September 19, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode, Andrew Wilkow opens up about his Gen X upbringing, his path into radio, and how talk radio has transformed over the years. He shares lessons on grit, the realities of creating content in the digital era, and the advice he’d give to his younger self. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Wednesday & Friday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, Welcome back to the Camel Markwood Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Andrew Wilcow. Andrew's host of the
Willcow Majority on Serious Xem Patriot Radio at noon Eastern
time Monday through Friday, and host of Wilcow on the
Salem News Channel nine pm Eastern Monday through Friday. So
nice to have you on, Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thanks for having me on. I love this.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm so glad to have you here because I have
to tell you, of all the radio shows I do,
I'm always like I would totally be friends with Andrew,
and I don't know. You know, we were talking before
the start of it. You're in a gen X nostalgia moment.
I'm gen X also, I think we're the best generation.
Easily tell me what you're going through with the gen
(00:46):
X thing.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
It's funny.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
We are the generation that annoyed our parents with our music,
and now we annoy our children with our music. And
you know it's funny that, like, right now, my son
is obsessed with BMX bikes.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'm actually wearing a T shirt from the movie Rad.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
He'd watched the movie Rad, which is as dead center
of the eighties as you can get and he wanted
a bike. So I was like, oh my god, I
haven't seen one of these bikes in forty years. I
had a mongoose, just like the one in the movie.
I went on Facebook marketplace I found one, and then
I found a guy who restores them.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So I bought a couple of them.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And the neighborhood where I live in the kids are
living the gen X life.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
They're oh yeah, free range.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
They come home when the when the street lights come on,
they ride at a pack of boys, not getting into trouble.
They just they go from one house to the other house.
They get themselves snacks and drinks and whatever. And I
just look at that, and I look, I look back.
I mean, I bought my exact bike myself, and amazing.
We have a brewery near where I live, and my
(01:53):
son and I will ride to the Obviously he gets
non alcoholic beverages. But it's just to have that gen
X connect kid with one of my kids.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I find myself at night when I'm done prepping, just
watching old eighties movies and I don't know, I don't know.
I feel like we came from a very very special time.
The Last Innocent generation for the Internet.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, I agree completely. I think we had it made,
and especially because we kind of got both. We had
the internet too eventually, but we had the care free child.
And my kids are very similarly similarly living that Gen
X life. The only difference is they're allowed in the house.
Obviously none of us were allowed in the house. There
was no endless pirate booty or grabbing you know, water
(02:38):
or any any of that. You had to stay out there.
I love it. I think that's the way to have
kids now. And I think people who don't do that
and let their kids just like be screen you know, maniacs,
they're going to regret it.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I wonder sometimes though, if the connection is Reagan and Trump, right.
Ronald Reagan popularized conservatism and we had job growth, and
to me, the BMX bike was a symbol of our parents'
ability to provide us, you know something, you might call
(03:14):
it today a flex but our parents could afford those
things that Generally, the economy was good, the country felt safe.
It wasn't perfect, nothing is, but in an odd way,
I feel like we're in that second generation. Yeh time
(03:36):
now chapter with Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right, it's morning in America again.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Definitely weird though, right, weird weird, Yeah, weird interconnectivity.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
There absolutely So how long have you been doing radio?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I started in nineteen ninety on what was called a
Carrier current radio station in a small two year college
in upstate New York.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
It was my dream as a kid.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I knew the way some people know they want to
be a police officer, or they want to be a
doctor or whatever is I knew in the third grade
I wanted to I would stay up late at night.
We had this We called it a full service radio station,
so they played adult contemporary. They had a long Island
(04:21):
Islanders talk show, they covered the Islanders games, and it
was a full service AM and it was at the
train station in the next town over for me, so
it was it was pretty accessible, and my mom would
take me to events where they were broadcasting live and
I just I was so absorbed by this radio station.
It was called twelve forty AMWGBB. And then of course,
(04:41):
you know you had the late night shows like Hollywood
Love Lines and all this stuff on.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, I remember love Lines.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I got to Kelly working here, which was so bizarre.
But I obsessed over radio, and when I got into college.
I before I even unpacked my dorm, I went to
the college radio station. I had put my stuff in
my dorm me I went right down to the college
radio station, and I wanted in.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I want it in. I wanted in so bad.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
And the problem was I wanted in so bad that
I filled out because all I wanted to do is
be at the radio station if somebody didn't want to
be on the air. I eventually became the program director,
and I spent so much time that my grades really
did suffer and I was embarrassed.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So I transferred home to a Long Island.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I went from Sunny del High to Sudney Farmingdale, which
is a two year college on Long Island, and I
immediately went to the radio station. They needed a program director.
I took over. I ended up getting an internship at
the old wdre Well lr DRI, the first commercial alternative
radio station. I was the morning show intern. So I
(05:48):
would go in around four thirty five o'clock in the morning.
I would help Darren Smith, who also worked here works here,
prep his show, and then I would go to school
and then I would go to the radio station. I'd
do my show. I would program other shows and I
knew that I had to. I don't know why I
thought I did. I needed a journal and degree. So
(06:11):
I applied to the University of Florida. I didn't get
in because they didn't have forgiveness, so failing out of
the first school, they counted it against the second school.
But a funny wrinkle was if I went to Santa
Fe Community College in Florida, they would forgive my past
failures and I could make up for it and get
my associates. I did that, and I actually had a resume.
(06:33):
I had two radio stations. I had programmed carrier current
literally means it's just on campus, like it just doesn't
really go anywhere, right, And I got in and I
eventually went out for Rock one oh four in Gainesville,
and that was my first taste of like big, big
loud FM radio. Fifty thousand watts went from near Orlando
(06:55):
to Tampa all the way up almost to Jacksonville, just
to I don't want to bore, are you with the
whole story all alight?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
When I first graduated, I couldn't get arrested in this business.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I really thought, here I am, I'm a nighttime DJ
on a quasi college radio station Rock one OO four
was owned by the university, but it wasn't staffed like
a college radio station where it's just people playing whatever
they want. We had commercials, we had news, traffic, weather,
we had the Gator Football Network, and I actually my
(07:29):
first real taste.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Of getting somewhere.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
And if we have time, we should talk about podcasting
and hard work. I was sitting in a meeting and well,
let me back this up a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I went to read for this program director and he
handed me four cards and he said they're one through
four easiest, hardest. And I said, I'm gonna be your
in new morning show. And I flipped it right to
four and I started reading and he stops me. He
took his glasses off as he goes, you suck, and
you know my balloon had just popped. So I came
(08:06):
back for a second tryout, and I said, mister Guscott,
his name was Harry Guscott. I said, I will do
anything to be on this radio station. And let me
read the one card. So he said fine. I read
the cards. He said, you can go into a program
where you do you know, recorded breaks and stuff, and
if I like it, I'll put you on two am
to six am one day a week. Fine, I get that.
