October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. We at The Solutions Marketing Group know that there are many people with disabilities making significant contributions in their careers. For October, we've shifted our focus from recognizing the achievements of companies to highlighting those of a businessperson who happens to have a disability.

The Solutions Marketing Group has selected Greg Smith, writer, public speaker, entrepreneur, and radio personality of the On a Roll radio show, for October's Profile in Excellence. Greg's daily work causes him to assume many roles and pushes his talents to the limits. In addition to hosting On a Roll, Greg works for AccessLife.com, a firm that specializes in providing news, opinions, information, and products to make life run more smoothly for people with disabilities. At AccessLife, he works in sales and marketing and serves as a writer, content consultant, and company spokesperson.

The Solutions Marketing Group is proud to salute Greg Smith.

On a Roll: Profile of Greg Smith

By Joan Leotta

Ask Greg Smith his favorite aspect of his professional life and this busy radio host, public speaker, writer, marketing guru, and entrepreneur doesn't mention money or fame. For Greg, who now lives in Tampa, Florida and hosts the syndicated On a Roll radio program, being on the air is the fulfillment of a dream. Still, "What I like best," he says, "is that my own work is an example of what I talk about—people with disabilities making their own opportunities and testing the limit of their own potential, particularly in the area of employment."

Early Influences

Diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy when he was three years old, Greg started "walking funny," as he puts it, and became a "wheelchair pilot" at age 13. Buoyed by the support and strong work ethic of his parents, Jim and Adelia Smith, Greg continued to pursue the same extracurriculars and interests he had always enjoyed. A drummer for his band, the Marching Mustangs, at Downers Grove South High School outside of Chicago, Greg kept up with the other marchers by mounting his drums to his power chair. A sports fan, he also kept statistics for the basketball and football games—and then he discovered radio. In his sophomore year, Greg began doing play-by-play for basketball, baseball, and football games at the student-run community radio station.

The interest in radio broadcasting continued through college. "I selected Arizona State University in Tempe because they had a good program in radio at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism," Greg says. "After college I wanted to use my degree and work in sales at a radio station."

No is Not an Option

Greg graduated college and hit the employment scene in the late 1980s—before the Americans with Disabilities Act. "The first station I went to said that they did not have room for someone like me. They felt that because I used a wheelchair I could not be effective in sales.

"[But] I don't take no for an answer," he asserts. "I went back and explained that I had a lot to offer. They ended up creating a special position for me—in research related to sales. I became the Research and Sales Promotion Director at Pulitzer's KTAR/K-Lite in Phoenix, writing ad copy and analyzing statistics. But five years later, I still wanted to be in sales."

This time when they told him "no," Greg began to think of career options where his disability would not be an obstacle. Leaving his job at KTAR was not an easy decision: Greg was married, had a baby, and yet was considering leaving a $40,000 a year job with no offers. He considered exploring pharmaceutical sales positions, since physicians' offices and hospitals are wheelchair accessible. But another idea appealed to him more: starting his own radio show on issues that would be of interest to people with disabilities. On December 6, 1992, under the sponsorship of Bank of America in Phoenix, Greg started his show, On a Roll, as a local program at KFNN, 1510 AM.

On a Roll

Greg's programming philosophy is to present information, resources, and topics for discussion that are universally empowering, universally entertaining, and particularly applicable to the lives of people with disabilities. "We feature guests who have knowledge and expertise on topics that fit these criteria or who have personal stories to tell that demonstrate human potential," he says.

Even with the Bank of America as a sponsor, the first few years of On a Roll were a struggle. In 1997, New Mobility magazine decided to take up sponsorship, paying also for a satellite connection and for national syndication. The show's listenership soon grew from one station to ten, then almost twenty. "The number of stations carrying the show has been hovering around 20 for some time," Greg says. "I estimate about 20,000 listeners." Station audiences range in size from the New York City market to small-town broadcasts. Since not all the stations use the Aribitron standard radio audience size estimator service, exact listenership figures are hard to calculate.

After a year and a half, New Mobility decided to discontinue sponsorship. During that same period, Greg got divorced, moved from Arizona to his parents' home in Ohio with his three children, and continued to run the show. "[My parents] were my parachute [at that time]," Greg says.

Back on Top

Struggling to maintain the success the show had started to enjoy, Greg found a new sponsor—Microsoft—and made plans to grow. "You have to make your own opportunities in life," he said. "I wrote a business plan. I continued to do speaking and traveling. I wanted to set up something on a little bigger scale. In 1998, I was interviewed by Josh Prager, a Wall Street Journal reporter. When that article came out on February 25, 1999, I got a call from a literary agent who wanted to write a book about my life."

