A Conversation With K105’s Doug and MaryAnn
Steve Stack:
Brought to you direct from Studio 3B at Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods, American Hardwood Advisor is your source for trends, tips, and insights into how the building industry has evolved.
Join me, Steve Stack, along with guest builders and industry leaders, as we talk shop and go in-depth on what it takes to be the best of the best.
Dive into topics like architecture, industry trends, project plans, historical tools, tricks of the trade, and life lessons from more than six decades of experience in the hardwood lumber business.
WQXK K105: A Taste of Country in the Valley
Steve Stack:
Good afternoon, everybody. This is Steve coming to you from Studio 3B at Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods in Canfield, Ohio. Man, we got a treat for you guys today. After a year and a half, 19 month hiatus, they let the kids out of the room and they’re allowed to come out and play. We have the one, the only, the famous Doug and MaryAnn from K105 right here in what they refer to as “K Country” in the Mahoning Valley and beyond. Welcome, guys. It’s so good to see you.
MaryAnn:
Oh my gosh. Good to see you, too.
Doug:
It’s nice to be out. I’ve been held up in that studio of mine for some 20 months now by myself. MaryAnn was broadcasting from her house because we were separated. But now this past week, we’re back together in the room. It’s working.
MaryAnn:
Now we’re out with you and it’s even more so. It’s more fun.
Steve Stack:
It’s been too long.
MaryAnn:
It has. For everybody, it feels that way.
A Long-Term Working Partnership
Steve Stack:
I think we’re making the curve. We’re going to get it straightened out and go with it again. As we’ve talked in the past with some of my associates, business is business. But the relationships you build through doing business, I can’t think of a better example than the K105 brand and the Baird Brothers brand, what you guys represent for K105 and what Baird Brothers portrays.
The companies are parallel and our approaches are very similar. I’ve told you in the past, and I’ll say it a hundred times again, how much we appreciate that relationship. How long, and I’ve tried to think back and I can’t, how long have we been in partnership with one another?
Doug:
I’m thinking 15 years. Something like that.
MaryAnn:
Well yeah, but I think as far as the advertising goes, it’s way beyond that. Because when I started at the radio station, I was doing the newscast and I remember the line, “Baird Brothers, a cut above the rest.” That was the tagline. Because you had one of your sponsorships, so we’re talking 35 years ago. That was when the actual advertising began. But then the partnership that we started even more intensely was probably about 15 years ago, maybe.
Doug:
Because the Red, White, and True events have been going on for ten years now, and we’ve been a part of that. But we were a part of Baird Brothers for years before that. So it’s got to be-
MaryAnn:
So, a long time, Steve.
Steve Stack:
I can remember your associate, Cindy Duncan, coming out and chatting with Helen, who at that time was in charge of all the marketing, radio, and TV. Yeah, it’s been a while.
MaryAnn:
And it’s such a great partnership because you know how we feel about you, and you feel the same way about us. It just works hand in hand and we try to make that work together with those relationships.
Steve Stack:
I like to think that you guys are the best at what you do in the Valley.
Doug:
I don’t know where you heard that from.
MaryAnn:
I told him to say that.
Steve Stack:
Isn’t there some of those rating numbers and stuff that reflect that?
Doug:
Is that it?
Steve Stack:
But in all seriousness, it’s been an easy relationship to foster, especially over the last 15, 16, 17 years. It’s easy.
MaryAnn:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
Everybody says, well, you connect with somebody, you don’t connect with somebody, or you work at it and it goes a long way. We were fortunate, I think, in that we’ve connected over the years. We’ve had fun times at the fair.
MaryAnn:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
Doug mentioned Red, White and True. You were there for the first one.
Doug:
Those are the most fun events we do at the radio station, those things. It’s a ton of people, it’s a long day, but my God, it’s so much fun.
Steve Stack:
How much easier is life if you approach it that way. Get your job done, yes, but make it enjoyable and have fun with it.
MaryAnn:
For sure.
Steve Stack:
And you guys do the same. I hear your antics on the radio in the morning, going back and forth with each other, a jab and a poke; let’s have some fun and move on. It just makes it so much easier. So, Doug, I have to ask. How bad did you miss her for 19 months?
Doug:
It was different, but I knew we had to do it because of the way the world was. It was better to be separated. But it worked out, the technology was able to get her on the radio with me, we were separated; it’s tougher to do the show that way. I noticed it this week because when we’re working together, it’s much easier when you can actually see the person you’re talking to and not talking to them on the phone. It’s so much more fun.
MaryAnn:
A lot of people said, “Oh, you’re still from home. I can’t tell. How do you guys do that? Do you script it?”
Doug:
No, we’re very skilled at what we do.
MaryAnn:
No, you know, we don’t script it. I think if you work with somebody long enough, you kind of know how to finish their sentence, basically. You know what I mean?
Steve Stack:
Oh, very much so.
MaryAnn:
It just becomes that way. It just becomes a comfort zone and stuff like that. But yeah, now it’s like reprocessing. We’re together again in the studio, so it’s a lot different.
