody to try to snake everyone to get ahead. It's not important.

  [00:25:40] Jahi Whitehead: Be a good person. 

  [00:25:41] Sidney Evans: I a hundred percent agree because people focus so much on climbing the ladder, progressing their career that they ignore all the people that they encountered along the way. And. The way that actually treated those people that they did encounter. You never know, um, how that may come full circle.

  [00:26:04] Sidney Evans: And when it does come full circle, you actually want it to benefit you and not, uh, hurt you or hinder your chances of achieving success. And at the end of the day, just, just scrap all the, you know, you did this for me because I was good to you stuff. It's just the right thing to do, man. Like you can have a.

  [00:26:25] Sidney Evans: A peace of mind and you'll be able to sleep at night because you know that you did things the right way and you treated people the right way. Okay. So moving things along great urban one now really just, well, first of all, how long have you been working there? And then what is some of the stuff that you're proud that you worked on?

  [00:26:45] Sidney Evans: And could you highlight the things that y'all are currently working on or producing that people can look forward to? 

  [00:26:52] Jahi Whitehead: Absolutely. So I've been, I've been at urban one as. as the podcast producer for our, for our network for a year. It's been officially, uh, it's been a little bit over a year, but, um, but been a, been a year doing that.

  [00:27:06] Jahi Whitehead: Like I said, I was working there previously freelancing, but as their main sole producer, actually, uh, it's been a year. Uh, some stuff I worked on, um, it was a, uh, podcast that the initial podcast that I worked on when I got, when I was When I first got there, which was, um, the undressing room with, uh, L'Oreal and Claudia Jordan.

  [00:27:25] Jahi Whitehead: We did great numbers for that once that ended, moved on to something else. But before that, even that we, um, go back to what you were saying about radio shows and turn those into podcasts. We made plans to turn our, uh, a lot of our shows, a lot of our, uh, assets that we already had into podcasts, which are Ricky Smiley, DL Hughley, um, the morning hustle.

  [00:27:46] Jahi Whitehead: Get out mornings with Erica Campbell, uh, Amanda Seals. So I've managed all of those, uh, Ricky smile. We are over, we're well over a million downloads before our first year doing that also, uh, work with our TV, one stuff, uh, do fail attraction. Also worked on a Black Health 365 was one of the other podcasts that I worked on while I was there, not doing that anymore.

  [00:28:08] Jahi Whitehead: That was one, uh, Maria, Maria Morris, Mind, Body, and Business. I was, uh, working on a producer for that for a while right now. I just, I created a show co created with, uh, with a leader there called She's, uh, She Said It First with, uh, Lanae Monáe and Indescribable, a. k. a. Gerilyn Lake. Hello, ladies. I'm a second producer for that.

  [00:28:30] Jahi Whitehead: And that's going well. We are. Probably we're going in our second or third month. We're going into our third month actually at this point. And, um, we've been doing really good, uh, within the first few, few weeks, we thought we already hit the top 200, like 30 times in the comedy podcast. That podcast is doing great.

  [00:28:53] Jahi Whitehead: And we just trying to develop some new, uh, new podcasts over there. We already bought, um, the, well, this is not part of me, but we have the fun house with a kid in play over there. Um, just did dear future wifey will, uh, the church would have filled. We're doing, we're doing, we're bringing some other podcasts along.

  [00:29:12] Jahi Whitehead: We're trying to create some new original programming, trying to do that in a short run, uh, in a long run coming soon. Um, so yeah, just, just trying to build that up to one of the, uh, preeminent, uh, podcast networks, black owned, uh, black ran. Uh, within our first year, we've, we're already in, we, well, we, I don't know, we still are, but we already were in the top 20 of podcast networks.

  [00:29:39] Jahi Whitehead: So we are growing pretty fast and pretty quickly. Um, we're doing a lot of hard work. It's a small team that we have, but it's a, it's a great team that we have. We're able to build and we're able to, uh, you know, trying to put out our stories and trying to tell our stories the way that we need to, uh, tell them.

