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Straight From The Mouth
The Morning Mouth's August Interview with Mark & Brian
(Reprinted by permission; Copyright © 2004 Talentmasters Inc.)

L.A. for over 15 years... same station... not bad. I'd say for a team who went from Birmingham to the second largest market in the U.S., you've beat the odds.

Brian: We've been a team for nearly 20 years. As I told Mark once, I always planned on spending my life with someone, I just didn't know it would be him.

Always ABC?

M: No actually when we first got here it was just ABC, then Disney bought ABC. The insignia on top of our paychecks changed. So we have been though 2 owners, 15 general managers going on 50 Program Directors. Honestly, I think I can speak for Brian. It is an honor to have lasted this long in such a highly competitive market as L.A. where the people here have their pick of the best in the world.

How about format?

B: When we first started here we were an album rock station. We were playing music I think 4 songs an hour. We weren't really the music-playing guys. So, we weaned our audience away from music as much as we could. Basically we like the sound of our own voices.

In reading our interview with you from 1990, back when you really had, this was when you had officially turned the corner in L.A. and began to make superstar money, I remember you were very nervous about this because you didn't want the public to suddenly think you were now a couple of rich guys. As I recall, you always wanted to be seen a couple of regular guys hangin' out at an outdoor barbecue.

M: Fuck that, the money is great! Just kidding. For years after we bought houses with pools we never admitted that we had pools because we thought it made us sound too fru fru, or high class. And now we just don't admit we have beach houses.

B: I specifically remember one day we were on the air, and we were each talking about where we had ridden our Harleys that weekend and someone woman called up and complained, "Who are we to sit here and talk about our high lifestyle and the fact that we have Harleys." There are certain people who like to hear that we ride limos to the airport and that we get to do these certain things that would come along with the lifestyle that we lead. But there is another percentage that don't want to hear about it.

Do you make it a point to listen back to your show so you can hold yourself in check with those kind of things?

M: I don't think we need to. I hope we're not making it sound like we are some sort of kabillionaires because we are not. We are so lucky to make the money we do. It helps because when we first started out and began making money I didn't have a lot of money and had to drink coffee in the mornings to wake up and do the show. Now I just do a lot of blow, which can be pricey (joking)!

Describe a typical day in the life of Mark and Brian.

B: When we first wake up we take turns on who takes a shower. From six on we do the show then after the show we come in and we syndicate the program, so we do promos for the other markets, then we write and prepare the next days show and then I go home, sit naked in the corner and turn the light off and on.

M: As Brian has said, both on and off the air we earn our money. Each morning on the walk from the bed to the shower, everything after that is gravy. It still after twenty years of getting up at 4am still sucks. But that is our job.

B: You never get used to it.

How many people are involved in your show?

M: You know, not as many as with any other morning show in town. We have Ted Leka our producer. We have a syndications director who also is our head switchboarder or call screener. We have two people who answer the phones. We have a board-op, Frank, and a news lady, Kelly.

B: Danny runs our syndication board.

M: It is not as many as many here have in L.A.

Does Disney handle your syndication?

B: Years ago we we talked with several companies who did syndication, but our then GM Bill Summers said why don't we do it ourselves. We took 130 grand and bought the satellite tower, opened up our own company, each own a third, ABC is a third too and we run it ourselves. We hire our own people, sell it, service it, and air it.

Has it ever impacted your local show?

M: In a way it did. When we first got together in Birmingham our first GM told me "You know what the trouble with your show is, it will play anywhere." I took that as a compliment, although I don't think he meant it as one. The basic core of our show will play everywhere. As far the timing in the having

to take breaks did affect the show. We did get letters and comments from hard core Mark and Brian listeners wanting to know what was up.

You mentioned before about being in a market that has the best of the best. How do you compete with content that cuts through?

B: The greatest joke book in the world is the morning newspaper. So we try and remain as topical as we can. We talk about it or do sketches about it.

