Speaker 1: Ka boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes
Speaker 1: a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
Speaker 1: of the old republic a sole fashion of fairness. He
Speaker 1: treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
Speaker 1: rich pill poppers in the penthouse to clearing house of
Speaker 1: hot takes, break free for something special. The Fifth Hour
Speaker 1: with Ben Maller starts right now. Everywhere. Welcome into the
Speaker 1: Friday Friday edition of the Fifth Hour with me Ben Maller,
Speaker 1: flying solo today. It's Friday, Friday Friday. Because four hours
Speaker 1: a night are not enough. On the overnight eight days
Speaker 1: a week, eight days a week. We do this show
Speaker 1: from the Mallard Podcast studio at a secret location somewhere
Speaker 1: deep in the north Woods. And we thank you for
Speaker 1: supporting the overnight show and finding this podcast. Tell a friend,
Speaker 1: word of mouth. We have no advertising budget. You will
Speaker 1: see no billboard, you will see no television commercial. There
Speaker 1: will be no radio commercial for the Fifth Hour with
Speaker 1: Ben Mallord podcast. The only advertising we have is word
Speaker 1: of mouth advertising. Other than moving man Matt, who's got
Speaker 1: the Mallard logo on the back of his big rig.
Speaker 1: Outside of that, uh there's no no real advertising. Maybe
Speaker 1: there's a few feud of food i'ms but nothing, nothing massive,
Speaker 1: nothing massive. So on the podcast this week, we've talked
Speaker 1: to professional athletes, we have talked to random figures, some politically.
Speaker 1: We had a chef on the podcast. But we are
Speaker 1: going to go back, way back in the history of
Speaker 1: the Ben Mallor Show to another one of my radio friends.
Speaker 1: So far back that this guy made a surprising appearance
Speaker 1: on our show, Danny G. Radio. He returned that Cooper
Speaker 1: Loop was away, took a couple of days off, was
Speaker 1: in Vegas and Danny G, who was my engineer slash
Speaker 1: producer for a number of years on the Overnight Show.
Speaker 1: After Jake Warner left. We had Jacon a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks back, and so we had Danny G fill in
Speaker 1: for Cooper Loop, and I thought, you know, let's we
Speaker 1: didn't give Danny enough time. We had Tinderroni tips. We
Speaker 1: brought tinder Rooni tips back, but still a little deeper dive.
Speaker 1: And Danny has had a very interesting life in radio.
Speaker 1: He's actually been in the radio business. He started a
Speaker 1: younger age then I did. I started when I was nineteen.
Speaker 1: Danny was still in high school when he started on radio.
Speaker 1: He made the the plunge, the leap frog from music
Speaker 1: radio to sports talk radio. And I had a great
Speaker 1: time working with Dan any on the show. We had
Speaker 1: a lot of fun in those days. We hung out
Speaker 1: together at a minor league baseball game. Some of the
Speaker 1: some of the things we did off the air, occasionally
Speaker 1: ugly sweater parties and things like that that popped up.
Speaker 1: But let's give it up now for the man, the myth,
Speaker 1: the legend, the great Danny g Radio back on with
Speaker 1: us here this week he was on the radio show.
Speaker 1: Now he's on the podcast, and so Danny, let's cut
Speaker 1: right to the chase here. How weird was it for you?
Speaker 1: How odd was it to be back on the Ben
Speaker 1: Mallard Show after several years away? You know, frightfully, it
Speaker 1: was actually not weird to be back at all. I like, well,
Speaker 1: it felt like a time machine a little bit because
Speaker 1: some of the same regular Mallard militia members were calling
Speaker 1: the show, so in a way I felt right at
Speaker 1: home like I had never left. It was a little weird, though,
Speaker 1: because my legs were aching as I walked into the
Speaker 1: studio because of some long work days recently, so maybe
Speaker 1: I feel a little older, but uh, mentally it was
Speaker 1: good and the show was really fun and entertaining as usual. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was great to have you back, Danny. I I
Speaker 1: I was. I was pleasantly surprised. I knew Coop was
Speaker 1: going to take a couple of days off to go
Speaker 1: to Vegas and then to have you back back in
Speaker 1: the saddle again. How many I'm very bad at dates, Danny,
Speaker 1: I'm very bad at days. How many years ago? You
Speaker 1: were with Clay for a while. When when was your
Speaker 1: last time on our show, Because it's been at least
Speaker 1: two or three years, right, it's been maybe longer than that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there was a little bit of overlap between the
Speaker 1: two shows, so I think that's why the math is
Speaker 1: confusing for myself as well. But I started with you
Speaker 1: at the end of and obviously back then the Date
Speaker 1: Break guys were still on, so I would produce your
Speaker 1: show and then co produce the Daybreak fellas. And then
Speaker 1: obviously when Clay came aboard, which I guess was that's
Speaker 1: when I was working on your show and his, and
Speaker 1: then I moved to his time slot to be the
Speaker 1: executive producer. I guess it was when that happened. Alright,
Speaker 1: So but that's three years ago. Now that's it's time.
Speaker 1: It's time flying by for you, as it is me
Speaker 1: as I I don't think I'm that old, but then
Speaker 1: I realized, my god, I'm becoming old. What happened? Time
Speaker 1: flies when you're not part of a union and you're
Speaker 1: getting screwed left and right. Yeah, you ain't kid moment.
Speaker 1: You ain't kid moment. It's uh. It is an interesting, wacky,
Speaker 1: wacky world, man, And I especially just the radio life
Speaker 1: in general, you know, just like the daily radio thing.
