1
00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:05,480
Speaker 1: Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a

2
00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:09,240
Speaker 1: week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of

3
00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,920
Speaker 1: the old Republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats

4
00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:15,800
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto Cutter the same as the rich

5
00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:20,200
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse the Clearinghouse of Hot takes

6
00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,080
Speaker 1: break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben

7
00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:33,239
Speaker 1: Maller starts right now in the air everywhere. Welcome in

8
00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,760
Speaker 1: to another edition The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and

9
00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:43,600
Speaker 1: Danny g Radio. The first edition of this podcast in

10
00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,360
Speaker 1: the month of June, and well, many of you have

11
00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:51,000
Speaker 1: been screaming shut Amazingly we are still here doing the

12
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:56,080
Speaker 1: podcast weekend after weekend. This a spinoff of the radio show,

13
00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:59,440
Speaker 1: but you already knew that. And it's Friday, and that

14
00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:03,560
Speaker 1: means we get chat with someone who is at least

15
00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:07,360
Speaker 1: in my mind interesting, And today we have someone who

16
00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:11,880
Speaker 1: is interesting to almost everyone. What a career this man

17
00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:14,840
Speaker 1: has had and is still having as we welcome in

18
00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,800
Speaker 1: on the Fifth Hour. Ken Levine. Now he is a

19
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,720
Speaker 1: Swiss Army knife. If you're not familiar with Ken, where

20
00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,119
Speaker 1: have you been? Pat job by? You? Uh? Swiss Army

21
00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:28,920
Speaker 1: Knife For the entertainment business award winning writer, director, producer

22
00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:33,760
Speaker 1: for television and movies, and has put together some of

23
00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:38,000
Speaker 1: the most iconic parts of American culture. He has had

24
00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:43,000
Speaker 1: a role in some of the great TV shows mash Cheers,

25
00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,080
Speaker 1: worked on The Simpsons, uh And, and a number of

26
00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:50,280
Speaker 1: other projects that have been great over the years. Was

27
00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:55,720
Speaker 1: a DJ in the glory days of radio. Bounced around

28
00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:57,960
Speaker 1: like you used to do in radio business, go from

29
00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:01,440
Speaker 1: station to station at a great name. We'll get into that.

30
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:05,320
Speaker 1: Has worked as a sports broadcaster and did play by

31
00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:09,880
Speaker 1: play for the Baltimore Oriel, Seattle, Marin or San Diego, Padres, Pittchburgh, Pirates,

32
00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:14,520
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Didgers, among others. And that is where our

33
00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:19,680
Speaker 1: paths crossed. In Los Angeles, we worked together myself and

34
00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:24,880
Speaker 1: Ken very briefly in the Dodger Talk days, and Ken,

35
00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:26,480
Speaker 1: I wanted to have you on here because I was

36
00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:29,000
Speaker 1: reaching out to you. One of the things I guess

37
00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,560
Speaker 1: we'll start with this When I was texting you and said, Hey, Ken,

38
00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:34,600
Speaker 1: can you come on the podcast? You reminded me immediately

39
00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:40,040
Speaker 1: of the remote broadcast that you and I had to

40
00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:44,839
Speaker 1: do together a long, long time ago. But is there

41
00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:48,640
Speaker 1: anything that stands out any any remote broadcast that we

42
00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:52,440
Speaker 1: did in the early days of the sports station in

43
00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:57,240
Speaker 1: l A that rise to the very top of your memory.

44
00:02:57,280 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 1: You know, there are two in particular that I remember.

45
00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:03,720
Speaker 1: The first was, since we would do Dodger Talk before

46
00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:06,679
Speaker 1: Dodger games if they were on the East Coast and

47
00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,440
Speaker 1: they had like a Saturday afternoon game, you and I

48
00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:11,800
Speaker 1: would go on at like nine o'clock in the morning

49
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,519
Speaker 1: on the West coast, and uh, we had a remote

50
00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:21,560
Speaker 1: from a tire store in Torrance and we were sitting

51
00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:23,560
Speaker 1: out there at nine o'clock in the morning. I don't

52
00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:26,639
Speaker 1: even think the tire store was opened at that point,

53
00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,359
Speaker 1: and you know, we had the table set up and everything,

54
00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,360
Speaker 1: and uh it was like a lemonade stand and cars

55
00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:37,240
Speaker 1: were going by looking at that. Who are the easy idiots?

56
00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,200
Speaker 1: You know? There was like nobody that that came to

57
00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,120
Speaker 1: see us. And the other one I remember is it

58
00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:47,040
Speaker 1: was in the afternoon and it was at some car

59
00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:52,240
Speaker 1: dealership in Orange County and the other car dealer who

60
00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:57,440
Speaker 1: was right next store was having his gardening done and

61
00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:01,120
Speaker 1: the guy with the leaf blower from remember, was like

62
00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:06,400
Speaker 1: four feet from us. And you know, like after the

63
00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:10,280
Speaker 1: drive in l A. And again nobody was was there

64
00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:13,880
Speaker 1: to see us, you know, a couple of idiots sitting

65
00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:17,640
Speaker 1: at a table talking into microphones. You know, no one was.

