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Straight From The Mouth
The Morning Mouth's September Interview with Rick & Bubba
(Reprinted by permission; Copyright © 2002 Talentmasters Inc.)

Take us to the start of Rick and Bubba.

Rick: The nutshell version is that we met each other in college. We attended Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville Alabama. We met at the campus radio station; Bubba was more on the engineer/technology side of it, and I was trying to be an on-air guy. The Rick and Bubba show actually started in Spanish class, in college. Bubba got in at a station in Gadsden Alabama, Q104. He wanted me to follow him there, and I eventually ended up going. Bubba was the engineer, and I was doing the show by myself.

Bubba: They wouldn't let me get on the air, because I had too much of an accent.

Were you able to get your degrees?

Bubba: Yes. We both ended up changing majors. Rick ended up with a in communications.

How did Bubba end up on-air?

Rick: Bubba would come in the studio to work on stuff, and I would start talking to him. Bubba says it was his master plan; that he knew if he brought his buddy into the station, I'd let him on the air. So, we started talking to each other, and people liked it. He started to help me try to improve the morning show. We came up with the idea to do Shakespeare with real southern accents, and call it Good Ol' Boys Theater. So, we were about to do it in the studio, and about 30 seconds before the commercials ended, I looked at (Bubba) and said "Here, I think it will sound funnier if you do it." He did it, got a big response off of it, and the sales department approached us with a sponsor for Good Ol' Boys Theater. We did the show for the rest of that year, and into the next year. I went and talked to the manager one day, and he said he was "not going to pay for another deejay, and you're not taking away my engineer." I felt like we needed to drop Rick Burgess in the Morning, and make it Rick and Bubba.

Bubba: Rick took a pay cut so that I could get on the show. He called it his little investment, and it has worked out.

Rick: Bubba's master plan was to get me into the station so he could get on the air. My master plan was to take a cut in pay because you'll get better pay if you can get a better show. We knew it was going to work, because we have chemistry. You can't teach chemistry.

Was it just the two of you on the show?

Rick: At that time, yes. We did pretty much everything, producing, screening, weather....

So that was the beginning of Rick and Bubba?

Rick: With Good Ol' Boys Theater in '94 and '95.

How did you get to Birmingham?

Rick: We had stopped playing music on the show. That started bringing us listeners from other formats, because a lot of other stations had gone to playing a lot of music, here's the weather, here's the traffic, celebrity birthdays.... Birmingham had gotten pretty stale, and so people in the city started picking us up and listening to us through the static. The owners came up with the idea to move the station to Birmingham, where it would be worth a lot more money. We were told at the beginning that we were too "small-town" to make it on the air in Birmingham, but when they moved the station, they ended up leaving us on the air 'til they decided what they wanted to do. We made #2 in the trends. Then, everything started to shuffle, and we got into contract negotiations. We signed on with Dick Broadcasting. We turned around; when the next book came out, we showed up #1 in all age groups (playing no music). The station had switched from a top 40's station to a soft rock station. I think they planned on changing the format, and when we came out #1, they decided to stick with it. The station went from #12 in billing to #1 in billing, where it still remains today. 

Did you think that you were going to be typecast when you first moved there--because of your accents?

Rick: Because our show did not play music, we had to be topical, we had to be funny. And it just took off. We were already #2 before we moved, based on people in the city tuning in to us. So, in our minds, we knew it would work.

Tell us about your syndication.

Rick: The station is now owned by Citadel, and we are now in 22 or 23 markets, in 8 states. We have been doing aggressive syndication for approximately 3 years.

Are you more regionally or nationally syndicated?

Rick: That changed this year. Most of it was Alabama to begin with. We've got Huntsville they could hear us out of Gadsden, and now out of Birmingham. You've got Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Gadsden, and now we're getting down into Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Charleston, South Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee.

What kind of formats are you getting most calls from?

Bubba: It varies. We're on several classic rock and country stations, and on AC in Baton Rouge.

Have you ever been compared to any other morning show?

Rick: Yeah. Most of the time, we are compared to Johnboy and Billy, which I consider an honor, because they've been radically successful. I think it's just because we're from the south (and they're from the south, too). I think they do a great job, and a lot of their stuff is pre-produced, where our show is more conversational. We don't do a lot of prerecorded bits. We don't do a lot of characters.

What makes your show unique?

Rick: It's kind of like where Seinfeld is a show about nothing, ours is a show about anything, and the characters in the show are kind of like a sitcom; we've got one producer who is single, we've got one who just got married and is new to being a dad, and then there's me; I have four kids. I think that people like our show because we are ourselves. We go by our real names, we talk like we talk, and we're not trying to put anything over on them. Theatre?"

