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Speaker 1: something special. Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now
Speaker 1: that it does. We are in the air everywhere yet again.
Speaker 1: This is the Friday podcast. We are back at it
Speaker 1: in a conversation podcast. Because four hours a night on
Speaker 1: the overnight obviously not enough. We do this eight days
Speaker 1: a week. While podcast for you on Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 1: Tell a friend, Get the word out, Spread the word
Speaker 1: not only on the i Heart platform, but all over
Speaker 1: where do you get podcast? And this a conversation podcast.
Speaker 1: We are going into the rolodecks of stars at Fox
Speaker 1: sports radio and someone that you might not know. A
Speaker 1: lot of people don't realize this. This This is somebody actually
Speaker 1: worked with at two different places in my radio journey.
Speaker 1: Here you know him, you love him. As half of
Speaker 1: the night show, it's the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Speaker 1: Harmony because of the Fairness Doctor. We had harmon on
Speaker 1: last week, so we must bring in the number one
Speaker 1: Jets and mets apologists. I know in all the land,
Speaker 1: the great Jason Smith hanging out with us here on
Speaker 1: the fifth hour, and Gascon's here. He'll chime in from
Speaker 1: time to time. Just I'm I gotta warn you on that, Jason,
Speaker 1: I have gonna warn you that Guestcon might chime in
Speaker 1: with an annoying question at some point. So we're I'm
Speaker 1: kind of I'm kind of used to when he does that,
Speaker 1: you know, when he does the updates on on the
Speaker 1: show during the weekend on my show, and I'm like, okay, hey,
Speaker 1: what's trending, And they'll just say to me, is it Burke? Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's not Sean Burke. Is it Floris Lukewitch? No, No,
Speaker 1: don't no, it's not it's not. It's bed to be fair.
Speaker 1: Though I've thrown Jason off once at least what I
Speaker 1: mentioned is it Sema hyak, and it threw him off,
Speaker 1: just completely off the reservation. So I get those in
Speaker 1: from time to time. Yeah, so I feel your same, buddy,
Speaker 1: I know what's going on here. Well, this is Jason
Speaker 1: gascon aside. We'll just try to over Gascon's what's known
Speaker 1: as an acquired taste. But nobody's acquired the taste. That's
Speaker 1: the problem. So that that's the issue. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make it all about us, you know. I want to
Speaker 1: make it all about us, Jason, because in the early
Speaker 1: days of Fox Sports Radio, Uh, we did shows together
Speaker 1: and we actually worked together at Extra Sports eleven fifty
Speaker 1: back back in the day. We're at that station at
Speaker 1: the same time before Fox Sports Radio existed. But I
Speaker 1: have fond memories of doing the show with you on
Speaker 1: the weekends. But most of them, Jason, revolve around food.
Speaker 1: Most of them around revolve around food, not necessarily doing
Speaker 1: the show, but the eating habits that we had in
Speaker 1: those days. What do you remember about the early days
Speaker 1: and we were hanging out and I think it was
Speaker 1: like a Saturday night. I think we were doing something. Uh,
Speaker 1: I forget exactly when, but it was in the evening time,
Speaker 1: nighttime hours, and we did a lot of shows together
Speaker 1: back in those days. Oh he did, Buddy. I remember
Speaker 1: when we first started at even you were on the
Speaker 1: Ben and Dave Show, and I would fill limit with
Speaker 1: Lee Klein and I would come on after you guys,
Speaker 1: and I would come out, and then you would always
Speaker 1: have something really funny and snarky to say about Lee,
Speaker 1: and I would go, oh, I hope these guys get
Speaker 1: along well, Okay, I know, I think must. Everything's all right.
Speaker 1: And then we hooked up again at Fox, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it was like Saturday and Sunday night late night like
Speaker 1: into the like into the into the next morning. And
Speaker 1: the food we had, like we would go to the
Speaker 1: gas station and get like I like, I look at okay,
Speaker 1: our shows like four hours long. I think one show
Speaker 1: was five hours long, and I would have like three things,
Speaker 1: a Hostess cupcakes and like two Diet cokes and a
Speaker 1: Diet dr pepper and oh, let me get some cheese
Speaker 1: and crackers too. Like we had the entire uh area
Speaker 1: covered like in front of him. We would do the
Speaker 1: show from like right next to the keyboards and the
Speaker 1: computers and I think the computers are still the same
Speaker 1: from when we started back in the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: and we would have it would be so it would
Speaker 1: be like a smartest board of gas station food that
Speaker 1: we would have. And I remember the Hostess cupcakes the
Speaker 1: most because they must have had like six of those
Speaker 1: every night you did the show together. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: remember the gummy sharks. That was always because they didn't
Speaker 1: always have the gummy sharks, so when they had the
Speaker 1: gummy sharks, so that was very big. And then you know,
Speaker 1: this is back in my big eating days, Jason, and
Speaker 1: I'm i double fisting. I got Eminem's in one hand,
Speaker 1: I got gummy bears in the other. I got the
Speaker 1: Cheetos over here, I got the frieds over there. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, the Freedo bandidos over there hanging out in
Speaker 1: the back. It was awesome, I mean it was it
Speaker 1: was great. And now look at us, Jason, all these
Speaker 1: years later, we're still there. I know you left for
Speaker 1: a while, but you're back. And uh, my diet's changed
Speaker 1: a little bit. Are you still eating the crazy diet? No,
Speaker 1: not as much. Man. It was weird that I got
Speaker 1: to a point where I said, I just can't keep
Speaker 1: eating like this. I can't. I can't. I just can't
Speaker 1: do it. And now since I stopped drinking diet soda,
Speaker 1: like I've really cut that like now and maybe have
Speaker 1: one every couple of days, we're gonna have a caffeine headache.