66
00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:22,080
Speaker 1: If we had given stuff away, maybe yeah, but otherwise no,

67
00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:24,760
Speaker 1: no one was gonna see us. Well, and the lemonade

68
00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,920
Speaker 1: stand is the perfect visual. That's why you're so good, Kim,

69
00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:30,400
Speaker 1: because that that's what it was like. They put a

70
00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,840
Speaker 1: little cheap table down, they'd wrap it sometimes they didn't

71
00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:37,000
Speaker 1: even wrap it with the station logo, and we'd we'd

72
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,240
Speaker 1: be sitting out there. And I did so many of

73
00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,080
Speaker 1: those Saturday morning shows. I did a few of you

74
00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,680
Speaker 1: and I did it, did many and we'd go to

75
00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:49,960
Speaker 1: like a Jiffy Lube and and I remember one time

76
00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:52,400
Speaker 1: one time, Kim were I was doing it with Dave

77
00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,040
Speaker 1: Smith and and we we were so like, what are

78
00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,320
Speaker 1: we doing here? You know, where where's our lives at

79
00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:59,040
Speaker 1: this point? Here? There's no one here, you know, that

80
00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:03,000
Speaker 1: Jiffy Lube somewhere in the valley. And I went to

81
00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,240
Speaker 1: I went into the pit at the Jiffy Loop to

82
00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:08,320
Speaker 1: interview the guy that was was fixing the you know,

83
00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,880
Speaker 1: preparing the cars or whatever. And unfortunately I didn't factor

84
00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:15,320
Speaker 1: in can the guy did not speak English and I

85
00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:17,800
Speaker 1: don't really speak Spanish. For it was very awkward. It

86
00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,440
Speaker 1: was very, very awkward. He was looking at me, I

87
00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:22,440
Speaker 1: was looking at him, and it was it was a

88
00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:26,479
Speaker 1: very weird situation indeed in those days. And uh, but

89
00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:27,840
Speaker 1: we had we had a lot of fun back then.

90
00:05:27,839 --> 00:05:30,159
Speaker 1: That was a good time we did. I also remember

91
00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:34,960
Speaker 1: filling in on the morning show and we had the

92
00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:41,240
Speaker 1: King's head coach, Barry Melrose, and I knew nothing about hockey,

93
00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:47,240
Speaker 1: and unlike asking him these generic questions, uh, And I

94
00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:49,719
Speaker 1: told the audience before the interview, I had known nothing

95
00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,120
Speaker 1: about hockey. Let's see if I can get through this

96
00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,880
Speaker 1: without him stopping and saying, who are you? You know nothing?

97
00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,560
Speaker 1: And so I would ask these generic so, how was

98
00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:03,960
Speaker 1: your in a defensive line look this year? Well, somehow

99
00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:08,240
Speaker 1: I managed to get through the interview. But I had

100
00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:11,000
Speaker 1: no idea what I was talking about. But you know,

101
00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:14,040
Speaker 1: it's just Los Angeles Radio, you know, it's just the

102
00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,279
Speaker 1: number two market. And so you have a guy hosting

103
00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:21,000
Speaker 1: a sports star show who knows nothing about a sport. Yeah, well,

104
00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:25,120
Speaker 1: which is perfect. And on that note, can you'll appreciate

105
00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:27,080
Speaker 1: this because you know Tom Looney So I was doing

106
00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:31,000
Speaker 1: the an NFL Show with Looney on Sundays. I did

107
00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:34,640
Speaker 1: this for like almost ten years at Fox, and so

108
00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:38,080
Speaker 1: we would have players on after the games, as we

109
00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:39,919
Speaker 1: do an NFL show, so that we'd have a reporter

110
00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:42,840
Speaker 1: get one of the stars of the game on and

111
00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:46,960
Speaker 1: so myself and Tom would try to ask these really deep,

112
00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,240
Speaker 1: polarizing questions, right, they really try to get to the

113
00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:52,800
Speaker 1: heart of the matter. And we were gonna win some

114
00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,560
Speaker 1: kind of radio award by asking these NFL stars right

115
00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:01,279
Speaker 1: after the game these questions, and Ken the answers were horrific, right,

116
00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:03,919
Speaker 1: So then Looney came up with the idea, there's a

117
00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:07,800
Speaker 1: website called sports cliche dot com and I've been a

118
00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:10,080
Speaker 1: big supporter of it, actually sent some cliches to them

119
00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,760
Speaker 1: over the years. Anyway, so Lose like, well, let's just

120
00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:17,040
Speaker 1: ask him questions like we're just speaking cliches, and and

121
00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,680
Speaker 1: Ken the answers were unbelievable. After that, we like, you

122
00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,920
Speaker 1: really bought your a game today, didn't you? And the guys, yeah,

123
00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:26,960
Speaker 1: I did. And then it was it was hilarious. It

124
00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:32,000
Speaker 1: was so funny. There's no I in team exactly exactly

125
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:33,960
Speaker 1: like that kind of stuff. Like that, the stuff from

126
00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:36,600
Speaker 1: the the old days, and these guys were eating it up.

127
00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:39,160
Speaker 1: It was so funny. We we we would Looney would ask

128
00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:40,840
Speaker 1: a question and then turn the mic off, and he

129
00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:43,119
Speaker 1: couldn't believe he asked the question and he couldn't believe

130
00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:46,440
Speaker 1: the answer was amazing. Uh it was. It was stunning

131
00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:50,040
Speaker 1: back then. But you you've done. Our ballplayer once said

132
00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:54,000
Speaker 1: that to me, there's no I in team and and

133
00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:56,960
Speaker 1: I said to him, and I will won't reveal who

134
00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:00,120
Speaker 1: it was. But I said to him, well, no, there's

135
00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:08,880
Speaker 1: another spelling of it where I is a team. I

136
00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,160
Speaker 1: love it. I love it. So you you, for those

137
00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:12,480
Speaker 1: who know the story, I will get into it in

138
00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:14,520
Speaker 1: a minute. But you you had a chance. You've done

139
00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:16,800
Speaker 1: play by play for a bunch of big league teams

140
00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,280
Speaker 1: over the years. There at least three I can count,

141
00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:22,679
Speaker 1: maybe maybe more than that. But but how much different

142
00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:24,760
Speaker 1: is now? You did. You're from l A, so you

143
00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,840
Speaker 1: know the Dodger fans, but you worked in Baltimore, Seattle,

144
00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:31,560
Speaker 1: do some stuff in San Diego? Like is it Diego? Yeah?

