Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Tilton.
Hi Tina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As they say, a closed mouth doesn’t get fed. Well, neither does a closed mouth get HEARD. Hi, my name is Tina Tilton. I’m a 25-year veteran of radio and television. And now, I’m currently the owner of The Podcast Center. The Podcast Center is a full-service production facility for podcasting, traditional radio, and cable television. Clients can choose in-studio, on-location, or remote production to create high-quality content.
Through strategic partnerships, that includes Flinn Broadcasting and Comcast Southeast, we also help our clients broadcast their podcast to the world. The desire to entertain has been a part of my makeup at a very young age. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I was in an Easter program at school. I auditioned for the lead role of the girl skipping along with her Easter basket…and I didn’t get it. I was however cast as a “flower.” I can recall going home crying because I wanted that lead role…but my mom consoled me and told me that being a flower was just as important. I felt better by her words, but I still craved that main spotlight position. A year or so later, that’s when I knew I wanted to be on television.
However, the birth of The Podcast Center came from various unexpected job closings. Although I graduated from Lambuth University in 1994 with a BA in Mass Communications. I was a struggling college graduate looking for a job. I can recall the days when I would send toy microphones to MTV, VH1 & BET along with a resume’ telling them I was wanting to be a VJ (video jockey). I never heard anything back from them, but at least I was optimistic. I knew I would do it someday, somehow. Finally, my first job out of college was FM 100 (top 40 station) from 1995-1997 where I was a Traffic Assistant. That’s just a fancy word for filing papers and running errands. This job closed because the company changed ownership.
I knew I wanted to be on radio and television, so, during that same period of 1995-1996, I volunteered for Cablevision, which became Time Warner Cable, which is now Comcast Xfinity, and in 1996. I became one of 12 music video shows in the USA. Three months into hosting the video show, the Program Director for HOT 107 was scrolling through his channels and saw my television show and thought I would make a great asset to their radio station. So I worked at Q107.5 (top 40) from 1996-1997 as a morning show co-host but was asked to co-host their newest radio station HOT 107. I worked at HOT 107 (hip hop) as a morning show co-host from 1997-2001 where I was fired not once, but twice and the last firing was on my birthday.
From 2001-2002, I was unemployed, living off of my unemployment checks and family support. I can recall contacting DHS to qualify for food stamps but when they asked for my name, they laughed at me and told me to “stop playing” because we played many phone pranks on HOT 107 and they thought I was playing a prank. I tried to tell them I was sincere, but embarrassment overcame me and I just hung up. I worked for LOVE 1380 (gospel) as a morning show co-host from 2002-2003 until the station closed. I worked for 1340 WLOK (gospel) as a morning show co-host/afternoon talk show host from 2003-2004 until the station decided to change talent.
I worked for one week at WHAL 95.7 (gospel) as a “potential” morning show co-host but was not chosen because I was hosting a television show where we talked about the Bible but we used secular hip-hop videos to do so. As I was told, the management thought I had “one foot in the world and one foot in the church”, so I was not selected. I also worked at WQOX 88.5 (urban adult contemporary/r&b) as a midday personality from 2004-2006. This station was owned by the former Memphis City Schools, now Memphis Shelby County Schools. I was asked to volunteer as the midday personality until they could find funds within the next 6months to pay me.
I continued for 2 years. Funds were never found to pay me….and I got married November 4th, 2006 and my husband highly suggested that I leave and seek employment opportunities that would pay me for what I was worth. So I finally found a job I liked. From 2006-2014, I worked as a television host for TBN (gospel tv). I became the host of this show after I made a pop-up visit to the television studio to inquire about how I could get MC Hammer at my church. The GM saw me, heard my story, and asked me to audition for a host role. I did and I was hand chosen by the founder’s wife. It was truly an honor, but it was only monthly, therefore, I still have to find sustainable employment.
My mother suggested working as a teacher (since she retired as an educator). Per her words, “There will always be children, so you will always have employment). So based upon the words of my mama, I obeyed. I became a Pre-K Teachers Assistant from 2006-2008 for MCS. I even went as far as to enroll in college to become a Special Needs educator. I took the class for 2 semesters and dropped out because it was not in my heart….radio and tv still were! By that time, the Pre-K Teachers Assistant position had been eliminated, but from 2008-2014, I was placed in a Kindergarten class as a Teacher’s Assistant. It was ok for a minute, but by 2013, I realized that I did not want to make this a lifelong journey.
My desire to be back on tv was so strong that I decided to go online and see who I could “lease” a television station from. I felt if I could run my own stuff, it would be better. And low and behold, I found a television station for lease! But the bad part about it is that it was owned by the same company that fired me twice from their radio station. Reluctancy kicked in but gratefully the desire to see my future was stronger. I make the contact and we decided that I would lease the station May 2014. But more challenging news hit. In February of 2014, I found out I was pregnant…at 42 years old…first baby ever!!! I quickly became afraid of thoughts of trying to figure out how to run a television station AND be a new mom at the same time.
I was put on bed rest in April 2014 and could not be present at the television station as much as I would have liked, so I decided to do film production from my home. My living room became the set of my shows that aired on my new television station, TTEN, Tina Tilton Entertainment Network, channel 46.1. The station reached approximately 1 million households in TN and MS. All was well until 2018 when I was only given a one-month notice that the FCC mandated all mom-and-pop radio and television stations to surrender its license because they needed the space for 5G networks across the land. This hurt me to my core because I had built this television station from scratch and we were finally making a small profit.
