Speaker 1: Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old republic a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearinghouse of hot takes,
Speaker 1: break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Maller starts right now in the air everywhere, and welcome in.
Speaker 1: A new weekend is upon us a fresh batch of
Speaker 1: The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and Danny g Radio.
Speaker 1: Before you say, please, please, before you do that, calm down,
Speaker 1: we have a bunch of somewhat decent audio content for you.
Speaker 1: And the weekend begin ends right now and Friday. We
Speaker 1: like to talk to people who we've heard of, people
Speaker 1: on the podcast who we think you'll want to hear from.
Speaker 1: And the last week we had a great time. It
Speaker 1: was very exciting. Joey Chestnuts a man who went out
Speaker 1: and scarfed down all kinds of hot dogs and buns.
Speaker 1: He was attacked by a protester. He put that person
Speaker 1: in a choke hold and then still one by double
Speaker 1: digits hot dog and buns for another mustard belt his
Speaker 1: fifteen title. So congratulations to my new friend Joey Chestnut.
Speaker 1: Was great to have him on the podcast and that
Speaker 1: did very well, and we thank you for listening and
Speaker 1: telling friends about that and said, hey, I got this
Speaker 1: little dumb podcast thing. I listened to the Fifth Hour.
Speaker 1: You might want to check it out. And we thank you.
Speaker 1: We do, thank you for that. So it's upward and
Speaker 1: onward in the podcast game and this Friday show, the
Speaker 1: show you're listening to right now. We decided to do
Speaker 1: something somewhat different. We bring in one of our colleagues
Speaker 1: I can still say that from Fox Sports Radio, Ralph Irvin.
Speaker 1: Now Ralph has a big announcement that he is going
Speaker 1: to make on our podcast on the Fifth Hour podcast.
Speaker 1: Not too shabby. Um, So we're gonna welcome in a
Speaker 1: man who has worked for a number of years at
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio. I've known Ralph since we were early
Speaker 1: on in our careers. We both got started in San
Speaker 1: Diego at the mighty six ninety, a legendary West Coast
Speaker 1: sports talker. We cut our teeth at that radio station.
Speaker 1: We know many of the same people. Radio is a
Speaker 1: small fraternity. Ralph has gone on. He worked in Orlando.
Speaker 1: He worked for u C l A and their video department,
Speaker 1: and he's worked at several other radio stations. He's very
Speaker 1: active in golf. He's filled in not not in years,
Speaker 1: but he's filled in on our overnight show when Eddie
Speaker 1: has been away Corporate Garcia and I thought, let's get
Speaker 1: the man, the myth, the legend, Ralph urban On and Ralph,
Speaker 1: we welcome you and and I'm upset with you. Ralph.
Speaker 1: I tried to get you on. You you were harder
Speaker 1: to book than Joey Chestnut. I had to jump through
Speaker 1: hoops to get you on, Ralph. Can you please explain
Speaker 1: why it was so difficult to get you? Ralph Irvin
Speaker 1: on the Fifth Hour podcast with me your buddy Big Ben.
Speaker 1: Why is that, Ralph? Because you forgot my number. That's incorrect.
Speaker 1: I did not forget your number. I ran into you
Speaker 1: at the Fox Sports Radio studios. I was trying to
Speaker 1: enjoy a nice meal and you came by. You were
Speaker 1: wearing Hawaiian shirt a few weeks ago. Possibly yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: remember the great power outage at the Fox Sports Radio studio. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have those occasionally. Well, they made me come in, Ralph,
Speaker 1: and there was no reason for me to be there.
Speaker 1: The power was back on right before the show start,
Speaker 1: like two hours before the show. But but I was there.
Speaker 1: And there's always a good reason to be in the studio.
Speaker 1: It's called professional radio time. I'm in a studio. I
Speaker 1: have a microphone, I have headphones, I have I have everything.
Speaker 1: I have a board over here, I have that. I
Speaker 1: have a there's a keyboard. Um, I'm looking. There's a
Speaker 1: computer here. There's a light. There's several lights. There's like
Speaker 1: a weird fan off to the side. There's a thing
Speaker 1: of pens that that I let me show you. It's
Speaker 1: I know we're on audio, but actually you can see
Speaker 1: me so sec here I have Look how big that
Speaker 1: pen is? Ralph? Is that? Are you not impressed by
Speaker 1: the size of my pen? Come on, be honest, you're Ralph,
Speaker 1: I'm not in It's a pen. No, it's a beautiful pen.
Speaker 1: It's a large, giant, cartoon sized pen like this awesome.
Speaker 1: See like I have big hands, but this pen makes
Speaker 1: it look like I have a little baby hands, like
Speaker 1: little Kyler Murray hands. Yeah. Sure, all right with you, Ron,
Speaker 1: I mean you're doing this, this is a podcast about you.
Speaker 1: Everything's great. Are you sure? About that. It's about me
Speaker 1: that we're talking about your pen. Well, it's just a
Speaker 1: warm up. I'm just warming up with the pen. I
Speaker 1: feel like Ralph. Once you see my pen, you know
Speaker 1: now we're we're bonding. We're gonna bond again like the
Speaker 1: old days. Sure, sure sounds good, Yeah, exactly exactly. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: the real reason I'm having you on the podcast is
Speaker 1: you had a big Have you announced this publicly or
Speaker 1: my are we announcing this on the Fifth Hour podcast?
