Straight From the Mouth

Dave: The funny thing about that was that one-day a woman walked up to her and said, 'Oh yeah I know your husband. I just love him; he is a really nice guy.' My husband is a doctor as well. Well it was fictitious obviously. But this woman swore that she knew Geri's doctor-husband. After the station was sold in San Antonio, we had the offer to come up here.

Had you ever lived up north before?

Dave: You cut us and we bleed cowboy blue. In Texas, north was Little Rock, so it was quite a change moving up here to the midwest, particularly Michigan where we get a lot of snow.

Geri: But by then we had two little kids, and they offered us this job five times.

How did they hear about you?

Dave: Through a consultant, by the name of Tim Moore. He gave the tape to the GM here and he kept calling us and calling us. I made a visit and decided that it wasn't for us. He asked me to come back up and bring my wife. Geri and I both went up a month later and it was beautiful, of course it was June, and we decided we would give it a try for a couple of years. Geri was hired as an afterthought. The name of the show was Jagger and Company. They gave her a job and let her sit in the studio with me. So that is where the beginning of the morning show began. That was the first time we worked together in the same studio.

Can you remember what the first few weeks were like?

Geri: We got up here and we had been here for six weeks and it rained everyday. On the first pretty day, the station threw us a welcome to town party. I was there with the girls and there was this scary clown there making balloons and someone says, call an ambulance, Dave broke his leg. I heard it but I really wasn't paying attention, because there were like three Dave's that worked at the station at the time. Then someone came up to me and said Geri, you have to go, Dave broke his leg. I was very upset, and then I wanted to kill him at the same time because we were supposed to leave for the Disney 20th birthday the next day and we were taking 15 members of the show and instead Dave was having surgery the next morning.

Have you always done AC?

Geri: It has always been W-Lite. Liggett Broadcasting originally owned the station.

Dave: Bob Liggett was his name. He owned several stations.

Geri: Our first meeting with Bob Liggett went like this. Our producer said Bob I would like you to meet Dave and Geri our new morning show, they are really good. He said, "We'll see in six months." And turned around and walked off. That was our first meeting. We were so glad we had a contract.

So how long now have you been at W-Lite?

Dave: We just started our 19th year; it will be 20 years in August, 2005.

Geri: That is a huge deal for me because we had little kids. By the time I was in middle school I had been in five or six schools. I had a very schizophrenic mother. We moved around a lot when I was little. So it meant a lot to me that when we had kids that they would start and finish in the same school. I sure picked the wrong career for that, but it all turned out right. That was one of my biggest accomplishments.

Can AC sometimes be frustrating as far as finding topics you want to talk about, but can't due to content?

Geri: All the time. I think it's different though. We can say things in an adult way, you don't have to swear and be blue to be able to get a point across. Sometimes I think working AC is a lot easier. You know you have little kids in the cars with mom and you are always very careful but at the same time you can say things that mom will get but the kids won't understand. You just have to think about it a little longer and harder.

Dave: Keep this in mind, we play very little music in morning drive on this AC station. We are not normal in that way; three songs an hour and the rest is stuff we love to talk about.

Which people have played the biggest roles in your success?

Geri: The people that turned us around and said hey, you guys suck, which is exactly what we needed to hear. Hands down, the person that helped us the most was Kidd Kraddick. Mike McVay and Charlie Cook really turned us around too. They just said you guys have got to get topical, come on. I want to hear more of the marriage thing; more of what everyday people are talking about. At the time, management had been telling us not to talk about being married or our kids.

Dave: Our audience has truly grown up with our children, and people that have come to the radio station later on through out the years know about them and because of that. Casey our oldest daughter is now our producer.

How long has your daughter been working for you as a producer?

Geri: Six months. As soon as she graduated from Western Michigan University.

Suffice to say, 19 years in the same market with great numbers to boot, has afforded you a lifestyle contrary to what some may assume for a market like Grand Rapids. To put this in perspective, let me put you on the spot with a few personal questions: What do each of you drive?

Geri: Dave drives a Jaguar.

Dave: an XJ... something or another.

Geri: I drive a 1998 Ford Explorer. Next he is getting ready to buy a plane. Me I am still putting kids through school.

How long did it take to drive from Texas to Grand Rapids?

Geri: 2 days unless you are an idiot like Dave was the last time we drove to Texas and decided that we would start out at 6am and drive all day long, 18 hours.

