Pause/Play

Elizabeth McQueen: Welcome back to season seven of Pause/Play, the podcast about live music, why it matters, and what comes next

Miles Bloxson: Seven seasons, Elizabeth? That’s a lot of seasons.

Elizabeth McQueen: Yes, it is, Miles. And we have covered a lot of ground since we started.

Miles Bloxson: We sure have. We’ve talked about so many aspects of the Austin live music ecosystem.

Elizabeth McQueen: Yeah. And we’ve been asked a lot of questions.

Miles Bloxson: Yes, we have. And this season we’re gonna try to answer some of those questions.

Elizabeth McQueen: Yeah. In this first episode, we’re gonna answer a question we get asked a lot: How can Austin artists get their songs on the radio? Miles, people ask me this all the time.

Miles Bloxson: They ask me that all the time, too. And it’s crazy because I get a lot of DMs and, you know, when, where I’m out and about in the community, you know, people come up to me and they wanna know.

And I normally just tell them to go to KUTX.org to submit their music because they have a page that has all the ways artists can get their music on the air. And it even has instructions for submitting to be featured on Song of the Day and the Austin Music Minute.

Elizabeth McQueen: Yeah, I tell people to go there, too, because it tells them how to submit all of their music to specialty shows, like The Breaks and Horizontes.

Miles Bloxson: Yeah. And most of the people who ask how to get their music on KUTX, they want it to be played regularly on air.

Elizabeth McQueen: Yeah. So in this episode, we are going right to the source. We’re sitting down with Rick.

Rick McNulty: I’m Rick McNulty. I’m the music director at KUTX, also a host on the radio.

Miles Bloxson: But before we get into this, we need to define a term that maybe not everybody knows, and that term is rotation.

Elizabeth McQueen: Yes. Rotation is a term that we use when we’re talking about new songs that are receiving regular airplay.

Miles Bloxson: And there’s a lot of levels to rotation. At KUTX, heavy rotation songs can get played, like, 20 to 22 times a week. Ideally, no more than five hours apart.

Elizabeth McQueen: Then there’s medium rotation, which means a song gets played around 10 times a week.

Miles Bloxson: And then there’s light rotation, which means a song gets played about six times a week.

Elizabeth McQueen: And deciding where things go in rotation is not an exact science by any means.

Rick McNulty: Sometimes some bands are, like, so big, too big to fail, like, we’ve gotta put them in heavy rotation because they have so many more fans that wanna hear this.

And then we’ll slip in something we really like into heavy rotation, and we just kinda mix and match, move in and out. We try not to get too heavy for just one artist or song.

Miles Bloxson: And at KUTX, there’s a group of about nine people who meet regularly to decide what music will make it into rotation. We’ll talk about that group more in depth a little bit later.

Elizabeth McQueen: But Rick, as the music director, well, he’s the guy who brings songs to this group of people, and we wanted to know about that process. So how do you find out about music?

Rick McNulty: I generally have a trusted- group of people that work around the country, sometimes around the world, that will contact me frequently with new artists or new songs or just new music, maybe music by established bands or brand new stuff by bands we’ve never heard of.

And you get to know them after a while and y- you trust some more than others. Um, some have impeccable records, impeccable taste, but nobody has a perfect record. We don’t take everything by one, you know, one representative.

Elizabeth McQueen: And these are usually people who are like, they call it, like, working radio. These are people who have been hired by labels or artists or, you know, managers or whoever to say, “Hey, this new music is coming out.”

Rick McNulty: Exactly. And, and these people also, they have, like, a timeline for how this rolls out. It’s like, “We’re gonna put out the song here. This is not the radio single. This is just to announce that we have a new album on the way.” And then maybe a few weeks later, there’s the radio single, and so on and so forth.

Miles Bloxson: And I feel like that works for songs or artists that are outside of Austin, but when it comes to Austin, how do you decide who gets played? And, like, how do you… Who sends you music? Is it the, the artist themselves? Is it their team? Or do you get, you know, maybe leads from people that you know that are close to you in the Austin music scene?