Speaker 1: A major story one this gets in the radio trades.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. It's it's gonna blow up the industry, it
Speaker 1: really is. And are you prepared to make that announcement
Speaker 1: right now? It's it's it's it's known that. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm leaving Fox Sports Radio. So Ralph Irvin is leaving
Speaker 1: our dysfunctional radio. This is big news, Ralph. I don't
Speaker 1: think you realize how big this is. I I guess
Speaker 1: I don't. I guess I don't. I'm just I'm just
Speaker 1: a cog in the machine. I'm just a guy who
Speaker 1: comes to work and does his thing. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: have questions. Are you prepared? I'm gonna grill you. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you. This is Ralph to the third degree. Sure,
Speaker 1: all right, So the obvious question is how how did
Speaker 1: you come to this decision? Ralph? I mean to leave
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio. It's a big deal, Like how long
Speaker 1: has this been going on? Where you you had, you know,
Speaker 1: the idea that you're gonna leave, and how long did
Speaker 1: this come about? Well, this is more a case of
Speaker 1: as you know, you're in this industry, uh, that you
Speaker 1: can move around, you go from job to job. Now
Speaker 1: you haven't gone too far. You've stayed in southern California.
Speaker 1: I think you your entire career, I've moved. I've gone
Speaker 1: from San Diego to Orlando back to l A, different
Speaker 1: places around l A. And one thing that's been consistent
Speaker 1: is my wife has followed me everywhere I've gone. And
Speaker 1: she received an opportunity, uh to get a better job
Speaker 1: in a new city, and I told her you go
Speaker 1: for it. I fully supported. And you've followed me around
Speaker 1: all these years. It's my turn to do the same,
Speaker 1: and I will follow you. So it uh affords a
Speaker 1: new opportunity, totally new lifestyle and probably one that doesn't
Speaker 1: involve broadcasting ever again, which is all right. It's something
Speaker 1: that will be absolutely new and funics writing. So you're
Speaker 1: leaving broadcasting, this is this is it? This is your
Speaker 1: last weekend as a broadcaster. You say, is that true?
Speaker 1: Really that as as far as I can tell, that's
Speaker 1: that's it. Yeah, I'm gonna try to go and sit
Speaker 1: behind a desk and do work and contribute to other ways.
Speaker 1: But well that's no fun Ralph for radio guys. Were
Speaker 1: a couple of radio guys here. This is all we know,
Speaker 1: Ralph is microphones and nonsense and goofing around. And oh
Speaker 1: I've known a little bit more than radio because I've
Speaker 1: been doing video work for the last fifteen years. So
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a case of building something that's not
Speaker 1: just day to day. It's building something bigger. Products and
Speaker 1: things of that nature is you know, I've done a
Speaker 1: lot of work with golf and talking about golf products,
Speaker 1: and you get to know the people that design and
Speaker 1: build these products, and they put a lot of themselves
Speaker 1: into each one, and you think, wow, that would be
Speaker 1: kind of cool to be able to do something where
Speaker 1: I have a lasting legacy within whatever it is that
Speaker 1: I've built, and that's kind of an interest of mine
Speaker 1: going forward. Well, that's cool, and you're a romantic ralph.
Speaker 1: You're you're following your your your wife, she followed you,
Speaker 1: and now you're following. That's a tremendous thing that you're
Speaker 1: doing here. Well, she's a lot more successful than I am.
Speaker 1: That helps me, makes it, It makes a lot easier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good. Do you want to reveal where you're going
Speaker 1: or you want to be a big mysteries the FBI
Speaker 1: out to get you? That are the authorities going to
Speaker 1: run you down or something like that? Are you worried
Speaker 1: about that? Because you know I'm going to to America's
Speaker 1: playground that is Las Vegas. Oh is that right? Lost,
Speaker 1: Lost Wages, Nevada, Yes, standing where I have a number
Speaker 1: of friends that are living there that are excited that
Speaker 1: I will be coming out and joining them. So more importantly,
Speaker 1: route this is a place I visit Vegas. So we'll
Speaker 1: we'll still get to hang out again. We'll probably hang
Speaker 1: out more with you when you get set up in
Speaker 1: Vegas than we do now, because you know geography wise
Speaker 1: where you live and I don't ever say where I
Speaker 1: live other than the north Woods. And I've moved a
Speaker 1: lot over the years. I've lived in the l are.
Speaker 1: I've lived all over l A. But we're pretty far
Speaker 1: apart right now, like where we live. I think I
Speaker 1: get to Vegas more than I get to where you
Speaker 1: live in the l A area. Well, no, because yeah
Speaker 1: you don't. We don't allow you into where I live.
Speaker 1: That's we We kind of have signs up keep this
Speaker 1: man away. And rightfully so I did try. There's a
Speaker 1: famous lake not that far away from where you live
Speaker 1: where they filmed robin Hood the original and uh, and
Speaker 1: I saw it. I was I was going out of
Speaker 1: your way. I think it was for Jonas is uh
Speaker 1: wedding thing, the receptions. I went out of your way
Speaker 1: and we were at Jonas's wedding, and so I said,
Speaker 1: I'm out here. I'm never really out this way anymore,
Speaker 1: so let me go see. They have this lake, famous lake.
Speaker 1: What's it called. What's the name of the Lakewood Lake? Sherwood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's so they filmed a bunch of movies and stuff.
Speaker 1: So I thought I'd go, it's a lake. I'll go
Speaker 1: check out the lake. And I tried to get I
Speaker 1: could not get anywhere close to like you're only if
Speaker 1: you live there. There's like this exclusive neighbor where Wayne
Speaker 1: Gretzky and some other big celebrities living used to live there. Well,
Speaker 1: Lenny has been on the podcast, you know Lenny's Lenny
Speaker 1: has been on his foy. He won't return my calls anymore. Though.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened to Lenny Len He used
Speaker 1: to get He always wanted to come on the podcast,
Speaker 1: and then I tried to reach out to him a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago and he didn't get back to
Speaker 1: It's a bad job by Lenny that Did you talk
Speaker 1: to him? Is that what happened right now? I did
Speaker 1: not talk to Lenny. I have not talked to Lenny,
Speaker 1: but he did live but in Lake Sherwood. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a beautiful lake. Nice. I could actually go check it,
Speaker 1: actually get close to the water. Other than the up top,
Speaker 1: I have to look over a fence like a peeping
Speaker 1: lake guy or something like that. Well, that's that's sometimes
Speaker 1: what you have to be. Is that true? Well for you, yes,
Speaker 1: not not so much for me. I I know people
Speaker 1: and have access. You're you're a cool person, You're much
Speaker 1: cooler than me. But you're leaving all that behind Vegas.
