Straight From the Mouth

of that. There are two kinds of people in this business, people who like the idea of being on the radio and other people who need to be on the air. I think I need to be on the air. I knew I had a tremendous amount to offer. I knew by going to Ventura that I wouldn't be there long. I can't put it any other way.

Reading from the bio at your web site (www.philhendrieshow.com): "...his current show format was in part born from a lack of calls on the board. Once he discovered the enthusiasm his outrageous guests brought about in his listeners he knew he had an intriguing new format with which to work." Is your show today basically a radio parody?

Yeah. Yeah it is.

How many people who tune into you actually know what the deal is?

About 95% of the people who listen to me regularly know what the show is about, they know it is me. How long it takes depends on the individual. I personally am frightened of anyone that it takes more than a few days to figure it out.

Have you always used your own characters as guests?

Well, yeah I have experimented with doing different characters in fact my very first gig in radio was at WBJW in Winter Park Florida. I was doing midnight to six at 1440 on the AM tile and the night signal. Shot straight out to the Atlantic Ocean where there were few if any listeners. As my Program Director said, there is nothing but fish and rockets out there cause Cape Canavral was in the signal path. I did one character named Farmer Foul Ball and this guy had munitions in his barns. He was worried that someone would go in there and blow themselves sky high. I messed around with him, but not really. I had a lot of people in management saying "look Phil, you're not funny so keep it straight and keep it cool."

So when you went to Ventura, was it on the condition that you could do the kind of show you're doing now?

No, I went to Ventura with the attitude that I would use every device in

of tricks included an ability to tell stories. An ability to comment on contemporary events because I like the news, to a point. I am not a news junkie and I hate anybody that calls themselves a news junkie. I release the safety on my revolver when I hear someone call themselves a fucking news junkie. I definitely had in my bag of tricks an ability to monologue and an ability to do humorous takes on the news. I also had an ability to do characters, not impressions, but characters. These things all came out in a jumble. When I first got on the air I would just start rapping and then I would go into character to illustrate a point and then I would grab a piece of music and play that underneath to further illustrate the point. I would find myself satirizing commercials and illustrating some point.

In character or in voice?

In character sometimes, in voice sometimes by itself and gradually it just sorta came out of in this, for lack of a better phrase, stream of consciousness that then was fun but obviously did not end up being what Phil Hendrie does. Gradually, as we got into the Gulf War (Desert Shield), the buildup to the Gulf War, I continued with this monologing and also was getting a fair amount of resistance from callers. At that stage in my career, I didn't understand what a caller represented. I thought they were a listener, I thought they were a real threat you know. I didn't know that I could trivialize them if I wanted to and play with them. In an attempt to make my point about the war, one day I was in my apartment and I thought well, I think I'll come on the air today as an Iraqi, fuck it, why not? I was trying everything in those days. I'd come on the air standing on my head. I used to take a Marti unit out in my car and just drive around and just talk. I would go outside with a long chord on a microphone and talk. I just did everything so one day I said, "fuck it, I don't want to be Phil Hendrie anymore I'm going to come out and be an Iraqi." So I did and this is when the people started to call. They thought they were talking to a real Iraqi host. I was stunned that I could actually fool somebody into thinking that I was actually from Iraq. Then I realized that I wasn't exactly dealing with brain surgeons either which was the beginning of the crack or the chink in the armor of this perception of talk show callers and listeners as being intelligent. I found this out very quickly. Many were just calling to get the approval of the host, calling to hear themselves talk. Calling to lie, calling to present their own agenda, calling to misinform, calling to story, but they were incredibly boring doing it. Do I really want to hear some woman tell me the heart felt story about how her son survived a car accident, it's a wonderful, beautiful tale, but the way she is telling it is dull, it's killing my audience. These are decisions you have to make. Now you may be working with a Program Director that says "How dare you hang up on that woman!" You gotta get away from a guy like that because it ain't about the beautiful story this lady is telling, it's about keeping your audience. All of these things I was beginning to learn and I learned them rapidly by doing voices. I realized how easily manipulated callers were.

Of course, you're not saying never put someone on with a sad story just make sure it is compelling to your audience?

Exactly, but here is the thing, if you put someone on with a sad story and that fucker turns out to be boring what are you going to do? Are you going to hang up on them? You can't do that. What I do, if I'm doing straight talk, is screen those out. But if I am doing a character, I'll put them on the air. If they are boring, (the character) can make fun of them because the audience will always say, there's Phil making a pretty good point about how dull this woman's story is and the callers will say why that fucking asshole Phil's got on the air is being mean, good thing Phil is there cause he's such a nice guy, so I never take any heat. I think people love to hear liars exposed and our show does it better than anyone. I had a guy my show yesterday for instance, who said he was with military intelligence and on his way to Saudi. He goes on to say that he feels this war (with Iraq) is really, really wrong. So I said, you know what pal, maybe you shouldn't be wearing a uniform and he said, "What do you know, you've never been in combat..." and suddenly I realized this guy's full of shit. So I said, "If you're a military guy, then I'm Napoleon." Then I asked him "What color are your ribbons?" I found this out from the Vietnam Veterans of America, that you've got in-country and out-of-country ribbons. If guys like this can't answer the question, then I blow them off the lines.

Are your characters ever the caller?

Occasionally, maybe once a month, I'll have at the end of a bit a character voice of mine call in as if he is a caller. All the people that call my radio show are real people who have no fucking clue that they are talking to a fake voice. That is the indictment and the beauty of talk show callers all at once.

Are all your characters based on people you've actually met?

