Check Out Morgan Huelsman’s Story

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Morgan Huelsman.

Hi Morgan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
During the end of my junior year and beginning of my senior year of high school, I dealt with a horrible bullying situation. My parents were concerned about my safety and mental health, so we made the decision that I would complete my high school classes at home. Studying at home allowed me to focus on my future and what I wanted to do after high school. I started taking college courses, and I accepted an internship at KAKE-TV, a local news station in Wichita, Kansas, and that’s where I fell in love with journalism. This was where the dream began.

I set my sights on Kansas State University to complete a degree in Broadcast Journalism with an emphasis on Digital Media and a minor in Leadership Studies. I wanted to do something that would make a difference or, at the very least, an impact. News felt like the perfect fit. Throughout college, I studied in all different mediums from Broadcast to Newspaper to Videography to Sports. One summer of college, I interned with Clear Channel… now known as iHeartRadio. I was helping them create and run social media pages for their radio stations, which wasn’t even a full-fledged job or important to anyone yet. I also got a few chances to talk on the radio and learn the ropes. Even though I enjoyed the internship, I didn’t think I would end up in the radio world or running social media channels.

I graduated from college in 3 years, thanks to my head start in high school. The summer after college graduation, while applying to every small-town reporter job under the sun, I received an email from my iHeartRadio intern boss, Tommy. He told me they had a Digital Director job opening and thought I would be a great fit if I was interested. At this point, I was interested in any job that would get me working and making connections. I applied, and after two months of teaching myself new skills to demonstrate in the interviews, I got the job.

I was overseeing four radio stations and their respective digital media, from websites to their streaming on the iHeartRadio app to any social media channels we needed to be on at the time (which was mostly Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) to create local and national content. I didn’t sleep a lot. Then, after ten months, there was a job opening in Nashville, TN, for the Digital Director position with iHeart. I applied and was flown to Nashville for interviews, and you guessed it, I got the gig! I was now overseeing six radio stations and their respective digital media, and in a much larger market than Wichita, Kansas.

After ten months of content creation for Nashville, the Digital Director position opened for The Bobby Bones Show, which happened to be in our building. I’ll never forget when I was working at the CMA Festival for Nashville’s BIG 98, and I received a phone call from Bobby Bones, asking me about coming in for an audition. I had listened to the Bobby Bones Show growing up in Wichita, so it was a full circle moment to hear Bobby on the other end of my phone. From that phone call, I was asked to sit in with the show for two weeks to see if I would fit the show’s chemistry and environment. And now here I am, almost seven years later, and still with the show!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t think anything exciting in life comes without challenges. Moving to Nashville, TN, was one of my scariest decisions. The farthest I had ever been away from home was 3 hours, when I lived in Manhattan, Kansas and was attending college. But home was a short drive away on weekends. Moving to Nashville meant moving far away from everything and everyone I knew. I didn’t know anyone in Nashville, and I didn’t even know much about the city. All I knew was that I needed to chase my dreams, and it felt like it would have been a missed opportunity not to take the big city job. So, the move was a struggle and continued to be for many years. I’ve lived in Nashville for around eight years and still get homesick. My parents still get several phone calls a day just because I don’t want to be left out of what’s happening back in Wichita.

It also wasn’t easy because I was coming up in a field (digital media) that was new to the media world, and to most large companies. When I started professionally working with social media, it was unchartered territory. No one had begun using social media for marketing and advertising of their brands and people were hardly creating content – nothing like the social media we know today. So, I felt like I was fumbling through the beginning years of my career with no one to lean on or ask questions about what I was doing. There wasn’t a guidebook for how to maneuver social media in the business world and it often felt like I was writing it for myself and this career path. I took a lot of tumbles, made many mistakes, and learned a lot of lessons in those years.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m known to the listeners of the Bobby Bones Show as Morgan, Morgan 2, or Web Girl Morgan. I am the show’s Digital Director, overseeing all of the digital media assets, such as the show’s website, social media, streaming, podcasting, content creation, etc.

I have also built a community under the name “webgirlmorgan” on social media. I create all kinds of content like traveling itineraries and recommendations, being a single woman in her 30s, living in Nashville and working in country music. I also create content for my food world – cooking series, and weird social media challenges with my co-worker Lunchbox. I volunteer with animal rescue groups as well as participate in therapy animal work with my dog, Remi. The content I’ve created has allowed me to appear on Circle’s Country Countdown on Circle All Access TV, work on red carpets at the CMA Awards and CMT Awards, and host events at the CMA Festival. The podcast I host as the weekend show for Bobby Bones Show is called the Best Bits, and has had over 25 million downloads since its inception in 2021.

I’m most proud of that community I’ve created online and with listeners of the Bobby Bones Show. I’ve connected with so many of them over things I’ve shared publicly on the show and on my social media. The connection to them has been so special to me, and why, even on the days I don’t want to post about my messy life on social media, I still do. It’s hard when you share things publicly in any form, but to share the most vulnerable parts of yourself and be able to connect with others over a shared experience is unlike any feeling I can describe. 

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I LOVE all the food. I swear I can’t try restaurants fast enough before another new one pops up. I have become a foodie simply because of how much good food there is, and I’m vegetarian, so that’s saying lots!

I also love that Nashville is a melting pot; it brings together so many people from different places. Because of that, I have made some incredible friends who are now like family.

I’m not a huge fan of the traffic or the way people drive in Nashville. Getting anywhere at any time of day is a pain. I also love that my job gets me up REALLY early in the morning, so I don’t ever have to deal with said traffic on my way to our studio. 

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/webgirlmorgan/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/webgirlmorgan/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/webgirlmorgan
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@webgirlmorgan

Image Credits
Logen Christopher, Adrianna Casiano, Jesse Knish, and Rachel Kaplan