‘Uncle D’ enjoying dream job as K-Rock morning show host
Radio can be a powerful tool. Just ask Darrin “Uncle D” Harvey, host of The Morning Show with Darrin on 893 KRock in Kentville, N.S.
Harbey started his career in radio at AVR in December of 1989 and would work his way up to hosting the morning show.
Harvey started at K-Rock when they first opened in
2008. In the beginning, he did the swing shift, which is three midday shifts and weekend mornings. He then worked his way up to weekday mornings and then started in the coveted morning slot four years ago.
“In radio, the morning show is the end goal,” said Harvey.
“The morning radio show is where you want to be. It’s where you have the most listeners. Everything is happening in the morning.”
“A lot of people listen to the radio in the morning whether it's in their kitchen or car. It's a companion in the morning so its where you want to be.”
Harvey’s 5:50-9:50 a.m. slot is a solo morning show, so he is the only one in the building but coordinates with another person to help put the news together and then he puts the complete content together himself.
Since he has gotten to cover so many different things over the years it is hard for Harvey to pick a story that stands out to him.
“They are all so much fun. I get to talk to real people and for some reason people seem to answer my calls,” said Harvey.
He has gotten to interview MLAs councilors and has gotten to know the Premier through happenstance.
“His assistant tells me he looks forward to it because we laugh, we just have a gag. I had him on just before Christmas and I told him I didn’t accept his resignation and he had to continue working,” said Harvey
Although Harvey appreciates how popular his morning show is, he does not take that for granted.
“It’s really lovely. It speaks to what I think works in radio and that is 60 per cent what you do in the studio, 40 per cent what you do outside. Or 50-50. There’s some magic number in there,” said Harvey.
“When there’s not a pandemic you need to get out and talk to real people and be in your market talking with people and hosting shows and you get it done and maybe they will turn the radio on,” he continued.
For Harvey, it’s all about being real with his listeners.
“It's always the goal to have lots of listeners, but people are nice and it's my opinion that people are smart, so if you present a smart show, people are into it,” said Harvey.
“People are very media savvy. They know what you are doing. Don’t try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. Just be real and if you’re real you are going to be successful.”
Harvey also enjoys listening to his audiences and hearing from them what works and what doesn’t and then planning his show accordingly.
“(It’s always nice) hearing people say they particularly like one thing. Even after doing it for this long you can work really hard on one piece and another piece be a throw away and that’s the piece that will stick with people. So you are always learning from their reactions.”
One aspect of his job that may be surprising to his listeners is that even though it gets easier to get up at 4 a.m. to be to work on time, it’s not something a person gets used to.
“It’s unnatural to get up then and it's hard to be a grownup when you have to go to bed at 9:30 at night,” said Harvey. “There’s going to come a time in the near future where my granddaughters will be staying up later than me.” https://893krock.com/ https://avrnetwork.com/ https://www.facebook. com/893krock
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