Speaker 1: But I think that's true probably for any job. I
Speaker 1: don't know that it's any different in a different, different
Speaker 1: gig than radio. But you've been in radio your whole
Speaker 1: life too, so you know, you know the daily grind
Speaker 1: and what that's like, and it's a it's a weird thing.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to ask you about going from the
Speaker 1: Overnight show. We do things a little goofy on the Overnight,
Speaker 1: as you know, Danny, because you were part of the
Speaker 1: show for so many years, and then you work with
Speaker 1: Clay and Clay's a sports guy, but he's also a
Speaker 1: political guy. And how weird was that when you know,
Speaker 1: you know, Clay's ending up as a topic of conversation
Speaker 1: on CNN or something like that, and you're working with
Speaker 1: him and you know, some polarizing story and Clay's right
Speaker 1: in the middle of it and you're in that world.
Speaker 1: What was that like for you? It definitely was a
Speaker 1: little bit of an adjustment period, although I kind of
Speaker 1: went in knowing, uh, some of the ramifications, if you will,
Speaker 1: of being um, you know, so well tied to a
Speaker 1: program like that. In fact, when I interviewed too officially
Speaker 1: get that, executive production gig our boss Scott Shapiro told
Speaker 1: me he was like, hey, you know, whatever Clay's big
Speaker 1: opinion is on something, especially if it means political, you're
Speaker 1: gonna kind of be dragged into that and people are
Speaker 1: gonna assume you feel the same exact way. Are you
Speaker 1: okay with that? And you know, really I didn't have
Speaker 1: a problem with that because I did get to speak, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, somewhat as a co host on that show.
Speaker 1: So if I disagreed with Clay the same way when
Speaker 1: I was on your show, if I disagreed, I got
Speaker 1: to say something about it, and I got to tell
Speaker 1: him that I disagreed. So you know, I was fine
Speaker 1: if some average casual listener would just assume something then
Speaker 1: you know whatever, that's on them. But are regular listeners,
Speaker 1: which we have a lot of, they kind of know
Speaker 1: all the different personalities and they don't think we're all
Speaker 1: the same robot. Yeah. Well, but there's also those you know,
Speaker 1: as you you know, there's those vultures out there that
Speaker 1: are just looking for anything they can you know, they
Speaker 1: can blow up on that, you know, social media, anything
Speaker 1: you say, especially on a show like that, they just
Speaker 1: they just run with it and and make it much
Speaker 1: bigger than it is. And that's one thing that the
Speaker 1: difference between like sports for me and political and the
Speaker 1: last couple of years we've had to dabble in that world,
Speaker 1: even on on the Overnight Show. But the difference is
Speaker 1: the amount of victriol. Like we have a lot of
Speaker 1: sports hate and people get upset because you have a
Speaker 1: bad sports opinion. But political, I mean that is a
Speaker 1: personal assault, Danny g Right, I mean, that's a that
Speaker 1: is just they want to rip your guts out because
Speaker 1: you had an opinion that does not fit with their
Speaker 1: ideology or their dogma or whatever. And it's pretty pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: What was the coolest thing that happened? Was it the
Speaker 1: Trump thing where you got to talk to a sitting
Speaker 1: president as a producer of of Clay show and is
Speaker 1: working on that show. Yeah, I would say that the
Speaker 1: two most memorable guests were the India most famous tiger hunter,
Speaker 1: which Clay gave us a challenge on the air because
Speaker 1: there was a big story that went viral about this
Speaker 1: guy in India who was hired by their government to
Speaker 1: kill the you know, the biggest threats there in their
Speaker 1: country as far as the man eating lions, tigers, lions, jaguars,
Speaker 1: whatever they were dealing with there that were, you know,
Speaker 1: the animals terrorizing villages there, and this guy, uh there.
Speaker 1: There were some magazine outlets and websites to his stories
Speaker 1: on this guy because he was so interesting, and Clay
Speaker 1: read a story about him on one of our animal
Speaker 1: thunderdomes and he gave us a challenge. He's like, any
Speaker 1: of you in l a back in Nashville and anyone
Speaker 1: producing this show, if any of you can track this
Speaker 1: guy down and actually get him on my show, you
Speaker 1: know you're gonna get a major reward. And he kind
Speaker 1: of laughed, and you think in a way. He was
Speaker 1: joking because he didn't think we could actually track this
Speaker 1: guy down in India. But one thing about me, and
Speaker 1: you know us, because we've worked together a long time,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty competitive. Uh. If somebody gives me a challenge,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go all out to try to meet that challenge.
Speaker 1: So I immediately started researching, you know, the Internet, finding
Speaker 1: out who this guy was, who his management was, what
Speaker 1: kind of phone numbers there was. I I tracked it
Speaker 1: down within an hour. I found a website that this
Speaker 1: guy was attached to. Within the second hour of the show,
Speaker 1: I found his uh, his field manager in India, and
Speaker 1: by the end of that day's show, I was talking
Speaker 1: to his manager through email. By the next day on
Speaker 1: the program, I was able to get him on us. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're one of their SAT phones out there in India.
Speaker 1: And he got on the air with Clay that day.
Speaker 1: And as if that wasn't cool enough, this guy was
Speaker 1: an amazing interview of his His accent kind of sealed
Speaker 1: the deal. But he was just super entertaining and all
Speaker 1: the information he was giving us about the guns he carried,
Speaker 1: what kind of AMMO, his kills in the past, and
Speaker 1: what he was doing out there was just so amazing
Speaker 1: it it literally rocks Twitter to the point where I
Speaker 1: could not keep up with the mentions. And you know
Speaker 1: that's for you. You have so many hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of listeners and followers that you've probably done this in
Speaker 1: the past in your career where you did something kind
Speaker 1: of controversial or you had to take that really exploded.
