Straight From the Mouth

Let's talk about the breakup. How bored were you?

H: Very, we talked about that all the time.

E: If you want to talk about that, the last couple of years at KPLX weren't very good for us. We felt like we had done everything we could do, and we were stuck in a rut.

H: It was our own fault, we aren't blaming anybody. We didn't know where to go or what to do. We had always made a promise that if it wasn't fun, then stop. So we stopped the world for a second to change us. We did.

E: We decided to leave the party before we got thrown out.

After you split, did you still communicate?

H: Oh yeah, we talked occasionally because Scott was doing a syndicated show out of Seattle. So we talked a little bit. When I got to KNIX in Phoenix, Scott was on almost everyday. He did all the characters on the show. He was live on the phone from Seattle almost everyday, doing characters.

What type of show was he doing?

E: We did the Weekly Top 30, which ended at one point. Then I did the Neon Nights Show for BP in Seattle.

H: It was cool. Neon Nights was on at night. So in the morning he'd be bored, he'd call up and do stuff with us every morning with different voices.

E: I was doing a bunch of characters for Neon Nights, and I wanted to do them in as many places as I could. So, I was doing them on Steve's show too.

Are you still sydicating?

E: No.

H: He had to give everything up to come here.

H: And hot summers.

Things were going well at KNIX...

H: I was number one, things were going great. And then they got sick of me. No, they had some corporate changes. They bought a radio station and that didn't work out so they fired everyone on my show, including me. Even though I had an agent, he couldn't help me either. They basically gave me a month severance and threw me out.

How did you and Evans reunite?

H: That happened at such an awkward time. Me being blown out of KNIX, I had to go find a job. We were looking for a place that might be able to afford us, and that might be attractive and challenging. Boy, did we go three for three on that one?! We found the challenging part.

E: Oh lord!

H: It was just at a time when all of the sudden here's a station that is interested in us and it seemed like a good idea to both of us. It just was the right thing at the right time. Also, there are very few people who can stand to be in the same room with us at the same time for long periods. We are very annoying. We are about as annoying as it gets, because we act like we're brothers. We start screaming at each other, and then somebody will say 30 seconds. And then we'll say, what was I talking about?

16 years ago you started as a team at WLVK in Charlotte. Was that a forced> marriage?

H: Yeah. Ted Decker, Archie Simpson and Jerry Rucker put us together. That was 1985.

Forgive the shameless plug, that was the year we started Talentmasters.

E: We called you, but you wouldn't return our call.

When was that moment in your life when you knew you wanted to be disc jockeys?

H: Actually, that's a kind of funny story. I was in the Dentist's chair having an abscessed tooth worked on and the nurse was talking to the dentist about how he decided to become a dentist. He said, he made a list of things he liked to do and things he didn't like to do. I was listening to him and I was saying, yeah, I don't like to do this, I don't like to do that. I had all kinds of crap in my mouth. I couldn't talk, I was just listening. While I was sitting there I said, you know, I have always wanted to be in radio. I am going to give that a shot.

E: You did say that?

H: Yeah, well, no, because I had a bunch of stuff in my mouth. But I thought it to myself.

So, you made this decision under heavy medication?

H: Yes. I had enormous drugs in my system. So what came out was, " Wwwaaamm mawwmmhhh."

Sounded like a perfect entre to becoming a puker.

H: I consider that I started out at the bottom. I ran automation overnight on the weekends. Is there anything lower than that? This was in Charlotte.

E: I can go one lower I think. I was still weekends, it was automated, but I was the automation. We played 33 1/3 beautiful music records. I had to count to seven between each record before I started the next one.

Barring a couple of brief separations, In your 16 years of morning radio, what are some of your all time favorite bits, stunts, etc.?

H: The ones that stick out in my mind are the ones that involved a lot of people. Remember when we did the rice thing? It's like a common thing now, but this was 1988. We were at Texas stadium and we had a bunch of people dive into a portable jacuzzi.

H: They had to go all the way in and pull the tickets out with their teeth. It was hysterical.

