a

Robed "Mason"
Rosenthal with
Gary Dixon.

M

ention the Mason-Dixon line
to Robert Rosenthal and he's
likely to talk about his line
of work rather than a line
once dividing the United States into
Northern and Southern states. Actu-
ally, he connects communities instead
of separating them.
Mr. Rosenthal is one-half of the
Mason-Dixon radio duo, broadcast-
ing country music recorded in the
South to a growing number of fans in
the North. Since February 1994, the
team has been working for station W-
4 Country (106.7 FM), which operates
out of a studio in downtown Detroit.
Robert Rosenthal became DJ Rob
Mason in 1990, after a country music
station in Columbia, S.C., paired him
with Gary Dixon.
"Gary and I didn't know each oth-
er before Columbia," said Mr. Rosen-
thal, who is on the air between 5:30
and 10 a.m. weekdays. "I had a dif-
ferent partner, and so did he. They
just put us together, and it worked.
We've stayed together since then.
'When I first got to Columbia, they
said I could have the job but I would
have to change my name to Mason;
Rosenthal and Dixon just didn't have
the same ring to it as Mason and
Dixon did. I said, 'OK' "
With tongue in cheek, the broadcaster jests: "The hard
part was getting the rest of the Rosenthal relatives to
change their last name, but they've gone along with it!"
Joking comes naturally to the Georgia native, who
keeps Rosenthal as his legal name. He likes to bring a
sense of humor to the repartee between records.
"We try to have fun and be funny," said the Southern-
bred broadcaster. "We also try to be real people. We talk
about what's going on in our lives and with our fami-
lies — things that most people can relate to."
Mr. Rosenthal, 30, knew he wanted to work in radio
by the time he was a high-school junior and found his
first job at a country music station. His appreciation
for Southern tunes developed while he worked as a disc
jockey each Sunday morning.
The novice DJ moved on to fill more airtime while he
was completing high-school requirements. Before grad-
uating from the University of Georgia with a bachelor's
degree in mass communications, he went from the disc
jockey chair into the news department.
After earning his college degree, Mr. Rosenthal was

mport

Robert Rosenthal
"crosses the line"
to bring country
music to Detroit.

SUZANNE CHESSLER

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

local concerts, he appears with them at special
events sponsored by his station.
Mason and Dixon act as hosts at events like the
W-4 Chili Cookoff and Country Music Festival,
which will be held July 14, 15 and 16 at the Spring-
field Oaks County Park in Davisburg. They will in-
troduce the crowd to stars like Mark Collie, Sammy
Kershaw, Michelle Wright and Daron Norwood.
The radio team also will act as hosts at Sunday
in the Country, planned for Aug. 20 at Freedom
Hall in Rochester. Guest artists will be announced
soon.
Each year, the Detroit duo attends the Country
Radio Seminar in Nashville, where artists meet
broadcasters from all over the country. They also
visit Nashville to do live interviews with stars fea-
tured at the Country Music Association Awards.
"Country
stars are down to earth," Mr. Rosenthal said.
hired as a full-time newsman, later accepting a series of
reporting jobs in Georgia cities before a disc jockey of- "Most of them are genuinely appreciative for whatever
success they've had. They understand what got them
fer transferred him to South Carolina.
"I think that country music is the best music," said the there, and they know how to keep it going.
"When I was in college, John Berry used to play at a
radio personality, who makes a point of listening to oth-
er styles during his time away from the station. "The nice little bar in Athens, Ga., and we would go to see him. Af-
thing about country songs is that they tell a story. There's ter he finished each set, we always told him to go to
Nashville and try to get a record contract, but he said he
a lot of emotion, and the words can be understood.
"In the business, we like to say that the best thing that didn't want to leave Georgia.
"In the last four years, he decided to give it a shot, and
ever happened to country radio was rap. When a lot of
he's
really taken off. He has a terrific voice and puts on
the popular music stations began to play rap, many peo-
ple went looking somewhere else because they didn't a great show. Things are going really well for him, and
it's sort of a personal satisfaction for me."
want to listen to that.
At W-4 Country and other radio stations, music di-
"They found country music, and they found that it
rectors
— not the disc jockeys — pick the music that is
wasn't their grandfathers' country music."
Mason and Dixon play what is considered mainstream played. Selections are based on research and listener sur-
country, recordings reaching the Top 40 list. Heading the veys with results tracked by computer.
Station research has shown that the country music
array of artists they've found popular in the Detroit area
audience
has become very diverse in the past five years
are Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Reba
— ranging from those in their teens to those in retire-
McEntire and Vince Gill.
Mr. Rosenthal meets a lot of the recording stars whose ment.
music he plays. Besides getting to know them through GEORGIA IMPORT page 76

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