As I sat at my home angry, bitter, frustrated, and slightly depressed, I wondered what I could do where I had FULL control over. Where no one would fire me again because I would own it. Then late 2018, the idea came to me. Open a production company where people could get a tv show filmed for the lowest rate in town. Then, I quickly realized that I did have sub-par cameras and microphones with no facility, but that didn’t stop me. I knew I had to step out on faith. I searched Craigslist for a venue and found one in Bartlett. I signed a lease but knew that I had to get updated equipment. I had no finances to do such, we only had 2 clients at the time.
What do I do? I contacted the school system and worked as a substitute teacher from 2018-2020 to fund the equipment needed to operate as a full production facility. In January 2020, we were ready for business, so I scheduled a grand opening of The Podcast Center in February 2020. We had a good turnout, but the unexpected happened in March 2020…COVID!!!! What do I do now????? The world had shut down. No one was 100% sure as to what businesses were considered “essential”. Most of us were afraid of the unexpected. So we were closed until November 2020, but after months and months of watching television, and staying aware of the shift in our society, I quickly realized that people were now doing what they call “streaming virtually”.
People were advised to stay indoors as much as they can, stay away from those with underlying conditions, do not make unnecessary visits to family members, so society began to use this new form of communication to stay in touch with their friends and loved ones. So I thought to myself, we can do that! We can offer show hosts, particularly churches, since they were closed down, the opportunity to stay connected with their congregation virtually. We re-opened and it quickly took off. To this day, we continue to offer in-person and virtual options to our clients. But one of our clients had a unique request.
She was already a television host, but she desired to be on radio and she asked me if I could help her by reaching out to some of my former radio station contacts to see if she could have a show on their station. I agreed and the cards begin to fall in place. The same radio station that fired me twice was about to start a new Throwback Hip-Hop radio station and they suggested I place her on there. Not only did they suggest that I place her on this newly formatted radio station, but in December 2022, I was asked if I wanted to lease the radio station from them where The Podcast Center would manage and operate the station fully.
This opportunity was presented because the owner stated that they did not have the time or the manpower to commit to it. On February 03, 2023, Bumpin 96.3FM Memphis was now managed and operated by The Podcast Center, where we create or develop podcasts, then provide audio or video production of the podcast. And lastly, we distribute the podcast on the platform of choice for the client, which is the Internet, radio, or television. I have been featured on television: WREG in 1999, and FOX 13 in 2001. In print: M-Town Online Magazine in 2014. I’ve won several awards/plaques: Priority Records (1997), MCA Records (1998), TVT Records (1999), and Rap-A-Lot Records (1999) all for assisting in the sales of over 1 million copies with my then music video show.
I won the #1 Morning Show Co-Host from Steve Wood in 2000. I won The Community Service Award from The Orange Mound Parade Committee in 2006. I won the Mtenzi Award for Best Tv Entertainment Network in 2016. And I won the Lit Lovely Lisa Tv Award in 2022 for Media Personality of the year. April 2023, after being invited to speak at a youth conference, the Director of Student Interns asked The Podcast Center to be a vendor for their students beginning June 2023. That makes The Podcast Center a new partner with Memphis Shelby County Schools, the 25th largest school district in the US.
We will be training the next generation of media moguls on how to create, produce and distribute content on radio, television, and online. Our goal is to have a facility for The Podcast Center in North, South, East, and West Memphis. That way, we could serve the community without the hassle of them having to leave their neighborhood. And the labor for each location, upon additional funding, will be our fully trained students that we plan to hire straight out of high school to work at one of these locations.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I’m currently the owner of The Podcast Center. The Podcast Center is a full-service production facility for podcasting, traditional radio, and cable television. Clients can choose in-studio, on-location, or remote production to create high-quality content. Through strategic partnerships, that includes Flinn Broadcasting and Comcast Southeast, we also help our clients broadcast their podcast to the world.
What sets us apart from anyone else is that in December 2022, I was asked if I wanted to lease a Throwback Hip-Hop radio station from Flinn Broadcasting where The Podcast Center would manage and operate the station fully. This opportunity was presented because the owner stated that they did not have the time or the man power to commit to it. On February 03, 2023, Bumpin 96.3FM Memphis was now managed and operated by The Podcast Center, where we create or develop podcasts, then provide audio or video production of the podcast.
And lastly, we distribute the podcast on the platform of choice for the client, which is the internet, radio, or television. We are most proud of and want your readers to know that we are truly a one-stop shop where potential podcasters can come to us, get their show developed, produced, then aired on a local radio station.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
The advise I have for finding a mentor is I feel that everyone needs one. Whether in business or personal, everyone needs someone.
Given the industry and the very unique position I have been put in, there has not been much success in mentors, however, I have done a lot of reading on successful people in the industry to try to find my way. I have found that this helps me a lot.
Pricing:
- Required Podcast Orientation – $100
- Podcast Production – $75 and up
- Radio Airtime – $500 per month
- Radio Commercials – $20 per ad
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bumpin963.com
- Instagram: Bumpin 963 Throwback Hip Hop
- Facebook: Bumpin 963 Throwback Hip Hop