Speaker 1: But being a producer, it's not every day where you
Speaker 1: get so many notifications about something you did that you
Speaker 1: can't keep up with all the mentions. Yeah, that's cool,
Speaker 1: I actually remember that. And uh, I did I love
Speaker 1: the animal Thunderdome that that they did on you guys
Speaker 1: did on that show. And animals one thing I've noticed
Speaker 1: from years in radio. People love stories about animals. They
Speaker 1: love that, right, It's especially when death is involved. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you make death and wild animals. And it is
Speaker 1: crazy when you go to you know here in the
Speaker 1: in the South, when you go to Florida or South
Speaker 1: Carolina or somewhere like that, and you know, these these
Speaker 1: massive dinosaurs, these alligators walking around, you know, amongst us
Speaker 1: and things like that. But and then you know, outside
Speaker 1: of America, as you guys on that show with all
Speaker 1: the wild animal stories with tigers and hippos and you
Speaker 1: name it. It's it's pretty pretty crazy, man. What was
Speaker 1: the crazy was that? That was the greatest. Guess what
Speaker 1: was the craziest animal story that you dug up? Did
Speaker 1: you remember off the top of your It? Is there
Speaker 1: one that stands out? There is? Yeah, one a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. If it happened in Alaska, and it
Speaker 1: was actually a guy who was known for composing albums
Speaker 1: with nature sounds, and he had an assistant too that
Speaker 1: would go out to the field with him and they
Speaker 1: would camp and he would set up his audio gear
Speaker 1: and he would record nature sounds and he unfortunately was
Speaker 1: was dragged out of his tent or there. There was
Speaker 1: controversy surrounding what exactly happened to this guy and how
Speaker 1: a bear was able to get them and um, and
Speaker 1: so there were different stories that were At first it
Speaker 1: was two assistants with them, and then it was only one.
Speaker 1: Nothing happened to the assistance only he died. So we
Speaker 1: were like, well, how did they not hear him being
Speaker 1: dragged out of his tent? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And and so I actually contacted their their version of
Speaker 1: CNN out out and so that, you know what, not Alaska,
Speaker 1: my bad, this was Canada. So I I actually got
Speaker 1: ahold of their version of CNN out there and was
Speaker 1: was able to talk to a reporter that was covering
Speaker 1: the story, and you know what, she was tight lipped
Speaker 1: about it too. She it was kind of like you
Speaker 1: pesky Americans, you don't believe what we're reporting. And Clay
Speaker 1: had lots of questions about the story because it didn't
Speaker 1: add up, It didn't make a lot of sense the
Speaker 1: way it was being reported. So we spent a good
Speaker 1: week or two kind of keeping track of that story
Speaker 1: and the moves surrounding it. And um, that one really
Speaker 1: stands out because to this day, I still have not
Speaker 1: gotten a straight answer from that reporter the TV station.
Speaker 1: I talked to all the people we got in contact with,
Speaker 1: and I think that that was one of the intriguing
Speaker 1: things about the animal Thunderdome and still is is you
Speaker 1: you want more details? Uh? You know, nowadays reporting is
Speaker 1: not what it used to be, so you'll, you know,
Speaker 1: you'll sometimes see stories where you still have a lot
Speaker 1: of questions after you read the article. Yeah, yeah, well exactly,
Speaker 1: because it's not about detail. The attention span they've determined
Speaker 1: years ago, and and when I was doing Ben Mallard
Speaker 1: dot com in those old days, and and just putting
Speaker 1: little blurbs up. And it's even worse now because of
Speaker 1: social media. Like you just you don't read anything more
Speaker 1: than at the most two paragraphs on any story. There's
Speaker 1: really no point in if you're in that business of
Speaker 1: publishing stuff, why are you gonna why are you going
Speaker 1: to publish a long story when it's not gonna be
Speaker 1: read other than the first couple of paragraphs. People just
Speaker 1: want bullet points. But you but you are obviously right,
Speaker 1: I mean you want yeah, occasionally want more information. They
Speaker 1: copy and paste then, Like there were times where a
Speaker 1: news outlet would get something wrong. Later we'd find out
Speaker 1: what really happened, or we see a better written article.
Speaker 1: But so many of the outlets ran with the first
Speaker 1: thing that was reported that they just copy and pasted,
Speaker 1: and they never even um, you know, they never even
Speaker 1: went back and corrected what they reported. And you see
Speaker 1: a lot of that nowadays. Yeah. Absolutely, And but part
Speaker 1: of the deal also is it's the echo chamber, right,
Speaker 1: It's not. There's only here's the way I look at it.
