If a group of radio broadcasters’ spouses formed a support group, what would their primary topic of conversation be?

In Tuesday’s issue, we introduced you to the wives of four prominent county radio broadcasters who discussed some of the challenges presented by their husbands’ jobs, especially the frequent moves around the country, which seem to be almost a requirement of the profession. Now, the wives dish the dirt on what they’d change about their spouses’ jobs if they could, and when they really think of the radio business.

First, meet our players, introduced in order of longest to most recent marriage.

• Terri Yankovich wife (of 22 years) of KKWF (100.7 The Wolf) Seattle PD Mike Preston, has lived with him in San Diego, San Jose, New York, Seattle and San Francisco for his radio jobs throughout his career.

• Emma Callahan wife (of 17 years) of KSON San Diego PD Kevin Callahan, has lived with him in Colorado Springs, Colo. (on two separate occasions); Springfield, Mo. Omaha, Neb.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Albany, N.Y.; and San Diego.

• Nicki Paul wife (of six years) of Dial Global Radio Networks VP of programming and “Hot Country” format PD John Paul, has lived with him in Buffalo, N.Y.; Portland, Ore.; and Denver.

• Kerry Lui-Kwan, wife (of two years) of KUPL Portland APD/MD and afternoon personality Keola Lui-Kwan, has lived with him in Seattle, San Francisco and Portland. (The couple is pictured above.)

We first asked the women what (other than the travel) is the most challenging thing about being married to a radio programmer.

Callahan can’t contain her laughter when she says it’s that, “We’re not allowed to talk when the air personality comes on. We have no control of the radio when he’s in the car. When the music stops, it’s ‘Everyone be quiet.’”

Paul has a similar story, saying in the car her husband, “does the exact opposite of what I do, he turns the music down, and then when the breaks come on, he turns it up.”

On a more serious note, Callahan says the real challenge for her comes from the fact that radio is “a 24-hour, seven day a week job. If we’re in the middle of something, and something comes up with work, we pause and let him go tend to what he needs to tend to, whether it’s someone having a personal issue, or the radio station’s off the air or the wrong commercial’s playing.”

Paul agrees. “For me, the thing that’s a little bit different is the 24/7 [nature of the job],” she says. “There are times in the middle of the night John wakes up and turns the radio on. Even now at 6 a.m., he’s downstairs listening to affiliates across the country.”

Says Callahan, “I wish I could turn his brain off so he wasn’t thinking about [radio] all the time… He’ll wake up in the middle of the night and his brain won’t shut down because he’s thinking about what’s happening at the station.”

Agrees Lui-Kwan, “Their whole lives are surrounded by radio, so it’s hard for them sometimes to not be thinking about work.” For her, a support group topic for radio wives would be “how to get them to turn that side of their brain off and just be a husband.”

The hours can get to Yankovich, too. “My biggest gripe is he’s never home in a timely manner for dinner,” she says of her husband. “Dinners have always been late.”

Lui-Kwan also cites the hours as her primary concern, although they were worse when Keola did nights, and she’d wait up and make him dinner when he got home at 1 a.m.

Now, she says, “He works really long days. Honestly he probably doesn’t need to be there as many hours as he is, but he really cares about what he does and the final product. He wants everything to be just right. I understand that.”

Paul says she’s spoken with other PDs’ wives, and says, “the common theme is the joke that [our husbands] all have A.D.D.” Her support group topic would be, “How to deal with someone whose attention span is 10 seconds because they’re constantly going from thing to thing to thing. They’ve got to be moving, go, go, go. So how to keep pace with someone whose brain is constantly going and shifting and thinking about the next thing.”

Some of the wives say they enjoy learning about the radio and music businesses and how they work, citing that as one of the benefits of their spouses’ jobs.

“For me, it’s interesting,” says Paul. “I’ll ask [John] ‘What’s going on with this song,’ or ‘Does this person have a single out yet,’ and he’s very good about talking about it.”

Adds Lui-Kwan, “I love to learn about different parts of radio. I feel like I know so much about it, and sometimes people will meet me and [ask] ‘So what do you do in radio?’”

Callahan says she’s not ready for a career in radio just yet, but admits that after 17 years of exposure to it, “I certainly know more than the average listener.”

But there’s one thing that perpetually confuses the radio wives: Arbitron methodology.

“Whenever [Mike] talks ratings, I think it’s so abstract and so not accurate that it just frustrates me,” says Yankovich.

Lui-Kwan is similarly confused by PPM methodology and, as she puts it, “the way that they do the ratings with the beepers and all that. I guess it has to be accurate, but I don’t really understand that way of rating radio. It seems really odd to me. I would think by now there would be an easier way to do it, or maybe more accurate.”

As for the results of those PPMs, Lui-Kwan says of her husband, “It’s really interesting when he talks about ratings. I’ll know he’ll either be in a good mood or not such a good mood” depending on what the numbers were. “Lately, he’s always in a good mood.”

For Paul, whose husband once lost a job due to a station ownership change, a perceived lack of loyalty in the radio business is what this former educator finds most puzzling about it.

“Coming from teaching, and working at a unionized place, [I noticed] how little loyalty there is,” she says. “To me, it’s scary to be in a profession that you can walk in one day and the entire staff is let go and new people are brought in. My mind set is if you work hard and do your job, you’re going to have a job. But people who work in radio don’t question that. They’re just like ‘That’s part of the gig. Let’s see where we;re going to go [next].’”

The spouses all agree that the music is the best perk of being married to a radio guy, including access to artists, concerts and even label reps.

Yankovich was thrilled when her husband finally started working in the country format after a long career in top 40 and AC radio.

“For 20 years I was like ‘C’mon honey, when are you going to get in country?’” she says. And now that he works in the format, “He loves it, so that’s icing on the cake.”

Yankovich loves getting to know artists, and says, “I’m finally getting to meet all these people that I always wished I’d get to meet.”

Paul also cites “Getting to go to shows and do the backstage stuff,” as a perk of the job. “It’s neat to kind of get a background view of what’s going on, and meet the artists,” she says. “It’s amazing how down to earth so many of them are.

“I’ve been able to tag along with John to a couple of things and it’s exciting,” she adds, calling it, “A life that a lot of my girlfriends whose husbands aren’t in radio [don’t have].”

Lui-Kwan particularly likes meeting new artists who are just starting out. “It’s really cool to see them from [being] a nobody, and then you see them get so famous and popular,” she says. “That’s really exciting.”

Both Paul and Lui-Kwan are also really enjoying the couples’ friendships with record reps.

“That’s one of the things with moving that’s made it kind of easier, because you have so many people coming in so you don’t feel so lonely when you move because you’ll go out to dinner with [reps] when they’re in town or have them over to the house,” Paul says. “That makes it easier. You kind of have a radio family, almost.”

Adds Lui-Kwan, “I’ve had a lot of fun meeting the artists and the record reps. Both seem to be so down to earth and so nice and so much fun to get to know. The artists will invite you to their house in Nashville, and they’re serious about it. I think that’s amazing [although] we’ve never actually taken anyone up on it.”