June 26, 2025 • 37 mins
Lehigh Valley radio legend Todd Heft joins us to share wild stories from his radio days and his time in the record industry. Meanwhile, we spiral into the usual trivia antics—palindromes, questionable SAT scores, high blood pressure, and flamingos. Also: Becker might actually know a thing or two about music trivia… maybe.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The plays in Confused.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Podcast is rated M from marijuana no minors, but your
audience is only.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Is it too loud? Turn it down? Here we go,
Here we go, one two, one two, a little louder.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Use a little more feet on me? Okay, yeah, just
a little bit. Just look tweak, just a little bit. Good.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Good levels are good? Levels are good? Yeah. Man, it
reminds me of the old days when we would record
together in the studio.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Man, so long ago.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You know, a good production director saves everything, ship everything.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Here's a good one. Should we start with this one?
Let's start with this one.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
There we go, there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Sorry for the smell, you know, you can't anything.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
What was it?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I didn't need lunch, so that was ti noodles. That
sounds really good, though probably doesn't smell tasted.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Noh my god.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
What year do we think this is from? I was
probably in what like the second grade, listening to you
on the radio when you were doing this, which is
probably yeah crazy. What year did you get your surgery?
Which surgery? Take a listener's the belly? That's the worst thing?
Would you have surgery on? I had?
Speaker 5 (01:11):
HEARNI had done one in the groin, one in the
belly really. Yeah, the belly is way worse than the groin.
It's so swollen. I can't wear pants really, they'll just
keep falling off. I can't use a belt or anything.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I'm talking about my surgery. Yeah, that's great, that's great.
Thanks your best, the best days, the best days, man.
So that must have been based on my voice. I
feel like I sound pretty young, man. I was probably
about four years old. I was nineteen, and that was
a two thousand and four when I arrived at the
(01:46):
radio station. Oh so that was probably I was probably
about twenty one. Year I came back was two thousand
and four. Yeah, that's when I started. Yeah, the same
year I came back, Yeah, was a four. And whatn't
you doing knights at that point? Weren't you ever on
knights on the Hawk? Well?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Even evening? All right, come on, dude, it's different. Starting
at seven o'clock and it's nights evening. They call it
nights now it's the evening. Here's another good one.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Does your loved one scrutum smell like mothballs? I think
that one was for Were you advertising that? I think
it was some kind of old folks home or something.
Like that, that's bad. That's so nasty. Is your loved
one mistaken for dead while sleeping? You know I didn't
do any of this? Is they used a I tore
(02:33):
my voice.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
No, this ain't no AI, this is this is about
as real as it gets.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Here.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I have a hard drive of my entire career. Why
because the moment it's not sad.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You know what the funny thing is. I said to him,
I'm like, what are you gotten there for me? And
we looked and pretty much when I arrived is when
that place started really like the dumpster fire started to
be lit. And then suddenly there was like less and
less and less and less and less clips like as
if you were having less fun at Imagine that pretty
damn accurate. Imagine that. And now look at me. Yeah,
(03:06):
now we're on a podcast and we can smoke weed
and say fuck. I mean it's pretty cool. Yeah, isn't
it nice? I mean, is it is? It's a little strange.
It might be strange for you know, uh, a classic
I'm gonna slap you, You're gonna slap me. I don't
know how I can still hit No, I know, I know,
but you can say fucking to a microphone. Now, I
will admit that, listening back to previous episodes of this podcast,
(03:29):
my potty mount is bad. Actually, you know what, My
father made a comment to me. You know, you say
fuck every other word and oh your body mouth below
and I know Fading knows best.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So I was doing really well a few episodes one, two,
and three, and then like four came by and I was.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Like, yes, last week with your sister, your little potty mouth,
I think you were worse than me last week. We
should keep a running tally of who says fuck more.