Doug:
It’s relearning a little bit, but I think we’re getting back to the old routine. The way it was years ago.
MaryAnn:
You make fun of that, that’s what it is. It is what it is. You’re going to be uncomfortable. We’re going to step on each other again, to get used to this again, but it’s okay.
Steve Stack:
How many years has it worked?
Doug:
Oh…
MaryAnn:
You got this one.
Doug:
A couple at least. We’ve been together for 30-31 years. Wow. So, apparently, it must be working.
Steve Stack:
How cool is that?
MaryAnn:
Well, it’s really cool because I didn’t know who he was. He was at the radio station. I was in mornings, he was afternoon. He never showed up for meetings and they go, “Oh, we want you to work with Doug.” I go, “Doug, who?” I go, “Who is Doug? I’ve never seen Doug in the office.”
Doug:
Wasn’t I famous back then, too?
MaryAnn:
And that’s how we became a team at that point, because it just happened that way. It’s just funny.
Doug:
Yeah, they thought it would work. Somehow, the people above us knew it would work, and it seems as though it did. It did work.
Steve Stack:
It caught on. It caught on.
MaryAnn:
Just a little bit. Yeah.
Steve Stack:
Well, we know how we enjoy you here at the facility, at home, in the car, and this and that. But I just have to say it again. God, we missed you guys.
MaryAnn:
We missed you too, and not seeing everybody.
Steve Stack:
You know, just being able to stop at the studio to do this or that, not being able to do that, and not being able to have you folks out. We’re very excited about moving forward now. We can have some fun back here. Think about it, at Red, White and True, even.
Doug:
Oh, definitely.
Steve Stack:
Running tours through, being set up back here, and it’s going to be fun.
MaryAnn:
Sure.
Los Angeles-Quality Content Studio in Canfield, Ohio
Steve Stack:
I’ll catch you guys up a little bit on this area, the studio corner, and the workshop side. A couple years ago, we were up in Concord, Massachusetts. We had the privilege of visiting that company we work with once in a while, This Old House. They took myself and another coworker to their studio and we came home and said, “We’ve got to have one of these.”
Moving forward, we have plans for this facility and this little studio corner back here in Studio 3B. It’s going to be educational. It’s going to be informative. It’s going to be a relationship builder with existing companies we deal with, customers, and hopefully it will build new relationships. We’re going to have fun. We’re going to have projects. We’re going to have guests just like yourselves coming in. We’ve got some different things lined up.
As you can see when you look around, we use some of the antique tools for some decoration and we’ve got our interview desk, this beautiful old woodworking bench. We’re going to have experts come in and talk about this stuff and how, just like today, and we see technology changing our business in the shop. Back in the day, if you had one of these woodworking benches, this was a modern piece of equipment.
So we’re going to travel through time and highlight some of the equipment, the hand tools, the introduction to electric motors, saws and things like that. So everything that goes on back here, we want our audience to enjoy it. And at the same time, we’re going to have fun doing it.
Doug:
Well, speaking of the room that we’re in right now, I’ve watched the videos of putting all this together. I love those. I love the way you do that stuff. And you can do more of that with this studio.
MaryAnn:
Yeah. Oh yeah.
Steve Stack:
That’s it. And I never would’ve dreamt that we would be reaching out to our audience. We still have our traditional media per se, you guys at K105, some of our local TV media. But this takes us to another generation, perspective new customers, educating some younger folks, telling some stories with some older folks, and sharing that. And we’re going to try and bring it all together.
Doug:
We can talk about it on the radio, but this brings it to life because you can see exactly what goes on in the videos.
Steve Stack:
Yeah. It’s going to be fun. We’ve got some interesting things on the menu for here.
MaryAnn:
It’s exciting.
Steve Stack:
It is. It really is exciting. Through all of our social platforms, you’re going to be able to follow Baird Brothers. You’re going to be able to learn about Baird Brothers. You’re going to be able to learn about our friends and we’re going to dive into this. We’ve been working hard at it. I want to thank you for the first of many visits from you guys. We’re going to come out and talk about all kinds of stuff.
How’d your garden do this year? We didn’t even get to talk about our gardens this year.
Doug:
I had a great garden with tomatoes. The peppers, not so much. But tomatoes were really good. How about yours?
Steve Stack:
How about your green beans?
Doug:
I didn’t put those in. They take over the whole garden, don’t they? They climb all over the garden.
MaryAnn:
You didn’t do that many this year. Tomatoes you’re big on.
Doug:
The tomatoes were really good.
MaryAnn:
He could eat like a dozen tomatoes a day.
Doug:
But yours was good this year?
Steve Stack:
It worked out okay.
Doug:
“Okay?”
MaryAnn:
Yeah, “Okay?” It was okay for you.
Doug:
You had enough to can and stuff like that. I didn’t have that many.
MaryAnn:
It’s a harvest. It’s not just canning. It’s everything.
Doug:
It’s massive.
Local Partnering with the K105 Radio Station
Steve Stack:
I like the way you correct him.