How has the business changed most and least there in Grand Rapids?

Geri: We see less of our friends and we hear from less people that we used to know.

Along the way you mentioned some people that had a great impact on you, Kidd Kraddick, Charlie Cook, Mike McVay, what were the things that they specifically told you that changed you?

Geri: Charlie is that one that came in and said, you guys suck. But he did it in such a way that you didn't want to kill him at the time.

Dave: He really showed us how to relate more to our audience. Outside of the obvious what are some of the days in the last twenty years that you will never forget?

Dave: Geri went through some really serious illness about ten years ago and would spend weeks at a time in the hospital. It was tough. I remember a lot of mornings thinking, they are going to fire both of us. I remember specifically one morning after she had her gallbladder removed, a week later she was back on the air, it was like she never missed a beat. There were so many mornings like that where she was feeling so bad.

What was one of the best shows you will never forget?

Geri: The morning that we had Zeto. Jack Ford is coming to town. He was the "Today" show weekend anchor. We tried calling him, our producers tired calling him, and we cannot get him to answer. He is coming in town for a lawyer's convention, and we just wanted to get him in the studio. Dave was going to call Jack's office as Braky and leave a message that Dave and I were old friends and would he do him the favor of coming by and seeing us. Sposito calls as Braky and instead of getting his voicemail, he got Jack Ford. Then with Sposito as Braky, I'd like to talk to Jack Ford please.

Dave: Then Jack says, hey Tom it's me Jack. We both freaked out because we are on the air in both markets with this phone call. We kind of talked him through. He said, oh yeah I think I am supposed to do some radio interviews when I am there, I'll be sure to stop by and see them, because Dave aka Braky says well I would love it if you went by and said hi to them. Sure enough we get off the phone freaking out. Remember Jack Ford is an attorney. When he comes by, drops Tom's name then at us knowingly, like well we all know Tom don't we.

Geri: The part that you forget is that while you were talking, since it was a three-way phone line, Jack says, Tom your phone sounds a little funny. Then Sposito says, you know it's this wacky phone. I am having wacky phone problems this morning.

Dave: I don't think Tom Braky would ever say wacky.

Geri: As he finishes up the conversation, he said well what are you doing today Jack and he said I have to go out and shoot some footage for PBS, but then I will be on the set with you tonight at 6. We were like; please don't say anything about that phone call.

Dave: That won us the Michigan association of broadcasters "Best Broadcasters" of the year.

Did you ever fess up?

Dave: No. tell him what really happened.

Dave: Geri is the only person I know of that has said the f-word repeatedly over and over again on the air over a trivia question. Have you ever heard of Fakir, one of the four tops? So Geri is on the air saying its trivia time, Four Tops singer Duke Fucker, Fuck, Fucker, Fuck, and finally she finally looks up from the paper and says what? For a good ten seconds she tires to pronounce this guys name and said the f-word the whole time.

Did anyone complain?

Dave: Never got a single phone call.

Geri: It was such an obvious accident.

Yeah that's what the Regular Guys said too.

Dave: Unfortunately we don't even have the tape anymore. We even played it for our GM in case anyone called, but no one ever did.

What show have you done on the air that you don't want anyone to know about?

Geri: The show that I would like for everyone to forget is one that McVay was doing a PD's conference. He had brought everyone into Grand Rapids to hear us all. We didn't know it at the time. I had a staph infection in the blood stream and I didn't know it. I had a 105 temperature and I was totally oblivious to everything going around. I was in the hospital later that afternoon, and these guys were just killing us. They were like you brought us in to hear these guys. Thinking about it know still makes me cringe.

If you could have a couple of hours to spend with someone in radio, who would it be?

Geri: I got to spend a couple of hours with Ron Chapman. I grew up listening to him. He could not have been nicer. I grew up also listening to Cliff, Ken Dow and Charlie Van Dyke and all those guys. I think that they are some of the reasons that I wanted to be in radio. I just loved them.

Dave: One of these days I would love to spend some time with Ace and TJ, but they keep ignoring me. I have met so many of my radio heroes at Boot Camp.

I am giving you the opportunity to predict the future of radio?

Geri: Satellite is not nearly the threat that GMs and some owners act like it is going to be. It is going to take ten years for that to play out. I think the biggest threat for radio is Internet broadcasting.

And what about the presidential election?

Geri: Heck, even if Bush comes out number 2, that is what he did last time and it worked out pretty well for him.