By Janelle Gelfand
Enquirer staff writer

Robin Gehl races down a corridor to talk to her music director about the play list.

Next she brainstorms with symphony marketing executives about studio interviews.

Then she pops into the on-air studio to make sure morning host Brian O'Donnell has traffic, breaking news and - not least - the Reds score.

All in 30 minutes on a recent morning.

ROBIN GEHL

Job title: Vice president for programming, WGUC-FM (90.9) Birthdate: Nov. 14, 1960 Hometown: Fulda, Minn. Lives: Garfield Place, downtown Marital status: Single, never married Education: Bachelor of Music, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., Master of Arts, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; enrolled in the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Ph.D. program. Favorite hobby: Baseball. She's a Suite Ambassador for the Reds Plays: piano, clarinet and sax Biggest myth: That station programming is pretaped or "canned." Says Gehl: "If there's something happening in the community we want to announce, I take it to the (on-air) announcer. If there's stormy weather, or a piece of news breaks (the station broke the news last month about Cincinnati Zoo's new baby rhino) we try to be timely. The best thing is, we're live, 24/7." Major award: Under Gehl's leadership, WGUC won a World Medal, the highest award, for best classical format in the 2001 New York Festivals international industry competition. The prestigious prize recognizes the world's best work in programming, on-air talent, entertainment and other elements. Her personality: "I'm not one to make a snap decision or pronouncement. I'm also kind of reserved by nature, but it gives me time to know what I want." Favorite music: The "big, slamming romantic symphonies" of Beethoven or Brahms, Bach's solo keyboard music and Norah Jones. Defining moment: Winning a little radio as a kid, and listening to WCCO out of the Twin Cities, one of the big AM radio stations that beamed hundreds of miles. "What a neat connection radio gives you with the world. In my case, growing up in an isolated part of the world, radio was a link to all kinds of things." Why she likes living downtown: "I can walk to work and to the ballpark, Music Hall and restaurants. Favorite childhood memory: "My funny little idyllic childhood growing up on a farm, with my parents both at home. My grandparents retired on a nearby lake. We'd go to that lake and every day we'd go swimming with my cousins." CLASSICAL CARTOONS Much of the contemporary classical radio audience had their first classical music experience with Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck: • "Ride of the Valkyries" from Wagner's Ring (Bugs Bunny, What's Opera, Doc?) • Rossini's opera, The Barber of Seville (Long-Haired Hare and Rabbit of Seville) • Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Pigs in a Polka) • Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring; Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours; Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Bach's Toccata and Fugue (Disney's Fantasia) • Rossini's William Tell Overture (Disney's The Band Concert; also TV's The Lone Ranger) STUDIO'S NEW PIANO WGUC has just received a rare gift: A concert grand Steinway piano that belonged to William Black, a pianist and faculty member at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, who died in December. Black's widow, Anne Black, recently donated the piano to the station. Its new home is the Corbett Studio, where the station prepares recordings of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival and other local productions for broadcast. A state-of-the-art recording studio, Corbett also generates revenue for the nonprofit station. "Competition in the recording industry is fierce," says general manager Richard Eiswerth. "For WGUC to remain a player ... we soon realized a new and expensive investment had to be made. We had to upgrade our studio piano." The Bill Black Piano, he adds, "will continue to reach out to student, virtuoso and listener alike, also for many years to come. It will serve as another reminder of his legacy, of his life and of his success." IN CHARGE In the last decade, women have been breaking the glass ceiling at Cincinnati's major arts organizations. Besides WGUC's Gehl, here are some of the women in key positions: Patricia Beggs, managing director of Cincinnati Opera Sandra Bernhard, chair of the opera department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Judith Koroscik, dean of UC's College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning Linda Shearer, director of the Contemporary Arts Center Mary McCullough-Hudson, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts, which oversees the Fine Arts Fund Victoria Morgan, artistic director of Cincinnati Ballet Janell Weinstock, general manager of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

"I run," says Gehl, looking, nevertheless, polished and unruffled in her office at WGUC (90.9 FM), where she is program director for Cincinnati's classical radio station. "Because the minute you slack off and become wishy-washy, people say, 'what else can I tune into?' You just have to be on your game all the time to solidify your brand and your niche."

Gehl, 43, is a rarity - one of a handful of female program directors in the classical radio industry nationwide.

She's always on the go, whether it's taking classes for her doctorate in musicology, working part time in guest relations for the Reds, or strolling across the river from her downtown home for a bite and some exploring.

