Straight From The Mouth
The Morning Mouth's January Interview with Drew & Mike
(Reprinted by permission; Copyright © 2004 Talentmasters Inc.)
Your new deal was reported to be in the 4 million range. And I'm
assuming this was a pretty large bump. When you signed it, what was the first
thing you went out and bought?
Drew: I can't say that I bought anything, it's really funny this whole
thing about the deal because we did this back in July. It didn't get reported
until a couple of months after that. We signed quietly and never really
shopped around much. We always intended to stay here.
It wasn't a matter of what someone offered, like we were up for auction,
we really had plans to stay here. I think being on the same frequency and
being with the same call letters and same time has so much advantage to it
that unless there was some outrageous difference in money, we weren't
prepared to go anywhere.
You've come a long way in 10 years. Wasn't there a time back then
where you were dubious about your future in Detroit?
Drew: This was back when Greater Media first acquired the station. I think
it was in 93 or 94.
Mike: We started in November of 91 and went through of 92 and then it was
93 that it happened and our two year deal was just about up.
Mike: It was during that time that things got completely silent in the
building. We really weren't seeing or hearing from management much. So it was
during that silent period, for about a month, that you couldn't assume
anything but bad?
Not to mention that our contract expired as well. That was all during a
very weird time, but we turned it into a positive, we started playing less
music and started talking more.
Ironically, wasn't it during this period that your ratings began to
soar?
Drew: When Great American announced the deal, one of the things they said
in the staff meeting was we never recovered from the morning show change. I
distinctly remember being in that room and feeling really small, but there
was a limbo period and that is when the show started to take off and there
was a book, the best we had ever had and I think that it probably raised some
eyebrows but at the same time the deal didn't go through and we went through
another book and that book was strong enough that any sane radio person had
to look at and say you guys are about to take off. I think they could have
said hey, we love you guys, we are going to take care of you, but they never
said that until that really good book which I think was the winter of 94.
When that came out we were number one rock in 18-34, 25-54 ,12+ and all of a
sudden it was Hey guys, Let's talk.
Great numbers have a way of doing that. Just how big are they
now?
Drew: I'd say we range from 12+: mid 7's to low 8's. 25-54, we stay around
a 10 share. 18-34, a 13-14 share.
Last year you (Drew) were off the air for 6 months following back
surgery, how are you now?
Drew: Pretty good. It feels a lot better than it did then. I had stenosis
which usually hits people in their 60's and 70's. It is the narrowing of the
spinal canal and it causes your vertebrate to bump up against your spinal
cord which causes a lot of complications and pain.
What did the show adjust to your absence?
Mike: Our numbers held for that 6 month period. We didn't know what was
going to happen. We brought in another person who was up in Saginaw and Trudy
(Daniels) our news director started interacting with me more. At that point
it was trying to keep the show as close as we could to its original form so
we had the guy from Saginaw and stepped up Trudy's involvement on the air. At
the time our Producer was Rob Shaffer and we increased his airtime and tried
to hold it together as best as we could. It worked out well.
What's made your show successful?
Drew: Chemistry. If you don't' have it you won't last. Mike and I are not
terribly alike but we laugh at the same things, so there is an appreciation
of the same humor in terms of news or in what interviews we select.
Mike: Coupled with the audience liking you.
Has the show evolved much as you've gotten older?
Mike: I think we are kids at heart, we haven't grown up to so mature that
the things we used to do at the beginning of our career now seem immature.
They still seem pretty funny. I do a character called Butt Mike, which is my
butt.
Drew: Mike does fart on the air. He'll get up and you hear the mic
rustling as he hurries it to his ass and then there is silence for about 2
seconds because, when people see him put the mic to his ass everyone shuts up
because they want to hear the fart.
Mike: And the fart arrives on schedule usually without incident, I might
add. Usually there are two bursts and it is always followed by my translation
because Butt Mike is speaking in another language if you will and only I know
that language.
Drew: Butt Mike will say something like Jackson is guilty. Or I know he
did it.
Mike: That is probably the lowest common denominator the show has ever
gone to, and still goes to regardless of us aging.
Other than Butt Mike, how many characters do you have on the
show?
Mike: Mr. Stress and Bob Boner are characters that have existed since the
very beginning even before Drew came along. Now Mr. Stress is doing traffic
and occasionally Bob Boner comes in every once in a while.
