July 8, 2022 • 45 mins
Ralph Irvin makes his first visit to the podcast dojo on the Fifth Hour. Irvin and Big Ben are colleagues at Fox Sports Radio, they go back to the Mighty 690 Days in San Diego back in the 1990s. Ralph has done work in San Diego, LA, Orlando, and with UCLA Athletics. He made a significant career decision that he wanted to share with the FSR listeners. The guys also discuss the changes in the radio business over the years, while some things that have stayed in the stone age, the shenanigans that happened when Ralph filled in on the show, and more! You can follow Ralph on Twitter @RalphIrvinFSR. Follow Danny G Radio on Twitter @DannyGradio, Follow Big Ben on Twitter @BenMaller, and listen to the original "Ben Maller Show," Monday-Friday on 450+ terrestrial Fox Sports Radio affiliates, iHeart stream, and SiriusXM Radio channel 83, 2a-6a ET, 11p-3a PT!
#BenMaller
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
the old republic a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the rich
pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearinghouse of hot takes,
break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
(00:24):
Maller starts right now in the air everywhere, and welcome in.
A new weekend is upon us a fresh batch of
The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and Danny g Radio.
(00:46):
Before you say, please, please, before you do that, calm down,
we have a bunch of somewhat decent audio content for you.
And the weekend begin ends right now and Friday. We
like to talk to people who we've heard of, people
(01:07):
on the podcast who we think you'll want to hear from.
And the last week we had a great time. It
was very exciting. Joey Chestnuts a man who went out
and scarfed down all kinds of hot dogs and buns.
He was attacked by a protester. He put that person
(01:29):
in a choke hold and then still one by double
digits hot dog and buns for another mustard belt his
fifteen title. So congratulations to my new friend Joey Chestnut.
Was great to have him on the podcast and that
did very well, and we thank you for listening and
telling friends about that and said, hey, I got this
(01:51):
little dumb podcast thing. I listened to the Fifth Hour.
You might want to check it out. And we thank you.
We do, thank you for that. So it's upward and
onward in the podcast game and this Friday show, the
show you're listening to right now. We decided to do
something somewhat different. We bring in one of our colleagues
(02:13):
I can still say that from Fox Sports Radio, Ralph Irvin.
Now Ralph has a big announcement that he is going
to make on our podcast on the Fifth Hour podcast.
Not too shabby. Um, So we're gonna welcome in a
man who has worked for a number of years at
(02:34):
Fox Sports Radio. I've known Ralph since we were early
on in our careers. We both got started in San
Diego at the mighty six ninety, a legendary West Coast
sports talker. We cut our teeth at that radio station.
We know many of the same people. Radio is a
small fraternity. Ralph has gone on. He worked in Orlando.
He worked for u C l A and their video department,
(02:56):
and he's worked at several other radio stations. He's very
active in golf. He's filled in not not in years,
but he's filled in on our overnight show when Eddie
has been away Corporate Garcia and I thought, let's get
the man, the myth, the legend, Ralph urban On and Ralph,
we welcome you and and I'm upset with you. Ralph.
(03:16):
I tried to get you on. You you were harder
to book than Joey Chestnut. I had to jump through
hoops to get you on, Ralph. Can you please explain
why it was so difficult to get you? Ralph Irvin
on the Fifth Hour podcast with me your buddy Big Ben.
(03:39):
Why is that, Ralph? Because you forgot my number. That's incorrect.
I did not forget your number. I ran into you
at the Fox Sports Radio studios. I was trying to
enjoy a nice meal and you came by. You were
wearing Hawaiian shirt a few weeks ago. Possibly yes, yeah,
(03:59):
remember the great power outage at the Fox Sports Radio studio. Yeah,
we have those occasionally. Well, they made me come in, Ralph,
and there was no reason for me to be there.
The power was back on right before the show start,
like two hours before the show. But but I was there.
And there's always a good reason to be in the studio.
(04:21):
It's called professional radio time. I'm in a studio. I
have a microphone, I have headphones, I have I have everything.
I have a board over here, I have that. I
have a there's a keyboard. Um, I'm looking. There's a
computer here. There's a light. There's several lights. There's like
a weird fan off to the side. There's a thing
(04:44):
of pens that that I let me show you. It's
I know we're on audio, but actually you can see
me so sec here I have Look how big that
pen is? Ralph? Is that? Are you not impressed by
the size of my pen? Come on, be honest, you're Ralph,
I'm not in It's a pen. No, it's a beautiful pen.
(05:05):
It's a large, giant, cartoon sized pen like this awesome.
See like I have big hands, but this pen makes
it look like I have a little baby hands, like
little Kyler Murray hands. Yeah. Sure, all right with you, Ron,
I mean you're doing this, this is a podcast about you.
(05:25):
Everything's great. Are you sure? About that. It's about me
that we're talking about your pen. Well, it's just a
warm up. I'm just warming up with the pen. I
feel like Ralph. Once you see my pen, you know
now we're we're bonding. We're gonna bond again like the
old days. Sure, sure sounds good, Yeah, exactly exactly. All right, Well,
(05:49):
the real reason I'm having you on the podcast is
you had a big Have you announced this publicly or
my are we announcing this on the Fifth Hour podcast?
A major story one this gets in the radio trades.
Mm hmm. It's it's gonna blow up the industry, it
really is. And are you prepared to make that announcement
(06:10):
right now? It's it's it's it's known that. Yeah, I'm
I'm leaving Fox Sports Radio. So Ralph Irvin is leaving
our dysfunctional radio. This is big news, Ralph. I don't
think you realize how big this is. I I guess
(06:30):
I don't. I guess I don't. I'm just I'm just
a cog in the machine. I'm just a guy who
comes to work and does his thing. Yeah, so I
have questions. Are you prepared? I'm gonna grill you. I'm
gonna give you. This is Ralph to the third degree. Sure,
all right, So the obvious question is how how did
you come to this decision? Ralph? I mean to leave
(06:51):
Fox Sports Radio. It's a big deal, Like how long
has this been going on? Where you you had, you know,
the idea that you're gonna leave, and how long did
this come about? Well, this is more a case of
as you know, you're in this industry, uh, that you
can move around, you go from job to job. Now
(07:13):
you haven't gone too far. You've stayed in southern California.
I think you your entire career, I've moved. I've gone
from San Diego to Orlando back to l A, different
places around l A. And one thing that's been consistent
is my wife has followed me everywhere I've gone. And
she received an opportunity, uh to get a better job
(07:34):
in a new city, and I told her you go
for it. I fully supported. And you've followed me around
all these years. It's my turn to do the same,
and I will follow you. So it uh affords a
new opportunity, totally new lifestyle and probably one that doesn't
involve broadcasting ever again, which is all right. It's something
(07:56):
that will be absolutely new and funics writing. So you're
leaving broadcasting, this is this is it? This is your
last weekend as a broadcaster. You say, is that true?
Really that as as far as I can tell, that's
that's it. Yeah, I'm gonna try to go and sit
behind a desk and do work and contribute to other ways.
(08:17):
But well that's no fun Ralph for radio guys. Were
a couple of radio guys here. This is all we know,
Ralph is microphones and nonsense and goofing around. And oh
I've known a little bit more than radio because I've
been doing video work for the last fifteen years. So
it's it's it's a case of building something that's not
(08:39):
just day to day. It's building something bigger. Products and
things of that nature is you know, I've done a
lot of work with golf and talking about golf products,
and you get to know the people that design and
build these products, and they put a lot of themselves
into each one, and you think, wow, that would be
kind of cool to be able to do something where
(08:59):
I have a lasting legacy within whatever it is that
I've built, and that's kind of an interest of mine
going forward. Well, that's cool, and you're a romantic ralph.
You're you're following your your your wife, she followed you,
and now you're following. That's a tremendous thing that you're
doing here. Well, she's a lot more successful than I am.
That helps me, makes it, It makes a lot easier. Yeah,
(09:21):
that's good. Do you want to reveal where you're going
or you want to be a big mysteries the FBI
out to get you? That are the authorities going to
run you down or something like that? Are you worried
about that? Because you know I'm going to to America's
playground that is Las Vegas. Oh is that right? Lost,
Lost Wages, Nevada, Yes, standing where I have a number
of friends that are living there that are excited that
(09:41):
I will be coming out and joining them. So more importantly,
route this is a place I visit Vegas. So we'll
we'll still get to hang out again. We'll probably hang
out more with you when you get set up in
Vegas than we do now, because you know geography wise
where you live and I don't ever say where I
live other than the north Woods. And I've moved a
(10:04):
lot over the years. I've lived in the l are.
I've lived all over l A. But we're pretty far
apart right now, like where we live. I think I
get to Vegas more than I get to where you
live in the l A area. Well, no, because yeah
you don't. We don't allow you into where I live.
That's we We kind of have signs up keep this
man away. And rightfully so I did try. There's a
(10:25):
famous lake not that far away from where you live
where they filmed robin Hood the original and uh, and
I saw it. I was I was going out of
your way. I think it was for Jonas is uh
wedding thing, the receptions. I went out of your way
and we were at Jonas's wedding, and so I said,
(10:46):
I'm out here. I'm never really out this way anymore,
so let me go see. They have this lake, famous lake.
