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“ Personalities INSIDE RADIO ”
Monday, October 15, 2007
Grown Up Boy At Heart
by Mike Kinosian, Personality Editor
No less than The Chairman of the Board claims to have done
it in a Victor Young & Harold Adamson standard; a lovely
British singer insists in a 1989 top five hit she embarked
on a similar journey; and a classic novel written more than
130 years ago details how such an adventure could transpire
in 80 days.
Albeit for varying reasons, Frank Sinatra, Lisa Stansfield
and Jules Verne address going around the world, a subject
in which veteran journalist Boyd Matson is also extremely
well-versed.
Always Prepared
When National Geographic Music & Radio debuted “National Geographic Weekend” six weeks ago (9-4-2007),
it was completely appropriate highly respected Matson
would host the two-hour Salem Radio Network-distributed
program. “We’re scheduled to do 42 original shows and
fill-in with reruns the other ten weeks,” he explains. “Some
stations carry it Saturdays – others on Sundays. Most talk
shows do live call-ins but our schedule is still kind of all
over the place.”
Upcoming guests are promoted and listeners are encouraged
to call an 800-number or email their questions. “It’s not
quite the lure some people have of hearing themselves on
radio but at least they’ll hear their question asked on-air,”
notes Matson, who hosted “National Geographic Explorer”
on TBS and MSNBC for seven years. “National Geographic
is respected for being thorough in fact-checking, research
and in science. We are presenting topics we’d normally
present in the magazine. Some of it is wildlife and global
environmental issues.”
There’s certainly a great deal of flexibility but the objective
is to have Matson use the first 30 minutes of each hour for
one guest or one big story. “We have [several] guests in
the second 30 minutes and a shorter segment at the end,”
he points out. “It’s primarily three major guests [many of
whom] I’ve met in my 13 years with National Geographic.
I’ve spent time with them on location. It offers a little bit
different kind of interview because we can talk about specific things we both know have happened on location. We
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can bring different insights to the listener.”
The longtime “Radio Expeditions” host was looking for
another vehicle in the medium because that particular NPR
program focuses on one topic and Matson comments, “We
were trying to get a broader presence. The theory is most
[Talk stations] run `Best Of ’ shows on weekends. This is
a way for us to get on something new. We can go a little
longer on some interviews. I carry a tape recorder with me
out into the field and grab people I need. I was out diving
with sharks in South Africa and the guy I was with was
so interesting, I quickly did an interview with him for the
radio show.”
Disastrous Recipe
Working in radio played an integral part in the Midland, TX
native’s desire to lose his drawl. “I’d tape myself and was
able to get rid of 85% of my accent,” Matson jokes. “I still
have a little bit of it but the majority of it is gone.”
A 500-watt all-religious Oklahoma daytimer is where then
college student Matson began his broadcasting career but
he states, “It was before they had all these talk shows. I
played gospel records and preacher shows. I got a degree
in Political Science and [another] in Speech [from Southern Nazarene University]. I knew I wanted to get into
broadcasting and was looking for a stepping stone. After I
graduated, I went to Ft. Worth, where I did morning drive
radio.”
Housed in the same building was a television station and
Matson acted on his desire to get into television journalism.
“I’d go down the hall and bug them everyday until they
finally hired me,” he recalls. “I did radio in the morning
and then processed film for the evening news.”
Within a month, Matson convinced the TV outlet’s news
director he had a professional eye to shoot footage. “He
gave me a camera and let me do whatever I wanted,” Matson remembers.
Shortly thereafter, he was reading the sign-off news. “There
was no money in television in those days and the anchor of
the Sunday 10pm news quit the business and did something
else. I took his place, which meant I had to shoot/write the
stories [as well as] process/edit the film. I was the only
person in the Ft. Worth office on Sundays. Someone in
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Monday, October 15, 2007
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our Dallas office would shoot some film and drop it off,
He might hand me some notes to go with it. It’s lucky my
career lasted beyond that because trusting someone who
has no idea what they are doing in that size-market is a
recipe for lawsuits.”
it helps to stay relatively calm.”
Today’s Star
Journalistic aspirations stemmed from Matson’s middle
school days when he watched Chet Huntley & David Brinkley anchor NBC-TV’s nightly news. “I thought to myself
they were everywhere important things happened. It was
a great way to be a voyeur on the interesting things in the
world. That was the trigger that set me down that path,
probably without fully understanding guys anchoring from
the studio didn’t get out as much as reporters.”
Consequently, he can’t be gone very long at any one stretch
although as a birthday gift to himself, he managed to take
his wife Betty and their college-aged son and daughter to
Botswana for one month this summer. “That pushed the
limits,” he confides. “I tried to be around more when we
kicked off the radio show. I’m out a few days every month
but not every week. It’s just impossible with the schedule,
especially with the radio show.”
It didn’t take long for Matson, whose dream goal was to
work on “The Today Show,” to land at Dallas’ NBC-TV
affiliate as a reporter and weekend anchor. “That’s when I
thought I’d arrived,” he states. “One reason I was so drawn
to NBC was because I spent so much time idolizing it when
I was growing up.”
Sure enough the likeable and wry Matson not only realized
his ultimate ambition by becoming a “Today Show” senior
correspondent but also co-anchored the “Weekend Today”
program. “By the time I got there, I was more in love with
the work,” he concedes. “I don’t know if it mattered I was
doing it for NBC [although] at that point they had the
best morning show for what I wanted to do. They had two
hours a day to fill and I was told to bring them stuff. That
will never, ever happen again. Everything now has to go
through levels of scripts to see if it will work.”
Network executives rarely if ever pre-screened then Los
Angeles-based Matson’s stories before they made it onair. “My casual, laid-back personality fit in very well with
Los Angeles,” he reflects. “I don’t get too uptight about
anything. That calmness comes in handy at National Geographic because I’ve been in some harrowing situations.
