Joy Proft – An Xperience Interview

Joy Proft – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: I got Joy from WEQX on the line, I thought it’d be really cool to chat. What’s cool is right now you’re actually on the air as we speak!

JP: I played like four or five songs in a row so I have a few minutes to talk to you.

RRX: Cool. That’s all I need. It’s funny because I’m on the air right now too.

JP: Look at us, holding down the music scene here in the Capital Region and in Southern Vermont and everybody else who is listening. Hello, everyone!

RRX: I’ve been friends with pretty much all of your staff forever but I’m like … I don’t know Joy. I wanna get to know Joy. I know you’re on the air from 10am to 3pm during the week and you do the Sunday brunch. We know about that, but tell us about Joy. Who is Joy?

JP: Well, I grew up in Rhode Island, so I grew up going to the beach on Sundays. And I’m very lucky to have had a lot of music thrown at me or just somehow I acquired it. I always listened to the radio in my teenage bedroom and loved music. I had an aunt that gave me some of her records. She’s like 10 or 12 years older than me. She gave me Carole King, Neil Young, and just these amazing classic records that now I know all the words to, you know? I know I was really blessed from a young age to have this great musical foundation on top of … loving George Michael, Madonna, and The Cure in the ‘80s.

RRX: So, how long have you been with EQX?

JP: I actually worked here from 1990 to 94 in a much smaller capacity. I did some overnight shifts.
I did some part-time air shifts and I had other jobs in Vermont. I first moved to Vermont in 1990, lived here for four years, and then I moved away, moved back, moved away, and moved back. While I was away, I was in the music industry on a different side of the music wheel—the sales side. When there were record stores, I worked for a big music distribution company called Universal. So obviously, I dealt with a lot of Tower Record stores and big record retailers. I worked in Philadelphia, calling on stores in St. Louis. And then I got bumped up to the home office in L.A. So after all of that, I came back to Vermont and I owned a business. Then in 2019 … I’ve been friends with Mimi Brown, who’s our general manager and owns the radio station. Her husband Brooks is the one who put it on the air, who left us about … over a decade ago now, I think. Anyway, I was just talking to her after I sold the business and she said I think we might need a part-timer. Why don’t you talk to Jeff? You know, Jeff who does early EQX, he’s our boss.
So I started doing some weekend and fill-in shifts. Actually, I’m coming up on my four-year anniversary of doing the midday show. It’s just great. I love it. I also do the Retro Lunch at noon.

RRX: It doesn’t get much better than that. I mean, first of all, you’ve got the best shift.

JP: Right?

RRX: You don’t have to get up too early.

JP: One of my long-time friends and I, when we were a lot younger, were gardening for wealthy people. We’d go and weed their gardens and we’d say … it’s not like we don’t wanna work, we just wanna work from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

RRX: Exactly.

JP: There’s a lot of prep that goes into radio, as you know. I walk in here every morning preparing and thinking about what I might wanna talk about, what stories are in the news, what stories are good and what EQX is doing. So, there is a lot of prep to make it sound effortless. But I love it. It really works for me. It’s great!

RRX: Well, you definitely make it sound effortless. You’re on one of the greatest radio stations that exists in the entire country.

JP: Isn’t it crazy? 40 years of an independently owned radio station. It’s like people almost don’t believe you, they don’t believe me.

RRX: Right?

JP: It’s just so much fun. At the Tulip Fest in Albany, is where I met you and people who listen all of the time to all of us who work here, we listen all the time too. You know, I’m in my kitchen at night and I’m listening to Keller or Luke or whatever because we’re all big fans too!

RRX: Absolutely. That’s why we made sure that Keller got himself a Listen Up Hero Award this year, because we wanted to honor him.

JP: Thank you. That was so cool. He really appreciated that. He’s a really humble person, so of course he downplayed it. But I watched the footage and I heard and read about it. You guys are so committed to the local scene and praising what’s good about the area and the music scene. So thank you for what you do too.

RRX: Likewise. I look forward to maybe working together more in the future. To me, it doesn’t seem like we’re competitors, we’re all part of the same pie, you know?

JP: Absolutely. It’s great to know each of us is out there. What is that saying about the water raising all boats or whatever? The music scene and local bands have an appreciation for this thing that is really art … the creation of music, songs, and albums. We’re all together here.

RRX: And independent! You guys have a giant library. So when I tune in, I don’t hear the same music every day like some of the other stations that actually deleted a lot of their songs and made their library smaller. I don’t get it, but if you wanna hear “Living on a Prayer,” it plays at 11:15 a.m. every day on that other station.

JP: I always said, if you wanna hear Bon Jovi and Guns and Roses (I mean, not that I don’t love those bands too) but yeah at 11:15 and one’s at 2:15 every single day. Layla’s out a couple times a day too.

RRX: Hopefully it’s the long, extended version with the instrumental in the beginning.

JP: It’s all good. There’s room for everybody, and you know what? I appreciate turning the dial sometimes because sometimes you just wanna hear Layla, you know what I’m saying?

RRX: Exactly. Well, it’s been a pleasure. Is there anything that you would like to say to any of your listeners out there or maybe to try to get other people to listen that aren’t currently doing it?

JP: 102.7 on the FM dial, we have this massive signal because our tower is on the top of a big mountain (Mount Equinox) here in Southern Vermont.
We have a free app. We appreciate that people are listening around the country and around the world, and that smart speaker thing, Alexa, knows us—weqx.com. So if you’re not listening to us, listen to you guys, and let’s just keep putting great music out there!

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