E: We had the tickets weighted at the bottom of the pool and filled the pool with cheese soup and chicken soup. I don't know if we've done the greatest yet. We try every week to impress each other and come up with something.

What's one of more recent favorites?

H: The Fan-a-gram. We had heard the legend of Jeff & Jer' doing the Fan-a-gram in San Diego and the Flyers were in Game 7 against the Jersey Devils. We just put the call out the day before. We said, show up at the station if you want to be part of human Fan-a-gram. We had 500 to 700 people show up to form the words, "Go Flyers".

E: We planned it out and knew we needed a mininum of 107 people, or something like that, to pull it off. How much space did it take?

H: It took most of the parking lot. By the way, if you do this bit, don't use your parking lot, because it ends up that the lines in the parking spaces screw up the effect.

E: Don't do it in a parking lot at all.

H: Do it in a field. Otherwise, the letters are hard to make out, even with all the people.

E: When you get high enough to actually see what's being written, the lines in the parking lot show up almost as well.

Can you recall any stunts that backfired?

H: We have been pretty successful.

E: Well, we had that one. The one when I got fired.

H: You mean, besides the ones that got Scott fired?

E: This was in Charlotte when we broke up the first time. We accidently gave away a car we didn't have. Accidently?

E: That wasn't a good one. We didn't even do it on the air.

H: He made believe that he was the voice of a competitor, and they were doing a great contest, and we had no money. So we just became the other DJ's, because Scott does voices. We gave a listener a car. Whatever the game they were playing across town was, he played it with the listener. He told the listener that he won, and to come on by and pick up his car. Well, the listener came by.

E: They really thought they won. So, they came by and were very bummed. They wanted a car.

When does radio become fun?

H: I think after you work for a couple of stations, and if you get lucky and get some good PD's. It becomes fun. No matter how bad our jobs have ever been, we are always having fun. E: There's been times in the past 16 years, back early on when we had a lot of fun. Then all of a sudden, we weren't boss is, and who you're working for. When we first got to KPLX we had a great time for several years, then all of a sudden we weren't having fun.

How have you changed most over the last 16 years?

H: We have a lot more pride in ourselves and take more of the responsibility to try to improve the show. We don't blame anybody. If we have bad shows, we come out, get a little mad, and try to do better. Before, we may have just blamed everybody else. H: It's always a tough battle. As long as you are willing to take the blame. I think that's what I got from Kidd, what I call the "Goodometer". He can tell a good bit, or a great bit within three seconds. I would come up with stuff, and he would know the bad. He would give me this little eyebrow up in the air like, are you sure? I'd say, "Not really anymore." We always blame ourselves. If we aren't doing well, if the bits suck; we blame ourselves. We go back and try it again.

What do you make of the current state of radio?

H: Not bad. It is good for people that are good. It's very difficult to break in. There really aren't a lot of A or AA stations to learn at. You aren't going to get to AAA and then majors...

E: The farm teams are different now. I think now is as good of a time as any to break into radio, if you don't have to make a lot of money. There are plenty of companies that don't want to pay you much money. If you will work for that, then you will get a job.

What would you tell a morning show whose act is in a rut?

H: You got to shake it up. You got to either get better, read a book, go to Boot Camp, or change jobs. You got to do something. It's usually up to you. You have to stop. What I did, I was all those things. I was bad, and people thought I was good. I was unhappy and people thought I was happy. The worst thing I ever wanted to be was mediocre. I wanted to be good. I will say this to anyone who wants to take the challenge. Go work for someone that's good for a small amount of time, and open your eyes to what the possibilities are. Until Kidd opened my eyes, and took out all the bad things I had learned from so many bad PD's, I don't know if I was ever going to be any good.

What were some of those bad things?

H: Worrying about whether you are on time for traffic. Worrying about whether the traffic is 30 seconds or 60 seconds. Worrying about if the News is right at 8:00 or if it's 8:03. Some PD's worry about things the listener doesn't know is going on.

E: That's a hard thing to learn.

H: This is kind of our motto, we are not always great, but we are never bad. Basically, if something is not going to work, just don't do it forever. Just shorten it.

What's your favorite way to end an phone call? Can you put your mother back on the phone?