Mike McVay Taking A Hip Read on Radio Listeners

Cleveland's The Plain Dealer published a profile of Mike McVay this past February:

The first thing one notices about Mike McVay's black Mercedes is not its gleam, though it would put a jeweler's display window to shame.

Rather, it's the license plate that adorns the luxury toy: "TWO HIP."

"I grew up a blue-collar kid in Pittsburgh," McVay says with a smile. "Whenever someone drove through my neighborhood in a car like this, I'd tell my friends, `Man, that guy is just too hip.'

Adds McVay: "But, really, I wanted to be that too-hip guy in the car."

And McVay has certainly earned a vanity plate as president of McVay Media, a Westlake-based radio consulting firm he founded in 1983.

McVay's company is a major player in the radio industry, advising 140 stations from Cleveland to Denver, Panama City, Fla., to Fort Wayne, Ind., and New Zealand to Canada. It shapes strategies for radio formats that include adult contemporary, country, alternative rock and Christian pop music, as well as news and sports talk.

McVay Media also dabbles in the artist management business, offering guidance to musical acts such as Hall & Oates, Paul Anka, Julian Lennon and John Tesh.

No doubt, it is one very impressive portfolio. But there's an obvious reason for that: McVay is as good as he is hip.

He is generally regarded as the brains behind the rise of WMJI FM/105.7 from a once-obscure station to a local radio powerhouse. As WMJI's general manager in 1982, McVay persuaded a reluctant John Lanigan to become the station's morning host, a role that he continues to prosper in today.

McVay has also made a difference as a consultant to local stations. In 1987, he urged WNCX FM/98.5 to drop Top 40 pop tunes for classic rock. The station is still a classic rocker and has become one of Cleveland's most successful programmers.

And McVay is considered one of the fathers of the "lite rock" format, helping stations such as WLTF FM/106.5 (now known as WMVX) and WDOK FM/102.1 update their sounds.

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