145
00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:34,200
Speaker 1: Is it all some filling for the Dodgers and Angels

146
00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:36,400
Speaker 1: and pirates? Oh cool? I didn't know about that. So

147
00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,800
Speaker 1: how how much different is it working in those cities

148
00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:42,440
Speaker 1: as opposed to l A. Is is is it all

149
00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:44,640
Speaker 1: kind of the same or is it a lot different?

150
00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:48,880
Speaker 1: Depending on the logan, each city is very different. Um.

151
00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:54,680
Speaker 1: I found Baltimore to be, you know, very provincial. Um,

152
00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:59,480
Speaker 1: the fans there, you know, some of them really got

153
00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:02,520
Speaker 1: my act because I used a lot of humor and

154
00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,760
Speaker 1: and others were just like you just shut up and

155
00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:08,760
Speaker 1: call the play by play. And then I went to Seattle,

156
00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:13,640
Speaker 1: which was a much more progressive type city. And I

157
00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,640
Speaker 1: remember on opening night I came on and did the

158
00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:21,080
Speaker 1: third inning and uh, and we were down like eight

159
00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,640
Speaker 1: to nothing and the third inning to the Texas Rangers,

160
00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:27,280
Speaker 1: and and so I came on and I said, well, look,

161
00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:29,960
Speaker 1: I'll you know, call the balls and strikes were down

162
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,400
Speaker 1: eight to nothing. I think the thing we should talk

163
00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:37,559
Speaker 1: about is what was the stupidest Rocky movie? And uh,

164
00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:41,280
Speaker 1: and people people love that. Okay. I never would have

165
00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:44,440
Speaker 1: tried that in Baltimore. They would have killed me, but

166
00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:48,760
Speaker 1: they did dig it in uh in Seattle. So yeah,

167
00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:55,000
Speaker 1: there's different mindsets in uh, in different cities. Um. And uh,

168
00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:58,040
Speaker 1: you know l A. Of course, we were so spoiled

169
00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:02,520
Speaker 1: for all those years to have Vince Scully. Uh, it's

170
00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:06,120
Speaker 1: it's very different sports scene here. I mean you think

171
00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:09,160
Speaker 1: back to you know, when I was growing up and

172
00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:12,480
Speaker 1: we had Vince Scully doing the Dodgers, Dick Enberg doing

173
00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:17,280
Speaker 1: the Angels and Rams. You had Chick Heern doing the Lakers,

174
00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:21,680
Speaker 1: and uh Bob Miller doing the Kings, and then for

175
00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:24,960
Speaker 1: a while you had Bill King doing the Raiders when

176
00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:28,280
Speaker 1: they were in l a. Um, boy, we were spoiled.

177
00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:34,959
Speaker 1: We had some absolutely Hall of Fame magnificent announcers and

178
00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:38,400
Speaker 1: um those days are gone. Yeah, well along gone. Now

179
00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:40,800
Speaker 1: it's a lot it's a lot different as a play

180
00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:44,400
Speaker 1: by play guy, Is that a dying art radio play

181
00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:47,160
Speaker 1: by play? Or am I just am I just going

182
00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:49,440
Speaker 1: back to the glory days? You know? I think it

183
00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:54,640
Speaker 1: is a dying art because of well two things. Number one,

184
00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:59,800
Speaker 1: good luck finding an AM radio. Okay, if you go

185
00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,440
Speaker 1: if you go into Target or Best Buy and you

186
00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,080
Speaker 1: want to buy an AM radio, they can special order

187
00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:11,840
Speaker 1: it for you. Used to be everybody had transistor radios,

188
00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:17,080
Speaker 1: so there's not a lot of access too to baseball

189
00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:20,320
Speaker 1: broadcast the way it used to be. And the other

190
00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:24,080
Speaker 1: thing too, is I think with social media that teams

191
00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:30,560
Speaker 1: are so afraid of criticism. So if you have an

192
00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:36,199
Speaker 1: announcer who is opinionated or has any kind of personality, um,

193
00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:42,720
Speaker 1: I think, you know, teams would be reluctant to go

194
00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:46,320
Speaker 1: with that today. And as a result, I think a

195
00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:50,360
Speaker 1: lot of baseball broadcasting on the radio it's very generic.

196
00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:57,800
Speaker 1: It's very generic, and it's very statistic heavy and analytics heavy.

197
00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:02,440
Speaker 1: And uh, if you've got a bad team, you know,

198
00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:08,080
Speaker 1: it's August and you're broadcasting the Pittsburgh Pirates or the

199
00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:11,600
Speaker 1: Seattle Mariners, you know, are you gonna start talking whip

200
00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:15,080
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, It's like, who cares? You know.

201
00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:19,640
Speaker 1: I think baseball is about it is about stories and personalities,

202
00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:25,520
Speaker 1: and I think some of that is being replaced by

203
00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:28,920
Speaker 1: by computers. And you know, look, I know teams are

204
00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:33,760
Speaker 1: trying to chase younger audiences, so they're going, no, don't

205
00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:35,880
Speaker 1: don't talk about history. You know, we don't want to

206
00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:39,959
Speaker 1: hear about babe rude. But that's kind of the lore

207
00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:45,640
Speaker 1: of of baseball. And to uh not talk about that,

208
00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:51,600
Speaker 1: to not be storytellers, uh, to not really just you know,

209
00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:56,800
Speaker 1: talk about the drama of the game. Um, you know,

210
00:12:56,920 --> 00:13:01,160
Speaker 1: to me, I think it's kind of mortgaging baseball's future. Yeah,

211
00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:03,840
Speaker 1: I agree, And I think it's just the radio business

212
00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:07,520
Speaker 1: in general, maybe broadcasting where everyone and you work in

213
00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:09,400
Speaker 1: the comedy world. You've worked in that a long time.