The Wall Street Journal article also connected Greg to his new syndicator, Brad Saul at the Radio Center for People with Disabilities, a non-profit organization that trains people with disabilities for radio careers.

Greg is very optimistic that the show will continue to reach new audiences and continue to grow. He is working with his newest sponsor, General Motors, to target marketing campaigns for local GM dealers to reach an audience of people with disabilities.

A Week in the Life of On a Roll

Preparation for each week's show involves research, coordination, and writing. The two-hour Sunday broadcast takes a full week of work. Here's a glimpse of what has to be done on a weekly basis.

"The first part of my preparation for the Sunday show starts on the previous week," Greg explains. "As soon as I've finished one broadcast the preparation for the next week's begins—I listen to the tape and review it."

• Monday
  Brainstorm with producer Mike Ervin about ideas and review the material on several Internet listservs to see what is going on in the disability community. Greg then follows up with local radio stations and sponsors.
  
  
• Tuesday
  Review everything again and go through the topics and new ideas. Greg returns calls and makes followup calls to possible guests.
  
  
• Wednesday
  Make more calls, see who is available, and work on specific topics for discussion.
  
  
• Thursday and Friday
  Working with Mike Ervin, assemble the best ideas.
  
  
• Saturday
  Review the information again and make last-minute changes—including, some weeks, entirely revamping the entire content.
  
  
• Sunday
  Greg takes a nap at 4 in the afternoon and gets up at 7. "It keeps my mind fresh," he says. "Then I go into my studio here in my home in Tampa. I use an ISDN line with connections to the Chicago station," that broadcasts the show. "Sometimes the interviewee is in Chicago, sometimes in his or her own home," Greg explains. "The mix makes it all sound as though we are face to face."

Thinking Big

When he's not planning for his Sunday On a Roll, Greg writes an opinion column that appears every Friday at AccessLife.com. Greg accepted the invitation from AccessLife over other dot-com ventures because of his confidence in the startup's business model. When he agreed to write the column, as a part of his personal philosophy of creating his own opportunities, Greg told the company that he wanted more: He wanted a stake in the company and he wanted to be involved in marketing. The company agreed.

Greg has also started an e-mail discussion group for people who are both black and disabled. "The objective of this group is to give African Americans with disabilities a forum to discuss unique issues we face," he says. "I want to do what I can to facilitate more involvement of blacks with disabilities in the disability movement. I hope the group can work on promoting an understanding of disability culture in the African American community and make connections with black leaders and the black media." To subscribe to the group, send e-mail to BlackDisabledsubscribe@onelist.com.

Coming Attractions

Greg says, "My next step with the show—well, this is a scoop for all of you who are reading on disability-marketing.com—I want to do a show that is broader than disability issues, a more general feature talk radio show. There will always be On a Roll, but there might just be more as well."

Tune in to On a Roll

On a Roll can be heard in the following markets and timeslots.

New York	WEVD 1050 AM	(various timeslots)
Chicago	WAUR 930 AM	Saturdays 4-6 p.m.
Boston	WDIS 1170 AM	Sundays (various timeslots)
St. Louis	WINU 880 AM	Saturdays 5-7 p.m.
Phoenix	KFNN 1510 AM	Sundays 6-7 p.m.
Daytona Beach	WELE 1380 AM	Sundays 1 p.m.
Sacramento	KAHI 950 AM	Sundays 6-8 p.m.
Buffalo	WJTN 1240 AM	Sundays Midnight -1 a.m.
Harrisburg	WVZN 1580 AM	Sundays 1-2 p.m.
Louisville	WWKY 790 AM	Mondays 7-9 p.m.
Las Vegas	KNUU 970 AM	Sundays 6-7 p.m. (Live)
Dayton	WHIO 1290 AM	Sundays, 10-11 (Live)
Honolulu	KGU 760 AM	Saturdays 4-6 p.m.
Knoxville	WNOX 990 AM	Sundays 7-8 a.m.
Roanoke, VA	WODI 1230 AM	Saturdays 10-11 a.m.
Youngstown, OH	WANR 1570 AM	(various timeslots)
Santa Barbara	KGLW 1340 AM	Sundays 6-8 p.m. (Live)
Tallahassee	WTAL 1450 AM	Sundays 9-10 p.m. (Live)

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