It’s seven in the morning, and you’re commuting to Hampton from Norfolk. The traffic is stacked up as you approach the tunnel, and you don’t know if you’ll make it to your first meeting on time.

What to do? Turn on the radio, and you’re likely to hear the melodic voice of a woman on the airwaves, someone whose upbeat personality will help turn your negative mood into a positive one. With a joke, a throaty laugh, or a calm, soothing presence, women on the radio—both behind the mic and behind the scenes— are a special blend of quick wit, authenticity, business savvy, and personality. Let’s meet a few of them.

FEELING CONNECTED

On a recent morning at the WHRV-FM studio in Norfolk, Sondra Woodward is multitasking. She’s been hard at work since arriving at the station at 4:30 a.m., checking monitors for news, traffic, and weather information while standing by for breaks between sections of NPR’s “Morning Edition.” The studio’s high-tech appearance resembles the command module in a spaceship. Sondra’s routine is tightly scripted.

In her smooth, professional voice, she says she just “fell into’’ the radio business more than 20 years ago. “I had one of the only paid jobs at the old 90.3, WFOS, owned by the Chesapeake Public School System. I did a morning show when I was only 19 years old,” said Sondra, a Norfolk Academy alum, who also worked part time at WCMS radio.

After her stint at WFOS, Sondra moved to Baltimore and gained experience at Metro Traffic and the city’s public radio station, WJHU, where she learned about classical music. But she wanted to get a college degree. While putting herself though school at William & Mary, Sondra worked for Colonial Williamsburg, serving a six-year apprentice before becoming a journeyman shoemaker, and continued with CW for several years after that.

In 2004, Sondra returned to radio, joining the staff at WHRV-FM. She credits the late Betty Luce as one of her radio mentors along with Marjorie Crump, former owner of WCMS radio, whose style Betty admired and emulated.

Working in public radio suits Sondra. “This is one of the only places you can get away from corporate influences,” she explained. “It’s really about the school systems and being owned by our members. Speaking of fund raising, Sondra would soon be joining Joanne Falletta, conductor of the Virginia Symphony, and Cathy Lewis, the host of WHRV’s Hearsay program, in WHRO’s TV studio for their chance to gather radio memberships on Sondra’s shift.

Sondra feels absolutely certain that the fundraisers connect public radio and television audiences with the staff in a powerful way.

“Four weeks out of the year we have pledge drives. As hard as they are for everybody to listen to, they’re the necessary part of how we operate,” she said.  “And until someone comes up with a better model, ‘It is what it is,’ as Betty Luce used to say.”

No matter what type of media you work in, Sondra admits, you can’t have a feeling of absolute job security. Management can be fickle, and trends come and go. But she believes radio will have a long life—even with newer options emerging like iPods and Satellite radio. Sondra believes people want the kind of intimacy that radio listeners cherish.

“When it first came out, Satellite radio was all music,” she said. “Now there’s this trend where the jocks are starting to have personalities again—and I think that is on purpose. People miss that and want to feel connected.”

Sondra’s early morning shift is one of the most challenging in the radio business. Her co-worker and former teacher, Raymond Jones is impressed.

“She has such intense concentration and such a level of multi-functionality,” Raymond said. “It’s almost as if she has four arms and three brains. I’m an old pro, but I can’t keep up with her….She’s definitely the best morning person I’ve ever known.”

Sondra’s commitment to drivers comes from her own experience.

“When I used to commute from Williamsburg, I understood the frustration of driving through that tunnel,” she recalled. “I remember that I used to flip through the dial, knowing exactly when every traffic report was, trying to figure out who would have the latest information, hoping there was someone there who really understands. So I try to be that person.”

But there’s one thing Sondra Woodward won’t do: wear a watch. She and her partner, NASA science writer Jim Schultz, jokingly call them “instruments of torture.” After her shift at WHRV ends, Sondra’s on her own time.

AUDIENCE COMMITMENT

On the fifth floor of Dominion Tower, overlooking the Elizabeth River, Holly Williams is just finishing her nine a.m. to three p.m. shift on BOB-FM. She has a snappy new haircut, courtesy of a local salon—which advertises on the station, and she’s raving about a restaurant, another advertiser, where she can order her meals cooked to order. Commercial radio continues to be like the family car: it carries music, weather, news, public service announcements, and ads from local businesses that create the revenue that keeps the business running.

But unlike the family car, the working parts of the radio world keep changing, and now all the songs are logged into a computer. For Holly, it’s been one change after another. But she’s up for it.

“When I got into radio 20 years ago, they had just come off of albums, and there were discs, but you still had some turn tables in the studio,” she recalled.

Soon there was a computer program available to the program directors, which allowed them to load up all the songs, select the type of mood, include commercials, leaving only brief breaks for DJs to chat about the music. The role of radio host changed. Promoting bands and their releases became more important than selecting the music. DJs also spend a lot of time at area fundraisers and events. Holly feels that’s a big part of her job—and the station’s mission.

