Straight From the Mouth

Walked right into it. And then I did the "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-millionaire", which I probably wouldn't have done if I wasn't in radio. I would have passed on that.

You said that it took you 90 days to make the deal happen. What closed the deal?

I just got comfortable with it. I think when we added Nancy, she is just funny and fun to be with. I think what's missing is...there are a lot of guys on the radio with a lot of spanking and grabbing. I thought it would be interesting to have a show where there's a guy and a couple of women. The format seems to lean toward women. I think if you look at research it might be 60/40. I'm not positive. We have a lot of guys who listen too. I have an active feminine side. The TV shows that I did, from "Murphy Brown" and "Cheers" and stuff, always had a thing about a guy and a woman. I think most of the shows that I was listening to just were really rough. I thought I'd have to go back and do my chi-chi-poo-poo humor. I guess, be more female friendly. That's a huge market.

Of all your TV appearances, was there a personal favorite?

I like everything I did. I won the Emmy for Jerry Gold on "Murphy Brown". That was fun. She was great to me. "Cheers", of course, was a worldwide thing. It's all over the place. I could have done anything with "Cheers" and been known. But I happened to be a mainstay there and did three or four one hour specials, and the numbers were huge. So among a group of individuals that were already top ten, I would always take us to number one. Then "Love and War", I thought it was great. Then I found in the last few years that the sitcoms just weren't as good. The movies of the week and stuff, just aren't as satisfying for me. I have a movie coming out on Lifetime with Christine Lotti and Tom Skerrit in June, called "The American Daughter", which is a remake of a play that was done here in New York by Wendy Wausterstein. Did you learn anything from TV that made you a better morning radio personality?

I noticed the same thing that you noticed, that if you look at television, and you see who the fans of the shows are, the women's numbers are really high. And when you look at radio you don't always see the same thing. So if I learned anything, it's about who needs to be listened to or programmed towards. That's one reason I spoke to Joel, and we talked about this format,

the audience that doesn't seem to be dealt with. You know, it's hard. They don't put up with a lot of nonsense. They'll tune out.

You were an actor before being a jock, correct?

Oh yeah. I started in high school and college. When I really got into radio, I was a high school football announcer and then I did basketball for University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I played a little college ball there locally. Then I was the morning DJ at the radio station, and was a Program Director. I always did dinner theater, and stand-up. Then I came to New York as a DJ, and tried to do both and it worked out. I'm just one of the lucky ones. I have actually done stage, screen, and television. You know it's like those old introductions, "the star of stage, screen, television." In the last few years I have realized that I can come back to radio and I really don't have anything to prove to anybody, as an actor or as a disc jockey.

Where did you begin radio?

In Panama City, Florida, doing the high school football games for WBLT. I was in a junior college there.

Was this where the story about you sneaking into a studio after hours to make audition tapes took place?

I use to answer the phones and clean up for the night guy. I was in junior college, and I was doing stand-up comedy at a strip club. I did that in New Orleans and I did it there. I was in there, with whoever the disc jockey, Bobby T or whatever. They would sign off at midnight, and then I would act like I was going home. I would wait until everybody left and then I'd sneak back into the station. The owners lived in the back of the station in a house near by. I think their name was like the Brennan's or something. I'd sneak back in. There was a window right on the highway, but it was way out in the middle of nowhere. I'd sit in there and make tapes and act like I was a DJ. I'd send tapes out and try to get jobs and all this. One night a highway patrol man pulls up right in front of the window with the lights going. I thought I was done for. And he comes in and thought he was listening to me on the radio. We'd been signed off for hours. So I bring him in and I interview him on the air, which is inside the studio. I sent that tape out and I got a play it all the time. I would always tell the story and the whole deal. I was a night time disc jockey and then I moved to Jacksonville, FL and then they moved me to mornings.

This was the Big Ape (WAPE)?

Stan Kaplan had me come to WAYS in Charlotte. He got me into the sports announcing again. I had a great relationship with him and still do. I see him all the time. It was hard to leave, but I wanted to do something else and do a lot of different things. I have written, produced, talked on the radio. I think that in this country for some reason, not many people are allowed to do a lot of different things. In Europe and Asia, the guy will be a sitcom star, he'll be a director, he'll be a radio guy, he'll be a talk show host. They don't do that too often here. I'm lucky that I am allowed to do it. As soon as you get back in radio, they try to pigeon hole you again. I'm going to allow that to be somebody else's problem. I believe that if someone thinks that something happens because I have gotten back into radio, they're sadly mistaken. I made a conscious choice to do it.

What's your take on Radio these days?