You were me. Well, I'll bring my sister around. She's
gonna piss me off, and I'm gonna curse a lot
more so.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
In my family, you wouldn't know it from looking at
me or speaking to me, But the Heft family we
are notorious for being the picassos of profanity.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Really, our family reunions, it's like you'd be surprised there
were two PhDs in the room.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It's not me, by the way, So Todd Heft not
a big Ganja guy, not anymore, sir, used to be
back in the day. See, because all I hear is
that all I hear from from people of a certain age,
people of a certain age, is that to at some
point vacuum my day.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It was awful weed.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It was.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
It was here's how it was. So back in my time,
as they say, weed was very different. It was not supercharged,
because that's just a growing technique now, the way they've
hybridized the plants and the way they grow them for
maximum impact. Right, So my whole life I smoked one
kind of weed.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I didn't smoke for a number of years, and I
moved to Boston and I was managing bands up there.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Early on, I was managing this kick ass band and
we went to a party at the one guy's house
and he passes me a joint. He's like, here, you
hit on this, dude. So I'm like, sure, dude, don't
do that.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I was like why, oh no, and he was like,
oh that's right, year old man, it's not like the
wead you grew up with. I was like, what do
you mean?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
An hour later, I was tripping balls. I was just
like sitting on the couch. My eyes were bugging out
of my head. I was like, what the fuck is
in that?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
He's like, nothing, man, it's just weird. I was like,
I couldn't believe it. I was like, Okay, I need
to not do that. And so you had one bad
experience and then you were done with it. No, one
bad experience.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
No, So were you done after that or did you
continue to smoke marijuana after that?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's some time after that, Yeah, the story ends. What
about cigarettes?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Never never tasted like shit, even when you would drink,
like the drunk sticks don't count. You always hear people
say that, you know, it's weird, And I've heard that too.
I've had friends that just smoked when they drank, right,
But now I grew up My entire hire family smoked right,
my mother, so I was just like, I smelled it
my whole life. And there's a weird, kind of a
nostalgic psychological aspect to that. For me, this is not
(06:10):
to get too deep, but it's weird. So I smell
cigarette smoke and I don't mind it. You know, it
doesn't bother me. It don't flip out over it. Yeah,
because it reminds me of that. Plus Plus I lived
in nightclubs when I was at Zzo. You know I
was there. You could smoke in clubs back then. Yeah,
so I was around it. My whole life. I might
as well have been smoking, but I never liked it.
My lungs could never take it either. I as of
(06:31):
recently quit vaping. I've vaped really hard for like three years.
I mean, like, this is why vaping is ten times
worse than cigarettes is, because you do it all freaking
day long, all day, every day, middle of the night,
and all those times I got awful for I was
thinking about this today. I went to the doctor because
I felt like I was getting sick, and sure enough,
I have bronchitis. And my doctor listened to my chest
(06:53):
and like listen to my lungs or whatever, and said that, yeah,
and it said that my lungs sounded like a seventy
year old man. And he said, he said, I want
to see you back here in a month and a half,
and I want you to be done with that fucking vape.
And I swear, when your doctor says fuck to you,
there's profanity, it's something something, right, It hits a little
different when your doctor drops the little left bomb. Right.
(07:15):
So I was thinking about this earlier today, though, I'm
so excited to go back to my doctor and be
like I'm done with this. I finally quit it like
I did the I'm a month and a half in
now yeah. No, I feel like I can breathe now. Yeah.
But the weed does that to your lungs too. Okay,
so this brings me to my next point. So I'm
over at my parents' house yesterday and I said to
my I said to my mother, I'm like, I'm very
(07:35):
proud of myself. I'm excited to tell my doctor I
finally quit the vaping. And I said, but next, I
want to quit weed. A long pause, and then I said,
I still kind of smoke weed every day, and she
goes every day, and she was so like, oh, by
every day.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Why are you telling your mother this?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I don't know, because I feel like if I tell
my mother this, then it's easier for me to hold
myself accountable and get my shit together. However, this weed
theme podcast ain't helped me much. You know.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
The bottom line is you want to push your mother's
buttons and you know it.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
I mean, I wouldn't say that.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I don't know. You're pretty good at it for a
guy who's not I think every teenager.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, I think I'm a teenager. Toddlee. Practically, I might
act like a teenager, but I'm not a teenager.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Todd Half. You were just talking about how you had
managed bands at one point. Yeah, you had a cool
radio career. Most people are probably listening to this. No
me best from my radio career. But after I left here,
I went. I lived in New England and I did
two things. I was a promotion and marketing executive for
record companies and I also on the side was managing
artists and I got one of them signed and so
(08:40):
that was an amazing experience. So I worked all the
Northeast and mid Atlantic states. The first band we broke
was Tool.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know this is a great kind of radio slash
record story. So when we were working Tool, they had
released the EP that had been big at college radio
undertow right Yeah, without a amazing track on it, with
stop motion kind of Jesus stuff going on in there, right,
And that was mind blowing, and I'm like, hell, yeah,
I want this job. So they hired a big field staff.
