Noah Hatton, radio presenter
If you’re a fan of local radio, you may hear a familiar voice in the mornings: that of Noah Hatton, host of the “K-Zone Morning Commute” show on Fitchburg-based station WPKZ 105.3 FM, also known as K-ZONE 105.3. At first glance, Hatton’s presence may seem surprising.
At a time when podcasts are becoming increasingly popular as the preferred conversation medium, radio faces many challenges. At 24, Hatton, who originally pursued a music career, found a place in broadcasting, where he was mentored by broadcast veteran Sherman Whitman, with whom he worked as a morning co-host.
The radio station’s history, detailed on its website, stretches back more than 80 years. WEIM AM 1280 launched in Fitchburg on October 1, 1941. Over the decades, it built a name for itself, including hosts such as Whitman and the late Ray Chalifoux. Another change occurred on April 6, 2009, when WEIM became WPKZ, and an FM translator took effect on March 28, 2010. In 2015, John Morrison, owner of the former Wachusett Dirt Dawg baseball team, purchased the station.
The tradition of the news and talk format continues, with Hatton playing a role in interviewing local politicians and community leaders. Hatton recently spoke about working with industry institutions like Whitman and why local radio continues to be an important forum for views and ideas.
You host a show on K-ZONE 105.3. Tell me about your work there.
I am the co-host of the morning show from 6:45-9:00 a.m. all week (community organizer and minister Wil Darcangelo is the co-host on Tuesdays).
For those who don’t know, tell me a little about the format of your show.
Well, we want to bring information from the area to the local people, you know what I mean? Our community is very important to us. We’ve been here for 80 years. We interview all the mayors in our area and we interview our local legislators who go to (Washington, DC). We interviewed Representative Jim McGovern and we talk to the legislators in the area…about local politics, but also local events and local issues.
I am also very curious about your decision to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.
Well, I never really thought about it growing up. I’m 24, born in 1999. That drives a lot of my peers crazy (laughs). I was a musician and I was convinced that music was my thing and that I was going to do it. “I’m going to be famous.” You know what I mean? I was a guest musician on one of the music shows (on K-ZONE) on Fridays. I guess they thought I was a cool guy. They liked how I interacted in the area.
They offered to hire me. John Morrison, the owner of this radio station, hired me. They had me produce the morning show on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then another guy produced the morning show on Monday and Friday…that was Tim Foley, who is now the voice of the Worcester Railers and was also my roommate for a while. They let me come in part-time. I started doing better and better.
We changed the morning show hosts from Sean Sweeney to Sherman Whitman. He used to do the show with Hank Stoltz. I spent about two years with Sherman doing the morning show together. We got along great. It was an absolute pleasure doing the show with him…radio really made him who he was. When you talked to him off the air, you felt like you were in the studio with him.
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I think if you listen to a radio show or a podcast, you might not realize how much work goes into it. What do you have to do to make it airworthy, so to speak?
The hardest thing is getting guests to the house…that’s the hardest part: “You have to be somewhere you’re not normally at 7 a.m.” Convincing them that my coffee is better than theirs. (Laughs.) It’s just about managing your schedule so that it doesn’t surprise you, like, “Oh my God, I don’t have anyone tomorrow, but I have to fill two and a half hours.” You can chat about local stuff, but that’s not good. That’s not going to work. You really have to talk to somebody…you want to have a conversation, because then someone may disagree with you, and then suddenly it becomes interesting. If it’s just one person doing some kind of flow of thought, it’s not quite the same as talking to somebody about a problem.
You mentioned some reactions to your age. Is the age factor a challenge when you talk to people seriously? What has been your experience in this regard?
There used to be people who would say, “All right, kid, let’s see what you can do.” I always took that as a term of endearment because they still want to work with you. It’s like a Han Solo and Luke Skywalker moment… I’m at least half the age of everyone I work with. It’s totally reasonable for them to say, “Wow, he’s really young,” and I’m taken seriously.
And vice versa: What do your peers think?
Kids my age are surprised and think it’s really cool. My friends are super cool and proud of me for establishing a good position for myself in a cool part of the market.
They definitely don’t listen to the radio because that’s not their style. My generation doesn’t listen to the radio. We pick up the phone and get something immediately. I don’t think they’re consumers. They’re not my market… a lot of 24-year-old guys like podcasts. They’re at the gym and they’re listening to a podcast. They’re folding laundry and they’re listening to a podcast.
When you think about the future, where do you see yourself?
I want to own my own podcast studio… I think I could live with that, it wouldn’t be boring and it wouldn’t be too easy, but it wouldn’t be insanely difficult either. Where do I say, “I want to quit the broadcasting business”?
What is the ultimate outcome of my career as a presenter, a dream or something? Something that walks and talks in the relevant media world like a night shift, like a night show.
I don’t know to be honest… it’s not something I really planned to do… if an opportunity comes my way, I’ll take it… I just pray for new opportunities and the chance to work hard at it.