Rick McNulty: Absolutely. Like you yourself- … gave me a lead on an artist. And no, really, it’s, um- Usually it’s the artists themselves. If they have management, then they employ the management to do it, and generally they have better results if they do have management. Because if, if manager’s been doing this for a while, they know what to do and what not to do.

Elizabeth McQueen: So how many songs do you think you get sent per day between the people who are working radio, and individual artists, and managers? Like, if you had to give a rough estimate.

Rick McNulty: Uh, for my personal email, probably 30 to 40 songs a day. If we go into the music@kutx.org mailbox, you can up that by 200.

Elizabeth McQueen: So you’re getting 200 different solicitations, people wanting you to, like, listen to their music, consider their music- Yes

per day.

Rick McNulty: Yeah.

Elizabeth McQueen: Rick said that the music@kutx.org inbox can be overwhelming. I mean, 200 submissions a day is a lot. There’s literally no way to review that amount of music.

Miles Bloxson: But he did say that he prioritizes listening to Austin artists.

Rick McNulty: So there is a note on the website. When you submit to this mailbox, this generic music@kutx mailbox, put ATX in the subject.

That way we can search through 1,000 emails a week, and there you are. You’ve got, you’ve got our attention.

Elizabeth McQueen: So Rick listens to a bunch of songs, but-

Miles Bloxson: Not all of those can make it to the- Oh, no … to a, to a meeting, or you would be meeting for months, Rick. Correct. So how do you then decide, like, which ones do you wanna take to your team of people that help you decide?

Rick McNulty: Well, I’ll start initially with if it’s an established artist that we’ve already played, that’s a good sign. That’s a really good sign. In fact, it would behoove me to bring that in, even if I don’t like the song- Mm … to get more opinions on it. Um, if it’s an artist we’ve never played, and it’s f- being sent from someone I don’t really know, and they’re not coming here on tour, I might decide, well, I’ll put this on the back burner.

This is not a priority. If it’s somebody who I do know, uh, the record representative, as I li- like, like to call them, if they send it to me and they say, yes, they’re touring, they’re coming to Austin, da, da, da, da, and I still may not like it, but I wanna get more ears on it, so I’ll bring it into a meeting.

So I generally whittle that down from, like, two weeks’ worth of submissions to about 25 songs. Probably 30% of those songs are Austin artists because that’s, that’s part of our mission.

Miles Bloxson: And he sends these songs to the members of the music meeting. And just so you know, Rick won’t disclose the names of the members of this group.

Rick McNulty: And it’s assigned like homework. I, I send the songs out to each member of the panel. They have three or four days to listen, and then we meet to discuss in person, well, over Zoom, we discuss the songs we were listening to. Now, there are nine people currently on this, and we feel it’s better to have more voices in the room, and it’s all ages, it’s all genders, it’s all races.

It’s, we just, it’s a huge potpourri, a melting pot of a Supreme Court of music here at KUTX. And What we really, we really wanna get a majority vote on it. Occasionally something will come through and it’s just like we’re not really feeling it, but, like, somebody’s really passionate about it, so we’ll try it in rotation, and then we’ll go from there.

Um, but generally we try to get, um, some sort of majority votes, five votes that’ll say yes. There is a caveat, however. Uh, when there’s only four women on the panel, if all four of them love it, we add it anyway ’cause the guys can’t hear that frequency. So w- I mean, there are rules and then there are ways to get around the rules.

Miles Bloxson: So you feel like women and men have different eardrums?

Rick McNulty: No, but I think sometimes women have a certain frequency they hear that us guys are like, “Ugh, that’s dumb.” You know, “That’s not for us.” It, it, it just, it’s guys, you know-

Elizabeth McQueen: It keeps it from being, it keeps the, uh, the male- Keeps the balance … part of the nine from dominating all the-

Rick McNulty: It,

Elizabeth McQueen: yes

the decisions.

