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Straight From The Mouth
The Morning Mouth's March Interview with Skip Mahaffey
(Reprinted by permission; Copyright © 2002 Talentmasters Inc.)

Take us back to the humble beginnings of Skip Mahaffey.

Skip: Went to the Los Angeles Broadcasters in Hollywood. I looked for a job for I don't know how long, the best I could do was to be a Board Op. for Angels' games.

Are you from Los Angeles?

Skip: I grew up in Orange County, CA. I went out to visit my brother and within 5 days, I had a job at KWPR in Claremore, OK. After a few months there, I went to KDOO in Tulsa, which was very cool. That was a 50,000 watt clear channel station. I mean a clear channel, big big signal, not owned by Clear Channel. Our broadcasts at night covered nine states.

Cuba, too? Pearl Harbor. And when I did my Oldies Request Show, there was a group of

guys in Alamagordo, NM, which always listened to the show. I went to several different stations in Tucson, KMFM, KRQ and whatever the other Rock station is there. I did two years in Phoenix at what was Mix 101, as Drew and Skip.

As in Drew, of Drew & Mike in Detroit?

Skip: Yes, Probably the most brilliant man I have ever worked with in radio. Hands down. I went to work with Guy Phillips, who is probably the funniest man I ever worked with, at KYKY in St. Louis. From there I went to KSON in San Diego, Star 98 in Los Angeles, WCOL in Columbus to WQYK in Tampa.

How did you end up in Tampa?

Skip: It was one of those things where the writing was on the wall and a lot of changes were being made in Columbus. I wanted to get out. My partner's contract was coming up and I knew something was going to happen. Nationwide had just been sold to Jacor. I wanted a change. I had no job when I resigned from WCOL, I just made some phone calls to friends. It turned out that Tom Rivers was getting ready to step down as morning show guy and concentrate solely on being the General Manager. I had known Tom Rivers for many years.

How long were you in between?

Skip: Five days. Basically, I resigned on Wednesday. Friday was my last day. We had a deal by Sunday and I was out here the next Wednesday for the Garth Brooks show.

You kind of went back and forth from Country to Rock to CHR. When did you finally decide on settling into Country?

Skip: That was pretty much at KSON.

How has your show changed since then?

Skip: I quit trying to be a jock. I think Braden Gunn can agree to this as well. Braden has been with this radio station since he was 15. He is going to

be 40 this year. He handles my Sports, he's my connection to the street. He is probably the most savvy human being, when it comes to things happening in or around Tampa Bay.

In 25 years, how many people have you seen come and go?

Braden: Hundreds.

I'm curious, how does one survive at the same station for as long as you have? Do you hold the record?

Braden: I don't know if I do or not. I actually left here for about two or three years. I was working at an Easy Listening station doing the 7 to midnight shift, doing the Philadelphia Phillies baseball games, sleeping through every one of them. Then we got taken over by a private individual who wanted us to sell our own shows and I came back to 'QYK. They took me back and I have been here ever since. When I first started out, I was a driver for one of our salesmen, who had lens replacement surgery on his eyes and needed someone to drive him around to his sales calls.

Skip: I think in the bigger picture here, you have our News Director, she had to go do another interview, Rita Ciccarello. Rita started out doing parttime news here. That was 23 years ago. Randy Price, just celebrated his 20th anniversary. He does afternoons. Les McDowell, our traffic guy, has only been here nine or ten years. He's a baby like me.

You've seen a lot of morning guys come and go. When Skip came, did you worry whether he would like you or not?

Braden: Tom Rivers basically went to his morning show people, that would be me, Rita and Lester, and said that he had the list narrowed down to two guys. He wanted us to go out on our own and have dinner with these guys, talk to them, see how we felt and decide who our morning show partner was going to be. The first guy, I forget his name, but he was a pretty nice guy but a little too zany for us. We met Skip and we all went out to dinner and we sat at dinner for about two and a half hours or so. And Tom Rivers was there, but kind of stayed out of the conversation. He basically let us beat the crap out of Skip for two hours.

Did anyone have reservations?

Braden: As a matter of fact, when we had our closed door meeting about two days later, we said, 'We like this guy. He's a lot like Tom Rivers, but he is a little more cocky, a little more on the edge.'

Skip, were you concerned about being chosen from the current show rather than the GM? I mean did you ever feel like that was the tail waggin' the dog?

Skip: Not at all. It doesn't sound sexy, but the thing that really blew me away was this attitude of 'This is the way this show is and here is what we do. You lead us.' What's going on with Country radio, as far as mornings?