Speaker 1: Are you a gambler? It's yeah, a little bit I
Speaker 1: like to play craps, but it's not something that I
Speaker 1: need or want to do a lot. So it's not
Speaker 1: a big deal. I mean, yeah, you know, we were
Speaker 1: in southern California. If we want to gamble, we could
Speaker 1: gamble places closer than Las Vegas. We don't want to.
Speaker 1: It's about going to Las Vegas and you do things there.
Speaker 1: But I've traveled there so much over the years that
Speaker 1: i have my spots away from the Strip, away from
Speaker 1: all the touristy areas, and so that's not a big change.
Speaker 1: It's not like I'm going there and thinking I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be hanging out in Las Vegas Boulevard. That's not it
Speaker 1: at all. Yeah. My my aunt used to live in Vegas,
Speaker 1: and you know, she was around but and and the
Speaker 1: locals always there's like weird, strange casinos away from the
Speaker 1: Strip where like the local people go, they don't bother
Speaker 1: with the there are some Yeah, so you already have
Speaker 1: your place set up in Vegas for the big you relocation,
Speaker 1: You're already ready to go. You're looking for a new place.
Speaker 1: There's a temporary set up right now, but it'll be
Speaker 1: looking for a for a house in the future. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what if somebody says, hey, Ralph, we want you to
Speaker 1: work on the radio in Vegas with you. I will
Speaker 1: ask them how much they have in their bank account
Speaker 1: and then they will tell you the amount, and then
Speaker 1: you'll start laughing and I will say, that's why I'm
Speaker 1: no longer in broadcasting. Yes, let's just say that we
Speaker 1: have a mutual acquaintance that is in Las Vegas that
Speaker 1: has talked to me for years about coming out and saying, oh,
Speaker 1: you could be on the air, no problem right away,
Speaker 1: but they wouldn't really be able to pay you. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, well, yeah, Vegas is a weird market
Speaker 1: because it's become a very large city. I have some
Speaker 1: friends that do radio in Vegas and I've done I've
Speaker 1: done the show remotely from Vegas and it's it's like
Speaker 1: a big city. But they don't treat the radio stuff
Speaker 1: like it's a big city. Well, it's a big city
Speaker 1: that still hasn't taken understanding of how big they are.
Speaker 1: For instance, uh, Tim Laiwicky is building a new arena
Speaker 1: reportedly there in Las Vegas, and they want to put
Speaker 1: an NBA team in and where he has chosen the
Speaker 1: arena location is not in the middle of the strip,
Speaker 1: and people are like, why would you do this, why
Speaker 1: would you make tourists drive away? And the thinking is
Speaker 1: because it's not for the tourists, Like, like, if you
Speaker 1: live in Las Vegas, you actually do deserve the right
Speaker 1: to have a team that's your own, that's not built
Speaker 1: for tourists. You can have your own, your own arena,
Speaker 1: and your own city. And I don't think they've quite
Speaker 1: grasped that aspect yet, that they deserve the fruits that
Speaker 1: come with being a big city. I think they still
Speaker 1: think that they are there to serve all the visitors
Speaker 1: from around the world, and it's an evolution for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that is true. But I'm still upset when the
Speaker 1: Hockey Arena was built behind New York, New York, and
Speaker 1: then they started charging for parking around the You have
Speaker 1: to get a credit card to get free parking and
Speaker 1: not don't even know if that's still a thing, but oh,
Speaker 1: it's a thing. It's a thing. I hate, Ralph, You've
Speaker 1: known me a long time. I hate paying for parking.
Speaker 1: You hate paying for anything. Well, that is true. That's
Speaker 1: why I am the frugal the frugal man, the tight
Speaker 1: wad whatever you want to say there. No, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a case where again the locals that I
Speaker 1: know are like, no, we we don't even bother trying
Speaker 1: to park there. We we take our uber and yeah, understandable, understandable.
Speaker 1: I often talk when I talked about Ralph, I I
Speaker 1: when I talk about you, Ralph, I always talk about
Speaker 1: the fact that we started out. We look products of
Speaker 1: the mighty six ninety one of the great sports radio station,
Speaker 1: the first West Coast, one of the great I mean,
Speaker 1: let's be real, let's let's just let's cut the crap.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest sports station that ever existed, damn right.
Speaker 1: And look at the legends that you Ralph of a legend, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh Steve Hartman, Homer Hartman and uh
Speaker 1: and all them. Uh. It's been been wonderful. And a
Speaker 1: lot of the people, although we're getting older, Ralph, a
Speaker 1: lot of the people still working in the business who
Speaker 1: were there. Almost all of them, yeah, I mean almost
Speaker 1: all of them are still active in in in major radio.
Speaker 1: I mean a morning show that's still on in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: some guy named Jim Rome. I think he's done, okay,
Speaker 1: hanging in there. I think he's got enough money. I
Speaker 1: think maybe not. Hartman's around still, and you know, if
Speaker 1: you if you follow online, you can still find the
Speaker 1: old mentor has has has been on this podcast has
Speaker 1: as I am. The thing about Hacks and we I worked,
Speaker 1: I was an intern with him. You were there at
Speaker 1: the same around the same time. But Hacks of the
Speaker 1: work ethic and people say I work hard, But like
Speaker 1: hacksall was in there all day. We're recording stuff and
Speaker 1: that's the work I mean, I I am. I worked
Speaker 1: somewhat hard, but compared to Hacks on the amount of effort.