Things can fall apart and suddenly be life-threatening so
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Lion Eyes
In addition to the newly-launched weekend radio show,
Matson narrates every piece on PBS’ “Wild Chronicles.”
Venturing into uncharted territory is a Matson trademark
yet he’s never perceived himself as being a daredevil. “Part
of that was growing up in West Texas where there was a lot
of freedom,” he opines. “I spent a lot of time camping and
being in the outdoors. There was that sense of not being
afraid of embracing wilderness areas. It’s also an extension
of being a journalist [where you have] that quest to experience certain things. Stories take on a different tone when
they are participatory. I can write an eyewitness account of
what it’s like to dive into 30 degree waters in Antarctica and
see new forms of life. I can describe numbing coldness in
the fingers and how I thought I was going to have frostbite
when I came out. It adds an edge listeners like.”
Seemingly always in precarious predicaments Matson nevertheless endeavors to set limits and parameters in advance
but admits to easily violating them. “I once walked into a
pond with 30 hippos that didn’t necessarily want me there.
That was taking a pretty big risk [especially since] one of
them `mock-charged’ me three times.”
Later that same trip, Matson wanted to have lions in the
background while he was on camera. “There were three
lions in an open plain behind me,” he vividly recounts.
“There was nothing between them and me. As I’ve looked
back at that tape, I can see the big male lion staring at the
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back of my head. He paused for a moment and continued to
follow the female. A still photographer who lives in Africa
kept saying she couldn’t believe I did that. That made me
feel I was pushing the limits.”
Most would concur it was treacherous when he deliberately
caused sharks to get agitated and pulled them right up next
to him. “We were actually testing a new electronic device
that was supposedly a shark repellent,” he nonchalantly
explains. “We found that, once they get in a feeding frenzy,
nothing stops them.”
Family Affair
Parallels might be made to the late Steve “The Crocodile
Hunter” Irwin but Matson maintains his radio and television
shows are different. “We don’t hold up venomous snakes for
no reason. I’ve obviously picked up many different animals
in the course of doing this job and have been bitten by [a
variety] of different things. Part of [what Irwin did] was
getting people excited and wanting to take care of animals.
One way to do that was create theater and drama by holding
them up. We’re doing it more from a research and scientific
point-of-view.”
Afforded the luxury and advantage of working with experts
at National Geographic Matson declares, “They’ve been
doing and studying it forever; they’re the smartest and the
brightest. It’s like going to graduate school everyday. You
can’t help but pick up information. You can’t write about a
story unless you learn about it. Knowledge is a mile wide
and an inch deep but perhaps by doing the same topics over
and over, I’ve made mine two inches deep.”
Influenced in his storytelling by David Brinkley and CBSTV’s Charles Kuralt, the 6’ 5” Matson is keenly adept at
painting word pictures and understands the importance of
being more descriptive on radio. “A two-hour radio show
gives you time to help people see the image in their mind,”
he states. “We rely on sound and play clips.”
Many fantasize about visiting exotic destinations but Matson gets to jet to them as part of his vocation. “I like to grab
my family and make them go back to these very same places
and do it with me,” he remarks. “I’m so excited I want to
share it with them. There’s nothing like that. You want them
to enjoy the magic, beauty and mystery of it.”
The next major Matson family voyage will be a year from
this Christmas when they trek to Antarctica. “I could go to
Africa twice a year every year for the rest of my life and to
Antarctica because it is so different in terrain and animals,”
he comments. “I’m also a real fan of Nepal because of the
people and the terrain. You can walk at 12,000 feet and
there’s still 15,000 feet of mountain above you. It’s such
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an extraordinary place. Peru has a sense of that with the
Andes; the people there are so wonderful.”
Proudly Pursuing His Passion
Commuting to and from work in the greater District of
Columbia area, Matson has become a partisan of XM’s
comedy and blues channels. “My 18-year-old son likes
blues-based music whereas my daughter went down the
rap road,” he chuckles. “From a professional curiosity, I try
to listen to many different talk shows to hear what makes
them so successful. It’s hard to listen for too long at a time
though because of all the ranting and raving. I used to
listen to Don Imus because he did pretty good interviews
and was fairly entertaining. I’ll listen to [TRN’s] Laura
Ingraham as well as to Air America Radio. I want to hear
what everyone is doing on all sides and how they [interact]
with the audience. Their shows are a bit different [from]
mine. They don’t fill it up with guests like we do.”
In an industry known for quickly chewing people up,
Matson contends to have been very lucky. “I didn’t take
jobs because they were available,” the former ABC-TV
“World News Now” anchor proclaims. “I’ve done what
I really like. I was on `The Today Show’ and was able to
pursue my passion. They used to go on location and I’d go
six weeks in advance to do [background] stories.”
Establishing the weekend radio show is obviously a top
professional priority. “I hope it gets a strong enough following to keep it on the air so people will pick up some
of these ideas we’d like to share,” notes Matson, who
also writes a “Traveler Magazine” column. “Much to the
surprise of everyone, our `Wild Chronicles’ show [which
began its third season this month] has a following. If I can
continue all this in my advanced age, it would be quite a
thrill. I have this fun job and get to do things I like. Who
could be luckier?”
WHO: Boyd Matson
WHAT: “National Geographic Weekend”
WHERE: National Geographic Music & Radio and
Salem Radio
WHEN: Various weekend times (two hours)
HOW LONG: Since September 2007
Published by INSIDE RADIO.com Monday, October 15, 2007. Written by
Personality Editor, Mike Kinosian for INSIDE RADIO and M Street Corp.
All rights reserved. No alterations to the content of this story are permitted.
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