MIKE STARLING GOES LOCAL AND LOVES IT

Mike Starling

Mike Starling is one of the best-known and most respected radio engineers in the nation. 

During his three decades at NPR Starling became VP of Engineering, Chief Technology Officer and the Executive Director of BPR Labs, the network’s R&D arm he helped to establish in 2005.

These days Starling is the founder, GM, Chief Engineer and “lead janitor” of WHCP, a 90-watt LPFM station in rural Cambridge, Maryland. 

He loves it as much as anything he has done during his career. Starling told Spark News in a telephone interview early this week:

“It is great to do something from scratch.  This is almost exactly what I had in mind. Sometimes in life you get lucky.”

Starling retired from NPR in early 2014. He told Leslie Stimson of Radio World in late 2013 [link]:

“We need to banish the word ‘retirement’ from our vocabulary.”

Mike and his wife Linda moved to Cambridge, a rural community of around 20,000 people on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. 

Starling is still in the radio biz and is working harder than ever.

Starling and his associates founded WHCP-LP [link]. WHCP signed July 4^th, 2015. 

Today WHCP is a vital force in the Cambridge area. T

he station operates 24/7 at 101.5 FM from the new Cambridge Community Media Center, a 2,600’ facility with three control rooms, a sidewalk café that doubles as a concert area and a couple of recording booths for a reading service for the blind.

In our interview, Starling talked about the similarities and differences between work at NPR and running WHCP:

I do many of the executive and administration functions I used to do at NPR. The main difference is now I don’t get paid anything.

But, I get to have my hands on the equipment every day and I get the chance to try new things all the time. Plus, I get to things I haven’t done before like underwriting sales. It is actually fun because I get to know folks who like the station. What I am doing now is a nice mixture of all the things I dabbled in during my professional career.

Starling was a veteran “road warrior” at NPR.

Now he enjoys being home on the Eastern Shore.

Starling began his career in 1969 at WBMD AM/FM in his hometown of Baltimore. 

Wherever Starling has been during his career he has never lost his curiosity and passion for radio:

I loved to see NPR grow over the years but this is a more personal thing for me. It is gratifying to be able to contribute to something – and it doesn’t have to be a huge thing – that has an impact on our community like ours, I am grateful for the opportunity.

Starling told Spark News about a typical day for him at WHCP:

I saunter in around 10am after doing work at home.  Then I’ll do an interview or two for our midday program. Then check the logs and check the automation system look about right.

Our intern usually shows up around 1pm when I am typically finishing a sandwich I pick up from just down the street here in downtown. Then I will work with the intern on program production that needs to be done. It is a wide gamut of things.

He provides the basic stats for the station:

A training session for volunteers at WHCP

Our annual budget is about $50,000. We do what we call a “dollar a holler” underwriting. Local businesses buy 100 20-second underwriting credits each month for $125. 

Because the contracts renew every month, and are rarely cancelled, it provides steady cash flow. We’ve current have 28 of these sponsors.

We also have memberships and do membership pledge drives. During the drives we have local community folks come in and talk about how important it is to have a local radio station. 

Musicians drop by and play all day. Sometimes we open the doors and invite people to stop by and see us. Of course we say the guests ‘Since you stopped by, why don’t you become a member’. Many people do.

Spark News asked Starling what the future holds for WHCP:

That’s a great question. I’d like to see us have a bigger signal so we can serve more people. Unfortunately, we have only about 30-some thousand people in our listening area. People beyond that don’t get the radio love that they so richly deserve.

We asked if Starling if he wants the station to have a bigger budget:

Local musicians Ebb & Nova drop by WHCP

A bigger budget? That is not really one of our goals because we are essentially an all-volunteer station. Volunteering is the guiding premise of the station.

We want people who are care about the station and want it to sound ten times better than any other local station. At this point what we are doing is working well – we are building a culture of passion and community service.

Mike Starling is in love with he is doing at WHCP:

Its really a kick to do this. That has been the most delicious thing about radio my whole life. When you have a vision for what you’d like to do, there will be people around you who will help pull it off and get it done.

It is great to do something from scratch.  This is almost exactly what I had in mind. Sometimes in life you get lucky.

I loved to see NPR grow over the years but this is a more personal thing for me. It is gratifying to be able to contribute to something – and it doesn’t have to be a huge thing – that has an impact on our community like ours, I am grateful for the opportunity.

When he is asked about his inspiration, Starling cites a public radio pioneer:

A personal inspiration is Bill Siemering – 80 years old and he founded Radio Partners to build stations all over the world. He is doing it and loving it – it is the fiber in his being. That is the kind of work I want to do.