WEBVTT - David Letterman - Summer Staff Picks 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:04.840 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:09.160 Thing from My Heart Radio. It's summer and that means 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.200 it's time for our tradition at Here's the Thing, where 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:16.200 the staff share their favorite episodes from our archives in 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:20.760 our Summer Staff Picks series. Next up is our producer 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:21.640 Kathy Russo. 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:27.920 Thanks Alec. Before Stephen Colbert, there was David Lehnerman. For 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.640 thirty three years, David hosted a late night TV talk show. 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.479 He is the longest serving late show host in TV history. 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.160 David is my pick because back in the day, when 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.000 I could stay up late at night watching TV, I 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:44.880 thought he was the best host. I loved his dry, 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.199 sarcastic sense of humor and how he paid attention to 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:53.440 the details. He was engaging, funny and original. When David 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.640 came on Here's a Thing, I met him in the 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.760 lobby of the building we recorded in that day, the 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.600 elevator happened to break down. David said, no problem, if 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.200 we have to take the stairs. He wasn't upset and 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:09.080 started asking me questions about myself. For a brief moment, 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.160 I felt like a guest on the David Letterman Show 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.760 as he followed me up five flights of stairs. Enjoy 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.880 the conversation with my two favorite host. 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.479 When David Letterman started Late Night in nineteen eighty two, 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:27.320 the New York Times said he was quote more of 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.440 an acquired taste than most comedians on a quote. 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.399 Now, it's time, ladies and gentlemen, for a segment of 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:38.320 this program that we like to call stupid petricks. 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.640 We grew up on Johnny, a true gentleman who could 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:45.720 deliver a smooth setup and punchline, occasionally helped by a wink. 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.920 But suddenly with Late Night, the ultimate punchline was the 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:53.720 fact that some gap toothed, unknown smart ass even had 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.400 a show. His pet tricks were stupid on purpose, and 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.480 so was he. Tune in and you might catch him 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.080 lowering himself into a water tank wearing a suit made 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.920 from three thousan four hundred Alka Seltzer templates. 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.520 We have the oxygen here, and I have been asked 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.200 about twelve times by various members of the staff to 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.120 remind you don't try this at home. 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.040 I know you have the nine hundred gallon tank, I 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:20.280 know you have the oxygen. 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.480 I know you have the suit of oxa Seltzer and 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.239 a staff of one hundred people. 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:30.240 Who Dave seized every opportunity to remind us that his 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.040 big network show was a ridiculous waste of time. But 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:35.959 if you were in on the joke, and a lot 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.200 of people were, it was also a stroke of genius. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:41.440 Here's a little something the boys that Late Night R 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:42.640 and D have been fooling around with. 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:43.880 We call it sky bowling. 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:48.800 Today, David Letterman is an institution and has forever changed 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.399 American comedy. Before Letterman, the extended drum roll was sincere. 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.000 After Letterman, it would never be without at least a 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:02.000 hint of irony. His show changed America, and after thirty years, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:03.919 Dave's changed as well. 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:05.680 I do a lot less work than I used to do. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.040 I just got to a point where I have no 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:10.280 patience for meetings, so I don't go to any meetings. 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.360 I can't make decisions anymore. I don't like making decisions. 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:15.880 You know, we have a dozen producers. They can have 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:17.960 the meetings and they can make the decisions, and I'll 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:19.920 just come down and somebody tell me what to do 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:20.639 and we go. 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.239 And it was different before. 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.239 Yeah, I used to be involved in everything big and large. 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:28.760 I don't think that was necessarily good, But at the 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:30.640 time I thought it was what was required when you 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:32.520 had your own show. You had to had to have 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.839 everything you know in your view and certainly influence each 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:37.320 little choice. 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:38.760 The guests that are on the show. Do you still 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:40.560 help select the guests throw or someone else takes care? 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:42.040 Yeah, people who select them. 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.400 Occasionally I will think of, Oh, I heard about somebody 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:45.040 that did so and so. 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.480 Could we look into that and this and that? Very little, 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:49.280 very little, I mean, these other people do that. 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.720 We've have the good luck of these people havn't been 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.680 together for a long, long, long long time. 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.360 They all know what the expectation is. 