Welcome to JJ-365 Salutes. Over 2018, we pay tribute daily to one of “The Good Ones”. Today we are shining the light on Vanessa Thomas.

The late and great Steve Young, 365’er Bob Saint and I were like the three amigos. They helped me from day one in the business and we became fast forever friends. We’d talk talent lots always looking to find the ‘next one’ out there, something that is still part of my coaching role. Steve talked a number of times about Vanessa Thomas who had reached out to him years before. She was a young woman in a male dominated industry, and Steve was a champion for women in the industry. They too became fast friends. Steve urged me to keep an eye on her and hire her. She was in the States at the time and loving it there, so I thought it would be hard to get her to come back home. By the time I got around to approaching her to work back in Canada, she had made some moves.

How did Vanessa get started and bitten by this bug she calls ‘music industry addiction?’

After undergrad at Concordia University, this Ottawa native headed to Long Beach, California to get her Master of Fine Arts in Acting at CSULB. Moving right up to L.A. after Grad school, she started doing voice over's for a then small radio syndication company, called Premiere Radio Networks, run by the best of the industry and still biggest mentors today, Tim Kelly, Ed Mann and Steve Lehman. They asked if she’d ever tried selling and she answered indignantly, ‘of course not, I’m an actress’. She goes on to say ‘little did I know that they are very closely tied’. Vanessa with her sunshine personality and smile from above became their top Syndication affiliate relations person, managed to find Sound Source (Gary Slaight, JM Hemirath and 365’er Lesley Soldat) and brought all their products to Canada. “I got to work with the best in Canadian radio as I sold the products into, Ross Winters, JJ Johnston, Brad Phillips, the late and great Rena Stuermann, Leslie Nelson, 365’ers Jeff Vidler and Sharon Taylor, and many more."

She says the single best training she ever received for the rest of her career, however, was working with the Acme Players every Friday and Saturday night doing Improv and Sketch

Comedy. They started in the valley and then moved to La Brea in Hollywood. She was part of the original cast with Marc Drotman, Lisa Malone, Ralph Garman, Adam Carolla (who started

giving them all free relationship advice after shows, which morphed into ‘Love Lines’ with Dr. Drew and then the ‘Man Show’ with Jimmy Kimmel) and the rest is history. She remembers the unbelievable ‘wow’ experience of doing a show every weekend for three years and looking out to see Steve Martin or Martin Short in the audience.

This was all good but the creative radio bchampion ug came calling and she left Premiere in the early 90's to head to the Hot KRAK FM Sacramento to do Country mornings with Joey Mitchell. Larry Pareigis gave her the shot and to this day is one of her best friends (shout out Nine North records in Nashville!). 

This is where Steve Young was a great help. Vanessa remembers: “I could not have made it through those first years on morning show radio in a brand-new town without the constant help on the other end of the phone from Steve Young. He was running KISW in Seattle at the time but coached me from afar every single day when I got off the air. He made me better, more hopeful and supported. He was a real gem to young broadcasters finding their way.”

Sidebar: Steve continues to be remembered each year in Canada for this champion role (ten years now) with CMW's Alan Waters Young Broadcaster Award in honour of Steve Young, saluting the best young broadcaster under the age of 30. Each year our “Friends of Steve Young” team have a difficult time choosing winners as there are so many excellent up and comers in Canada, a tribute not only to the on-air talent but also for those Coaches and Program Directors who are engaged in the process. Thank you to Neill Dixon, Greg Simpson and Jim Waters for keeping this going.

In Sacramento, Vanessa’s management team thought it’d be a good idea to put her on her own talk show from 10a to noon on Hot Talk 1140 AM, which had a HUGE signal. Not only was she up against Rush Limbaugh in his own hometown, but it was a departure from regular programming and so “Hot Talk with Tonya” was launched, a mid-day sex talk show with a healthy following of truckers and construction workers. She thanks Larry Rosin from Edison for this brain child. She still has those cassette air checks which she says is an interesting listen with a glass of wine! You need to share them with us Vanessa-??.

Then a big break! San Francisco came calling, so she moved onto KSAN/FM, the legendary country station and started with swing and moved into mornings and there for stayed four years. During that time: “We had some rotating leaders and owners, Lee Logan, Bob Hamilton, Tim Roberts. Country was in the hey day of Garth, Trisha, Terri Clark, Faith and Tim, the Dixie Chicks…all amazing approachable and accessible artists and listeners, what a gift to work in that format.”