What's it called. What's the name of the Lakewood Lake? Sherwood. Yeah,
that's so they filmed a bunch of movies and stuff.
So I thought I'd go, it's a lake. I'll go
check out the lake. And I tried to get I
could not get anywhere close to like you're only if
you live there. There's like this exclusive neighbor where Wayne
(11:07):
Gretzky and some other big celebrities living used to live there. Well,
Lenny has been on the podcast, you know Lenny's Lenny
has been on his foy. He won't return my calls anymore. Though.
I don't know what happened to Lenny Len He used
to get He always wanted to come on the podcast,
and then I tried to reach out to him a
couple of weeks ago and he didn't get back to
It's a bad job by Lenny that Did you talk
(11:28):
to him? Is that what happened right now? I did
not talk to Lenny. I have not talked to Lenny,
but he did live but in Lake Sherwood. Yeah, it's
a beautiful lake. Nice. I could actually go check it,
actually get close to the water. Other than the up top,
I have to look over a fence like a peeping
lake guy or something like that. Well, that's that's sometimes
(11:48):
what you have to be. Is that true? Well for you, yes,
not not so much for me. I I know people
and have access. You're you're a cool person, You're much
cooler than me. But you're leaving all that behind Vegas.
Are you a gambler? It's yeah, a little bit I
like to play craps, but it's not something that I
(12:11):
need or want to do a lot. So it's not
a big deal. I mean, yeah, you know, we were
in southern California. If we want to gamble, we could
gamble places closer than Las Vegas. We don't want to.
It's about going to Las Vegas and you do things there.
But I've traveled there so much over the years that
i have my spots away from the Strip, away from
all the touristy areas, and so that's not a big change.
(12:34):
It's not like I'm going there and thinking I'm gonna
be hanging out in Las Vegas Boulevard. That's not it
at all. Yeah. My my aunt used to live in Vegas,
and you know, she was around but and and the
locals always there's like weird, strange casinos away from the
Strip where like the local people go, they don't bother
with the there are some Yeah, so you already have
(12:55):
your place set up in Vegas for the big you relocation,
You're already ready to go. You're looking for a new place.
There's a temporary set up right now, but it'll be
looking for a for a house in the future. Yeah,
what if somebody says, hey, Ralph, we want you to
work on the radio in Vegas with you. I will
ask them how much they have in their bank account
and then they will tell you the amount, and then
(13:17):
you'll start laughing and I will say, that's why I'm
no longer in broadcasting. Yes, let's just say that we
have a mutual acquaintance that is in Las Vegas that
has talked to me for years about coming out and saying, oh,
you could be on the air, no problem right away,
but they wouldn't really be able to pay you. And
I'm like, okay, well, yeah, Vegas is a weird market
(13:40):
because it's become a very large city. I have some
friends that do radio in Vegas and I've done I've
done the show remotely from Vegas and it's it's like
a big city. But they don't treat the radio stuff
like it's a big city. Well, it's a big city
that still hasn't taken understanding of how big they are.
(14:02):
For instance, uh, Tim Laiwicky is building a new arena
reportedly there in Las Vegas, and they want to put
an NBA team in and where he has chosen the
arena location is not in the middle of the strip,
and people are like, why would you do this, why
would you make tourists drive away? And the thinking is
because it's not for the tourists, Like, like, if you
(14:25):
live in Las Vegas, you actually do deserve the right
to have a team that's your own, that's not built
for tourists. You can have your own, your own arena,
and your own city. And I don't think they've quite
grasped that aspect yet, that they deserve the fruits that
come with being a big city. I think they still
(14:45):
think that they are there to serve all the visitors
from around the world, and it's an evolution for sure. Yeah,
well that is true. But I'm still upset when the
Hockey Arena was built behind New York, New York, and
then they started charging for parking around the You have
to get a credit card to get free parking and
not don't even know if that's still a thing, but oh,
(15:06):
it's a thing. It's a thing. I hate, Ralph, You've
known me a long time. I hate paying for parking.
You hate paying for anything. Well, that is true. That's
why I am the frugal the frugal man, the tight
wad whatever you want to say there. No, it's it's
it's it's a case where again the locals that I
know are like, no, we we don't even bother trying
(15:27):
to park there. We we take our uber and yeah, understandable, understandable.
I often talk when I talked about Ralph, I I
when I talk about you, Ralph, I always talk about
the fact that we started out. We look products of
the mighty six ninety one of the great sports radio station,
the first West Coast, one of the great I mean,
(15:48):
let's be real, let's let's just let's cut the crap.
It's the greatest sports station that ever existed, damn right.
And look at the legends that you Ralph of a legend, uh,
you know, and uh Steve Hartman, Homer Hartman and uh
and all them. Uh. It's been been wonderful. And a
(16:09):
lot of the people, although we're getting older, Ralph, a
lot of the people still working in the business who
were there. Almost all of them, yeah, I mean almost
all of them are still active in in in major radio.
I mean a morning show that's still on in Los Angeles,
some guy named Jim Rome. I think he's done, okay,
(16:31):
hanging in there. I think he's got enough money. I
think maybe not. Hartman's around still, and you know, if
you if you follow online, you can still find the
old mentor has has has been on this podcast has
as I am. The thing about Hacks and we I worked,
I was an intern with him. You were there at
(16:51):
the same around the same time. But Hacks of the
work ethic and people say I work hard, But like
hacksall was in there all day. We're recording stuff and
that's the work I mean, I I am. I worked
somewhat hard, but compared to Hacks on the amount of effort.
And he's still got a website where he's he does
his headlines. That was what he was known for back
(17:14):
in San Diego. But he still does that every day,
just does it written out. He doesn't do it on
the broadcasting, but wouldn't you really like to see it
written out? Like he just posted a pdf every day
of the way that he would write his headlines. He
had this piece of paper with this writing that so
tiny so that he could get every single little headline
(17:34):
on there uh written out in one little sheet of paper,
so he didn't have to change sheets of paper. And
this little tiny writing I think that would be hilarious
as if that's what he posted for his headlines, just
a PDF you could zoom in on and try to
make out his notes. Well, yeah, because he had the
chicken scratch going. And that was back in the archaic
days though, Ralph like, we're so old. They had the
(17:57):
high speed sports wire, they had the sports picker, Like
they don't even have that, Like radio stations don't have those.
They don't need them anymore because of the Internet. But
that was like, that was one of the coolest things.
When I started working there. I was like, oh man,
this is the high speed sports wire. And because you
couldn't get that information, you sit down at a computer
and there was live scores right there in front of you. Yeah.
(18:19):
And and but we're like, we're like the I had
to walk ten miles in the snow up the hill.
We did radio before the Internet, and we're able to
pull it off kind of Uh. I was gathering recently
where we were talking about old things and talking about
you know, you had these cards and you had to
stack these cards up, you know, a mile high, with
(18:41):
all your commercials and your sound bites. And this is
before everything was digitized for sure, we we went. When
I was producing a show that we did called Extra
Football Sunday. We did after we lost the Chargers rights
in um we Well, I set up recording locations for
(19:04):
every NFL game with giant reel to reel otari reel
to reel recording machines so that we could record highlights
and get them onto the air. It was, I mean,
it was archaic, but it was. It sounded great you.
It didn't sound any worse than it does today. It
just took a lot more effort and a lot more space. Yeah,
(19:26):
that was one of my first one. I was an intern.
I had to pull the commercials. I had the commercial
log and I had to pull the spots for the
for the engineer. That was my my gig. I was
very good at pulling commercial And they call them spots
because they little little spot on little dot. I told
you what number they were color coded. We're doing We're
doing old guy radio talk here. Just sure was doing
(19:47):
old guy radio talk. Yeah. Did you ever cut yourself
with a razor blade cutting the reel, the reel, the
tape and all that. No, I I wasn't clumsy, No,
I I never had that issue. I was I have
fat fingers. I cut myself all the time. I was terrible.
I was so happy when they got rid of that stuff,
but I was so piste off at the same time
because I learned when I got into the business, I
learned cards, editing, you know, the real, the real, all that.
(20:10):
And within a couple of years of me starting, he
started shifting over to digital. And I was like, what,
I spent all this time learning all this stuff, and
the only way I'll use it is I'm at like
a small radio station in Oklahoma, which probably still uses
that stuff. I'm sure. I want to say it was
about five years from the time I started to the
(20:31):
time that that that the computer system was coming in.
Here's the funny part. That computer system is what we
still use today twenty plus years later. Oh yeah, well
that's that's a whole different conversation, Ralph. Yeah. That that
I I'm gonna write a book someday. When I walked
into Fox Sports Radio, we that studio which you're leaving
(20:53):
and you're gonna leave radio and do great things. But
that studio. We walked in there and it was like,
oh my god, this is amazing. They had ribbons, everything
was brand new, When I started at Fox Sports Radio,
we were in a premier network studio upstairs on the
fifth floor. It was the old Michael Reagan, the President's
adopted son. He had a radio show and we did
(21:14):
the show from his studio. Are all the Fox Sports
radio shows until they had built the studio on the
ground floor and that thing opened up, and it was
like they were bringing in executives from around the country.
