Straight From the Mouth

KZZP/Phoenix. We want you to do whatever you want to do. And I said what are you saying, you mean whatever I want to do? Don said we are gonna give you enough rope to work and enough rope to hang yourself. We need you. I'll never forget this because he said, We need ya man." And I thought "Wow no one ever said they needed me." And then he said, "We are gonna double your salary."

Who else is with you on your show?

We have Guy Bower, who we brought in from L.A., and he never ever produced before so we kind of went through the Johnny B. bootcamp. And if you survive that then you can pretty much survive anything. And he came from Jimmy Kimmel. When I was headed to The Arrow in L.A., Jimmy called me and said listen I hear you are looking at Kent Voss, who is now our news guy. Jimmy asked if I was hiring Kent Voss as a producer, and I said yeah I think he might be a great executive producer. And then Jimmy does this like 45-minute sell on why Kent Voss should be my news guy. So Kent Voss becomes my news guy. And he really convinced me and he was a hundred percent correct. Kent also worked on Crank Yankers and the Man Show. Hector is the guy that runs the board and we bring him on the show and we talk in and out. I found him when I was going to L.A. I had over ten thousand, maybe more, carts and I took my carts and I transferred them to digital to the AV. That took I would say eight weeks every day 12 to 14 hours a day. Me alone working in a room with two guys. One was named Ed and the other was this intern that Kevin Weatherly (PD) gave me named Hector. And I would be there two in the morning by myself and I would see Hector there. And no matter what I asked, Hector always did it, and after that I said hey Hector do you want to go to Chicago?

What's it like working for Johnny B?

Being in a war zone with shrapnel flying! We just had this new intern walk in and said 'What's your name? He said, Andy. I said 'Andy, you're going to have to open those little eyes of yours because it's going to get ugly. Ready? And then "Boom! Let's go! Get that guy on the phone! Move it!

Listen, I never walk to the bathroom--I run. One of the guys on my show made a t-shirt for the show that said "No Down-Time." I don't believe in it. If you have time during a radio show to sit on the phone and ask your wife what you're doing tonight, you are not doing your job. You are not doing your job! There is no down-time!

When you're driving around, what do you listen to on the radio? Do you live in a kind of constant state of coming up with things to talk about on the air?

News/Talk. I live on news talk. And I listen to News/Talk and I just wait for that one thing to click in my head. And then I also carry a dictator where ever I go, and I'll see a crazy sign or I'll see someone do something on the street and I'll just say something into my dictator. It has thousands of notes. And I love sports talk because its all listeners calling in thinking they know something.

Name a celebrity and they've probably been on your show. What's it like to never have a problem getting guests?

I'll tell ya, it's still really tough to get guests. It's not about making a phone call and asking can you do our show. You gotta really push cuz now you have to go through three layers of publicists. And they don't care if he knows me. They just don't care.

Do you get into politics on your show?

No. No. No, I just stick with news I dont get into any of it really. Only the wacky stuff ya know what I mean. I mean I had Judy Barts Baker running for governor on the phone but we are talking about her smoking, drinking and playing the accordion. We just have to do it our way. not to avoid politics, I just avoid awkward situations on the air.

Tell us about your return to Chicago, when did you go on?

We were on the air November 7, 2005 and its been good so far.

Was there a point somewhere between L.A. and Chicago where you got a bit nervous?

Oh absolutely. Not a bit, but a ton. because I was saying I am competing against myself. I am competing against what I left before. And thinking about that was very frightening. And when I came back it was as if I had never walked out the door. I felt like I had walked back home to be with my family.

What do you say to the young jock reading this who wants to make it big in radio.. or to be the next Johnny B?

The first thing is you should never say is I want to be the next Jonathon Brandmeier, or the next Howard Stern, or the next whomever, because you have to be the next Joe Blow from Des Moines, IA. You have to be you and that is what is going to get you going.

So no matter where you are, you can still make it to the top in today's radio?

No question. Doesn't matter how small a station is, as long as you can get a slot, even if it is one o'clock in the morning, where you can just do one hour of what you believe you want to do on the radio. And if you can get that tape out there you will find your place.

Who did you listen to coming up?

Fred Winston, Larry Lujack. and I loved those guys and I always give them credit. I listened and said this is amazing. This is what good radio sounds like. These people influenced my life.

Where does Johnny B go to decompress?

Upper Wisconsin. I go fishin'. I Really do, and usually go alone. By the way, and my brother will tell you, he has fished with me and he says I actually talk to fish. I'll catch a bass, bring it to the boat and say "How's it going man?" "What's going on?" Then I'll let 'em go.

Toughest day ever on the air?

When I talked about my dad passing away. That was last summer. It was unexpected. We used to get him on the air all the time. I'd call him up and say to the listeners, watch this, he's sittin'in his chair watchin' MacGyver -- "Hey "Dad, whatcha doing today? "Watchin' TV." What you watchin'? "MacGyver". Is MacGyver always on? What else you gonna watch? "Regis and Kathy." It's Regis and Kelly.. "And then I'm going to watch a Brewer game and take a nap. But he died in that Lazyboy chair watching TV. So I wrote this song about him after he died and I played it on the air and explained what the verses were about and I started talking about it and I lost it! And I've never, ever been emotional on the air. People had never seen that side of me on the air.

The thing about his death was after I found out, I had some down-time and was checkin' my dictator and I had three messages to myself to call dad! And I hadn't called him in weeks. And I thought to myself "You little SOB... you're so busy.." So I told my people, if you get nothing else from this, if you have someone in your life that you love, pick up the phone and call them.I think from that show, I got the most email I'd ever gotten in my career.

What do you think of the business today?

I don't know what to think about it? I mean I really don't. I think we are at a real interesting crossroad, we are going to see what happens with satellite, syndication.. I think one thing is for sure, and Johnny Carson said it best, It is all about the man behind the desk. Doesn't matter what you do it's all about the man behind the desk. End of story. It's about do they like that guy or don't they?