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.440 Of course, when you're in that situation, the bad version 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.920 of it is, oh God, it's the same thing. It's 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.480 the assembly line. We're just building the same car over 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:07.280 and over and over again. You feel that way sometimes 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.160 Sometimes I'm the biggest defender of that. I'm sixty five. 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:11.680 I don't have the energy I had when I was 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:13.840 thirty five. There are certain things I like about the 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.440 show now that I like more than before, such as 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.640 I like talking to people and the opportunity to learn something, 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.800 or if I have a natural curiosity about somebody, I 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.359 really look forward to that. Or if I have something 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.800 that I know is going to be silly and stupid 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.400 and I want my authorship out there on this something 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.560 silly and stupid, then I get eager about that. But 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.400 in the old days, we just were going twenty hours 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.560 a day. We'd be out on the streets, we'd be 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:43.599 going to New Jersey, we'd be up all night shooting, 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.400 and there would be contests, And I can't do that 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:47.080 show anymore. 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.400 The more successful the show has become, and the more 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.000 successful you would become, do you find that in terms 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.880 of programming the show you have to rely more on stars. 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.120 Is there a kind of person It's completely different. 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:03.599 In the beginning the Late Night Show at NBC, we 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.880 had a liaison between Johnny Carson and ourselves named Dave Tabbott. 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:09.400 He had worked at NBC and then had become close 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.560 with Johnny, and so Johnny hired him, and he was 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:13.320 a guy. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.480 Who, honest to God, talked like this. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:19.440 Dave came in to make sure there were no conflicts 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.599 between our show and the tonight show. He says, for example, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:28.279 let's just say that Bob Hope is arrested for using 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:33.800 drugs and we just all just like, really, in what 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:35.320 universe is that a likelihood? 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.239 And he says you can't then do jokes about Bob Hope. 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.080 I said, okay, all right, we get that we were 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.960 not allowed to use to a monologue and we were 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:47.360 not allowed to have an orchestra, and we also felt 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.200 that a way to distinguish ourselves, since Johnny had the 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:52.800 big stars that people really. 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.520 Wanted, we would then kind of have fringe people. 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.400 That's exactly right, and so we we sort of mined 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.719 that veins, which as we could. It was sort of 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.760 a fortunate coincidence that we were prohibited in that sense 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.760 because we weren't really interested in having mainstream people on two. Again, 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:10.560 I don't know how effective it was, and in terms 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.039 of programming, I don't know if people noticed the difference 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.160 and appreciated it or just thought, oh, they can't get 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.240 very good guests. And now it's completely different. It's you know, 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.839 Broadway cavalcade of stars, and that's fine. I have no 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.080 problem with that. We're always fighting the Internet, and they 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.880 seem to be winning in terms of the small guests, 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.120 the kid that swims out into the East River and 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:35.240 saves a cat, or but We're always so far downstream 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.280 from that story by the time it's all over the 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:38.720 internet that there's no. 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:39.480 Point and putting it on. 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.200 You started in radio, Yeah, my first job was at 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:44.919 a radio station. You went to college, You went to 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.240 Ball State University. I studied a radio on TV. 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.960 Well, why did you study radio on TV? Academically? 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.239 You know, I went to Ball State in those days, 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.320 graduated with I think it's a bachelor of a Bachelor 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:58.720 of Arts or a Bachelor of Science. 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:00.720 I don't think that science probably back then. 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:05.600 But yeah, no language requirement and no math requirement. I 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.320 mean it really saved me because I was academically, I 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:10.680 was not very good early on. 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:11.400 I was very. 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.040 Lucky that I knew how to save myself. A sophomore 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:16.920 year in high school and I had signed up for 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.680 a public speaking course and the first day you were 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.560 supposed to get up and extemporaneously speak for five minutes. 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.200 You know, everybody's twitchy and sweaty and worried about this, 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.040 as was I. And then I got up there, the 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.520 nervousness and the twitchiness and everything dissipated. I loved it, 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.280 and I thought, oh my god, maybe this is a 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:38.160 way I can distinguish myself and I did you know. 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.360 But had you been the entertainer as a child in. 