Straight From The Mouth
The Morning Mouth's March Interview with Woody
(Reprinted by permission; Copyright © 2003 Talentmasters Inc.)
I am calling from the world headquarters of the Morning Mouth in
Atlanta. I recall you were here once.
I was there for about ten months.
I take it, it wasn't a successful a stint. But all of a sudden you
go to San Antonio and bam!, you're successful. How does that happen?
To me it seems like there are two situations. Either you have a talent
that is inexperienced, or you are putting together an entire show, people who
don't know each other and you have this great work in progress in front of
you and you go in saying, okay guys we are going to work together, we are
give it some time and work from there. Then there is another scenario where
someone comes after you and says "Hey, we want you to come and do exactly
what you do and you get there and they decide what you do is not exactly what
they want for their radio station. This is what happened to me in Atlanta.
They just really changed the direction of what they wanted to do at the
station within the first two or three months I was there. As far as how they
dealt with me, they were happy with the show, they were happy with what I
did, they just came to me and said "You know what, this is not what we want
anymore." Which is unfortunate after you move all the way from California to
Atlanta. So basically I stayed on, they took the show off and decided to go
without personality and just music and I stayed in the studio for a while,
rather bored, did that kinda thing.
So how was San Antonio different?
When I came here they told me the same thing that had told me in Atlanta.
I was really careful, but there was a difference. Diana Laird was my PD at
KGGI Riverside. When I came to San Antonio she was the Market Manager here,
which she was doing from San Diego. With Diana at KGGI we had had number one
show for nearly four years and she was the reason I came here. I thought from
the beginning it would be a good situation because she was behind it and we
worked together.
Had you ever been to Texas?
No, other than stopping off at the airport at Dallas. I just didn't know
anything about the market and because Diana and I worked together and she's a
friend of mine, I came out and from the first probably three or four hours
that I was here, my eyes were opened and I realized that this was a perfect
fit for me.
Was Jamie, your co-host already in place when you got there?
Jamie was actually doing traffic for the old morning show. This is really
her first morning show.
What is it like doing a show in the same city where Clear Channel is
based?
Initially, I can't say I was worried about it. So far it's been great.
When we were campaigning for mud king and queen, John Hogan actually came in,
busted in our studio one morning and brought us a check to help our campaign.
What is the mud campaign?
The mud king and queen are city ambassadors for the Riverwalk. Basically
the tradition started because every year they have to drain the river and
scrape and clean it. They always find a bunch of stuff in there, dentures,
you name it. They decided about 17-18 years ago they would turn it into a
festival and call it the Mud Festival. Over the years it's kinda grown. So
you campaign and the way you have to win is you kinda schmooz the local
people in town that have money. You actually win by raising the most money
for the Riverwalk association.
Jamie, what was it like to finally get more of the mic than just for
traffic? Did Woody help with this process?
W - I am gonna be honest with you, when we were real close to making the
deal to come out here, I had a big problem with that, I really did not want
to have to start with somebody so fresh. Not that I am not willing to work
with people, of course you have to do that. But just coming off the situation
in Atlanta, I really wanted to come here and put together something good and
I really didn't want to do it. Crash Kelly our Program Director really
believed in her and he was showing me a lot of good faith as far as how we
were going to set the show up. He was really giving me a lot of control, he
was giving me a lot of trust before we even hit the air. So because of that I
went with his gut feeling and luckily it has worked out fantastic. You know
how that whole chemistry thing is, it's really rough.
Jamie, how nerve racking was that for you? You got this guy coming
in and they are saying, he wants to run his own thing, he is not really sure
but go ahead and try it and see how it works?
J - I was a little apprehensive at first just because I had never done it
and I was willing though to learn from this guy who has been in radio for
fifteen years. I was pretty confident that he knew what he was doing. If just
worked with him and if he just worked with me then it's all good. I knew I
would eventually come into light and figure stuff out. I learn stuff on a
daily basis. I am not going to lie, at first it was really really, hard. I
didn't know anything about it because I was just coming off of traffic.
Bare your soul, what was your first impression of Woody?
J- He was your typical radio guy. He was funny, he was witty, he made me
laugh.
?- She thought I was mean.
J- No, no I didn't.
J- No he was critical, but I respect that. I can take criticism and that
helps me learn so I really respected that he was showing me the ropes.
Going back to the very first day you met him, what was the very
first thought that went through your mind?
J- He was wearing these sun glasses, and I was like, "Dude take off your
sunglasses, you're meeting me for the first time."
He was probably nervous, too. What was your first impression of
Jamie?
Oh God, I had to work with another female that was taller than me!