(09:10):
I was working out of Boston. Like I said, I
worked in mid Atlantic in New England, and so the
release was on Himah. The first single was called anybody.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Oh Man, You're gonna stump the DJs stink fist.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Okay, which was five minutes long. I think I got
that in college one time.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Okay, where's the rim shot?
Speaker 6 (09:31):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait pause, because I have
one of those wait wait wait, wait, wait, keep and
hang on wait where is it? Oh?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Here?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
It is.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
All right, So we get this and of course it's
an amazing album. They actually took us all into New
York City. I don't know if you're familiar with that album,
deeply familiar with it. But Tool had hired one of
the greatest producers of all time, who'd produced the albums
from King Crimson in the nineteen seventies. This guy was
like a genius at placing little things in the in
the sound spectrum all over the place, right, so his
(10:04):
sound mixes would go all around you. This guy was amazing.
When I heard they hired him, I was just like,
oh my god, this is so exciting. So they flew
us all into New York and there was at the time,
there was a Harmon Cardon showroom, you know, Harmon Cardon
Beautiful that, so it was like a showroom and they
had decked it out like a living room for us
set up all the chairs in a big circle and
(10:25):
they played this album at concert level sound, and I
mean there wasn't a hint of distortion and it sounded
better than anything I'd ever heard in my life. And
that album came out, it was just my head completely exploded.
So we were taking Stinkfist to radio and I was
like it might be a tough sell.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Just the name. The song is brilliant, right, but there's
no apparent chorus, long ass intro but powerful, you know,
it just like cooked from this first beat. So well,
what was on the playlist then is the important thing
I was trying to get to, Like, The Cure was
the most played band at that time at all alternative radio,
so we were working mainstream rock, which we knew would
be slow to the party. I was having to bring
(11:05):
in all the alternative stations in New England. So I
go to this guy out in Northampton, Massachusetts, small station,
important station. Boston was on the fence. BCN was the leader.
Then they were on the fence. They were almost there.
I go out to Northampton. I'm telling this guy the story,
I play him the song and he just about throws
me out.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Of the radio station. He's like, just there's no fucking
whim ever playing this song. I was like, listen, dude,
you're in Northampton, Massachusetts. I no, it's a hip little town.
But outside of this town, it's just dudes laying bricks
all day. They're getting their pickup trucks. At the end
of the day, they want to drink a beer and
they want to rock on their way home, and this song.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Is going to do it.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
He's like, it's called stink Fist. I said, I know,
so don't say the title. Play the song. They don't
say that in there.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
You know, it's not like they're going stink fings, you know,
nothing like that. Nobody will even know what the words mean.
Just play it.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Guarantee you this is going to be a monster. Well
he resisted for weeks, you know, until stations started slowly
coming in. BCN adds it. I finally talked to this
guy after he adds it. He's like, oh my god, dude.
And that was so rewarding to be part of that project.
I mean, that was just amazing. And you know, I
covered all their shows on that tour for god about
a year, and uh, if it wasn't for us in
(12:21):
the field really badgering the ship at our program directors
and music directors. It wouldn't have gotten on and they
wouldn't be the band they are today.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Wow, it was a cool thing to be a part of.
