Regarded as a “multi-hyphenate” talent that comprises entrepreneur, musician, stand-up comedian, mentor, TV host and syndicated radio personality, the ubiquitous Nick Cannon shared his “high-frequency” persona with the NAB Show audience during a lively 35-minute conversation, Sunday in Las Vegas.
“I feel like positivity has become a cliché. I want to rise above and elevate myself, so I use the term ‘high frequency.’ I want you to turn on my show and make you smile for a moment.”
Among his many achievements, Cannon serves as executive producer and host of Fox’s hit TV series “The Masked Singer,” and hosts “Nick Cannon Mornings” at Meruelo Media hip-hop KPWR (Power 106) Los Angeles, as well as daily and weekly shows syndicated by Skyview Networks.
Cannon explained to the packed room in the NAB Show’s main auditorium that his early ambitions came from being a youth in church. “It was encompassed in that form, a place where you go for fulfillment, reassurance and a certain level of entertainment. In that space, you can become someone who can conduct themselves in front of an audience.” He added with a laugh, “I learned from great orators, but I knew I can never be a preacher, because I sin too much.”
His first radio gig was as an intern in San Diego: “It was a perfect conduit for me. I always had respect for radio… everything I could do at school, I realized I could do on a massive level, with radio and then TV. By the time I was 14 or 15, I’d put together a persona of wanting to be a multi-hyphenate behind the scenes and in front of the camera.”
Speaking with the NAB’s executive VP of Industry Affairs April Carty-Sipp, Cannon explained that perhaps his most valuable lesson as a public figure is that “if you’re constantly thinking you have to be performing and be ‘on,’ you’re always second-guessing yourself. I’m in a place where I can be my most vulnerable and authentic and honest, and love me for who I am. I don’t have to be loud, I don’t always have to say the right thing. People will embrace that.”
Asked what might come next, he noted, “To just watch where media has gone even in just the last five to 10 years, is revolutionary. I’m just trying to keep up. I love trying to figure out what’s next. I always have a lot of irons in the fire—but I never know which one’s gonna be the hottest.”
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