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Straight From The Mouth
The Morning Mouth's June Interview with Janet, Nicholas & Wease
(Reprinted by permission; Copyright © 2004 Talentmasters Inc.)

Bring us up to speed: How did the show start?

Janet: Brian Burns (PD) put us together back in 1994.

Nicholas: It's ten years this June (interview conducted in May).

J: Wease was the first one doing any kind of mornings, he was working with Rocky Allen as a stunt guy, in Buffalo. I was on the morning show as the sidekick. Before I was at Z100 as a jock. I never would have expected that when Brian put us together it would have worked, but he is very creative.

N: I had come from an Alternative station in Toronto, CFNY. I got a job doing commercials and doing a club show. I also did a Sunday night alternative show. I had never heard nor ever knew there were morning shows. I didn't wake up in the mornings. When I started on this show I was literally coming from the nightclubs straight into the studio.

J: So we kind of had to muddle our way through.

Let's see, two non-morning people doing a wakeup show. What was your first impression of each other?

Janet: I'm hair person and Nick has great hair.

N: My first impression was hot! but pregnant.

J: So we got put together and didn't know what we were doing, and that is where Randy Lane came in and changed our show.

What kind of show was it before Randy got a hold of it?

J: Not a clearly defined. And the biggest revelation that we had was that you don't have to take every thing personally, that we are each characters and each character does a certain thing on our show.

In ten words or less define each of your characters?

Janet: I represent every woman's perspective. My character is female, mother, wife, friend, trendy, loves to shop.

N: I have no idea.

J: Single guy with good hair! Okay, the show has a female lead, which is what makes it unique. Everything starts from a female perspective.

Nick, when you first met Janet, was the fact that she came from Z100 New York, a bit intimidating?

N: I had never heard of Z100. I am not a radio guy; I go to Boot Camp and don't know who the other people are. I like music, jokes, TV, to go out and have fun. I don't spend much time researching behind the scenes and what is going on elsewhere.

Wease, what's your part on the show?

Wease: They call me the puppet master. My character on the show is the one who was born and raised in Buffalo. I like sports, and beer; I am a husband and father. They compare me to Raymond on "Everybody loves Raymond."

J: Wait, if we are picking characters, then I am Carrie from "Sex and the City."

N: I am Samantha.

W: She (Janet) thinks she's Carrie, but she's really Carol Brady... she serves food on trays.

When did Wease actually join the show?

J: We walked into the studio one morning and he was there, so we just kind of accepted it.

W: I've been here since '89. I was the stunt guy for Rocky, then when he left, I became the producer for Sam Malone.

Who actually put Wease in the studio?

J: We had no clout to say if someone could be in the studio or not.

N: We walked in the room and it was like the producer came with the room, like the door.

So, the 3 of you got together in 1994. I know Nicholas is single, but were the rest of you married when you began?

J: I have been married the whole time.

How do you actually put your show together each day?

J: We each have three very distinct roles. I handle the heavy-duty promotion and sales meetings and stuff. The managing of the show, the least fun, the most phone calls... the marketing of the show, the protecting of the show, probably the most fighting with the PD. Our PD is Dave Universal. He is a great guy and very well respected in the industry because of how good he is

at picking music. Wease's biggest responsibility is having everything ready the morning of the show. All prep and sound. He pulls all audio to shape the show and he prepares the prep and all interview prep. He does the booking and pre-interviews, which really helps a lot. Nick is a genius in the studio and I don't say that lightly. He makes anything that has to do with sound happen on our show. It's the promos or making interviews sound tight or something that we heard and pulled off television. He spends countless hours on it.

Who actually books guests?

N: Wease generally does all the booking. He knows exactly what will work and what won't. I do a lot of pop culture stuff, so Wease might ask me if I have heard of someone.

Who pulls the daily topics?

J: All of us.

Do you each have your own printed outline of what's on tap?

J: We have four computer screens in the studio that we are working off of. I have one sheet of paper for me.

