you're passionate about being able to
communicate your company's message. Walking
through a pressroom you may be standing by a
star, but you're the person who spent
hours setting up those press stories and
afterward, you are the person who gets on the
phone, and follows through to make sure they
got the information they needed.
You're the one who has to stop the photographer
from taking too many pictures, and
the one who is going to have to get in an
argument with him if he continues. Often,
people don't understand how complicated the job
of publicity can be. It's also a
thankless job."
JUDY McDONOUGH, DIRECTOR MEDIA AND PUBLIC
RELATIONS,
CAPITOL RECORDS NASHVILLE
It was watching
The Monkees television show that first gave
Judy McDonough the
idea of turning her passion for music into a
career. "They worked in music and it was
exciting. It gave me a sense of music being a
profession." She began to educate herself
early for that career, poring over
Rolling Stone magazine before she was even out
of
grade school. She attended St. Mary's College,
and in her freshman year, served as a
disc jockey at the campus radio station, where
she was exposed to all kinds of music
she had never heard before. After her first
year, she transferred to Western University
in St. Louis and graduated with a degree in
English literature. "English lit proved
helpful because it taught me how to think and
how to write, which is an invaluable
tool."
While attending Western, she got a job at a
local record store and later moved up
to management. "Working in a record store was a
dream job," McDonough recalls.
"For the next ten years I managed record
stores, and that brought me to North
Carolina, where I discovered bluegrass music.
That was an epiphany for me. I thought
the music was beautiful and the musicianship
was astounding." The record store she
managed published a free newsletter for their
customers, for which she wrote articles.
Her love of bluegrass led her to approach the
head of Sugar Hill Records about profil-
ing the label. "I thought, `Man, this is the
coolest label in the world.'"
Eventually McDonough thought she would like to
work at Sugar Hill, but too shy
to call for an interview, she wrote a letter
instead. Based upon her writing skills, and
the extensive knowledge of music she had gained
over time, she was offered a posi-
tion in public relations. At the label she
found mentors in Barry Poss and Bev Paul,
and set about learning the business of being a
publicist. "I really learned my trade at
Sugar Hill. I learned to communicate my love
for the music--my passion for it--to
journalists and to get them to write about our
artists."
Three years later, it was time for a new
challenge, which came in the form of an
offer from Capitol Records in Nashville. She
made the move, found another mentor
in Lori Lytle, and learned how to take her
skills to the next level through projects with
artists like Garth Brooks, Tanya Tucker, and
Deana Carter. "I was part of the team
CASE STUDY:
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