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.400 The household, Yeah, sure to what extent, And then my 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.920 parents wouldn't put up with it much. There was a 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.840 fine line between being always in the amusing and being 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.760 just a and being a wise ass, and we don't 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:52.240 like that. 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.400 I can remember my father was big and. 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.760 Loud and noisy and always had stuff going on, and 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:01.200 my mother completely non demonstrated. And I can remember every 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.440 Sunday night after dinner, my dad would make popcorn and 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:05.960 we would sit in front of the TV and watch 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:06.640 Ed Sullivan. 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.080 And Ed used to have this habit of walk, come on, now, 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:10.720 let's really hear it for him. 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.880 And my mom used to say, I don't like the 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:18.240 way Ed begs the audience for applause. So she was 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:20.240 just completely stand offish by the. 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.640 Notion she was a connoisseur of television hose and then Eric. 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:27.880 No, she was not a connoisseur. She resented the fact 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.040 that somebody had to be encouraged to support. 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.160 What they had just said, that Sullivan was houring himself. 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.720 That's exactly right, exactly, So you go to ball stadiing 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:38.800 and you get this degree batcher of whatever, we don't 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:40.720 know you, and what do you do after that? 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.120 Well, through a friend of mine at the ABC affiliate 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.000 in Indianapolis where I lived, which was sixty miles away 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.040 from where I went to school and still is just 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.080 about sixty miles, I heard that they were auditioning for 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:57.120 They wanted a summer announcer. So I went down there 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.760 an audition, never having been in a television studio in 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.320 my life life, and got the job. I mean it 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.480 was a fixed fight because I had no business getting 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.280 the job. I wasn't very good, I didn't know what 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.439 I was doing, I had no experience, and they gave 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.600 me the job. And suddenly the bulb that was turned 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.600 on my sophomore year in high school now is burning 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:20.160 white hot because it's are you kid me? I'm nineteen 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.119 and I'm going to be on TV? I mean, it's preposterous. 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.120 What kind of job did you? I was the booth announcer, 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:28.320 So I can't believe you said that back when they 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.520 had booth announcers on CHEE. That's right, That's what I did. 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:32.320 These guys defined my childhood by the way. 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.480 These were the guys the principal responsibility was to keep 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:37.320 the program log. 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.480 There used to be a lot of technical glitches in television. Yeah, 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:42.520 who had booth announcers who would pick up the slack 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:44.440 when something went wrong with tape the tape. 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:45.400 That's exactly right. 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.760 A station break was a huge process because you had 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.320 a control room, you had a director, you had two 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.320 or three sixteen millimeter projectors, you had a slide chain, 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.160 and you had the big two and a half inch 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.080 Ampex tape. Let's say you had four commercials in a 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.520 station break, then you'd have to roll the tape. Then 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:04.080 you'd have to count down and roll the film. Then 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:05.920 you'd have to go live to the booth to read 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:07.880 copy over a slide and went back to the film. 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.640 And it was an enormous thing. Periodically, the FCC would 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:13.800 come in and check your log. So it was a 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:17.679 big deal. At a summer job in nineteen sixty sixty eight, 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:19.360 I was making one hundred and fifty bucks a week. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.600 I got to be the weekend weather man. I'd never 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.280 done that before. I got to read the news on 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:28.360 the morning kiddie show. And none of this would happen today. 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.920 You know, people are qualified to do that job now 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.160 much earlier than I. It certainly was, you know, like 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.680 this was Ryan Seacrest. University put him in any job 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:40.440 when he was nine or ten. He could have done 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:42.440 a better job than I'm doing now. But for me, 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.120 it was like, holy cow. So I go back to 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.240 school now, to my radio on TV studies, and all 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.679 of a sudden it's hey, there's Ducklips. 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.560 We've seen him on TV. And oh my god, what 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.240 a progression that was for me. Now that was what year. 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.199 I think I started there in sixty eight, and I say, 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.240 the war is going huh yeah, And you avoid drafts 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:05.400 and you avoid all in those days, you get the 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.920 student deferment. And Ballsy was principally a teacher's college in 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.600 those days, and so it wanted teachers. It was chock 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:16.319 full of guys who wanted that student deferment and also 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.520 the teaching deferment. I was not studying teaching. So the 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.959 minute I graduated, I was reclassified one A. Went for 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.880 my pre draft physical in April. They said, okay, we'll 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.160 call you. And then in the meantime before I was called, 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:34.240 Nixon announced the National Lottery. They were going to end 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.760 the draft. They were trying to step down the Vietnamese War. 