A Radio Pioneer Part Two

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Cidey Stumpo, Toughest Nails on WBZ and Sammy,
how are we doing tonight?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm good? How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:06):
She's another like, what's going on with your last two weeks?
She working too hot?

Speaker 3 (00:11):
She said, too many group text.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
I am she's an awe of her host, of her guest.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes she is. I am.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
You're what I'm thinking about this when you were here
last week, that like if I go back to my
age at twenty twenty nine, like I was a hot
mess and like you had had the whole world in
your hand and you weren't see I think.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
You wore a hot mess. I think you were coming
out of your hot mess by twenty I was a
hot mess at twenty nine.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
No, but coming out of that. But like he's being
handed like an entire radio station to run at twenty nine.
You would never have handed me your business at twenty nine.
You would have said get away from me.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
At twenty nine. Yeah, no, I would have thrown you
out head for us to perfectly honest.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
You just made her point.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
But the point is you loved Richie. You love going
to Richie's, you love being at Richie's, and you love
that Richie treated like the princess because you'd come backstage
in a limo to go to the concerts and come
out like some big shot like you know, with the
limo could come in the back.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You spoiled them.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
Oh well, you spoiled the kids.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Too, I know you did. So. Anyways, you were talking
last weekend. Yes, so like this Boston Pops thing, I
have no.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Clue to go again.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
We're talking about how Richie basically invented kiss on eight,
invented concerts as we know here in Boston. But there's
like we have stories like I guess when walking in
the hallway, people talk about the good old days when
you when you were here. But there's one story that
was so hard to create shows like jingle Ball and
kiss Concert, but you got the Boston Pops to come
just to convince an artist to also come.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
All right, I'll tell you the story. This is my
favorite story because it involves my favorite singer, Luther Vandros, who,
by the way, I think still is the greatest singer ever.
Had great voice. I mean, obviously we lost him years ago, but.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
By the way, we never missed a constant Boston with
Richie with Luther. Okay, I love that.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Actually I found some pictures, I told Sandy, I found
a bunch of old pictures which I'm going to get
to her in the Factor's there. There's one backstage with
Luther at the one at the Garden.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
Anyway, So I'm Polly Anthony was ahead of Epic records,
and she was a good friend and she was wonderful,
and I kept saying, Paula, you got to get me.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Luther for my concert. She goes, Richie, Luther doesn't do
anything for anybody. We can't get him to do anything.
I said, well, it's not it's like for me. This
is like I'm it's like my bar misfah. I'm not
even you gotta get him for me. So she says,
I said, look, if you get him to meet with me,

(02:40):
I'll and he says no to me, I'll never bother
you about it again. She says, well, when he comes
to the office next, he's going to be in a
couple of times this month, I'll let you know. You
come down to New York and we'll I'll arrange to
have you of coffee ten minutes together. So she calls
me on a I don't know, whatever day, and she says,
Luther's gonna be in here tomorrow. Can you come down?
So of course said, of course. So I fly down,

(03:01):
I get a place to the Four Seasons. They're on
fifty fourth Street and fifty fifth Street, and I'm at
the Four Seasons at fifty seventh and so they parayed
in Luther Polly, Luther, Luther's handler whoever that is, and
his manager, and he's like, he's got this look in
his face, like, oh God, why did I have to
come to this thing. So he's sitting there with me

(03:22):
and I don't know, I don't know if everybody knows,
but Luther was very gay, and he was very you know,
he had very he was he emoated. He had a
lot of gestures, but he had a lot of looks.
So I'm talking to him and he's looking the other
way and he's totally like not wanting to be there.
So I said, look, Luther, I said, I need you

(03:42):
to play my concerts. You're my favorite artist. I said,
I've had everybody at the art. I mean I've had
every big artist there is for the Kiss concerts, but
I want you, I said, what it's going to take
for you to do the Kiss concert and he says,
I'll do the Kiss concerts if you get me the
Boston Boston Pops to be my backup band. What God,

(04:04):
isn't that amazing?

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Because is that a big ask at that moment in
your hop?

