Nomenclature:

You may be asking yourself “how in the world did a guy like Keith Conrad end up starting a website called “ProductionNinja.com?”

The story is very different from what you may think. Years ago my very first job was chopping vegetables in a grocery store. Showing that the powers that be at Albertson’s in Aurora, CO didn’t know me very well, I was trusted to use many very large and very sharp knives. One of my co-workers always called me the “Produce Ninja.”

When I eventually retired from my stellar vegetable cutting career and started in radio, calling my site “ProductionNinja” seemed far more unique and original than something like “KeithConrad.com” or “Homesickforchicago.com.” I made my choice, and I stand by it.

Keith Conrad:

I was born in northwest suburban Chicago… growing up on the mean streets of Streamwood, IL. But then one day came the worst news anyone can get in their life: a move to Alabama of all places. That to say the least was an experience. A move to Denver and then back to Alabama later, I started college and at the same time I also started working in radio.

For five years I worked as a producer at News/Talk 770 WVNN and its sister station Sports Radio 730 the UMP, while going to college at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. UAH is considered by some to be the “MIT of the southeast” and they have a world renowned engineering department that has produced some of the world’s best rocket scientists… so of course I majored in Communications at the other end of campus. At work I was the afternoon producer, the morning producer, and then for a time I was both! I produced, I helped out in the news department, I hosted once, I even filled in as a DJ on the clusters top 40 station WZYP for a time. Anything to get as much experience as I could.

One of the best experiences of my career came when I got the chance to serve as a news intern at WGN Radio in Chicago. Ever since my family made the move to Alabama, I’ve had a desire to return to my midwestern roots, so to be able to spend a summer in the Windy City working at one of the top radio stations in the country… one that my parents had me listening to when I was in diapers… was truly a dream come true, and an amazing experience.

After school all of that experience helped me land a fantastic job as the morning producer for WISN in Milwaukee. I worked on the WISN Early Spin, from October of 2005 until its untimely demise in August of 2007, and I was fortunate enough to work with two of the coolest people you’ll ever meet, Dan Deibert and Nicole Devin. It was a great experience that was far too short for my liking, but that’s life in radio.

In December of 2007 I became the morning producer for 640 WGST in Atlanta, GA. Ultimately it was a pretty forgettable experience, but I did work with a lot of really great people and learned a lot along the way. It also led me to the next step in my career.

In July of 2009 I finally made it back to the rough and tumble Chicago suburbs. I am currently the producer for Big John Howell on 560 WIND in Chicago.