After 19 Years at the Wave, Program Director Is Departing

Chris Brodie, the only program director the Wave, KTWV-FM (94.7), has ever had, is leaving the smooth-jazz outlet at the end of the year.

“Going on 19 years, I think I’ve been intimately involved with raising a very healthy station,” Brodie said Thursday. But now she wants to spend more time with her 10-year-old daughter, Leah.

Brodie has been at the station since 1984, when it was still KMET--”the Mighty Met,” where album-oriented rock was said to have been invented.

Saying she “made probably the ultimate transformation,” Brodie helped shepherd the format change from rock to smooth jazz in 1987, with KTWV becoming a pioneer in exclusively featuring such artists as Sade, Anita Baker and Kenny G.

“At best, it was exhilarating. At worst, it was very difficult--we were under a microscope,” she said. “The eyes of the industry were on it. The world kind of looked on us as a wacky experiment.”

The station worked through growing pains, such as realizing a DJ-free format didn’t work.

“The major highlight was really watching in the mid-’90s, when the station reached its own,” she said, and ratings and advertising revenue surged.

She said she foresees the station continuing efforts to increase its exposure, publicizing itself to new fans. She’ll spend the last months of her unusually long tenure working with her bosses to find a replacement.

“I’m taking the time to stretch out a little bit and explore some other opportunities,” Brodie said, and also to see what it’s like just to be a consumer of music and radio. “I think it’s going to be good for my perspective on a lot of things.”