Straight From the Mouth

Paul: Someone was doing a political rally and we showed up dressed as the grim reaper with a sign saying "we represent the dead voters." We got a lot of press from that.

Let's talk radio. How many years have you been on the air together?

Paul: We came on the end of '89, so this will be our 13th year, and we switched gears. Ya know, about six or seven years ago, we went from WSHE which was legendary station, to ZETA.

How have you managed to survive?

Paul: You've just gotta be funny. People say you've gotta be local, but no, you've got to be funny and you've got to be consistent. We got a new program director, Troy Hanson, and the first thing he said when he came down here was "love the show. Been listening on the internet. You've gotta stop playing those two songs an hour." We had been fighting this battle for a long time, and Troy actually got that trigger pulled for us. And we've seen a jump in the ratings, because we're not giving people a reason to tune elsewhere.

No music? Nada?

Paul: No, and the way we're doing our show is we're doing thirty minutes, we'll do a break, play 6-7 spots, do another thirty minutes. Our TSL is going up, and it's really been great. It keeps our flow going. Before, we'd be in a groove, and then it'd be like "let's stop, play 4 spots, play a song, come back, do a couple of minutes, play another song." It was interrupting the flow.

Can you play music if you want?

Paul: We can do whatever we want. When the new Pearl Jam cd came out, we played it and talked about how lousy it was.

When situations like the recent Alligator Alley (I-75 shutdown from Shoney's incident) thing happened, did you have the authority to say, "Hey, lets just stay on longer?"

Paul: Oh yeah, we've done that a bunch. But that was the day we found out before a lot of other people, that it was a hoax. One of the new stations in town went absolutely ballistic with it. A good friend of ours is an anchor at one of the other stations. He said " yeah, they fell for that crap. I called a buddy who is an investigator. The whole thing is a hoax." So, we knew not to go too overboard, but we made sure we were all over it throughout our show. We were really scared at 6 AM, and the words came out of Ron's mouth that there was a terrorist plot to blow up Miami. Then we realized that the whole thing was a joke.

Paul, it was great seeing you at MSBC this year. What was the buzz among rock morning shows?

Paul: Everybody I talked to pretty much wants to drop playing music. That's the biggest thing. Right now, there's no huge stars in rock and alternative, so the music is not that hot, and the kids can get their music from 8 million different sources, but they certainly can't get Ron and Ron, Lamont and Tonelli, Bob Rivers and Spike... on your cd player.

When you cut out the music, how does that affect the audience?

Paul: I'll tell you what we've noticed, just by callers and people we meet at promotions. You meet different people. A lot of black guys are calling the show. We're getting different people that we never had before. I saw Al Peterson (R&R talk editor) at Boot Camp, and he said the funniest thing about going all talk is that you won't be the oldest person at your remotes anymore. So, we're getting an older crowd, too.

And women?

Ron: There's other stations that superserve them, and we don't. But in the spring book, we're one of the top stations for females, and that was one of the most gratifying things for me and my career. To go out and meet people, when you've got fathers and sons, with 20-year difference between them, that listen on the way to work and school, when they're driving together. And the same with mothers and daughters, and husbands and wives. That's the part that's been the coolest for me.

Paul: But hey, we're not necessarily a family show...

Ron: When you don't play music, you're not turning anybody off.

At what point did they let you start dropping the number of songs?

Paul: It was when we came from OSHE to ZETA. Greg Steele was our PD.

Ron: he was the first guy in our career to say "why don't you guys try talking more, and playing less music?"

Paul: We'd never heard that before. We'd always heard the opposite. Then, we were down to 4, and I dropped one. And I remember - he said to me one day in the hallway "When did you go from 4 songs to 3 songs?" And I said "oh, you noticed, huh?" I talked to Bob Rivers about that. Everyone's done it the same way, gradually drop Oem. We wanted to get rid of them.

Of course, you're not suggesting that everyone drop their songs?

Paul: You've got to do what's right in your situation. I don't want anyone to get fired.

