{"id":4309,"date":"2011-09-15T10:36:25","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T17:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=4309"},"modified":"2014-01-25T18:10:28","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T23:10:28","slug":"from-wtsr-to-repping-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=4309","title":{"rendered":"From WTSR to repping the stars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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During his 30 years in the music business, Mark DiDia has gone from DJ, to record label exec, to artist manager.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Music industry veteran Mark DiDia \u201980 <\/strong>has weathered 30 years of tumult\u2014MTV\u2019s arrival, the convenience of digital music, and the record industry\u2019s collapse. Now an artist manager at Red Light Management, DiDia is learning a new angle of the business at an age not associated with second chances in the job market.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no survival strategy, no longevity technique. DiDia, 54, calls himself lucky then adds, \u201cI don\u2019t know; I\u2019m just fortunate.\u201d Whatever the quality, it appeared long before DiDia\u2019s professional career. As a college freshman, DiDia was majoring, he thinks, in chemistry so he could become a pharmacist. A 1976 trip to explore Kendall Hall led him to the basement home of WTSR.<\/p>\n

Angels sang\u2014or spun records\u2014and a career in the sciences slipped and slid away.<\/p>\n

DiDia\u2019s countless hours underground led to an unimagined career. Instead of raving about Hall & Oates while filling prescriptions, he hung out with Daryl Hall. Instead of listening to Rick Rubin\u2019s albums on his ride to CVS, he was the legendary producer\u2019s longtime colleague.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a great fan of his and feel privileged that we get to work on things together,\u201d Rubin says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a magic time in radio,\u201d says DiDia, who was WTSR\u2019s program director for three years. \u201cLiving in Trenton, you probably had the two best radio markets in the world [New York and Philadelphia] on your radio. For me to listen to WNEW or WIOQ and try to make my own small version of that\u2026it was so much fun. It still is.\u201d<\/p>\n

WTSR days<\/h3>\n

The awakening in Kendall Hall loses its divine glow when DiDia describes his childhood. The house was a jukebox, as Mama DiDia played everything from Frank Sinatra to Jack Benny. While most parents associated the rise of rock music with the fall of Western civilization, she bought young Mark his first Beatles album and took him to see A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/em>. In high school, DiDia\u2014with his electrician father providing the wires\u2014started a radio station. At night, he would fall asleep with his headphones on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have dreams of being on the radio,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At the musical playground known as WTSR, DiDia reveled in saying or doing whatever he wanted\u2014\u201dwithin reason.\u201d DiDia, along with cohorts Greg Caiola \u201979 <\/strong>(station manager) and Dave Silverstein \u201979<\/strong> (sports director), strove to make WTSR \u201ca professional radio station, even if we weren\u2019t,\u201d Silverstein says. \u201cBut we were. It\u2019s on the air, and there\u2019s no difference between a college station and a radio station when someone tunes in\u2026We got phone calls from all over. It wasn\u2019t just a toy radio station.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see he was really determined,\u201d Caiola says of DiDia. \u201cJust from the early time I met him, he knew a lot about music and had an ear for what was good.\u201d DiDia helped push WTSR into a 24-hour format, organized the annual Radiothon fundraiser, and even broadcast Lions\u2019 athletics games.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he had such a strong knowledge of music, and was so strong technically, he could do so many things that the rest of us couldn\u2019t do,\u201d Caiola says.<\/p>\n

DiDia landed an internship at the Princeton-based WPST in his junior year and later landed other off-hours gigs. \u201cHe had the foresight and insight into the business to take advantage,\u201d says Silverstein, who believes the internship has helped DiDia to this day.<\/p>\n

A 30-year radio veteran, Silverstein, now operations manager for Roser Communications in Utica, New York, has seen the music industry\u2019s instability firsthand. It takes drive, determination, and talent to survive, he says. Caiola, currently director of the Young Scholars Institute in Trenton, says there\u2019s another reason for DiDia\u2019s success. His old classmate possessed \u201can incredible passion\u201d to make music a part of his life.<\/p>\n

Breaking into the big time<\/h3>\n

DiDia\u2019s first full-time job was as the board operator for famed Philadelphia deejay Hy Lit at Trenton\u2019s WKXW. DiDia and Lit got along splendidly. DiDia did not enjoy the same relationship with Lit\u2019s son, Sam, the station\u2019s program director. Sam fired DiDia with the following prediction: \u201cYou\u2019ll never work in radio again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using that parting shot as motivation, DiDia became the music director at a daytime AM station in Lakewood, New Jersey. The turning point came as the music director and afternoon deejay at Atlantic City\u2019s WMGM. \u201cIn the summer, all the Philly [radio] people would come down, and one of the guys from WYSP heard me and called me, and I ended up music director at YSP,\u201d DiDia says. \u201cThat was my first big-time job.\u201d<\/p>\n

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DiDia (center) is pictured with Joe Namath (left) and Paul McCartney, who DiDia described as his \u201cboyhood idols.\u201d DiDia worked with McCartney at Capitol Records, and did the Super Bowl halftime show with him a few years ago, which is where this photo was taken.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t his last. WYSP ownership wanted to launch the same format in New York. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to hire anyone in New York because we don\u2019t want the word to get out,\u201d DiDia was told, \u201cso go up there and figure it out and get the music ready.\u201d K-Rock\u2019s 1985 premiere occurred on the night of Live Aid. DiDia was supposed to come back to Philadelphia. Instead, he became K-Rock\u2019s music director, fulfilling his dream of working in New York radio.<\/p>\n