We want to talk about your radio career, but we
should tell it. Do you wanted that later?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah? We should? I should. We should click the open button,
shouldn't we? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
But seriously, an awesome way to start the show. Tot
half episode seven The Blaze the Confused podcasts. We're gonna
start it right now.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
Welcome to the Blazed and Confused podcast with Becker and Joel,
the trivia podcast where the questions.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Are high, and so are they.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
He's time to stuck your curiosity and light up some knowledge.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Though.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Blazed and Confused Podcast starts now.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
All right, So, like the format of the show is
that we have four questions that we'll go back and forth.
I'll give him four questions, he'll give me four questions,
and you're like the lifeline. We don't have official rules,
just kind of figuring that out as we go out
every episode. That what it is the six episodes that
we still don't have several rules. Yeah, wah, yeah, but
last time you said that you could use the lifeline twice. Yeah,
(13:26):
there's four questions. Yeah, that's half the question. I know,
at least it's fifty to fifty. It should be one time,
all right, it shouldn't be one time.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Question number one?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
First category tonight today, whenever you're listening, Are you smarter
than a fifth grader? Are you asking me? Yeah? Is
that the first question? I mean the answer for me?
You know it's an easy one. Are you smarter than
a fifth grader? Now that's a category. Remember the show
that back on the Day with us Jeff Foxworthy? You know,
are you smarter than the fifth grader?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
How many adjectives are in this sentence? Can I write
it down?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Or no? You don't need a This is going to
be so embarrassing for you, Becker, because you write you
do copyrighting, Still doing copyrighting? Yeah, okay, go.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Billy made a rude noise in clash? An adjective, adjective?
How many adjectives? No, don't, don't give events.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I was a peace sign man.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Billy made a rude noise in clash. Oh there's two,
there's two. He made no, hold on? Hold on?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Now I'm questioning what a fucking adjective is?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Good question? I knew you would do this.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Adjectives and adverbs are a big stumbling block.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
My answer is too. Is that your final answer? Final answer?
And the answer is wrong. Yeah, the answer is one.
What was the adjective rude? Because it's a described descriptor? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Right?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
What I was right before?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I said it was the DISCRIBI you were wrong because
he said too. Oh yeah, oh that question too. Hmmm.
Adjectives were you and not?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Again?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Hello, Joe, Hello, I'm looking at these questions here, trying
to take charge of the board and stuff. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
He's also clearly in charge of the weed.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Exactly, which, by the way, I need moore. All right,
so do you heal you? That'll help health? Okay? What's
the medical term for high blood pressure? Dude?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Come on? Is it like an acronym? That is so easy?
Is it an acronym? Remember you have blood pressure? Remember
you have ane? No, he gives it to me now
and fucking tell you that. Oh god, you have a lifeline.
Use your lifeline, Todd. The answer is hyper hypertension. I
never have guessed that, never would have gotten never.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Okay, all right, so too wrong?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We get to hang him out the window upside down
if he gets all wrong and shake his pockets out
and see what happened.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Actually, come on, P Diddy, Oh god.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
P Diddy, come on, I know you got that money
in your pockets.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
On that note, let's go to question three.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Let's question three.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
How many rings are on the Audi logo?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Four?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Four?
Speaker 6 (16:30):
Four?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Very good? Very good. See I love picking these questions
that he knows the answer to. But he sits here
and he's.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Like, second, guess, I guess is the wrong?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Guess?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Is wrong?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
A natural inclination on that is three? Right?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
You think about that, but you're like, no, the Olympics
would have a problem with that. It's got it before.
That's the way my mind goes. Wait, the Olympics have
three rings?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Three rings? Really? Don't they have five? Is it watched smoking? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I know? Yeah? Really get in the contact.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Question four twenty?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
What?
Speaker 4 (17:05):
All right?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I have one more question for you. Let's do it.
It's this music question that I hope you get wrong.
Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, and Ray Wilson have all served
as lead singer of what British rock band.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Genesis Wow Very good?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Some other like man I didn't know about him. Oh,
very good.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I was piecing it together, very good. So I did
pretty well. What did I get three out of two
or three out of four?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Three out of two? Yeah, you got three out of two.