Speaker 1: Social media. There's only a few people creating original content,
Speaker 1: and then there's just a lot of people repeating, you know,
Speaker 1: the echo chamber, repeating the same stuff off, repackaging it
Speaker 1: and putting it all over the place. And so that's
Speaker 1: it seems like there's a lot more possibilities to get content,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it's just the same stuff regurgitated
Speaker 1: and all that. I got an email from Yo Yo
Speaker 1: mob Benny. He said the headline, this is Barry. Barry's
Speaker 1: in Nashville. He's a huge fan of yours. Then he
Speaker 1: wanted you on this podcast and he wanted he had
Speaker 1: some questions that he wanted and I'm Barry has been
Speaker 1: a big fan of the Overnight Show for a while,
Speaker 1: and so he wanted it all like like a little
Speaker 1: behind the scenes inside radio stuff. So you're working for
Speaker 1: Clay Rush. Limbaugh is sick. Rushi had been sick for
Speaker 1: several years. He had been in poor health, diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker 1: And then Russ Rush ends up passing away. And so Clay,
Speaker 1: Clay's in the running to get the gig, and you're
Speaker 1: working on Clay show. He's doing a sports show. So
Speaker 1: what's going on behind the scenes. How soon did you
Speaker 1: know that Clay was getting the the Rush Limbough job,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, also, were you in the running
Speaker 1: to go and work on that and just leave and
Speaker 1: do political stuff. Yeah, Well, to answer the first part
Speaker 1: of that question, I didn't know much about what was
Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes because at that time, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of other things also happening simultaneously. Clay
Speaker 1: had just sold his website, OutKick dot Com to Fox Corporation,
Speaker 1: and so while all that was, that was kind of
Speaker 1: at the forefront, and we were dealing with what was
Speaker 1: going on with that, and Clay was adjusting his schedule
Speaker 1: slightly to kind of, you know, make all that happen.
Speaker 1: And as I was dealing with that, that's when I
Speaker 1: got the news about, you know, him not returning to
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio Network, and so it you know, it
Speaker 1: was pretty sudden, um. But the explanation that was given
Speaker 1: to me by our bosses was that they didn't want
Speaker 1: to tell anyone, not even his producers, until his ink
Speaker 1: was dry on the contract, because the way it was
Speaker 1: explained to me is he obviously is good at talking politics,
Speaker 1: but he wanted to stay in the sports world because
Speaker 1: that's where all his stories originated and at heart, he's
Speaker 1: a sports guy. But you know, they were able to
Speaker 1: convince him that he could do even more of what
Speaker 1: he wanted to do with a slightly larger audience if
Speaker 1: he took over um or half took over Russia limboss chair.
Speaker 1: So you know that's kind of how that all shook out. Um.
Speaker 1: The timing was crazy with all of it, because, like
Speaker 1: I said, so many different things we're already happening behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. But once he decided, Okay, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and do it, um man, it it
Speaker 1: was like the next day, Hey, this is gonna be
Speaker 1: the final show. So I sped over to the studios
Speaker 1: and I put the best of together where I dug
Speaker 1: back years and years to some of the highlights of
Speaker 1: the show, and I worked an all night or uh
Speaker 1: leading into his program um so that I had something
Speaker 1: to play at the end of his show to say goodbye.
Speaker 1: It was super quick, such a quick turnaround, and then
Speaker 1: you know, I was told by the bosses, Hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have you in place right now. Uh we either way,
Speaker 1: you were a rock star for Clay. We need you
Speaker 1: to do that again for the next show that's going
Speaker 1: to try out and in my conversations with Clay, you
Speaker 1: know he he obviously um, him and Buck Sexton took
Speaker 1: over Russia's show. But the Rush Limbough show was already
Speaker 1: in place as far as the producers and the phone
Speaker 1: screener and the the guys back at their New York
Speaker 1: studio and then what they set up in Nashville. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like it was a brand new show from scratch
Speaker 1: that Clay was, you know, the only person in charge
Speaker 1: of so AY. I would have had to live in
Speaker 1: New York or Nashville and be I do sports radio.
Speaker 1: I I I gotta tell you. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: mind when politics get gets mixed in the sports a
Speaker 1: little bit, especially if you open it up for everybody
Speaker 1: to give their opinions about it. But as far as
Speaker 1: doing political radio every day, um and and maybe you'd
Speaker 1: agree with me on this, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: could do that. I I love sports stories. I love sports.
Speaker 1: I don't wake up every morning and check out what's
Speaker 1: going on with Democrats and Republicans and party stuff on
Speaker 1: either side. That's that's just not me. I I wake
Speaker 1: up every morning and I checked sports scores and stats
Speaker 1: and stories. So I'm a sports guy. Number one, it
Speaker 1: would be really hard for me to do politics every day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know it's always if the check was big enough, right,
Speaker 1: if the check was big enough, you would you would
Speaker 1: do it. But yeah, I love not for me, not
Speaker 1: for me. But then, honestly, I've made good money in radio.
Speaker 1: And I know that's kind of funny to say that
Speaker 1: because we've we've both done this a long time, and
Speaker 1: we hear horror stories about radio guys who died broke
Speaker 1: uh and we've also you and I have met Steve
Speaker 1: Harvey and other guys who have gotten rich from radio.
Speaker 1: Uh And, and you and I met Rush Limbaugh that
Speaker 1: morning because he used to work right across the hall
Speaker 1: from us whenever he was in l A. Well, actually
Speaker 1: I did not. I was. I have run of Russia's
Speaker 1: pens because I got one of his pens, but I
Speaker 1: I missed Russia. And and we for those that haven't
Speaker 1: heard past podcast, we've told the story working Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio is that the premier networks studios in l A.
Speaker 1: And and I've been lucky enough to work there for
Speaker 1: a long time, with the exception of six months in
Speaker 1: twenty six days, and when Rush would come in it
Speaker 1: was unreal. They'd roll out literally the red carpet he has.