Fortunately, she liked you anyway.
J- What I really needed to learn when I first came in is when to jump in
and when to shut up. In the beginning. Woody would hold up his hand and tell
me to be quiet or you need to talk more, hurry up.
And of course, the cardinal rule: Never finish his
sentences!
W- It's funny you say that. In the beginning, that was kind of an issue.
Sometimes I would be trying to tell a joke or something and she would take
over. Which is fine as long as it's funny.
Having not done mornings before, how big of an adjustment was it to
suddenly have your life become part of the show?
J- Yes my love life, my sex life, my relationships, yes everything. And he
said you know what, you gotta put yourself out there that's what people want
to know. They want to know you, they want to hear you get emotional and want
to feel your passion. In the nine months we've been together, I have really
tried to work on that and put myself out there.
Do you still have those times when you ask yourself, "Did I really
just say that?"
J- Yeah exactly, I usually think "God I hope my parents weren't just
listening."
Let's talk about your show. What's the main attraction?
W- That would have to be entainment pop culture stuff. We are really known
for celebrities that we have on. You know the longer you work the more people
you know and the bigger your rolodex is and when I came here to San Antonio
no one was really doing that. For example we had producers on from "Joe
Millionaire" before that show got big and once it hit we were able to go back
to those people. So the audience feels like we are tied in and that takes up
a big part of our show, all the entertainment pop-culture kinda stuff.
Being new to a market, how tough is it attracting top guests? How
difficult is it getting publicists and P.R. people at the networks coming to
you instead of you going to them?
W- It is really hard in this market. It doesn't have much to do with the
fact that we have only been on nine months it's just hard. The biggest names
obviously get passed up. We get passed up for the bigger names obviously they
go to the bigger markets first. They are in Dallas or San Francisco or
whatever. It is a constant battle, but to me it is about developing
relationships and again not all of my contacts but quite a few are people
that I have delt with over the past years and I've really used that to my
advantage. If the person I am talking to did not deal with me before usually
they know someone else their that did or I can drop a name and they go back
and say "oh, ok I remember that you were in Riverside" or whatever and I can
get things going that way. I always wonder if we are spending too much time
on getting the interviews, how important are the interviews?
Woody How did you get into radio?
W- I lived in the San Francisco Bay area, got out of high school and
enrolled in a private music college to study music. I was a drummer and
pursued the whole "I'm gonna be in a band and be famous thing."
What year was it when you left music and got into radio.
W-1988.
J- I was eight years old then.
Oh yeah, second cardinal rule: Never remind the host how much older
they are than you. What station?
KAVS in Lancaster, California. This is a little station in the high desert
area north of Los Angeles, about 60 miles north of L.A. So there I was at
this little station that's automated, but they need a morning guy. I was
playing music and waiting table at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.
Who inspired you to get into radio?
Doctor Don Rose in San Francisco was my hero. So I had that in the back of
my mind. The music thing wasn't working cause I was basically waiting tables
all the time and going out with my friends and doing this thing. I hooked up
with this god-awful broadcasting school and stayed there just long enough to
learn what a log was, a control board, what a cart player was, etc. They put
this little job posting up for this station up in the desert and I looked it
up on a map and said "Hey that's driving distance.' I went up there and got a
job as a board-op and I would drive up there on the weekends. They put this
FM station on the air and they didn't have money to pay anybody yet. They had
no PD, just the Station Manager, he was also Sales Manager, he was
everything. They hired this guy, I'll never forget, Crazy Bob for like
minimum wage and he's hosting the show and he's showing up drunk, he's
oversleeping, he's missing days. Amazing when you are paying a guy minimum
wage that he's oversleeping and showing up drunk. I just started showing up
to help the guy. I would drive all the way from Beverly Hills hills, a couple
hours drive, and I would just show up and cut out articles from the news
paper, just help him with show prep, help him answer the phones and I just
started doing that everyday and one day the Station Manager calls me in and
says hey you've been doing great work on the morning show but unfortunately
we can only afford to pay one person and I said "I appreciate you letting me
come in and everything." He said, "No asshole, we are gonna fire him and give
you the job." That's how I started.
For minimum wage?
Yes, sure. And as matter of fact did the morning show and continued to
commute and wait tables at night and I did this for probably a good year
before things got better in that market and they were actually able to afford
a living wage.
Where did you go from there?
W- To KCAQ in Ventura and I stayed there for about three and a half years
before Hollywood Hamilton left KGGI and they called me.
Would you call that a defining point in your career?
W- Actually, it was getting to San Francisco - KZQZ. This was before
Atlanta. I didn't know how the job was going to work out or anything, but for
me just getting there meant the fulfillment of a life long dream.
