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Radio program director reads to a different tune: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Donna Cruz's career is as diverse as her taste in music. When she's not rocking to Van Halen, Lenny Kravitz or Skillet, the WAY, FM-88.1 program director does the station's afternoon show from 3 to 7 p.m., a midday show for a Denver, Colo., station, and TV and radio voice work on the side. She moved to South Florida in 2002 after 10 years of jobs including magazine marketing director, TV entertainment reporter and a start as a mechanical engineer.
"I really felt the bug to do a different kind of radio with purpose and meaning," she said. "The message is in every song and even though we talk about stuff that pretty much every entertainment entity would mention, it comes from a unique perspective. It's presented through a different filter. Our filter is not shock or blue humor. Everything we do on the air is presented through the filter of our faith."
Here, she discusses her busy life, career and the precious moments she finds to read.
Q. What do you love about your job?
A. I love talking with people on the phone. When we bring up a subject or just throw something out that we find interesting and someone calls with a story, I love it. I love to hear the crazy stuff that makes people tick.
Q. Are there any books that were influential in shaping your early life and subsequent career?
A. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't by Jim Collins has taught me so much about not just doing something, but doing it with purpose and greatness.
Q. What sets WAY-FM apart from other stations?
A. Everything we do is transparent, a bit quirky and very real. Whether it's really funny or really sad or really joyful, it's real. That makes us unique and provides what our very loyal listening audience comes back for every day.
Q. Who are your favorite artists?
A. I have the weirdest music collection. [It includes] everything from Vivaldi to Van Halen, Lenny Kravitz, Carole King, Etta James, Chris Tomlin and David Crowder. I'm a sucker for terrible one-hit wonder 80s bands and sometimes I really like to crank up Skillet or Pillar. It really depends on my mood. Right now, Shawn McDonald's CD is playing in my car.
Q. When do you do most of your reading?
A. At night, right before I go to sleep, or on the weekends, when the kids go to the library and I have a couple of hours of quiet time between loads of laundry.
Q. Do you have favorite authors?
A. I don't have a favorite author. I would have to read a lot more than I do to have a favorite. I am the kind of person that has four books going at the same time and rarely finishes one.
Q. What are you currently reading?
A. I just finished Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller -- a rare "I finished." He's the guy who wrote Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. I didn't read Blue Like Jazz because I have a thing about reading what everyone is reading. That's why I haven't cracked open The Purpose-driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Though when my mom read it, it changed her whole life. I will read it when it's not what everyone's talking about.
Q. Do you prefer bookstores or libraries?
A. Bookstores. There's so much to see and do. Plus, there's coffee.
Q. Do you still read to your children?
A. Yes. My son and I [recently] read Walk Two Moons -- another rare finish.
Q. What books do they enjoy?
A. My kids all learned to read pretty early and we enjoyed everything from Dr. Seuss to The Chronicles of Narnia. We have more books than I could ever count.
Q. Have you ever considered writing a book or your autobiography?
A. Oh, wow. I have had, and still have, a very full life. I've had many exciting, devastating, hurtful, amazing and miraculous experiences and just off-the-wall happenings in my 30-something years. I'm not sure the world is ready for that yet.
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