Story and photo by Marc Glass

Megan Littlefield ’05, evening host on FM radio station 98.9 WCLZ and promotions coordinator for multi-station parent company Portland Radio Group, has no regrets about all the time she spent in the WUMF broadcast booth.

“It became my life,” says Littlefield, known to WUMF’s audience by her on-air persona, The Cool Kid. (“I really wasn’t that cool,” she says with a laugh.) Her Sunday 9 p.m.-to-midnight shift, featuring a lot of what she calls “early Nineties punk music” segued to stints as secretary and program director of WUMF before she became station manager during her junior and senior years.

“I loved it there,” she says of WUMF, “but I didn’t think I had enough practical experience and knowledge to make a career in radio.”

Two weeks from graduation—and with no idea what she was going to do for work—she applied for a promotions assistant position to support the Portland Radio Group’s suite of stations, including WCLZ, “Maine’s Coast” 93.1FM WMGX, “Today’s Country” 101.9FM WPOR, “Big Hits” 100.9FM WYNZ and “Newsradio” 560AM WGAN. Fortunately, her boss-to-be had the same college-radio pedigree and academic major.

“I think she saw herself in me,” says Littlefield, who majored in English. “She could see I had experience with putting on college radio station events and setting up sound equipment.”

Along with her early on-air work as weekend and overnight host for WMGX, playing what she calls a “Hot AC” (adult-contemporary) music rotation, Littlefield helped organize and produce Portland Radio Group’s myriad promotional events, such as WPOR’s Jingle Jam holiday concert and various ticket-giveaway contests.

As promotions coordinator, her responsibilities include, among other tasks, writing public-service announcements, procuring gifts for WMGX’s Holiday Wish promotion, building guest lists for special events and concerts, and attending to what she calls “artist’s rider” requests (perhaps a six-lobster lunch or a bucket of strawberries and whipped cream for dessert).

Hectic as it may be, the job, says Littlefield, is a perfect fit.

“Growing up, I was always the one planning and organizing what my friends and I were going to do on weekends,” says the Scarborough H.S. graduate. “I always had headphones on, listening to music.”

She gets to do a lot of that these days, too. Playing everything from Ani DiFranco to Warren Zevon for WCLZ’s “more socially conscious” audience, which, she says, is “highly knowledgeable about music,” Littlefield treats listeners to insights and anecdotes—some gleaned from Web research (required before every broadcast) and some gathered first-hand from artists like Dar Williams, who visit the station for Studio Z performances.

“I love learning about music and talking about music,” she says. “The great thing is I get paid to do it.”

WCLZ claims some 48,000 listeners in more than 112,000 Portland-area households, but Littlefield says the job gives her plenty of what she craves: anonymity.

“No one ever points and says ‘Hey look, it’s Megan from WCLZ!’” says Littlefield, who started working overnight and weekend shifts with WCLZ in November 2007 before her promotion to evening host in September 2008. “I can make strong connections with listeners by playing and talking about the music they like. But they never know they’re standing next to me while I’m working at an event.”