Rick McNulty: It, it keeps us from being Neanderthals. You know?

Miles Bloxson: What happens when you’re in this meeting, right, and, like, half of the people vote for something and half of the people don’t? Do we bring it back? What do we do with it?

Rick McNulty: Great question. Yes, we generally bring it back. Um, and g- because sometimes you’re just like, you’re not sure.

You only got to hear it once, and you feel like, “This is okay, but I don’t love it.” We’ll bring it back. That’s definitely happened a lot of times. And sometimes it’s just people’s moods, and sometimes it’s if we already have a plethora of the same style in rotation, it feels like, “Oh, not another one of these songs.”

And so we’ll wait maybe a month, bring it back, and then it’s a shoo-in. It happens.

Miles Bloxson: Do these meetings ever get heated, Rick?

Rick McNulty: It happens sometimes, because somebody will come in really hot on a song. Um, and then somebody else will be like, “Oh, this was garbage. This was terrible,” and blah, blah, blah. And then next thing you know, Mom and Dad are having a fight-

Miles Bloxson: Mm-hmm

Rick McNulty: in the middle of a meeting. It doesn’t get too out of hand, ’cause we all respect each other, but there are occasional, like sometimes I’ll bring in, um Uh, substitutes, people that are subbing in for somebody else who’s, who can’t make the meeting, and sometimes you just get some real free swingers that just take things a little too far or a little too harshly, and then we generally don’t invite them back to the meetings.

Miles Bloxson: Do you think it’s because people take that no personal?

Rick McNulty: Sometimes they do. Like, if it’s an artist they really love, and like, “Oh, I really think we should add this,” and then everyone else is kind of mum in the meeting, and then there’s one person like, “No, this is hot garbage. We, we can’t, we can’t do this,” then, you know, you’ve insulted them and their, their favorite artist.

Elizabeth McQueen: Yeah. I mean, music has a real, you know, it’s a real definer of self for people, so it’s like, “You don’t like your music. What are you saying about me?” You know? Like- Exactly. Yeah, totally. So you’re the music director, but you’re not, like, the ultimate decider necessarily of everything. You actually bring it to a committee, the committee makes the decision, and then you kinda implement.

Do you also decide in that meeting, like, if it’s heavy rotation or light rotation?

Rick McNulty: No, that’s in our executive session.

Elizabeth McQueen: Oh, okay. Who’s in the executive session?

Rick McNulty: Well, I can’t tell you anyone- … who’s on this, but there are four of us now- Okay … in the executive session that discuss… And, and we know a little bit more of the business, ’cause sometimes this is business.

Sometimes we’re helping out bands we really like, and they’re going to try to sell a bigger, you know, venue. Like, suddenly they went from Mohawk to Stubb’s, so we’re gonna try to help them a little more. But we also have to really like the song, too. So there’s a little bit of business in there, and there’s also a little planning.

So-and-so is coming in three months. Well, we can start pumping that up in another month, but right now, let’s focus on this, and yada, yada. Also, there’s, you know, festivals and so many other events around town that we try to… Like, we really hit ACL Fest hard in the month running up to it, and the same with South by Southwest.

We hit it really hard for about two months before then because people, our audience, we think, are interested.

Elizabeth McQueen: So- What are some things that an Austin artist who doesn’t have someone pitching their music to radio but wants to get into rotation on KUTX can do to get you to consider their music? So you said one thing is put ATX in the-

Rick McNulty: In the subject

Elizabeth McQueen: in the subject. Are there other things that people can do or that make an impression, or that maybe give artists a little more of a chance of you listening to it and considering it?

Rick McNulty: Well, first off, stop sending CDs. Stop dropping them off. They’re just, they’ve almost become like cassettes now. It’s just like, “Do we have a player?”

We have a CD player, yes, but it’s so much easier to stream it. So send me a link to a stream, and then provide WAV files. Now, that gives us easy access, because I bring in WAVs to the meeting ’cause I want the best possible fidelity. Um, but when you submit, don’t just send an album. “Here, here’s our new album.