Speaker 1: And I noticed how much less I need to eat.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, they're really right that caffeine is a
Speaker 1: diet stimulant, because an appetite stimulant, because yeah, I drink
Speaker 1: diet coke for years. It was I would drink like,
Speaker 1: you know, three a day, you know, is what I
Speaker 1: would have. I would keep drinking and keep drinking. And
Speaker 1: if days I went out to watch a game or something,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I just don't a waitress, you hat
Speaker 1: diet coke, keeping coming, keeping coming, did one every ten
Speaker 1: or fifteen minutes. I did one, And then when I
Speaker 1: stopped and I said, I just can't. It's, you know,
Speaker 1: I get to the point where I gotta, I gotta
Speaker 1: start doing something else. And I realized I'm full after
Speaker 1: so much less, Like oh my god, I've eaten a
Speaker 1: piece and a half a pizza and I'm usually it's
Speaker 1: like four pieces, And I go, oh man, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of fulled down. And it's amazing what happened when when
Speaker 1: when I cut that back. So yeah, I'm with you, buddy.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's been. It's been something just realizing
Speaker 1: when you change, how how easy it is to go
Speaker 1: back to just, you know, eating what regular people eat
Speaker 1: instead of overnight show. I know, Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: I would eat. I I would just gorge back back
Speaker 1: in the day. And I love soda too. I was
Speaker 1: a huge, huge soda ga. I actually lost a fair
Speaker 1: amount of way to originally when when I gained some
Speaker 1: of it back, but by stopping drinking soda. I was
Speaker 1: a dr pepper guy. Love cherry coke um. And I'm
Speaker 1: the guy that would go in back when seven eleven
Speaker 1: had those like triple big golf things or whatever, the
Speaker 1: double big golfs. I'd go in there, I'd fill it up,
Speaker 1: I drink half of it, and then I'd fill it
Speaker 1: up again, and then I would check out of seven eleven.
Speaker 1: That would be that would be my move. This guy
Speaker 1: here is trying to get away with not paying for
Speaker 1: I didn't even need a slurpy man. I just need
Speaker 1: an extra dr pepper. Whenever I was I was good
Speaker 1: to go in that and now look at me now,
Speaker 1: I don't even eat most days. Now now I'm like
Speaker 1: getting to this inter minute fasting thing, which is which
Speaker 1: is my new my new mischigas here. And if you
Speaker 1: would have told young me, Jason, you knew me in
Speaker 1: those days, that I would go like two days a
Speaker 1: week without eating, I would have said, you're insane. I
Speaker 1: would rather die than do that. But look at look
Speaker 1: at me now getting old Jason. I guess it is
Speaker 1: not the lesson there, but my goodness, you know, I
Speaker 1: remember once I forget what we were talking. We talked
Speaker 1: about this. I were so impressed by it. But we
Speaker 1: were doing something and we were talking about a topic
Speaker 1: I forget. You know, you would you would talk, you
Speaker 1: would said what you were going to say. And then
Speaker 1: I started talking, and you know, I think I talked
Speaker 1: for maybe like not even a minute, like I want
Speaker 1: to say something like that, And in that minute, you
Speaker 1: finished an entire diet Dr Pepper, like you know, talking
Speaker 1: and then I started talking, you opened up the diet
Speaker 1: Dr Pepper and then you stopped and you I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, funny, that's the man that usually if
Speaker 1: my print sold, it's fast by I start cheering and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, I gotta stop, I gotta stop, and
Speaker 1: went right through it. It It was seconds and you were
Speaker 1: done with an entire diet. Dr Pepper. Well, as you know, Jason,
Speaker 1: it's not easy to become a total fat so you
Speaker 1: really have to work for it. You have to have skills.
Speaker 1: You've got to have skills to get to that level
Speaker 1: and look like the Michelin man. So I did have
Speaker 1: that go Now you mentioned Lee Klient. I've known Lee
Speaker 1: for years. As you reference, we used to bust Lee's
Speaker 1: balls all the time. I've had Lee on the podcast
Speaker 1: a couple of times since we were doing this the
Speaker 1: last year and a half or whatever we've been doing
Speaker 1: the podcast. But um, what are I love Lee kind stories?