Braden: If anything, we have gone back to the traditional values of trying to help our neighbors and trying to be a community leader. Being accommodating to our listeners and being nice people.

Do you struggle with passing on material that you really like, but don't think it will fit your show?

Skip: Yeah, when I was working in Phoenix, in particular, we were high impact, in your face. It took me a while to realize that you don't have to do between the audience, the people who present the music, that's us, and the artists in Nashville. I've done Rock radio. I've done CHR. I've done Hot AC. There is nothing that compares to what happens at Fan Fare, where you have a guy like Garth Brooks who has sold as many albums as The Beatles. The last time he was at Fan Fare, he stood for 23 hours straight signing autographs. That's not an exaggeration of what happens between Country music artists and listeners.

Given that, what's with the turmoil in Country music relating to Country artists who try to become too mainstream?

Skip: Take the story of Faith Hill. She's selling out, or Shania Twain, she's trying to be a Pop star.

Braden: Because they don't live up to the expectations of the Country listener. Our listeners expect somebody like Skip or myself to be the guy that would actually pull over and help you change your tire. Whereas, some Country artists don't live up to being the down to earth guy, just like me or just like the jocks that I am listening to on the morning show. You know how Country listeners are, if you burn them one time, by changing who you are or not being genuine, man, they will dump your butt in a heartbeat.

Did that apply to Garth Brook's Chris Gaines project?

Braden: We had a lot of listeners who thought that was really stupid, but they still loved him.

Skip: Anything the guy does, he researches. He is not a stupid man. Sometimes though, we are put into the situation where we feel like bastard step children. We went to this awards show a few years ago. All these radio stations are there in this big room. You have a hundred Rock stations, AC stations, CHR stations and we had 13 Country stations shoved into a small bar on a different floor. Garth Brooks shows up and spends two hours over two days talking to the AC guys, talking to the CHR guys, talking to the Rock guys, spending time talking about the Chris Gaines Project. For whatever reason and he may have had a legitimate one, we never saw the guy. We started thinking to ourselves that we have been with him for ten years. This project comes up and he goes down there and glad handles all the Rock guys.

Did you ever find out why you weren't able to see him?

Skip: We were told that it was a scheduling problem and he had to leave to go perform on the show. Ok, if that is the case fine. Somebody should have come down and told us. We sat there with our mics ready, just waiting for hours. He never showed. That hurts, man. We take it personally. For us, this is very personal.

Do you find it more difficult as a Country show getting celebrities, compared to other formats?

Skip: Sometimes. The funny thing is, once they are on the show and we call them back, they'll go, 'Oh yeah, you guys, sure I'll go on.'

Do you have any favorite stories about celebrities you've had on?

Braden: I've been hunting with Shaquille O'Neal, about half the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a majority of the Devil Rays and any Country artist who wants to.

I have to ask, does Shaq have a big gun?

Skip: Shaq has a huge gun. It was funny. A friend of mine was re-tiling his office in Los Angeles, in Santa Monica, and he went to Shaq's private bathroom and there's a urinal in there. The top of the urinal, where you hit from, is right below his chin. That is a big urinal.

Braden: The boy's got hang time.

Skip: Usually the stories that happen with Braden when he's hunting, we can't talk about.

Is Shaq from Louisiana or Florida?

Skip: He went to LSU, but I think he grew up in rural Mississippi or Alabama.

Braden: He's got a big huge castle out in Orlando.

Skip: You know people will say, 'I did cocaine with Meatloaf', or some crap like that. But you know the coolest thing that ever happened to me with an artist, actually happened recently, right before my 40th birthday. Mary Chapin Carpenter came into town. People go, 'Big deal.' I have a lot of respect for her. I think she is a great gifted poet. We both have an affinity for Richenbacher Guitars, that was the kind that John Lennon played. We are both huge John Lennon fans. She knows how much I love these particular guitars and she has one that was very similar to one that I had. I told her the story that I had to sell this thing to pay for my Mom's mortgage, I had to pawn it. For my 40th birthday, she had one custom made for me. It's this gorgeous guitar. It cost God knows how much. She had it made for me and presented it to me.

You actually sold it to pay your Mom's mortgage?

Skip: Yes, this was when I was in high school. I had to do it, it's my Mom. I told Mary Chapin Carpenter that story in 1994, when we were talking about guitars and seven years later, she gifts me one.

Is it any more or less difficult for a Country morning show to go out and get the same appearance and talent fees as some of the other

Skip: You have to remember that I have the knowledge of having done both. We do so many things for free here. It's just what you do. One of the things that I learned working with Lisa Dent is that the only way you are going to excel is by going out there and getting face to face with as many people as possible.