Check it out.” No, tell me what songs you think are the radio songs. The, in, in the business they call it focus tracks. Two to three are just enough, and we’ll know if, if you jibe with what we’re doing here, you know? And, uh, also another piece of advice I would give is to make sure you listen to the radio station to know kind of where we go.

We play a- almost all genres, but there’s some stuff that, you know, we’re just not doing. We don’t do a whole lot of bluegrass. So if you’re playing bluegrass, you might say, you, you, you might submit more for a song of the day than you would for rotation. Uh, because nothing’s more frustrating than you get somebody who, “Oh, I’m an Austin artist,” but they’ve never listened to us.

They have no idea, and no, we don’t play EDM in rotation really. You know, that sort of thing.

Miles Bloxson: Do you ever get submissions that you feel like are AI?

Elizabeth McQueen: Ooh.

Rick McNulty: Interesting question. We actually had one, and we didn’t know it- … from an Austin artist, and w- we discussed it in the meeting. I had this creeping sense that something was off because-

it was almost too good to be true. It was almost like a gospel choir, and I’m like, “Whoa, I didn’t know Austin had one that was, had been recorded lately.” And the singer had just a really robust voice, and we’re in there just kinda listening to it. We’re like, “Yeah, this is really sharp. This is made really well.”

But then everybody had that creeping feeling, like, “Is this AI?” And I went back to the email, and it was kind of vague in the submission. So I reached out to the guy, and I said, “Hey, you know, no harm, no foul, but y- did you use AI in this?” He’s like, “Yeah, I did.” And I’m like, “I’m sorry, dude. We just, we can’t abide by that.”

And he’s like, “I totally understand.” But yes, uh, sometimes it comes through. Sometimes they try to sneak it in, but we’ve got a pretty good BS detector.

Elizabeth McQueen: And is that another thing? Like, if you’re an Austin artist, don’t send us any A- AI music.

Rick McNulty: Yeah, don’t send us AI music. I- u- use it as a tool maybe to make your own stuff, but I don’t want fake vocals or really fake anything.

It’s just, it’s bad form, and if anything, you will ruin your reputation with us more by trying to do that than just s- you know, sending us something normal.

Elizabeth McQueen: Coming up after the break, more from our conversation with KUTX’s music director, Rick McNulty Welcome back to Pause/Play, the podcast about live music, why it matters, and what comes next.

In this episode, we’re talking to KUTX’s music director, Rick McNulty, about how

Miles Bloxson: Austin artists can get their music on the radio.

Elizabeth McQueen: When you’re thinking about, like, Austin bands and considering maybe thinking about putting them into rotation, do you consider live shows when making a decision? Do you look at if they’re playing around town or anything like that?

Rick McNulty: We, to a certain extent, yes. We wanna make sure that they’re not just, you know, in their bedrooms and never gonna come out. We do like to know that they’re out playing or that they’re about to embark on that. Because again, we wanna be able to help them. We start playing the song, “Oh, where can I see this band?”

Well, they’ve never played live before, and they’re still rehearsing. So that would be helpful for us if they’re doing that because we’re a little less inclined of like, “Well, these guys have never played live. Eh. They’re just gonna take up a spot in rotation that somebody else who’s doing the work is actually doing.”

We try to be equitable that way.

Miles Bloxson: Do you look at their plays, like, on Spotify or anything like that?

Rick McNulty: Not for a new band. Not for a new band at all because it can take so much effort to try to get those spins, like the spin counts on, on Spotify. You really have to hire some management to get that really going unless you’re just truly lucky.

So we also know some bands can’t do that. But it’s only instructive if they’re a bigger band, if they’re an outside artist, outside of Austin. Like, well, we’ve got this great band from Belgium, but they’ve only got, like, 100 monthly listeners. That’s probably not It’s not gonna help anyone

Miles Bloxson: But if they have, like, two million monthly listeners and they’re playing at South By, it’s kinda like,

Rick McNulty: eh.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Miles Bloxson: Okay.

