Gina Gaus

ginagaus@csu.fullerton.edu
Industry Profile
Communications 346
Spring 2015
Interview with: Easton Allyn
Company: Premiere Networks
Occupation: Broadcast and Satellite Engineer
Location: Over the phone
Date and Time: 3/2/15 at 8 p.m.
Easton Allyn is a 27 year old male who was born and raised in Santa
Cruz, California. He is very passionate about various arts and media. He has
been a long time lover of music and cinema. He initially began playing the
drums but soon moved onto the guitar. Allyn also dabbled in singing and
songwriting. He frequently played shows at local venues and even recorded
two EPs. Therefore, it is no surprise that he also found a passion for radio.
He moved to Los Angeles, California in June of 2012 to pursue his career in
radio. Allyn describes himself as being passionate about radio and the ways
in which it can entertain, inform, and stimulate. He is a firm believer that
the radio will persevere despite various technological advances. He
currently works at Premiere Networks, which is subsidiary for iHeartMedia.
Allyn graduated from San Lorenzo Valley High School in 2006 and
found himself working at Vans as well as a local independent movie theater.
After graduation, he began taking courses through Cabrillo College in Aptos,
California. He was a communications major; a fitting major given the fact
that he later moved onto radio work. He pursued his education there for a
number of years although did not graduate. He is another testament to the
1

fact that a degree is not always necessary, sometimes it is more about your
skill and hard work than a piece of paper.
He had always had a love for radio so it was a natural progression to
begin working within that industry. Before he began working for radio, he
often found himself calling in and trying to interact with those who worked
there. One of his first important radio experiences was when he called in to
a local radio station and they invited him into the station to get his first
taste for radio. With some minor coaxing, he was convinced to take them up
on that offer and thus his passion for radio truly ignited. A few months later
in 2009, he saw that the radio station, KSCO in Santa Cruz, California, had
posted an internship opportunity. He immediately applied for the position
and much to his delight, he landed the gig in June of 2009.
Internships are notorious for doing unpaid grunt work but Allyn insists
that it is what you make of it. He began his internship by making coffee and
writing news summaries for the news reporters. He demonstrated his
commitment to radio by staying in the station as long as he was allowed
and doing any task that he could do. Eventually he found himself toying
with the control board, and thus picked up some of the technical side of
broadcasting. By December of 2009, he was offered a paid position at the
radio station and graduated from the internship. His lucky break occurred
when the employee who did the traffic reports decided to quit. Allyn
immediately insisted that he was ready to do traffic reporting and the
station manager supported this idea. Through this, he found himself not

only doing traffic reporting but doing news reporting as well. Allyn found
himself at the station alone on Sundays. During his down time, he began
tinkering with the gear and reading their manuals. Soon, he found himself
picking the brains of the other engineers and furthering his technical
knowledge. What began as a simple way to ensure that things ran smoothly
while he manned the station alone soon evolved into a career.
Although Allyn began at a small radio station in Santa Cruz, it soon
led to him applying for a Network Operator position at Premiere Networks in
Los Angeles, California. Premiere Networks produces and syndicates radio
shows to countless radio stations across the country. They serve roughly
2000 affiliates and are owned by iHeartMedia. They have over 150 radio
shows including On Air with Ryan Seacrest and Rush Limbaugh. They cover
all the radio formats such as music, talk, and sports. Premiere also assists
live events such as the recent Kelly Clarkson album release party and the
popular iHeartRadio music festival. Premiere coordinates with the events so
that they can stream them live on the radio. This network is certainly not a
small operation; they have offices in 7 different cities and 2 main broadcast
studios. Their main technical facility is located in Sherman Oaks although
they have an exact replica in San Antonio, Texas in the event of a
devastating earthquake. And the network currently holds the title of the
most listened to radio syndicator in the country.
Allyn works in the engineering department and he describes this
department as having a somewhat flattened hierarchy. A position that

