VOICE OF THE CITY
Angie Martinez started as a 16 year old intern and persevered 20 years to become “The Voice of New York”, through radio, rap, books, podcasts, and more.
BROOKLYN, NY
Raised by a single mom in the New York City neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Brooklyn, Angie Martinez began to get into trouble at age 15. While her mom worked, she spent her days drinking, smoking pot and listening to music with her friends. During that time, Martinez was absent more days than she was in school.
“I think a lot of us just weren't taught about finances. It's not something that I blame my mom for. I think my mom was learning, herself. I was young. I started working at the station in my teens with no real thought about how to handle my money.”
Hoping to turn things around, her mom sent her to Miami to live with an aunt. A few months later, her mother moved too after landing a job as programming manager at Miami radio station Power 96. Martinez got an internship at the station and discovered she loved the radio.
After she graduated high school, Martinez moved back to New York and got an internship with Hot 97. At the time, it played freestyle dance music. It would be years before the station turned to hip hop music and for Martinez to start hosting her own show.
“I started in radio really young. I was in the public and I was still learning who I was. Now I know who I am and I know my strengths. I wish I had developed that earlier.”
A big turning point in Martinez's career was interviewing rapper Tupac Shakur. Martinez's interview with Tupac was so powerful that she feared it would further fuel the growing rivalry between the East and West Coast hip hop scenes and never released it in its entirety.
“Interviewing Tupac was a turning point. I realized that how I'd use my voice could really matter. There's a quote from Tupac, "I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world." I feel like that about my life.”
DOCU-SHORT
DISCUSSION
When Angie started there was no such thing as a hip-hop radio station or even regular hip-hop programming at any station. Angie’s audience was just beginning to come to her medium of radio, saying “I remember the changes slowly happening”. It started with crossovers between dance and hip hop like MC Hammer & House of Pain, and mostly at night. Slowly the “conversations in the office, in the programming department started feeling like there was a space for it.” After testing things slowly, finally the station said they would be an all hip-hop station, saying “We’re gonna own it and be that.” (7:30)
Q: What shift is coming with your audience?
Angie’s first full time radio job was from 2am - 6am, a very small but passionate listenership. When Noah asks “Were those conversations with listeners the beginning of your interview skills?” Angie is quick to point out her most educational moment. “I spent a lot of time on the phones. I’d answer the phones all night… and I’d be so happy to talk to somebody.” She would then cut their calls together by hand and create an audio piece to air on the station. These strangers were her audience and she learned to connect with them and cut it up into something entertaining. (12:00)
Q: How can you be creative with how you connect with your audience?
Angie began sensing a new career shift and felt a “longing for a place that didn’t exist anymore”. She began making music, left Hot FM for I Heart Radio, began making TV appearances, and wrote a book. She says, “If you master something then how do you take that and use it in a different way” Angie saw that she was connecting with Hip hop people, and being comfortable in her own skin, and asked herself, “How do you take all of those things and apply them to another space and make them even bigger and better?” 21:00
Q: Looking at what you’ve done, can you do something even bigger for the same audience?