214
00:13:09,400 --> 00:13:12,280
Speaker 1: I think everyone's just like afraid to really put their

215
00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:15,600
Speaker 1: neck out take chances anymore. They want they want everything

216
00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:20,040
Speaker 1: to be watered watered down. But we'll get back to that.

217
00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:21,720
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about your minor league days.

218
00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:26,160
Speaker 1: You told some great stories when we work together about you.

219
00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,520
Speaker 1: Weren't the minor leagues a long time? You had a

220
00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:32,640
Speaker 1: pretty It was with the Syracuse Chiefs for one year

221
00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:36,200
Speaker 1: they're the Triple A affiliate of the Blue Jays, and

222
00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:39,760
Speaker 1: then I spent two years with the Tide Water Tides,

223
00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,079
Speaker 1: who at the time where the Mets Triple A affiliate.

224
00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:47,920
Speaker 1: So I spent three years uh long bus rides and

225
00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:52,559
Speaker 1: thirty degree weather in Syracuse. Yeah, what was the craziest

226
00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:55,120
Speaker 1: thing that happened in the minors. There was one story,

227
00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:57,480
Speaker 1: and I don't I don't remember all of it, but

228
00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:00,240
Speaker 1: you were doing some play by play and some I

229
00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:03,920
Speaker 1: remember you just hurrying up the broadcast and I remembering it. Right, Wait,

230
00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:07,000
Speaker 1: what happened. Remember, no, this wasn't me, No, this wasn't me.

231
00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:13,880
Speaker 1: This was this was a guy who was broadcasting in Louisville,

232
00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:19,880
Speaker 1: and uh he this guy was was truly a character.

233
00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,200
Speaker 1: And they were in the MoInd at the time, and

234
00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:27,560
Speaker 1: the press box in the Moine there was the press

235
00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:31,920
Speaker 1: section where the print journalists sat, and then there was

236
00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:35,320
Speaker 1: like an open window and the visiting broadcast booth was

237
00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:42,800
Speaker 1: right joining it, and so they could hear the visiting broadcasters.

238
00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:48,800
Speaker 1: So this guy in the morning meets some stewardess or

239
00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:51,640
Speaker 1: something and you know, makes a day to see here

240
00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:55,840
Speaker 1: at the hotel lobby at eleven o'clock at night. Now

241
00:14:56,080 --> 00:15:01,479
Speaker 1: the game is slow and he's looking at the watch

242
00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:05,160
Speaker 1: and he's figuring, at this pace, I'm never going to

243
00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:09,840
Speaker 1: be able to make this date. So, you know, as

244
00:15:09,880 --> 00:15:14,960
Speaker 1: the reporters, you know, mentioned, they said, well, suddenly, you know,

245
00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,640
Speaker 1: as the teams are exchanging sides, like in the eighth inning,

246
00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:23,280
Speaker 1: he starts calling the play by play, you know, and

247
00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:25,600
Speaker 1: there's the first pitch and there's a ground ball to

248
00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:28,680
Speaker 1: the second over the first one out. He's making up

249
00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:32,120
Speaker 1: the play by play for the last inning and a

250
00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:35,800
Speaker 1: half so he can get out of there at ten

251
00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:41,040
Speaker 1: thirty and make his eleven o'clock date. Yeah. That this guy,

252
00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:44,800
Speaker 1: this guy was a a true character. That is an

253
00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:48,880
Speaker 1: all time wonderful, wonderful story. I love. It was the

254
00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:52,200
Speaker 1: craziest thing that you you yourself experienced when you were

255
00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:56,480
Speaker 1: doing that in the play by playing the minor leagues. Uh, well,

256
00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,840
Speaker 1: it's kind of a long story. Um, we were on

257
00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:04,120
Speaker 1: a terrible radio station. You just couldn't hear us at all.

258
00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:06,600
Speaker 1: In fact, it was so bad that when we went

259
00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:11,480
Speaker 1: to nighttime power, all of a sudden, anyone listening on

260
00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:14,840
Speaker 1: the left Field grand stands could no longer hear the station.

261
00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:18,400
Speaker 1: You know, it was it was that bad. Uh. And people,

262
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:23,920
Speaker 1: of course used to complain, and I would say that, well,

263
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,400
Speaker 1: we're really just the flagship station of the worldwide Syracuse

264
00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:34,320
Speaker 1: Chiefs Radio Network. And uh, and I decided to talk

265
00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:38,360
Speaker 1: about this on the air and say that, uh, and

266
00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:41,680
Speaker 1: now we're on tonight, UH like to welcome everybody listening

267
00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:45,360
Speaker 1: in the Imperial Palace in Bhutan has joined the worldwide

268
00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:49,000
Speaker 1: Syracuse Chiefs Radio But I would pause for station identification

269
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:53,160
Speaker 1: on the worldwide Syracuse Chiefs Radio Network. Uh. And you know,

270
00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:56,040
Speaker 1: this was just kind of a funny bit for the

271
00:16:56,120 --> 00:17:00,200
Speaker 1: seven people who could actually hear the station. And we

272
00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:04,720
Speaker 1: had a third baseman, a real good kid named Norm Tanucci,

273
00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:09,200
Speaker 1: young Men out of Connecticut, and he was going through