Speaker 1: And he's still got a website where he's he does
Speaker 1: his headlines. That was what he was known for back
Speaker 1: in San Diego. But he still does that every day,
Speaker 1: just does it written out. He doesn't do it on
Speaker 1: the broadcasting, but wouldn't you really like to see it
Speaker 1: written out? Like he just posted a pdf every day
Speaker 1: of the way that he would write his headlines. He
Speaker 1: had this piece of paper with this writing that so
Speaker 1: tiny so that he could get every single little headline
Speaker 1: on there uh written out in one little sheet of paper,
Speaker 1: so he didn't have to change sheets of paper. And
Speaker 1: this little tiny writing I think that would be hilarious
Speaker 1: as if that's what he posted for his headlines, just
Speaker 1: a PDF you could zoom in on and try to
Speaker 1: make out his notes. Well, yeah, because he had the
Speaker 1: chicken scratch going. And that was back in the archaic
Speaker 1: days though, Ralph like, we're so old. They had the
Speaker 1: high speed sports wire, they had the sports picker, Like
Speaker 1: they don't even have that, Like radio stations don't have those.
Speaker 1: They don't need them anymore because of the Internet. But
Speaker 1: that was like, that was one of the coolest things.
Speaker 1: When I started working there. I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: this is the high speed sports wire. And because you
Speaker 1: couldn't get that information, you sit down at a computer
Speaker 1: and there was live scores right there in front of you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And and but we're like, we're like the I had
Speaker 1: to walk ten miles in the snow up the hill.
Speaker 1: We did radio before the Internet, and we're able to
Speaker 1: pull it off kind of Uh. I was gathering recently
Speaker 1: where we were talking about old things and talking about
Speaker 1: you know, you had these cards and you had to
Speaker 1: stack these cards up, you know, a mile high, with
Speaker 1: all your commercials and your sound bites. And this is
Speaker 1: before everything was digitized for sure, we we went. When
Speaker 1: I was producing a show that we did called Extra
Speaker 1: Football Sunday. We did after we lost the Chargers rights
Speaker 1: in um we Well, I set up recording locations for
Speaker 1: every NFL game with giant reel to reel otari reel
Speaker 1: to reel recording machines so that we could record highlights
Speaker 1: and get them onto the air. It was, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was archaic, but it was. It sounded great you.
Speaker 1: It didn't sound any worse than it does today. It
Speaker 1: just took a lot more effort and a lot more space. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was one of my first one. I was an intern.
Speaker 1: I had to pull the commercials. I had the commercial
Speaker 1: log and I had to pull the spots for the
Speaker 1: for the engineer. That was my my gig. I was
Speaker 1: very good at pulling commercial And they call them spots
Speaker 1: because they little little spot on little dot. I told
Speaker 1: you what number they were color coded. We're doing We're
Speaker 1: doing old guy radio talk here. Just sure was doing
Speaker 1: old guy radio talk. Yeah. Did you ever cut yourself
Speaker 1: with a razor blade cutting the reel, the reel, the
Speaker 1: tape and all that. No, I I wasn't clumsy, No,
Speaker 1: I I never had that issue. I was I have
Speaker 1: fat fingers. I cut myself all the time. I was terrible.
Speaker 1: I was so happy when they got rid of that stuff,
Speaker 1: but I was so piste off at the same time
Speaker 1: because I learned when I got into the business, I
Speaker 1: learned cards, editing, you know, the real, the real, all that.
Speaker 1: And within a couple of years of me starting, he
Speaker 1: started shifting over to digital. And I was like, what,
Speaker 1: I spent all this time learning all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: the only way I'll use it is I'm at like
Speaker 1: a small radio station in Oklahoma, which probably still uses
Speaker 1: that stuff. I'm sure. I want to say it was
Speaker 1: about five years from the time I started to the
Speaker 1: time that that that the computer system was coming in.
Speaker 1: Here's the funny part. That computer system is what we
Speaker 1: still use today twenty plus years later. Oh yeah, well
Speaker 1: that's that's a whole different conversation, Ralph. Yeah. That that
Speaker 1: I I'm gonna write a book someday. When I walked
Speaker 1: into Fox Sports Radio, we that studio which you're leaving
Speaker 1: and you're gonna leave radio and do great things. But
Speaker 1: that studio. We walked in there and it was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is amazing. They had ribbons, everything
Speaker 1: was brand new, When I started at Fox Sports Radio,
Speaker 1: we were in a premier network studio upstairs on the
Speaker 1: fifth floor. It was the old Michael Reagan, the President's
Speaker 1: adopted son. He had a radio show and we did
Speaker 1: the show from his studio. Are all the Fox Sports
Speaker 1: radio shows until they had built the studio on the
Speaker 1: ground floor and that thing opened up, and it was
Speaker 1: like they were bringing in executives from around the country.
Speaker 1: It was like the and all the newest equipment, and
Speaker 1: here we are twenty two years later and it's the
Speaker 1: same the same equipment, and uh it's uh yeah, but
Speaker 1: the goodness. Eventually they will move to a new studio
Speaker 1: possibly The fun The fun thing though, is we talked
Speaker 1: about Extra six ninety. They built the Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: studios to look just like the Extra six nineties studios.
Speaker 1: I mean all the way from from from the board
Speaker 1: the where the technical director the board operator sits, that
Speaker 1: whole area, to to the studio that it was built
Speaker 1: to look just Extra Sports six nine. The one flaw
Speaker 1: on that, though, is the update booth. It's not visible.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so I always I point this out when
Speaker 1: you were filling for Eddie or when Eddie's there, whenever,
Speaker 1: and if I'm in studio, I can't see the the
Speaker 1: guy that's doing the news, and so it's like this
Speaker 1: will be at home, I can see the same thing.