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Yeah? Forced, But the fact of the matter is as
timing is everything. So I had had a dinner with
my buddy Robin Brown, who ran the Four Seasons, and
with Keith Lockhart, a couple of people two weeks prior.
And I had never met Keith before, and he loved
Kiss and we cobits. We talked, and he he gave
me his number, and you know, and I so I go,
I excuse myself for a minute and go in the

(04:29):
lobby and I called Robin. I said, Robin, you're not
gonna believe this. I tell him the story, and I said,
Keith gave me his number. I don't want to bother me.
I won't even want He says, well, he gave his number,
call him. So I called him and he answers the phone,
it's his cell phone. And I said, Keith Richie bows By,
now if you remember me, oh Richie, Yeah, we have
great dinner. I said, well, listen, here's what's going on.
I tell him the story. He goes, well, when is

(04:50):
the concert? I tell him to day and he goes,
hold on, comes back to the funny. He says, we
can do that. I said really, He said really, I said,
hold on him, and I take the phone. I give
it to Luther like turns white, and he's like he
was so he was so not wanting to do it.
He thought he thought he gave me the request I
couldn't do. And so now Luther is going to play

(05:11):
the Kiss concert, right, so with the with the Boston Pops,
which they they practiced. Now that cost me a lot
of money because the recovery didn't pay for the Boston Pops.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
But they got me Luther.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
And so we had like all these things planned for him.
Now it was skinny Luther. He had lost one hundred
pounds and he wouldn't stay at the Four Seasons where
everybody else was. He wanted to be at the Ritz
where he was just him, because he was really a diva.
So we had a dinner that the Thursday night before
at Sancy and we were a little late to getting there,
and he was like pissed, and Greg DeAndrea or no,

(05:46):
Eddie Letessa was there and Eddie was entertaining him, if
you can imagine. So so he's like talking to Luther
and Luther's given him the looks.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
We get there and Eddie's hold the conversation down with
that Rhode Island accent too.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
I got there. I think Luther thought it was like crazy,
but I get We get there and I had Lauren,
my daughter with me, who was young. It was like,
I don't know, young, twelve or thirteen, eleven, twelve, I
don't know. And so she's there and he was the
only one. She was the only one he really wanted
to talk to. So or sitting there and he won't
order anything a saucy he goes, no, no, I'm not

(06:20):
needing that. So he gets some lettuce with some vinegar
on it or something, goes back to the hotel. He
does a great concert. He had four wardrobe changes and
he did four songs. And my daughter Lauren, he had
her pick out the jackets he was gonna wear. They
were all sparkly. One was bright blue, bright red. I
mean it was incredible. It was like a spectacle. And

(06:40):
so then you know the show was great. It was
worth everything that costs and I and I get the
bill from the from the Ritz and I said, wow,
that's awfully high. I wonder what that is. I had
to deal with him and I said, get me the
backup to this bill and I look at it and
there was like two pages of stuff from the mini bar. Yeah,
he had like twenty things of cashews, like twenty five

(07:02):
milky ways. He ate everything in the bar but the
playing cards and.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
The condo that they put in.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
He was a closet eater.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
And anything at Sancy.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
He didn't any sancy, but he ate all the crap
at the you know, from the mini bar. But anyway,
the Luther Vanderser, he was spectacular. He is spectacular. I still,
if I ever want to relax, I listened to Luther
and I did get him to play the Kiss concert.
So that's my big achievement there.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Now here's what I get upset about. Okay, so let's
let's go.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
So now we should be upset about.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
When I come into the studio. This should be a
picture or a painting of mister Richard Balls. Yeah, I do.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
I'm old, but you know that old news.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
I said, I will say your stories when I walked
this holler right here, Richie. You'll see all the kiss
contents over the years, and I think everybody had credits
them to what you created.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
I don't want the legacy to die. That's my point, right.
So okay, So Richie decides in what year you are
going to sell out all your radio stations.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well, I mean it had to. It was ninety six.
And what happened really was a convergence of things. One
was I was I had just gone through a divorce. Uh,
and it was it was it was you know, absolutely,
you know painful. Radio was changing. They were deregulating radio,

(08:30):
and that means you were able to own more ams,
more fms, and everybody was getting involved with investment bankers.
And I just saw the business changing and I said,
I don't want to be a part of that business.
I try. I went to vest Or, I went to
my Capital Partners and tried to get them to change
their deal. All they worked.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
All that we got to go to break Sinney Stumble
and you listen to his nails on WBZ. We'll be
right back and welcome to Cindney STUMPO tough. His nails
on WZ.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Sounded like you said w RC was that it sounded
like you said w r C not w B.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Did I say w BZ? I don't know.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
I said what I said? How's that We're back? Go ahead?

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Yeah, so let me see where was I.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
I was singing the song in my head. So I'm
going to push you to mabe.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
It was changing. You didn't like where it was changing.
The person that you think.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
Is not Richie, who was like the original inventor of
ks and everything good about radio in Boston. But you're
talking about the error. The error when you decide to sell.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
That's what DJ's made real money to and DJs became
really love celebrities, real local celebrities. They were least lips.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Well, I say, well, I said, I say that. People
say would you miss it? And I say yeah, I
mean I miss what it was, but not what it's become.
And I said, I the only thing I don't miss
is negotiating with Matt Siegel.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
About that too, but which he built Matt, Yeah, okay,
he built me in the morning.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
Let's Matt will only on rare occasions will admit that,
but at any rate, So well, the business was changing,
and I and my and the radio. Our radio stations
were just they were all performing very well, and I
looked at it. I looked at the mirror. One day
I said, I'm not going to become a different well.
I had partners, Investor Capital Partners, and I went to them.