Well yeah, any actor will tell you that when they begin to build a character they are building a character off of a lot of things, primarily somebody they have seen or they get it from the costume they are wearing. Jack Nicholson Easy Rider, I don't know if you have ever seen it, but he wore glasses in the movie. The glasses are the glasses Phil Hendrie that his father used to wear because in his words he wanted to "see through the eyes of a powerless man." You get a piece of business like that and from there on you develop a character. Take for example Korean war veteran Lloyd Bonified. He's a character that I do. I saw him growing up in Arcadia; a Korean war, WW II era guy, he now has his own little business, he wears the short sleeve shirts, he's got the anchor on his fucking arm, he is about six feet, his wife Gladys is long suffering, he had a heating and plumbing business, I've got whole histories. You can't just do voices and one of the things that I have introduced to radio is this idea that we are performers and actors every bit as much as the people in movies and TV.

How difficult is getting a different type of show off the ground?

I will tell you that I've had my battles with all kinds of Program Directors and GMs down through the years. I had a GM in Minnesota who said that my show was being universally rejected and was a failure in Minneapolis and put me on midnight to six to punish me for things I did on the air. ...Don't kid yourself, with what I'm doing, you either get it or you don't. ...Radio for the most part doesn't really undertand what I do. Doesn't get what I do, therefore is scared to death of what I do. I'm telling you the truth, Premiere is doing me a great service by their syndication and by their efforts on my behalf, I love these guys. David Hall (head of programming at Premiere), I love him. A lot of guys at Clear Channel have treated me good. But down through the years I have had the experience that most radio talent has had and that is managment that are bottom-line guys and the last thing they want to hear is anyone attempting to expand their art.

Why is that?

David Hall made a really good point about this at TRS (R&R's recent talk radio seminar): "Howard Stern's audience knows that he can talk about news, as well as, talk about tits and ass. A lot of PD's and GM's don't know what he does. They don't know what I do. As a result, I'm in a continual battle of getting people to understand my act and understand that it's every bit as much a worthy news/talk item as anybody else's boring fucking show. I put the news through a meat grinder and it comes out truth and funny.

What's your advice to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

It's very important to find out exactly what you're trying to say and how you want to say it. It's very important to know what your show is about it. You can't fail, if you know exactly what your show is about and you have a specific way to present it. The more confident and centered and focused you are, the less you're going they're going to mess with you. The less they're going to consult you. The less they're going to bring you into aircheck meetings. Once you're confident in what you do, move forward respectfully, don't burn any bridges and try to be as professional as you can. But be confident in what you do. Don't let anybody change this. Jim Bouton (former baseball star) said it very well in his book, Ball Four where he said "If I have never pitched in a world series. I would have never won a world series game."

When did you first know you were funny?

When I was young. I used to crack my kid sister up. I did a lot of voices then or characters. It wasn't so much that I thought I was funny, but lots of things made me laugh. And I appreciated the people who made me laugh and I wanted to be them.

Who made you laugh?

As a kid, it started with Laurel and Hardy. I loved the relationship those two guys had with just dropping saw blades on each others heads and shit. Jackie Gleason was profoundly influential to me. Think about it. He was a straight man who was very funny himself. The way he would run around that apartment getting frustrated with things, getting frustrated with how stupid Norton was. And getting frustrated with his own ineptitude. And then there was Lenny Bruce who would do these kind of syncratic conversations with himself on stage, who would go in and out of characters. Not doing the characters perfectly, but giving us a sense of the place and the people, which is the greatest kind of acting there is. Later on I developed an appreciation for Frank Zappa's lampooning of his own medium, rock and roll. The way he didn't take rock very seriously and in many ways contemptuous of rock and many of its artists. Those are the big four for me.

What about radio?

Emperor Bob Hudson, a guy in L.A. from the early '60s on KRLA. He would play the part of an emperor. He would talk about being in a leopard skin room and was being fed grapes by beautiful women... that he was going to be on the freeway in a moment so you better clear off because his heiness was coming.

Your wife, Maria Sanchez, who's also your manager, has been very helpful to me in coordinating this interview. Which title came first?

We first got married. Then I signed a new deal with KFI and within three months of marriage, I got my first call from Kersey/Warner, so she became involved almost immediately. She would field calls from my agent, helping with decisions, so Maria has gotten busier as we've gotten busier.

For those reading this, they may want to know we've extended an offer for you to appear at this year's Morning Show Boot Camp. When I first spoke to your manager (Maria) about this, she said you were very interested in doing this, but couldn't confirm until around May. The reason being, this was when NBC-TV was going to tell you whether or not your TV pilot was accepted. What can you say about the show?

We're shooting a pilot in April, and then before May 15th, they'll give us an answer. Right now, I don't know what the schedule is going to look like. That's the time issue. Let me say this, it's a long shot whether or not this show will get on the air, but I'd be happy to come out and do that. I haven't been to Atlanta since I was at WSB 11 years ago.

What's the funniest thing you've ever done on the air?

We faked a 911 call.

crrrrrrrrr (distortion before voice)
Operator: 911
beep... beep (police beeps)
Man: Yeah, I did it... I went and did it.
crrrrrrrrr
Operator: I didn't copy, repeat.
Man: I shot something that came into my daughter's room.
crrrrrrrrrr
Operator: You shot something?
Man: I think it was a tooth fairy.
crrrrrrrrr

So basically, it was a 911 call from a man who was distraught that he had just blown the tooth-fairy away. The tooth-fairy was just trying to leave a quarter under the pillow for his daughter. Well, I did this bit and a woman actually calls in and says "Well, that's bullshit isn't it? "Yeah," I said. "No shit."

Do you always know how a story is going to end?

No, I don't. A lot of times I'll just end it by saying "And then I shot him!" No matter what I'm talking about, I could be talking about eating my grandmother for the first time... "and then tragically, I shot him." It's really good. It's a good out. I can't imagine Sean Hannity pulling that off!