Rick McNulty: Yeah.

Elizabeth McQueen: What about social media numbers? This is for Austin bands. Do you look at their social numbers at all?

Rick McNulty: No. No, that’s not important to us.

Elizabeth McQueen: So really, playing live gives you the best kind of, like, advantage. Like, if you’re playing out, that gives you a little more of an edge.

Rick McNulty: Yeah, because, you know, there’s also the chance we could make them artist of the month, and we can’t have somebody who’s never played live, you know, playing for our audience.

That, that wouldn’t make sense. But yeah, that, that is helpful. But r- really, it’s just, the best key or the best thing, I think, is to make it as easy for us as possible. Don’t send us a description about, “Oh, this album’s so meaningful. Oh, we recorded it, you know, when it was really cold out,” or, or anything like that.

“The inspiration for this song. Oh, you know, my pet turtle had an accident,” and… I mean, unless it’s funny, it, all that does is get in the way of me listening to your song.

Elizabeth McQueen: So you’re saying, like, if I’m sending you an email, if I’m an artist, I’m, like, sending you, “I’ve got a song coming out. Here’s a link to it.

Attached is a WAV,” or, “Here’s a link to a WAV,” ’cause sometimes it’s hard to attach a WAV. They’re so big.

Miles Bloxson: It’s a big file. “

Elizabeth McQueen: Maybe here are some shows I’m playing.”

Rick McNulty: Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth McQueen: Period.

Rick McNulty: That’s all I need. That’s all I need. Um- Or it also helps if they say, “We listen to your station,” ’cause then I know, okay, this is not someone who’s just walking in blindly and throwing it at us.

It, it, it just, it, it helps.

Miles Bloxson: Sometimes when Austin artists send you songs and things of that nature, and you present this to this committee, right? Does it happen here and there where it ends up being maybe, like, a song of the day instead of being in heavy rotation instead?

Rick McNulty: Yes. Our, our, uh, program director, Matt Riley, calls it, uh, the giving tree.

If we can’t, if we just don’t wanna put this into rotation, but we think it’s good enough to hear on the air, we’ll do a song of the day, so there is something that we can give you, or some sort of mention, or maybe specialty play. Like, I’ll play it on Left of the Dial, or maybe Jeff McCord will play it on What’s Next.

We’ll still do that if it doesn’t get in there every day. And sometimes we do try out songs from Austin artists. Like, we all didn’t love it, we didn’t quite get the votes for it, but there’s something compelling there, and maybe, like, maybe with some repeated listening it’ll make sense to us, and then we’ll bump it up to a higher rotation.

Miles Bloxson: That’s what I was gonna say. Have you ever seen a song of the day make it, like, to a higher rotation level?

Rick McNulty: Really, when that happens, it’s because I haven’t brought that song into a meeting yet. And, and sometimes they just submit for song of the day rather than rotation.

Elizabeth McQueen: What about things that people should not do?

You’ve c- you’ve talked about a couple things, like, “Don’t send me a long-

Miles Bloxson: Paragraph

Elizabeth McQueen: or dissertation … paragraph. I don’t need the press release.” Um, don’t send a CD. Are there other things that people should avoid doing, um, when they’re submitting music for rotation at KTX?

Miles Bloxson: Or things that just get on Rick’s nerves.

Rick McNulty: Well, h- here’s, here’s the thing. Um, it’s just be short, sweet, to the point. Again, don’t keep me from listening to your song by reading a bunch of text that really is not gonna enhance the song. Just get me to it right away. Um, I, I guess my advice is If we say no, it doesn’t mean stop. You know, you’re, it, it’s not a reflection that you’re terrible at your art or anything like that.

It’s just this isn’t working for us at this moment, or we didn’t feel the song is strong enough. But keep going, and let us know when your next radio-friendly song is, is there. There was an artist who’s like, “You didn’t like that song? Well, I’ve got this song.” And then he just started peeling off, I don’t know, like seven or eight songs.