(10:20):
I said, look, if we changed the way our deal works,
and you can be at the point where the value
is right now. But we changed it because it was
based on revenues and if we were going to buy
radio stations to build a bigger company, I didn't want
the revenues from the stations I already had that were
so well performing to be affected by negative revenues of
stations I was going to build and turn around.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
And what you're saying right now is you know an
issue that happened to radio all the time. Currently lately,
a station like Kids still bills a ton of moneys
to were profitable, but there are other stations across the
country that I would own that would bleed. So that.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
It was changed.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Now, oh, completely different because it's still a very profitable entity,
but other properties make it.

Speaker 4 (11:02):
At that time, I had all good radio stations for
me to go forward and build a company with all
the new deregulations. They would have had to infuse it
with a lot of capital. I would have been taking
over stations that were losing money, adding them to the
portfolio of the stations I had that were making money,
and my accretion of what I was worth, my value
of what my part of the company was, would be

(11:23):
negatively impacted by the lower things. So I said, okay,
you want to build a bigger company, we're going to stop.
We're going to well right now where we are with
the stations I have, will freeze the amount of money
you have there, and we'll change the deal going forward
because We're going to buy other radio stations and I'm
going to be working my rear off to make them
into successful radio stations. And they said, oh, we can't
change the deal. We have investors. I said, okay, then

(11:45):
I'm out. They said, well, you can't be out. I
said no, no, Read the contract. It says I can
I can trigger a sale. And that's when I said,
we're out.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
So how old are you know?

Speaker 1 (11:54):
What year is that?

Speaker 4 (11:55):
That would have been ninety six, okay, in like forty five, wow.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
And he sold it for.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Sixteen and a half million dollars three hundred and six.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
But hold on, it gets a little better than that
because he sells it for three hundred and sixteen million
to whatever half and half and then hold on. Then
he calls and he says, when the tax season came,
because I just went in the bathroom and threw up, right,
so everyone even go there. He literally was sick to
his stomach.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Right, it was the highest tax rates. When I sold,
I had the red checks that were unreal.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
He said, he went to the bathroom and threw up.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
You know what I got over myself.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Then hold on, Then he realized, what is networth? But
that was in what year? And you sold that to
ever whatever?

Speaker 4 (12:39):
Green ninety six? I sold it to Evergreen. I didn't
want to sell it to them. I didn't really like them.
I didn't like the people there.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
But here's the kick in the ass. Evergreen then holds
it for how long? It turns it over for how much?

Speaker 4 (12:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
I thought when they they held a flight two years,
they can we google that.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
I'm trying.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
And then everything I don't know, because you know what.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Like another one hundred million off.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
You don't let me explain somebody to you. When you
make a deal and you decide you're gonna you're gonna leave.
You just can't look at what you'd left on the table.
You have to look at what you got. And people
that do it that way are like, you're never going
to be happy. In far as I'm.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Concerned, I trying to sell stock at the highest invicement ideal.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
I'm happy with it. Good luck. If they can make
three times more, great, good for them. That's the way
I look at it.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
So literally, we took an investment. I didn't like them
very much, But you took an investment of fifteen million, right,
think with US fifteen million in what year? In eighty
two you're sold out by what ninety six? What do
we call that? One hundred x? I can't put right?

(13:46):
See three and sixty million? This is a three hundred ten.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Ten Now it's like thirty, it says.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
In April nine ninety seven, Gant Broadcasting agreed to sell
all its radio stations, including wgc I a m FM
in Chicago, Dallas and Houston, to Evergreen Media, but basically
for two point five eight billion in acquisitions that.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Acquired more radio stations and built it up higher. And then.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, fourteen years you spent.

Speaker 5 (14:15):
In Radio sixteen, well before then from ownership, Yeah, ownership,
ownership fourteen.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
The okay in two years, and.