Braden: We do things that we enjoy. We do things that our listeners would associate us with. I go to the National Wild Turkey Federation dinners on my own. I go out to these Turkey Shoots that these Moose Lodges put on. Lester does a lot of that stuff with rodeos.

Why hasn't Country been more successful in syndication?

Skip: Easy, it's way too personal radio. I will tell you that it was successful. Blair Garner is an excellent example of that. Gerry House was considered and is still considered one of the best Country morning shows ever. A lot of people can learn from Gerry House. Country radio has a difficult task. Talking to others, it is a strong brotherhood when it comes to the Country board. I will tell you, Bill White, Jay and Kevin, Jim Mantell, Andie and Evans up in Philly, these are tremendously gifted people.

Given your straight-arrow approach to doing mornings, do you ever become the target of other shows?

Braden: Believe it or not, the only one that gets any real attack is Tom Rivers. If they get on the air and our listeners happen to be listening to their show and hear them bad mouthing us; our listeners are the type that would call them up and say, 'Hey, look you sensibilities, don't be talkin' about these people.'

Can a young jock still get into radio the same way you did? Do you believe there's still a farm league?

Skip: I have this idea for a farm league and the big companies are in the position to do it, they have the numbers of stations. Instead of taking talent from the medium or large market and having them voice track the stations, take somebody who is a pretty good medium market talent and send them down to some small market and let them hone their craft. Let them develop their passion for what they do. I believe that radio needs a farm system.

If you could start your careers all over again, is there anything you would do differently?

Braden: Thing is, I left 'QYK, because I became like a banner hanger. So I went to the farm league, to WGAN 1340 to get on the air and hone my skills. I was probably the most horrible jock on the planet. The first night on the air, my father was there and the PD for WQYK at the time, Jeff Ryan, came in as moral support. I did my first break and thought I was going to throw up. I took my headphones off, fired off the first record, looked back and didn't hear any sound in the room. I turned around to Jeff Ryan and my dad and said, 'Why can't I hear any damn music in here?' It was because I forgot to turn the mic off. (Braden's father is Rod Brosig).

You mentioned earlier that you kind of went back to traditional Country radio, sans bits, phoners, etc. Are you suggesting that for other Country jocks as well?

Skip: It has to work. You know, when I was working for Drew and Zip my job was coming up with parody bits and songs, street stuff. That was my job. I haven't done any of that in five years.

Braden: If we do it, it's community oriented stunts. If we're out somewhere, we are giving money away or trying to raise money or something.

Skip: There has to be a reason for us to go and do it.

Do you think that radio is better now than 10 or 15 years ago?

Skip: I think the people who are sticking to it are the people who are dedicated to it. If you aren't passionate about this business, do us all a favor and get the hell out.

Braden: I would say that the on-air people are probably getting better, but I think that the bad thing is that it is turning into a corporate thing. 'QYK used to be a small family. Now Skip and I walk down the hall and say, 'Who is that guy?'

Skip: There are 10000 radio stations in the United States. Four of them have the perfect jobs, we are lucky that we have found those jobs. When I look at the people that I consider my heroes, the guys I use to listen to in Los Angeles, that was everyone from Dick Whitinghill and Dick Haines to the Fraser Smith to Charlie Tuna. I thought Boss Radio when I was a kid, was so cool.

It was cool.

Skip: It was bitchin'. When I got older and I got into this business and got to work with people like Drew Lane, who is probably the most brilliant human being I have met in radio and the most underrated. When people mention the usual list of famous people, they leave out Drew and that's not right. He's absolutely brilliant. Guy Phillips (KYKY St. Louis) is brilliant. He is the most endearing man and funny person. There are certain qualities about these guys. The way Drew can put an idea together and get it on the air quickly. The way Guy can take something so esoteric and put a normal smiling face on it. It's amazing. The dedication to audience that Lisa Dent had. The passion for radio and Nashville that Dixie Lee had. I've been lucky. Then I come to a place like this, where these people that I work with make me look brilliant. They are my heroes. When you turned on "Seinfeld," it wasn't 30 minutes of Jerry and three people sitting around laughing at him. Everyone has their role and position. The greatest compliment that we could receive, besides, 'You guys are in person just like you are on the radio', is when someone comes and laughs at something Braden did. Or Lester, who butchers the English language on a daily basis. He cannot say, 'median.'

Two last questions: Devil Rays, any chance in hell?

Skip: No.

And Janet Reno, does Jeb have it in the bag?

Skip: You brought up a bad subject for Braden. He can't stand her. One thing, on Monday we are going with caller number 9 for the Head Coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Read previous Morning Mouth interviews.

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