Drew: I do Michael Jackson, that is something that flows. We never relied
on being great voice people or great impersonators I think it is more the
spirit. When Bobby Brown got arrested we "called Bobby Brown (character)" and
of course he did nothing but curse, and all he could say was "Awh gees Mike,
as if you had spent 10 years with Whitney Houston, you wouldn't take at least
one swing at her?" Then at the end he after calling her the world's biggest
bitch, starts saying that he loves her and wants her back. That is an example
of how we do things of the moment and how it fits in with topical news. We
used to do certain bits at certain times in the 70's, 80's, and even the
early 90's. We got away from that and became more free wheeling. We might in
the middle of the news go "Oh my gosh, I can't believe that someone did such
and such." The next thing you know our producer Mark is looking up the phone
number and boom you might hear the phone ringing and here we are in the
middle of a news cast.
Mike: And we may not got back to the news.
Do you see yourself as primarily a rock morning show?
Drew: Yes, but if you hear me tell about the concerts I went to you are
not going to hear me say that I went to three hip hop shows last week or I
went to a country show. You would never hear me say that. I might get dragged
to Grease by my girlfriend and I will get ragged relentlessly for going. But
on the other hand what rocks about the show is that maybe we do or don't
watch American Idol and we rag on it, but regardless, I think most of our
audience knows who Clay Aiken is.
So in other words you don't have this constant debate about which TV
shows fit your P1's best; thus, whether to talk about them or not?
Drew: We do talk about shows and what people watch and why they watch
them. For example Ryan and Trista's wedding, I think that was something that
a lot of people got stuck watching, there were some drops in that show that
we talked about, not at great length but we did spend some time on it. But at
the same time the Billboard Awards were on and Triumph the Insult comic dog.
We played that entire stretch of that 8-minute roll.
Are you a student of the radio biz?
Drew: I don't think we go overboard in that respect, again. If I spend 6
hours reading industry magazines, that's probably 6 hours I wouldn't have put
into the show or maybe 4 into the show and 2 into my private life. I don't
pay a ton of attention to it. I am interested in certain trends and what is
going on in the business. But I only have X number of hours in a week for
radio or my life outside of my girlfriend and her kid, my sports habits, my
gambling habits. There only so many hours and the majority are spent on the
show.
What's a tip for doing a morning show that's guaranteed to
work?
Drew: Read the newspaper. I know it sounds basic and simple. But read your
local and national newspapers. If you are going to be up on anything that is
going on usually most news events are continuing stories and the better
educated you are and the more you know because you are informed, you sound
better and are more comfortable discussing certain subjects on the air. Plus
you have more material at your disposal.
Mike: And that applies to you local community. Being totally aware of what
is going on.
Drew: Every time I go to the bookstore, I'll be there a couple of hours.
For example, that Lawrence Taylor book came out. If you are a rock morning
show and you didn't put that book up and highlight about 50 things in there
to read on the air to your audience the next day, you blew about an hour of
the easiest material.
Your show is famous -- or infamous -- for getting through to
celebrities or other big names. What's your secret?
Drew: We tend to get celebrities in their hotel rooms by just
mispronouncing their names.
Who have you pissed off most?
Drew: Robert Duvall got really upset. He told me to call his PR people. I
told him if we called his PR people they would never set up an interview. I
told him our only shot was to weasel our way in and said "Don't weasel in".
So we have that bit of him saying don't weasel in. OJ got mad at us, not long
before the murder, we could have been a catalyst. We have talked to OJ 5-6
times for about 5 or 6 seconds each time. We talked to Monica Lewinsky during
the middle of that ordeal. One day we knew which hotels Monica and Paula
Jones were on the same day even though they were in different states. We
thought of calling them both at the same time and they both answered the
phone and were talking to each other. It almost happened. It was within 20
seconds of happening. Jones hung up on us before Monica answered.
What is your thinking on the legislation in California about
redefining the dirty words, what you can and can't say on the radio?
Drew: I'm not really worried about many of these.
Mike: I am surprised at some of the things that come out of people's
mouths on television. They seem to be the biggest offenders.
Drew: It does seem like it would be easier if there were a list of what
you could and could not say. The next time someone gets fined, there is about
a 50 percent chance that most radio shows are going to think that wasn't all
that bad.
Read previous Morning Mouth interviews.
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