Speaker 1: Because Lee has he is known as the original Prince
Speaker 1: of darkness. I know Jonas Knocks our friend Jonas has
Speaker 1: that nickname now as well. But but Lee can turn
Speaker 1: the most positive story about like rainbow, sunshine and lollipops
Speaker 1: into a horror story like he has. He has a
Speaker 1: gift in that department. But what are some of the
Speaker 1: things you that stand out from your day is working
Speaker 1: with our our buddy Lee. Oh I remember the first
Speaker 1: day I worked with Lee. The first day I filled
Speaker 1: and I was so nervous. Right, so, I hadn't really
Speaker 1: done sports talk radio before. It was my first chance
Speaker 1: I was getting you know, I find out from I
Speaker 1: forget who our producer was the time, um, but they said, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: you know you want to get in. The show starts
Speaker 1: at eight. Why don't you get around six thirty year
Speaker 1: So I'm like, all right, great, I did like six
Speaker 1: fifteen making sure, and I'm sitting there for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: I'm nervous and Lee comes walking in and he said
Speaker 1: something the producer and Lee walked over. He goes, are
Speaker 1: you Jason? I said yeah. He goes, I'm like, the
Speaker 1: first thing I want to let you know is we're
Speaker 1: royally blank tonight, just so you know, right off the back.
Speaker 1: And he walked out of the room that the first
Speaker 1: thing he didn't tell me we're royally blank tonight and
Speaker 1: walked out of the room. But I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know what could possibly be happening, What what can be happening? Something?
Speaker 1: So be nine like, oh we may go on at
Speaker 1: like eight fift you know it's coming on like after
Speaker 1: a game and I'm like, what do we royally blank,
Speaker 1: like they're gonna come and take the station's license away,
Speaker 1: and they know they're gonna, you know, are the police coming.
Speaker 1: I don't understand. But that was my first experience with
Speaker 1: Lee Klein, And I'll tell you what he is like
Speaker 1: a real life Cramer. Like there's times like after I
Speaker 1: got to know him, he would come to my house
Speaker 1: at like ten o'clock in the morning, like I'm in
Speaker 1: the rogue because I worked late at night, knocks on
Speaker 1: the door, Hey, what's going on? Hey, come on, we're
Speaker 1: taking a ride. What do you mean what do you
Speaker 1: need to take it a ride? We're talking about taking
Speaker 1: it right? You just take a ride with me. And
Speaker 1: I'm like okay. It would be the most random place
Speaker 1: like task to go pick up these Clipper tickets at
Speaker 1: the station. And then I got to go to this
Speaker 1: appearance that I have to make. They go, what what
Speaker 1: are you doing with you? So you're gonna come on here?
Speaker 1: I'm like okay. Like every day was like we had
Speaker 1: Cramer days. I'm like, Okay, whatever Kramer wants to do,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do today. Yeah, it was, it was and Lee, Uh,
Speaker 1: there's several famous Lee stories. The one that is my favorite,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's my face. It's in the top
Speaker 1: five was when the it was on the weekend at
Speaker 1: eleven fifty and the they were fixing the phones, the
Speaker 1: phone the call in lines were down and Lee had
Speaker 1: to host like a three hour show on a Saturday.
Speaker 1: It was a Saturday morning, and you know, it's kind
Speaker 1: of a light time. I think it was during the summer.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not too much going on these in
Speaker 1: the days before social media isn't as much content out there.
Speaker 1: And so Lee he's like, I'm not doing the show
Speaker 1: without calls, you know, I'm not doing the jolly starts
Speaker 1: freaking at and uh and so that the only lines
Speaker 1: that the only inbound lines that we're working were the
Speaker 1: hot line numbers, which is the you know, as you know,
Speaker 1: Jason being a radius, the holy grail. You're not supposed
Speaker 1: to give out the hot line number, the warm line.
Speaker 1: They come that's the biggest, So hand to God, Jason Lee.
Speaker 1: Lee does his opening a little monologue and then proceeds
Speaker 1: to He says, well, only for today, I have a
Speaker 1: special number to call in on. He then gives out
Speaker 1: the warm line on the air, for people to call
Speaker 1: in to his show. It was hilarious. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: did that It was awesome? It was awesome. Now, before
Speaker 1: I go too much further, since we've been at Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio since the early days, and you left and
Speaker 1: then came back, but you did shows. And this is
Speaker 1: something a name that a lot of people who are
Speaker 1: listening now might not know. But if you've been with
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio since the early days, you know this guy,
Speaker 1: Sarge the comedian, Sarge the comedian. And have have you
Speaker 1: kept in contact with him? Is he still around? As
Speaker 1: he still? I know? Last I heard he was like
Speaker 1: doing boat comedian comic acts or something like that. I
Speaker 1: I lost contact with him, but he hosted a show
Speaker 1: on on Fox Sports Radio in the in the evening time,
Speaker 1: and I remember, yes sir, it was yes sir, No, sir.
Speaker 1: Was he had some catchphrase that you had to say
Speaker 1: when you called it and no one would say it,
Speaker 1: and he would get very annoyed. Yeah, you know, you
Speaker 1: had to say sir, yes sir to get on the air.