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.400 My birthday was three hundred and forty two or something 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:42.400 like that, at A three hundred and fifty six, So 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:44.160 that meant even though I was one A and had 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.560 my pre induction physical and was ready to go, it 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.680 was over for me. At the time, I didn't know 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:50.960 how lucky I was. I felt guilty because I had 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.040 friends who had gone, and I had friends who had 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.640 been in the Marine Corps, and I just felt like, well, 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.480 why meet these guys went, Why shouldn't I go? And 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.839 then it dawned on me pretty quickly. I had been 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:03.480 among the really really lucky. 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.280 Course. What was the political landscape like at ball Stay 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:07.840 when you went through, Well, it was just starting too. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.080 I used to make jokes that they'd have student protests, 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.079 but it was to get the cafeteria cooks to wear hairnets. 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:15.319 But it was. 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.760 It was creeping in. It was not a hotbed. It 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.600 was not Madison, Wisconsin. It was Muncie, Indiana. But it 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.959 was starting and there were sit ins and demonstrations, and 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:26.840 you know, Bobby Kennedy had spoken on campus, So it 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.000 was starting, but I wouldn't say it was. 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:31.760 It wasn't quite lit up the way it might have 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:32.960 been in other regions. 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:39.000 More after the break, you mentioned booth announcers, and I 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.960 remember I did a YouTube search. I wanted to find 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:44.119 this guy that was literally the voice of my childhood 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.960 w R. And he come on and say, you know, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.959 next one million dollar movie, Barbara stan mctells Gary Cooper 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:53.000 where he can go in. 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.360 Ball of Fire? And he just said this voice it was. 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:57.520 It just haunted me. 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.840 Well, that's interesting you mentioned that guy I had the 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.800 little kid voice from Indiana. I wasn't that guy, but 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:06.400 I still had to do the job. And I can't 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:08.600 impress upon you enough how tedious it is to sit 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.960 there for eight hours watching programming and logging everything that happens. 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:15.080 If you lose audio, you have to log that. If 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:16.880 you lose video, you have to log that. You have 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.439 to log sign on, sign off, every commercial, every station break. 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.000 And at first I was scared, silly, but then, like 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.280 everything else, you get accustomed to it and you become blase. 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.240 And so I would just start wandering the building. You know, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.319 it was so embarrassing. They would will a booth announcer, 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.600 please report to the announced booth. Oh my god, I've 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.840 missed the so and so the main announcer was a 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:41.040 guy named Rob Stone. Tremendous voice and a hopeless alcoholic, 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.120 I mean, a real alcoholic. I go hand in hand, 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.320 don't they, Yeah, kind of certainly. In those days it 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.520 was not uncommon. He would come in and he would 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.880 bring a pint with him, and so in the spirit 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.280 of this, we who were working the sign off shift, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.880 we would always send somebody out for beer. And we 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.440 would be at the station late at night signing off, 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.000 and my off and the director and whomever else was there, 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:03.439 we'd be drinking beer. 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.040 Oh my, was this fun. 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:07.199 In those days you would do a five minute new 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.719 summary before sign off night cap news, and then you 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:15.040 would do the broadcast statement. You'd read that over the 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.400 slide of the station, and then they would go to 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:21.120 the national anthem with the waving Club. One night, a 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.080 guy in the props department said, I can reconstruct exactly 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:26.880 the station is pictured on the slide. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:28.600 We can make it blow up. 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:31.680 So as you're as you're reading the I thank you 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.240 and good night, and why not tune in WLW overnight 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.600 and blah blah this and so until tomorrow, good night 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.240 and good luck. I have the thing blow And so 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.800 we did Oh god. We were proud of ourselves, you know, 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:44.200 we really thought we had done something. 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:45.040 Jeez. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:49.000 Nobody ever said anything. No, it was bizarre. Nobody got fired. 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:50.400 Nobody asked a question about it. 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:50.680 You know. 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:52.640 It was this cult of four or five guys who 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.440 had pulled this off, and we just thought, well, this 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.520 is one it was fun, but two you wanted but no, 0:14:58.520 --> 0:14:59.800 nobody nobody said anything. 