In New York, DiDia called an old friend. \u201cI wanted to let you know, I just started K-Rock,\u201d he told Sam Lit. \u201cThanks for telling me I\u2019d never work in radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiDia stayed at K-Rock until 1988, when he headed west to Geffen Records. \u201cAt the time, radio was becoming more formatted,\u201d DiDia explains. \u201cI wanted to stay closer to the music. I had bunch of record guy friends who were calling me to play their records.\u201d As head of rock promotion, DiDia switched sides\u2014literally\u2014which was an adjustment. \u201cYou go from your phone ringing off the hook to being the one having to generate those calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also part of the Geffen family was Rick Rubin, whose new label, Def American, had a distribution deal there. Thanks to DiDia\u2019s good judgment, K-Rock was the first radio station anywhere to play the Beastie Boys\u2019 \u201c(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party),\u201d which Rubin co-wrote and produced. The mock revolutionary anthem ended up a top 10 hit and put the Beasties on their iconic path.<\/p>\n

Later, Rubin sought out DiDia at a convention and thanked him. In California, he hired DiDia as Def American\u2019s general manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time it was a risk for me,\u201d DiDia says. \u201cOn one hand, David Geffen was telling me I should never leave his company. We were the hottest record company. We had Guns N\u2019 Roses and Aerosmith and Whitesnake [at their heights]. Rick, I don\u2019t know. We really got along. He had a small, cool little operation. He had a little band called Mr. Crowe\u2019s Garden that turned into the Black Crowes that I championed along the way. I took a leap of faith with him.\u201d DiDia wound up working at the company, renamed American Recordings, for seven years.<\/p>\n

DiDia then headed to Disney\u2019s Hollywood Records, enticed by the opportunity to get \u201cto get inside a big company like that and learn.\u201d Unfortunately, this was before the synergistic ka-ching days of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, when Hollywood was positioning itself as a rock label. DiDia then served as general manager at Capitol Records, where he supported popular bands such as Radiohead and Coldplay. Office politics and corporate downsizing made DiDia expendable there, but Rubin, freshly appointed as Sony\u2019s \u201cmusic czar,\u201d made him Columbia Records\u2019 general manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat didn\u2019t work,\u201d DiDia says. \u201cRick battled and banged heads with the corporate types at Sony. Rick was more of an artist than an executive, let\u2019s put it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a short stint at Island Records, but by then DiDia knew a career change was required. \u201cThe artist management side is the center and the power of the music business now, with the crumbling of the labels,\u201d he says. \u201cArtists\u2019 income is mainly in touring now, and the artist manager participates in every facet of the artist\u2019s career.\u201d But the job also utilizes his talents. \u201cHe will kill for the artists,\u201d Rubin says of DiDia. \u201cHe won\u2019t take \u2018no\u2019 for an answer when the artists\u2019 best interests are at stake, and he\u2019s driven by love and belief in great music.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Bonaroo Music Festival, DiDia ran into Red Light Management\u2019s founder, Coran Capshaw, and convinced Capshaw to hire him. DiDia started last October.<\/p>\n

\u201cA label gig, I could do in my sleep,\u201d says DiDia. \u201cIt was exciting and I loved it and I\u2019d never exchange anything I did. I\u2019d never look back and say, \u2018I wish I would have done this.\u2019 I\u2019m fortunate because I\u2019m literally learning new things every day. I\u2019m working with different types of artists. I\u2019m meeting producers and learning about vocal coaches and all kinds of things I never knew about. And then there\u2019s the whole touring angle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since joining Red Light Management, DiDia has signed American Idol darlings Pia Toscano, Haley Reinhart, and James Durbin as well as Grammy-nominated chanteuse Corrine Bailey Rae. A good reputation and innumerable connections have eased the transition.The new endeavor also covers old territory. \u201cFor me, I just try to follow my gut and find and nurture artists and music that I love,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re on the label side, you don\u2019t really deal with the artist directly,\u201d DiDia adds. \u201cYou deal with management and there\u2019s always an agenda. On this side, your agenda is the artist\u2019s agenda. All you can do is tell them the truth, which most artists don\u2019t hear often\u2026I think the best thing to do is to let them focus on their music, and I take care of everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admits that making the switch to a family-run company is a tough one, but says, \u201cI\u2019m figuring it out,\u201d adding that the biggest names in artist management have decades of experience. Rubin thinks DiDia will be just fine. \u201cHe will do great in anything he does,\u201d Rubin says. \u201cHe always has.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiDia still isn\u2019t in the music industry because of luck. \u201cPassion and taste,\u201d Rubin explains. \u201cHe knows the real thing when he hears it.\u201d At TCNJ, DiDia was so floored after seeing Peter Frampton in concert\u2014long before Frampton Comes Alive<\/em> sold millions and hijacked the airwaves\u2014he raved nonstop about the shaggy-haired guitarist on WTSR. More than 30 years later, not much has changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music,\u201d DiDia says, \u201cstill needs to give me goose bumps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like the music business itself, Mark DiDia\u2019s career has taken a number of interesting turns over the years. A one-time DJ and record label exec, this 1980 graduate is now an artist manager working with some of music’s hottest up-and-coming acts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":4312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-september-2011"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}