Speaker 1: And anytime someone would get on there, they say, hey,
Speaker 1: you're on the air, and I get great, Hey, I
Speaker 1: think the cowboys. You gotta say sir, yes sir. And
Speaker 1: then there's people who just couldn't say it. They would
Speaker 1: say yes sir, no, no, sir, yes sir, sirr. I
Speaker 1: all right, sorry, I want to talk about the Cowboys. No,
Speaker 1: you have to say sir, yes sir. It gives you
Speaker 1: permission to speak. And sometimes it was really funny because
Speaker 1: I think some people just did it on purpose, like
Speaker 1: I'm just not gonna say it. I'm gonna say yes, sir,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say no sir, I'm gonna say aye aye sir.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say all these things just because I want
Speaker 1: to see how far this goes. Yeah, I was on
Speaker 1: with him at night and uh, we were on for
Speaker 1: a while and then when and he yeah, he did
Speaker 1: wind up going to do I think that's what he's doing.
Speaker 1: I haven't talked to him in years and years and years, um,
Speaker 1: but I think that's what he's doing. I was doing
Speaker 1: doing comedy on ships, which is I think what he
Speaker 1: did before he came to Fox, like he would be
Speaker 1: the comedian on on a ship, and and that's you know,
Speaker 1: he'd performed like every night and and go on and
Speaker 1: and that's kind of what he does. I think that's
Speaker 1: still what he does. Well, if that's what takes. If
Speaker 1: that's what he does, though right now you'd have to
Speaker 1: say he's not doing that because of what's going on
Speaker 1: in the last year right there, there's not Cruises aren't
Speaker 1: really happening right now because of the I can't believe
Speaker 1: anybody's going on cruises right now. I thought you were
Speaker 1: going to bring up somebody from a long time For
Speaker 1: you to bring up Page, that's well, that's my person, Bob.
Speaker 1: You know, Bob, when you talk about wild and crazy man,
Speaker 1: Bob thought that the listener and I, you know, I
Speaker 1: got along with Bob and we had to fall out
Speaker 1: at the end. Apparently he trashed me on Twitter and
Speaker 1: then he apologized for it. But uh yeah, Bob was
Speaker 1: like the guy who replaced Howard cosell at on his
Speaker 1: radio show in New York and all this scene is
Speaker 1: a Detroit guy, but he spent time in and uh
Speaker 1: oh yeah, he was a carrier. He thought people listened
Speaker 1: from the beginning of the show to the end of
Speaker 1: the show and didn't turn down. And then he also
Speaker 1: the other thing that blew me. He didn't want to
Speaker 1: take calls from cell phones because he saw the quality.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine doing your shows. We're gonna take calls,
Speaker 1: but no cell phones can call in. No one would
Speaker 1: do who's gotta landline? No one's gonna land There would
Speaker 1: be a show with no phone calls. Why had someone's
Speaker 1: calling in this one guy? Woman's eighty five, she's calling
Speaker 1: from the landline. You think about the chiefs? Uh? Now,
Speaker 1: the original Fox Sports radio lineup, they had Jeanie's Alaska,
Speaker 1: Kevin Fraser, Bob Paige was part of it. Uh. Was
Speaker 1: it Bob Golic I think was doing the overnight show
Speaker 1: originally or not Bob Golick? Was it Bob Goli? It
Speaker 1: might have been. Bob Golick and Carrara did nights yea,
Speaker 1: and Dan Cilio did overnight. Oh, that's right. Cilio was
Speaker 1: doing the overnight and then there was oh and Chris
Speaker 1: Myers and Steve Lyons were on during the day like
Speaker 1: it was like Alasko and Kevin Fraser like that was
Speaker 1: the That was the afternoon run on five. Then it
Speaker 1: was Bob Paige doing afternoons, and then it went into
Speaker 1: Golick and Herrera and then uh, Dan Elio that's how
Speaker 1: it went. Yeah, okay, yeah, and then then Lampley did
Speaker 1: a show for a while, but Bruno was the big
Speaker 1: morning guy they had and then uh and they and
Speaker 1: they went to the network actually went dark when Rome
Speaker 1: was on, Jim Rome was on because they was a
Speaker 1: Premier property, so they didn't have at that time, they
Speaker 1: didn't have any show in that in that window in
Speaker 1: the early days of Fox. Now you did TV for
Speaker 1: a while, just your big TV guy there. And actually
Speaker 1: when you started in radio, you were I think you
Speaker 1: were a Channel seven, right, you were working at Channel
Speaker 1: seven in l A before I think before you went
Speaker 1: to eleven fifty, right, if I remember correctly. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was producing sports. I was producing the six o'clock
Speaker 1: Sports past. At the eleven o'clock Sports cast, it was
Speaker 1: Bill Weir, who now is you know huge, you know,
Speaker 1: moving on in CNN and at different places, and um
Speaker 1: Rock Kukazaki, who's still there. I just had roped on
Speaker 1: my show two nights ago to talk about the Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods story because he was actually, you want a great
Speaker 1: story at Rob Tukasaki Channel seven, it's been the bane
Speaker 1: guy there for like twenty years. Um when they're average
Speaker 1: was going on for Tiger Woods, Like Rob wasn't on
Speaker 1: the air, and he wasn't on the air because he
Speaker 1: was at the funeral for for his his his great
Speaker 1: aunt I think it died. He was in the service.
