10 Questions with ... Miles Hlivko

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Imaging Director at KIIS FM Los Angeles, National Alternative Imaging Coordinator for iHeartMedia, and Imaging VO for radio stations including KIIS-FM/Los Angeles, Q102/Philly, KBPI/Denver, WEND/Charlotte and the Virgin Radio brand.

1) When did you first realize that you wanted to specialize in production?

I actually went to broadcasting school for TV, because I wanted to shoot video, but my first internship was in radio imaging. I interned for Scott Glaser who was imaging WMVX in Cleveland at the time in 2003, and he played some imaging from John Frost, Joel Moss, Eric Chase, Malcolm Ryker, Cousin Deke, Bob Coates, and Mitch Todd that was running on WMMS. It was a whole listening session of this awesome, hilarious, weird, sometimes psychedelic imaging that grabbed me instantly. At that moment, there was absolutely no question what I wanted to do.

2) Do you have a specific specialty?

I think I specialize in making imaging that sounds human and relatable, with a bias toward humor. I'm not as funny as John Frost or Josh Jensen, so I wouldn't say being funny is my specialty, but I'm pretty comfortable planting my flag in being relatable. I'll still do some flame-throwing, chest-beating promos when it's appropriate, though.

3) What advice would you give to programmers seeking to get the most out of their production/imaging talent?

Working in a production studio all day can get pretty lonely, so look for ways to include your imaging/production talent. Outings with the team, happy hours, lunches, creative meetings (with creative being the operative term), or anything else you can think of to give us some fresh air and human contact are invaluable. I'm really lucky to work with an awesome group of fun people, and I get way more inspiration from time with them than I ever could from scanning social media or installing a new plugin or whatever.

4) What's the most unique project that you've been involved with?

Tanya Rad from On Air With Ryan Seacrest and I work on weekly new music promos that are completely organic and real. They started one day because I wanted to see what would happen if I just put a microphone in front of her and played songs without warning her about what they'd be. I expected to get some reactions like, "this is great!", but she's so in touch with pop music that she ended up giving me tons of content for what turned into these new music promos. We feature only one song per piece. She intros the song, the hook plays, and she talks about why it's a great song. It's not always singles, we hit deep cuts and up-and-coming artists, whatever new music she's excited about. I think that authenticity is important, and the promos are a ton of fun to work on. Tanya brings a lot to the table when we collaborate, which I'm super appreciative of.

5) What is your favorite part of the job?

Working at KIIS-FM is constant excitement and fun. Things happen quickly, often unexpectedly, and I never feel like I'm working on something that doesn't matter. Everything is a big deal, and that's important to me because if I'm not invested in what I'm doing I'll get bored. Boredom is not a thing at KIIS, and I love that.

6) What is the most challenging part of the job?

Finding decent music beds.

7) How can we do a better job of grooming up-and-coming talent?

If we want to reach up-and-coming imaging producers, writers, and VO talent, we need to educate them where they live instead of waiting for them to come to us. We should be making tutorial videos for YouTube and social media that show people why our jobs are cool, and how to get started along the path. There are so many DIY content creators out there that could benefit from learning how to produce compelling audio that if someone were to start an informative and entertaining series of tutorials, I'm sure lots of people would want to check it out in order to improve the production value of their podcasts and YouTube channels at the very least.

8) What would you say is the one thing that "kills" creative?

Boredom. If you're not interested in creating something, how can you expect anyone to be interested in hearing it? Boredom can come from being micromanaged to the point of feeling stifled, needing to hype something that is not hype-worthy, doing something the same way for the millionth time, or other sources of boredom that I won't mention because I'm starting to bore myself.

9) What's the best sweeper, ID or positioner you've ever heard?

THIS IS CHARLTON HESTON. YOU'RE LISTENING TO WEBN...AND I'M NOT.

10) What's the most unusual request you've ever received?

About a thousand years ago when HD radio first came out, we were developing new formats for HD2 side channels, "we" being iHeart. I worked on a few of them, but one stands out as being pretty unusual. I can't take credit for the concept, it was already established when I came on board, but it was awesome. It was a heavy metal radio station, where the imaging was a radio serial about a post-apocalyptic Duke Nukem kind of dude who was walking around killing monsters and blasting Slayer jams. It was called Full Metal Racket, Dave Foxx was the voice of the main character, it was a blast to work on, and it never aired anywhere. I don't even have my files from it anymore. They went to that burned out external drive in the sky. Bummer.

Also one time someone asked me to restore noisy audio because they heard voices in it, but there were no voices, so that was weird and I hope that guy's doing better now.

Do you have a favorite hobby outside of production?

I get obsessed with a new hobby every so often and devote as much of my free time to it as I possibly can. Right now, I'm into streaming on Twitch. I started in September of 2018, and since then I've mainly been learning the technical aspects of streaming, through trial and error. Mostly error. I like it because it's possible to run a show with high production value all on your own, through streaming software and keyboard shortcuts. I've got a green screen, some bright lights, and a bunch of ideas I haven't figured out how to execute yet. I'm still learning, but there's a lot of potential to do awesome things with live streaming, whether it's on Twitch or whatever other platforms pop up. It's DIY creativity, which I love, and it's a fun new challenge for me.