would be below him would be the network operations center operator. And
the position above him is the Vice President of engineering. He joked about
how Premiere is one of those companies that have multiple Vice Presidents
in different departments.
Allyns current career responsibilities include coordinating technical
plans for live events, as well as the details and execution of broadcasting
live events. He also assists in setting up new programming. He has spent
the last few months devoting his time to preparing a new show from
Phoenix, Arizona. The show is a Contemporary Hit Radio format called the
John, Jay, and Rich Show. The preparation of this show has been particularly
challenging due to the fact that Arizona does not observe daylight savings
time. Therefore the show would match the rest of the countries timing half
the year and not the other half of the year. He has also been working on the
iHeartRadio music awards scheduled for March 29th. This award show will be
broadcast live on NBC as well as on all iHeartMedia stations.
The biggest challenge to his job is equipment failure, which seems to
be an inevitable part of our technology based world. He is constantly trying
to find new ways to avoid equipment failure and in such an event, to only
utilize set programming for the least intrusive amount of time. He cited an
experience on March 2nd where the computer that plays the music for On Air
with Ryan Seacrest crashed. Luckily, disaster was avoided because there is
already a system in place for this event. Allyn always makes sure to have

another computer loaded and ready to go so that there is no interruption to

programming.
Allyns job also finds him interacting with live music and advertising.
Premiere has an extremely intricate advertising system. This system allows
radio stations to automatically utilize different branded advertising based
on the radio market. This happens through a computer triggered code that
is transmitted through the airwaves. His example was that a Top 40s radio
station in Wichita, Kansas would play a McDonalds commercial while Top
40s in Los Angeles would play a Honda commercial. This system sets them
apart from other radio advertising and therefore makes them more
competitive in the field.
iHeartRadio certainly works with other industries. They recently
signed a deal with Toyota, which puts iHeartRadio directly in the car, such
as what has already been seen with Sirius XM radio. They also worked
directly with Coke in late 2014 to have Taylor Swift on every Premiere music
show. Every single format played Swift and was presented by Coca Cola.
They also collaborate with Honda, they have a Honda Stage at the
iHeartRadio theater in Burbank and work together to host concerts.
Currently Allyn works Monday-Friday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. although
he began by working from 2 p.m. to 11p.m. His most proud accomplishment
is how he streamlined the internet streaming infrastructure. When he began
working for the company, the internet streaming system was highly
disorganized but Allyn and his fellow engineers redesigned it so that it takes

less man hours to maintain. Ideally, Allyn would love to go back to the onair segment of radio. He would love to actually be on-air but would also like
to do a more behind the scenes job. He thinks it would be nice to influence
what people hear and how it sounds. In fact, when he first began working
for Premiere, he helped write jokes for the comedy department.
Unfortunately, this has since been downsized and no longer exists.
iHeartRadio has been surrounded with folklore about buying out radio
stations and firing everyone and automating everything. But Allyn believes
that iHeartRadio has been an aid in connecting people who are passionate
about music and communication. iHeartRadio has been able to help lesser
known artists get exposure as well as helping people get on the air who
would have been unable to otherwise. The sheer power and influence of
iHeartRadio has given a voice to people who may not have had a chance
before. Allyn thinks that the company has actually improved the medium
and does not believe that radio is going anywhere.
His parting words of advice to those seeking a career in radio were to
show up early and show up often. He also stressed asking questions and
seeking to learn all that you can. He emphasizes working for free and
working long hours. Its invaluable to demonstrate your passion and
commitment even if you do not necessarily have the know-how yet. Allyn
also found it useful to get a on a personal level with people, he made sure
to know everyones name and what they do.

From a small town local station to a huge radio network, Allyn has
certainly accomplished a lot. iHeartRadio is about as big-time as you can
get in his field. His story is made more interesting because he not only
turned an internship into a career, but he also did all of this without a
college degree. Hard work and commitment can certainly be more valuable
than school. Stay tuned to see if he does indeed transition to on-air radio
and perhaps On Air with Easton Allyn will soon be a household name.

Name: Easton Allyn

Organization: Premiere Networks
Title: Broadcast and satellite engineer
Address: Easton Allyn care of Premiere Networks, 15260 Ventura Blvd suite
500, Sherman Oaks, Ca
Phone Number: (818) 461-5409
E-Mail: eallyn@premierenetworks.com
Website: Premierenetworks.com

Very good work most prompts are well covered

Some composition issues highlighted in the narrative
Entire profile is not in a font from the instructions

CONTENT: 46/50
COMPOSITION: 26/30
FORMATTING: 18/20
TOTAL: 90/100