  [00:29:57] Sidney Evans: Super dope, man. I'm glad that you all have incorporated podcasting and especially the podcast network into your content kind of just made sense with already having that name in radio and kind of repurposing. The radio shows and creating the original stuff as well. So glad to hear that. So that kind of takes me into my next question.

  [00:30:22] Sidney Evans: Obviously urban one is well known and there's a lot of talent out there. A lot of people trying to get their foot in the door. So what would be your advice for. You know, up and coming talent that wants to break into the industry. What are some of the things that you look for and some of the skill sets that can separate them from their peers?

  [00:30:45] Jahi Whitehead: The first thing I would say, hone your craft. Like, so whatever you do, whatever, whatever you're good at, rather is, uh, rather your audio engineer, rather you are a producer, meaning like, just because you're a producer doesn't mean you're an audio engineer, which is something that someone say to, but, um, hone your craft, be the best, get your 10, 000 hours in there with that.

  [00:31:04] Jahi Whitehead: That's the first thing. Now, the second thing is don't be one dimensional, be able to do other things. So if you are an audio, audio editor, learn how to produce, if you are a Before a show, learn how to audio edit. If you don't know how to write, learn how to write. If you're bad at research, you can research a little bit more.

  [00:31:22] Jahi Whitehead: If you're good at booking guests, start booking guests. Like, be able to do everything. Be able to be a one man show to where that, they can't fire you. Like, they can't get rid of you, or if they get rid of you, you'll be fine because you can do something else. You can find another job easily because of your, because of your skill set.

  [00:31:40] Jahi Whitehead: If you're working, and this is with anything, this is with any job market right now, especially in this, in this climate of what we do as far as media production, audio production, anything like that. If you can only do one thing, you're not that useful. You, you have to be able to do multiple, multiple things, um, to be useful because I can get, I can get a college kid to do one thing.

  [00:32:00] Jahi Whitehead: I can find someone to do one thing and I don't have to pay them that much. You have to learn your value. Biggest thing when you learn your value, you have to know what you're good at and what you can do when you learn, when you learn your value, as far as what, what your capabilities are, then you can take that a lot further.

  [00:32:16] Jahi Whitehead: Um, all those things, um, those are the, those are the things that we are, like we are looking for or any companies looking for right now, because I don't have the time. Not, not just me. And I'm saying I, as a farmer, the farmer company, I don't have the time, I don't have the bandwidth to sit there and teach or train anyone to do certain things like that you should be able to do, obviously at the beginning, we can't do that all the time.

  [00:32:40] Jahi Whitehead: We can't do that. And then you're going to have to be able to do more because a lot of these companies are doing a lot more. With a lot less or trying to do a lot more with a lot less urban one podcast network, we have a small team. That's because everybody on our team could do almost everything. It's a team of five.

  [00:32:58] Jahi Whitehead: So because you can, because it's small team can do multiple things. That's why we can grow the rate that we able to grow. And people have a lot larger teams than we have, and they can't do what we do. Learn as much as you can and be indispensable. 

  [00:33:12] Sidney Evans: Thank you for sharing that man. Um, put all those up and comers.

  [00:33:16] Sidney Evans: Hopefully you take heed to that bit of advice. Um, all right. So we are getting close to the end of the show. So kind of want to wrap things up on a much more fun note. Not so heavy. And I think you're particularly enjoyed this portion of the show based on your Experience in the music industry. So I got a few questions and the first one is your favorite piece of equipment that you've had.

  [00:33:44] Jahi Whitehead: Um, I had a phantom G six, a phantom G six keyboard. That was my favorite thing that I ever had. Like I love that. I used to love that thing, but outside of that, I would just say pro tools. 

  [00:33:56] Sidney Evans: So I'm not a musician, so I'm not too familiar. With all that type of stuff, but I'm gonna assume the phantom g6 is a keyboard or piano or something of that nature and Obviously pro tools is the industry standard Starting off in music and now into other industries as well.

  [00:34:15] Sidney Evans: So Obviously that makes a lot of sense. All right. So next question, favorite album of all time. 

  [00:34:23] Jahi Whitehead: I'm going to do a prince in a revolution, purple rain. I'm going to do Stevie wonder songs in the key of life. And I'm going to go with Michael Jackson off the wall. 