And she's making a difference. The station is bucking the national trend of classical radio stations, which are increasingly abandoning local programming, classical formats, or shutting down altogether.

Only 50 public radio stations still beam classical music full time - 7 percent of NPR stations. Last winter, WGUC's market share - percentage of people in this market who listen to the station - was 18th nationally among public radio stations in a Radio Research Consortium study.

Five years into the job, Gehl, a Minnesota native, has overseen an 18 percent audience growth to more than 163,000 weekly listeners, as well as a nearly 40 percent bump in memberships, grants and corporate gifts - totaling $1.4 million this year. Virtually everything at the station has her stamp on it, from what you hear on the morning show to Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director Paavo Jarvi's twice-daily, 90-second spots.

She has:

• More than doubled the station's play list.

• Reduced on-air fund-raising time by 50 percent.

• Increased the local presence on the air with Cincinnati Spotlight, The Paavo Perspective and interviews with artists appearing at the symphony.

• Stepped up revenue-generating programs that are distributed nationally and internationally, such as Classics for Kids (an award-winning show designed to introduce classical music to children), the new small business talk show Brain Brew and an annual Halloween music show, Tunes from the Crypt.

A change for the good

When she arrived in '99, the station was in a state of flux, most of the on-air staff was new and "the audience probably didn't know which end was up," Gehl says. The previous administration had left a bitter taste with the public, who swamped the phone lines with complaints about programming changes.

Funding for public broadcasting was shrinking dramatically through the '90s. WGUC felt the pinch when federal and state funding was cut and the University of Cincinnati, which then held WGUC's license, was also cutting back. To survive, the station needed to raise audience numbers and income quickly.

Former general manager Brenda Pennell scrapped the monthly magazine, Artscape (which had program listings), cut national orchestra broadcasts and popular shows such as St. Paul Sunday Morning and switched, at least temporarily, to a limited play list that emphasized Mozart's greatest hits and Pachelbel's Canon. The result was charges of "dumbing down" and some withdrawals of individual contributions.

"Some changes went too far," Gehl admits.

It would take someone with both a firm vision and empathy with Cincinnati listeners to bring the station back to a happy middle ground.

Gehl was one of three finalists out of 78 applicants for the job.

"At first glance, she's very demure, soft-spoken. I was taken aback, because how would she interact with people?" says Richard Eiswerth, station CEO and general manager. "When you have on-air talent, you've got people who have very strong egos and very strong personalities.

"So I called her colleagues at Minnesota Public Radio and was told how valued she was - a great manager who worked with people behind the scenes and convinced them to agree with her, even though they didn't know they were being convinced."

There's a reason why Gehl's nickname is the "velvet steamroller."

"Flash forward five years and she's in charge, and there's no question about it,'' says Eiswerth. "At the same time, she's fostered and developed a great deal of camaraderie and work ethic in that department."

Brahms and baseball

In WGUC's Central Parkway studios, Gehl is doing what she does best: Multi-tasking. Meticulous in a sleek navy pantsuit and pearls, she's checking e-mail on her computer, glancing at CNN on a muted TV, holding a conversation and listening to the soothing hum of the radio station, piping non-stop Beethoven and Brahms into her neatnik office.

On her desk is a large mixed summer bouquet of flowers, a classic 1930s Super 8 Crosley radio that she picked up at an antique store in Minnesota and small busts of composers Mozart and Beethoven.

There's also a stack of tapes Gehl needs to edit for upcoming Paavo Perspective segments.

Also on her calendar: Calling Public Radio International, which distributes the station's national programming, to provide details about the Halloween show, going through a large cardboard box of mail and weeding out a stack of unsolicited CDs.

"I've got boxes of those to audition," she says, with a slight groan. "Summer is my time to get caught up."

It's easy to overlook a small china peppermint dish inscribed with "National Baseball Hall of Fame." Baseball is her other major passion. In off-hours during her 20-year career at Minnesota Public Radio, Gehl did color commentary for the Minnesota Twins for a decade.

"I had a spot in the press box and got to be a fixture there. I got to know all the players of the American League," she says with a deep, throaty laugh. "So naturally, when I got here and they opened the new stadium, I wanted to be a part of that."

So, she found a little part time job, working in guest relations on game days at Great American Ball Park.

A "suite ambassador," she's sort of a concierge for corporate guests in 12 of the ballpark's 40 luxury suites. She answers questions, makes sure the guests are happy and - a few times - has acted as "bouncer" when a suite guest has gotten a tad too rowdy.