(08:28):
At the first STF meeting before the football season, have
the whole crowd in there, and he goes, I need
someone to work. And before he could say the word Saturday,
which is tailgate time, right, you can outside of the
bars and restaurants, Gainesville shuts down for tailgate time. I
went like this and just put my hand up. He goes,
all right, will cow you got it? And I was
(08:49):
the voice on the rock station before the voice of
the Florida Gators, Mick Hubert. And I realized then and
there by solving somebody else's problem, right, I willing, being
willing to do what nobody else wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Everybody crossed another gen X trade.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I feel like, well, we were.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
All gen x.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
But yeah, that was how I started my path in
this business. I won't say that I was great a
natural to start, but I was willing to outwork anyone
who got in my way. I would work spring break,
I would miss spring break, winter break, any break you
want off, I'm in. I don't care what the circumstances
(09:28):
it was. And I took that philosophy after college to
rock radio I did a stint in Top forty in
the Panhandle. That's kind of unremarkable. But by the time
I landed in Morgantown, West Virginia, Oh wow. I came
to this sleepy radio station that that really it was
(09:50):
just sleepy, and I said, this is where I'm going
to make my mark. And I started doing basically a
morning show from from six pm to midnight or seven
pm to midnight and seven pm to midnight. And I
just started to pop in the ratings. And next thing
I know, I'm getting fired because the station owner's friend
didn't like my show.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
And that's how that's how I landed in Hartford. I
got a program director, Todd Thomas. He said to me,
you know, if you don't want to do the blue
humor thing, you want to do what you're doing, which
was a little bit mixture of you know, blue humor
and a little political commentary. Right this is pre nine
to eleven. He's like, I think we got something here.
And they brought me and they put me on the
(10:33):
mid day ten am to three pm, which is a
sleepy time morning drive after the Drive with O the
Real money Makers, and then midday is kind of like
you know, right. So I brought that with me and
then nine to eleven happed and I was on the
air every day hammering, hammering, hammering.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And this is Hartford, it's Connecticut, it's very Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
The phone started to go nuts on a rock station,
on an alternative rock station. You know, we're we're playing
Dave Matthew's band, We're playing Pearl Jam or playing you know,
and next thing I know, I'm.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
I'm They were calling to say, like we love this guy.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, some people, yeah, but we were getting a lot
of hate calls. The Scagell trial was a big thing,
and I kept calling them the inbreds.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Scagalle trial, for those who don't know, is a Kennedy
cousin was accused of murdering somebody. Actually we went a
way to prison for murdering this girl. But years and
years after it happened, it was a very sensational trial. Gone.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Sorry, I just kept calling them the inbreds from jap
Equitick and well, you know, it's New England.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
They don't like that. And we realized I was getting
in trouble but not fined by the FCC.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
That you the sweet spot.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Yeah, two thousand and one This is pre podcasting. This
is still the dominance of rush and all that. Nobody
was doing this on a music station and getting attention
for it. But I wasn't getting in trouble right like
we were getting static. We were getting you know, good press,
(12:06):
bad press, but no problems with the FCC. And that
was the thing that my program director was looking for.
He wanted the shock value, but without any right and
that's what we did. I get a call from the
program director of seventy seven WABC, the biggest news talk
station in America, and he says, my name is Phil Boyce.
(12:29):
I'm the program director of WABC. I'd like to talk
to you about becoming a talk shows. I thought of pranks,
so I hung up the phone and he calls back
to the switchboard at the radio station, gets me on
the phone. Hecaus, listen to me very carefully. I'm Russia Limbond,
Sean Hannity's program director, and I want to.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Talk to you.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
And I I always thought that radio was kind of
an ivory tower, but talk radio was the penthouse, right
that would be off limits to me. I never I
never thought in a million years that I would be
scouted way and next thing, I know, I'm doing a
fill in for Mark Levin when he was just the
(13:06):
noon to two on Sunday show. The program director says,
I need someone. I need to build a bench here,
and I've got a guy named Mark Levin. He's doing
a noon to two Sunday show. It's really starting to
pick up traction. But I got to make sure I
have somebody in the bullpen, you know, if he needs
a day off.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
So next day, I know, I'm filling in for Mark Levin.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
More coming up with Andrew Wilcow. But first, it was
nearly two years ago the terrorists murdered more than twelve
hundred innocent Israelis and took two hundred and fifty hostages.
Today it seems as if the cries of the dead
and dying have been drowned out by shouts of anti
Semitic hatred, and the most brutal attack on Jewish people
since the Holocaust has been forgotten. Yet as the world
(13:50):
looks away, a light shines in the darkness. It's a
movement of love and support for the people of Israel
called Flags a Fellowship, and it's organized by the International
Fellows of Christians and Jews, and on October fifth, just
a few weeks away, millions across America will prayer fully
plant an Israeli flag and honor and solidarity with the
victims of October seventh, twenty twenty three and their grieving families.
(14:14):
And now you can be part of the movement too.
To get more information about how you can join the
Flags of Fellowship movement, visit the Fellowship online at IFCJ
dot org. That's IFCJ dot org. More from the Carol
Markowitz Show coming up.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So the question I normally ask people to follow up on,
like you know, when they pursue their dreams, is was
there a plan B? Was there anything else that you
thought you would do? But you you've been wanting to
do this since you were a little kid. So I
guess the question for you really is do you feel
like you've made it? You now have two extremely popular shows,
have you made it?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
In my mind, from where I started out and what
my expectations were, my goal was to be like an
air and drive DJ, premiering new songs and interviewing bands
and doing live broadcasts from conscience. That was where I
wanted to be. You know, I did see talk radio.