Speaker 1: So well. I mean, you also then would complain to
Speaker 1: management if if you saw too much of me, if
Speaker 1: if I come in and say hello you up. There
Speaker 1: goes another email to to the boss's Ralte. Ralph's in
Speaker 1: being social again. No, no, not not all. And here's
Speaker 1: the thing, Ralph, Okay, after some of the other people
Speaker 1: I will not name names you, but some of the
Speaker 1: other people that have stepped into that chair when Eddie's away,
Speaker 1: I have gone to bed praying that you will come back.
Speaker 1: I'm very bumped out, Ralph, that you shouldn't have sent
Speaker 1: the request to never have me on your showing. That's
Speaker 1: a lie. Now, there was an incident I don't know
Speaker 1: if we want to get into it here on the
Speaker 1: pod Kiss, but justin and Cincinnati triggered what I call
Speaker 1: rhino Ralph and uh and you came storming in from
Speaker 1: the update studio. You went out the door, you made
Speaker 1: a right turn, you came in the main studio, and
Speaker 1: you proceeded to just hit all kinds of buttons and
Speaker 1: started hanging up on everybody to get back at Justin
Speaker 1: and Cincinnati. And I don't even remember what he had done.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was something going to say. You say
Speaker 1: offensive things, you get hung up on. Unfortunately, you have
Speaker 1: producers that don't exactly know what they're doing, even though
Speaker 1: they've been there for like a million years, that don't
Speaker 1: know how to hang up on people, and so you
Speaker 1: had to bring in a veteran who actually knows how
Speaker 1: to work at tels machine. For those that don't know that,
Speaker 1: that's a machine that lines up the phone calls and
Speaker 1: the computer program that tells Ben who's on the line.
Speaker 1: Is it I still know how to do that? Is
Speaker 1: it tell us? I thought it was telling I don't
Speaker 1: know whatever. He doesn't matter. It matters to me, Ralph.
Speaker 1: You know what it is a way to hang up
Speaker 1: on phone calls. Yeah, and that thing you talk about
Speaker 1: glue and tape the Tellos machine, because that's a very
Speaker 1: expensive piece of equipment and it has not been upgraded.
Speaker 1: People have hit it like you hit it. Other people
Speaker 1: have hit it and button. Literally, that literally is technology
Speaker 1: that predates our radio career. Oh yeah, I think about
Speaker 1: that like that program. You think about when you intern
Speaker 1: for for Lee Hacksaw Hamilton's and you had the screen
Speaker 1: phone calls. It didn't look the same, but it was
Speaker 1: the exact same program that you're that is in use today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not a good program. When I worked in,
Speaker 1: when I worked in for w e I, they use
Speaker 1: a different program, and there's so much better. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's a little different and it's got more features, more
Speaker 1: bells and whistles. But you know, I could log in
Speaker 1: anywhere like that thing. You gotta be in studio to
Speaker 1: log in. It's a big pain in the behind. So
Speaker 1: not to be to be fair, not a lot of
Speaker 1: the hosts at Fox Sports Radio use phone calls, so
Speaker 1: there isn't necessarily a big need to upgrade it. When
Speaker 1: when what maybe three shows a day take phone calls
Speaker 1: live on the Earth, Yeah, I don't even know who does.
Speaker 1: I obviously our show overnight we take a lot of calls,
Speaker 1: I guess compared to the other guys. Jason doesn't take calls.
Speaker 1: I don't think no. I I mean I really, I
Speaker 1: can only think of one other show that's out of
Speaker 1: our studios that that takes live calls. Does God leave
Speaker 1: do it? No, he does not take calls. No, I
Speaker 1: don't think so. This would be the odd couple. Yeah calls,
Speaker 1: one segment an hour. H Parker. So yeah, Okay, are
Speaker 1: you saying that I'm doing outdated radio? Is that what
Speaker 1: you're trying to tell me? Rout, that I shouldn't take
Speaker 1: any calls because all these other guys that get paid
Speaker 1: a lot more money than me don't don't take calls.
Speaker 1: Is that what you're telling me? I don't want to
Speaker 1: say that, and I'll tell you why. It's like saying
Speaker 1: that a cobbler is doing outdated work, when in reality,
Speaker 1: the cobbler is doing better work. And a lot of
Speaker 1: the things that are out there. I think it's late.
Speaker 1: I think it's lazy radio to not involve your your listeners.
Speaker 1: It's what made sports radio the medium it was is
Speaker 1: that you served an audience. You entertained an audience, but
Speaker 1: you are accountable to your audience. Your audience could call
Speaker 1: in and call you out for the nonsense that you spoke.
Speaker 1: And nowadays there are plenty of hosts out there that
Speaker 1: will just stay a bunch of garbage, most of it's
Speaker 1: written for them by their producers. They will just spew
Speaker 1: a bit and just walk away like it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what I said, Clay, Clay Thompson, Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: Their time is done in the NBA. They'll never be
Speaker 1: successful again. Here they win a title. Oh well, you
Speaker 1: know what, they're still done and they're not gonna do
Speaker 1: it again. I mean you just double and triple down
Speaker 1: on that. Yeah. Yeah, I like taking the call to me.
Speaker 1: They're characters on this show and they're get different voices,
Speaker 1: and I think it's good, but I do. And and
Speaker 1: sometimes the caller is going to bring up a subject
Speaker 1: that you know about but you didn't think was very important,
Speaker 1: and you find out that, no, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people that really do think that that's an important subject.
Speaker 1: And so now you're going to talk about it. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I follow the KFC model of radio, the eleven herbs
Speaker 1: and spices. You gotta mix it up, you gotta mix
Speaker 1: and match and all that. But you're an old program director, Ralph.