274
00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:14,280
Speaker 1: a terrible slot, just terrible and uh. And it was

275
00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:17,440
Speaker 1: very tough because you know, every time the guy comes up,

276
00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:20,120
Speaker 1: you got to go out. Here was Norm Tanucci. He's

277
00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:24,880
Speaker 1: over June. His last hit was during the Carter administration,

278
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,240
Speaker 1: you know that kind of stuff. And uh. And so

279
00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:34,119
Speaker 1: as a way to diffuse that, I created this whole

280
00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:41,320
Speaker 1: scenario that, uh, Norm Tanucci was a folk hero in Borneo,

281
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,960
Speaker 1: and I made up this whole story about how his

282
00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:49,399
Speaker 1: his dad had parachuted in behind enemy lines at World

283
00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:54,679
Speaker 1: War Two and saved the country, and that of the

284
00:17:54,720 --> 00:18:00,000
Speaker 1: male babies were named Norm and of the female baby

285
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,119
Speaker 1: these were named Norma, and that the currency was into Nutche's,

286
00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:06,320
Speaker 1: you know. And I would talk about this, and I

287
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:10,119
Speaker 1: even got a Norm to record a little thing for

288
00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:13,479
Speaker 1: me when he came up to bat and he would say, Hi,

289
00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:15,959
Speaker 1: this is Norm Tanucci saying hi to all my friends

290
00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:20,040
Speaker 1: in Borneo was seeing on the worldwide Syracuse Chiefs radio network.

291
00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:22,960
Speaker 1: So we would do this. Meanwhile, night after night, over

292
00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:26,840
Speaker 1: three over four for five, four strikeouts in a row,

293
00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:31,280
Speaker 1: just just terrible. And we started a road trip. We

294
00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:35,359
Speaker 1: were in Oklahoma City and his first at bat he

295
00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:38,359
Speaker 1: got a hit, and then he came up for a

296
00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,679
Speaker 1: second of that and I talked about how, you know,

297
00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:45,520
Speaker 1: delighted the people in Borneo were that that Norm got

298
00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,520
Speaker 1: a hit back in the third inning and the next

299
00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:56,680
Speaker 1: pitch he just smokes and it was just a thunderbolt.

300
00:18:57,359 --> 00:19:02,320
Speaker 1: And my call was, there's a deep drive to left field.

301
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:05,720
Speaker 1: Steve camp Back took a track to the wall. No

302
00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:16,000
Speaker 1: school tomorrow in Borneo. I love it, and uh and

303
00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:21,520
Speaker 1: the general manager of the Blue Jays heard about it,

304
00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:25,359
Speaker 1: Gordon Ash and UH and I would bump into him

305
00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:28,080
Speaker 1: in my travels in the Big League. He went on

306
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:31,640
Speaker 1: to Milwaukee. Every time he saw me it would be

307
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:35,840
Speaker 1: no school tomorrow. And that's great. I love it. I

308
00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,199
Speaker 1: love it and speaking it just in in general. I

309
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:41,200
Speaker 1: know you wrote about this. You have a great website.

310
00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:45,280
Speaker 1: Should I say award winning blog? Ken right, you've won praise,

311
00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:48,040
Speaker 1: You're you've done that a long time on? Was it? Kendle?

312
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:52,680
Speaker 1: This is my yep. I shouldn't interrupt you while you're

313
00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:56,679
Speaker 1: giving it. Uh. Yeah, this is my sixteenth year. Uh.

314
00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:00,640
Speaker 1: And you can it's called by Ken Levine dot com.

315
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,119
Speaker 1: Or you can just go to Google and just go

316
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:07,120
Speaker 1: Ken Lavine blog and uh and it'll take you right there.

317
00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:11,040
Speaker 1: And I also had a podcast for six years and

318
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:16,600
Speaker 1: everybody's having even you know. Uh. And there's my podcasts

319
00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:22,960
Speaker 1: Hollywood and Levine and it's available wherever you can get podcasts,

320
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:27,480
Speaker 1: you know, on Audible and Apple and Spotify and everything.

321
00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:32,200
Speaker 1: And you know, it's primarily entertainment oriented, but I do sports.

322
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,600
Speaker 1: I've had Al Michael's as a guest, and Joe Buck

323
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:41,639
Speaker 1: and Dan Horde the voice of the Bengals, uh, Jason

324
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:45,000
Speaker 1: Bennetti of ESPN. So from time to time I do

325
00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:49,119
Speaker 1: get some some sports people, but primarily it's actors and

326
00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:53,359
Speaker 1: directors and writers. And then it's me telling stories like

327
00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:56,880
Speaker 1: that Borneo story. You know, it's me just telling all

328
00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:01,280
Speaker 1: these tall tales of my checkered rear. And I love

329
00:21:01,359 --> 00:21:05,240
Speaker 1: the I actually have your podcast. It's on my my podcast. Listen.

330
00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:07,840
Speaker 1: I love the production. You guys have some you get

331
00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:10,320
Speaker 1: a little jingle going. I love it. I love the tunes,

332
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,280
Speaker 1: the sound leading into It's wonderful that's professionally done ken,

333
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:18,359
Speaker 1: unlike this podcast, which is amateur. Well, you know, I

334
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,440
Speaker 1: was an old radio disc jockey when I got out

335
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,600
Speaker 1: of college, so I'm into all of that, you know.