I have more of that joint.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Trivia you didn't know you needed, or maybe you still don't.
It's still Blazed and Confused podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
I've got stuff for you. Now. Yeah, you should go
back to giving me multiple choice. I liked when you
did that.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Everyone complained.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
They're like, you give him multiple choice questions and that's
how he gets them right on the time. But yeah,
but now I don't do that anymore. Uh oh, gonna
make it more even, all right.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Question number one?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
All right, buddy, here we go. What is a palindrome?
I give you? Have you ever heard of that word before?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Now?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It sounds like a Ford or something for Yeah, No,
not a forty fourteen eighty three Ford palandrome. Oh fort
palandro fort palandrome like a war thing.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That's not it at all. Palandrome.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You have to give yourself the buzzer because you got
it wrong. That was a stupid That was a dumb
ask question a palindrome is when a word is spelled
the same way forwards are backwards. So race car is
r A C E C A R If you spell
it backwards, it's still race car.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, but is race one level?
Speaker 2 (18:43):
L e v E L L e v E L
rot r O t O R R O t O
R palindromes.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Rot r t O R ro. What was the question again?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Who are you?
Speaker 4 (19:00):
You question too?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
What is a group of flamingos called a ship? I
know this too. I've asked this as a trivia question before,
not to you, but as at my various trivia events,
and I don't remember. You know, you would think that
after three years a host and a weekly trivia night
that you would retain some sense of information, And now
(19:26):
you don't really, at least in my case, don't really.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You know, a group of crows is a murder, which
I think is a pretty cool A group of flamingos
of flock? That's wrong, You're not You're kind of close.
You got the first two letters right.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Block. Oh, should I be going to my lifeline here
for question? Now?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Don't know the answer to that? Okay, what's the answer, Joel?
I don't know what is the answer is a flamboyant, Yes, a.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Mingos. Flamboyants of flamingos. You remember that one?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Now?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
No, probably not, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Question three, which state is the only state that has
a flag a state flag that is not rectangular or square?
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Dude, it's that rectangular or square?
Speaker 6 (20:20):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (20:21):
One?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I give them all these easy ones, which.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
By the way, I didn't even take the SATs. You
know that I took the PSATs and I got an
embarrassingly low st Go on.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
What was it?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
What was your embarrassing what's the highest you can get
on that thing? Like a fifteen hundred, right, isn't that
what it is? I was twenty one, twenty one hundred.
I think I got like a seven something or got
a seven seven. It's not like a seven hundred something.
So you get a certain amount of points for getting
your name scale.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Ye. That all I remember.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
About the p s A TS, the practice SSATS, was
that I paid money to take it, right, and then
they packed us all in a room like fucking sardine.
And you get to the one point in the math
portion of it, which is no calculator. It may you
turn your calculator in. Yeah, I just literally thought, oh,
I'm never getting any of these right. So I just
went up and down with the scantron like ABCD BCD,
(21:14):
you know, and you make like little fun drawings on
the well Christmas tree shop. Yeah you little drawl. Yeah yeah,
it's like seven, which is pretty good at battleship, you know,
battleship for a seven hundred with the PSA TS and
I paid for that. What a scam? What kind of
bullshit is that?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Asked me the question again.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
What state has the only state flag that is not
rectangular or a square? There's only one state even I
knew this before I looked it.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Up for and I want to say Arkansas. No, it's Ohio.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
The internet said it was a burgie shaped flag. No clue.
It's like, uh, it goes like this and then comes
in at an angle like a tryang almost, and then
it comes back out like like the old school things
in medieval yay movies, like in medieval times. Yeah, yeah,
maybe you'll know this one doubted question four twenty. What
(22:13):
Dutch engineer lou Autens Jesus was famous? What the oh
my god? He was famous for inventing this in nineteen
sixty two. It was introduced to the public in nineteen
sixty three. What was his name?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Lou Autens? How the hell am I supposed to know that?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
What kind of a device was it?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
You would listen to it in sixty two?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, he developed it, invented it in nineteen sixty two,
and it was introduced to the public in nineteen sixty three.