Speaker 4 (14:24):
Then to two and a half when I was running him,
and then eight or seven years with the night stations.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Okay, But here comes my big question. You get all
this money, but then as time goes on, here's the
problem when you sell your company. This is why, no
matter what, I'm not selling ce Stumbo, because it gave
me a purpose. You get all this money, but Richie's
purpose was he was the man of Boston. And then

(14:51):
you get all this money, but then you got to
lose that power to.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Avenge identity for anybody in any career, I.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Would ain't knowing you as well as I do. You
missed that part of the business.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
Oh yeah, I do, God, no question. I would never
never say that I didn't. Of course I do.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
And I saw him build a lot of guys up.
I remember this guy, Scotty Selambrino. He came in, He
had one one limo right. Dave El was a driver,
came in and said to Richie, I'll drive for you for
what I.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Don't even remember.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Nothing.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
Well, and then I doubt that I ever let him
do it for nothing, but you paid him.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
But the point is he took a one limo company.
Because of you, he turned many men have made their
careers off of it. He doesn't take credit for any
of that, which drives me crazy. But and you started
giving him all the kiss concerts, all the events, all
the parties, all the people coming in. There's no Richie.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
There's no question that many people have taken advantage of
the fact that I helped him out without much.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Who would you ever say no to Richie? I need
I need to tickets. I need tickets to my kids.
I've seen Richie go out and buy tickets for people's kids, Okay,
which you'd say, I go, rich you don't own the
station anymore. Why are you buying tickets for their kids?
But he would be that was Richie.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Care a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
No, he's just generous, generous to a fault. That's Richie.
That's what I love.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
Well, let me put you. I wake up every morning
a smile on my face, and I'm happy about I'm
happy to be me. So that's that's that's what I
got out of it.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
Mostly that you're happy to be you. But it's so
funny how and I think that we can all say
this at our age, that you also find out later
on life who were your real friends and who weren't
your real friends. When you're flying high, everybody's your friends,
right and everybody needs something from you, and it's like, Cindy,

(16:45):
can you fix this, Cindy, can you do this? Yeah, yeah,
I'm sending guys over. Yeah, yeah, I'm sending guys over
Richie the same thing. Then one day you wake up
and you're like, where they'll go?

Speaker 4 (16:54):
That's a five hour telecharacter. Yeah, it's a very that
may be the own. That may be the one thing
which I think I like the least about giving up
the power and the whole thing is the fact you
find out who your friends are, and you find out
the son that you thought really good friends are, you know,
and then you find that others that you weren't really

(17:14):
sure where such good.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Friends are so and then some and those people turned
out to blow your mind to become really good friends, right,
sometimes the ones you at least expected.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
That's life in general. That's just that that, you know,
it happened to be more plaignant with me because of
the fact that I had the power of the the
tickets and the skyboxes and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
The power of everything. Richie restaurants, take kids, Celtics, this
that the box is the I mean, what life weren't
you living? Traveling? Going right?

Speaker 4 (17:45):
Well?

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, I have no regrets about one night we go
to Grammys. I'm like, why am I here? Why? Oh
my god? That was like the worst Grammys. Richie. Come on,
remember that.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
No getting you on the plane to get us there.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
We got where. We took the private plane and I
brought Richie Moe back with us on that private plane.
And I'm panicking now, most panicking, and now we don't
want to get on.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
This private You must have had them go down the
run right like fifteen times.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
But I swore to rich I would to make it there.
As we're flying over the Empire State Building, fort can
tell them having a heart attack. He stays at the
Four Seasons. Obviously, the Saint Regis. We stayed at the Fourties.
We did it because of Richie. We went to the
Saint Regis.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
There it is again, thank you for slumming.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Okay, I like no VideA but wait, hold, I thought
would be right back. I'm snee stumbling and you listen
Toughest Nails and w BZ and welcome back to Toughest
Nails on w b Z. I'm Cindy, I'm here with
Sammy and I'm here with Richie. So would we leave off?
That's called the menopause moment.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
We're talking about friends and yeah, yeah, yeah, who are
your friends when you're riding high versus not when.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
You're up and when you're down the whole way?

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Okay, Oh no, we were We're talking about going the
Grammys and I'm going.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
Yeah, but you started talking about the Grammars. Were we
on air when you were talking about it?

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah, we're on there.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
So we go to Grammys and that's when the East
Coast and the West coast was some bad scenes.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
Going on the wrapper gangs and oh.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Bad, bad, bad bad, and I go, I'm.

Speaker 4 (19:03):
Out of THEA was hanging out there was great.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
I'm out of here like this is I remember being
I'm going back to the four season and hang out
with the kids. And I said, then I'll meet you
at the parties. And then we went to all the
Sony parties.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
Well those were good. The parties were the.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Party after the Grammys.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Yeah, the Grammys used to be great in the old days.
But they you know, I went like twenty some straight years,
but then they got then they became very much more commercial,
and you know, everything.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Has you go off to commercial. They were all by
the bar fighting with each other. I didn't know if
I was gonna get sharp blown away. It was a way.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
I wasn't out there watching that, so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
You out front still, but I'd go out to the barrier.
Not that I'm drinking. I wanted to watch the action.
I should have drink.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
I should have been it would have been better.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
I don't know about that. It'd be great.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
I don't know music, you.