Speaker 1: He walks out of the service and he's bum hit
Speaker 1: with all these texts that hey, Tiger Woods in a
Speaker 1: serious and he's on the air outside of the funeral
Speaker 1: and you could see he's wearing a suit and there's
Speaker 1: like flowers everywhere, and he's got his camera up. He's
Speaker 1: holding his camera up. He said, oh my god, my
Speaker 1: arms are so tired from holding this camera. He's got
Speaker 1: the air talking about this and he just walked out
Speaker 1: of the funeral and you're on the air. You gotta
Speaker 1: talk about this, and you know that was their coverage.
Speaker 1: You wind up going all day. That's what Rob's Rob's
Speaker 1: a great I love Rob. Rob's one. And Bill. Remember
Speaker 1: Bill Weir When we were doing the Ben and Dave
Speaker 1: Show back in the day, we had Bill on and
Speaker 1: he even at that time, he's like he didn't really
Speaker 1: want to be the sports guy. He always wanted to
Speaker 1: get into the news. And I know he's been at
Speaker 1: CNN and other places and done pretty well from somebody,
Speaker 1: but even back then, I think he was kind of
Speaker 1: like he was already looking to get away from the
Speaker 1: sports stuff. He had other aspirations other than being the
Speaker 1: sports guy. Uh yeah, he wanted he like he came
Speaker 1: into KBC. I think you know remember Bill telling me that,
Speaker 1: like they promised them certain things and they didn't deliver
Speaker 1: on it, Like you're supposed to get a show. Uh,
Speaker 1: Like I think he was supposed to get that show
Speaker 1: that Oh whos to Byron Allen remember when it was.
Speaker 1: It was he'd be in a taxi camp and he'd
Speaker 1: frid it around and celebrities would get in and they
Speaker 1: do an interview that they would leave when somebody else
Speaker 1: would get in. Like that was supposed to be his show.
Speaker 1: And then for some reason to ABC like didn't want
Speaker 1: him to do it. He got he got mad. He
Speaker 1: was like, well that's why I came there to be
Speaker 1: he was doing stuff like that, Like that was supposed
Speaker 1: to be his show originally the cabs going out, people
Speaker 1: coming in it was. And then Jerry Seinfeldt now turning
Speaker 1: into a whole big thing where he started doing it.
Speaker 1: Then he does comedians getting coffee with it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it turned out to be a great idea. Twenty years
Speaker 1: ago there you go. He's ahead of his time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you worked at you worked in the NFL
Speaker 1: network for a while. You did that, and then now
Speaker 1: do you like TV better than radio? Jason? Are you
Speaker 1: more of a radio guy? Well, I'll tell you it's
Speaker 1: in the beginning for TV was great because it was
Speaker 1: is like, you know, because I first started doing TV,
Speaker 1: like I did some bits on ESPN, like I was
Speaker 1: on Romans Burning, and I would be a panelist. I
Speaker 1: actually guest hosted a few times, which was awesome. And
Speaker 1: the one thing I noticed was that I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: well here we needed we need we need a big
Speaker 1: take on this. I'm like, okay, well what Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: got to be like ninety seconds, So can you do
Speaker 1: I'm like, can I do ninety sentence on a big tent? Really?
Speaker 1: You know what I do do a radio? Right? We
Speaker 1: spent twelve minutes at a time on big stories and
Speaker 1: we just keep going and go you need ninety seconds? Yeah? Sure,
Speaker 1: I could give you ninety seconds. So for a while
Speaker 1: it was so different, and it was fun because you're
Speaker 1: boiling down everything you're talking about and you're really getting
Speaker 1: it into you know, a certain amount of time, like boy,
Speaker 1: this is fun. It was. It was an easier uh
Speaker 1: segue to do it because it was going from you know,
Speaker 1: creating all this content, you're creating a little bit you know,
Speaker 1: doing the same things but creating less content. And I
Speaker 1: was like, wow, it was great and it was grateful
Speaker 1: a while, and doing NFL Network was great for a while,
Speaker 1: and then towards the end that was like, boy, I
Speaker 1: really missed being able to talk a lot. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was something I'm like, boy, I really miss like
Speaker 1: this story right here. I'd love to talk about this
Speaker 1: and this and this. So I kind of came full
Speaker 1: circle where radio was, you know, hey, this is it
Speaker 1: was awful with what I wanted that I wanted to
Speaker 1: try TV for a while and I did it. Then
Speaker 1: I realized how much I missed radio and came back
Speaker 1: to it, so you know, it was it was kind
Speaker 1: of a yin and yang. But I'm glad I'm getting
Speaker 1: to do all of it now. And uh, but radio
Speaker 1: clearly is hey, I'd like being able to have some
Speaker 1: time to go through a topic or have some fun
Speaker 1: and tell a joke and tell a story where there's
Speaker 1: no real time to do that on TV. So this
Speaker 1: is actually a much better. I think it feels like
Speaker 1: a much better for that. Uh for me, Well, you know,
Speaker 1: as you like to say, you know, you're the overnight
Speaker 1: gas bag and I'm a gas bag. We're all gas bags. You.