Became very popular on how you would listen to musicytte? Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow.
I figured there was gonna be something audible.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Thanks hit, Why did you think that I would ever
know that with just the guy's name? Listen.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
People kept telling me you were getting these easy questions,
So I'm trying to make it a little more difficult
for you and.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
You're learning something at the same time. Oh wow, you're
never going to retain any of this, but it's still
fun for me. I feel like I learned a lot.
What was the guy's name? Oh jeez?
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Trivia, man, it's like the universe asking us questions, you know.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Yeah, the Blazing Confused podcast.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
She actually did have one question that I could have
asked you about the longest running TV show in TV histories,
Meet the Fucking Press.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Did you know that I did not know that you
would have gotten that right, you knew that that or
sixty minutes I would have guessed.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Are you good with trivia?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Depends what it is trivia of Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
You ever go to a trivia night and like rip
it up?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Not really? I used to host them though, like you,
I mean so yeah, you know it's crazy people get
nutty about their trivia.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Especially when they want to challenge you on an answer.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Sometimes I just want to be like yeah, like dude,
your dude, it's on the card.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, listen to.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Man, listen, you're playing for a fifty dollars gift card.
Let's let's relax, let's calm down a little bit. I
had a guy at Guy that wanted to punch me
in the face because of a question about a month ago.
My question was something about the MLB teams that like
changed their name, changed their changed their name or something. Yes, nuts,
but this question was about the baseball teams that changed
(24:14):
their name. This dude wanted to fight me that the
Oakland Athletics changed their name and should count because they're
no longer in Oakland, and I'm like, yeah, but they're
still the athletic Athletics. Yeah, but he like loves me
on it. He fought me, and so finally I told him,
I'm like, listen, I'm gonna give you the point back,
but you're still, you know, gonna lose. It's like not
going to make that. It's not gonna make a difference.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
But he got the satisfaction, did he though? I don't know,
people get nice, you're nice. You at least listen to
these people. Hear him out my former boss Bill, Oh Bill.
I used to do trivia with him and if somebody
came up and challenged him, he'd be like the fuck
out of here. I always thought it was really cool
to like work in the record field, and it's so
cool that you got a chance to do that and
(24:56):
with tool of all bands, like promoting.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Them, putting them on the map. I started in records
in seven ninety seven. I was at Zzo for fourteen years. Wow,
you were more than that. No, because I was in
Hartford in between that kind of station, rock station, very
similar to Zezo.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Did you do night or evenings?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Now?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Was the program director up there and there's a difference.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Droll.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
No, it's funny you said that. When you walked in,
I said, Wow, this is fucking cool, just like when
Blake was here. I'm like, man, I used to listen
to you guys. Now you're in my apartment. This is
like for a radio nerd. Pretty cool. Okay, pretty cool,
pretty cool, glad I could but make your day. But
you said, you said, mister radio man, you said, well,
you didn't listen to me on zez Oh you're right.
I was born one year after you left. Fuck, I'm right,
(25:44):
you're right.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
You know, we were talking with Blake. He was talking about,
you know, fun radio times, things like stripper Tuesday. You
don't look like the stripper Tuesday type. If I had
to guess, uh oh oh man, I'm wrong, but you
it wasn't the stripper. Yeah, no one wants to see
that shit. But do you recall some of like really
just amazing times saying your radio career with Zizia.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Well, sort of building off of what you said, the
late Fred Shade. Fred just passed away a little while ago.