Ron: From what I understand, Lamont and Tonelli play a lot of music, and they're very successful.

Does ZETA use any voice-tracking?

Paul: Not here. Troy took it off both stations. As soon as he came in, he said "I want live jocks on ZETA and BIG."

How did you end up in Miami?

Paul: I was in radio hell. I had worked at WSHE back in the early 80's as a production guy, producer and sidekick for Jimmy and Steve in the morning, and worked with Herman and McBean. So, I'd been there for a few years when I got an opportunity to work with Tommy of Tommy and the Bull, and now of Tommy and Rumble, WNOR. Tom and I worked at OSHE and started our own morning show at Q96 in Orlando. We were there for a couple of years until we called up Shirley Jones from the Partridge Family, who sued us for invasion of privacy. Tommy and I then went to Nashville, where we split - he went to Virginia, (and he's been there ever since, at WNOR) and I went to Birmingham, which was radio hell for me. They ran me out of town on a rail. I wanted to get back to Miami so badly, and I kept calling the PD. I came down for an interview; that was in O89. It was great because when we came into the market, there was no Stern, and we got a little leg up on everybody. Neil Rogers had gone from mornings to midday. We were doing a music show, we were feelin' our way around, and didn't really know each other. We had an owner who actually said "Paul and Ron, I want you to do this show. Ron, you do the news, Paul you just talk, but don't talk to one another."

Your owner didn't want you to talk to each other?

Paul: Yeah, he wouldn't let us talk to each other. But we knew that he didn't wake up until 8 o'clock in the morning, so we would do a full-blown show from 6-8 am. Now, I put in a little time early in my career at K102, and Neil Merski was my PD. (Now in Kansas City). He was programming ZETA. I went over to him and said "look, they're not letting us talk here on OSHE, we can't do a show. I'm getting ready to get out of radio. You've gotta do something." And he said "Ya know what, the Ron and Ron contract is up," and they wouldn't give us a contract at SHE, so we walked across the street without a non-compete. Three to four months later, legendary WSHE became mega 103, a disco station.

Would you say the move to ZETA was the turning point in your careers?

Paul: Yeah, but ya know what - we didn't lose anything because we stayed in the same market. We just crossed the street and we took a chance. I guess at that point we really had nothing to lose. It was a good move financially, and it just happened to work out that after being here for a few months, they hired this new PD who said "talk more and play less music," and it worked for us.

Ron: the second turning point for us had to be six months ago when they finally said "Okay guys, now drop the music, and lets see what you can do."

Where do you think the future talent in radio is going to come from?

Paul: Good question.

Ron: Yeah, that is a real good question, because it's a whole different world than 20 years ago when we were coming along in radio.

Paul: But there are some cool PD's out. For instance, Brad Harden in Tampa. He likes having a wild man at night, and I think the next breed of rock morning shows will have to come from night jocks that are let loose.

Ron: It seem like today, internships are the way to go. At least, that's been our experience here. If you are in broadcasting school or college that has a radio station, and you can get an internship at a station that you'd like to work for, then that's half the battle. Then, take that opportunity and you get in there and really bust your butt.

Paul: Our intern, Tool is now working in Raleigh.

Ron: And our sidekick, Coast, was an intern five years.

Paul: And Omelette has got his own show at I95 in Danbury. So, a lot of the guys have been our interns - our show is sort of a breeding ground for radio talent.

What have been some of your favorite moments on the air?

Paul: I was listening to The Best Of the other day, and it might have been a bit that I got from Boot Camp a couple of years ago. It was Golf Across South Florida. I was peeing in my pants driving down the road. We had an intern and Toast, our sports guy, play a round of golf from Ft. Lauderdale Beach to the radio station. It took them 3 days. They were hitting police cars, and they were mulligans. They hit a guy in a Mercedes, and he was pissed. It was just a million things going on.

Ron: I always liked the old funny stunts like the smell my fingers, and the meet thy neighbor. There have also been some sweet and tender moments we shared on the radio as well. Actually, a week or so ago, we were up in Boston, broadcasting live. I met my brother on the air. It was like an Oprah Winfrey kind of thing. I had never met him before. He's like 50-something years old, and I didn't know about him. He's actually a stepbrother, but that was a pretty cool moment.

Paul: It was a great moment especially when I went on the air and I said "Yeah, too bad your dad was a piece of crap," and the guy was listening on the internet. So, it blew up in our faces.

What about guests?

Paul: Our Producer, Glen Richards, does a pretty good job with that. We've got guests coming and going. For instance, today we had Henry Winkler, (the Fonz) in studio. We had Zack Thomas, the middle line backer for the Dolphins.

Ron: And then we had Alyssa Milano from Charmed.

Paul: We had a guy who's a competitive eater. He could eat more conch fritters than anybody in America. The conch fritters came and he left. So, I don't know what happened. We had a comedian on the show, too, from the Marijuana Logs, which is a takeoff on the Vagina Monologues. We're very guests intensive.

How often do you have guests on?

Paul: Probably three a day. We get good guests.

Ron: Sometimes it's good if they're bad.

Worth noting, all the guests you described don't seem like your typical rock format guests.

Paul: I'm glad you brought that up, because Troy, our PD said "Forget about the format during morning drive. You guys are mass-appeal. If Willie Nelson is in town, bring him on the show."

How did you cover American Idol?

Paul: We played clips of them on the show. We did our own American Idol. We called it Paul and Ron's American Rock Idol, and we had a bunch of local musicians - some that really sucked, and some that were really talented - and we had a panel of experts including famed songwriter Desmond Child, and we picked a guy. We put him on stage at our Paul and Ron's come-iwanalaya luau concert.

On the cover of this magazine, you are standing in front of a huge crowd. What's going on there?

Paul: This is our annual luau, ZETA Fest. It's our signature event each summer.

Ron: There was what 10,000 people this year? We do a pig roast, we have numerous rock acts, we have a Hawaiian Tropic bikini contest...

For a young morning jock who has never stood before a live crowd of 10,000 people, what do you recommend when faced with that moment?

Paul: We effectively get drunk in front of the audience the entire day.

Ron: Yeah, and that relates to the audience, and they love you for that.

What's the best way to maximize these kinds of events?

Paul: One time, Tequila was sponsoring our big summertime concert, and I took a bottle of Tequila and filled it with Gatorade. I got on stage and said "How are you doing? It's Paul and Ron," and I chugged it down. I was the hero for years.

Turning to sports, could the Miami Hurricanes compete in the NFL?

Paul: I'm not a Miami Hurricanes fan because I went to the University of Florida, so I am gonna go ahead and reserve comment on that. They can't compete in the NFL because they get paid more than the NFL players.

Two last things: What's the deal with Paul and Ron the motion picture?

Paul: We had a contest- we offered listeners a chance to write a movie script about us, and they did. We picked a winner, hired a professional film crew, and we just spent the last month punching up the script, going into production, and making the movie. It's got to be put together yet, but we've done the principle filming and everything.

What's the story line?

Paul: it's a funny-scary movie. We're going to debut it at our Halloweenie Roast, and run it in the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival. It's short - 20 minutes.

How much did you pay listeners to be in the movie?

Paul: We didn't pay anything. The one listener whose script we picked got a shopping spree and a chance to appear in the movie.

Was Clear Channel involved?

Paul: Yeah, they've supported us very well, along with several different advertisers. Someone actually filmed us filming the movie, for us to have the blooper segment, and when the DVD comes out, we can have the director's cuts, the making of the movie, and all that.

Are you going to have somebody do an official review?

Paul: We have a movie critic that comes on every Friday morning, and I'm sure he'll review it when it comes out.

Final question: who's gonna be your next Governor?

Ron: Boy, that's a very good question. Two words - Jeb wins.

If they get the voting machines fixed, it could be a complete turnaround.

Paul: They may not actually declare a winner in the state of Florida, again.