I’m like, “Dude, just, just, you can’t just send us random stuff. You can’t just keep fighting us on this. It’s okay. Come back in a few months or six months, maybe when you got something that you think will work for us.”

Miles Bloxson: What’s a good pace of that? Because, you know, persist- people say be persistent, be persistent, and sometimes that does work in your favor, but sometimes that also annoys the person who has to make the decision.

So would you say, like, if I came to you with a song in June, do you think I should take like a three-month break before I come back to you? Does that matter to you, or is it okay to-

Rick McNulty: It’s, it’s not, there’s no strict rule on this for me. I would just say be thoughtful. It’s like you’re applying for a job.

You don’t wanna keep getting in there and annoying everybody with your persistence. And you may be a great artist, and maybe we’re not hearing it yet, but just give us some time, and then come back nicely rather than, “Well, I’ve got another suitcase full of songs you should hear right away.” It just doesn’t work like that.

‘Cause again, I’ve got a zillion songs to, to keep track of, to listen to every week.

Elizabeth McQueen: And I don’t know if you can define this, but in your mind, like, what is a good radio song versus just a regular song?

Rick McNulty: I would think a good radio song is if you play it for an audience or for some friends, and they’re, like, already ready to sing along or, like, just nodding their head, tapping their toes.

You just know it. You can tell when you listen to any album, “Oh, this should be a single. Oh, these are nice songs, but this is not a single,” or, “This is too difficult for radio. Maybe this is too quiet and contemplative,” or, “Maybe this is, you know, a lot of screaming that’s not going to work.” But it’s, it’s just common sense what you think, like, “Ah, I could hear this being really good on the radio.”

Elizabeth McQueen: Does… Is part of that, like, something that can be listened to multiple times, like something that you wanna listen to again and again? Is, does that make a good radio song?

Rick McNulty: Yes. That and also really my advice is hooks. You need a hook. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a great chorus. It could be a really great intro or a little guitar part or this or that, but there’s gotta be something that makes someone wanna sink their teeth into it again and again, or at least a few times.

They don’t mind hearing it, uh, you know, a few times a week.

Miles Bloxson: How long have you been in this position?

Rick McNulty: As music director 2019, so seven years

Miles Bloxson: Just in that, like, period of time, have you seen music change, like not have hooks or not have certain things that you were used to music having before you got this position?

Rick McNulty: No, I haven’t seen the hooks part of it change because no matter what kind of song, what kind of genre you work with, you can come up with a hook. Um, so I haven’t really seen it change. I’ve seen Austin’s music scene change a lot and become more diverse, which is fabulous because when I got here, it was … I got here in the ’90s.

It was kind of like a, mm, college rock, honky-tonk sort of town, and there may have been hip hop, but I wasn’t hearing it anywhere on the airwaves or seeing it or didn’t know it. But now you can get that. You can get psych rock. You can get even bluegrass, which I … Yeah. Or you can get Americana. It all works, and it’s so much more enjoyable.

And then I don’t feel like we’re just pigeonhole this town with one type of music

Miles Bloxson: I guess too where I was going with that is like, you know, years ago you didn’t really, you had to have like things put in place. Like people couldn’t just access your music. Now anybody can create a song and put it out there.

So do you think we’ve stepped away from the traditional ways of making music? Like based on what you’re hearing in these meetings or just as a listener of music?

Rick McNulty: Yes, because also you can tell the quality, the sound quality has g- risen greatly with technology. For the fact that you can record a song in your bedroom or your garage or out on your back porch and it can sound really good, that’s a huge difference.

Back when I was struggling as a rock musician in the ’90s in Chicago, it cost an arm and a leg to get it to sound good. You had to go into a studio and hire an engineer, and now you can do this all, you know, through trial and error at home, and next thing you know, you sound like a genius.

Elizabeth McQueen: But that just means that there’s more music out there, and so there can be more music to comb through.