It was like the and all the newest equipment, and
here we are twenty two years later and it's the
same the same equipment, and uh it's uh yeah, but
the goodness. Eventually they will move to a new studio
(21:37):
possibly The fun The fun thing though, is we talked
about Extra six ninety. They built the Fox Sports Radio
studios to look just like the Extra six nineties studios.
I mean all the way from from from the board
the where the technical director the board operator sits, that
whole area, to to the studio that it was built
(21:59):
to look just Extra Sports six nine. The one flaw
on that, though, is the update booth. It's not visible.
Yeah yeah, so I always I point this out when
you were filling for Eddie or when Eddie's there, whenever,
and if I'm in studio, I can't see the the
guy that's doing the news, and so it's like this
(22:22):
will be at home, I can see the same thing.
So well. I mean, you also then would complain to
management if if you saw too much of me, if
if I come in and say hello you up. There
goes another email to to the boss's Ralte. Ralph's in
being social again. No, no, not not all. And here's
the thing, Ralph, Okay, after some of the other people
(22:42):
I will not name names you, but some of the
other people that have stepped into that chair when Eddie's away,
I have gone to bed praying that you will come back.
I'm very bumped out, Ralph, that you shouldn't have sent
the request to never have me on your showing. That's
a lie. Now, there was an incident I don't know
if we want to get into it here on the
pod Kiss, but justin and Cincinnati triggered what I call
(23:03):
rhino Ralph and uh and you came storming in from
the update studio. You went out the door, you made
a right turn, you came in the main studio, and
you proceeded to just hit all kinds of buttons and
started hanging up on everybody to get back at Justin
(23:24):
and Cincinnati. And I don't even remember what he had done.
I'm sure it was something going to say. You say
offensive things, you get hung up on. Unfortunately, you have
producers that don't exactly know what they're doing, even though
they've been there for like a million years, that don't
know how to hang up on people, and so you
had to bring in a veteran who actually knows how
(23:44):
to work at tels machine. For those that don't know that,
that's a machine that lines up the phone calls and
the computer program that tells Ben who's on the line.
Is it I still know how to do that? Is
it tell us? I thought it was telling I don't
know whatever. He doesn't matter. It matters to me, Ralph.
You know what it is a way to hang up
on phone calls. Yeah, and that thing you talk about
(24:10):
glue and tape the Tellos machine, because that's a very
expensive piece of equipment and it has not been upgraded.
People have hit it like you hit it. Other people
have hit it and button. Literally, that literally is technology
that predates our radio career. Oh yeah, I think about
(24:30):
that like that program. You think about when you intern
for for Lee Hacksaw Hamilton's and you had the screen
phone calls. It didn't look the same, but it was
the exact same program that you're that is in use today. Yeah,
it's not. It's not a good program. When I worked in,
when I worked in for w e I, they use
(24:52):
a different program, and there's so much better. It's it's
it's a little different and it's got more features, more
bells and whistles. But you know, I could log in
anywhere like that thing. You gotta be in studio to
log in. It's a big pain in the behind. So
not to be to be fair, not a lot of
(25:17):
the hosts at Fox Sports Radio use phone calls, so
there isn't necessarily a big need to upgrade it. When
when what maybe three shows a day take phone calls
live on the Earth, Yeah, I don't even know who does.
I obviously our show overnight we take a lot of calls,
I guess compared to the other guys. Jason doesn't take calls.
I don't think no. I I mean I really, I
(25:40):
can only think of one other show that's out of
our studios that that takes live calls. Does God leave
do it? No, he does not take calls. No, I
don't think so. This would be the odd couple. Yeah calls,
one segment an hour. H Parker. So yeah, Okay, are
(26:01):
you saying that I'm doing outdated radio? Is that what
you're trying to tell me? Rout, that I shouldn't take
any calls because all these other guys that get paid
a lot more money than me don't don't take calls.
Is that what you're telling me? I don't want to
say that, and I'll tell you why. It's like saying
that a cobbler is doing outdated work, when in reality,
the cobbler is doing better work. And a lot of
(26:24):
the things that are out there. I think it's late.
I think it's lazy radio to not involve your your listeners.
It's what made sports radio the medium it was is
that you served an audience. You entertained an audience, but
you are accountable to your audience. Your audience could call
in and call you out for the nonsense that you spoke.
(26:48):
And nowadays there are plenty of hosts out there that
will just stay a bunch of garbage, most of it's
written for them by their producers. They will just spew
a bit and just walk away like it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter what I said, Clay, Clay Thompson, Steph Curry.
Their time is done in the NBA. They'll never be
(27:10):
successful again. Here they win a title. Oh well, you
know what, they're still done and they're not gonna do
it again. I mean you just double and triple down
on that. Yeah. Yeah, I like taking the call to me.
They're characters on this show and they're get different voices,
and I think it's good, but I do. And and
sometimes the caller is going to bring up a subject
(27:32):
that you know about but you didn't think was very important,
and you find out that, no, there are a lot
of people that really do think that that's an important subject.
And so now you're going to talk about it. Yeah. Well,
I follow the KFC model of radio, the eleven herbs
and spices. You gotta mix it up, you gotta mix
and match and all that. But you're an old program director, Ralph.
(27:52):
We talk about that. But you programmed the station in Orlando.
What kind of what kind of pet? Were you pig
vomit from the Howard Stern movie or were you everyone
loves you guys or somewhere in the middle. Well, I was.
I've been at the station for a number of years
and there was, you know, as happens in the radio,
a shake up of the staffing, and that kind of
(28:16):
thrust me into the program director position. UM. And I
was the type of guy that's like, Okay, we're going
to do our show and we're just just do your show.
Not enough of the crap. Just do your show. And
if your show has issues, I'm gonna talk to you
about your issues, but I'm not gonna ride you on. No,
(28:38):
there's no wn BC, none of that. There was none
of that garbage. It was it was just do your
show and I'm not trying to make you look bad
or sound bad. I want you to perform it. If
you succeed, then we all succeed. Um. Unfortunately, as a
program director, what was my job. It's corporate radio. My
(29:02):
job was too spend less money on employees and make
more money in sales. And that's unfortunately what was the
signature for what I did. UM. So it meant, you know,
part timers got less hours because with our systems that
(29:25):
have computers, you can now automate broadcasts, you can automate
how you run a radio station. Was it was not
exactly ideal. Um. I I used to be able to
run the radio station from my home. Believe it or not,
I could. I I had the system at home in
(29:48):
my office, and so I could automate a baseball game,
World Series games saying it finishes it one or two
in the morning East Coast time, and I could dial
in and flip the switch sure on Fox Sports Radio
when the game is over. Yeah, that's how a lot
of stations are, right I I and I feel guilty
because we do syndicated radio at Fox, but I love
(30:11):
local radio. Two. I think you should have there's gotta
be like I said with the show, there's gotta be balanced.
You gotta have a local voice. But the radio industry
in general has gone gone away from that a long
time ago, and I don't know that they'll ever get
back to that point with the cost of everything and
all that. What is your greatest accomplishment, Ralph and radio
(30:35):
greatest accomplishment now that you're leaving radio behind, Ralph, what
are you most proud of? I mean, where we talked about,
I did a lot of work with a lot of
other stations, teaching them how to program um using our
automated system which is called profit or next gent I.
(30:56):
I worked with a lot of stations back in the
in the two thou teaching them this is how you
program for for games. It was easy to program for
the network, it's the same commercial clock every hour. It's
easy to program for local shows, same thing. But two
teach them this is how you implement the broadcast for
(31:19):
a game so that it works with the people that
plug in the commercials again, all stuff behind the seats.
That that was my biggest accomplishment. I mean Otherwise on
the air, I didn't get into too much trouble. Didn't
do anything too crazy. Uh have you ever been suspended
for something you did rough? I've been been suspended trouble
(31:40):
a few times over the years. No I got threatened
with suspension. You know, you get upset with doing doing
what I do as as a as an update guy,
my job is not to step on your toes to
your show. Nobody's tuning in to listen to me. They
might enjoy a banter between us, but my job is
(32:03):
to be supplementary in what I do right now. And
sometimes people will say something to me and I'll snap
back because I'm not going to take the crap. You know,
I've done this too long. You know this. I'm just
you start spewing bull I'm I'm just not gonna do it.
I don't care. And then sometimes I get in trouble
(32:25):
for that because I I just don't care. I'm not
gonna sit and and be embarrassed. You're not gonna do
manufactured Uh. I'm I'm a pretty straightforward guy. Uh. And
it served me well. And my years of U c
(32:45):
l A served me well, and my years talking golf,
and it's it's done me well in radio. Yeah, we
don't have a lot of time. I did want to
get to that because you spent years. I remember seeing
you and they always had the blue U c l
A shirt on. I remember that Ralph was known for that.
You did video. Didn't you kind of create that department
at U c You were you were the innovator of
(33:07):
the video content right? How did that begin? How did
you get that gig at U c l A. Well, Um,
a guy that I had intern for when I was
a student at U c l A reached out to
me and said, we need video content on the website.