Speaker 1: He had his own studio right across from the Fox
Speaker 1: Sports radio studios. He you know, they and he'd only
Speaker 1: be in l A maybe once or twice a year,
Speaker 1: and his whole professional better studio than we have, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we're there, you know, three five days a year,
Speaker 1: pre COVID and uh yeah, and it was it was crazy,
Speaker 1: and it's just everyone was on their best behavior and
Speaker 1: it was like everything was planned out when Rush would
Speaker 1: get there. But yeah, it's been pretty cool. We've met
Speaker 1: some really need people over the years. I remember the
Speaker 1: old days. I had a chance at one of the
Speaker 1: Christmas parties back when we had Christmas parties to meet
Speaker 1: Art Bell was there, Matt Drudge did a show for Premier,
Speaker 1: met him and Dr Laura And these are some big
Speaker 1: radio stars. If you're a radio nerd like us, Danny,
Speaker 1: these are big names and radio right to be able
Speaker 1: to schmooze with these radio people. And Jim Rome was
Speaker 1: working for the company at the time and and all that,
Speaker 1: and so uh A lot of people have also asked, Danny,
Speaker 1: I mean, where are you at right now? Obviously you're
Speaker 1: you filled in for our show. I know you're doing
Speaker 1: some stuff on the weekend, so you're kinda you're kind
Speaker 1: of bouncing all over the places. They try to, you know,
Speaker 1: figure out what's next for you. Is that Would that
Speaker 1: be an accurate portrayal of what's happening right now? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It kind of ties into what we were talking about
Speaker 1: there with you know, some people in radio not doing
Speaker 1: great with money and others thinking a ton of it. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, in my past, I was fortunate enough to
Speaker 1: have a couple of hip hop stations that I built
Speaker 1: or helped build, and they did really well and I
Speaker 1: made a lot of good money. Of course I blew
Speaker 1: most of that money in my twenties. But but then
Speaker 1: to cross over to sports was a really cool experience.
Speaker 1: You know. I went from hip hop to sports, and
Speaker 1: from NBC Sports Radio, I went to your show, uh,
Speaker 1: and then to Clay show and and so sports has
Speaker 1: worked out. Uh. And so that's kind of the lane
Speaker 1: I'm in now. And you know, when you say if
Speaker 1: the check is big enough, you know to a certain point,
Speaker 1: because if it's something you don't like, man, money is good,
Speaker 1: you know, and I've had it and and I grew
Speaker 1: up without it, but I was able to get it
Speaker 1: at an early age. Um, you know, there's something to
Speaker 1: be said on both side sides of it because you know,
Speaker 1: obviously everyone always references Biggiemore money more problems, but it's
Speaker 1: so true because when you find yourself in the middle
Speaker 1: of something that's huge, uh, and everyone's making a ton
Speaker 1: of dough off of it, it's great while it lasts,
Speaker 1: but it's also it also takes years off your life.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a price to be paid for it,
Speaker 1: whether that's stress or ulcers or you know, like athletes
Speaker 1: where they take some years off their life because of
Speaker 1: what they do physically. Uh, there's something to be said
Speaker 1: for having a peaceful life where you make enough money
Speaker 1: to be comfortable, but you're not stressed out of your
Speaker 1: mind and you you actually have good balance in a
Speaker 1: life away from your job. So that that's what I've
Speaker 1: been trying to figure out right now. After Clay Show
Speaker 1: left and the new show took over, they brought in
Speaker 1: their producer that they had on Sundays for Jonas and
Speaker 1: Brady Quinn. Their longtime producer lead To Lap was able
Speaker 1: to come along for the ride with them so that
Speaker 1: they could start a brand new show fresh, and you know,
Speaker 1: I have feelings about that where I'm like, well, I
Speaker 1: did the hard work and I didn't do anything wrong,
Speaker 1: So personally, I don't think I should have been moved.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it's radio. That kind of
Speaker 1: stuff happens. So for me now, the challenges to find
Speaker 1: the next Ben Mallar show or the next OutKick the coverage,
Speaker 1: those shows don't come along every day, and that's the
Speaker 1: hard part is, as you know, radio, a lot of
Speaker 1: times it's a waiting game and you have to wait
Speaker 1: it out and then things fall into place and then
Speaker 1: the next the next journey begins. So right now, I
Speaker 1: have just been hustling as much as I can to
Speaker 1: pay the bills, and thank god I had a little
Speaker 1: bit of money in the bank, and of course Clay
Speaker 1: gave me of his Fox Corporation sale. I'm sure, I'm
Speaker 1: sure he's still that was awesome. I mean I could
Speaker 1: live off that money for years. I gave you some
Speaker 1: of the limball money that he got, right and you know,
Speaker 1: want of Russ one of the old gold microphones that
Speaker 1: Rush left behind, you know, and all all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, I just want to be you know,
Speaker 1: we're at the point you're around my age day. We're similar,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I want to get to the point
Speaker 1: where I don't have to worry about this payment and
Speaker 1: that payment. You know, I want to be and I'm
Speaker 1: still I'm still chasing a lot of stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm still chasing a lot of stuff financially. So I
Speaker 1: just want to get to that point. I don't have
Speaker 1: to be Steve Harvey Rich you know where I have
Speaker 1: the you know, the houses here there and everywhere. Not
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't mind that, but I'm I'm good. I
Speaker 1: just you know, I'm wanna be okay. But as it,
Speaker 1: what's the old saying, what's the yeah, comfortable? Comfortable without
Speaker 1: TMZ chasing you around? Yeah, exactly. I don't want someone
Speaker 1: like you know, It's just like Jim Rome. When Jim
Speaker 1: Rome or Colin Cowherd sell their house, it ends up
Speaker 1: in the l A Times real estate section. When I
Speaker 1: I just move, nobody knows where I live, Nobody cares
Speaker 1: where I live. You know. It's that, it's so the end.
