From CMA Closeup, March/April 2001, pages 24-5.
At DePauw University, Judy Massa took a course called "Radio and Television
In Modern Society" because it looked easy. Something clicked, and since
graduating from college, she has been a fixture at Voice of America (VOA), the
nation's official broadcast voice to the rest of the world. Through dozens of
shortwave radio transmitters, the Internet, satellites, and a network of local
radio station affiliates throughout the world, VOA represents life in America to an audience for whom that life represents the ultimate dream.
The average American Country Music fan has probably never heard of her, but on a visit to China, thousands of Chinese who didn't know a word of English erupted into thunderous applause when her name was announced. She isn't in the Country Radio D) Hall of Fame, but hundreds of millions of people have tuned in daily to hear her chat with musicians, play their music and interact with listeners in the largest radio market of all: Earth.
1984 was an important year for VOA and Massa. That's the year she became VOA's Music Director, and also took over as host of the weekly Country Music USA. It didn't take long for her influence to grow. The next year, RCA recognized her "efforts in breaking The Judds" with its Country Records Trailblazer Award. In 1986, she received IFCO's Tex Ritter Award in recognition of her work "in the broadcast and presentation of Country Music." In 1994, she was honored with the CMA Media Achievement Award, acknowledging her "outstanding contributions to the advancement and promotion of country music through the field of electronic journalism." Massa broke more new ground in 1996, when she created a show called Border Crossings, a daily, live, interactive music request show. She interviewed singers, songwriters, and musicians. She played their music. She took phone calls from her legion of listeners, referring to each by name, and, as Massa puts it. "sharing their happiest moments, their saddest moments, their illnesses, their achievements."
Saying that Judy Massa has had some influence in exposing the rest of the world to Country Music is like saying that Bill Monroe was sort of interested in bluegrass music. "If ever there was a true ambassador for Country Music," says CMA Senior Director of International and New Business Development, Jeff Green, "it's Judy Massa. She speaks a language that everyone can understand. She paints pictures for her listeners, and makes each one feel important."
In Massa's world, there are no borders, no boundaries. She doesn't see differences in
language, skin color, religion. She just sees people. She attributes that in part to growing
up in the Panama Canal Zone, which she calls "a true melting pot", where she encountered people from all walks of life, from all over the world.
Her favorite kinds of music are classical - her mother was a classical music lover, and she is drawn to its spiritual qualities - and Country. "I like the fact that there are many different forms of Country Music," says Massa. "I'm not an artist fan as much as I am a music fan."
Massa has a talent for recognizing talent. She interviewed a shy kid named Randy Travis the day he signed his first record deal. When Lyle Lovett, then barely a blip on the musical radar screen, was on Massa's show, he brought along a friend, an even lesser known songwriter. "Be nice to this lady, " Lovett advised his friend. "She can really help your career. His friend's name was Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Mention Judy Massa's name on Music Row, and it's obvious that this is someone who is both liked and respected. You hear about the warmth and good humor that are Massa's trademarks both on and off the air. Inevitably there are stories, usually funny ones, about adventures with her legion of Nashville friends. Charlie Daniels calls her his "bathroom buddy", because she inadvertently followed him into a men's restroom at the Grand Ole Opry while trying to coax him to grant an interview. Minnie Pearl used to call her "that lady with the pretty hair from the Voice of America." Chet Atkins once fished a pair of Suzy Bogguss' running shoes out of a closet in his office, so Massa could shed her high heels and accompany him on a walk around Nashville's Centennial Park.
In January, Massa left the daily grind of
producing and hosting shows, and managing VOA's music department. Now she
plans to pursue the things she enjoys most: travel (she's visited three dozen
countries, often at the request of U.S. ambassadors), introducing new musical
talent (she'll be managing a young West Coast artist named Rick Monroe, whose
band recently accompanied her on a trip to Viet Nam,) and meeting some of the listeners she has befriended over the years. She will continue to be a correspondent
for VOA at major music events. If an underwriter can be found, she plans to
catalog and archive all of the 800 plus interviews she has conducted over the last
20 plus years.
It is at VOA that she has made her mark in the world. It is also where she met her husband, Roland, now the Washington correspondent for a radio station in Uruguay. Her new lifestyle will give her more time to spend with him and their two sons.
"It's not goodbye," says Massa. Her shows will continue, with new hosts. She promises to occasionally stop by the VOA studios and co-host when she's in Washington. While she won't miss the daily grind, she will miss "the sense of family with my listeners, the fact that what I've done has made in a difference in their lives, and that they've made a difference in my life."
Her reassurances notwithstanding, there are millions of people in every corner of the world whose days won't be quite the same without her friendly, heartfelt show opener, "Hello! Hello, everyone! This is YOUR show!"
By Dave White
Most shortwave stations, like Voice of America and the BBC,
are government-operated. A few are privately owned, like
Nashville's WWCR, to which Wolfgang is a loyal listener. "That
kind of music isn't heard often here since the U.S. Army left
Munich in 1992," he wrote to WWCR. "I'm very delighted to find
you."
"Country Music is a draw," says WWCR General Manager, George McClintock, for the simple reason that worldwide "listeners want everything we have in the U.S." WWCR's 11 hours of Country Music programming each week is especially popular in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
It's only natural that a station based in Nashville would play Country Music, but its universal appeal is such that it is broadcast from some less likely places, too. On station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, Ben Cummings serves as host for a "program with roots in Country Music from all over the world," which airs four times each weekend, beamed to North, South, and Central America. South Bend, Indiana-based World Harvest Radio operates three shortwave stations that feature a weekly country music show beamed to Asia, the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas.
Last November the stations aired a live broadcast of the Christian Country Music Awards. In keeping with its continent's rich Country Music heritage, Radio Australia airs programs like Country Club, where host Richard Porteous takes his international audience on "an off- the-road ramble through the various tracks that make up that very wide field of Country Music." The Music Show features an eclectic mixture of musical guests, recently including American artists Emmylou Harris and k.d. lang.
Shortwave broadcast stations are AM stations, with signals that bounce off the Earth's atmosphere in order to reach faraway listeners' radios. Accordingly, signals are subject to static and fading, conditions that are less than ideal for listening to music. To former VOA Music Director, Judy Massa, however, that's part of the appeal. "There's something about listening to a radio station that sounds like it's far away," she says, especially when it's coming from "the country of the music."
Country Music reinforces a message that WWCR's George McClintock considers essential to positioning his station to a worldwide audience: "We are from America." For a quarter of a century, Country Music has shared a worldwide stage with historic events like the fall of the Berlin wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union. As long as people throughout the world crave all things American, County Music will continue to find a home on shortwave radio.
By Dave White