Next stop was KYCY/FM Young country across the road with wonder boy Eric Logan (Harpo programming) and eventually over to her fave station ALICE KLLC/FM San Francisco which was a complete outlier at the time.

Premiere pulled her back again for a brief stint with VP stripes, so she left the air. Then Clear Channel bought the org and she says it wasn’t the same amazing group and culture, so she was back up to San Francisco to run Sales for the now defunct but AMAZING trade publication Gavin magazine. The final two years of her Gavin life were incredible, working with the legends in the U.S. industry like the Zimmerman brothers, the Galliani brothers, Kevin Carter, Steve Resnik, and Annette Lai. 

The conventions were epic back then she recalls: “Anyone who’s anyone has been to a Gavin Seminar. Where else would Burt Baumgartner (head of promo at Capitol) synchronize swim with a troupe in the pool at the opening reception in a full one-sie and swim cap?? And hello.. 'Elton John is in Ballroom C' and 'the Guess Who are just down the hall'……”

In 2002, Mike Shalett and Rob Sisco changed the course of her life forever and offered her a great gig back on home turf. She got to go home and run Nielsen Entertainment Canada and eventually North American Sales for a good 12 year run: “My leaders, almost all (!), were brilliant and I fell in love with the fabric of my country and the industry here again. Some of my clients are now my best friends in life….you know who you are! Brilliant, creative, funny and full of heart…that is what makes up 95.5% of the people in this business of ours. The other 4.5%, well you know…..”

She’ll never forget her first month into the gig when Steve Kane and Garry Newman at Warner music offered her a Juno package to go to St Johns Newfoundland in April. Kitchen parties, screech and culture shock. She WAS back in Canada!

While at Nielsen, she was blessed with two little guys, sons Devin and Kaden who are now 11 and 12 and got to begin the juggle of travel, small kids and managing a team in five different cities. She became more focused and efficient than ever before and shouts out to working Moms!

In 2013 ‘Songza’ came along and she opened the office in Canada for this company that was taking off in Canada quicker than south of the border (she thanks Peter Lowe for that intro!). It was an amazing service that people still miss today. It was gobbled up by the big G, and they all moved onto other ventures.

She had a brief time at the wonderfully curated Rdio, before Pandora came in to rescue that now defunct company, and then onto more adventures. Vanessa rolls with the punches: “The best thing about times of change are re-inventing yourself and remembering parts of yourself you had forgotten. This led me to find my first love of radio again. Thank you Julie Adam for letting me get the cobwebs out and get back on air at CHFI after 20 years (where are the cart machines?) and then to Troy McCallum at boom973, where I’ve had so much fun with the format and listeners. I still make an appearance from time to time when Troy is in need….what a creative group in that building!!”

Vanessa sums up: “Mentoring young women has been one of my passions for my whole career but even more in recent years. I am working with the passionate Sam Slattery at Women in music, to try and create the mentorship program for WIM and help launch a support network for the kick ass up and comers. ‘There’s a special place in hell for those women who don’t support other women’ thank you Madeleine Albright!

One of my favourite gigs in the world is what I’m doing right

now…running the Canadian Songwriter’s hall of Fame for the past two years. It has opened my eyes to a whole new creative side to music. This country punches way above its weight with the talent of the Songwriter and there is nothing without the song…let’s remember! Taking the organization to new places with partnerships with the best events in the Canadian music scene. Getting to work with Mike Michael McCarty (Just announced going into the Hall of Fame. Congrats!), who always has your back and the amazing SOCAN family, a very civilized, supportive culture to grow. 

These places do exist. Keep your eye on the target, stay true to who you are, be kind, support your fellow women in the work place, call your colleagues when they are down and on the street and laugh…..nothing is more important.”

Vanessa has been an inspiration to all broadcasters and music industry types. Her heart and her head are in the right places, she cares about her family, friends and the industries she continues to make a difference in. This is a smart cookie, amazingly personable, hard working, lots of fun, and just a breath of fresh air. No wonder Steve Young was so fond and proud of her back then, as we all are now.

Thank you, Vanessa Thomas, for being one of “The Good Ones”. Feel free to like and share Vanessa’s positive story. Who is the subject of tomorrow’s JJ-365 Salutes? As they say, stay tuned.

Jim JJ Johnston is the CEO, President and Chief Talent/Content Coach for JJIMS INC. and works with talent in many different industries. He can be reached at JJ-IMS.COM.