WBEC's 'natural' takes reins at new WUPE

Published August 26, 2004: The Advocate Weekly & www.iberkshires.com

“All you need is love.” John Lennon and Paul McCartney

“I met Paul McCartney a couple of years ago at his Off the Ground tour in New York City. I touched him. I remember my mouth opening, but I don’t remember any words coming out. I was completely star struck, but I can die happy now.”

So said Joanne Billow, WUPE’s new morning radio DJ, during an interview last week. Billow, possibly best known in the Berkshires as the most popular radio personality of Pittsfield’s largest radio station, WBEC (Live 105.5) previously considered the morning show there “her baby.”

VOX Corp., already the owner of five of the nine local radio stations, was in negotiation and awaiting FCC approval to purchase two more stations in 2004. Rumors flew, and speculation was rampant as to what would happen to “small town” programming and well-known radio hosts when and if the sales became final. VOX purchased WBEC AM and FM in December 2002 and WNAW and WMNB in North Adams and WSBS in Great Barrington in May 2003. The sale of WUPE and WUHN was final in December 2003.

“We didn’t really know anything,” Billow said. “When I was called into the office earlier this year, I thought I might be getting fired. When they told me I was going to WUPE, I was happy. I love that kind of music (oldies). But I was sad to leave WBEC; that was my blood, sweat and tears for 19 years.”

She admitted being very emotional the day she left WBEC for good. Of course, she also confessed that almost any movie makes her cry, including “The Nutty Professor,” because she gets lost in the emotions and caught up in the characters. However, with her usual upbeat manner and cheerful good humor, Billow feels she is adjusting well to her new job.

“The best thing about this job is leaving at noon and having the whole day left to enjoy,” she said. “But I hate hearing that alarm go off at 3:30 every morning. “ Larry (Kratka) is a great guy – we dance and sing along with the music – we’re like family here.” Kratka is news director for the Berkshire News Network and has the same hours as Billow, 5:30 to noon.

Born and raised in Shaftsbury, Vt., Billow is the only daughter of John and Henrietta Billow – her first family. The senior Billows still live in Shaftsbury and work at their small real estate office there, and Billow likes being close enough to visit them on a regular basis.

Her childhood memories do not include hearing “get your buns out of bed,” a well-known Billow radio phrase.

“That just slipped out one morning, and it sounded good so I thought I’d keep using it,” she said.

She does recount family trips to Cape Cod and Canada as some of her happiest memories, and she still likes to travel as much as possible in her free time.

“Someday, I want to travel to Alaska, see the majestic views and the Northern Lights, possibly on my honeymoon, and preferably, married to Paul McCartney.”

Billow has remained single but said she has no regrets. “I have work I love. I do what I want, I’m independent and self sufficient, and I live close to my family,” she said.

Her family also includes a brother, younger by 18 months, a sister-in-law, Denise, whom Billow describes as “a gift to our family,” a niece, age 4 and a nephew, almost 7, whom she treats as her own children.

“Those kids are my life,” she cheerfully acknowledged. “I would die for those kids. You don’t have to have children to love them, enjoy them and be part of their lives.” [She declined to name the children for this article in respect to their parents’ wishes.] On her nephew’s 1^st birthday, her gift to him was a photo album of 52 pictures that she had taken – one for each week of his life. “I’ll never forget the look of surprise on my brother’s face,” she said. “’You were at our house every week?’ he says. ‘Duh, I said,’”

Billow, who would like to be a professional photographer in her next life, did not set out to be a radio personality. “When I was in high school, if you were female and you didn’t want to be a nurse, homemaker, teacher or secretary, they didn’t know what to do with you. They asked me what I liked. I said, ‘art.’ They said, ‘Well, you should be a nurse, then.’”