Rick: The show is very much like it was when it started. I think that any time you do something, it evolves, of course. We do all sorts of things. One day we may be throwing food off of the roof, or we may be talking about middle eastern religion. You never know.

Did you make a conscious effort not to cross over the line because you started on a light AC station? Do you ever cross the line?

Rick: Our reason for not being too blue is just based on our personal convictions. We're both Christians, and we don't hide from that fact. Our moms can hear the show.

Aside from talk, what other elements do you feature on your show?

Rick: We do some parodies, we have one character, Dickey Nadmyer, who I play to telemarketers, to see how long they stay on the line. I tape them and ask for permission to use it on the air, and strangely enough, they say yes. We do guests from time to time, but we are not guest heavy. We address a bit of Nascar.; we raced Dale Ernhardt on a lawnmower.

How has success changed Rick and Bubba?

Rick: I can carry a lot more friends to lunch now than I used to could. I'm just a giving person, and Bubba has said this before, and I agree with him...we just want to be rich so we can help other people.

Bubba: Remember its good for us to be rich, because we're such loving people. (laughs) Having more money has made life easier, but we haven't changed the way we approach day to day, and who we are.

What about going out in public?

Bubba: I love being recognized. There was a time when nobody cared, and I remember when nobody cared. I didn't like it, but I like the way it is now. I think one thing that we have achieved with our listeners is personable relationships, that I don't think anybody else has developed to the same level . It doesn't bother me at all to give my autograph or have a picture taken. When I'm having a bad day or feeling down, Rick will tell me to put my jersey on and go walk through the mall, and that really picks me back up, because I just love everybody loving us.

Rick: When you get in the entertainment business, you are asking people to love you. I think it's ridiculous, then, to go out and complain about somebody loving you. I'm like Bubba; I think it's great.

Who else is on the show with you?

Bubba: We have Speedy (Calvin Wilburn), our producer, and Big D (D'Marco Williams), our assistant Producer.

What are some moments on the air that people always bring up when they meet you in the mall?

Rick: We have a turkey toss we do every year; we throw frozen turkeys for distance and prize money. We have a Halloween costume contest we do on the air. We throw food off the building (usually biscuits). You catch it, you eat it. The things that people seem to like the most is when we talk about some mishap that happened to us. They like to hear about things like when we met the president, and we both froze up. We didn't have anything memorable to say.

How would you describe your accents?

Rick: We are who we are, we were born in Alabama. I would say we have country southern accents. The thing that always surprises me that I can never quite understand is those of us from the south are called southern comics. But someone from L.A. isn't called a west-coast comic, or someone up north isn't a northern comic. I never buy into that because we're from the south, we will always be locked into the south. I think the show can fly anywhere.

Do you see yourself ever making a conscious effort to sound differently in order to become more marketable in other regions?

Bubba: I don't know that we could if we wanted to.

Rick: I don't think we're talented enough. I think, though, if they moved us, we would start to sound differently just because of the culture around us. But as long as we are doing a show based in Alabama, it could get worse.

What was it like hearing from P.D.s in other markets, when you first started syndicating?

Rick: We get people calling up wanting to talk about things. Most of the people in the radio industry don't get us, don't understand what we're doing. There's always some degree of conflict there, but we're really not doing the show for the radio industry. We're doing it for the listeners, and the majority of the time, if we're given access to (listeners), they catch on, and it works out well.

What are some of the common things affiliates say to you?

Rick: "You're too local," and what I love is when Nashville people say we talk about Birmingham too much, and Birmingham people say we talk about Nashville too much. People are just a little too sensitive, but, ya know, funny is funny.

Rick: Well, Bubba's 20 year class reunion is this weekend, so we found some of his old classmates, and had them on the show. We talked about reunions and about Bubba's specific life as a high school student.

Did you have a bully when you were in high school?

Bubba: We were on the football team, so we were the bullies.

Were people surprised how you turned out and how successful you are?

Bubba: Oh no, they knew I was trying to scam a career back then, too.

When you were a jock, playing football, did you ever think, "hey one day I want to be a disk jockey?"

Rick: Ya know, I think Rick and I both have always had an infatuation for the radio. I think anybody who gets into this business, when they're little listening to the guys play the records, is impressed by that.

Is there any personality out there that you would like to meet?

