Tim McMillin

"The Mac"

Born in the Borough of Manhattan I was excommunicated out of the Big Apple at a very early age.  Seems like the leadership there could smell trouble brewing.  From there I made my way to sunny California where my formative years as a pre-youth were spent.  I can remember listening to Top 40 countdowns on an AM radio with the single ear headphone.  I think it was a Sears model.  It wasn’t until I moved to the mountains of Northern California that I discovered rock and roll.  That was in 1968.

It was an interesting introduction.  The story goes that some older upstairs neighbors were listening to music at a loud volume.  I was outside riding my Huffy single speed with the tassels in the handlebars.  I went upstairs to see what they were playing because I thought, “Man this is different, and it ROCKS!”  Turns out they were playing “Desolation Boulevard” by the band Sweet and the specific song was “AC-DC”.  Well the lyrics deal with, shall we say, a lady who has no gender preference when it comes to carnal knowledge.  As a curious 8 year old boy I asked what do the words mean?   I was told what they mean and from that moment on I was hooked on rock and roll.

Life took me all over California where I went to school at San Francisco State University.  I graduated with a B.A. in Broadcast Communication Arts and an “unofficial” minor in beer consumption.  I did several internships while in school including radio stations KNEW (at the time AM-Country, now a talkie) and KSAN (at the time an FM-Country, has since seen the light and is now at 107.7 on the dial and is a ROCKER!), I also worked at the highly influential KNBR-AM as an intern on the “Frank and Mike in the Morning show”.  At the time one of the highest rated morning shows in the very competitive San Francisco Bay Area.  Now the station is an all sports station.

My first paying job in radio was at KFMR in Stockton, California.  I was a production assistant.  A fancy term for someone who made cart copies of commercials and loaded them onto reels.  This lasted about 6 months and I said I need to do something different.  Read, I needed more money.  I went into media sales in cable TV and stayed there for nearly 10 years before coming to Texas in 1990.  After a brief stint at KFDX in sales I spent three years selling at KAUZ.  The face of television sales was changing and I made the change to radio.

Luckily I was welcomed with open arms at Cumulus Broadcasting.  I spent my first 18 months off the air, just selling, but then there was a need for a Sunday 6am to 12 noon board operator.  The entire 6 hours was recorded shows for which I was only responsible for playing the commercials, except for 40 minutes.  AH!  My big chance.  I only had 40 minutes and it was country music, not my favorite, but I was determined to make my 40 minutes the best 40 minutes listeners had heard all week.

Must have worked.  It wasn’t long before I found myself on 104 the Bear and after “doing time” with a variety of other air staff and program types I was lucky enough to be partnered with Keith Vaughn for “Vaughn and The Mac”.  That terrific gig lasted nearly three years.  >From there it was various time slots and various shows but all of them had one common thread, rock and roll.  I am proud to be on a station that has not only the best music but also the best talent and support staff, and since they all live here if we want to go out after a gig we can.

I’m a happily married guy with four great kids and a cat that thinks I hung the moon. 

Read The Mac's blog "Power to the People"