And you're saying to me that I was kind of
a five tool player that I knew audio, I knew video,
(33:28):
I knew how to edit, I knew sports, and I
could be a talent on on camera and all those
things together meant that you could literally ben You would
laugh at what I used to carry around. It looked
like a giant turtle shell backpack that literally had a camera,
a tripod, microphones, lights, everything in this one backpack that
(33:50):
I would travel around with. And you I produced five
videos a year for U c l A, covering twenty
four different sports teams, and it was a NonStop job
that went from the beginning of August to the end
of July. One National championships with them, and you just
go and you try to capture the story and share
(34:11):
it to people and try to create content to try
to get recruits. And you work with coaches, you work
with fans, you work with the administration, and it's it's
as an as an alum, it was a great thing.
As somebody who wants to make a living, it was.
It was. It was terrible, and that's why I ultimately
left was U c l A. You know, as much
(34:32):
as I love my school, they pay their coaches a
lot of money, and they're able to do it because
they pay a lot of the sports staff very little.
And it's you do it out of love. It's it's
it's a love of broadcasting and a love of storytelling,
and that's why you get into it. And it lasts
until you realize, no, I need to I need to
(34:53):
start being more professional and receiver paycheck. Yeah, I would
say watching you do some of that stuff at u
c l A events, it was like a local like
Punksakani news anchor has to go out record everything, then
you got to go back and edit it, and then
you got to make sure it's all set to go
for the newscast and the whole thing. And you did
(35:13):
that like seven days a week probably for how many
years were I was there for five years And the best, honestly,
the best one was we played at football game at Colorado,
So you shoot highlights of the of the game, old
game halftime, you try and collect as many of the
highlights off your digital card. Then you shoot the second
ha half. Then after the game, you do your interviews,
(35:35):
you set up your lights, you do your stand up
at the field, get onto the bus with the team
to go to the airport, catch your charter, editing on
the bus for the forty five minute drive from Boulder
to the airport there in Denver. And I actually was
able to edit and upload the story to our website
before the plane took off to fly home. And that
(35:59):
was one of that you say, you talk about accomplishment.
That was pretty fun to race against the clock. And
that's what would be like on the road, is you're
just racing to get as much done as you could
before the plane took off, because if you get it up, great,
and if not, then you were editing on the point.
So yeah, well now you see is moving to the
Big ten in a couple of years. That's uh. I
(36:19):
guess you're you're lucky you're not there because you have
to go to I think of all the long plane
flights going back travels fun. I mean I I traveled
every school in the Pack twelve travels across the country
with U C. L A. Uh. For football, it's not
going to make it much of a difference. As as
I was talking to people, you play a nine am
(36:40):
game at Perdue, you're gonna get home to l a
earlier then if you're playing a seven thirty game in Pullman, Washington,
which is when Washington State tends to play their games.
So it's not gonna be that big a deal for football.
For the other sports, it's gonna stink when the basketball
team goes on the road. They're gonna have to go
(37:00):
for what two weeks or something. I mean, I would
think quite possibly. But here's the funny thing, though, Ben, Here,
here's where, here's where you can smell out somebody that
doesn't think about their job in sports radio. They then complained, well,
I guess this takes out the whole student part of
the student athlete. Last I checked, these universities told students
(37:22):
that they didn't need to be on campus for two years,
skip to a remote learning. So you have an academic
advisor that travels with all these teams. They're gonna sit
there on the road. They're gonna do their classes remotely,
just like has happened for the last couple of years.
If if it's so important that students be in school,
then students should be in school. But that's been made
(37:45):
abundantly clear to college students that it's no longer that
big a deal. Yeah, the jig is up on that.
The crowd is like student athlete and all that, and
I'm glad there's n I L S. Although it is
annoying to see some of these guys driving around Lamborghini's,
but it's good for them. Uh fine, They the universities
make a lot of money and as you say, the
supports staff. They don't get a lot of the moneys
(38:07):
at schools like U c A. But I we don't
have a lot of time left, Rolf, because I know
you have used to do in places to go, but
I didn't want to ask you. You're a golf guy,
and that is to me the most one of the
most fascinating stories going on right now, the survival of
the p G a versus the the Live Golf Tour.
Have you picked a side yet, Ralph? Or does it
(38:28):
really not matter because you're you can play both sides here.
Where are you at on the on the lift? Ten
years from now, Ralph, let's go in the hot tub
time machine. Are we still talking about this Saudi era
and live So you think it's sure it's gonna be No, no, no, no,
it may be around, but we're not gonna be talking
about it. I mean, right now it's being talked about
(38:48):
because for some reason, and this is insane to me,
golf journalists are just deep in bed with the PGA Tour,
Like I don't understand why you are just so adamant
about defending the PGA Tour. Their commissioner has handled this
whole thing horribly and really exposed the entire reason why
(39:11):
the Live Golf Tour exists is because of this. It's
terrible management from the PGA Tour, just how they've handled
things and trying to be a dominating force. And it's like, look,
why don't you work with these folks and move forward.
I mean, this whole thing about you know, well it's
dirty blood money. Then then then it doesn't matter. That's
(39:35):
what you think, and that's that's how that ends. The
reality is there's lots of that money floating around the
PGA Tour, There's lots of that money floating around sports
around the world. If you if you know, you know,
if you care, you care, what's my side? My side
is to sit and watch this to baccle and and
watch these people blow each other up. I mean, it's
(39:58):
the fact of the matter. Is this last live golf
event that was in Portland, it was a heck of
a lot better than what the PGA Tour put out
at the John Deere Classic. And you can go to YouTube,
you can watch the watch the tour. There are no
commercials and because of the shotguns start format, they start
at the same time, they end at the same time.
(40:20):
It's a four hour broadcast. Like most major sports I've
covered golf, that's an eight hour day covering golf because
of the staggered times and everything, and it makes it
better for everybody that format. Now, I'm not saying that's
the way golf should be, but it's a change. It's different.
And you can give me all this statement about well,
(40:41):
you're paying these players guaranteed money, so they're not going
to care about wins or losses. They care. There's still
prize money involved and they care. And when you're talking
about golfers. I read this in an article recently. I
think it was done by Alan Schipnuk who talked to
agents and who said, golfers or horrors. They've always been
(41:02):
horrors from the moment they turned professional. They're selling everything
they can to sponsors. So why is this any different.
This is stupid to make it a big issue. It's
it's it's silly. Well, it's it isn't intriguing though, because
of all these guys that we've heard of on the
PGA Tour that have all left and gold but the golds.
(41:25):
I have a theory on the golf media why they're
so in bed with the p G A one thing
my experience. I've only covered a few pg events over
the year, but they really take care of the media
like they really My experience was they if you want,
you can go out and walk the course with golfers,
but you don't have to, right, I mean, you can
(41:47):
see sitting like a sofa and they'll give you food
and you can watch everything on television. It's a but
they do that at the Lift Golf Tour. They do
it better from what I've seen the media spread and
I know that's a big deal to you. Clearly is
is is far superior that they go golourmet on the
on the Live Golf Tour. They have ridiculous money round.
(42:08):
I mean all right, that they do. It's my point is,
why why are you taking aside if your media, I
mean the whole point we we get into this that
the so called sports journalist, which is nonsense. There's no
such thing, because every single journalist that covers sports is biased,
every journalists. But but you're there, if you're a Dodgers
(42:32):
beat writer, you're there to cover the Dodgers. Therefore, you're
rooting for Dodgers stories to happen. You're you're you're you're
not saying, gee, I hope the Dodgers get no hit here.
You're that doesn't That doesn't do you much good. It's
in this case, why are you choosing sides? If you're
a sports journalist, you shouldn't. If you're following golf, you
(42:54):
should be like, this is an intriguing story. Let's see
how long we it will play out. We can milk it. Yeah, Well,
the thing you want and the reason this this live
things good for golf is because, as you know, rough,
you don't want apathy. You want someone to have an
opinion and be passionate. And people are very passionate on
this issue, and it's gonna be interesting. Listen. I gotta
(43:15):
let you go. I know you gotta you gotta work.
We're recording this right before you're about to work. But
this is your last weekend at Fox Sports Radio. Good luck,
ralped My wife tells me we're gonna we're gonna harass
you in Vegas, so be good luck. I'm you know
I'm not gonna be on the air. I'm going into hiding.
It'll be it'll be hard to find me. Well, just
don't change your number and you you if you'll, you'll
(43:36):
be invited. The Ugly Sweater Party is supposed to be
back to longer drive for you Vegas, so you'll have
to make proper accommodations for the It could take you
the same time though, from Vegas to my house as
to where you're living in l A to my y.
It once took me two hours to get there. Yeah,
(43:56):
it's a nightmare anyway. All right, Well, thank you, bro,
it's been fun working with you. How Fox Sports Radio
this run? How long will this run? Almost six years?
Time flies? Yes, I say you're gonna work in radio again.
I'll make a bet I say you do radio again.
We never know that the bosses may call me and say, hey, Ralph,
we've never had you as a host before, but suddenly,
(44:17):
now that you've left, we want you to fill in.