Rick McNulty: Yes, and it makes my job harder because now there’s so much better sounding stuff out there than there was before.

Miles Bloxson: So we got some insight into how Rick learns about music, and we also got some insight about how music makes it from Rick’s inbox to the radio, and what Austin artists can do to make it more likely that their music will get considered for rotation.

Elizabeth McQueen: But the Austin music scene is not that big. What about in-person interactions?

Miles Bloxson: When people see you in the wild, because some people know like who you are. Mm-hmm. They see you and I’m sure people come up to you when you’re at shows and out and about in Austin. What’s the best way to approach you? ‘Cause I can only i- imagine like ways that people probably have tried to get close to you or just start a conversation.

So what would you like for people to say to you to get like a conversation started or if they want their music played on the radio? Like what do you feel like the best approach is?

Rick McNulty: What are you drinking? What can I get you? Can I buy you a drink? No, I’m, I’m kidding. Um Sometimes people come out with guns a-blazing.

“Rah, rah, rah, rah, why aren’t you playing,” blah, blah, blah. And, like, I’m turning you, I’m, I’m tuning you out at that point. Um, if you come in with a little bit of humor, just be Austin-friendly. That’s, that’s all I ask, ’cause I try to offer the same courtesy. Um, yeah, approach not with caution, but just… Opinions can be really overwhelming sometimes.

Just come in easy, like you would, uh, seeing an old friend, I guess.

Elizabeth McQueen: Is there anything you would like to tell people that we didn’t ask about, or that you just wanna say?

Rick McNulty: I, I, I always feel so guilty when I have to write that letter to a band, saying like, “We passed on this for rotation. Don’t take it personally,” because it’s a huge bar, or a high bar, and it takes some bands several times, several submissions before we hear it, or before they got that song that we think, “This is great.

Let’s play it.” Just be patient. That, that is my advice for certainly Austin musicians. If we don’t come right around to it, just keep at it. Try not to be upset. We’re trying our best to work with it, and, you know, we believe in supporting Austin.

Miles Bloxson: Would you say that’s one of the hardest parts of your job,

Rick McNulty: is- Oh, it’s the hardest part of my job.

The fun part is telling one of the record reps, “Oh, this song blows.” Like, when, when you get a national record rep, or, like, for, like, a band that, you know, we’re kind of, eh, they’re big, but that’s the best part of the job. B- and I’m known as Dr. No in the business.

Miles Bloxson: Oh my goodness, really?

Rick McNulty: Because I, uh, but I, I say it in such a way as like, “You know, just really we weren’t feeling it, and i- it’s, it’s kind of a terrible song, too.”

Wow. And it works.

Elizabeth McQueen: So it’s, it’s fun to say that to a national band, not as fun to say it to an Austin artist. Oh,

Rick McNulty: correct. Yeah. No. Never to an Au- ’cause I could see these people out, or, you know, they’re listening and, and I know what it’s like to be that musician, to submit music and have them say like, “Eh, not feeling it.”

But, uh, yeah, the hardest part is, is breaking up essentially, or not breaking up, sending a, “Sorry we’re not going to hire you” message. Um, there’s a better way to say that, but I don’t know what it is.

Miles Bloxson: We wanna thank Rick for sitting down with us and walking us through his process.

Elizabeth McQueen: If you see him out and about, be cool and tell him we say hi.

Miles Bloxson: Pause/Play is a listener-supported production of KUT and KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas.

Elizabeth McQueen: You can help make this podcast happen by donating at supportthispodcast.org.

The link is in our show notes.

Miles Bloxson: Pause/Play is a production of KUT and KUTX Studios.

Elizabeth McQueen: It’s hosted and produced by me, Elizabeth McQueen.

Miles Bloxson: And me, Miles Bloxson.

Elizabeth McQueen: Engineering and editing help from Jake Perlman and Rene Chavez.

Miles Bloxson: Stephanie Federico is our digital editor. Michael Minasi is our multimedia editor.

Our theme song was created by the talented JaRon Marshall.