Who taught you how to do mornings?
Rooster Rhodes the old PD at KCAQ Ventura. I could not get out of
Lancaster, tiny market. So I had no direction so I applied for this job in
Ventura and Rooster Rhodes called me in and said "Your tape was the worst
tape that I had for this job, but there is something about your personality
that if you will work with me I think you could do very well and make a
career of this. I remembered him telling me that when I first talked to Jamie
going back to that whole thing about "look if you'll put your life on the air
we can make this work." You can never forget those chances that you're given.
Obviously you have to have some guidelines or whatever, you can't just put
anyone on the air and see if it works. He was really my first mentor. He
worked with me daily airchecks, taught me how to structure a morning show,
about using characters, about bit development, things that I had never, ever
heard of existed. I had never seen a trade magazine and that was actually my
first introduction to The Morning Mouth. He said you should read this
and I owe him a lot and I wish I knew where he was cause he got out of radio
when I left and went to KGGI and I would love to see him again.
J- I had to learn from nothing. I had no idea even how to do a radio shift
let alone a morning show.
If you could have a couple of hours to spend with any morning show
in the country just to pick their brain, see what they are like and so forth,
who would it be?
W- Mancow.
Have you ever talked to him?
W- No. Back in the day a friend of mine was a PD who hired him when he
moved to San Francisco, so I used to hear about this guy and he would give me
tapes of him and I couldn't believe that we were the same age and how this
guy was so good out of the box. I really thought wow I need to jump up my
game.
How have you done in SA so far?
W- The last book we were number one women 18-34, number one women 25-34,
number one women 25-49, third women 25-54, third 18-34 overall. We just had a
killer book.
How many other stations do you share the building with?
W- We have News/Talk, we have Country, we have a Soft Rock. Ok that's
obviously something that did not exist when I got into radio. Voicetracking
is a big thing here, too. Jamie just mouthed something good to me, the whole
concept now of Synergy. Clear Channel owns an NBC affiliate here in town,
this is actually something that I think is positive. We are able to pull off
marketing with our NBC station that the station alone could never afford to
do. We have daily television gigs and the studio is literally in our
building.
You are on television daily?
W- Yeah they put a special studio in the building. What we do is there is
a local show called San Antonio Living and we go on and give gossip,
entertainment news, etc.
Jamie, I guess it's fair to say you've been a student of morning
radio for the last 9 months. How's the course coming?
J- Everyday I walk away from the show going, what could I have done
better, what did I do well, how can I build on that. I've alse learned to put
my self out there, be opinionated, be passionate about it, be a good
storyteller. And also, learn to get plenty of sleep
W- That sounds like such a simple thing, but when she and I first started,
she was kind of still going out with friends outside of radio and I told her,
you know what, even though you're young, it's going to catch up with you.
J- It's definately been a lifestyle change.
It wouldn't be a Mouth interview with getting some of your favorite
bits. Any come to mind?
J- Creed deed.
W- You know the group Creed? Well, Creed deed gave listeners a chance to
get front row seats and go back stage. What we did was have listeners come
into to the studio and they would choose from all these crazy stunts we had
sealed in envelopes. We called them Creed deeds. What they would do is select
one of the envelopes and they would then have to go out and perform whichever
Creed deed they had chosen. We gave each one of them a camera and they had to
take pictures of them doing their Creed deed and then return to the studio
when our show was ending. We would then look at the pictures and whomever we
thought had done the best Creed deed was the winner.
Deeds included having to go into a restuarant and convincing the cook to
let you cook someone's breakfast - Find a homeless guy and take him out to
breakfast. Which believe it or not was the hardest one because none of the
homeless guys would get in a car with anyone.
Probably watching too many episodes of "Bum fights."
J- Another women had to go into a hotel and convince a maid to let her
clean 5 rooms. Just all this off the wall stuff and it worked out really,
really well.
What if Lowery Mays walked in your studio tomorrow morning and said,
in light of your great ratings I'd like to reward you with something special
for your show. Just name it. What would you ask for?
W- More equipment, more space! Yeah with all the voicetracking being done
here we all kind of work out of one studio.
Voicetracking is done in your studio?
W- Yeah.
So you want more equipment and more space. Is there a special toy
you'd like in the control room?
W- You mean if I could have anything I wanted? Wow, I'd like my own 360
Short Cut. I'm really trying to get them to buy me my own so I can take it in
and out of the studio and edit bits on it.
We'll try slipping a few 'comp issues through the mail and see if it
catches anyone's attention.
Read previous Morning Mouth interviews.
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