Speaker 1: We talk about that. But you programmed the station in Orlando.
Speaker 1: What kind of what kind of pet? Were you pig
Speaker 1: vomit from the Howard Stern movie or were you everyone
Speaker 1: loves you guys or somewhere in the middle. Well, I was.
Speaker 1: I've been at the station for a number of years
Speaker 1: and there was, you know, as happens in the radio,
Speaker 1: a shake up of the staffing, and that kind of
Speaker 1: thrust me into the program director position. UM. And I
Speaker 1: was the type of guy that's like, Okay, we're going
Speaker 1: to do our show and we're just just do your show.
Speaker 1: Not enough of the crap. Just do your show. And
Speaker 1: if your show has issues, I'm gonna talk to you
Speaker 1: about your issues, but I'm not gonna ride you on. No,
Speaker 1: there's no wn BC, none of that. There was none
Speaker 1: of that garbage. It was it was just do your
Speaker 1: show and I'm not trying to make you look bad
Speaker 1: or sound bad. I want you to perform it. If
Speaker 1: you succeed, then we all succeed. Um. Unfortunately, as a
Speaker 1: program director, what was my job. It's corporate radio. My
Speaker 1: job was too spend less money on employees and make
Speaker 1: more money in sales. And that's unfortunately what was the
Speaker 1: signature for what I did. UM. So it meant, you know,
Speaker 1: part timers got less hours because with our systems that
Speaker 1: have computers, you can now automate broadcasts, you can automate
Speaker 1: how you run a radio station. Was it was not
Speaker 1: exactly ideal. Um. I I used to be able to
Speaker 1: run the radio station from my home. Believe it or not,
Speaker 1: I could. I I had the system at home in
Speaker 1: my office, and so I could automate a baseball game,
Speaker 1: World Series games saying it finishes it one or two
Speaker 1: in the morning East Coast time, and I could dial
Speaker 1: in and flip the switch sure on Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: when the game is over. Yeah, that's how a lot
Speaker 1: of stations are, right I I and I feel guilty
Speaker 1: because we do syndicated radio at Fox, but I love
Speaker 1: local radio. Two. I think you should have there's gotta
Speaker 1: be like I said with the show, there's gotta be balanced.
Speaker 1: You gotta have a local voice. But the radio industry
Speaker 1: in general has gone gone away from that a long
Speaker 1: time ago, and I don't know that they'll ever get
Speaker 1: back to that point with the cost of everything and
Speaker 1: all that. What is your greatest accomplishment, Ralph and radio
Speaker 1: greatest accomplishment now that you're leaving radio behind, Ralph, what
Speaker 1: are you most proud of? I mean, where we talked about,
Speaker 1: I did a lot of work with a lot of
Speaker 1: other stations, teaching them how to program um using our
Speaker 1: automated system which is called profit or next gent I.
Speaker 1: I worked with a lot of stations back in the
Speaker 1: in the two thou teaching them this is how you
Speaker 1: program for for games. It was easy to program for
Speaker 1: the network, it's the same commercial clock every hour. It's
Speaker 1: easy to program for local shows, same thing. But two
Speaker 1: teach them this is how you implement the broadcast for
Speaker 1: a game so that it works with the people that
Speaker 1: plug in the commercials again, all stuff behind the seats.
Speaker 1: That that was my biggest accomplishment. I mean Otherwise on
Speaker 1: the air, I didn't get into too much trouble. Didn't
Speaker 1: do anything too crazy. Uh have you ever been suspended
Speaker 1: for something you did rough? I've been been suspended trouble
Speaker 1: a few times over the years. No I got threatened
Speaker 1: with suspension. You know, you get upset with doing doing
Speaker 1: what I do as as a as an update guy,
Speaker 1: my job is not to step on your toes to
Speaker 1: your show. Nobody's tuning in to listen to me. They
Speaker 1: might enjoy a banter between us, but my job is
Speaker 1: to be supplementary in what I do right now. And
Speaker 1: sometimes people will say something to me and I'll snap
Speaker 1: back because I'm not going to take the crap. You know,
Speaker 1: I've done this too long. You know this. I'm just
Speaker 1: you start spewing bull I'm I'm just not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: I don't care. And then sometimes I get in trouble
Speaker 1: for that because I I just don't care. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna sit and and be embarrassed. You're not gonna do
Speaker 1: manufactured Uh. I'm I'm a pretty straightforward guy. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it served me well. And my years of U c
Speaker 1: l A served me well, and my years talking golf,
Speaker 1: and it's it's done me well in radio. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of time. I did want to
Speaker 1: get to that because you spent years. I remember seeing
Speaker 1: you and they always had the blue U c l
Speaker 1: A shirt on. I remember that Ralph was known for that.
Speaker 1: You did video. Didn't you kind of create that department
Speaker 1: at U c You were you were the innovator of
Speaker 1: the video content right? How did that begin? How did
Speaker 1: you get that gig at U c l A. Well, Um,
Speaker 1: a guy that I had intern for when I was
Speaker 1: a student at U c l A reached out to
Speaker 1: me and said, we need video content on the website.
Speaker 1: And you're saying to me that I was kind of
Speaker 1: a five tool player that I knew audio, I knew video,
Speaker 1: I knew how to edit, I knew sports, and I
Speaker 1: could be a talent on on camera and all those
Speaker 1: things together meant that you could literally ben You would
Speaker 1: laugh at what I used to carry around. It looked
Speaker 1: like a giant turtle shell backpack that literally had a camera,
Speaker 1: a tripod, microphones, lights, everything in this one backpack that
Speaker 1: I would travel around with. And you I produced five
Speaker 1: videos a year for U c l A, covering twenty
Speaker 1: four different sports teams, and it was a NonStop job
Speaker 1: that went from the beginning of August to the end
Speaker 1: of July. One National championships with them, and you just
Speaker 1: go and you try to capture the story and share
Speaker 1: it to people and try to create content to try
Speaker 1: to get recruits. And you work with coaches, you work
Speaker 1: with fans, you work with the administration, and it's it's
Speaker 1: as an as an alum, it was a great thing.