I did follow talk radio. I did love talk radio.
(15:16):
I just never thought I would be the one, you know,
doing it. Even though I had turned my music shows
into mini radio bits and breaks. I never thought that
I would get I would get this chance. That that
was something that I never thought the plan b was.
I found out the hard way. You don't really need
(15:37):
a journalism degree to practice journalism.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Oh yeah, I hear. You got a master's degree in
politics to do what I'm what I do and biggest
waste of money I've ever had.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
So what I did was I got a degree in operations,
which was the business side. So I figured if I
floundered in any way, I could be a sales guy,
I could be a promotions guy. Maybe I would get
a shot at programming, you know, coaching new talent.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Whatever it was.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I thought, Okay, I'm taking these journalism classes, but I
don't really need them. I don't need to know how
to write a local piece about a shooting. Need I
need to figure out what's on the other side of this.
And I started to study the business side, thinking okay, well,
if one fails, at least I'll be in the field.
I studied, and that's what was my plan.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
B what do you worry about what's on your mind now.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
In the future of this business. That's where I was
gonna say about the hard work thing. And I'm not jealous,
I'm not insulting anyone. As a matter of fact, I
would have taken any opportunity that any of these these
rockstar podcasters would have taken had it been the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I'm not saying it's not hard work. I'm not saying
that at all.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
But the difference is the gatekeeping is a lot of
these people are starting up independent. Yes, they have talent
behind them, and they have marketing teams and algorithms and
that stuff, but they're It's kind of like bands that
are uploading their stuff on YouTube and not waiting for
the FM program directors to give them spins or hope
(17:11):
that MTV picks up their stuff. There's a way more independent,
even rebellious vibe to what you're doing right now, right
the working overnights, giving up your weekend, sleeping on the
station couch. I remember at one point I had to
when I was in West Virginia. I would have to
go to the municipal garage, pull the station van out,
(17:33):
drive the station van to an event, set up all
the equipment, do the broadcast, break it down, blah blah blah,
all for twenty five bucks. I got an er twenty
five bucks. Ye, my paycheck for doing all of that.
And you know when you think, like, man, this is
not big time. I'm setting up equipment, I'm putting the
table out, I'm folding, I'm doing everything here, and now
(17:54):
I'm interviewing the manager of the food line and the
parking lot or something, right, And I just.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Kept myself, that's the stuff you got to do. That's
the stuff you got to do. That's the stuff you
got to do. But I don't know, maybe I'm naive.
I feel like this generation of content creators didn't have
to do any of that.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
They and God and God bless them, because no, yeah,
I mean yes.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
God bless them. But you could see the ones that
never worked in any other kind of capacity, Like I
feel like you could tell.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
All I know is that if if if somebody handed
me that thirty years ago, twenty five years ago, I
would have I probably would have jumped on it. And
you know, I've I've had look, I've had people say,
why don't you do this?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And why don't you do that?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
And you know, when you have such an it's.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Not it's an unstable business, but it's a shaky business.
I mean, they're here today, gone tomorrow types. There are
some people that are so rock solid and you know,
really unflappable in their careers, and God blessed those people too.
You asked me what I worry about. My wife said
to me the other day, if it wasn't for this,
what would you do right like right now? And I
(19:01):
said right now? I said, I don't know. I was
never designed to wear khaki pants.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And maybe you'd be building BMX bike.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I might be. You know, I've I've worked in the
well part of being a rock DJ. Believed it. I
was also a bartender and a bouncer.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
And I worked, I believe it, Yeah, jobs just to
make ends by my salary as the full time nighttime
DJ on an FM rock station in West Virginia was
thirteen thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That's so I had to work two extra jobs just
to pay rent.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, I don't know if you want to discuss it at all,
but I did DJ and two strip clubs at one point.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
All right, talk about it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
That was well, all right.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
In my stint in Top forty radio, I was making
six bucks an hour. I was working two shifts on
the weekend six bucks an hour. And one of the
people at work said, Hey, you know they just fired
the DJ over the blah blah blah strip club. You
know you could probably get that job like today. So
I drive over there and I had five hundred CDs
at the time, and I had my own DJ system
(20:08):
and I go into this club and they were like,
they hired me on the spot, and you want to
talk about what makes I will tell you this working
there may be more conservative. Maybe truly, the things I saw.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I feel like this should not exist.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
It was.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It was the argument that some feminists would make that
you know, this is an abusive industry. Some of these women,
when you speak to them for five minutes, you know
why they are here working at strippers. I worked eight
hours a night, six nights a week, behind a DJ booth,
calling out the girls by name, hosting bachelor parties. I
(20:49):
had seen some things that you would not believe. I
actually thought about writing a book called Confessions of a
Strip Club DJ.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Why social conservatives, you should totally do that. That is
a best seller.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Are waiting to happen this stuff I saw.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I don't even know what your tolerance is for some
of it on this program.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I have a high tolerance.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Let's just say I saw, I saw some stuff and
it was a it was a pretty weird time.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm like, here I am. I'm twenty five years old,
I'm a.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Suburban raised Long Island kid, I graduated college and here
I am spinning tracks at a strip club. And that
was that was That was a that was I don't
know if it was a low point or a teaching
point or what.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You'd call it. I think that battle hardened me.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yes, I think you love stuff. Yeah, I think teaching
point is actually exactly what that is. And you know,
I think don't have obviously don't have any regrets about it,
and you should absolutely write that book.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
The funny thing is after working there, I never went
to a bachelor party ever again.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Wow, I would go to the dinner. I would go.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I was like, if you guys are off to one
of those places, I'm I don't every want to say footing.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
In a get Oh, I'm serious. You should write this.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Up, but this is like, yeah, it's like working in
the kitchen of a really bad restaurant. Once you see
too many things, Once you once you know how the
burghers made you, probably you don't want to. You don't
want it. You don't want to, you don't want any
of it. That's that battle hardened me.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcoitch Show. What advice would you
give your sixteen year old self? Having done all this
looking back, what a sixteen year old Andrew need to know?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
