Straight From the Mouth

year it's beautiful, though there's something weird about Christmas shopping in shorts.

Ben, how do you do so many voices? Have you fooled people with them?

Ben: I have no idea how to do it. They say everybody's good at something. This is my one thing. I suck at all the things Brian's good at. My favorite moment of fooling someone was when we called Baptist Hospital in Nashville the day after Faith Hill gave birth to her second daughter, Maggie. We tried calling up as us to congratulate her and got blown off, so we called back five minutes later as George Strait. It's funny how that whole being famous thing instantly gets you to the front of the line. Within a minute, George was talking to the nurse outside her room, who eagerly took our hotline number after informing us that Faith was asleep. About ten minutes later the hotline rings, we answer it as George and it's Tim McGraw calling. After about five minutes of completely buying it, and pouring his heart out, I couldn't break it to him that it was really us. He found out a day later and was great sport about it. To this day whenever we see him, he always calls me George.

Brian: Ben is just unbelievably gifted. We have tape of him doing impressions of his neighbors at age nine, so I guess you're born with it. We've also used the George Strait impression to screw with George's Tour Bus Driver Leroy, his accountant, and countless radio stations and listeners. More recently, when Oklahoma University won the National Championship in College Football, Ben broke out his George W. Bush to congratulate the Sooners President. When his secretary was unable to locate him, W. threatened to give everyone a tax cut except her. Later that day, our PD got a phone call from the OU President who was not real thrilled. We try to use our powers for fun, not evil, but every now and then we get a little naughty.

You seem "married" to the Phoenix market. Hypothetically, of course, what would it take to get you to move to another market?

Ben: We love Phoenix and would love to stay here a long time, KMLE is a first class operation and has been great to us, but all decisions pertaining to our future, just like our employers, are made simply by the best interest of our families. Period.

Brian: Phoenix has been great to us. Trust me when we got here it was rough sailing. So just thinking about what leaving would mean and the new effort required in starting over, wears me out. But if moving makes the most sense for our career and family goals then we'd be fools to stay. Life is about opportunities and choices. Some choices are hard but we haven't had to make that choice yet.

Your station has switched companies a few times in the recent past. How has that affected you?

Ben: Not much. We've changed I think three times within a couple of years. Fortunately, everyone we've called boss over the past 5 years in Phoenix has been really nice to us.

Brian: Let's see: Chancellor, Chancellor Media, AMFM, and most recently we were spun to Infinity. Corporate cultures don't seem like they've seeped down to affect what we do per se. Well, it does create a weird vibe in the building when change is going on but what it usually comes down to is having to constantly fill out forms, switch insurance carriers, and rollover 401(k)s.

How are mornings on Country different from other formats?

Ben: The thing I like about it is, the format houses listeners from one to a hundred and one, so obviously the dick jokes are out. That's not to say we're doing a Teletubbies type show. Trying to be hip, clean and funny without being a big bag of saccharine is what we try to do. That's the challenge every day, and when you pull it off it's very cool.

Brian: Doing mornings in Country radio is distinct from the other formats because of the relationship between the artists and the audience. It is much more real, more tangible, and more developed than the other formats. What other format has a sponsored event every year like Fanfare that brings the fans together with the artists? And doing morning we get to play matchmaker many times in that love affair between artist and fans. Of course content wise, it has always been a format that has a family focus to it, so the shock radio style and blue humor have never been a part of what we're about. But the commonality today with other formats is that Country Music is much more

If you weren't doing country, what other format would you prefer?

Probably 80's because we're both 33 and that's when I fell in love with the medium as a listener and I've got all the 80's references memorized. Plus, I bought half the songs they play on 45. But as much as the past and nostalgia's cool, there's something neat about playing a record that you just know is gonna be a smash for the very first time.

Talk about Stacey Brooks for a minute.

Ben: She's very good. She takes her job and her role as the female perspective very seriously, but at the same time she's so level headed. She can take it and dish it too.

What about your support staff?