With all the indecency stuff going on have you been a little more careful with people and sex?

J: The biggest question on our show was the question of innuendos. We will talk around things sometimes. We have no desire to be the dirty show on the air.

Have you ever been sued or fined?

J: No

Has anyone ever sent a nasty letter to the GM and got you visit in their office?

J: Yes. Every good morning show gets bad letters. If you don't have a bad letter or complaint, then you are not doing your job.

What is your show known for?

J: Our show is where everyone can turn to find out what happened the night before. We have had every American Idol and Survivor finalists on our air. We often find it hard to work with the networks, but we did find a way to get around it. A lot of people from the networks won't return our calls because we are from Buffalo.

So what's the secret to getting around it?

W: I am not telling. Never! Think outside the box.

J: In terms of things that we are doing right now, we convinced our sales department to put together a $55,000 extreme home makeover contest that we get to do. That is not even our big Spring contest. I love that show.

Do you have a news department?

N: I do the news... usually twice an hour.

Is it traditional news?

N: No!

J: This is what I want to say, it doesn't matter your market size. You can choose to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond. There are benefits to both. I think that we as a morning show are living quite nicely in Buffalo because of the success of the show and what it has allowed us to do. In the past 10 years have you ever had a major blowout?

J: The only thing that has ever gotten in the way of this show was wanting to succeed. Nick explored an opportunity in Canada, which was a huge opportunity, and he left for 18 months. I was mad at him for a week, but it was hard to be mad at him so we kept talking. He came back and we never missed a beat.

How many owners have you been with since '94?

J: Lots. Ten in my career?

Since all of you work in different capacities, does money ever become an issue between you?

N: I have no clue what Janet makes, I don't want to know.

J: I spend it all so they can't tell.

Let's bring some best/worst moments in the last 10 years?

J: We had a priest call and say that he had something that had never happened to him before, a woman stopped the wedding at the altar and said that she couldn't go through with it because of something Janet and Nick said. She was very young. The priest took them behind the alter to talk to them. I (Janet) am against girls getting married really young and girls getting pregnant. She just decided that after listening to our show that she shouldn't get married.

Biggest disaster, stunt turned nightmare?

J: That is easy. We are in a beautiful new 2-story building. We wanted to get the biggest animal in the building for concert tickets. It started with dogs, then cats, and then someone brought a pony, then two-quarter horses. Then our GM started getting nervous when tons of people started coming towards the studio. Then a trailer pulls up. Then out of the trailer comes a camel. The camel came upstairs, and camels can't go down stairs. We don't have a freight elevator. You can imagine the rest.

Funniest moment?

J: We have these two guys who do our stunts like everyone else, and they will literally do what ever we say. So they were dressed like rabbits and they were told that whatever they do they have to hop. So, we sent them to this local restaurant where a television show was doing a live shot. I happen to know that this particular restaurant has rabbit on the menu. Somehow one of the guys tripped over the curb sprained his ankle, on TV, and it really looks like he is in pain. This is right next to Starbucks, which happens to be where all the ambulance guys hangout. You can check out the pictures, kiss985.com.

We touched on this before, but what is your real take on the whole indecency issue and the business in general? work in this industry, you have to accept the governing body. I think in the mean time, until it blows over, Stern should be taken off the air (said jokingly: Stern is their top competitor in Buffalo).

One thing that is frustrating with the new radio environment -- there are 7 stations in our hallway -- everyone thinks that it is ok to do the same interview at every station one after another. This is not good radio. We can't fight the system, so we just make the biggest stink and get the interview first.

I can imagine what being in New York was like during 9/11, but was there any other moment you'll never forget? (very long pause) Are you still there?

J: It's a sad one that we are all thinking about, you kind of hit a nerve. We waited downstairs in our local Children's hospital for a boy to come out following brain surgery. He had the extremely serious brain cancer; we held our breath for hours waiting for him to come out. I'm happy to say, he's still alive, he beat the odds!

Read previous Morning Mouth interviews.

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