Speaker 4 (19:52):
Know, I mean the the old days of the great.
It's funny because it's almost like all like the Kiss Concert. Yeah,
when I created the Kiss Concert. First of all, the
beginning was was hard. You know. I did it at
a nightclubs.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
And two nights, which she hates talking about.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Then when it became then when it you know, it
was the Boston Garden, the Great Woods, and I'd have
the backstage, and I'd be able to have all my
friends and all the family and all their kids and
everybody hanging out and running around with the artists. And
stuff and the Great.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Wood in the back to me was Infinity Center. It
was I called Great Woods and it was a tweeter center.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
But the food was back there. All the people were back.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
Everybody knew everybody, and I had not not high end food,
but I had you know, uh, you know, cafeteria kind
of food for everybody. Everybody hung out and eating and
just you know, had a great time in general.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
And come on, it was I have great stories and
what But anyway, how about the party at La Papion Okay,
not La Papion at the Hilton, Oh, the.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
One, the one when Mendez.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
The whole hotel and the club downstairs. Yeah, that's yeah,
that's was that called Papion's.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
I forget it was called. But the was fun was
happening happening up in the in the store room right
because I had Sergio Mendez playing and I had all
these people jump on stage with him, Aljirou and Natalie Cole,
people that weren't even at the concer. They weren't even
at the concert, they were just in town. It was
pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
But that that one was a great.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Boy George was with yeah, boy George in the bathroom.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Girls took everybody's coke and stood everybody's coke and none.
I can't make this up. Then we're walking by Natalie
Cole and your dad goes, oh, you know we got
married to your father. I don't care, like right, I
don't care. And the best one was White Snake. I
walk by him and go, hi, not yet, but I'd
like to be Come on, think about these days.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
Chime Marvin Hagler beat up a limo driver. That was
pretty nuts. But but anyway, but see, there's so many.
There's a story. I'll tell you one more story. That's
kind of funny that that was it that year. Yeah,
it might have been that year.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
And David Lee Roth talking to Nana and Popper, and
my father's going, can you get here? He doesn't. He
won't leave Nana alone. He was bop wopping everybody's bopp
And back then.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
I had to get I had to get a bunch
of hotel rooms around the Hilton, you know, And I
did try to do trade deals to get to put
all these people to try to mitigate my costs. And
I had the uh, what's the one across the street,
the Colonnade and the Colonnade was owned by that guy
Drunker right, he would not do a trade deal with me.

(22:24):
And he said to me, he said, look, rich, I
don't want those the element of people in my hotel.
It's a high end hotel. I go, geez, dude, I said,
I've done it at the four Seasons the risk. I said,
come on, and I said, just do a small trade.
I'll put only like you know, really like advertising agency
people and some people at the hotel. So he acquiesced
and we did a deal. And Dottie Jones was my

(22:45):
secretary then if you remember her, and Dottie. Dottie got
overwhelmed with what was going on, so.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
She she took very quid care of her when you
when you sold.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
But anyway, so you're jumping around, so anyway, so the I'm.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Just giving the facts here.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
I know that's right.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
I'm blowing your horn because you're not doing a very
good job.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
I'm not trying to do that anyway, so to it.
So we so we had the thing there and the
Gap band was when I love the Gap band, and
they were they were playing and they were it was
the garden was where the where the concert was the
last one I had the garden. The Gap man went
and rehearsed there, and somehow Dotty, because she got overwhelmed
with all the people and stuff, put the Gap band
in the Colonnade. So they were in their white cowboy

(23:26):
suits rehearsing on a Friday, the or a whatever day
it was. I don't remember, maybe Friday at concert Saturday,
and I got this frantic call. Apparently they all came
back to the lobby of the Colonnade where they had
that big table, that big glass table, and they were
they had piles of cocaine. They were snorting on the
table and Druker went crazy. He called me. He didn't

(23:47):
talk to me for ten years. I apologized, I said,
I didn't know. I mean, we got him out. I
was terrible. It was actually, I mean, my fault, obviously,
but can you imagine they don't oh no, we won't
put any any any you know, rif raffing your hotel
and there snorting cocaine while the regular customers are checking in.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
So it was all crazy days. Rod Stewart having did
the four scenes with Richie with Rod Kelly Hamberg, that's
who we were seeing at the time. They broke out
in a massive fight. Richie's trying to get that under control,
like that was after he did his concert. Come on,
I mean we saw such crazy stuff. Well, we had
a lot of good das together to but a.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
Good thing that our cell phones now didn't exist then.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
Oh it's an absolute blessing.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
It's an absolute blessing.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
I'll tell you so.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
When you look back now, Richie just said, you're happy.
You get up every day. You love your golf. You
loved your golf for how long?