Holly came to the radio business with a degree in communications and a focus on theater from the University of Scranton. A chance meeting with a radio station owner opened the doors to her career. He liked Holly’s voice on the phone and invited her to do an audition.

The program director of that station loved Holly’s voice but said she was a terrible announcer. Holly says she worked  hard to improve her skills, taking weekend and overnight shifts, paying her dues in the broadcasting world.

Holly remembers a particular moment at the start of her radio career. When she opened the microphone on her first air shift, she thought she was going to have a stroke.

“I pushed myself back from the mic and thought: ‘I don’t have to do this’ and then something stopped me,” she recalled. “I don’t know if that was my guardian angel or what, but I pushed myself up to that board, and that’s all it took. I was hooked.”

As a young, single woman in Norfolk, Holly got a job as an overnight announcer. She hoped the morning DJs would hear her in that last hour before their shift started. Eventually, they did, and her reputation brought her into better time slots and some administrative roles.

Holly agrees with Sondra Woodward that having a job—and keeping it—in radio is a matter of luck. She’s been with Sinclair since 1993. She programmed The Coast and 96X.

“Who says middle aged gals can’t rock?” she said with a snap of her fingers and a wide smile.

Holly’s confidence and personality roll through the airwaves. On BOB-FM, she relies on her intelligence and creativity during her short breaks between songs.

“You have to be on—concise and precise,” she said, “and you have to be able to paint a picture in less than sixty seconds in front of a microphone. You don’t get to do Take Two.”

Even though the owners of Holly’s station have done their best to include women, Holly thinks that her medium is still behind the times.

“When you hear a morning [radio] show, it’s usually a guy at the helm, and a gal is there as the laughing track and does the news,” Holly said. “I know there are women out there who are witty, who’ve got the chops.”

Though a woman with “great pipes” is an asset to her company, it takes a commitment to the audience to make long lasting listeners, according to Holly. “We do have to be a part of the community. When they call the station, they’re calling to talk to me,” she said. “I’m there for them.”

CREATING RELATIONSHIPS

Lisa Sinclair is the co-owner of five Hampton Roads radio stations and Holly Williams’ boss. She and Bob Sinclair, her former husband and business partner, operate BOB- FM, WUSH- FM, 96X, WNIS, and WTAR. The Sinclairs moved to the Hampton Roads in the late 70’s. Lisa is thrilled that the area has become a vibrant, successful media market. Lisa’s strongest focus in on advertising, the fuel for commercial radio.

“I was the first woman Bob hired in sales, and I was the only woman on a staff of six or seven men,” Lisa recalled. “Now, at least half of our sales staff is female, and our sales managers are all female. We have four women in our highest positions in our sales departments.”

Lisa believes that women have unique traits that promote good business practice: empathy, friendliness, and the ability to create and sustain relationships with clients.

Like Holly, Lisa echoes the importance of community links with her listeners.

“With radio, I feel it’s an obligation to be very involved with the community. We let people know what’s going on, and I think we do more of it than anybody,” Lisa said. “When we have an event, we promote it on all five stations.”

While women are moving up the ladder in sales and administrative jobs, Lisa observes that there are still fewer woman as on-air hosts.

“It may be that more men are drawn to that kind of position,” she said, “and it’s true that our stations have more men than women on the air.”

“However, I definitely think that women in radio have a voice and can certainly stand alone. They don’t need to be a sidekick to a man, and Holly is a great example of that. She’s nobody’s second banana!” she said, laughing.

Sinclair Communications strives to create a sense of family among their staff. Many employees bring their babies to work if they’re nursing, and Lisa has seen children grow up at the stations over the years. Lisa and Bob’s son, now a teen, has learned the business from the ground up. Holly Williams’ daughter is often at the station in the summer.

The family-friendly attitude extends to daily operations. “We’re not so corporate,” Lisa said. “If somebody needs a decision made, they come to us and we can act right away. We don’t have to send it up the chain to the corporate office, and let them decide.”

Owning a group of radio station is very exciting, says Lisa. There’s a sense of urgency, with new ideas and possibilities every day. Lisa enjoys the fact that her staff can match advertising clients to the various radio station formats, with their diverse demographics.

“Opportunities come up and if you stop and think about it too long, it may be gone,” Lisa said. “You can’t sit back and rest on yesterday’s laurels.”

A few years back, Lisa was invited to speak to a women’s business luncheon to share her career experiences. “My message was this: It’s about finding something that you love, and then doing something that you love,” Lisa said. “Don’t go to work everyday and be bored and unhappy.”

As Lisa looks to the future of radio, she is positive that one thing won’t change. “There will definitely be places for women on the air,” she said. “Radio is a great place for women to work.