336
00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:29,760
Speaker 1: I I love production and jingles. Uh yeah. A friend

337
00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:34,400
Speaker 1: of mine um runs the biggest jingle company in the world,

338
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,560
Speaker 1: Jam Productions, and as a favor, he made me a

339
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:42,800
Speaker 1: couple of of jingles. So yeah, no, it's great. And

340
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:46,360
Speaker 1: again you don't hear it on most podcasts. Most podcasts

341
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 1: don't have jingles. No, no, I love the jingle. I

342
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:52,360
Speaker 1: think radio made a mistake when they downplayed the jingle

343
00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: years ago. And you, oh before I forget in your

344
00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,760
Speaker 1: early radiots, you were not just the DJ. You had

345
00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,439
Speaker 1: one of the great nicknames of all time. What was

346
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:04,360
Speaker 1: your on air personic Kin? But my on air name

347
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 1: was Beaver Cleaver. I was Fever Clever and w d

348
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:13,600
Speaker 1: r Q Detroit, h K y A San Francisco k

349
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 1: c b Q San Diego K and ten Q in

350
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,440
Speaker 1: l A. You know, back in those days, this jockey's

351
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:25,240
Speaker 1: all had these generic names. They were all Jim Edwards

352
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:30,800
Speaker 1: and Ed Mitchell, and I wanted something that was distinctive

353
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:36,240
Speaker 1: so that when you heard Beaver Clever. You know you

354
00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 1: went like, wait, huh what? Uh? So you know I

355
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,360
Speaker 1: did also I was able to, you know, do horrible

356
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:50,080
Speaker 1: double andres using the name what what when you when

357
00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:51,679
Speaker 1: you first when you first came up with a name,

358
00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: came what with? The program program said what are you doing?

359
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:57,720
Speaker 1: Can you can't do that? Or were they okay with no?

360
00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 1: He was okay with it. But the amazing thing is

361
00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 1: when I got to Los Angeles stationed K one D

362
00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 1: in l A. And the program director was was truly

363
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:13,240
Speaker 1: a creep and uh and I was sitting in his office.

364
00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:14,480
Speaker 1: I was going to go on the year and do

365
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 1: my first show at six o'clock and uh, and we're

366
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,840
Speaker 1: listening in One of the jocks promoted me on the

367
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:24,600
Speaker 1: air and said, Beaver Cleaver tonight at six o'clock. I

368
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:28,120
Speaker 1: wonder if Eddie Haskell and Lumpy are going to be listening.

369
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:34,159
Speaker 1: And the program director goes, what what is he talking about?

370
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,080
Speaker 1: And I said, well, you know from Leave It to

371
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:41,440
Speaker 1: Beaver and he goes, let's leave it to Beaver. I said,

372
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:44,159
Speaker 1: you know the television show Leave It to Beaver and

373
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,320
Speaker 1: he goes, wait, there was a television show called Leave

374
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:51,560
Speaker 1: It to Beaver. I said yeah. I mean at the time,

375
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 1: this guy is like forty you know, it's like yeah.

376
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,080
Speaker 1: And he goes, oh my god, you know we're promoting

377
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 1: the name. We can't Oh my god, what happens if

378
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,439
Speaker 1: you know, if we get sued? I said, you know

379
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:08,120
Speaker 1: what happens is, uh, you know, we turn it into

380
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 1: a publicity stunt and I changed my name and we

381
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: probably get on the local news. He goes, oh my god,

382
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,199
Speaker 1: I don't know if we could do this. And he

383
00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 1: calls like the station manager and he goes, you know,

384
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:24,240
Speaker 1: you know our guys named Beaver Cleaver. He goes yeah.

385
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:27,840
Speaker 1: He said, where's there's a TV show Leave It to Beaver?

386
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 1: And the guy goes yeah, and he goes, well, what

387
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,680
Speaker 1: happens if we get sued? Well, we'll just turn it

388
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: into a publicity stunt. I guess. But I mean, how

389
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:45,159
Speaker 1: clueless can you be to be a program director in

390
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four and not I've ever heard of the

391
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:54,399
Speaker 1: TV show Leave It to Beaver? Yeah, in his own

392
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: in own world? Can right his own world? In his

393
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 1: own Exactly? What was it? What was radiol I love?

394
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:02,960
Speaker 1: I'm a radio guy and I I still work in radio,

395
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 1: kin as you know, but the businesses changed even since

396
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:09,119
Speaker 1: I've been in it, which isn't that long. And you

397
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 1: were there kind of the glory days, or would you

398
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:14,280
Speaker 1: say that you were a DJ in one of the

399
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 1: last great periods in radio? Is that an accurate portrayal

400
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 1: of your broadcasting career because you've you've done radio, absolutely, absolutely,

401
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,840
Speaker 1: because I was I was a disc jockey back in

402
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:31,919
Speaker 1: the seventies when you know, you could talk up to

403
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: every record, and you know, you could talk between every record,

404
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:40,200
Speaker 1: and uh, you had personality. And I mean I always

405
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:44,440
Speaker 1: kind of Howard sterned before Howard Sterns. Although it's interesting,

406
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:47,240
Speaker 1: I always maintained that the only way for me to

407
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 1: get respect in radio is to get out of it.

408
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 1: That when I was starting out in radio, I didn't

409
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: program directors telling me shut up, you're not funny. Just

410
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: played a record. Stop trying to be witty and uh.

411
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:07,119
Speaker 1: And then I became a TV writer. And now flash

412
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: forward and I'm doing a Saturday night show in Los

413
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 1: Angeles at the station ten Q, and I'm the head

414
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaker 1: writer of NASH And all of a sudden, everyone is saying,

415
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:19,920
Speaker 1: oh my god, I got to listen to this guy.

416
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 1: He's so creative, he's so funny, he's he's just unbelievable,

417
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 1: you know. And it's like I'm doing the exact same

418
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 1: crap I did in San Bernardino, you know, exact same crap,

419
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:37,680
Speaker 1: and now it's like, oh my god, the guy is

420
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: a comic genius. You know. This is the same guy's

421
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: telling me shut up, you're not just funny. Yeah. Well

422
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 1: it's I get the w I get email kent from

423
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:48,120
Speaker 1: people say hey, you know, I want to get into radio.