Speaker 4 (24:40):
Oh for fifty years.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Are you proud of your accomplishments?

Speaker 4 (24:46):
Yeah, very proud. Oh yeah, extremely proud.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Still not gonna be happy till they make a movie. Well,
because I think everything's going back to retro right now.
These kids out of the West Coast. On my social media,
I'm following these kids and everything they're dancing to, whether
they're dancing or rollerblading, they're dancing to that music that
was being played on Kiss when in the seventies and

(25:10):
early eighties.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
I have some people that I'm talking to about it,
but they've they've got to make it. I'm not going
let me just say there are some things that are
that are happening, but I don't want to talk about
them unless.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Okay, well I want to be an investor, all right.

Speaker 4 (25:22):
I don't know that I'm in need investors, but but
I want to. But the the you know, look it's yes,
I mean, if you if I really want to be honest,
those were the glory days of my life.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
But they will take you with the glory days for
a lot of people that you've created in Boston.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
Because nobody does the things that they that they do
today in terms of drugs, in terms of you know,
the wretched excess, in terms of limousines and all this stuff.
I mean, it was crazy and it was it was normal.
It was it was normal, So that was it was.
It was just crazy. But yeah, but I yeah, I

(26:00):
miss it. But I reminisce a lot. I have a
lot of pictures, a lot of I have the Chromhart's
big photo albums with all the different things. I mean,
I've got with my arm around Michael Jackson at at
Rex and at the Grammys, and I've got Lauren sitting
on Paul Abdul's lap with John Stamos sitting behind him.
I got all these great pictures.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
I remember the year that I didn't even know who
glory Estevan was she had come to one of the causes.
She did the Garden, Yes, she did the Garden. I
had no clue, like she was just kind of new.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
She was a new artist, stal machine. Then that's when
the boy George did Bad Bad Boys with her on stage.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
And seven with them. But what about I don't remember.
Did you mix gem and ninety four with the Kiss
parties with rock and rolling? No, no, you never missed.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
I don't know Jim Jam. I did things with jam
and that were separate, separate, Yeah, but no kiss Kiss.
You know, Kiss was the jingle ball in the Kiss concert.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
Right, And if you walk down the right when you
leave my studio, all you're going to see is jingle
ball kiss things Witchie. That's all you know. That's all
you All those pictures that you'll see. I'll take you
down the right side, right, they wouldn't be here today
if it wasn't for you.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
You have to understand that that my ego.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Is, my ego is bigger than you.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
I was, But I don't I know, I know what
I did. I don't have to have other people.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Everybody know it, Yeah, but we want to know it.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, I'm telling you that's why I'm here.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
I know the story. I live part of it with them.
But that's not the point. The point is you don't
want to blow your own horn, and I'm blowing your
horn all the time.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
And every time I walk in the studio, I get
really pissed so that I'm gonna bring my own picture
and blow it up. I'm gonna put it right here.

Speaker 4 (27:40):
You got it right there, just well picture of you.
Oh well, well, let's we can not do that.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yes we can, because I got some great I got
some great pictures, but and you got some great pictures.
We have to share those pictures.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
We will. I told you I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
To put reaching you change Boston period. You know, I
interviewed Charlie Walk a few weeks ago here and your
name came up ten times. Remember Charlie started as you know,
exactly for who me exactly? And then he turns and
then he turns out to be what president epic. Okay,

(28:16):
so look at how many lives. You don't even have
any clue. You don't have it because you know, you're
not thinking about how many lives you've changed along the way.
And Charlie and I were talking about that all that thought.
I'm Sindy Stumble and you listen Toughest Nails in WBZ
and welcome back to Toughest Nails. I'm Cindy and I'm
Sammy and Richie Sammy, we're on our last segment with Richie.

(28:40):
Is there anything you want to say to Richie? Knowing
Richie since you can pretty much walk and talk, well,
thank you for everything you did for me as a kid.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
It was a pleasure, my pleasure. You guys are always great.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
With some of your best memories out there going I
gotta go to the concerts. I gotta do.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, it was the best. All my friends got to come,
and it was.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Great hanging at Richie's house.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Like, to me, that was normal. I think that would
never be normal to somebody else.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
But think about this, Richie, what your pool, your backyard?
Were all playing back gam and Joey McIntyre and Sam's going,
Joey McIntyre is by the pool, right, What did she knows?
She didn't, she just knew was Joey McIntyre right, And
we're just all playing backam and like, so big deal.
But imagine how starry eyed even your kids had to
be at some point my kids.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
She was, well, yeah, yeah, I mean my kids, my
kids weren't.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
We just grew up and they got used to it.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
Yeah they didn't. They weren't really. Uh. Lauren had gotten
a big fight with Joey McIntyre when we were heave
the skyboxing before the first time, when they were they
were a different box. I took her over to meet
him and he was like watching the game and he
was kind of like dismissive, and she got pissed, excuse me, mad,
and she and.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
She was, how old you do?