Speaker 1: Animity is a a good thing, for sure, but it's
Speaker 1: you know, and I made some good money too, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean when we got into radio before the salary
Speaker 1: structure went to hell in a handbasket back in the
Speaker 1: nineties went you know, it's really a late nineties started
Speaker 1: to change and then it just continually got worse and
Speaker 1: worse as the years went on. But you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know. You started radio younger than I did, though,
Speaker 1: did he didn't you start? How old are you? How
Speaker 1: old were you? I was fifteen, So I just celebrated
Speaker 1: my thirtieth year in broadcasting. Wow. Yeah, So it's been
Speaker 1: a wild ride. I mean, I I was. We had
Speaker 1: a high school radio station where I was at and
Speaker 1: I started there when I was in junior high. I
Speaker 1: would I would walk after school to the high school
Speaker 1: and the the electronics teacher was the dude leading that
Speaker 1: little radio station. But it wasn't a little radio station,
Speaker 1: which was the cool part. It had a lot of
Speaker 1: wattage for a you know, a station like that. It
Speaker 1: covered the entire city. So if you had a show
Speaker 1: on that high school radio station, you actually had listeners.
Speaker 1: It didn't just cover the parking lot of the campus. Um.
Speaker 1: So my older brother and I we took advantage of that.
Speaker 1: We played some good hip hop and R and B.
Speaker 1: Music and read everybody's dedications and requests a couple of
Speaker 1: times a week when we did the afternoon radio shows there. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I parlayed that into the college radio station
Speaker 1: uh there in northern California where I was at and
Speaker 1: did this really popular Friday night rap show. And then
Speaker 1: at sixteen years old, I got my first commercial radio job,
Speaker 1: working weekends at a big station in our city. Um.
Speaker 1: And it was my first paycheck from radio. It was awesome, uh,
Speaker 1: you know. And from there that I was already doing
Speaker 1: it all through high school. So as soon as I graduated,
Speaker 1: packed up my bags, moved to Ventura and built helped
Speaker 1: build a big pop station that still stands with big
Speaker 1: ratings there today. Uh So, now what a wild fun ride, um,
Speaker 1: you know. And and that's the part, that's the part
Speaker 1: I love about it, is just connecting with the listeners
Speaker 1: and making an impact in the community that you're in.
Speaker 1: In our case, it's a network, so we're all over
Speaker 1: the world the country, and you know, we have listeners everywhere,
Speaker 1: which is even more amazing. Um. So, if the paycheck
Speaker 1: is good enough to just cover your bills and for
Speaker 1: you to be comfortable, then the bottom line and from
Speaker 1: what I found out in thirty years of doing this,
Speaker 1: when you have unscripted moments on live radio and all
Speaker 1: of us are trying to not laugh like the other night,
Speaker 1: but we can't help it, and we just are interrupting
Speaker 1: Eddie's update because uh, you know, we're all just laughing
Speaker 1: and we can't stop. When the show is over, you're
Speaker 1: on like a natural high. I guess that's the best
Speaker 1: best way I can describe it. It's like you smoked
Speaker 1: some good bud, but none of us are smoking. You know,
Speaker 1: we're all sober. But when you do really good radio,
Speaker 1: you are buzzing afterwards. It is like a natural high
Speaker 1: because we know that we have listeners out there that
Speaker 1: might be having a hard day, a hard morning, a
Speaker 1: hard life, a hard month. But you are that moment,
Speaker 1: that bright spot in their day where you actually make
Speaker 1: them smile and laugh. And that is the best part
Speaker 1: of radio. I completely agree with. I could not say
Speaker 1: it better than you, Danny. And you know I started.
Speaker 1: I was nineteen years old, so you have four more
Speaker 1: years on me. Um. But that's the I get email
Speaker 1: from people and being on the overnight show, and you
Speaker 1: know this, when you worked on the show, we have
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are sick, a lot of
Speaker 1: people that have bad health, that are going through some
Speaker 1: really dark times in their lives. And it is when
Speaker 1: you're alone late at night and there's no one around,
Speaker 1: it is so bad. I mean, he just wants someone
Speaker 1: to talk to. You can't call anybody, you can't, I mean,
Speaker 1: just by yourself. And I always love when I get
Speaker 1: an email or something from somebody who said so and
Speaker 1: so listen and every night they were sick, they had this,
Speaker 1: that and the other thing going on with them and
Speaker 1: they love the show, and um, it's great. And I
Speaker 1: you know, not that you don't get that during the
Speaker 1: day per se, but I think it's more of a
Speaker 1: nighttime thing. I think during the day it's more of
Speaker 1: the hustle and bustle, and there's people in the car
Speaker 1: on the way to work or on the way home
Speaker 1: from work or whatever. And we have people that listen
Speaker 1: overnight that are working. But I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are by themselves, whether it's in a
Speaker 1: hospital or at home or just dealing with the crap
Speaker 1: that life throws at you. And it is it's one
Speaker 1: of the great powers of radio. And I think, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I'm biased. I'm sure you're biased to Danny is a
Speaker 1: lifetime radio guy. But I don't think you get that
Speaker 1: same sense from any form any other form of media.
Speaker 1: It's just different. There's something about radio and just having
Speaker 1: somebody talk to you, or listening to music. When you
Speaker 1: worked in music radio, you know, I have somebody. It's
Speaker 1: just a different animal than television, and even like the Internet.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Internet is great and wonderful, and I
Speaker 1: can spend hours on YouTube, which is basically just television
Speaker 1: when you choose what you want to watch and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. But it's something about radio to me that
Speaker 1: and and I guess I'm archaic because I believe that.