424
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:49,880
Speaker 1: I want to be a sports radio gun. I'm flattered

425
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,359
Speaker 1: by that. And I always say the quickest way to

426
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: make a lot of money in sports broadcasting is to

427
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,880
Speaker 1: play quarterback in the NFL for a couple of years,

428
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: and then that's that's yeah, that's the way to do it.

429
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: Though they love the hundred seventy five million dollars can

430
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: easily be yours. Now, can have you ever? You're a

431
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,360
Speaker 1: sports you we're a baseball guy, But have you watched

432
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 1: an NFL game based solely on the announcers? Does that

433
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:18,080
Speaker 1: ever happen? No? Yeah, no, exactly, no, exactly. In fact,

434
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 1: on my podcast, I was talking to a media expert

435
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:26,840
Speaker 1: and we were talking about this, and and I was saying,

436
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: you know how these guys are getting huge money, and

437
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:34,640
Speaker 1: you know, God loved Joe Buck the money that that

438
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,639
Speaker 1: he got. But I answered him the same question. Does

439
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 1: anybody tune into a game because of of an announcer? No,

440
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 1: you tune into the game because of the teams, of course, exactly.

441
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: But more power to them if you can get that

442
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:52,960
Speaker 1: kind of money, it's insane. Now people figure you for

443
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 1: when they think of Kevil Mind. You're the writer. You've

444
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: done a lot of great stuff. You and you're writing

445
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 1: partner David Isaacs, you mash cheers. These are part of

446
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 1: the culture over the years in America. But for me, Ken,

447
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,360
Speaker 1: when I think of your success in Hollywood, I think

448
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:11,399
Speaker 1: of the fact that you helped inspire the name of

449
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 1: a minor league baseball team based on something that you

450
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,439
Speaker 1: were part of with the Simpsons. Can you tell that

451
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:20,879
Speaker 1: story about how that happened. Is a minor league baseball

452
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:23,880
Speaker 1: team that has a nickname in large part because of you, Ken,

453
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 1: That's right, that's my legacy is naming uh the Albuquerque Isotopes.

454
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,560
Speaker 1: When my partner David and I wrote an episode of

455
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: the Simpsons, it was the Dance and Homer episode, which

456
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: I'm also in as the announcer for the Springfield Isotopes. Uh.

457
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: You know, minor league teams usually will name their club

458
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: based on whatever the big industry is in that town,

459
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,520
Speaker 1: and of course there was a nuclear reactor. So we thought,

460
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 1: all right, what's the funniest goofy ist uh term that

461
00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 1: we can come up with? Photons and photons and isotopes.

462
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: So we called him the Isotopes. And then the Albuquerque

463
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 1: team names themselves the Isotopes. And I get calls from

464
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: the local TV stations and newspapers saying, well, we'll talk

465
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 1: about the derivation of the name, and I said, you're

466
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 1: not gonna like this answer. We did it as a joke.

467
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: We did it because we thought it was the stupidest

468
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: name possible. But it's great because I've been there. Uh.

469
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 1: And I got a chance to throw out the first

470
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 1: pitch when I did Dodger Talk for three years in

471
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 1: Los Angeles at KBC. My partner was Josh Sushan, who

472
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:51,160
Speaker 1: is now the voice of the Isotopes, and so I

473
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: went there for a weekend. I threw out the first pitch,

474
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:56,880
Speaker 1: and you know, down in the dugout and he's introducing

475
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: me to the players, and one of the players, UH goes,

476
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 1: you're the You're the reason that you know, I'm embarrassed

477
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: and humiliated around the league having to wear uniform with

478
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: this stupid name. And I said to him, well, then

479
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: play better and getting the major. Yeah, they don't play me,

480
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 1: you know, then then maybe hit better than to eleven

481
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: in the minors and you can go up and be

482
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:32,680
Speaker 1: an actual Colorado Rocky. Is it harder to write for

483
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: a cartoon, Ken, or is it harder to write for

484
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: like just a regular TV show? What's the what's the mind?

485
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,920
Speaker 1: I think it's harder to write for real people. I

486
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 1: mean cartoons, you have so much latitude, you can pretty

487
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 1: much go anywhere and do anything. Um, but it's a

488
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 1: little bit different when there's like actual actors grounded in reality.

489
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 1: Uh you know, when you know they're they're looking at

490
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 1: you like you just killed their puppy. You know, they

491
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 1: don't like a certain line. Uh. Yeah, it's it's a

492
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,520
Speaker 1: little bit harder to write for actual human beings. Does

493
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 1: your episode of The Simpsons? Does it still they've so

494
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:20,640
Speaker 1: there's so many years of the Simpsons, Yeah, of course

495
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: it does. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that's great. Yeah, do you

496
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: get paid for that? You were on there? I got

497
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: a one set residual. I literally got a one set

498
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:33,120
Speaker 1: residual about a month ago. So next time we get together,

499
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: dinner is on me outstanding. We'll go to the soup kitchen.

500
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 1: I hear the food's very good down there. Yeah. Uh

501
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:41,480
Speaker 1: So as a writer, okay, let's get to the Hollywood stuff.

502
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 1: So everything we talk about radio, the radio business, everything's

503
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 1: kind of generic these days. Everyone's afraid to take chances.

504
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 1: But writing comedy, to me, that's one of the last

505
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 1: couple of years, things have been kind of walking all

506
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:57,960
Speaker 1: over the place, But comedy, everyone's so afraid to offend anyone.