See? I thought a lot about that.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
If I gave myself that advice, I might not have
followed the path that I followed and ended up where
I ended up. If I I'm looking at my daughter,
my oldest daughter, she'll be sixteen. She went from being
the I don't care about school kid right Her mind
was anywhere but school. She rebelled against school. She didn't
(22:56):
care about school, she didn't care about her grades. And
she had this moment when people started talking about colleges
or older brothers and.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Sisters going off to college.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
And I said to her, I said, you know, the
tape starts the day you walk into ninth grade. Actually
it started in eighth grade. Because her teachers had to
make recommendations to the high school teachers. And next thing
I know, she is as being introspective as a fifteen
year old, fourteen year old kid could be.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And now she's a merit honor student.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Something clicked in her brain that like, maybe I'm going
to get left behind or you know, my friends are
going to go off and do things. And I said
to her, look, the only you know, college is not
the only thing out there. But you know, I said
to her, it should be up to you. Yeah, And
if I could look back at myself at sixteen, whether
you want to go to college or not, whether you
(23:50):
want to go into a trade, start a business, do work,
whatever it is, I would probably have told myself to
take some of this stuff more seriously.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
At the sounds like you were very serious, though it
doesn't sound like you weren't serious.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I was. I was.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I was serious about what I wanted to do. I
don't know that I was serious about how I.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Was supposed to do it.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
And you know, I had teachers that would say, you know, Andrew,
you're really smart, but you don't apply yourself and you know,
stuff like that, and I just I didn't like being
in class, And I also argue with anyone who says
there's no such a thing as auditory learning. I would
be staring out the window and a teacher said, mister Wilcow.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
What did I just say? And I'd repeat it, Oh yeah,
and here I am today.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I would say, I think men are very good at
that playback. I'm like my husband when I'm like, you're
not listening to me, He's like, this is what you
just said.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
My wife tries to catch me in that. But yeah,
you know, I look at it, like, look what I do.
I considered myself an auditory learner. I listened. I didn't
watch as much, but I think I would have. I
would tell myself to take to take school a little
bit more seriously. Maybe not you know, fall in love,
(25:04):
but not not this discredit what you know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And but I see it to my daughter. I see
it in my daughter. She's working real hard. She does.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah, that's probably the advice I would give myself.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, I like that. I mean again, I think you
sound like you were a serious kid. But I mean
what teenager couldn't take a little little advice to be
a little more serious.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
It's funny growing up my parents My dad was what
you'd call probably more libertarian, but he never said this
is how you're going to think in this household.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I approached my kids. I don't tell them name. Yeah,
but I.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Dressed the part of heavy metal and punk rock. I
wore combat boots.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I wore it too.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Yeah, you know, I had my hair was in any
different array of weirdness, and everybody thought I was on drugs.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Everybody thought I was kind of a.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Delinquent, you know, John Bender from There's Your gen X,
John Bender from the Breakfast Club, when really I wasn't
at all. I hadn't I have. I'll confess to you,
I've never smoked marijuana. I've never done drugs. I was
laser focused on what I thought was going to be
a rate radio career.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
But I looked like what I looked like, And.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I guess teachers don't take you seriously when you look
like that, especially if they were in their forties and
fifties back in the eighties. So that I was serious.
But I guess maybe I was discounted because of my
appearance at the time.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Very gen X complaint.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Really, yeah, you know, heavy metal fans turned out to
be pretty productive members of society.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Really that was me also I was also a heavy
metal fan. I absolutely we are very productive members of society.
So what we like to dress a little funny back
back in the day, But.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
That was nice. Take school a little bit more seriously, Well, Andrew.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I have loved this conversation. I think you are fantastic.
Leave us here with your best tip for my listeners
on how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
All right, So on my on my radio program, I
do a thing called the every Man King and that's
where you you enjoy something that you've earned. I always say,
own what you earn, Earn what you own. Take pleasure
in that. Like when when I went out and bought
I bought a used boat and I found I was
sitting on the back of the boat docked with a
(27:27):
cigar in my hand to other dads. We're just talking
and someone said this is paradise and I'm like, here
we are sitting on this fifteen year old.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Boat on a lake.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
But I I always say, appreciate, don't get caught up
in you know, instagramah bakery. There are the simple pleasures.
There's a reason why it's called the simple pleasure. There's
a reason why it's called cheap thrills. I doesn't matter
(27:55):
how much money I make in this business. And I'm
not saying that just to be one of those people.
Didn't Grace. She's like, I don't do for the money. Yeah,
I do for the money, but I don't have super
flashy tastes. I drive a Ford F one fifty pickup.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
It's a raptor. But I don't.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Feel like, oh my god, somebody else has more than me,
and I'm gonna be dissatisfied. I'm going to walk around,
you know, kicking rocks because I don't have the biggest house,
and I don't have the fanciest car, and my kids
aren't tiktoking.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
From you know, bor or something.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
I truly believe you will be happier if you look
around at the things you have and the things you
wanted to have that you achieved and say, you know what,
it's all right, it's all right, this is this is good.
I think Instagram. I think, look, we've all been marketed
to since the day we were born that you're supposed
(28:49):
to be dissatisfied with your life until you buy this.
And I think at some point you have to you
have to recognize the good.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
The satisfying thing is the things that bring you pleasure.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
If you've got a classic car, or a motorcycle, or
a jet ski or a vaight, or you got a
vacation property, whatever it is that you said, you know,
I want it. I'm gonna work for it. I earned it.
It's now mine.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
But it doesn't matter if anybody else is impressed with it.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It doesn't matter if it's the stuff of Instagram, you know, popularity.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Do you enjoy it, then embrace the fact that you
would enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
I love that, and I think that that applies to
so many things. I think a lot of relationships don't
happen among young people right now because they don't like
how the person looks with them on Instagram. I think
you're absolutely right. Don't care about what other people think.
Just do what makes you happy. He is Andrew Wilkou.