Speaker 4 (29:53):
At the time, she must have been like ten or
something she was. So she said, no, Dad, I don't
want you ever to play that again. He's not a
nice guy, not a nice person. And so, I mean
Joey did everything but gravel back to the other suite
to say could hide her and talk to her. Laura
Lauren had a lot of power that she didn't even know.

(30:14):
She was funny Lauren. She'd loved it. She worked. She
worked at the radio station. It's funny because she I'd
bring her into work and she'd work down a promotion
and she'd do, you know, all kinds of things. And
she was a terrible speller, but she'd write me notes
and everything was misspelled. It was just so funny. But
she was there for like three days, and I'd give
her like five dollars, you know, just you know, And

(30:35):
I get this thing typed in the typewriter with all misspelling,
that she does more work than the people that work
for me, and she thinks she should get a raise
to ten dollars she'd do. And I have all this
stuff and I actually put it in a framed picture
with old pictures of her, gave it for one of
the Christmases. But yeah, I mean, you know, the kids,
my kids, my friend, my friend's kids. You know, that

(30:56):
was that was the most enjoyable thing to have everybody
enjoy it. You know, that was fun because everybody participated.
Everybody enjoyed it. It's fun.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
And then Papa Bobby'd be like, which should be cleaning
out his closet? And Papa would be like loving his
cashmere sweat is, which he'd be like, yepy here, Bobby,
take this, yeh, Bobby, take that right, Bobby, yep. Papa
loved Richie. Well, Richie. My questions is what legacy do
you hope to leave in the media industry.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
That's a hard one. The answer. I never thought about it. Really.
I think maybe I just get off well, yeah, I
never I never thought about it. I guess that I
would just like to be thought of as an innovator
and a risk taker who did things that other people
were afraid to do.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
And that's what you and I created.

Speaker 4 (31:45):
Things that people never would have done. I did the
concert of the things that people never thought could be
could be done, and I enjoyed doing it. I mean,
people say, you hear so many people say I'm so lucky.
It's not like I feel like my whole life has
been enjoyment, not work. I don't feel like I go
to work like ballplayers and things like that. Truly, my

(32:06):
life was was enjoyment.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
I mean I say it every day. If you enjoy
what you do, it's not a job.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
And truly, I did you enjoyed what you people? Yeah,
I had. I mean Charlie Minor, who was my best buddy.
I mean I had times with him, I and you know,
unfortunately he was gone twenty some years ago. Those memories
I still laugh to myself and smile thinking about them.
So I have a lot of wonderful fond memories, and

(32:32):
they still live in my in my my strange mind,
I think about them all the time. So I have Yeah,
but the legacy would be that I was an innovator,
a risk taker, and good at what I did.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Did you ever think today that podcasts, right, podcasts, it
could be sometimes speager than radio. Did you ever even
when I started hearing about podcasts right where people are
coming to going, why you with I have media? Why
aren't you doing your own podcast? You can be you,
you don't have to be squeaky clean, blah blah blah.

(33:06):
I always thought like podcast was beneath radio, and now podcast.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
Well, you're absolutely right, and I'm old school and I
always felt the same way. I'm still having a hard
time grasping it. It is the new. It's a very
new medium. It's very you can.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Make a lot of money, one percent. We'll make it
out there. The podcast Well, well, right, so.

Speaker 4 (33:27):
I don't, yeah, because I've never really kind of I will.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah. I try to follow who the leaders are on podcasts.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
But Joe Rogan's doing okay.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Joe's from Newton, Massachusetts, an the Boston kid, right.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
He's doing okay? And those Kelsey brothers are doing good.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, but again there's how many people trying to be that.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Well, yeah, it's true. Yeah, you're right. I'm not advocating
for podcasts. I've done a couple of them, but not
you know, just a couple of them. But I you know,
I never thought that it'd be what it was ever.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Well, radio, ever, in your opinion, be obsolete.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
You don't believe so.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
No, because a localization, particularly with news, sports and personality.
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
So you think radio will hang on?