Who knows it could have any Thank you, Ralph, good
luck with everything. We'll be in touch. I appreciate it,
Thank you Ben. That the Honda Classic Daniel Burger all
alone in first place after the third round he ships
(44:38):
he sits five shots off of the lead or five
shots ahead of the field. All I can say Ralph
is the real Dumah. Yeah he's He's got the hand
on the button, so don't worry about that. That was
your best update of the day, Row Yeah,
Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
the old republic a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the rich
pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearinghouse of hot takes,
break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
(00:24):
Maller starts right now in the air everywhere, and welcome in.
A new weekend is upon us a fresh batch of
The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and Danny g Radio.
(00:46):
Before you say, please, please, before you do that, calm down,
we have a bunch of somewhat decent audio content for you.
And the weekend begin ends right now and Friday. We
like to talk to people who we've heard of, people
(01:07):
on the podcast who we think you'll want to hear from.
And the last week we had a great time. It
was very exciting. Joey Chestnuts a man who went out
and scarfed down all kinds of hot dogs and buns.
He was attacked by a protester. He put that person
(01:29):
in a choke hold and then still one by double
digits hot dog and buns for another mustard belt his
fifteen title. So congratulations to my new friend Joey Chestnut.
Was great to have him on the podcast and that
did very well, and we thank you for listening and
telling friends about that and said, hey, I got this
(01:51):
little dumb podcast thing. I listened to the Fifth Hour.
You might want to check it out. And we thank you.
We do, thank you for that. So it's upward and
onward in the podcast game and this Friday show, the
show you're listening to right now. We decided to do
something somewhat different. We bring in one of our colleagues
(02:13):
I can still say that from Fox Sports Radio, Ralph Irvin.
Now Ralph has a big announcement that he is going
to make on our podcast on the Fifth Hour podcast.
Not too shabby. Um, So we're gonna welcome in a
man who has worked for a number of years at
(02:34):
Fox Sports Radio. I've known Ralph since we were early
on in our careers. We both got started in San
Diego at the mighty six ninety, a legendary West Coast
sports talker. We cut our teeth at that radio station.
We know many of the same people. Radio is a
small fraternity. Ralph has gone on. He worked in Orlando.
He worked for u C l A and their video department,
(02:56):
and he's worked at several other radio stations. He's very
active in golf. He's filled in not not in years,
but he's filled in on our overnight show when Eddie
has been away Corporate Garcia and I thought, let's get
the man, the myth, the legend, Ralph urban On and Ralph,
we welcome you and and I'm upset with you. Ralph.
(03:16):
I tried to get you on. You you were harder
to book than Joey Chestnut. I had to jump through
hoops to get you on, Ralph. Can you please explain
why it was so difficult to get you? Ralph Irvin
on the Fifth Hour podcast with me your buddy Big Ben.
(03:39):
Why is that, Ralph? Because you forgot my number. That's incorrect.
I did not forget your number. I ran into you
at the Fox Sports Radio studios. I was trying to
enjoy a nice meal and you came by. You were
wearing Hawaiian shirt a few weeks ago. Possibly yes, yeah,
(03:59):
remember the great power outage at the Fox Sports Radio studio. Yeah,
we have those occasionally. Well, they made me come in, Ralph,
and there was no reason for me to be there.
The power was back on right before the show start,
like two hours before the show. But but I was there.
And there's always a good reason to be in the studio.
(04:21):
It's called professional radio time. I'm in a studio. I
have a microphone, I have headphones, I have I have everything.
I have a board over here, I have that. I
have a there's a keyboard. Um, I'm looking. There's a
computer here. There's a light. There's several lights. There's like
a weird fan off to the side. There's a thing
(04:44):
of pens that that I let me show you. It's
I know we're on audio, but actually you can see
me so sec here I have Look how big that
pen is? Ralph? Is that? Are you not impressed by
the size of my pen? Come on, be honest, you're Ralph,
I'm not in It's a pen. No, it's a beautiful pen.
(05:05):
It's a large, giant, cartoon sized pen like this awesome.
See like I have big hands, but this pen makes
it look like I have a little baby hands, like
little Kyler Murray hands. Yeah. Sure, all right with you, Ron,
I mean you're doing this, this is a podcast about you.
(05:25):
Everything's great. Are you sure? About that. It's about me
that we're talking about your pen. Well, it's just a
warm up. I'm just warming up with the pen. I
feel like Ralph. Once you see my pen, you know
now we're we're bonding. We're gonna bond again like the
old days. Sure, sure sounds good, Yeah, exactly exactly. All right, Well,
(05:49):
the real reason I'm having you on the podcast is
you had a big Have you announced this publicly or
my are we announcing this on the Fifth Hour podcast?
A major story one this gets in the radio trades.
Mm hmm. It's it's gonna blow up the industry, it
really is. And are you prepared to make that announcement
(06:10):
right now? It's it's it's it's known that. Yeah, I'm
I'm leaving Fox Sports Radio. So Ralph Irvin is leaving
our dysfunctional radio. This is big news, Ralph. I don't
think you realize how big this is. I I guess
(06:30):
I don't. I guess I don't. I'm just I'm just
a cog in the machine. I'm just a guy who
comes to work and does his thing. Yeah, so I
have questions. Are you prepared? I'm gonna grill you. I'm
gonna give you. This is Ralph to the third degree. Sure,
all right, So the obvious question is how how did
you come to this decision? Ralph? I mean to leave
(06:51):
Fox Sports Radio. It's a big deal, Like how long
has this been going on? Where you you had, you know,
the idea that you're gonna leave, and how long did
this come about? Well, this is more a case of
as you know, you're in this industry, uh, that you
can move around, you go from job to job. Now
(07:13):
you haven't gone too far. You've stayed in southern California.
I think you your entire career, I've moved. I've gone
from San Diego to Orlando back to l A, different
places around l A. And one thing that's been consistent
is my wife has followed me everywhere I've gone. And
she received an opportunity, uh to get a better job
(07:34):
in a new city, and I told her you go
for it. I fully supported. And you've followed me around
all these years. It's my turn to do the same,
and I will follow you. So it uh affords a
new opportunity, totally new lifestyle and probably one that doesn't
involve broadcasting ever again, which is all right. It's something
(07:56):
that will be absolutely new and funics writing. So you're
leaving broadcasting, this is this is it? This is your
last weekend as a broadcaster. You say, is that true?
Really that as as far as I can tell, that's
that's it. Yeah, I'm gonna try to go and sit
behind a desk and do work and contribute to other ways.
(08:17):
But well that's no fun Ralph for radio guys. Were
a couple of radio guys here. This is all we know,
Ralph is microphones and nonsense and goofing around. And oh
I've known a little bit more than radio because I've
been doing video work for the last fifteen years. So
it's it's it's a case of building something that's not
(08:39):
just day to day. It's building something bigger. Products and
things of that nature is you know, I've done a
lot of work with golf and talking about golf products,
and you get to know the people that design and
build these products, and they put a lot of themselves
into each one, and you think, wow, that would be
kind of cool to be able to do something where
(08:59):
I have a lasting legacy within whatever it is that
I've built, and that's kind of an interest of mine
going forward. Well, that's cool, and you're a romantic ralph.
You're you're following your your your wife, she followed you,
and now you're following. That's a tremendous thing that you're
doing here. Well, she's a lot more successful than I am.
That helps me, makes it, It makes a lot easier. Yeah,
(09:21):
that's good. Do you want to reveal where you're going
or you want to be a big mysteries the FBI
out to get you? That are the authorities going to
run you down or something like that? Are you worried
about that? Because you know I'm going to to America's
playground that is Las Vegas. Oh is that right? Lost,
Lost Wages, Nevada, Yes, standing where I have a number
of friends that are living there that are excited that
(09:41):
I will be coming out and joining them. So more importantly,
route this is a place I visit Vegas. So we'll
we'll still get to hang out again. We'll probably hang
out more with you when you get set up in
Vegas than we do now, because you know geography wise
where you live and I don't ever say where I
live other than the north Woods. And I've moved a
(10:04):
lot over the years. I've lived in the l are.
I've lived all over l A. But we're pretty far
apart right now, like where we live. I think I
get to Vegas more than I get to where you
live in the l A area. Well, no, because yeah
you don't. We don't allow you into where I live.
That's we We kind of have signs up keep this
man away. And rightfully so I did try. There's a
(10:25):
famous lake not that far away from where you live
where they filmed robin Hood the original and uh, and
I saw it. I was I was going out of
your way. I think it was for Jonas is uh
wedding thing, the receptions. I went out of your way
and we were at Jonas's wedding, and so I said,
(10:46):
I'm out here. I'm never really out this way anymore,
so let me go see. They have this lake, famous lake.
What's it called. What's the name of the Lakewood Lake? Sherwood. Yeah,
that's so they filmed a bunch of movies and stuff.
So I thought I'd go, it's a lake. I'll go
check out the lake. And I tried to get I
could not get anywhere close to like you're only if
you live there. There's like this exclusive neighbor where Wayne
(11:07):
Gretzky and some other big celebrities living used to live there. Well,
Lenny has been on the podcast, you know Lenny's Lenny
has been on his foy. He won't return my calls anymore. Though.