Check him out at the Wilkout Majority on Serious exem
Patriot Radio and on Wilkow on the Salem News Channel.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Thank you so much, Andrew, loved to any time you
got to come back out with me.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Absolutely, any time
Hi, Welcome back to the Camel Markwood Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Andrew Wilcow. Andrew's host of the
Willcow Majority on Serious Xem Patriot Radio at noon Eastern
time Monday through Friday, and host of Wilcow on the
Salem News Channel nine pm Eastern Monday through Friday. So
nice to have you on, Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thanks for having me on. I love this.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm so glad to have you here because I have
to tell you, of all the radio shows I do,
I'm always like I would totally be friends with Andrew,
and I don't know. You know, we were talking before
the start of it. You're in a gen X nostalgia moment.
I'm gen X also, I think we're the best generation.
Easily tell me what you're going through with the gen
(00:46):
X thing.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
It's funny.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
We are the generation that annoyed our parents with our music,
and now we annoy our children with our music. And
you know it's funny that, like, right now, my son
is obsessed with BMX bikes.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'm actually wearing a T shirt from the movie Rad.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
He'd watched the movie Rad, which is as dead center
of the eighties as you can get and he wanted
a bike. So I was like, oh my god, I
haven't seen one of these bikes in forty years. I
had a mongoose, just like the one in the movie.
I went on Facebook marketplace I found one, and then
I found a guy who restores them.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So I bought a couple of them.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And the neighborhood where I live in the kids are
living the gen X life.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
They're oh yeah, free range.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
They come home when the when the street lights come on,
they ride at a pack of boys, not getting into trouble.
They just they go from one house to the other house.
They get themselves snacks and drinks and whatever. And I
just look at that, and I look, I look back.
I mean, I bought my exact bike myself, and amazing.
We have a brewery near where I live, and my
(01:53):
son and I will ride to the Obviously he gets
non alcoholic beverages. But it's just to have that gen
X connect kid with one of my kids.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I find myself at night when I'm done prepping, just
watching old eighties movies and I don't know, I don't know.
I feel like we came from a very very special time.
The Last Innocent generation for the Internet.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, I agree completely. I think we had it made,
and especially because we kind of got both. We had
the internet too eventually, but we had the care free child.
And my kids are very similarly similarly living that Gen
X life. The only difference is they're allowed in the house.
Obviously none of us were allowed in the house. There
was no endless pirate booty or grabbing you know, water
(02:38):
or any any of that. You had to stay out there.
I love it. I think that's the way to have
kids now. And I think people who don't do that
and let their kids just like be screen you know, maniacs,
they're going to regret it.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I wonder sometimes though, if the connection is Reagan and Trump, right.
Ronald Reagan popularized conservatism and we had job growth, and
to me, the BMX bike was a symbol of our parents'
ability to provide us, you know something, you might call
(03:14):
it today a flex but our parents could afford those
things that Generally, the economy was good, the country felt safe.
It wasn't perfect, nothing is, but in an odd way,
I feel like we're in that second generation. Yeh time
(03:36):
now chapter with Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right, it's morning in America again.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Definitely weird though, right, weird weird, Yeah, weird interconnectivity.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
There absolutely So how long have you been doing radio?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I started in nineteen ninety on what was called a
Carrier current radio station in a small two year college
in upstate New York.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
It was my dream as a kid.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I knew the way some people know they want to
be a police officer, or they want to be a
doctor or whatever is I knew in the third grade
I wanted to I would stay up late at night.
We had this We called it a full service radio station,
so they played adult contemporary. They had a long Island
(04:21):
Islanders talk show, they covered the Islanders games, and it
was a full service AM and it was at the
train station in the next town over for me, so
it was it was pretty accessible, and my mom would
take me to events where they were broadcasting live and
I just I was so absorbed by this radio station.
It was called twelve forty AMWGBB. And then of course,
(04:41):
you know you had the late night shows like Hollywood
Love Lines and all this stuff on.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, I remember love Lines.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I got to Kelly working here, which was so bizarre.
But I obsessed over radio, and when I got into college.
I before I even unpacked my dorm, I went to
the college radio station. I had put my stuff in
my dorm me I went right down to the college
radio station, and I wanted in.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I want it in. I wanted in so bad.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
And the problem was I wanted in so bad that
I filled out because all I wanted to do is
be at the radio station if somebody didn't want to
be on the air. I eventually became the program director,
and I spent so much time that my grades really
did suffer and I was embarrassed.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So I transferred home to a Long Island.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I went from Sunny del High to Sudney Farmingdale, which
is a two year college on Long Island, and I
immediately went to the radio station. They needed a program director.
I took over. I ended up getting an internship at
the old wdre Well lr DRI, the first commercial alternative
radio station. I was the morning show intern. So I
(05:48):
would go in around four thirty five o'clock in the morning.
I would help Darren Smith, who also worked here works here,
prep his show, and then I would go to school
and then I would go to the radio station. I'd
do my show. I would program other shows and I
knew that I had to. I don't know why I
thought I did. I needed a journal and degree. So
(06:11):
I applied to the University of Florida. I didn't get
in because they didn't have forgiveness, so failing out of
the first school, they counted it against the second school.
But a funny wrinkle was if I went to Santa
Fe Community College in Florida, they would forgive my past
failures and I could make up for it and get
my associates. I did that, and I actually had a resume.
(06:33):
I had two radio stations. I had programmed carrier current
literally means it's just on campus, like it just doesn't
really go anywhere, right, And I got in and I
eventually went out for Rock one oh four in Gainesville,
and that was my first taste of like big, big
loud FM radio. Fifty thousand watts went from near Orlando
(06:55):
to Tampa all the way up almost to Jacksonville, just
to I don't want to bore, are you with the
whole story all alight?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
When I first graduated, I couldn't get arrested in this business.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I really thought, here I am, I'm a nighttime DJ
on a quasi college radio station Rock one OO four
was owned by the university, but it wasn't staffed like
a college radio station where it's just people playing whatever
they want. We had commercials, we had news, traffic, weather,
we had the Gator Football Network, and I actually my
(07:29):
first real taste.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Of getting somewhere.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
And if we have time, we should talk about podcasting
and hard work. I was sitting in a meeting and well,
let me back this up a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I went to read for this program director and he
handed me four cards and he said they're one through
four easiest, hardest. And I said, I'm gonna be your
in new morning show. And I flipped it right to
four and I started reading and he stops me. He
took his glasses off as he goes, you suck, and
you know my balloon had just popped. So I came
(08:06):
back for a second tryout, and I said, mister Guscott,
his name was Harry Guscott. I said, I will do
anything to be on this radio station. And let me
read the one card. So he said fine. I read
the cards. He said, you can go into a program
where you do you know, recorded breaks and stuff, and
if I like it, I'll put you on two am
to six am one day a week. Fine, I get that.