Speaker 4 (34:13):
I do. I think not. I think the top.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
You don't think these devices where people can only you know,
this generationally has an attention span of like a flee, right,
they can only watch something for fifty seconds and they've.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
Done me too, I have the same.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Well that's happened because we're getting older. But we used
to be able to sit down.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
Mean that's down. No, yeah, I'll tell you what. It's funny. Well,
just you know, for your edification, I listened to Soul
Town on on you know serious.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Okay, So but you said you're paying for paid radio.
I'm listening to my paid radio.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
I know. So that's me and and but I don't
listen around the dial. I just the one thing because
I love that music and I don't know how to
put it on my eye. So what's your which I
don't even think they have anything.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
What is your favorite No we download to our phones.
What's your favorite genre of music? Will it be so rock?
With disco soul?

Speaker 4 (35:12):
Old soul?

Speaker 1 (35:14):
So used to like Bobbing Gay, Timmy Chouell, Diana Ross.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
And also things like the Intruders, the Stylistics.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
That Intruders. I will always love, my mama.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yeah, the Delphonics, the Dell.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Did I blow your mind this time?

Speaker 4 (35:25):
That's right? That?

Speaker 1 (35:27):
It's funny how we can remember music like some of
us can just remember music. Right then if you ask
me what day for breakfast yesterday? Why, I might have
to really think about that three times. But you say
the Delphonics, and I'll come up with did I blow
you on this time? Right?

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Well, I'll tell you this.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
I'll always love.

Speaker 4 (35:41):
My way to remember.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
And that wasn't my music, Richie, that was my parents music.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Oh yeah, but that's such great music. But if you
if you want to remember we had for breakfast, just
have the same thing everything.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Then you have to forget, right, yes, I had high
boiled eggs, but I don't know chie. I seen a
big life, a j Ris Man, a man that was
giving a man that. You're a good man, Richie, You've
always been a good.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
Well, thank you. It's very very sweet of you. I
appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
And I want nothing but great happiness for you and
you living a healthy, good life. And sometimes we all
get caught up working. Who would think, I mean, think
about this, Richie. Did you ever think that from the
time you met Cindy she'd end up on HGTV and
Nasha radio show and build a career I built, right.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
I think it's incredible. I think you deserve a lot
of credit too. I mean you've really built You've built
a brand. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
But I can't quit if I stop working. If you
have golf, so you love golf, you love to go
to Nantucky, you love to go to Florida. You're back
in here. What am I going to do now? In
my life?

Speaker 4 (36:47):
I are all made up differently. And if that's what
works for you, that's great.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
It is you see your mom not working? No, that
would be a very big way, right.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Well, I mean as long as you know it and
as long as you embrace it. That's all about.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
And you know, like we love you to death, right,
I always love you.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
Thank you that I always loved my moment.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
I always love you.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
He's my favorite girl.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
But there's probably one more question I really want to
ask you, and that is, if you had one do
over in life, would you have changed anything.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
I've been asked this question before. I know there are
probably things that I would have done differently, but I
look at it as the whole package, and I will
tell you that the answer is I wouldn't change anything,
because everything turned out the way it should have. Children,
even divorces, as bad as they were or whatever, they were,
still great experiences. All the things I did at Kiss

(37:43):
I did luckily didn't do anything which landed me in
jail or anything.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
That's a good thing, right.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
Something I would have changed, But no, I actually I
really would. I wouldn't change anything. You know, for all
the all the things that might not have been the best,
there was something that good came out of them. And
that's not a answer that's supposed to sound good. That's
kind of true because I've thought.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
About that question, and everybody always asked me that question.
Would you change one.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Thing, and would we say you never say you would change.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
I married the same man, no, even if I knew
the results, because I wouldn't have Seaman Chad. And life
is what it is. And I went and made the
friends I made. So if you take a right, you
end up down this road. You take a left, you
end up down this road. So I agree with you.
Give me a fist pump because we ain't changing anything wrong.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
Hey, you know you could go That's see, that's the
thing when people ask that question, if you go down
the wrong road, if you could change something, it takes.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Any changes everything. Yeah, all that thought. I'm sitting stump.
When you listen to His Nails on WBZ News Radio
ten thirty and welcome back to Tough his Nails on WBZ,
and I'm here with Sammy. I'm here, Richie, Richie, what
are you working on? Well that you really can't tell us.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
Well, I'm not going to tell you because it's not
far enough along. But basically, I had been working on
a TV show a while ago, which kind of win
could put. But now it's been re energizing a different
I have some meetings coming up in the within the
next two weeks and I will know if it's real
or not. If it is, I will let.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
You know deal. Okay, folks, that's Richie Bolsburg Kiss Oneawa
cham in ninety four, started all in Boston and went
across the country. Everybody, have a great, safe weekend and
we'll see you next weekend. I'm Sydney Stumpo and you're
listening to WBZ ten thirty on Tough as Nails.