I don't know what happened to Lenny Len He used
to get He always wanted to come on the podcast,
and then I tried to reach out to him a
couple of weeks ago and he didn't get back to
It's a bad job by Lenny that Did you talk
(11:28):
to him? Is that what happened right now? I did
not talk to Lenny. I have not talked to Lenny,
but he did live but in Lake Sherwood. Yeah, it's
a beautiful lake. Nice. I could actually go check it,
actually get close to the water. Other than the up top,
I have to look over a fence like a peeping
lake guy or something like that. Well, that's that's sometimes
(11:48):
what you have to be. Is that true? Well for you, yes,
not not so much for me. I I know people
and have access. You're you're a cool person, You're much
cooler than me. But you're leaving all that behind Vegas.
Are you a gambler? It's yeah, a little bit I
like to play craps, but it's not something that I
(12:11):
need or want to do a lot. So it's not
a big deal. I mean, yeah, you know, we were
in southern California. If we want to gamble, we could
gamble places closer than Las Vegas. We don't want to.
It's about going to Las Vegas and you do things there.
But I've traveled there so much over the years that
i have my spots away from the Strip, away from
all the touristy areas, and so that's not a big change.
(12:34):
It's not like I'm going there and thinking I'm gonna
be hanging out in Las Vegas Boulevard. That's not it
at all. Yeah. My my aunt used to live in Vegas,
and you know, she was around but and and the
locals always there's like weird, strange casinos away from the
Strip where like the local people go, they don't bother
with the there are some Yeah, so you already have
(12:55):
your place set up in Vegas for the big you relocation,
You're already ready to go. You're looking for a new place.
There's a temporary set up right now, but it'll be
looking for a for a house in the future. Yeah,
what if somebody says, hey, Ralph, we want you to
work on the radio in Vegas with you. I will
ask them how much they have in their bank account
and then they will tell you the amount, and then
(13:17):
you'll start laughing and I will say, that's why I'm
no longer in broadcasting. Yes, let's just say that we
have a mutual acquaintance that is in Las Vegas that
has talked to me for years about coming out and saying, oh,
you could be on the air, no problem right away,
but they wouldn't really be able to pay you. And
I'm like, okay, well, yeah, Vegas is a weird market
(13:40):
because it's become a very large city. I have some
friends that do radio in Vegas and I've done I've
done the show remotely from Vegas and it's it's like
a big city. But they don't treat the radio stuff
like it's a big city. Well, it's a big city
that still hasn't taken understanding of how big they are.
(14:02):
For instance, uh, Tim Laiwicky is building a new arena
reportedly there in Las Vegas, and they want to put
an NBA team in and where he has chosen the
arena location is not in the middle of the strip,
and people are like, why would you do this, why
would you make tourists drive away? And the thinking is
because it's not for the tourists, Like, like, if you
(14:25):
live in Las Vegas, you actually do deserve the right
to have a team that's your own, that's not built
for tourists. You can have your own, your own arena,
and your own city. And I don't think they've quite
grasped that aspect yet, that they deserve the fruits that
come with being a big city. I think they still
(14:45):
think that they are there to serve all the visitors
from around the world, and it's an evolution for sure. Yeah,
well that is true. But I'm still upset when the
Hockey Arena was built behind New York, New York, and
then they started charging for parking around the You have
to get a credit card to get free parking and
not don't even know if that's still a thing, but oh,
(15:06):
it's a thing. It's a thing. I hate, Ralph, You've
known me a long time. I hate paying for parking.
You hate paying for anything. Well, that is true. That's
why I am the frugal the frugal man, the tight
wad whatever you want to say there. No, it's it's
it's it's a case where again the locals that I
know are like, no, we we don't even bother trying
(15:27):
to park there. We we take our uber and yeah, understandable, understandable.
I often talk when I talked about Ralph, I I
when I talk about you, Ralph, I always talk about
the fact that we started out. We look products of
the mighty six ninety one of the great sports radio station,
the first West Coast, one of the great I mean,
(15:48):
let's be real, let's let's just let's cut the crap.
It's the greatest sports station that ever existed, damn right.
And look at the legends that you Ralph of a legend, uh,
you know, and uh Steve Hartman, Homer Hartman and uh
and all them. Uh. It's been been wonderful. And a
(16:09):
lot of the people, although we're getting older, Ralph, a
lot of the people still working in the business who
were there. Almost all of them, yeah, I mean almost
all of them are still active in in in major radio.
I mean a morning show that's still on in Los Angeles,
some guy named Jim Rome. I think he's done, okay,
(16:31):
hanging in there. I think he's got enough money. I
think maybe not. Hartman's around still, and you know, if
you if you follow online, you can still find the
old mentor has has has been on this podcast has
as I am. The thing about Hacks and we I worked,
I was an intern with him. You were there at
(16:51):
the same around the same time. But Hacks of the
work ethic and people say I work hard, But like
hacksall was in there all day. We're recording stuff and
that's the work I mean, I I am. I worked
somewhat hard, but compared to Hacks on the amount of effort.
And he's still got a website where he's he does
his headlines. That was what he was known for back
(17:14):
in San Diego. But he still does that every day,
just does it written out. He doesn't do it on
the broadcasting, but wouldn't you really like to see it
written out? Like he just posted a pdf every day
of the way that he would write his headlines. He
had this piece of paper with this writing that so
tiny so that he could get every single little headline
(17:34):
on there uh written out in one little sheet of paper,
so he didn't have to change sheets of paper. And
this little tiny writing I think that would be hilarious
as if that's what he posted for his headlines, just
a PDF you could zoom in on and try to
make out his notes. Well, yeah, because he had the
chicken scratch going. And that was back in the archaic
days though, Ralph like, we're so old. They had the
(17:57):
high speed sports wire, they had the sports picker, Like
they don't even have that, Like radio stations don't have those.
They don't need them anymore because of the Internet. But
that was like, that was one of the coolest things.
When I started working there. I was like, oh man,
this is the high speed sports wire. And because you
couldn't get that information, you sit down at a computer
and there was live scores right there in front of you. Yeah.
(18:19):
And and but we're like, we're like the I had
to walk ten miles in the snow up the hill.
We did radio before the Internet, and we're able to
pull it off kind of Uh. I was gathering recently
where we were talking about old things and talking about
you know, you had these cards and you had to
stack these cards up, you know, a mile high, with
(18:41):
all your commercials and your sound bites. And this is
before everything was digitized for sure, we we went. When
I was producing a show that we did called Extra
Football Sunday. We did after we lost the Chargers rights
in um we Well, I set up recording locations for
(19:04):
every NFL game with giant reel to reel otari reel
to reel recording machines so that we could record highlights
and get them onto the air. It was, I mean,
it was archaic, but it was. It sounded great you.
It didn't sound any worse than it does today. It
just took a lot more effort and a lot more space. Yeah,
(19:26):
that was one of my first one. I was an intern.
I had to pull the commercials. I had the commercial
log and I had to pull the spots for the
for the engineer. That was my my gig. I was
very good at pulling commercial And they call them spots
because they little little spot on little dot. I told
you what number they were color coded. We're doing We're
doing old guy radio talk here. Just sure was doing
(19:47):
old guy radio talk. Yeah. Did you ever cut yourself
with a razor blade cutting the reel, the reel, the
tape and all that. No, I I wasn't clumsy, No,
I I never had that issue. I was I have
fat fingers. I cut myself all the time. I was terrible.
I was so happy when they got rid of that stuff,
but I was so piste off at the same time
because I learned when I got into the business, I
learned cards, editing, you know, the real, the real, all that.
(20:10):
And within a couple of years of me starting, he
started shifting over to digital. And I was like, what,
I spent all this time learning all this stuff, and
the only way I'll use it is I'm at like
a small radio station in Oklahoma, which probably still uses
that stuff. I'm sure. I want to say it was
about five years from the time I started to the
(20:31):
time that that that the computer system was coming in.
Here's the funny part. That computer system is what we
still use today twenty plus years later. Oh yeah, well
that's that's a whole different conversation, Ralph. Yeah. That that
I I'm gonna write a book someday. When I walked
into Fox Sports Radio, we that studio which you're leaving
(20:53):
and you're gonna leave radio and do great things. But
that studio. We walked in there and it was like,
oh my god, this is amazing. They had ribbons, everything
was brand new, When I started at Fox Sports Radio,
we were in a premier network studio upstairs on the
fifth floor. It was the old Michael Reagan, the President's
adopted son. He had a radio show and we did
(21:14):
the show from his studio. Are all the Fox Sports
radio shows until they had built the studio on the
ground floor and that thing opened up, and it was
like they were bringing in executives from around the country.
It was like the and all the newest equipment, and
here we are twenty two years later and it's the
same the same equipment, and uh it's uh yeah, but
the goodness. Eventually they will move to a new studio
(21:37):
possibly The fun The fun thing though, is we talked
about Extra six ninety. They built the Fox Sports Radio
studios to look just like the Extra six nineties studios.