507
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 1: As a comedy writer, Ken, how can you write comedy

508
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 1: today in this in this environment when right now it's

509
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 1: gonna be very difficult to do that? Almost impossible, you know,

510
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: it's it's extremely hard. And um, I'm glad I'm not

511
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 1: in it full time now because you know, you're right.

512
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:24,720
Speaker 1: And Larry Gelbart, who has like the Sandy Kofax of

513
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 1: TV comedy writers, once had a great line and said,

514
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 1: if you write a joke that offends nobody, go back

515
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 1: and rewrite it. You know, comedy is supposed to be

516
00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:42,680
Speaker 1: uh you know, subversive. You know, comedy is is supposed

517
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 1: to be in your face. And um, you know if

518
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: if you're just so afraid of offending people, you're so

519
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 1: afraid that you make some you know, silly joke and

520
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 1: you're suddenly, you know, branded racist. Um you know, uh,

521
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 1: it's it's incredibly hard to right comedy. I used to

522
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 1: for my blog, I would do these snarky award show reviews.

523
00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: I can't do that anymore, you know. I mean it

524
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: used to be you could make fun of people wearing

525
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 1: bad dresses, you can make fun of of people saying

526
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,400
Speaker 1: stupid things. And now if you do that, it's like,

527
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: well that's body shaming. And uh you know, oh these

528
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 1: targeting Asians and it's like, no, I'm not, I'm you

529
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:43,920
Speaker 1: know this, this guy happened to say something stupid, Okay, Uh,

530
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 1: if he was Lithuanian and said the same stupid thing,

531
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:49,600
Speaker 1: I'd say the same stupid thing. You know, I'm not

532
00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 1: targeting anybody. So I just stopped doing it. Yeah, and

533
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 1: that was who needs the aggravation? Yeah? Uh, and it's

534
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 1: it's it's really sad, no, it is. And and what's

535
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:05,520
Speaker 1: it gonna take to get back to the days where

536
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 1: you could do that, because it's it's all driven by

537
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,040
Speaker 1: social media. But as you know, Ken, social media is

538
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:14,720
Speaker 1: not necessarily based in reality. It's a it's its own world.

539
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 1: I think people take way too much off of social

540
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:21,040
Speaker 1: media thinking that's the real world. I don't think it is.

541
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:22,880
Speaker 1: It's a version of the real world. But there's a

542
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 1: lot of fake stuff going on there. But these media companies,

543
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: in my my position, it feels like they're just whatever

544
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 1: social media says. Oh, that's we can't do this. We

545
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:33,120
Speaker 1: can't do that because of social media. But most of

546
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:35,640
Speaker 1: social media is people getting on there just complaining, isn't it? Ken?

547
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 1: Am I wrong on that? It seems like that's no.

548
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,439
Speaker 1: I think I think you're right. Look, I think it's

549
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:45,759
Speaker 1: a pendulum. Um. You know, society changes, and you know

550
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 1: comics who were the rage, you know, all of a

551
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:55,319
Speaker 1: sudden find themselves out of favor. Just a great documentary

552
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: on George Carlin and for a period of the number

553
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:03,759
Speaker 1: of years he was very cutting edge, and after a

554
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:08,959
Speaker 1: while he became passe. So it changes, and I think

555
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:14,200
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen is something will come along Uh, all

556
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:19,000
Speaker 1: in the family or Howard Stern or something will come along,

557
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 1: uh to fly in the face of all of this,

558
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:27,479
Speaker 1: and it will become very popular, and then people will

559
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:31,760
Speaker 1: respond to it and go, you know what, we're tired

560
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,920
Speaker 1: of walking on eggshells. God damnit, this is funny. We're

561
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 1: gonna laugh and and then it'll shift again. So, like

562
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 1: I said, I just think it's it's a pendulum. But

563
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 1: we're really kind of you know, in a in a

564
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,799
Speaker 1: bad place. I completely I'm right there with you, and

565
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 1: so on that. No, there are good things like the

566
00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: as you said, the Hollywood and Levine podcast, which is great.

567
00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:57,360
Speaker 1: And is that how many episodes you do one a

568
00:35:57,360 --> 00:35:59,200
Speaker 1: week or more than that? What are we looking at you? No?

569
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:02,040
Speaker 1: I do? Why do we? It's about half an hour

570
00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 1: because I figured that's all people can stand on the treadmill. Uh,

571
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,120
Speaker 1: and I'm up to I think like episode two seventy

572
00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:13,319
Speaker 1: eight to seventy nine. That's great. Yeah, there's a lot

573
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:16,759
Speaker 1: of a lot of stuff, a lot of fun interviews.

574
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,480
Speaker 1: I also do commentary tracks on episodes that I've co written,

575
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:28,280
Speaker 1: for episodes that I've directed, UM stories, writing advice, UM

576
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: stories about baseball, Samples of my play by play, and uh,

577
00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:36,760
Speaker 1: you know, just whatever the hell I want to talk about, man,

578
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 1: That's right. Basically what basically what it comes down to

579
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 1: is whatever the hell I want to talk when you

580
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:44,839
Speaker 1: wake up that morning, whatever you want to talk about

581
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 1: you talking about? Well, can fang. I've I've kept you

582
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 1: long enough. As you said, the thirty minute rule. I

583
00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:51,279
Speaker 1: think we've gone over the thirty minute rule for the treadmill,

584
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,799
Speaker 1: So I I think in we gotta catch up and

585
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:58,560
Speaker 1: perspefully hopefully nobody has a heart attack listening to this. Yeah,

586
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 1: we do not want that, all right, Thank you. Can't

587
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:02,919
Speaker 1: appreciate it, my pleasure. Thank you, Ben,