Speaker 1: But you were doing a podcast right now. I think
Speaker 1: it's a similar thing with a podcast, it's not quite
Speaker 1: the same. One of the magic things about radio is
Speaker 1: you're actually like, we're there, we're live. There's another human
Speaker 1: being alive that's on in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: you know. I think that was always the big selling
Speaker 1: point I thought was that we're actually there, We're not recorded,
Speaker 1: we're doing it live. Do it live right? Do it
Speaker 1: like like phil O'Reilly said back back in the day. No,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're you know, you're spot on with that,
Speaker 1: because as a kid, uh, you know, there was some
Speaker 1: some pretty can I curse on that show or yeah
Speaker 1: it's a podcast, say whatever the funk you want there.
Speaker 1: There was some pretty shitty things going on when I
Speaker 1: was a little kid, um, you know, between my mom
Speaker 1: and dad and divorce at a young age, and my
Speaker 1: mom was displaced and for a while we didn't have
Speaker 1: any where to it for a long while, we didn't
Speaker 1: have anywhere to stay when we were in southern California,
Speaker 1: and it it was a real ship show, to put
Speaker 1: it lightly. But one thing I did have, and you
Speaker 1: laugh at this, it was a G I Joe transistor
Speaker 1: radio and it was hooked up to like one of
Speaker 1: those uh walkie talkies, so it had a base and
Speaker 1: then it had like the walkie talkie you could take
Speaker 1: off of it to be mobile. On the base was
Speaker 1: an a MFM radio and I listened to Vince Scully
Speaker 1: on that thing every night. And yeah, I mean, he's
Speaker 1: calling a baseball game. But I still thought that that
Speaker 1: was my dude. I thought like I knew that guy.
Speaker 1: You know, you might as well have been my grandpa.
Speaker 1: And and I had that every night, no matter what
Speaker 1: crap was going on in life, I could count on
Speaker 1: him and I could count on that time with my radio,
Speaker 1: and it was awesome. Man. And then when I got
Speaker 1: into music, when I got a couple of years older,
Speaker 1: there was k DY Radio with the early hip hop
Speaker 1: in k Poo and San Francisco, which did a lot
Speaker 1: of live mixed shows and played unedited versions of rap songs,
Speaker 1: which was pretty amazing at that time. And I listened
Speaker 1: to all of those live turntable mixes on that radio.
Speaker 1: I listened to Vince s Guli on that radio, Bill
Speaker 1: King calling Raider games on that radio, and it made
Speaker 1: a huge impact in my life. And you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's why radio is so important. It has played a
Speaker 1: big part in just about everybody's life. Yeah, When when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, my mom used to listen to
Speaker 1: Coast to Coast with Art Bell and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: late at night, and he sold one of his advertisers
Speaker 1: was this radio antenna that you could get to get
Speaker 1: you know, listen to far away radio stations. And I
Speaker 1: was all in on that, you know, and I begged
Speaker 1: my mom. I said, Mom, you gotta hook me up
Speaker 1: with that thing. And finally she did. It was pretty
Speaker 1: pricey at the time. I don't remember how much, but
Speaker 1: probably by today standards it would be dirt cheap, but
Speaker 1: it was. It was a pretty pricey thing. And I
Speaker 1: got that, and man, I was like, you know, a
Speaker 1: pig and slop. I was listening to. You know, being
Speaker 1: in the West, it's not as cool as I'm here
Speaker 1: on the East listening to far away radio stations you
Speaker 1: can get everything. But I got k O A out
Speaker 1: of Denver eight fifty. I I heard a station I
Speaker 1: used to listen to Utah jazz games on eight seventy
Speaker 1: out of St. George. I think it was maybe ninety.
Speaker 1: It was a station out of St. George, Utah that
Speaker 1: I listened to. I got Sons games out of six
Speaker 1: twenty k T A R. I got a station out
Speaker 1: of Seattle, which was like a news station. So I
Speaker 1: like all this, like it was like awesome. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, that was before the internet. That we're old, Danny,
Speaker 1: and that was like before the Internet. You could hear
Speaker 1: these far away stations and all that, and uh and
Speaker 1: it was radio nerd. I respect that. Yeah, I'm I
Speaker 1: was full nerd. I was full radio geek. I had. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 1: any any regrets, Danny, any gig that you had that
Speaker 1: you would have gotten that, you didn't get that? You said,
Speaker 1: Oh man, I wish I had taken that, or you
Speaker 1: not a look back guy. I wish I could say
Speaker 1: I'm not a look back guy. But unfortunately I passed
Speaker 1: up on a one hundred thousand dollar a year job
Speaker 1: in Honolulu. Oh yeah, so I was. I was programming
Speaker 1: k c a Q Ventura Santa Barbara in the late
Speaker 1: nineties and the station just blew up in a major way.
Speaker 1: I I had an ulcer, I had hemorrhoids. I was
Speaker 1: bleeding out the mouth in the ass. I mean it
Speaker 1: because ben I worked ninety hours. I literally had a
Speaker 1: cot in my office there and the programming offices. I mean,
Speaker 1: to make it be a monster, I had to turn
Speaker 1: into a monster, if you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: I mean you, as a program director, you have to
Speaker 1: will your station to victory. It's kind of like, you know,
Speaker 1: being a quarterback with a broken leg the field and
Speaker 1: they are limping you up and down the uh the field,
Speaker 1: they have to carry you. But at this station, I
Speaker 1: had a bunch of talent that was screen. I had
Speaker 1: no budgets for promotions. I didn't have much to work with.
Speaker 1: But what I did have was really really good music.
Speaker 1: I had a large signal, so that was good um,
Speaker 1: and so I was able to put it all together.
Speaker 1: And it was the toughest challenge of my life at
Speaker 1: the time and still looking back, probably the biggest challenge
Speaker 1: I've ever had, besides that early stuff my mom went
Speaker 1: through as a kid, and I drew on on those experiences,
Speaker 1: though I'm like, you know what, I'm not scared of this.