I don't know if you if you knew of Fred,
but he was the name. He was a producer of
mine when I did remotes, and he also was kind
of like what we called the whipping boy at the
radio station. So basically we had him do everything. Great guy,
great personality, really outgoing, really over the top. He would
(26:27):
do anything that needed to be done, and I mean
like crazy stuff. But he was also a little out
of his mind too, which was great. So he was
like he was like my guy. Anyway, I was doing
afternoon Drive and back then you got to understand how
big radio was. I mean, today's radio is miniscule audience
wise compared to what we were different back then it
was lifestyle. You know, we were of the demo we
(26:50):
were targeting, and all of our friends listened, and if
you had listeners, you had like three hundred thousand.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
People listening to you. You know, it was. It was crazy.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
So they sent me to do my afternoon Drive show
from Daytona. Spring Break is when MTV used to host it.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Oh man, I was like, yeah, we go down there
with no plan.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Fread's my producer, all right. So the idea of a producer,
as you know, is to kind of take all the
pressure off the talent so the talent can do a
great show, set up everything, come up with ideas, get
us to where we need to go, you know, do
all the stuff that so I can just think about entertaining.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Back then, we had to do the show with the
first cell phones. Now, this cell phone was about the
size of your laptop there with a handset on it.
But basically I was pre recording every break, but I
was doing it close to the airtime. So first day
we go down there, it's like great wet t shirt
contest at the pool.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
One o'clock. Let's go record, you know, go in there.
I do it up, do it up, do it up.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
You know, there's a lot of exaggeration that goes on.
It's radio. We have to make it sound like it's
a complete mess of insanity theater, even though I'm standing
on the back, like, you know, yelling into the phone.
A lot of great background noise because those college kids
from all over the country that are going out of
their minds. Yeah, describing the girls on stage, et cetera.
So so, and then we do a few more breaks.
(28:13):
You know, you gotta do what you got to do
some of those breaks. And then every night we saw
a different band. You know, it was great. So the
next day comes, I'm like Fred, what's going on. He's like,
not much. There's really not that much going on. Another
wet t shirt contest. I was like, okay, fuck, okay,
so we'll go there. So I do it again. It's crazy, crazy,
crazy do the show and it's great. It's playing really
(28:33):
well back here in town. Third day comes again. I'm like, Fred,
I just this is insane, going to like Groundhog Day.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It was crazy, Like you know how many wet t
shirt contests can a full grown viril male handle.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Not many, apparently, because it was like I was like,
this is actually getting boring, and I can't believe I
actually said that to myself. I'm like, what am I
going to talk about? I can't I'm doing the same thing.
So but we go through it the third day and
my fiance calls.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Me in tears.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I mean, she's freaking out and she's like, so much fun.
I'm like, honey, I swear to god, it's pretend I
am making up everything.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
No, you're not, Yes, I am.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I'm like, Fred, be a good producer.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Fred.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Now it was true, but it.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Was very tough to communicate that, and that just shows
I was creating this image of total cacophony right and
it was fun and that was the magic of it,
but also got me into a lot of Trouble. We
also that night saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers pool Side.
That was one of the greatest shows of my life because,
for one thing, it was very small. The one thing
(29:45):
I remember, I remember just being blown away first time
i'd seen him. They were such great musicians. They're playing
one of their tunes and in the middle of it,
they just launched into back and Black, I mean, no warning,
just like it's going going, going the boom and the
beat was completely opposite. I was like, oh my god,
(30:07):
that was such a great show. I mean, that's one
of the great things about my early life is I
experienced so much great music and art. A lot of
it was art that was coming along and so happy.
A lot of those bands are still with us too,
and I'm still a huge fan of all those bands.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Do you have any radio outlets now? Do you ever
get the edge to get behind the mic and do anything? Now?
Speaker 3 (30:26):
What you guys, podcasting is the first exciting thing I've
seen because, for one thing, you can do whatever you want.
It is the thing we all complained about in radio
when we were having our hands held by the corporation
quote unquote corporation saying you gotta do this, you got
to do that. You gotta do this, you got that.
Don't go crazy, you're going to offend people. Don't talk
(30:47):
about this and I'll talk about that. I'm like, you're
tying my hands. It's not interesting. And then we had
to be creative within those confines. Now it's great because
it's completely dependent on your personality usually your ability to
interview or at least do bits. So I think it's
it's a whole brave new world podcasting. I mean, if
I was going to do something, I would do something
like this, but I'd probably do like an interview show
(31:08):
or something. I really loved doing interviews. I interviewed a
million artists. I still have the tapes. I just can't
do a podcast because I don't know the clearance, you know,
to put the music on.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Best interview, go.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Oh, I'll take the story up to the interview too.