Dutifully following directions, Billow became a candy striper and then a nurses’ aide, while in high school. She even enrolled in the four-year nursing program at St. Anselm in New Hampshire. “I flunked logic,” she said, “And I soon realized that good bedside manner wasn’t going to be enough to keep me there.” Since she was young, loved to travel, was not currently enrolled in college and was not really sure what she wanted to do, Billow ended up in the restaurant business, as a waitress and bartender, “following the money.” She worked at resorts in southern Maine, northern Vermont, New York, Florida, and South Carolina but soon tired of the pace, packing and moving every few months. Listening to a favorite radio station out of New Haven, Conn., WPLR, one day, she heard an advertisement for the Connecticut School of Broadcasting.

“I thought, wouldn’t that be the greatest job in the world? So, I went down and auditioned. They loved me and I loved them. They told me I was a natural, so I decided to go for it.”

Her first job was reading the news on WJOY/WQCR, a Burlington, Vt., station, for a year. After training herself to be a DJ, she was awarded the night job on WJOY, playing 45s for four years. WBEC was her second job in radio, first on its 1420 AM station mid-days, and then replacing Rick Beltaire when he moved to WBRK. Simulcasting WBEC AM and ROCK 105 for a year, she then moved to ROCK 105 exclusively. She loves to hear people call it Rock 105 today because “it means they have been with us for a long time.”

She left her radio career briefly in 1989 to sell life insurance, but the economy took a nosedive shortly thereafter, and she went back into radio in Glens Falls and WGBY in Albany, N.Y., until 1991. “My old boss called me in ’91 and said, “We need you, Jo Jo. Come on home.’ Bob Howard owned the stations then, and he made me the program director.”

Other than getting up earlier and feeling less performance anxiety, Billow said her life as a local radio personality has not changed much at WUPE. She loves her work and the freedom the owners give her to be inventive.

Although the show is strictly formatted and largely computerized, she has creative license to fill it up with her own themes, contests, guests and songs. She continues to manage the Web page for WBEC and will soon have a Web page for WUPE, which she will maintain as well. Her responsibilities include being involved in all aspects of commercial production, writing the copy, coordinating the public service announcements, scheduling guests, producing the morning show and always trying to “push the right buttons, even if I seem like a floppy fish some mornings.”

“It helps to have everything planned, written and in place so you know what you’re doing next, but you need to remain flexible because things come up,” she said. “Very important: Always have a Plan B in case things don’t work out the way you thought they were going to.”

At times, even her words do not come out the way she thinks they will. She recounted as one of her most embarrassing moments the day she said, “St. Mary’s will be serving sloppy Jews for lunch” instead of “sloppy Joes.” It was almost as bad, she said as the day of the “Van Incident.” Trying not to laugh, she shared the story.

“It was awful. I had drive the WBEC van to Park Square for ‘picnic in the park’ that day at lunchtime. I had been there awhile and someone said to me, ’Joanne, who’s driving the van?’ Well, I am, of course. I look over and see the van across the street on the lawn of the courthouse – just hanging there on the curb. It was surreal for a moment because I couldn’t figure out how it got over there – across four lanes of highway at high noon, where drivers don’t even stop for pedestrians. I go over and get in, but it’s hung up, so I can’t drive it off the curb, and everybody in the whole courthouse is now hanging out the windows and out on the lawn laughing at me. A cop drives by and yells, ‘Hey! You in the van – hands up.’ I read in the paper the next day, ‘Billow not cited,’ which is when it first occurred to me I could have gotten a ticket for forgetting to put the van in park.”

She remains good-natured, but she does value her privacy. “When you’re in the public eye, no one lets you forget any of your boo boos,” she said.

She hesitates to give advice to people who want a job in radio because of the whirlwind pace at which it seems to be changing. Instead, she offered general advice to everyone:

“Get your degree, just be you, and follow your heart, wherever it leads – radio, brain surgery, being a mommy. Just go for it, and don’t be afraid to change your mind 10 times. The world is your oyster.”

She said she has followed her own advice and feels content with her choices and safe with her “little guardian angel with the cute buns” watching over her.

“We all want to be loved, and with this job, in this community, I feel loved. Who needs a man?” she said, with her familiar laugh. Billow said she still believes the Beatles: “Love is all you need.”