Blonde, blue-eyed, lanky and with a ready smile, Gehl, who grew up on a dairy farm, is single and loves living downtown because she can walk everywhere. She won't eat lunch at her desk, preferring to seek out a small restaurant or take a walk, because it "clears your head." When she's not walking to her fulltime job at WGUC or to the ballpark, she strolls over the Roebling Bridge to explore neighborhoods in Northern Kentucky.

Still searching for ways to occupy her other waking hours, she recently added "student" to her job titles and is embarking on a Ph.D. in musicology at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Getting out of the studio makes her aware of everything out there that's competing for the radio listener's attention.

"People at the push of a button can tune us out," she says. "One thing to combat that is to just be good at what you do."

She oversees everything happening at the station, down to how her announcers pronounce names like Jesus Lopez-Cobos, former Cincinnati Symphony music director. She'll drop by each studio on her regular rounds: Master Control (the big on-air studio); interview studios; editing rooms and the Corbett Recording Studio, which has a new grand piano that belonged to late CCM piano professor Bill Black.

"Every now and then, when I'm there in the evening and no one's around, I go in there and practice," says Gehl.

"She's got a very specific idea about the sound she wants for the station, and I think she's done that in a very positive way," says Naomi Lewin, an award-winning mid-day announcer who also writes and hosts the popular weekly show, Classics for Kids. "I'm very grateful. This is my second job ever in radio. At the first place, I was totally green. ... They never gave me an idea of, 'this is the way to sound on the air.' "

A new sound

When Gehl came in '99, "there was sort of an arrogance that we're smarter, and you're not," says Lorna Ozmon, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based media consultant who has helped Gehl develop the station's on-air talent.

Gehl has given WGUC's sound a new personality.

"Her vision for the station is one that is intelligent and credible, but has respect for the audience," says Ozmon. "What she is, is what she wants to convey in a radio station: A very respectful person who is focused on the audience needs. "

Ozmon says Gehl understands what the now largely baby boomer classical audience wants, which is greater variety than their parents wanted.

"You have boomers who are very influenced by the rock-edged oldies. They were exposed to some pieces of classical music in cartoons. This audience grew up on Top 40," Ozmon says. "If you listen to WGUC, you don't hear the typical repertoire you hear on the more conservative classical stations."

Much of the art of programming, believes Gehl, is in knowing how listeners use radio.

"Not everybody is going to want to wake up with breakfast to an hour-long Mahler symphony," Gehl says. "But they may in the evening, when they're relaxing and getting ready for bed. A big part of radio is knowing what types of things ... are most easily processed at what times."

She programs around the great pieces of classical music by composers such as Mozart and Bach, and tries to "stretch boundaries beyond that."

"You want to reflect what the listeners want, and you want to lead them. And you gotta be careful what that mix is," she says.A new attitude

Gehl's personality, friendly but reserved, turned out to be an asset.

"I'm not the life of the party. I'm kind of one-on-one," she says, carefully choosing her words. "That works well for this business, because you're dealing with people's talent and their personality."

She doesn't micromanage, says morning host O'Donnell.

"Robin takes a hands-off approach," he says. "She's very supportive but ... she lets her 'players' do what they do best."

But to make change, she also had to be tough.

"I'm trying to think of a delicate way of putting it," says Eiswerth. "She has very strong opinions, and she's able to defend them. If you disagree with her, it can be frustrating. She does hold her ground, because she knows she's right.

"The frustrating thing is, more often than not, when you leave the heat of battle and sit down and do the research, the numbers back her up."

Farmer's daughter

Maybe it's her background, growing up in Fulda, Minn., population 1,200, a farmer's daughter, which makes her detail-oriented and adept at juggling.

"It was a dairy farm, so we had a herd of Holstein cows. Our whole life revolved around chores," says Gehl, the middle child between two brothers. "My dad had to do the milking, morning and evening, 365 days a year. He also grew corn and soybeans and hay and had pigs and sheep."

When she yearned to go to the big city, her parents told her to "go and learn." She worked her way up from a clerical job in the music library at Minnesota Public Radio, one of the biggest producers of programming in the industry.

She sees many similarities between Cincinnati's rich cultural life, parks and waterways, and those in the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Now, she takes pride in showing off her new home to visitors. In 2002, she hosted a conference of 500 radio program directors and arranged for them to visit Oktoberfest, Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati Museum Center and a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concert.

She pitches the city as smoothly as she does classical music.

"At the end of the day, you're bringing people enjoyment, a neat glimpse into something they may not know, and a special form of entertainment that you might normally not be exposed to," she says.

---

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com