Speaker 1: I had worst crap go on in my life. So
Speaker 1: I had bad stuff going on in my personal life.
Speaker 1: But the radio station was doing really, really well. So
Speaker 1: suddenly they were building over a million dollars a month
Speaker 1: in advertising revenue, and they're they're in Ventura, which was
Speaker 1: market one nine at the time, and they're now building
Speaker 1: know tons of money. Just it turned into their cash
Speaker 1: cow for that company. So they were giving me a
Speaker 1: nice salary. But it caught the attention of some other
Speaker 1: radio stations and some other groups, and so I got
Speaker 1: a plane ticket sent to me from this radio group
Speaker 1: in Honolulu. They flew me in, they interviewed me. But
Speaker 1: you know, I'm in my twenties, and here at k
Speaker 1: c a Q, I had control over everything. I get
Speaker 1: to Honolulu and they're like, oh, this is our in
Speaker 1: house you know consultant. This guy is the programmer to
Speaker 1: the programmer, this guy is the you know this to that,
Speaker 1: And so to get one song on the radio, I
Speaker 1: would have had to go through like four different people.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Ah, the money is good, it's Hawaii.
Speaker 1: But but I wasn't ready to retire. I was just
Speaker 1: getting started. Now. If somebody came to me now and
Speaker 1: you know the equivalent of that now would be two
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars in Hollolulu, that obviously I would go
Speaker 1: move there tomorrow. But in my twins, with everything going
Speaker 1: on in Southern California the way it was back then,
Speaker 1: I actually turned the job off or down. I did
Speaker 1: get a raise from that group. When I got back
Speaker 1: from Honolulu. They wanted to lock me in, so they
Speaker 1: gave me a raise and locked me into a contract.
Speaker 1: So it did help with the long term success I
Speaker 1: had there. But I still look back in fact, um
Speaker 1: my girl and I we have a little three four
Speaker 1: day trip planned to Hawaii at the end of November. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then this is something I planned, not smartly because
Speaker 1: I didn't know the shakeup was gonna happen without Kick
Speaker 1: the coverage and all that. So, you know, I planned
Speaker 1: this a few months back, and then when my life
Speaker 1: I turned up upside down. The first thing my girl
Speaker 1: did was look at me and she's like, what about
Speaker 1: our Hawaii trip? You know you gotta do it. You
Speaker 1: know we're gonna go to Hawaii while you're unemployed, because
Speaker 1: then you're really on the beach. Well, now you're you
Speaker 1: are you didn't ask the bigger veal. We were all shocked.
Speaker 1: We were talking about that last night actually, Danny the
Speaker 1: other night on the show that you know, Danny g
Speaker 1: I mean, we've known you forever and you know, you've
Speaker 1: always been the bachelor guy, and now you're you're engaged,
Speaker 1: which is outstanding. Congratulations on that. Now, would if you're
Speaker 1: in Hawaii, where are you going to Honolulu? Are you
Speaker 1: going to one of the other islands? So we're gonna
Speaker 1: go to mah Yeah, yeah, we're gonna try to avoid people. Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: so we're going to Maui. Okay, that's great. I recommend
Speaker 1: I got married in Kawaii if you ever If that's
Speaker 1: that's the garden. Hardly anyone there's like forty miles of roads.
Speaker 1: That's it. It's all uh, it's all crazy. But I've
Speaker 1: heard wonderful things about Maui. I've never been to Maui.
Speaker 1: I've heard good things. But when you're there, are you gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, knock on the doors of some radio stations,
Speaker 1: Danny and see see what's going on? Where your Hawaiian
Speaker 1: shirt and all that. Yeah, I live that dream again,
Speaker 1: be like, hey, I'm ready for you now. No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I think I'm in a good place,
Speaker 1: um in southern California right now. Um. You know, I
Speaker 1: was able to come to an agreement with Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio Network to stay on and kind of kind of
Speaker 1: float and produce the shows that need an executive producer,
Speaker 1: which was how I got to fill in for Coop Um.
Speaker 1: And so that's okay for the time being. I'm not
Speaker 1: in a rush to rush into anything else right now.
Speaker 1: And and you know, radio, Ben, if you don't have
Speaker 1: friends inside the building, you're just really not going to
Speaker 1: get a job at that radio station. Yeah. It's not
Speaker 1: what you know, it's who you know. Is so Yeah,
Speaker 1: unfortunate unfortunately. And the other thing that I hate about
Speaker 1: this business, Danny, is when you're unemployed or whatever, when
Speaker 1: you're nobody wants to talk to you, like it's like
Speaker 1: you got or whatever, and they like you got COVID
Speaker 1: and you're coughing exactly exactly, all right. I know you
Speaker 1: gotta go, Danny, but listen, thanks for doing this. I
Speaker 1: appreciate this, and it was fun catching up with you,
Speaker 1: and yeah, for sure, man, I look forward to the
Speaker 1: next time I'm on your show. And you know I
Speaker 1: didn't tell I didn't tell you this when we ended
Speaker 1: the show the other day. Man, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if Coop would give me the green light on
Speaker 1: this or if you knew I did this, but I
Speaker 1: give them. I gave away thirty seven Golden Chicks answering
Speaker 1: the phones together night, So you guys have fun answering
Speaker 1: those calls next to Yeah, I can't wait. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you're giving all the blind Scott to that that the
Speaker 1: lunatic anyway, have fun, all right, Thanks Danny, all right,
Speaker 1: love you guys,