  [00:34:35] Sidney Evans: So obviously just went with the cheat codes by mentioning Prince, Stevie wonder, and Michael Jackson.

  [00:34:41] Sidney Evans: Your taste is your taste, but. They are kind of the cheat codes, but obviously solid choices. All right. Next one, favorite music producer. 

  [00:34:51] Jahi Whitehead: See now you just, you just did that. So I'm going to go with Quincy. 

  [00:34:56] Sidney Evans: Okay. So I see what you did there as well. Cause we mentioned, you know, being multi talented and obviously he's a great music producer in a traditional sense, but he's done music scores.

  [00:35:11] Sidney Evans: He produced first Prince of Bel Air from the TV side. And then he also did the infamous Sanford Sun theme song. So Quincy Jones, say no more. All right. Next. Favorite film score. 

  [00:35:25] Jahi Whitehead: All right, so this is gonna be interesting. Uh, the Prince of Egypt. 

  [00:35:29] Sidney Evans: Yeah, not too familiar with that one, but who did, who did that one by the way?

  [00:35:34] Jahi Whitehead: I don't know who did the score. I, I forget who. I forgot who did the score. Uh, I have to go back and look at it, but, um. Was it Hans Zimmer? Yep, Hans Zimmer, just looked it up. Hans Zimmer is my favorite, but, um, but yeah, that Prince of Egypt is my favorite. 

  [00:35:51] Sidney Evans: All right, cool, I'm gonna have to confirm that on my own, on my own time.

  [00:35:54] Sidney Evans: Um, next, favorite TV theme song? 

  [00:35:58] Jahi Whitehead: That's actually easy, and this is, and no one, no one probably say this, but, uh, Taxi. The theme song to Taxi. Go, go back and listen to the theme song of Taxi. 

  [00:36:09] Sidney Evans: I don't think I remember that one. 

  [00:36:10] Jahi Whitehead: It's it's no words. There's no words to it. Go listen to that theme song of taxi. One of the hardest theme songs.

  [00:36:18] Jahi Whitehead: Like man, right now, right now I would want to sample it. That's how, that's how good it is. It's, it's, it's one, it's one of them. 

  [00:36:26] Sidney Evans: Okay, cool, man. Um, but yeah, I think that's it. We had a, uh, we had a great conversation, man. Definitely appreciate you sharing all your experiences and giving, you know, helpful tips and bits of information that.

  [00:36:40] Sidney Evans: People can walk away with and, you know, implement on their journey into achieving audio success. So appreciate you coming on the show, man. And yeah, I enjoyed it. 

  [00:36:51] Jahi Whitehead: I appreciate that. I appreciate you having me. And to go back to what we said, we said before about networking, you said a name, you said Dante. So I mean, once you say, once you say that you're like, that's a person that I work with, that's a person I know that's legit.

  [00:37:02] Jahi Whitehead: So once you say a name that I know that's legit, I'm going to have to, and he gave you my name. So that means that. He values something that that's legit there. So I would have to, that's, that's a no brainer. Definitely. Definitely. Well, 

  [00:37:16] Sidney Evans: yeah, that's a wrap for today's episode. And for everybody out there, thank you for listening.

  [00:37:24] Sidney Evans: Thank you for joining us on today's episode. Please don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave us a review. If you'd like to work with me or connect, please go to soundbitesit. com and schedule a call there. You can also check out the full list of productions. If you'd like to connect on social media, my handle is soundbysid.Com on Twitter and Instagram, and I'm Sidney Evans on LinkedIn. Don't forget to follow Beyond the Threshold on Instagram as well. I'll catch you on the next episode.

In this episode, I sit down with Howard University alum Jahi Whitehead, currently lead Podcast Producer at Urban One Podcast Network.

As Jahi highlights his two decades of media/audio production experience, we discuss:

- His early experience as singer, DJ and engineer in the music industry.
- The pursuit of a career in radio and the transition into podcasting.
- The difference between networking and building genuine relationships.
- How his unique skillset led to his opportunity at Urban One.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe leave us a review!

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