Interview with Dominic Holmes Dominic Holmes does a little bit of everything at The Sports Addict Radio Network in Blacksburg. From interviewi This radio broadcaster grew in the industry through experience and hard work, and now finds himself as news director. The network contains four local stations, including ESPN Radio and Cruzin’ 101.3, but Holmes works mostly with Fox News Radio. Planet Blacksburg recently sat down with Holmes at the station. The following is a selection from the interview: Q: What is your educational background? Holmes: High school. I trained myself in radio. That’s how I got into it. Q: What inspired you to get involved in the communication field? Holmes: I’ve always liked radio, even when I was younger, but kept doing other things. I finally had an opportunity to get into it, so I did, on a part-time basis, and it grew from there. Q: What was your first experience in radio? Holmes: My first experience was board operating, basically running NASCAR events and dumping in NASCAR news into a county music station. Doing a lot of just pushing buttons. Q: Where was that? Holmes: Southern Maryland, St. Mary’s County. At WMDM-FM Lexington Park. Q: When did you come to work for The Sports Addict Radio Network? Holmes: I’ve been here for eight months now. Q: What brought you down to Blacksburg? Holmes: Oh I’ve been here before. I worked on 105.3 The Bear for about a year. I liked the area and had the opportunity to come back down here, not exactly doing what I’m doing now; I thought I was going to be doing something like producing. I didn’t realize I was going to be a news producer and everything. But when I had the opportunity to come back down and get back into radio, I jumped at the chance. Q: I see that there are four radio stations within this network. Are you more involved with some stations than others? Holmes: I’m more involved with Fox News Radio 810. Q: It says on your business card that your job title is news director. What does that position entail? Holmes: [I’m] basically responsible for all the news content that goes out on our 2 minute and 1 minute breaks and also a morning show. I’m also responsible for getting up here, making sure the weather forecasts are correct, closings, delays. And basically, directing people that are contributing within the news department for different things. Q: I hear that you have a new morning show on Fox News Radio 810. How is that going? Holmes: [Laughs] They’ll be better radio down the road. Right now it’s a work in progress, but it’s doing fairly well. Q: What do you cover during your show? Holmes: Everything. We try not to, well we try to go for less than the number one, or number two, or number three story because that’s always covered in our Fox News breaks, which play four times an hour. So what we try to do is go to the number five, six, seven [stories] and go to some political news and stuff like that. Something you won’t be able to hear everyday. The purpose of the show is basically to feed you all the information you need to get your day started. Q: And does that include a lot of local coverage? Holmes: Yes, yes it does. Q: Do you have a radio name? Holmes: Nic Andrews. Q: Why and how did you choose this name? Holmes: I shortened my first name. And the Andrews comes from, well, it’s sort of a mix. The first radio station I worked for was on St. Andrews Church Road, and someone just threw that out there. And I like to think it’s for my son’s middle name, which is Andrews. Q: What is your schedule like for a typical day? Holmes: I get here at 3:45a.m. I start to collect all the news and some stuff that’s been waiting for me since last night and get stuff ready for my show as well. I don’t really have a full staff, so I pull a lot of my own tape and a lot of my sound. Basically, [I] look at a computer all morning. Q: Have you gotten to meet any interesting people? Holmes: I met George Allen. I met Jerry Kilgore, actually the whole Kilgore family. I’ve always been a politics buff. Some of these people have been the most interesting. You know, just because they are prominent political figures. Especially George Allen, [he] was nice to meet. He’s a nice guy. Q: Do you have a favorite experience from working for this network? Holmes: At this network? Believe it or not some of the most fun I’ve had is doing guest spots on Drake Anderson’s show, the sports talk show, because I’m a sports buff too. So I thoroughly enjoy that. I don’t think you’d have to pay me to do that. Q: And from overall experience in radio? Holmes: The most enjoyable time in overall radio experience? Again, to go back to sports, one of the last things I did before I got back into radio was a 1 hour show from a bar every Friday night called The Redskins Roundtable. It was basically me and five of my best friends just sitting around. It was such a good time. Q: Are there any embarrassing moments worth mentioning? Holmes: [Laughs] There are quite a few of those. Most embarrassing? I guess it would be the first time I was thrown on the air at The Bear, with no on-air experience, in the afternoons. And I look back at that now and I listen to those tapes and it’s horrible. I’m embarrassed about it. That whole first two weeks was just bad radio. Q: Are there any goals or accomplishments that you have yet to achieve in your career? Holmes: I mean I haven’t got my million dollars yet. [Laughs] I’m kidding. I’d like to work in Washington, D.C., before it’s all said and done. Q: Is there anything you would like to change about your current job? Holmes: Not really. I enjoy doing everything. I’m kind of a control freak. So, being basically everything on Fox News 810, I have all the control of the content, of the imaging, and the different shows that are on the station. I enjoy that. I love everything I’m doing to be honest with you. Q: That’s great. Do you have any advice for students looking to get into broadcast? Holmes: Make sure you like the business. You’re not going to get paid a lot of money, especially right off the start. You have to be passionate about radio. With all of the new competition, I see a lot of jobs going away. So you have to really love your job, and be willing to do everything. And learn everything, I guess. Q: And now for a question that’s not job related. You said you were a sports buff, so what is your favorite sport to follow? Holmes: Football. I like the NFL. Q: Do you have a favorite team? Holmes: Can you tell from my office? [Laughs] It’s the Redskins. Q: That’s also my favorite team. Well thank you very much for taking time out of your schedule for this interview. Holmes: Thank you. |
ng political figures to hosting his own morning show, he loves it all.