Speaker 1: As somebody who wants to make a living, it was.
Speaker 1: It was. It was terrible, and that's why I ultimately
Speaker 1: left was U c l A. You know, as much
Speaker 1: as I love my school, they pay their coaches a
Speaker 1: lot of money, and they're able to do it because
Speaker 1: they pay a lot of the sports staff very little.
Speaker 1: And it's you do it out of love. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's a love of broadcasting and a love of storytelling,
Speaker 1: and that's why you get into it. And it lasts
Speaker 1: until you realize, no, I need to I need to
Speaker 1: start being more professional and receiver paycheck. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say watching you do some of that stuff at u
Speaker 1: c l A events, it was like a local like
Speaker 1: Punksakani news anchor has to go out record everything, then
Speaker 1: you got to go back and edit it, and then
Speaker 1: you got to make sure it's all set to go
Speaker 1: for the newscast and the whole thing. And you did
Speaker 1: that like seven days a week probably for how many
Speaker 1: years were I was there for five years And the best, honestly,
Speaker 1: the best one was we played at football game at Colorado,
Speaker 1: So you shoot highlights of the of the game, old
Speaker 1: game halftime, you try and collect as many of the
Speaker 1: highlights off your digital card. Then you shoot the second
Speaker 1: ha half. Then after the game, you do your interviews,
Speaker 1: you set up your lights, you do your stand up
Speaker 1: at the field, get onto the bus with the team
Speaker 1: to go to the airport, catch your charter, editing on
Speaker 1: the bus for the forty five minute drive from Boulder
Speaker 1: to the airport there in Denver. And I actually was
Speaker 1: able to edit and upload the story to our website
Speaker 1: before the plane took off to fly home. And that
Speaker 1: was one of that you say, you talk about accomplishment.
Speaker 1: That was pretty fun to race against the clock. And
Speaker 1: that's what would be like on the road, is you're
Speaker 1: just racing to get as much done as you could
Speaker 1: before the plane took off, because if you get it up, great,
Speaker 1: and if not, then you were editing on the point.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well now you see is moving to the
Speaker 1: Big ten in a couple of years. That's uh. I
Speaker 1: guess you're you're lucky you're not there because you have
Speaker 1: to go to I think of all the long plane
Speaker 1: flights going back travels fun. I mean I I traveled
Speaker 1: every school in the Pack twelve travels across the country
Speaker 1: with U C. L A. Uh. For football, it's not
Speaker 1: going to make it much of a difference. As as
Speaker 1: I was talking to people, you play a nine am
Speaker 1: game at Perdue, you're gonna get home to l a
Speaker 1: earlier then if you're playing a seven thirty game in Pullman, Washington,
Speaker 1: which is when Washington State tends to play their games.
Speaker 1: So it's not gonna be that big a deal for football.
Speaker 1: For the other sports, it's gonna stink when the basketball
Speaker 1: team goes on the road. They're gonna have to go
Speaker 1: for what two weeks or something. I mean, I would
Speaker 1: think quite possibly. But here's the funny thing, though, Ben, Here,
Speaker 1: here's where, here's where you can smell out somebody that
Speaker 1: doesn't think about their job in sports radio. They then complained, well,
Speaker 1: I guess this takes out the whole student part of
Speaker 1: the student athlete. Last I checked, these universities told students
Speaker 1: that they didn't need to be on campus for two years,
Speaker 1: skip to a remote learning. So you have an academic
Speaker 1: advisor that travels with all these teams. They're gonna sit
Speaker 1: there on the road. They're gonna do their classes remotely,
Speaker 1: just like has happened for the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: If if it's so important that students be in school,
Speaker 1: then students should be in school. But that's been made
Speaker 1: abundantly clear to college students that it's no longer that
Speaker 1: big a deal. Yeah, the jig is up on that.
Speaker 1: The crowd is like student athlete and all that, and
Speaker 1: I'm glad there's n I L S. Although it is
Speaker 1: annoying to see some of these guys driving around Lamborghini's,
Speaker 1: but it's good for them. Uh fine, They the universities
Speaker 1: make a lot of money and as you say, the
Speaker 1: supports staff. They don't get a lot of the moneys
Speaker 1: at schools like U c A. But I we don't
Speaker 1: have a lot of time left, Rolf, because I know
Speaker 1: you have used to do in places to go, but
Speaker 1: I didn't want to ask you. You're a golf guy,
Speaker 1: and that is to me the most one of the
Speaker 1: most fascinating stories going on right now, the survival of
Speaker 1: the p G a versus the the Live Golf Tour.
Speaker 1: Have you picked a side yet, Ralph? Or does it
Speaker 1: really not matter because you're you can play both sides here.
Speaker 1: Where are you at on the on the lift? Ten
Speaker 1: years from now, Ralph, let's go in the hot tub
Speaker 1: time machine. Are we still talking about this Saudi era
Speaker 1: and live So you think it's sure it's gonna be No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it may be around, but we're not gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, right now it's being talked about
Speaker 1: because for some reason, and this is insane to me,
Speaker 1: golf journalists are just deep in bed with the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: Like I don't understand why you are just so adamant
Speaker 1: about defending the PGA Tour. Their commissioner has handled this
Speaker 1: whole thing horribly and really exposed the entire reason why
Speaker 1: the Live Golf Tour exists is because of this. It's
Speaker 1: terrible management from the PGA Tour, just how they've handled
Speaker 1: things and trying to be a dominating force. And it's like, look,
Speaker 1: why don't you work with these folks and move forward.
