Meet Jennifer BLACKWELL

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennifer BLACKWELL. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennifer below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Jennifer with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

My parents were both extremely hard workers. I picked up on that at an early age, and knew that I wanted to emulate that. I think there are several factors that come into play. One of the most important is being on time, or early in my case! My dad was always early – early to school, early to work, and early for appointments. As I grew up, attendance and timeliness were big factors. I was at school early everyday, and that rolled over into adulthood. I think it created good habits early on and I tried to instill those in my son as well. My parents were married at 17 and 18 years old, and started a family a year later. Times were difficult, but the tenacity both of them showed is remarkable, and added to their character. That was a time when you didn’t live beyond your means.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I have been blessed with not one, but two careers that have enriched my life so much! I have worked in the radio industry since I was 17 years old. I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up, but radio was never on my radar. I like to say that I didn’t pick radio, it picked me!

When I was 17, I was working part-time at the car dealership where my parents worked in my hometown of Safford, Arizona. I had been helping in the office since I was 13, so several community members and customers knew me. One day, an advertising executive from a local radio station (KATO/KXKQ) came in to discuss the dealership advertising, and she knew that I was involved with my high school newspaper. She mentioned the station had a part-time position open on weekends, but it might just be sweeping the floor. I thought that still sounded like an amazing place to work! I applied, was hired, and did not sweep the floors! My first day on the job I was given a key and a brief rundown on the equipment and kind of left to fend for myself! That’s where I am thankful that my parents work ethic rubbed off on me, because I was determined! I began as a board operator for local, college and professional sports. That evolved quickly when our News Director had a heart attack and there wasn’t a backup available, so I stepped in. I remained there until I met my husband, Jeff, and moved to Yuma, Arizona in 1993.

In 1993 I began working weekends at 2 stations in Yuma, but I wanted more opportunities. When a full-time position opened at KYXI, I applied and got the job. I remained there, working my way up, then switched stations when our General Manager purchased two other stations in the market (KLJZ and KCYK). I made the transition to MonsterMedia in 1997, and I have been there ever since. I started off as the Traffic Manager, then added guest hosting duties for a morning talk show. When that show ended, I was moved into the position of News Director in 2005. Twenty years later, I continue to keep Yuma residents updated on local news. In 2014 I accepted the position as Operations Manager for MonsterMedia. I work very closely with our General Manager to handle the day-to-day operations of both stations. I also added another show into the mix in 2017. I started the Today in Yuma Show with my co-host, Theresa Straub. Together we share community information and invite guests from all different backgrounds to join us. We have been voted Yuma’s Best for over 10 years in a row, and we couldn’t be more blessed! I never thought I would still be in radio 35 years later, and still loving it as much as I do! I have the most amazing staff – they are some of my very best friends and I can’t imagine doing this without them!

While radio is a huge part of my life, I have always had an artistic background. In 2002, I ventured into the field of photography. My intention was to take better photos of my son, but that then spiraled into friends asking me to photograph their children – and weddings – and graduations! Into that first year, I realized it might be something I could make a little money doing. My goal was to pay for my equipment and find a way to save for upgrades along the way. 23 years later, I have photographed newborns, children being born, expecting mothers, multi-generational families, celebrated milestones, and captured more graduates than I can remember!

I think the balance of my two career paths is what I love. Things can get hectic in both fields, but they give me balance – after a stressful week in media, especially news, a nice break with smiling and laughing families is what I need! THEN, after dealing with toddlers on the weekend (the cutest to photograph, but the most stubborn!), it’s nice to come back to the station and get a break!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1) I am a hard worker. If 100% is the bar, I want to give 120%

2) I am always looking ahead, trying to stay on top of technology (both radio and photography) – learning new skills and techniques is key, especially for workflow – utilizing Adobe Audition and other audio programs has allowed me to have additional resources in a quickly evolving world where multi-media is important for any business. The same goes for Photoshop and editing capabilities.

3) I have learned it is ok to ask for help! That has been such a blessing to me, because it allows me to pass on education/skills to this next generation, while giving me the chance to focus on other projects. For too many years I was of the mindset “I will just do it myself, that way I know it’s right!”

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

I have really learned how to delegate in the last 12 months. I was always hesitant before, because I work in such a specialized field. All too often I would just prefer to do things on my own so I could make sure they were done how I wanted, then move on to my next project. With the addition of two amazing staff members, they have begged me to give them some of my workload so I can focus on other things. When you work in a small and medium size radio market, you wear MANY hats. These two staff members have really taken the reigns and seeing them do that, allows me to tackle other projects and know that they are handling things. When you get the right team in place, things can happen! I realized I don’t have to do everything, and it can still be done correctly!

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Image Credits

All of the images are selfies or professional images captured by myself.

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