Lara Scott is the Midday Host on Audacy’s K-EARTH 101 (KRTH) in Los Angeles. She also hosts Middays on sister stations Big 94.5 (KOOL) in Phoenix and Sunny 98.1 (KXSN) in San Diego.
She has the typical radio story. The Florida native was constantly listening to her local Top 40 radio station, thinking all of the DJs were her friends, and would even make DJ tapes for her mom. “Despite being a quiet child, I would record on my little stereo system and play music,” she explains. “I had a plug-in microphone, and I would do ‘breaks’ as I introed each song and pretended to be Rick Dees.”
“Fast forward to when I was 17 and living in Central Oregon. I was at a party, and a friend of mine dared me to call the local radio station and ask if they were hiring. She thought if I got a job there, she would be able to meet the new morning guy, who she thought sounded cute. I called the office the next day. I did not think for a second I would end up on the radio – I wasn’t even sure how somebody got on the radio – but I assumed that I could get an office job at the radio station.”
“When I went in for an interview, they were desperate for people to simply keep the radio station on air. At that point, there were no computers to run things. The PD asked if I had any on-air experience, and I said, ‘You mean like on the radio?’ He said ‘Yes!’ and I told him I used to make DJ tapes for my mom. He looked at me and said ‘Great!” You’re hired. You’ll train tomorrow and start this weekend!’ And that is exactly what happened. I had one training shift, and that weekend I was on air, running the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 and doing a few hours live. I was hooked from that very first shift and knew that I had found what I wanted to do with my life.”
Radio is not the only thing Scott loves doing. “I have one foot in the blogging world, and love sharing about Southern California,” she says. “It’s a blast visiting and sharing about places I think are amazing, from historic buildings in Downtown LA to classic movie theaters that show films from the Golden Age of Hollywood to my favorite plant-based restaurants.”
“I am also a huge theme park fan, and I am thrilled that both of my kids are now old enough to ride all the big roller coasters with me. Also, now that my kids are older, I’ve gotten back into volunteering, which is something that’s very important to me. I bring my children with me, and we volunteer with a local animal rescue organization and have also helped feed the homeless, along with helping to clean up a botanical garden.”
As for Scott’s radio show, “I hope that when people listen, they hear a friendly voice and feel connected to what’s happening in their city,” she says. “I love sharing about events that are going on in LA and Orange County. I love talking about what shows and movies everybody is watching, and I love putting listeners on the air and letting them shine, whether that’s giving a shout-out to their kid or talking about the Dodgers or winning a contest.”
“I also hope – and this has been my mission on the air for a long time now – that whenever somebody hears me, their day will be better because of that. I always want someone to feel uplifted after they have listened to me. That goes for social media, as well.”
“I’m constantly prepping for my show. I happen to love doing research, so it really is fun for me. I have a prep sheet document, and I’m constantly adding to it. I put everything on there, from celebrity birthdays that are coming up, to events that I’ve heard about, to the names of offices/businesses that I have walked into that have K-EARTH playing that I want to give a shout-out to. You name it, it all goes on the prep sheet!”
“One of my former PDs had a great saying when it came to planning breaks for our shows. It was: ‘What is happening today – that could only be happening today – in this city?’ And not every break can be about that – some things are more general and/or evergreen – but I do think that’s a great filter, and a great practice to try to at least have one break an hour that meets that criteria.”
I had to ask about AI, it’s the #1 concern in the industry (besides downsizing) right now. “I think AI is an incredible tool to help us get a lot more done in a lot less time,” says Scott. “I like to use ChatGPT to help me organize my thoughts. If I’m going to be writing about an event that I’ve been to, I will just brain dump everything into my Notes app while I’m at the event and then have ChatGPT arrange everything for me with bullet points. It really helps me to get clear when I need to sort through a lot of information fast. Or, if I’m researching something, I’ll ask it to pull together info, so I don’t have to visit ten different websites.”
I asked Scott what advice she could give to get the younger generation excited about radio. “There are so many wonderful things about radio!” she says. “All these years later, I still absolutely love my job – and love talking about it with younger people. Occasionally, we have groups of students who come through. Even the kids that maybe are hanging back when they first come in or even looking a little bit bored, when they get to hear their voice on the radio, their eyes light up. Often I will record them and then play them back while they’re in the studio. It’s mesmerizing for them. They will inevitably ask, ‘Wait—everybody just heard that?’ So, I think it’s important to show the younger generation how awesome it is and not just tell them.”
“How great is it to play music at work every day? How fun is it to give away incredible prizes like cash and concert tickets and make people happy? How cool it is to meet your favorite artists and get to go to concerts and movie screenings? And I think bringing back remotes and getting out into the community can really get younger people excited, as well. I remember begging my mom to take me to a department store on a Saturday afternoon because the Afternoon Guy at my local station was going to be broadcasting at the mall, and I was so curious about what he looked like. I still remember that because the energy at that remote broadcast was electric.”
“I think another wonderful thing about Radio is that it differs from listening to something on your phone because with radio, everyone is experiencing it together. An artist can release a new song, and maybe when it first comes out, everybody is checking it out, but not at the exact same moment, which is what you get with radio. And the community experience and being live is so important – you really see it in moments like the Southern California wildfires that happened in January, where we weren’t just giving out important information, sharing where people could donate and help out, but also giving our audience a space to share and grieve and heal.”
As if she’s not busy enough with work and family, Scott has some pretty big projects coming up.
“I am actually working on two books,” she informs us. “And my dream is to write a Christmas movie one day. I love expressing my creativity, and I’ve gotten really good at using pockets of found time during each day. I work, I have a commute, I am a mom taxi driving my kids around to their sports games and practices after work, so I’ve always got my phone with me, I’ve always got a charger or an extra battery pack, and when I have five minutes here or 15 minutes there I put it to good use. And I’m also hoping to host a podcast at some point.”
Follow Lara Scott on all socials @LaraScottMedia.