Rick: Well, we kinda had the chance; we wanted to meet Mark and Brian and tell them what an influence they were on us, when we were in high school. We met them in Los Angeles; we went to the studio, and they've called us a couple of times since. Then, we wanted to meet Johnny Donovan, and Bubba got to meet him three weeks ago. We would like to meet Rush Limbaugh, and I'd like to meet Don and Mike.

Bubba: I guess as far as influences, it was definitely Mark and Brian. We used to listen to Rick and Dennis on Q104, growing up.

Rick: It sounds worn out, but it really is true; I found out even though Mark and Brian influenced me greatly, the Greaseman, I thought, was incredible, the things that he did. I was influenced by Bill Cosby, his delivery on telling stories is unbelievable. I used to imitate people, but the day I got on the air and just started talking the way I talk, that's when success came. You've just got to be who you are. I think that the first few years in radio, when I was by myself, I didn't understand that.

What did Mark and Brian say the first time you met them?

Rick: They said they liked the Good Ol' Boy Theater. They wanted to steal it.

Bubba: Yeah, we told them they couldn't have it. We asked them about a lot of things they did on the air, and they told us what parts were real, what parts were not. It was just inspiring for us to see what they had accomplished, and they were having fun doing it.

How did you learn? Did anybody pull you aside and say "you've got the personalities to make this work, now I want to turn you into radio people"?

Rick: Ya know, really, we got on in such a situation where it was such a disaster in Gadsden and then it turned around. Everywhere we've got on, it's been a situation where the station needed a turnaround. So, they were glad to have us as we were.

What about programmers?

Rick: In the beginning, nobody thought we would make it, but once success started coming, Davis Hawkins who put us with Dick Broadcasting, told us "Do what you do, and as long as you're successful, you'll never hear anything from me."

Like a lot of jocks these days, you share a building with several other morning shows. Given your success and status, do you ever sense any resentment?

Rick: Yeah, but once they get to know us, they love us. We know how the business works; you get ratings, you make money, you get to do what you want. If you don't, you meet with a lot of people, and you're constantly having to worry about what everybody thinks. So, when we get on from 6-10 am we're on to beat everybody, but that doesn't go on past 10 o'clock.

Tell us about Rick and Bubba TV.

Rick: Turner South will start running us Central time 7-9. It'll be two hours of the radio show. It will be live 7-9, and I think they will replay it later. We will actually play to the camera.

How did the show come about?

Rick: Turner South is looking to produce some original programs. They already have some that are doing well, and they approached us about doing something similar to Don Imus, only we will seem alive. It was great for someone not to freak out that we are based out of Birmingham. It will be two hours of the show live on tv.

If there happened to be another 9/11, would you handle it any differently the second time around?

Bubba: I don't think so. This September 11th, we're actually going to play it back and listen to it. We've got a tribute cd. The title is "She Commenced to Shaving." It's from a vasectomy story, we'll never forget the guy who works with us and writes a lot of songs for the show. He said "Boys, then she commenced to shaving." That was a very memorable line on the show for the past year.

You are also in the restaurant business, aren't you?

Rick: We have a restaurant, and we hope to franchise those out.

How did you land into to this business?

Rick: We were approached by some investors about a restaurant idea. We wanted nothing to do with a theme Friday night sit down deal. (If Michael Jordan can't make it work in Chicago let's stay away.) But this plan was for fast food and franchising. We want to be that burger joint your kids beg you to go to and then you try the food and you love it, too.

What's it called?

Bubba: We spent a lot of heavy, heavy research money, and came up with the name Rick and Bubba's. It's basically a hamburger place. We have an award- winning website rickandbubba.com

On the show, do either of you assume roles? Is there a straight man?

Rick: We all take on different roles at different times, but there's no straightman.

What's been your best moment ever on the air?

Rick: I would have to say that it was the day we were allowed to tell the story of two listeners we took to Los Angeles for the Academy Awards. They fit every negative southern stereotype in the world, and the boyfriend was arrested for abuse and taken to jail. We turned it into a promo... "The Rick and Bubba Show sent a listener to Los Angeles, all expenses paid... for 20 years." It is still our most requested bit. It can be found on Rick and Bubba Best of '99, volume one.

Let's go to the phones: who's the perfect Rick & Bubba guest?

Rick: We hate phone interviews, but if I have to do one, I'd say Frank Caliendo (the Madden guy for MAD TV) or Tony Stewart.

You mentioned being prayerful. What do you pray for most?

Bubba: We pray for peace and protection for our families... and really just peace for everyone.

Read previous Morning Mouth interviews.

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