I mean all the way from from from the board
the where the technical director the board operator sits, that
whole area, to to the studio that it was built
(21:59):
to look just Extra Sports six nine. The one flaw
on that, though, is the update booth. It's not visible.
Yeah yeah, so I always I point this out when
you were filling for Eddie or when Eddie's there, whenever,
and if I'm in studio, I can't see the the
guy that's doing the news, and so it's like this
(22:22):
will be at home, I can see the same thing.
So well. I mean, you also then would complain to
management if if you saw too much of me, if
if I come in and say hello you up. There
goes another email to to the boss's Ralte. Ralph's in
being social again. No, no, not not all. And here's
the thing, Ralph, Okay, after some of the other people
(22:42):
I will not name names you, but some of the
other people that have stepped into that chair when Eddie's away,
I have gone to bed praying that you will come back.
I'm very bumped out, Ralph, that you shouldn't have sent
the request to never have me on your showing. That's
a lie. Now, there was an incident I don't know
if we want to get into it here on the
pod Kiss, but justin and Cincinnati triggered what I call
(23:03):
rhino Ralph and uh and you came storming in from
the update studio. You went out the door, you made
a right turn, you came in the main studio, and
you proceeded to just hit all kinds of buttons and
started hanging up on everybody to get back at Justin
(23:24):
and Cincinnati. And I don't even remember what he had done.
I'm sure it was something going to say. You say
offensive things, you get hung up on. Unfortunately, you have
producers that don't exactly know what they're doing, even though
they've been there for like a million years, that don't
know how to hang up on people, and so you
had to bring in a veteran who actually knows how
(23:44):
to work at tels machine. For those that don't know that,
that's a machine that lines up the phone calls and
the computer program that tells Ben who's on the line.
Is it I still know how to do that? Is
it tell us? I thought it was telling I don't
know whatever. He doesn't matter. It matters to me, Ralph.
You know what it is a way to hang up
on phone calls. Yeah, and that thing you talk about
(24:10):
glue and tape the Tellos machine, because that's a very
expensive piece of equipment and it has not been upgraded.
People have hit it like you hit it. Other people
have hit it and button. Literally, that literally is technology
that predates our radio career. Oh yeah, I think about
(24:30):
that like that program. You think about when you intern
for for Lee Hacksaw Hamilton's and you had the screen
phone calls. It didn't look the same, but it was
the exact same program that you're that is in use today. Yeah,
it's not. It's not a good program. When I worked in,
when I worked in for w e I, they use
(24:52):
a different program, and there's so much better. It's it's
it's a little different and it's got more features, more
bells and whistles. But you know, I could log in
anywhere like that thing. You gotta be in studio to
log in. It's a big pain in the behind. So
not to be to be fair, not a lot of
(25:17):
the hosts at Fox Sports Radio use phone calls, so
there isn't necessarily a big need to upgrade it. When
when what maybe three shows a day take phone calls
live on the Earth, Yeah, I don't even know who does.
I obviously our show overnight we take a lot of calls,
I guess compared to the other guys. Jason doesn't take calls.
I don't think no. I I mean I really, I
(25:40):
can only think of one other show that's out of
our studios that that takes live calls. Does God leave
do it? No, he does not take calls. No, I
don't think so. This would be the odd couple. Yeah calls,
one segment an hour. H Parker. So yeah, Okay, are
(26:01):
you saying that I'm doing outdated radio? Is that what
you're trying to tell me? Rout, that I shouldn't take
any calls because all these other guys that get paid
a lot more money than me don't don't take calls.
Is that what you're telling me? I don't want to
say that, and I'll tell you why. It's like saying
that a cobbler is doing outdated work, when in reality,
the cobbler is doing better work. And a lot of
(26:24):
the things that are out there. I think it's late.
I think it's lazy radio to not involve your your listeners.
It's what made sports radio the medium it was is
that you served an audience. You entertained an audience, but
you are accountable to your audience. Your audience could call
in and call you out for the nonsense that you spoke.
(26:48):
And nowadays there are plenty of hosts out there that
will just stay a bunch of garbage, most of it's
written for them by their producers. They will just spew
a bit and just walk away like it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter what I said, Clay, Clay Thompson, Steph Curry.
Their time is done in the NBA. They'll never be
(27:10):
successful again. Here they win a title. Oh well, you
know what, they're still done and they're not gonna do
it again. I mean you just double and triple down
on that. Yeah. Yeah, I like taking the call to me.
They're characters on this show and they're get different voices,
and I think it's good, but I do. And and
sometimes the caller is going to bring up a subject
(27:32):
that you know about but you didn't think was very important,
and you find out that, no, there are a lot
of people that really do think that that's an important subject.
And so now you're going to talk about it. Yeah. Well,
I follow the KFC model of radio, the eleven herbs
and spices. You gotta mix it up, you gotta mix
and match and all that. But you're an old program director, Ralph.
(27:52):
We talk about that. But you programmed the station in Orlando.
What kind of what kind of pet? Were you pig
vomit from the Howard Stern movie or were you everyone
loves you guys or somewhere in the middle. Well, I was.
I've been at the station for a number of years
and there was, you know, as happens in the radio,
a shake up of the staffing, and that kind of
(28:16):
thrust me into the program director position. UM. And I
was the type of guy that's like, Okay, we're going
to do our show and we're just just do your show.
Not enough of the crap. Just do your show. And
if your show has issues, I'm gonna talk to you
about your issues, but I'm not gonna ride you on. No,
(28:38):
there's no wn BC, none of that. There was none
of that garbage. It was it was just do your
show and I'm not trying to make you look bad
or sound bad. I want you to perform it. If
you succeed, then we all succeed. Um. Unfortunately, as a
program director, what was my job. It's corporate radio. My
(29:02):
job was too spend less money on employees and make
more money in sales. And that's unfortunately what was the
signature for what I did. UM. So it meant, you know,
part timers got less hours because with our systems that
(29:25):
have computers, you can now automate broadcasts, you can automate
how you run a radio station. Was it was not
exactly ideal. Um. I I used to be able to
run the radio station from my home. Believe it or not,
I could. I I had the system at home in
(29:48):
my office, and so I could automate a baseball game,
World Series games saying it finishes it one or two
in the morning East Coast time, and I could dial
in and flip the switch sure on Fox Sports Radio
when the game is over. Yeah, that's how a lot
of stations are, right I I and I feel guilty
because we do syndicated radio at Fox, but I love
(30:11):
local radio. Two. I think you should have there's gotta
be like I said with the show, there's gotta be balanced.
You gotta have a local voice. But the radio industry
in general has gone gone away from that a long
time ago, and I don't know that they'll ever get
back to that point with the cost of everything and
all that. What is your greatest accomplishment, Ralph and radio
(30:35):
greatest accomplishment now that you're leaving radio behind, Ralph, what
are you most proud of? I mean, where we talked about,
I did a lot of work with a lot of
other stations, teaching them how to program um using our
automated system which is called profit or next gent I.
(30:56):
I worked with a lot of stations back in the
in the two thou teaching them this is how you
program for for games. It was easy to program for
the network, it's the same commercial clock every hour. It's
easy to program for local shows, same thing. But two
teach them this is how you implement the broadcast for
(31:19):
a game so that it works with the people that
plug in the commercials again, all stuff behind the seats.
That that was my biggest accomplishment. I mean Otherwise on
the air, I didn't get into too much trouble. Didn't
do anything too crazy. Uh have you ever been suspended
for something you did rough? I've been been suspended trouble
(31:40):
a few times over the years. No I got threatened
with suspension. You know, you get upset with doing doing
what I do as as a as an update guy,
my job is not to step on your toes to
your show. Nobody's tuning in to listen to me. They
might enjoy a banter between us, but my job is
(32:03):
to be supplementary in what I do right now. And
sometimes people will say something to me and I'll snap
back because I'm not going to take the crap. You know,
I've done this too long. You know this. I'm just
you start spewing bull I'm I'm just not gonna do it.
I don't care. And then sometimes I get in trouble
(32:25):
for that because I I just don't care. I'm not
gonna sit and and be embarrassed. You're not gonna do
manufactured Uh. I'm I'm a pretty straightforward guy. Uh. And
it served me well. And my years of U c
(32:45):
l A served me well, and my years talking golf,
and it's it's done me well in radio. Yeah, we
don't have a lot of time. I did want to
get to that because you spent years. I remember seeing
you and they always had the blue U c l
A shirt on. I remember that Ralph was known for that.
You did video. Didn't you kind of create that department
at U c You were you were the innovator of
(33:07):
the video content right? How did that begin? How did
you get that gig at U c l A. Well, Um,
a guy that I had intern for when I was
a student at U c l A reached out to
me and said, we need video content on the website.
And you're saying to me that I was kind of
a five tool player that I knew audio, I knew video,
(33:28):
I knew how to edit, I knew sports, and I
could be a talent on on camera and all those
things together meant that you could literally ben You would
laugh at what I used to carry around. It looked
like a giant turtle shell backpack that literally had a camera,
a tripod, microphones, lights, everything in this one backpack that
(33:50):
I would travel around with. And you I produced five
videos a year for U c l A, covering twenty
four different sports teams, and it was a NonStop job
that went from the beginning of August to the end
of July. One National championships with them, and you just
go and you try to capture the story and share
(34:11):
it to people and try to create content to try
to get recruits. And you work with coaches, you work
with fans, you work with the administration, and it's it's
as an as an alum, it was a great thing.
