Straight From the Mouth

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

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!

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.

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.