MaryAnn:
I think that’s what I’m paid to do, actually. You know what I mean?
Steve Stack:
That’s why they brought you in, right?
MaryAnn:
I think that might be it. I think that’s it.
Steve Stack:
No, seriously. I mean, the things that we missed out on over the course of the last 20 months, like you said Doug.
MaryAnn:
I came to the fair looking for you, but of course everybody’s not there at the same time. And that’s what people used to say to us. “We came to the fair to look for you.” Of course, we didn’t make it this year together, he and I.
Steve Stack:
How odd was that? And you just touched on a relationship and I mentioned it earlier, our relationship with the fair. Was it Friday? Thursday or Friday was Baird day on K105.
MaryAnn:
Yes.
Steve Stack:
We miss doing that and spending time up at the tent broadcasting up there with you folks. Then, going to the fair this year and not seeing-
MaryAnn:
The way it used to be.
Steve Stack:
K105 and your partners represented there. It was different.
MaryAnn:
And we love people. The more people we see and just have a conversation with, that’s our thing. I think that’s how you guys are here at Baird; you’re the same way. They’re customers but they’re people and you love those relationships. And we’re the same way.
Steve Stack:
I’ve got to witness it firsthand for almost the last ten years now with you guys at the Red, White and True event and then also at the fair. It’s the relationship that you guys have built with your audience. I witness people busting into your tent at the fair yelling, “Doug! MaryAnn!” You guys are right in the middle of broadcast and don’t miss a beat. You throw a hand up and you keep talking. Or, here at our facility for Red, White and True, you connect.
MaryAnn:
That’s what life is about, I think. I mean, what are we here for? You know? To connect with people.
Doug:
We’re happy to do what we do and we’re lucky that people like what we do, so we’re blessed. I think we’re blessed.
Steve Stack:
Very much so, Doug. Very much so. And I feel the same way.
Whether it’s a Baird-K105 relationship where we’re honing in at 30-35 years, and our recent 15 plus year relationship, I can flip flop that to customers that I have in the Mahoning Valley. Customers become friends, who become lifelong relationships. In Youngstown, Boardman, in Cleveland, down in Columbus, Pittsburgh, and in our region. Yeah. There’s more to selling wood.
Doug:
You get customers but you get friends, too. And that’s what makes a great business.
Steve Stack:
Yeah. And the same thing with your listeners.
Doug:
It’s our job.
MaryAnn:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
Yeah. And it works out. It works out really special. So, glad to have you guys back.
MaryAnn:
Oh, this is great. This is awesome.
Back in Studio 3B with Doug and MaryAnn
Steve Stack:
I find comfort in knowing you guys are both back in the studio at the same time. That way, if you get out of line, she can give you backhand and everything is good to go.
MaryAnn:
Well, when you’re not back in time and the song is over, I can take over. Because I don’t know where you go.
Doug:
Sometimes I have to get away from you. I have to go. I have to wander.
Steve Stack:
Nothing wrong with that, buddy.
Doug:
You got to go. You got to go.
MaryAnn:
You keep going, Doug.
Doug:
I will, I will.
Steve Stack:
But seriously, glad to have you back.
MaryAnn:
Thank you for having us here to see this and to experience it with you firsthand. This is wonderful.
Steve Stack:
We’ve just been chomping at the bit to have you guys out. I’m glad we finally had the opportunity to do it. And by all means…
MaryAnn:
Now we know where to find you.
Steve Stack:
This is where I’ll be hiding. We have a lot of work planned out here. And so, to our customers, pay attention to Facebook, Instagram, and all the social platforms. And these guys aren’t going to be strangers. You will see them again.
Doug:
We may be strange, but not strangers.
Steve Stack:
There you go, buddy. So for now, Steve Stack, Doug and MaryAnn, Studio 3B, hang in there, folks. We’ll see you again.
For all you folks listening, thanks for talking shop with Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and wanted to stay up-to-date with the American Hardwood Advisor podcast series, give us a like and subscribe. For more tips, projects, and inspiration, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, read our tweets, or visit bairdbrothers.com. Until next time.
About Doug and MaryAnn
Doug James and MaryAnn Graff have been the Hometown Morning Show at K105 for as long as people in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania can remember. The two have been waking up Salem, Youngstown, Canton, Akron and the surrounding areas for over a decade.
The Hometown Morning Show has a great blend of entertainment and music news, weather information from the in-studio radar system, community events, concert information and, of course, great country music. This is a show that the parents and the kids can all enjoy. Arguably they are the most friendly and down to earth personalities in the area. It’s no surprise that year after year, The Hometown Morning Show is always at the top of the ratings! They have also been nominated numerous times for the CMA Personalities Of The Year!
Add more to your playlist! Listen to your favorite trending country music and bluegrass artists on K105FM, including Carrie Underwood, Florida Georgia Line, Kane Brown, Dierks Bentley, Jason Aldean, Luke Combs, Luke Bryan, Taylor Swift, and more!
WQXK 105.1FM Your “Hometown Morning Show” with Doug & MaryAnn from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.