As somebody who wants to make a living, it was.
It was. It was terrible, and that's why I ultimately
left was U c l A. You know, as much
(34:32):
as I love my school, they pay their coaches a
lot of money, and they're able to do it because
they pay a lot of the sports staff very little.
And it's you do it out of love. It's it's
it's a love of broadcasting and a love of storytelling,
and that's why you get into it. And it lasts
until you realize, no, I need to I need to
(34:53):
start being more professional and receiver paycheck. Yeah, I would
say watching you do some of that stuff at u
c l A events, it was like a local like
Punksakani news anchor has to go out record everything, then
you got to go back and edit it, and then
you got to make sure it's all set to go
for the newscast and the whole thing. And you did
(35:13):
that like seven days a week probably for how many
years were I was there for five years And the best, honestly,
the best one was we played at football game at Colorado,
So you shoot highlights of the of the game, old
game halftime, you try and collect as many of the
highlights off your digital card. Then you shoot the second
ha half. Then after the game, you do your interviews,
(35:35):
you set up your lights, you do your stand up
at the field, get onto the bus with the team
to go to the airport, catch your charter, editing on
the bus for the forty five minute drive from Boulder
to the airport there in Denver. And I actually was
able to edit and upload the story to our website
before the plane took off to fly home. And that
(35:59):
was one of that you say, you talk about accomplishment.
That was pretty fun to race against the clock. And
that's what would be like on the road, is you're
just racing to get as much done as you could
before the plane took off, because if you get it up, great,
and if not, then you were editing on the point.
So yeah, well now you see is moving to the
Big ten in a couple of years. That's uh. I
(36:19):
guess you're you're lucky you're not there because you have
to go to I think of all the long plane
flights going back travels fun. I mean I I traveled
every school in the Pack twelve travels across the country
with U C. L A. Uh. For football, it's not
going to make it much of a difference. As as
I was talking to people, you play a nine am
(36:40):
game at Perdue, you're gonna get home to l a
earlier then if you're playing a seven thirty game in Pullman, Washington,
which is when Washington State tends to play their games.
So it's not gonna be that big a deal for football.
For the other sports, it's gonna stink when the basketball
team goes on the road. They're gonna have to go
(37:00):
for what two weeks or something. I mean, I would
think quite possibly. But here's the funny thing, though, Ben, Here,
here's where, here's where you can smell out somebody that
doesn't think about their job in sports radio. They then complained, well,
I guess this takes out the whole student part of
the student athlete. Last I checked, these universities told students
(37:22):
that they didn't need to be on campus for two years,
skip to a remote learning. So you have an academic
advisor that travels with all these teams. They're gonna sit
there on the road. They're gonna do their classes remotely,
just like has happened for the last couple of years.
If if it's so important that students be in school,
then students should be in school. But that's been made
(37:45):
abundantly clear to college students that it's no longer that
big a deal. Yeah, the jig is up on that.
The crowd is like student athlete and all that, and
I'm glad there's n I L S. Although it is
annoying to see some of these guys driving around Lamborghini's,
but it's good for them. Uh fine, They the universities
make a lot of money and as you say, the
supports staff. They don't get a lot of the moneys
(38:07):
at schools like U c A. But I we don't
have a lot of time left, Rolf, because I know
you have used to do in places to go, but
I didn't want to ask you. You're a golf guy,
and that is to me the most one of the
most fascinating stories going on right now, the survival of
the p G a versus the the Live Golf Tour.
Have you picked a side yet, Ralph? Or does it
(38:28):
really not matter because you're you can play both sides here.
Where are you at on the on the lift? Ten
years from now, Ralph, let's go in the hot tub
time machine. Are we still talking about this Saudi era
and live So you think it's sure it's gonna be No, no, no, no,
it may be around, but we're not gonna be talking
about it. I mean, right now it's being talked about
(38:48):
because for some reason, and this is insane to me,
golf journalists are just deep in bed with the PGA Tour,
Like I don't understand why you are just so adamant
about defending the PGA Tour. Their commissioner has handled this
whole thing horribly and really exposed the entire reason why
(39:11):
the Live Golf Tour exists is because of this. It's
terrible management from the PGA Tour, just how they've handled
things and trying to be a dominating force. And it's like, look,
why don't you work with these folks and move forward.
I mean, this whole thing about you know, well it's
dirty blood money. Then then then it doesn't matter. That's
(39:35):
what you think, and that's that's how that ends. The
reality is there's lots of that money floating around the
PGA Tour, There's lots of that money floating around sports
around the world. If you if you know, you know,
if you care, you care, what's my side? My side
is to sit and watch this to baccle and and
watch these people blow each other up. I mean, it's
(39:58):
the fact of the matter. Is this last live golf
event that was in Portland, it was a heck of
a lot better than what the PGA Tour put out
at the John Deere Classic. And you can go to YouTube,
you can watch the watch the tour. There are no
commercials and because of the shotguns start format, they start
at the same time, they end at the same time.
(40:20):
It's a four hour broadcast. Like most major sports I've
covered golf, that's an eight hour day covering golf because
of the staggered times and everything, and it makes it
better for everybody that format. Now, I'm not saying that's
the way golf should be, but it's a change. It's different.
And you can give me all this statement about well,
(40:41):
you're paying these players guaranteed money, so they're not going
to care about wins or losses. They care. There's still
prize money involved and they care. And when you're talking
about golfers. I read this in an article recently. I
think it was done by Alan Schipnuk who talked to
agents and who said, golfers or horrors. They've always been
(41:02):
horrors from the moment they turned professional. They're selling everything
they can to sponsors. So why is this any different.
This is stupid to make it a big issue. It's
it's it's silly. Well, it's it isn't intriguing though, because
of all these guys that we've heard of on the
PGA Tour that have all left and gold but the golds.
(41:25):
I have a theory on the golf media why they're
so in bed with the p G A one thing
my experience. I've only covered a few pg events over
the year, but they really take care of the media
like they really My experience was they if you want,
you can go out and walk the course with golfers,
but you don't have to, right, I mean, you can
(41:47):
see sitting like a sofa and they'll give you food
and you can watch everything on television. It's a but
they do that at the Lift Golf Tour. They do
it better from what I've seen the media spread and
I know that's a big deal to you. Clearly is
is is far superior that they go golourmet on the
on the Live Golf Tour. They have ridiculous money round.
(42:08):
I mean all right, that they do. It's my point is,
why why are you taking aside if your media, I
mean the whole point we we get into this that
the so called sports journalist, which is nonsense. There's no
such thing, because every single journalist that covers sports is biased,
every journalists. But but you're there, if you're a Dodgers
(42:32):
beat writer, you're there to cover the Dodgers. Therefore, you're
rooting for Dodgers stories to happen. You're you're you're you're
not saying, gee, I hope the Dodgers get no hit here.
You're that doesn't That doesn't do you much good. It's
in this case, why are you choosing sides? If you're
a sports journalist, you shouldn't. If you're following golf, you
(42:54):
should be like, this is an intriguing story. Let's see
how long we it will play out. We can milk it. Yeah, Well,
the thing you want and the reason this this live
things good for golf is because, as you know, rough,
you don't want apathy. You want someone to have an
opinion and be passionate. And people are very passionate on
this issue, and it's gonna be interesting. Listen. I gotta
(43:15):
let you go. I know you gotta you gotta work.
We're recording this right before you're about to work. But
this is your last weekend at Fox Sports Radio. Good luck,
ralped My wife tells me we're gonna we're gonna harass
you in Vegas, so be good luck. I'm you know
I'm not gonna be on the air. I'm going into hiding.
It'll be it'll be hard to find me. Well, just
don't change your number and you you if you'll, you'll
(43:36):
be invited. The Ugly Sweater Party is supposed to be
back to longer drive for you Vegas, so you'll have
to make proper accommodations for the It could take you
the same time though, from Vegas to my house as
to where you're living in l A to my y.
It once took me two hours to get there. Yeah,
(43:56):
it's a nightmare anyway. All right, Well, thank you, bro,
it's been fun working with you. How Fox Sports Radio
this run? How long will this run? Almost six years?
Time flies? Yes, I say you're gonna work in radio again.
I'll make a bet I say you do radio again.
We never know that the bosses may call me and say, hey, Ralph,
we've never had you as a host before, but suddenly,
(44:17):
now that you've left, we want you to fill in.
Who knows it could have any Thank you, Ralph, good
luck with everything. We'll be in touch. I appreciate it,
Thank you Ben. That the Honda Classic Daniel Burger all
alone in first place after the third round he ships
(44:38):
he sits five shots off of the lead or five
shots ahead of the field. All I can say Ralph
is the real Dumah. Yeah he's He's got the hand
on the button, so don't worry about that. That was
your best update of the day, Row Yeah,
Host
Ben Maller
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!