(08:28):
At the first STF meeting before the football season, have
the whole crowd in there, and he goes, I need
someone to work. And before he could say the word Saturday,
which is tailgate time, right, you can outside of the
bars and restaurants, Gainesville shuts down for tailgate time. I
went like this and just put my hand up. He goes,
all right, will cow you got it? And I was
(08:49):
the voice on the rock station before the voice of
the Florida Gators, Mick Hubert. And I realized then and
there by solving somebody else's problem, right, I willing, being
willing to do what nobody else wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Everybody crossed another gen X trade.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I feel like, well, we were.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
All gen x.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
But yeah, that was how I started my path in
this business. I won't say that I was great a
natural to start, but I was willing to outwork anyone
who got in my way. I would work spring break,
I would miss spring break, winter break, any break you
want off, I'm in. I don't care what the circumstances
(09:28):
it was. And I took that philosophy after college to
rock radio I did a stint in Top forty in
the Panhandle. That's kind of unremarkable. But by the time
I landed in Morgantown, West Virginia, Oh wow. I came
to this sleepy radio station that that really it was
(09:50):
just sleepy, and I said, this is where I'm going
to make my mark. And I started doing basically a
morning show from from six pm to midnight or seven
pm to midnight and seven pm to midnight. And I
just started to pop in the ratings. And next thing
I know, I'm getting fired because the station owner's friend
didn't like my show.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
And that's how that's how I landed in Hartford. I
got a program director, Todd Thomas. He said to me,
you know, if you don't want to do the blue
humor thing, you want to do what you're doing, which
was a little bit mixture of you know, blue humor
and a little political commentary. Right this is pre nine
to eleven. He's like, I think we got something here.
And they brought me and they put me on the
(10:33):
mid day ten am to three pm, which is a
sleepy time morning drive after the Drive with O the
Real money Makers, and then midday is kind of like
you know, right. So I brought that with me and
then nine to eleven happed and I was on the
air every day hammering, hammering, hammering.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And this is Hartford, it's Connecticut, it's very Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
The phone started to go nuts on a rock station,
on an alternative rock station. You know, we're we're playing
Dave Matthew's band, We're playing Pearl Jam or playing you know,
and next thing I know, I'm.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
I'm They were calling to say, like we love this guy.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, some people, yeah, but we were getting a lot
of hate calls. The Scagell trial was a big thing,
and I kept calling them the inbreds.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Scagalle trial, for those who don't know, is a Kennedy
cousin was accused of murdering somebody. Actually we went a
way to prison for murdering this girl. But years and
years after it happened, it was a very sensational trial. Gone.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Sorry, I just kept calling them the inbreds from jap
Equitick and well, you know, it's New England.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
They don't like that. And we realized I was getting
in trouble but not fined by the FCC.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
That you the sweet spot.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Yeah, two thousand and one This is pre podcasting. This
is still the dominance of rush and all that. Nobody
was doing this on a music station and getting attention
for it. But I wasn't getting in trouble right like
we were getting static. We were getting you know, good press,
(12:06):
bad press, but no problems with the FCC. And that
was the thing that my program director was looking for.
He wanted the shock value, but without any right and
that's what we did. I get a call from the
program director of seventy seven WABC, the biggest news talk
station in America, and he says, my name is Phil Boyce.
(12:29):
I'm the program director of WABC. I'd like to talk
to you about becoming a talk shows. I thought of pranks,
so I hung up the phone and he calls back
to the switchboard at the radio station, gets me on
the phone. Hecaus, listen to me very carefully. I'm Russia Limbond,
Sean Hannity's program director, and I want to.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Talk to you.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
And I I always thought that radio was kind of
an ivory tower, but talk radio was the penthouse, right
that would be off limits to me. I never I
never thought in a million years that I would be
scouted way and next thing, I know, I'm doing a
fill in for Mark Levin when he was just the
(13:06):
noon to two on Sunday show. The program director says,
I need someone. I need to build a bench here,
and I've got a guy named Mark Levin. He's doing
a noon to two Sunday show. It's really starting to
pick up traction. But I got to make sure I
have somebody in the bullpen, you know, if he needs
a day off.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
So next day, I know, I'm filling in for Mark Levin.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
More coming up with Andrew Wilcow. But first, it was
nearly two years ago the terrorists murdered more than twelve
hundred innocent Israelis and took two hundred and fifty hostages.
Today it seems as if the cries of the dead
and dying have been drowned out by shouts of anti
Semitic hatred, and the most brutal attack on Jewish people
since the Holocaust has been forgotten. Yet as the world
(13:50):
looks away, a light shines in the darkness. It's a
movement of love and support for the people of Israel
called Flags a Fellowship, and it's organized by the International
Fellows of Christians and Jews, and on October fifth, just
a few weeks away, millions across America will prayer fully
plant an Israeli flag and honor and solidarity with the
victims of October seventh, twenty twenty three and their grieving families.
(14:14):
And now you can be part of the movement too.
To get more information about how you can join the
Flags of Fellowship movement, visit the Fellowship online at IFCJ
dot org. That's IFCJ dot org. More from the Carol
Markowitz Show coming up.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So the question I normally ask people to follow up on,
like you know, when they pursue their dreams, is was
there a plan B? Was there anything else that you
thought you would do? But you you've been wanting to
do this since you were a little kid. So I
guess the question for you really is do you feel
like you've made it? You now have two extremely popular shows,
have you made it?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
In my mind, from where I started out and what
my expectations were, my goal was to be like an
air and drive DJ, premiering new songs and interviewing bands
and doing live broadcasts from conscience. That was where I
wanted to be. You know, I did see talk radio.