Speaker 1: Gaston is Gaston, but we're a gas bags kind of
Speaker 1: pic for us to do stuff. Well, gascon his gag
Speaker 1: On Actually that's his official nickname, and he's I think
Speaker 1: he's falling asleep. Are you okay, gag Yeah. I just
Speaker 1: feel so young compared to you guys talking, So it's
Speaker 1: actually a great. Uh, well you don't look young. You
Speaker 1: might feel young, which you don't look you. Yeah, it's that,
Speaker 1: that's true. Jason. I gotta ask you, since you guys
Speaker 1: have talked about this so much, do you feel that
Speaker 1: the format radio wise is easier even though you have
Speaker 1: to abide by a clock when you know you're talking
Speaker 1: about measurements and audiences and all that other bs. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like it's still easier than it is for
Speaker 1: television or do you think it's the other way around. Um,
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's easier from the perspective
Speaker 1: of as long as you're in it every day, and uh,
Speaker 1: that's that's something that hey, if you know the constant
Speaker 1: prep that we do every day in being involved in stories,
Speaker 1: when something comes up, that's, okay, here's the latest thing
Speaker 1: involving Russell Wilson. We know all that, I know all
Speaker 1: the background to it. It's something that I gotta learn new,
Speaker 1: like sometimes you have to do for TV because hey,
Speaker 1: here's this and we're gonna do this story tomorrow. Okay,
Speaker 1: so now I have to kind of, you know, brush
Speaker 1: up on it if it's something that I'm not quite
Speaker 1: familiar with. But the stuff for radio is like, okay,
Speaker 1: already have the background for it, I know, and now
Speaker 1: I can look forward to, hey, what can I do
Speaker 1: that's a little bit different or that people haven't heard yet,
Speaker 1: And and that makes it a little bit easier because
Speaker 1: that comfort level of just getting insane. I'm sure to
Speaker 1: get to talk because the one thing I like to
Speaker 1: do and I'm pretty good at of talking, so you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's very very comfortable to do that. And
Speaker 1: then you get to the point where with TV it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: ninety seconds and this, I got it. Then you're like,
Speaker 1: oh man, but I want to say this, this, and this.
Speaker 1: I only have ninety seconds. I don't know that I
Speaker 1: can do can I stay all for you that I
Speaker 1: gotta leave one of those things out. I don't want
Speaker 1: to leave one of those things out. So you know,
Speaker 1: it kind of comes back around to that that you know,
Speaker 1: wherever you're more comfortable and wherever you've you've done longer
Speaker 1: and you feel like you're more comfortable prepping and getting in,
Speaker 1: that's gonna wind up being the easiest thing. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you've had this knacks, you were your your form and
Speaker 1: new style is unique in the sense that you can
Speaker 1: integrate a lot of pop culture. Was that was that organic?
Speaker 1: Where is that something you felt like through the course
Speaker 1: of your career. I need to include this when I
Speaker 1: talk sports just because it's more relatable and it separates
Speaker 1: me from the rest of the guys that are strictly
Speaker 1: all about sports every single second of every single segment. Now,
Speaker 1: that's just kind of who I am. I've always been
Speaker 1: a big pop culture. I always been big TV, movies, music,
Speaker 1: you know, So it's just it's just part of who
Speaker 1: I am, you know. Um, In fact, when I go out,
Speaker 1: like if I go to party, you know, we could
Speaker 1: go to parties. Hopefully we go to parties again. You know,
Speaker 1: I'll go to parties and the conversations I want to
Speaker 1: you know, have with people are, oh, are you watching
Speaker 1: you know, Raised by Wolves? You know, are you watching
Speaker 1: the boys all? And I'd rather talk about that. And
Speaker 1: then when when people come up and say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: so what do you think of the Lakes? Is gonna
Speaker 1: make them make a trade and they're gonna go get
Speaker 1: Blake Griffin, the big gonna and I'll talk about that.
Speaker 1: It's fine, But it's like, you know, I do that
Speaker 1: all all the time during the week, you know, so
Speaker 1: when I get to stretch my legs, it outside something else.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what I really like to talk about.
Speaker 1: You know. I would love to be able, But one
Speaker 1: thing I really would love to do in my careers
Speaker 1: able a blog about TV and movies. You know, That's
Speaker 1: one thing I'd love to do at some point. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of just always been who I am, and
Speaker 1: it's you know, that's kind of what I've always wanted
Speaker 1: to do and say, Okay, this is who I am,
Speaker 1: and let me bring that to the show and let
Speaker 1: me tell you about my life a bit through what's
Speaker 1: going on in the world of sports, it's kind of
Speaker 1: always the way I've been. Is there something else that
Speaker 1: you're working towards them in terms of a a second career,
Speaker 1: if you will, besides the radio platform and what you're
Speaker 1: doing a fox that you're you're looking at. Um, Well,
Speaker 1: I actually, uh, I wrote a book few years ago.
Speaker 1: I got published, um and it did as normal first
Speaker 1: books and they didn't do very well, but that happens.
Speaker 1: I remember when I when I got to publish, my
Speaker 1: publisher said to me, now, listen, you're not gonna make
Speaker 1: any money on this. I'm like, oh, okay, great, thanks
Speaker 1: for thanks for bursting my balloon there right right. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna make anyoney. So you're not just don't make
Speaker 1: money on your first book. I'm like, okay, that's fine.
