(By Charese Frugé) Alabama Cole hosts The Alabama Show airing on iHeartMedia’s 103.7 The Q (WQEN) in Birmingham, 94.1 ZBQ (WZBQ) in Tuscaloosa, 106.5 Kiss FM (WQRV-HD2) in Huntsville, and 102.7 Kiss FM (WEGR) in Memphis, TN.
She also hosts the She Drives Me Crazy Podcast and has published Dear World: Letters from a Lost Girl and Her Dog, a book about putting all of her stuff in storage between Chicago and Seattle and driving across the country with her dog, Stevie Nicks, and living in a tent for a few months. “Kind of like Into The Wild,” she says.
“My first full-time job was at WJIM-FM. I was doing afternoons and Promotions Director,” explains Cole. “After six years, iHeart hired me in Virginia Beach for four months and they launched a country station (Chicago’s Big 955) and moved me there for afternoons. A year later, I was added to mornings with Mason and Remy. Then I went to Seattle to do mornings with Carla Marie and Anthony for a few years. Finally, I moved back to my hometown Birmingham Alabama. Now I’m the host of my own show on WQEN-FM.”
Cole wasn’t always set on radio. “Honestly, I wanted to be the lead singer of an all-girl band, but I realized I was funnier than I was talented… so in college I interviewed a local radio host for Mass Com 101, and they suggested I become an intern, so I did, and I caught the bug and haven’t looked back since.”
“One of the most exciting things I’ve experienced was being a part of launching a brand-new radio station in Chicago,” says Cole. “That was so much fun to be a part of a new station in such a great city. I learned so much about radio at that time. That was where I found my love for morning radio and listeners in Chicago are AMAZING.”
Cole has had some pretty big challenges throughout her career, particularly in 2019. “I had a stroke on the air when I was with Carla Marie and Anthony and THANK GOD a speech pathologist was listening that day and called in and said it was a stroke,” explains Cole. ”They found a hole in my heart that caused the stroke so a few months later I had heart surgery. A week after that my mom died of an accidental overdose, then COVID hit and we were all isolated, doing our shows from home. I lived in Seattle, across the country from my entire family and friends. That really forced me to take a look back at my career and my life and figure out what was REALLY important. So, iHeart was gracious enough to let me move back to my hometown while I figured out a work-life balance, and that ended up with me hosting my own show back in the market that I grew up in on the station I grew up listening to.”
“I speak openly about addiction and my mom’s accidental overdose,” says Cole. “I’ll do it in a way that has humor at times and other times if listeners call in struggling with sobriety I’ll cry with them. I also speak to high school students about the dangers of drugs and use my mom’s story to help make an impact.”
Cole just recently returned from Morning Show Boot Camp in San Diego. Like most radio talent who attend, she got a lot out of it, “I don’t think we realize how small this industry really is and how we can lean on each other and push each other to grow instead of looking at each other as competition. I love Morning Show Bootcamp because it really gives us radio people a place to go to be ourselves with other people who think like us and live this crazy lifestyle we live.”
As for advice for other Women who want to get into the radio business, “Don’t let the no’s discourage you,” Cole says. “If I stopped trying at my first ‘No’ I wouldn’t be where I am today… A ‘No’ does not mean you don’t have what it takes or that your idea isn’t good, sometimes it just isn’t the right fit, so keep trying and keep pushing until you find your space in the industry. It’s like dating… not all frogs that you kiss will turn into a prince… not all jobs will turn into your home station, but learn and take the experience and grow and when it’s not the right fit, move on.”
As for DEI in the industry, “I think we are getting there, but there’s still more work to be done,” says Cole. “I love that there are more women in powerful roles in our industry, but I still think we need to continue to have open honest conversations with each other and with leaders in the industry about how to improve and continue to get better and increase the numbers.”
What keeps Cole up at night? “My animals… literally,” she says. “I have three dogs, three cats, nine chickens, two ducks, and two baby geese right now, so there is literally ALWAYS something crazy happening at home. ha! At the same time, my animals also keep me balanced. When I moved back to my hometown, I bought a log cabin in the middle of nowhere and started growing my own little mini-farm. It’s so opposite of radio that it forces me to shut off my radio brain for a little while when I get home and deal with the farm chores, but I love it, because we work in such a fast-paced industry, I need that to force me to slow down and just breathe.”
As for what’s ahead for Cole, “Hopefully more stations! Hopefully, another book! I’m in the process of writing another one, but who knows if it will actually be ready for publication by the end of the year. How is it already time to start shopping for Halloween again???? Follow me @alabamaradio on IG and TikTok @thealabamashow to keep up.”
Charese Frugé is an award-winning Content, Broadcast, and Marketing executive with over 20 years of experience in markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, San Diego, and Las Vegas. As the owner of MC Media, she works with radio brands and individual talents, especially young women, helping them grow their brands and negotiate on their own behalf. Find her at @MCMediaOnline. See more Women to Watch here.