M: Blue always works. But there is nothing that I find more boring and less creative than being blue just for the sake being blue. You know there are tons of radio shows out there and they are going to get the 16- to 17-year-old boys listening because you said tits and how big your weiner is and stuff like that, but I love blue humor as long as it is creative and smart. There is nothing funnier to me than smart blue humor. Not just saying the words to get ratings. But actually being creative with it. That is how we stay competitive with other morning shows. We are blue, but we are creative with it.

Give me a sample M&B bit.

B: There is one particular bit that we did a long time ago, but we still for the convention and our sketch on it was that Dan Quayle could not think on his own. So he had a little earpiece in his ear and as he was at the podium doing his speech he was being fed what he was supposed to say. But he couldn't get it right; he kept repeating exactly what was said to him. It is a classic. We get requests for it even today.

Since blue material is part of your makeup, has indecency ever been a problem for you?

M: As you well know we are owned by Disney so even before the whole Janet Jackson thing, we were a morning show that adhered to the Disney standards and practices that we have had to deal with, we're pretty streamlined to be their crackdown, it really didn't affect our show as much as some other shows here in L.A.

What's your take on the whole FCC issue?

B: I think it is more indecent to be cruel and mean spirited on the radio. I think there should be fines for being cruel to people on the radio. Our show has always been have fun with not make fun of. I don't think a boner is going to ruin anyone's life but being cruel for the sake of getting listeners to be mean spirited is wrong and I think should be fined.

Like some, do you believe any of this is political?

M: Absolutely. Here we are cruising along everyone was doing okay and then Janet Jackson flashes her boob to the world and they decided to crackdown on indecency in broadcasting. It's a headhunter deal.

B: I think we are a very politically motivated country now, since 9/11 when we saw those horrible things on our TV and then we get numbers back each and every day about our soldiers dying. The Janet Jackson thing gave people a voice that it didn't have before. Some of these people very much deserved one, most of them didn't. Most of them have way too much time on their hands and they just need to shut the fuck up.

How about our business in general? More fun, less fun?

M: I have been in radio since I was in high school and a lot of the stations that I grew up working in were mom and pop operations, which I love. Because if you had an idea, you walked down to the end of the hallway to pop's office and there he was. You pitch the idea and if he liked it he writes you a check for a couple of hundred dollars and you do your stunt on the radio. Now days it is corporate. You have to run your ideas by seven different departments, all have to sign off on it, it then has to be checked by standards and practices, then it has to go through the legal department, and by the time it all gets done and back to you, it is an old idea. So corporate does not necessarily work well with creative.

It's safe to say that getting in to morning radio today is a lot trickier than when you both started. What do you say to a young personality who wants to achieve what you have?

B: I came from a stage improv comedy in Chicago. What I always tell them is that do not do anyone else's show. Be inspired by someone else's show is okay. For me it was Larry Lujack. You just have to be yourself. They brought us here from Birmingham when our next logical step should have been elsewhere. We went from Birmingham to L.A. because we were original. We try to still be original. We don't do anyone else's stuff. We don't do the flavor of the day radio.

Like any marriage, have you ever come close to going in different directions?

M: No we have always been able to iron out any issues that we had for the most part, deal with our issues, and communicate.

Any goals you're still reachin' for?

B: We have now stepped out and are doing things on our on. Before that there was this non-verbal agreement that one person couldn't do anything without the other person. Now we have taken the next step and are doing things separately. Mark was a guest star on Reba; I did a stint on Reno 911. We are supportive of each other.

Okay, total then and now question: What cars did you drive to L.A. from Birmingham, what do you drive now?

Mark: Drove to L.A. in 1986 Honda Prelude/now drives 2003 Mercedes 500 SL.

Brian: Drove out in a 1968 Volkswagon Beetle and now drives a 1969 Beetle.

Read previous Morning Mouth interviews.

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