Speaker 1: You know, you get it published and you can write
Speaker 1: another one. Like all right, great. So I wrote my
Speaker 1: first book, which is great, which I love doing. I
Speaker 1: love writing. And I wrote my second book. It's a novel,
Speaker 1: and right now it's with uh my agents, and hopefully
Speaker 1: something can happen there. We'll see. Um. If not, I'll
Speaker 1: try to do things like you know, entering it in
Speaker 1: contest that that happened online, you know, a couple of
Speaker 1: times a year and everything. So that's kind of what
Speaker 1: I like to do. I'm not saying I want to
Speaker 1: go do something else, but like if I could, you know,
Speaker 1: because I done, you know, I've done, I've done TV.
Speaker 1: I'd love to do TV, you know again, you know
Speaker 1: I did TV up until just a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: Then I started writing. So it's kind of like whatever
Speaker 1: I'm into at the moment, like outside of doing radio
Speaker 1: and right now it's been more writing that has been
Speaker 1: anything else. Yeah, And the thing too about TV, I
Speaker 1: only need TV for like a year at NBC. But
Speaker 1: the thing that's so much different than radio is like
Speaker 1: there's so many different producers and saying radio you got
Speaker 1: a producer, but it's not. Every segment is you know,
Speaker 1: formulated and by the by the second, it's it's a
Speaker 1: much there's so many different moving parts to television than
Speaker 1: than radio. It's a it's a big different. As far
Speaker 1: as the book thing though, Jason, now, are you a
Speaker 1: non fiction or a fiction guy? I'm a big fiction guy,
Speaker 1: not nonfiction. It's really got to be a great book
Speaker 1: for me to read. Nonfiction. I'm just not that's just
Speaker 1: not what I normally read okay, all right, yeah, I
Speaker 1: got you. And now, so you didn't make money on
Speaker 1: the on the first book? How many books does want
Speaker 1: to have to sell the actually make money? Like, what
Speaker 1: how's the business work selling books? Like? Is there is
Speaker 1: there a threshold that if you sell a certain number
Speaker 1: you can make X amount of dollars? How's how's the
Speaker 1: business work? Well, supposedly is that if you sell five
Speaker 1: thousand books, that's a big that's a big deal, right,
Speaker 1: Like five thousands a big deal and like anything more
Speaker 1: than that, like I'll get you on a best seller list.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, really go yeah, but five thousand books
Speaker 1: is tough because there's so many different publishers and there's
Speaker 1: so many ways to get books out, and you know,
Speaker 1: are are you counting people buying it on the kindle?
Speaker 1: You got to count people, you know, buying it in
Speaker 1: the store, you know, having enough enough hard copies of it.
Speaker 1: So you think about it, said, okay, you know five thousands,
Speaker 1: And I've heard stories that that's what people do sometimes
Speaker 1: that have the money to say, well, I'll just buy
Speaker 1: these five thousand books myself, and uh, you know, then
Speaker 1: suddenly it's a hit and that will allow me to
Speaker 1: be an author that whoa an author you know that
Speaker 1: sold a lot of books and and maybe you've been
Speaker 1: starting the second one now you know, I don't have
Speaker 1: enough money to buy five. I'm to go through the
Speaker 1: internet and do it. So what they told me was that,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you write your first book and
Speaker 1: and that's the way they're gonna get it published. And
Speaker 1: then you start to make contacts and people know that, oh,
Speaker 1: you've written a book before, Okay, I'll read your next one.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what it is. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like getting your foot in the door that if you've
Speaker 1: written a book and it's been published, you can get
Speaker 1: your next one read by people. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: like a big you know, steps there. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I am right now with my second book, um,
Speaker 1: which is actually it's a political thriller, uh and um.
Speaker 1: So I finished it about, I want to say, about
Speaker 1: a year and a half ago, and you know, trying
Speaker 1: to get it out, trying to get it to people,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's kind of a thing. It's really difficult.
Speaker 1: And so I've been lucky enough to get it through
Speaker 1: my agency to get to them to their um written representation,
Speaker 1: so I'm waiting to hear back UM. So I got
Speaker 1: my fingers crossed on that. But that's kind of that's
Speaker 1: kind of how it goes is that you write the
Speaker 1: first one. That's what mean you're gonna get to write
Speaker 1: a second one. It means you get people and more
Speaker 1: people to read your second one, which means you don't
Speaker 1: can yourself up to more publishers, more agents, more and
Speaker 1: more people who are willing to look at things, and
Speaker 1: maybe this works and you know, you just need one
Speaker 1: personal love with your concept and you can you know,
Speaker 1: and it can wind up getting published. But the key
Speaker 1: is finding that right person. Yeah, and I was talking
Speaker 1: to somebody and I actually been talking to this person
Speaker 1: for a while about writing a book. And the lead
Speaker 1: time with the big publishing companies, it's insane the lead
Speaker 1: time they need on these on these books. But I
Speaker 1: love that that story that you told because it's like
Speaker 1: the It's what goes on on on Instagram or Twitter
Speaker 1: where people buy bots, they buy fake followers so they
Speaker 1: have more cloud, or in the case of books, you
Speaker 1: buy all the books. That way you get more cloud,
Speaker 1: and then you can you can get the easier time
Speaker 1: with the second book. It's an interesting, interesting deal. Now
Speaker 1: we only have a limited amount of time left, Jason,
Speaker 1: but I cannot talk to you without bringing up the
Speaker 1: Mets and the Jets. And uh now, uh we used
Speaker 1: to bust each other's balls. You would goofund me about
Speaker 1: the Dodgers, and I would goofn you about the Mets
Speaker 1: or the Jets, and you goofund me about the Clippers.