Brian: We made a real commitment at the beginning of the year to evolve the show and bring more content to the table. It's been challenging when you've been in a five-year groove, but everybody on our team has been working hard everyday to improve the product that goes on the air. And we've got a great team in place in the morning with our Producer, Doc Holliday, who joined us about a year ago, and our itinerant interns Shappy, Louis, and Brooke. We've had to take some baby steps, but I think with the new clock we put in a couple months ago everyone is getting the hang of it and is excited about where the show's headed.

What technology has helped your show lately?

Brian: When we moved into our new facilities in March, I lobbied very hard with the IT guys to devise a way for Ben & Brian to be able to create something and get it on air as quickly and easily as possible. We now have Cool Edit Pro as our main editing software on the network. We can bring it up in the air, main and satellite production rooms as well as our office where our producer can edit without tying up an active room. Ben finishes a parody song in main production, five seconds later I'm opening the wav file in the air studio. No dubbing, no carts, and if it needs tweaking I can finesse it in studio. Second big breakthrough was creating a better aircheck system and way to deliver hot audio sound bites from TV. The answer to both was TiVo. If you're not using TiVo you're probably getting your ass kicked. I could go into a lot more detail but I want to beat all of you.

How do you feel about syndicated morning shows?

Brian: I honestly can't say that I've listened to many because I'm kinda busy in the morning. Looking at the successes out there, especially in other formats, syndicated morning shows, even the exported ones, seem like the wave of the future. So far in Country, WSIX's Gerry House, as well as WTQR's Big Paul and Aunt Eloise, are the only ones I know of that have tried it and bailed. Programmers seem to be wary of giving up the local flavor. But pretty much every city in America has a Target, a Gap, a Starbucks, a Krispy Kreme, a Macaroni Grille and a Blockbuster. All of our Malls are the same, all have a Brookstone and a Sunglass Hut, and we all get pretty much the same cable channels. My point is people are being exposed to the same social reference points all across America. So you can be national but have lifestyle content that feels local. That's the challenge, especially in our format. There just hasn't been a Country show yet that makes the PD's stop and go "now that's dramatically better" than what we can put on here locally. Compelling content is going to be the separator.

Of all the things you've done on the air, what are you most proud of?

Brian: It felt real good when we celebrated our fifth anniversary by hosting a first ever Children's Hospital Radiothon and we ended up raising nearly $700,000 for some special kids. Putting this on was extra personal for me because I lost the first girl I ever kissed to leukemia in 1987. We spent a ton of hours in the weeks leading up to the Radiothon preparing audio from the kids, their parents, doctors, and support staff. We also had Country Music Artist interviews that really made it feel like Nashville was behind this project, too. So many on staff put in extra hours and they all got caught up in the emotion of what we were trying to do. When it all came together into a great sounding Radiothon, there was such a sense of satisfaction about actually making a difference in peoples' lives that was really cool. It helped me realize the power for goodness that our format and medium can be. I still think the funniest thing we've ever done on the air was an interview with Kenny Rogers in studio where Ben pretended to be country star Kenny Chesney on the phone. There's so much more to the bit, but I laughed so hard I howled. The great thing about that day was nobody was watching the clock thinking this is going too long, everyone was just thinking it was just damn funny. Hell, Kenny Rogers almost had an asthma attack. Ahh, that was a great day.

Of all your awards, which is the most meaningful and why?

The 1998 CMA Award was pretty awesome, as far as prestige goes there's nothing cooler, hell, they only let you win it once. But we were still so new back then, we're a much better show now. Most meaningful for me was probably the 2000 Billboard Award last year because that award is peer voted. (And you can win it every year.)

What could future morning shows learn from your show?

Ben: If you believe in your brand, stick to your guns. If you don't believe in your brand, change your brand to what you do believe in. And then fight for that brand to dominate the marketplace. Embrace new technology, most likely your competition already has. If you have to buy your own equipment, hire your own consultants, to win; do it. Because losing sucks