I did follow talk radio. I did love talk radio.
(15:16):
I just never thought I would be the one, you know,
doing it. Even though I had turned my music shows
into mini radio bits and breaks. I never thought that
I would get I would get this chance. That that
was something that I never thought the plan b was.
I found out the hard way. You don't really need
(15:37):
a journalism degree to practice journalism.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Oh yeah, I hear. You got a master's degree in
politics to do what I'm what I do and biggest
waste of money I've ever had.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
So what I did was I got a degree in operations,
which was the business side. So I figured if I
floundered in any way, I could be a sales guy,
I could be a promotions guy. Maybe I would get
a shot at programming, you know, coaching new talent.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Whatever it was.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I thought, Okay, I'm taking these journalism classes, but I
don't really need them. I don't need to know how
to write a local piece about a shooting. Need I
need to figure out what's on the other side of this.
And I started to study the business side, thinking okay, well,
if one fails, at least I'll be in the field.
I studied, and that's what was my plan.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
B what do you worry about what's on your mind now.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
In the future of this business. That's where I was
gonna say about the hard work thing. And I'm not jealous,
I'm not insulting anyone. As a matter of fact, I
would have taken any opportunity that any of these these
rockstar podcasters would have taken had it been the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I'm not saying it's not hard work. I'm not saying
that at all.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
But the difference is the gatekeeping is a lot of
these people are starting up independent. Yes, they have talent
behind them, and they have marketing teams and algorithms and
that stuff, but they're It's kind of like bands that
are uploading their stuff on YouTube and not waiting for
the FM program directors to give them spins or hope
(17:11):
that MTV picks up their stuff. There's a way more independent,
even rebellious vibe to what you're doing right now, right
the working overnights, giving up your weekend, sleeping on the
station couch. I remember at one point I had to
when I was in West Virginia. I would have to
go to the municipal garage, pull the station van out,
(17:33):
drive the station van to an event, set up all
the equipment, do the broadcast, break it down, blah blah blah,
all for twenty five bucks. I got an er twenty
five bucks. Ye, my paycheck for doing all of that.
And you know when you think, like, man, this is
not big time. I'm setting up equipment, I'm putting the
table out, I'm folding, I'm doing everything here, and now
(17:54):
I'm interviewing the manager of the food line and the
parking lot or something, right, And I just.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Kept myself, that's the stuff you got to do. That's
the stuff you got to do. That's the stuff you
got to do. But I don't know, maybe I'm naive.
I feel like this generation of content creators didn't have
to do any of that.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
They and God and God bless them, because no, yeah,
I mean yes.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
God bless them. But you could see the ones that
never worked in any other kind of capacity, Like I
feel like you could tell.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
All I know is that if if if somebody handed
me that thirty years ago, twenty five years ago, I
would have I probably would have jumped on it. And
you know, I've I've had look, I've had people say,
why don't you do this?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And why don't you do that?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
And you know, when you have such an it's.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Not it's an unstable business, but it's a shaky business.
I mean, they're here today, gone tomorrow types. There are
some people that are so rock solid and you know,
really unflappable in their careers, and God blessed those people too.
You asked me what I worry about. My wife said
to me the other day, if it wasn't for this,
what would you do right like right now? And I
(19:01):
said right now? I said, I don't know. I was
never designed to wear khaki pants.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And maybe you'd be building BMX bike.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I might be. You know, I've I've worked in the
well part of being a rock DJ. Believed it. I
was also a bartender and a bouncer.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
And I worked, I believe it, Yeah, jobs just to
make ends by my salary as the full time nighttime
DJ on an FM rock station in West Virginia was
thirteen thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That's so I had to work two extra jobs just
to pay rent.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, I don't know if you want to discuss it at all,
but I did DJ and two strip clubs at one point.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
All right, talk about it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
That was well, all right.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
In my stint in Top forty radio, I was making
six bucks an hour. I was working two shifts on
the weekend six bucks an hour. And one of the
people at work said, Hey, you know they just fired
the DJ over the blah blah blah strip club. You
know you could probably get that job like today. So
I drive over there and I had five hundred CDs
at the time, and I had my own DJ system
(20:08):
and I go into this club and they were like,
they hired me on the spot, and you want to
talk about what makes I will tell you this working
there may be more conservative. Maybe truly, the things I saw.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I feel like this should not exist.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
It was.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It was the argument that some feminists would make that
you know, this is an abusive industry. Some of these women,
when you speak to them for five minutes, you know
why they are here working at strippers. I worked eight
hours a night, six nights a week, behind a DJ booth,
calling out the girls by name, hosting bachelor parties. I
(20:49):
had seen some things that you would not believe. I
actually thought about writing a book called Confessions of a
Strip Club DJ.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Why social conservatives, you should totally do that. That is
a best seller.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Are waiting to happen this stuff I saw.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I don't even know what your tolerance is for some
of it on this program.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I have a high tolerance.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Let's just say I saw, I saw some stuff and
it was a it was a pretty weird time.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm like, here I am. I'm twenty five years old,
I'm a.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Suburban raised Long Island kid, I graduated college and here
I am spinning tracks at a strip club. And that
was that was That was a that was I don't
know if it was a low point or a teaching
point or what.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You'd call it. I think that battle hardened me.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yes, I think you love stuff. Yeah, I think teaching
point is actually exactly what that is. And you know,
I think don't have obviously don't have any regrets about it,
and you should absolutely write that book.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
The funny thing is after working there, I never went
to a bachelor party ever again.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Wow, I would go to the dinner. I would go.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I was like, if you guys are off to one
of those places, I'm I don't every want to say footing.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
In a get Oh, I'm serious. You should write this.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Up, but this is like, yeah, it's like working in
the kitchen of a really bad restaurant. Once you see
too many things, Once you once you know how the
burghers made you, probably you don't want to. You don't
want it. You don't want to, you don't want any
of it. That's that battle hardened me.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcoitch Show. What advice would you
give your sixteen year old self? Having done all this
looking back, what a sixteen year old Andrew need to know?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
See? I thought a lot about that.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
If I gave myself that advice, I might not have
followed the path that I followed and ended up where