Speaker 1: But Robert Salah, Uh Now, he's inevitably gonna fail as
Speaker 1: coach of the Jets. I think all Jets coaches fail.
Speaker 1: So are you going to replace him some point? Jason?
Speaker 1: Are you? Are you Willie? Or should they bring back
Speaker 1: sexy rexy Rex Ryan to coach the Jets one more time? No, listen,
Speaker 1: I am gonna do like I've done my whole life.
Speaker 1: I am completely behind this head coach until I'm not
Speaker 1: until I say, you know what, that's great, But moving on,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about that. You know. It's like, uh, it's
Speaker 1: like if if you had a paid guest on your
Speaker 1: show Beget it was a player on your team to
Speaker 1: savor team. Like let's say you had Cody Bellinger on
Speaker 1: your show every week, right, it was great. Cody Bellinger
Speaker 1: was fun. He would talk, he would be awesome, great,
Speaker 1: day great, And then Cody Bellinger gets traded. You would say, Okay,
Speaker 1: hey is gonna come on the show? Who am I getting? Nice?
Speaker 1: And Mack Mussey, who's it gonna be? Hey? I love you,
Speaker 1: but now you're gone. Right, That's how I feel about Robertson.
Speaker 1: I will love and love and love and see's great,
Speaker 1: but it's not. I'll be the first guy to say
Speaker 1: I am turning the page. I mean, I've turned the
Speaker 1: page on Sam. I'd love Sam Donald, turned the page
Speaker 1: on Sam Donald. Couldn't wait to turn the page on
Speaker 1: Sam Donald. That's kind of how it's been because the
Speaker 1: Jets has been that for a following door all the
Speaker 1: way around, year after year after year. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of to be expected it now. But it's okay because
Speaker 1: we're gonna get Russell Wilson and both those it's gonna
Speaker 1: be great. Its completely reasonable, yes, And then after that
Speaker 1: they can they can bring back how Old's Ken O'Brien.
Speaker 1: They can bring him back and he can play quarterback
Speaker 1: after that, like you can be maybe he'll be the
Speaker 1: third string quarterback. And then and then you got the
Speaker 1: mess now, Jason, you know the Dodgers rule the roost
Speaker 1: in the nationally. Jason, I know you're all excited because
Speaker 1: of Francisco Indoor and all that. You're all gag off
Speaker 1: for Lindoor, but you can finish it runner up if
Speaker 1: you want. But the Padres are pretty good too, So
Speaker 1: good luck for the Mets. And you finally got an
Speaker 1: owner that's willing to spend money. Jason, with the Mets,
Speaker 1: this guy's got this hunch, fun guy, and then he
Speaker 1: gets screwed over with the game stop stuff. So you
Speaker 1: can't win as a Mets fan. Jason, I know the
Speaker 1: Mets can't have nice things, like we had nice things
Speaker 1: for a good ninety days, man, and everything was great.
Speaker 1: And here Steve Coney's the richest owner in baseball. He's
Speaker 1: got money a shoebox in his office that he can
Speaker 1: pay out to God, Oh it was great. He's on Twitter,
Speaker 1: he's with the fan and say we're going to spend
Speaker 1: we make the door trade things. A great Dennistary Porter
Speaker 1: story breaks that we miss out on George Speener and
Speaker 1: then we miss out on Trevor Bauer, who just used
Speaker 1: the Mets for leverage. The entire time. He was never
Speaker 1: gonna go to the Mets. He was just using them
Speaker 1: as leverage what he could out of the Dodgers and
Speaker 1: dal Steve Cohen and the game stops thing. And I go, oh, man,
Speaker 1: you know we did. We had ninety days of the
Speaker 1: fast Lane, man, and things are great. But I will
Speaker 1: say this now, buddy, and I'll say this to you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will see you in the NLCS. We will settle
Speaker 1: this in October in the NLCS, all right, and we
Speaker 1: will make a gigantic wager on that if the Dodgers
Speaker 1: and Mets were to play in the NLCS, guaranteed, because
Speaker 1: the Boys in Blue are not gonna lose to the Metropolitans.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen, Jason. It's the era of Dodger baseball.
Speaker 1: They are the Atlanta Braves of the nice. But unlike
Speaker 1: the Braves, they're gonna win multiple World Series. Well, they
Speaker 1: should have already won in seen because they were that
Speaker 1: was the astros cheated. We don't need to get into that. Hey, Jess,
Speaker 1: I gotta go, but thank you many. You're the greatest.
Speaker 1: Jason Smith the Jason Smith Show, and you you know him,
Speaker 1: you love him the whole thing. Thank you, Jason, appreciate
Speaker 1: your time. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Speaker 1: Ben Miller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific,