Straight From the Mouth

Bob: We go through a lot of people... We are real assholes to work with. A lot of folks kind of expect change. Our last producer went to New Jersey to do a morning show, Mark Kay. Before that Tommy Owen was our producer, he left because he thought he was going to be a big star. And he's back.

Considering how often you go through producers, should Tommy be worried?

Bob: Oh yeah, he's gone by Christmas. The thing is this is a real transition market. I think it's market #48, but the revenue is a lot more than many larger markets. So, there's a lot of transition. People call us to find out if we're under contract. They will get our producers or whoever leaves here. That's the tough thing about being in this size market, people always see bigger opportunities down the road. With a smaller market the jumps not as big as a larger market, it's about as high as you can go.

Madison: Our contract is up 12/31/01 in case anybody is interested. We can start entertaining offers in June.

Who's your current PD?

Bob: Chris Edge, but we do more with our Operations guy, Bob Edwards. He's kind of our go-to-guy on a lot of stuff. What we did in the beginning was real music intensive. As the numbers went up, we stopped playing more and more music. A lot of PD's are great with music and great with promotions and stuff like that, but really aren't great with handling talent and don't give you the feedback that you need. So we have our Operations guy, Bob Edwards. He has kind of stepped into the role as the person who deals with us. We have unique structuring in that way.

Did any of your show's changes have to do with changes in the market?

Bob: Radio has changed so much in this market. Everybody use to be seven or eight songs an hour, little funny bits and that was it. Since we started, one of our direct competitors have been through twenty people trying to get somebody that works. We are still killing them. John Boy and Billy have come into the market and we still beat them. Imus is here and we beat him. There's

the mornings now, because of what we do. We might not play a song during an hour other times we may play three or four.

How much do you and Madison have in common?

Madison: Nothing.

Bob: Not a damn thing. She's got legs and I do too. That's about it.

Bob, what's the difference between working with female cohost as opposed to a male?

Bob: We have such different opinions. To me some of the best shows that we do are things that we are real passionate about and we have opposing views.

Madison: The biggest difference wasn't that I was a woman. It was because I am more open minded and more willing to do things.

Bob, have you ever said something to Madison or discussed a topic that caused problems at home?

Bob: Well, my wife doesn't listen to our show. What happens usually, one of her friends blows something totally out of proportion, and then she'll ask about it then.

Madison, you actually grew up not too far from Raleigh. Can your family hear you?

Madison: My parents listen. I'm from a very religious family, so some of it they shake their heads over. My parents know what I am about. I'm very honest. I'm not going to not do something on the show because I think they are going to get mad. Their values, needless to say, aren't my values.

Have you ever upset them with something you did on the air?

Madison: Getting my bellybutton pierced, a thing we did on the show a couple of weeks ago. Everybody had to get something done. Bob got his head shaved and ears pierced. The stunt guy, Flash, got his tongue pierced. The happy about it. He wouldn't even look at it.

You can always take it out though, can't you?

Madison: No, not for six months. We have to leave it in for six months.

You've done some pretty bizarre stunts. Any examples?

Bob: North Carolina had passed a law where mooning wasn't indecent exposure. The next day we sent Tommy out on a corner to moon every time somebody honked. He was up on top of the van. We got on the Tonight Show with that. Then, about a year ago, I guess, we strapped Big Flash, our stunt guy, who's 360 pounds, to the top of an SUV naked. We sent him downtown. He was headed to the governor's house, because of the high gas prices.

How naked?

B&M: Naked.

Bob: No clothes.

Madison: Nothing on.

Bob: He was on his stomach strapped down. It was a big deal on the news.

Will we get a picture of that?

Bob: I don't think we have any pictures, because of legal issues.

Beyond your stunt guy, do you also get involved in similar type antics?

Bob: We did a thing where Madison was a consumer reporter for vibrators.

Dad and Mom must have loved that one, huh?

Madison: Oh yeah. There are some topics where I have to tell my Mom, 'we didn't do that, we just said that on the show.'

Bob: We had three of the most popular vibrators and had Madison go home and test them. She came back the next day and told us her impressions of all of them. The best one, by the way, is called "The Jackrabbit." They sold in this whole area, stores were running out of them because Maddy said they were the best.

Stores? How many stores would carry "The Jackrabbit!!?" I have trouble picturing that as a Kmart special?

Bob: They are everywhere. 'Attention shoppers....on aisle three... "The Jack Rabbit," voted by Madison as number one ...and you'll find batteries on aisle four!'

Did you just make-up the test results?

Bob: No, she tried them.

Madison: At home. Not here.

What about things that got you in trouble with management?

Madison: Merry XXX Mas.

Bob: We started out by talking about taking naked Polaroids at the house. So we said tomorrow everybody has to bring in a picture, and we covered up the vital parts with holiday stuff. It was around Christmas. Then we put them on the Internet, and that was three years ago. Now we do it and listeners send theirs in. Then we had 19 million hits on our web site this past year for it. It's really, really big.

Bob began by talking about being a redneck. Is that part of a role?

Madison: No, that's how he really is.

Bob: Redneck, racist asshole is what she calls me.

Madison: That's pretty much what I call him. He's very, very different. A lot of things he says I don't agree with, and I've never known anyone like him. I think that's also a good thing, in that we respect each other. I respect what he says. I don't necessarily have to agree with it.

What are some examples?

Bob: What were we talking about last week when you called me an a-hole?

Madison: We were talking about handicapped parking. Oh yeah, and the black national anthem. We had gone to this event where we were doing something for the show, and he was like, 'I don't understand why the Black National anthem, but people get upset over the Confederate flag.' We argue about stuff like that. We argue about politics. We argue about Jesse Jackson. There are just some topics that we are not going to agree on and that's ok.

You said before that you call him a racist. You don't really think he's racist, do you?

Madison: Uh huh. Like a big thing that always comes up is the whole interracial dating thing. It's a real joke now. I'm into dating whoever I like.

Madison: Whether they are black or white. That's something he doesn't agree with. So that's one of those topics where I know we are never going to see eye to eye on that.

Madison, I was recently asked by a newspaper reporter in Buffalo, why there aren't more radio shows that consist primarily of females. How would you have answered that?

Madison: I just think that it's because it hasn't been done enough. People are probably just a little uncomfortable with it. Like when I started working here, there had never been a female doing middays. The only female that had worked here was doing the cohost in the morning slot, because they didn't feel that people in this market were comfortable with listening to women. I thought that was crazy. I think that a female show could definitely work, just like a male show. Now if you have two women talking about shopping and PMS everyday, it's going to be boring just like guys sitting around talking about football and barbecuing.

Bob: And if our woman doesn't start keeping her office cleaner, we are canning her ass.

Do you like getting input from upper management about your show?

Madison: We do that with Bob Edwards. He listens to the show.

Bob: As long as we get the numbers, they don't care. We have been number one in 18-34, 19 out of the last 20 books. 25-54 we have been number one 16 out of the 20 times. It is nice to have somebody like Edwards who tells you the good stuff. He never harps on the bad stuff. He accentuates the good.

Bob, no matter how comfortable you are with your partner, by the fact she's a woman, have you ever said something that you think it could come back to haunt you?

Madison: I am keeping a file for the EEOC. I keep telling him that, but he doesn't believe me. I am going to own the station.

What is something that you want to do on the radio, but haven't

Bob: An exorcism. That's a good idea. I don't think there is anything that we wanted to do that we haven't done. We are trying to get Maddy to go see the Exorcist.

Madison: I'm not into scary movies.

Bob: We had a brother and sister come in a while ago and kissed on the air... They were trying to win some concert tickets for their kids.

THEIR KIDS???

Bob: For her kids.

Madison: It is the South, Don.

Bob: We had a lady get branded that same day. We had a lady get both nipples pierced and she had to lift a basket of eggs with the rings.

Has there ever been anything that one of you wanted the other to do on the air, that you refused to do? How have you changed each other?

Madison: I stand up for myself a lot more now. Whereas, before I wouldn't really fight for myself. I would say how I felt and then let it go. Now, I don't let as much stuff go.

What about you Bob?

Bob: She has made me a lot more tolerant of different kinds of people. I'll be honest. I don't always see somebody as a Black person first anymore, because of her. I have a three and a half year old daughter and a daughter who's a couple weeks old, that has kind of changed how I will raise them. I wasn't raised like that. I was raised that Black people, regardless, were called "the n word", and it wasn't a derogatory thing, that's was just the way my family did stuff. I'm not that way anymore.

In the big picture, where do you see radio as a form of entertainment in the next ten years?

Bob: I think we are going to have the same problems that television has. You are going to compete for listeners, but you aren't going to have as many. You have 100 channels to choose from, you aren't going to have as large a share to choose from.

What's your favorite way of ending an interview?

Bob: Like this... (the line goes dead).