I ended up. If I I'm looking at my daughter,
my oldest daughter, she'll be sixteen. She went from being
the I don't care about school kid right Her mind
was anywhere but school. She rebelled against school. She didn't
(22:56):
care about school, she didn't care about her grades. And
she had this moment when people started talking about colleges
or older brothers and.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Sisters going off to college.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
And I said to her, I said, you know, the
tape starts the day you walk into ninth grade. Actually
it started in eighth grade. Because her teachers had to
make recommendations to the high school teachers. And next thing
I know, she is as being introspective as a fifteen
year old, fourteen year old kid could be.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And now she's a merit honor student.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Something clicked in her brain that like, maybe I'm going
to get left behind or you know, my friends are
going to go off and do things. And I said
to her, look, the only you know, college is not
the only thing out there. But you know, I said
to her, it should be up to you. Yeah, And
if I could look back at myself at sixteen, whether
you want to go to college or not, whether you
(23:50):
want to go into a trade, start a business, do work,
whatever it is, I would probably have told myself to
take some of this stuff more seriously.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
At the sounds like you were very serious, though it
doesn't sound like you weren't serious.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I was. I was.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I was serious about what I wanted to do. I
don't know that I was serious about how I.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Was supposed to do it.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
And you know, I had teachers that would say, you know, Andrew,
you're really smart, but you don't apply yourself and you know,
stuff like that, and I just I didn't like being
in class, And I also argue with anyone who says
there's no such a thing as auditory learning. I would
be staring out the window and a teacher said, mister Wilcow.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
What did I just say? And I'd repeat it, Oh yeah,
and here I am today.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I would say, I think men are very good at
that playback. I'm like my husband when I'm like, you're
not listening to me, He's like, this is what you
just said.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
My wife tries to catch me in that. But yeah,
you know, I look at it, like, look what I do.
I considered myself an auditory learner. I listened. I didn't
watch as much, but I think I would have. I
would tell myself to take to take school a little
bit more seriously. Maybe not you know, fall in love,
(25:04):
but not not this discredit what you know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And but I see it to my daughter. I see
it in my daughter. She's working real hard. She does.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah, that's probably the advice I would give myself.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, I like that. I mean again, I think you
sound like you were a serious kid. But I mean
what teenager couldn't take a little little advice to be
a little more serious.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
It's funny growing up my parents My dad was what
you'd call probably more libertarian, but he never said this
is how you're going to think in this household.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I approached my kids. I don't tell them name. Yeah,
but I.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Dressed the part of heavy metal and punk rock. I
wore combat boots.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I wore it too.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Yeah, you know, I had my hair was in any
different array of weirdness, and everybody thought I was on drugs.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Everybody thought I was kind of a.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Delinquent, you know, John Bender from There's Your gen X,
John Bender from the Breakfast Club, when really I wasn't
at all. I hadn't I have. I'll confess to you,
I've never smoked marijuana. I've never done drugs. I was
laser focused on what I thought was going to be
a rate radio career.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
But I looked like what I looked like, And.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I guess teachers don't take you seriously when you look
like that, especially if they were in their forties and
fifties back in the eighties. So that I was serious.
But I guess maybe I was discounted because of my
appearance at the time.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Very gen X complaint.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Really, yeah, you know, heavy metal fans turned out to
be pretty productive members of society.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Really that was me also I was also a heavy
metal fan. I absolutely we are very productive members of society.
So what we like to dress a little funny back
back in the day, But.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
That was nice. Take school a little bit more seriously, Well, Andrew.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I have loved this conversation. I think you are fantastic.
Leave us here with your best tip for my listeners
on how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
All right, So on my on my radio program, I
do a thing called the every Man King and that's
where you you enjoy something that you've earned. I always say,
own what you earn, Earn what you own. Take pleasure
in that. Like when when I went out and bought
I bought a used boat and I found I was
sitting on the back of the boat docked with a
(27:27):
cigar in my hand to other dads. We're just talking
and someone said this is paradise and I'm like, here
we are sitting on this fifteen year old.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Boat on a lake.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
But I I always say, appreciate, don't get caught up
in you know, instagramah bakery. There are the simple pleasures.
There's a reason why it's called the simple pleasure. There's
a reason why it's called cheap thrills. I doesn't matter
(27:55):
how much money I make in this business. And I'm
not saying that just to be one of those people.
Didn't Grace. She's like, I don't do for the money. Yeah,
I do for the money, but I don't have super
flashy tastes. I drive a Ford F one fifty pickup.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
It's a raptor. But I don't.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Feel like, oh my god, somebody else has more than me,
and I'm gonna be dissatisfied. I'm going to walk around,
you know, kicking rocks because I don't have the biggest house,
and I don't have the fanciest car, and my kids
aren't tiktoking.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
From you know, bor or something.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
I truly believe you will be happier if you look
around at the things you have and the things you
wanted to have that you achieved and say, you know what,
it's all right, it's all right, this is this is good.
I think Instagram. I think, look, we've all been marketed
to since the day we were born that you're supposed
(28:49):
to be dissatisfied with your life until you buy this.
And I think at some point you have to you
have to recognize the good.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
The satisfying thing is the things that bring you pleasure.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
If you've got a classic car, or a motorcycle, or
a jet ski or a vaight, or you got a
vacation property, whatever it is that you said, you know,
I want it. I'm gonna work for it. I earned it.
It's now mine.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
But it doesn't matter if anybody else is impressed with it.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It doesn't matter if it's the stuff of Instagram, you know, popularity.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Do you enjoy it, then embrace the fact that you
would enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
I love that, and I think that that applies to
so many things. I think a lot of relationships don't
happen among young people right now because they don't like
how the person looks with them on Instagram. I think
you're absolutely right. Don't care about what other people think.
Just do what makes you happy. He is Andrew Wilkou.
Check him out at the Wilkout Majority on Serious exem
Patriot Radio and on Wilkow on the Salem News Channel.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Thank you so much, Andrew, loved to any time you
got to come back out with me.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Absolutely, any time
Host
Karol Markowicz
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