Speaker 1: I mean, this whole thing about you know, well it's
Speaker 1: dirty blood money. Then then then it doesn't matter. That's
Speaker 1: what you think, and that's that's how that ends. The
Speaker 1: reality is there's lots of that money floating around the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, There's lots of that money floating around sports
Speaker 1: around the world. If you if you know, you know,
Speaker 1: if you care, you care, what's my side? My side
Speaker 1: is to sit and watch this to baccle and and
Speaker 1: watch these people blow each other up. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter. Is this last live golf
Speaker 1: event that was in Portland, it was a heck of
Speaker 1: a lot better than what the PGA Tour put out
Speaker 1: at the John Deere Classic. And you can go to YouTube,
Speaker 1: you can watch the watch the tour. There are no
Speaker 1: commercials and because of the shotguns start format, they start
Speaker 1: at the same time, they end at the same time.
Speaker 1: It's a four hour broadcast. Like most major sports I've
Speaker 1: covered golf, that's an eight hour day covering golf because
Speaker 1: of the staggered times and everything, and it makes it
Speaker 1: better for everybody that format. Now, I'm not saying that's
Speaker 1: the way golf should be, but it's a change. It's different.
Speaker 1: And you can give me all this statement about well,
Speaker 1: you're paying these players guaranteed money, so they're not going
Speaker 1: to care about wins or losses. They care. There's still
Speaker 1: prize money involved and they care. And when you're talking
Speaker 1: about golfers. I read this in an article recently. I
Speaker 1: think it was done by Alan Schipnuk who talked to
Speaker 1: agents and who said, golfers or horrors. They've always been
Speaker 1: horrors from the moment they turned professional. They're selling everything
Speaker 1: they can to sponsors. So why is this any different.
Speaker 1: This is stupid to make it a big issue. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's silly. Well, it's it isn't intriguing though, because
Speaker 1: of all these guys that we've heard of on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour that have all left and gold but the golds.
Speaker 1: I have a theory on the golf media why they're
Speaker 1: so in bed with the p G A one thing
Speaker 1: my experience. I've only covered a few pg events over
Speaker 1: the year, but they really take care of the media
Speaker 1: like they really My experience was they if you want,
Speaker 1: you can go out and walk the course with golfers,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to, right, I mean, you can
Speaker 1: see sitting like a sofa and they'll give you food
Speaker 1: and you can watch everything on television. It's a but
Speaker 1: they do that at the Lift Golf Tour. They do
Speaker 1: it better from what I've seen the media spread and
Speaker 1: I know that's a big deal to you. Clearly is
Speaker 1: is is far superior that they go golourmet on the
Speaker 1: on the Live Golf Tour. They have ridiculous money round.
Speaker 1: I mean all right, that they do. It's my point is,
Speaker 1: why why are you taking aside if your media, I
Speaker 1: mean the whole point we we get into this that
Speaker 1: the so called sports journalist, which is nonsense. There's no
Speaker 1: such thing, because every single journalist that covers sports is biased,
Speaker 1: every journalists. But but you're there, if you're a Dodgers
Speaker 1: beat writer, you're there to cover the Dodgers. Therefore, you're
Speaker 1: rooting for Dodgers stories to happen. You're you're you're you're
Speaker 1: not saying, gee, I hope the Dodgers get no hit here.
Speaker 1: You're that doesn't That doesn't do you much good. It's
Speaker 1: in this case, why are you choosing sides? If you're
Speaker 1: a sports journalist, you shouldn't. If you're following golf, you
Speaker 1: should be like, this is an intriguing story. Let's see
Speaker 1: how long we it will play out. We can milk it. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: the thing you want and the reason this this live
Speaker 1: things good for golf is because, as you know, rough,
Speaker 1: you don't want apathy. You want someone to have an
Speaker 1: opinion and be passionate. And people are very passionate on
Speaker 1: this issue, and it's gonna be interesting. Listen. I gotta
Speaker 1: let you go. I know you gotta you gotta work.
Speaker 1: We're recording this right before you're about to work. But
Speaker 1: this is your last weekend at Fox Sports Radio. Good luck,
Speaker 1: ralped My wife tells me we're gonna we're gonna harass
Speaker 1: you in Vegas, so be good luck. I'm you know
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be on the air. I'm going into hiding.
Speaker 1: It'll be it'll be hard to find me. Well, just
Speaker 1: don't change your number and you you if you'll, you'll
Speaker 1: be invited. The Ugly Sweater Party is supposed to be
Speaker 1: back to longer drive for you Vegas, so you'll have
Speaker 1: to make proper accommodations for the It could take you
Speaker 1: the same time though, from Vegas to my house as
Speaker 1: to where you're living in l A to my y.
Speaker 1: It once took me two hours to get there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a nightmare anyway. All right, Well, thank you, bro,
Speaker 1: it's been fun working with you. How Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: this run? How long will this run? Almost six years?
Speaker 1: Time flies? Yes, I say you're gonna work in radio again.
Speaker 1: I'll make a bet I say you do radio again.
Speaker 1: We never know that the bosses may call me and say, hey, Ralph,
Speaker 1: we've never had you as a host before, but suddenly,
Speaker 1: now that you've left, we want you to fill in.
Speaker 1: Who knows it could have any Thank you, Ralph, good
Speaker 1: luck with everything. We'll be in touch. I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: Thank you Ben. That the Honda Classic Daniel Burger all
Speaker 1: alone in first place after the third round he ships
Speaker 1: he sits five shots off of the lead or five
Speaker 1: shots ahead of the field. All I can say Ralph
Speaker 1: is the real Dumah. Yeah he's He's got the hand
Speaker 1: on the button, so don't worry about that. That was
Speaker 1: your best update of the day, Row Yeah,