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Straight From The Mouth
The Morning Mouth's April Interview with Roula & Ryan
(Reprinted by permission; Copyright © 2007 Talentmasters Inc.)

So you grew up in Houston, got your start in radio at KRBE, go to Philly where you get your first morning gig at Q102. Then return home to Houston for mornings at The Mix, and now mornings at KRBE. Do you ever wake up and think you've been dreaming?

Roula: Well, I admit it has been a crazy ride. You know, when I first got hired to answer the request lines for KRBE back in 1996, I really had no clue how deep into this industry I was going to get. I say to my friends all the time that you could not have ever convinced me to believe that my radio path was going to go the way it has. I didn't know how, if ever, I would get back to Houston for radio after Philly, but it sure was nice to get called back home so quickly. It was all such a blessing. Houston) remained idle, but wasn't it your web site that proved to be the

best mojo?

Roula: Yes, it certainly was a major factor. As we all know when radio people disappear from a station, they essentially disappear from everything. Our followers would not have it. The fact that our website launched just before "the hiatus" helped those lost listeners search and find us. It was great to keep in touch with the many that we entertained until we got back on the air with KRBE. Our page views were in the millions.

Ryan: I spent the time gutting and rebuilding a house for my mother. It had been a tough year unexpectedly losing my father the prior Christmas (Dec 25th), and I decided to take the time and focus on the rest of my family. As far as the website, you bet. During our hiatus, we took over 26 million hits on roulaandryan.com. I think when Cumulus saw the interest in our show, they took interest. Kinda weird, I'm trying to think of another situation where two morning shows in a market essentially switched places. When listeners tuned in and heard you on KRBE, was there some drama?

Roula: Well, it definitely was the talk of the town. Even the local news did a story on the radio drama going on in the city. The bottom line was that the audience got us back. They truly are the ones that made it happen so we just had to make sure they knew what station to hear us on. (I was curious to see if "phantom cume" was going to be a factor but thankfully it was not and we had an AMAZING first book back.)

Eric: I would say they were happy more than confused.

The Blogosphere is now a big part of radio. Hell, the whole world. I'm sure there was lots of comments about this switch, move, etc. I know they can be quite inspiring and brutal. Did you follow them, or try to avoid them?

Ryan: Nah. Occasionally If I wanna get a laugh, I'll take a peak. Radio peeps that spend countless hours posting their thoughts on the current state of radio should probably spend a little more time on their craft and they might get ahead. It is really funny to watch all the commentators blindly

guess what's going on.

During your down-time, how were you able to keep the show intact?

Ryan: Individually we all had offers to go elsewhere, but we knew we had something special that was worth sticking it out for.

Roula: It really was the belief in ourselves and our show. I just knew in my gut that Houston did not want to see our show disappear. So we hung in there.

Show aside, how did you manage to keep sane?

Roula: Sane? Is anyone in radio sane? Well, I took advantage of my time and finally took my dream trip to see Australia for 5 weeks and then came back and hit the ground running on the CBS affiliate's launch of a live, daily TV talk show as the entertainment reporter. It was great way to learn about the TV world. By the way, had I stayed in Australia any longer- I think I would be doing radio there now. It's a great place.

Ryan: Keeping busy and not wasting my time kept me from losing it. Although honestly, it was starting to get to me!

Eric: I did a lot of contract work with Kidd Kraddick and Star in LA Plus I wrote a book full of radio topics and ideas geared towards morning shows.

Since your return, you've added some new members. Who does what now?

Roula: We hired a former colleague as our stunt guy, "Special K," and he's brought another layer to our show that we didn't have before. He is willing to do whatever we tell him stuntwise and he is great with show bit production too. Also, we have "Mojo" who runs our board and is our pre-show production guy. His passive personality sprinkled in with the rest of us makes for a perfect radio show formula.

A few years back, we did a piece in The Mouth on kicking off a new show. And although you weren't an altogether new show, you were starting over again. What were some things you did to kick it off?

Roula: We picked up exactly where we left off...even going as far as continuing the last bit we did on that "other station" before we were yanked. (We had all gone to the Destiny's Child recording studios here in Houston and recorded some singles to prove that ANYONE can be turned into a pop star with the right tricks...we just replayed our singles from that day and caught people up. It was great).