Radio hasn't changed that much. The content has changed, certainly, the cursing and what you can say on the radio has changed. That's just because the law has changed. I use to say Damn and Hell in Charlotte and they would put me in the newspaper as the wildest guy in the world. That's the thing about radio, it's theater of the mind. People are driving in their cars, or listening at home, or whatever. They have an image of what you are like and what's happening in there. When people go on television, and I think it's happened to Limbaugh, Stern, Dr. Laura, etc. When they get on TV, they're not as popular suddenly because it destroys the theater of the mind. I never took my radio show on TV. I acted on TV. I played a character on TV, some could say I play a character on radio too. I never tried to play up the fact that the television should promote the radio or the radio should promote TV. It just never worked that way for me. The audience has their own image of people which has nothing to do with your reality and what you really look like. Look at Don Imus on MSNBC, and it's frightening. It's like looking at a Mardi Gras mask. You can print it, I don't care. But on the radio, you listen to him and you have your own image of him. You see him on TV and oh man, they should put a bubble over his face. People have talked to us about putting a camera in the studio. You would think that I would be the guy that would make that deal. We have been offered all the "having the radio show on TV" deals. We turned them down, because I want people to have the image of what we're doing in here to still be a part of their fantasy.

What was it like being off the radio after being on it for so long?

I would sit around with lots of people, saying I wish I was on the radio this morning, because I missed the whole Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky thing. Oh I missed it all. OJ Simpson. I missed it all. I would still tear things out of the paper and do my pretend show in my house. My wife would ask what I was doing. I'd say, "I'm just going to tear this stuff out and go in my room and pretend I'm on the radio tomorrow.

"Who Wants to Marry a Multi-millionaire" - did you ever sense something was wrong with the concept, once it materialized on stage?

No, I thought it was just going to last three months or a year. I could not foresee what would become a negative, which by the way, I think was a positive. Fox or whomever, thought it was a negative. I thought it was going to be huge. It was huge, just huge in the wrong way. When you have 25 or 26 million people watch the first show, then you know the next one is going to have 45 million. And the fact that they didn't do the second one amazed me, absolutely amazed me that they were so stupid not to do the second one.

So you think they were crazy for not continuing?

I'm sure Murdoch wants to run another one, but I think the new president, is trying to relieve Fox of it's image of having when "Dogs Go Bad" and all of that. But he still keeps running these shows, but he won't rerun the Millionaire show. I think he just made one of those decision and he is going to try to stick with it. Look at all the money everyone else made off of it.

What do you make of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and that whole phenomena?

The reason why it's successful, is the whole family can watch. The questions aren't as hard as "Jeopardy". I think that "Jeopardy" has dumbed their questions down, even though Alex Trebec is saying they haven't.

Do you want to be a celebrity guest?

Yeah, I would do all that stuff. I was on "Celebrity Jeopardy" and I couldn't figure out how to press the button. You have to press in a certain time. Alex Trebec said a little something to me, and I said, "Yeah, you have the cards in front of you, you're not so smart yourself." He got all upset. I'm never going to be back on "Celebrity Jeopardy". The answer was the Abominable Snowman, and I couldn't write it. It's really hard to write with that pen. Everybody looks like ....remember the movie "Charlie", with what's his name, Cliff Robertson? He got some pills and he went from not being able to write at all...my handwriting looked like Charlie! I thought, I can't use the pen. The pen's screwed up.

When you meet young jocks and they ask you for advice, what do you say?

Make management comfortable that you aren't trying to destroy the radio station. I think generally, Program Directors and management people never told a joke in their life that wasn't induced by alcohol. My Producer's here is after they have had some cocktails. I believe that you have to convince them and you have to mean it, that you aren't trying to destroy the radio station. Your ego is huge. All of us have big egos. You have to make them realize that you appreciate that you have the job, because you are going to make mistakes. I do and everybody else does. You are going to talk too much. You are going to say something that's wrong. You are going to screw up. You know, doing any kind of show from the David Letterman Show to a radio show on a daily basis, that is unscripted except whatever jokes you put together, is a dangerous proposition. I think that if you really believe your own press or you really believe your own ego, then you'll get in tremendous trouble. I also think that most morning people talk too much. Our breaks are all four to five minutes, and it's over. When I go on the Letterman Show, I'll do two breaks. It will be eight minutes.

Two things and I'll let you go back. I know you're busy. We have a thing that we started a few months ago. We go through a list of quick favorite things. Just give me a quick response to each question.

If I can't think of anything funny I'll call my writer and call you back with an ad lib.

Favorite TV Show
"Seinfeld" Still! I'm a huge fan.

Favorite Magazine
Gee, you know what, I read like, "American Heritage", for godsake. That's the history magazine. You probably want me to say Snuff or Boobs or something. It's a toss up between Boobs and "American Heritage".

Favorite Food
Chocolate, anything chocolate.

Favorite All Time Movie
"Heaven Can Wait"

Favorite Sport
Football

Favorite Place To Travel
Italy

Favorite Music
I like the stuff we play. I'm from New Orleans, you know. I'm really into the Neville Brothers and Motown. Yeah, R & B. If you are from New Orleans, it's like in your blood.

Favorite Comedian
One of the guys that really makes me laugh is Louie Anderson. He doesn't make me laugh on the quiz show. When I see his stand-up he always makes me laugh. He's an odd guy to like. He has that crazy quiz show that he doesn't seem to like being there. He looks miserable.

Favorite Retail Store
Costco. They sell wines for godsake. Really good wines.

Final thing, being in New York, who's going to win the race between Hillary and Guiliani?

Hillary will win. Guiliani is a great Mayor and all, but he's rough. I think even his supporters are going to be frightened of him in the end.