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.680 But but what's interesting is from school and then doing 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.080 the job and so forth, and the booth thing the 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.000 comedy Gland is secreting through the entire time. 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:09.200 Yeah, what are you doing for that? 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.040 Meaning other than blowing up the studio and the sign 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:13.960 off writing. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.560 Yes, I was looking for any outlet, and it came 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.400 for me doing the weather. I knew nothing about weather. 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.680 And you'd go downstairs and they'd have the ap machine 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.960 and the map would come over, the national map, and 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:25.720 you would go to the big magnetic board in the 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:27.920 studio and you put the low system, and you put 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.040 the high system, and you put the occluded front, and 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:31.880 you put the rain showers, and so it told you 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.680 everything anytime at all that I could monkey with at 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:35.680 I was very happy. 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.040 I can remember two episodes. One I was. 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.200 Had forecast sonny and dry, and we go off the 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.480 air and blah blah, and I go outside this this 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:48.760 is horrible thundershower. The rain is coming down in sheets. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.320 And I was just twenty feet away, just oblivious of this. 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:54.680 Dangerous monsoon. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:58.360 Yes, coming through, one of these violent Midwestern summer thunderstorms 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.600 coming through, attacking the station. I got to be well 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.560 known because this Sunday Night show was on after the 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.440 ABC Sunday Night Movie, and in those days, that was 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:11.520 big programming. Yeah, we got a bunch of complaints. And 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.920 this was when people were wearing bell bottom pants. I 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.560 don't think you could buy regular pants. Got a lot 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.840 of calls about he's either not wearing underpants or he 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.960 needs to wear underpants. That's how I distinguished myself. Do 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.080 you want to clear that up now? Were you wearing underpants? 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:26.560 DearS? 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.600 I was wearing underpants. It was Indianapolis. We're not talked 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.000 to go out without our under Americans. It's whatever problem 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.520 was perceived was not mine, I assure you. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.040 And then where do you go from there in terms 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.440 of underpants? And well, if you wish. 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.200 I got tired of sitting in the booth and tired 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.680 of working weekends, and also they didn't want me there. 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.160 They would keep bringing in auditions for my job. That 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.680 really hurt my feelings. But I couldn't argue with him 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:54.880 because I didn't know what I was doing. But the 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.120 accumulative effect of being on TV a lot there, We'll 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.320 get this memo once from the research department, and of 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.920 all of the people, the anchor team and whomever else, 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.399 I had the highest Q rating of anybody there, and 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.960 it was only by accident, really, So I started looking 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.280 for a job, couldn't get hired out of the market. 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:13.760 Some people I knew were coming in to start up 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.520 a talk radio station, so I went to work at 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.359 the new talk radio station in the format it was 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.679 news Talksports WNTS. When I resigned to quit give my 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.280 notice to the general manager. The guy sad and it 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.000 chilled me at the time. He said, really, you're leaving 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.040 this TV station to go work for a brand new 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.199 radio station And I said yeah, and he said you 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.760 will never be heard of again. So I went to 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.399 the station, worked there for a year, realized that I 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.800 had to make a move. Nobody would listen. It was 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.720 a daytime station. This was tremendous. They had a daytime license, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.240 which meant the radio station come on when the sun 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.600 came up and went off when the sun went down. 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:50.200 Literally. 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:51.960 Yeah, And in the winter we were off at three 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.800 forty five in the afternoon. I had the mid day shift. 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:57.360 I'd come in at noon and two hours later I'd 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.200 be going home. It was joy afternoon, Yes, what was 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.679 signing off? And then in the summer, conversely, you were 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:07.359 on the like nine thirty or ten. It was awful. 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.080 It was a watergate and people assumed, well, the guy's 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.080 got a talk show on the radio. I'll bet he 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:13.840 knows everything there is to know about Watergate. And I 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:17.119 knew nothing, and people wouldn't call in, and I'd have 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.680 to read endless pages of wire copy. I remember reading 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.280 it a sorry about Gordon stratchin str a c ch an. 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.520 His name kept coming up, a special Council, so and so, 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.960 Gordon Stratchen, advisor of the White House, Gordon Stratchen. Finally 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.600 the phones lighted up and I, thank god, did I 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.760