Ryan: The one thing we all agreed we would not do is run non-stop calls of adulation. That's makes me wanna puke when I hear self-congratulatory bullshit. We produced a few funny "while we were gone bits," but really decided to pick up where we left off.

Give are some of your show's favorite benchmarks?

Roula: I like our Wednesday segment "Ask The Guys" We get our female listeners to email us a guy question so we can get "inside the mind of a man" Examples like "What do guys REALLY think when they see us without our makeup on??" We then only let the guy listeners call in so girls can hear their answers. I have gotten some pretty clear answers for myself too!

Ryan: While I know benchmarks are mandatory, personally it is not my discussion that sucks the listener in and makes for great watercooler talk.

Eric: I like "Kid Confessions." "Roula and Ryan Roundtable" basically it's like Around the Horn on ESPN but they are topical stories and non-sports related.

I've heard from a lot of morning shows who experienced down-time who told me it was a blessing in disguise; that they were able to listen to other shows, re-tool, re-invent, etc. Was this true for you as well?

Ryan: Unless you know you have a job locked down, there is nothing enjoyable about sitting on your ass waiting for the phone to ring. I didn't start listening to the radio until I knew we were coming back...Then I listened! When I did, I just took note of what we wouldn't be doing. Didn't hear anything I wanted to emulate.

Roula: Nope... I was never up early enough in my time off to hear other shows even if I wanted to. I was a total night owl!

Eric: I think in a way it was. I had a chance to work with some other talented shows around the country and see how they prepared for their shows. I also had more time to spend talking with other radio people that gave me a different perspective that I never had before. Looking back I'm glad it happened but during it, boy did it suck not knowing what the future was going to hold.

During this period, whose phone calls and support meant the most?

Roula: You know, I know some really solid people that were there for me with words of support. John Peake in San Francisco, Randy Lane, Paul Cubby Bryant in NYC, Tracy Austin (who is now in Australia), Brian Bridgman in Portland and my friend Lisa Paige in Philly. Oh yeah, and a guy that kinda puts it all together... Paul Anderson. :) Of course, Don Anthony. He's our gift in the industry. (Note from editor: "I swear, I didn't write this!!)

Ryan: I think hearing from each other helped a lot. Randy Lane and Stan Main helped us keep our chin up.

Eric: For me I would have to say in no particular order Kidd Kraddick, Don Anthony, Randy Lane, Steve Reynolds, my close friends Cappy (Now known as Dino), Steve-O with the Dave Ryan Show, Randy James from KZPS in Dallas, Tommy and Joe from KBULL in Salt Lake City. I'll never forget what these guys did for me from helping me find jobs to just calling to check up on me. These are the type of people who I consider my friends even if I gave up doing radio tomorrow. I know these are the type of friends everybody should have as a support system.

Ryan, as your own careers would suggest, radio has changed dramatically over the past several years. What do you think now is the trick to survival and success?

Ryan: Start thinking about the future, because it's going to change big time! In Houston, we have the PPM and you really have to rethink a lot of things about structure. A bit that any show reading this would be nuts not to do as soon as possible?

Roula: I mentioned it before but really, if you are a female targeted station, you just can't go wrong with "Ask The Guys." Get your girl audience to e-mail you what they really want to know about guys and get the guys to answer live on the air. Ex. "What are guys REALLY thinking when we cry??" We had some really hilarious answers on that one! Sometimes we will do "Ask the Girls" but our benchmark is for the guys.

Eric: I love doing Roula and Ryan Video Diaries. It seems like everybody is doing a blog on his or her site. This is where you can think ahead of the game and be different than everybody else. We have a Mac laptop that all the members of the show record: 60-: 90 little diaries a couple of times a week. It's basically like a little confessional we say whatever's on our minds. It can get serious, funny, and even stupid. What's great about the Video Diaries is it's not only a great way to get listeners to check out your website but you can take the audio from the diary and make a topic, or bit out of it on the show.

Read previous Morning Mouth interviews.

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