It had to be Chris Robinson of the Black Crows.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Cool, who were playing music Fest this year.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
They played a few years ago, five years ago. Maybe
I saw him down.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
At they like Bethlehem.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, God, they're an amazing band.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
So their second album was coming out, you know, the
first album slowly became massive, and then the second album's
about to come out. They had just released a remedy
you know what you know is just a great song,
fucking balls out. I mean we were flipping out over
this song, playing the shit out of it. So he
and Rich Robinson are coming in for an interview along
with their record guy, and they are going to be
on my show for the whole as long as I
(31:56):
want them. Right, this is really cool. I'm really excited,
really getting anxious, getting aamped up, really excited to hang
with these guys. I had hung out with them before this.
They had actually played on their first tour through the
area at a place called the Airport Music Hall in Allentown.
I think the record was out a week and after
the show, I was like, you guys are great, went
up to the dressing room, hung out with them for
a while, talked to classic music.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
They were like the fans of the same stuff I
was growing up, like those early Rod Stewart albums, which
are all very raw, you know, and that's the kind
of vibe they're trying to capture on the first album,
and they succeeded really well. And the second album, I thought,
did that times ten But anyway, so I'm really excited
about seeing these guys. I'm standing out at the window
that overlooked the parking lot and I see this big
(32:39):
car pull up, and I kid you not, the door
opened and smoke poured out of it. It was a
Cheech and Chong movie right in front of my eyes.
I couldn't believe it. I started laughing my ass off.
I said, this is gonna be great. Their eyes were
as red as that candle wax. It was great. But man,
that's a dude who will just riff when you ask
(33:01):
him one question. Him and Jeane Simmons a kiss. You
can kind of like, so, how you doing today, and
just like sit back and relax.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
I mean, they'll talk forever, and they're great at it.
They're incredibly entertaining. That was a great interview. They didn't
do an in studio performance. They weren't prepared to do
that at that point. We were set up at Zzo
that we could do performance in the studio. You know,
did you ever see that studio back in the day. Yeah,
I remember that you would have seen it, but I
had little feet in there. Did in studio performance, which
(33:27):
is great. Matthew Sweet came in ironically enough that I
worked with Matthew At. He was on the same label
as Tool, so I worked his records right after the
Tool records. But Matthew did a great in studio performance
that was fantastic.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
It's so cool.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
I had all kinds of cool indie artists coming through,
Like I was all about, like, get everybody in here,
get everybody up here. That's another thing I don't hear
going on in terrestrial radio anymore either. Back in the day,
the live radio, oh my god, it was great. We
did a ton of fundraising as EZO two. One of
the good things.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
People would show up for it, you know, dude, Like
you said, it was a lifestyle before, I very much
believe that. That's so active it was.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I mean, people would come up the next day in
the grocery store and talk to you about what you
said on the other day before.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
That was so funny, so great. You're out of control, dude,
you know that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
It's like real human connection. Yeah, that's exactly what it's
all about. And because it was live, you know. So
this is one of my greatest memories. We had a
fundraiser for muscular Dystropee. Like I said, we did a ton.
I mean every month we were doing something. We could
do big numbers for these local charities.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
So we did this thing at Muscular Dystrophee at the
Lehigh Valley Mall and I did my show laying on
a table and we asked people to come stack quarters
around me. Now I'm six four, that's a lot of
area to cover, right, But I mean we had a
wall that was probably two feet tall, a quarters you know,
around you and all around.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
And that was like many thousands of dollars. And they
were so appreciative, and you know what, it took two hours. Yeah,
you know it's great, just good badger people on the air.
They're walking by this from malls mattered, you know, they're
walking by. They're just taking their loose change out putting
it on the table. It's so simple, wow, you know.
And that's the way we gave back. We I Rick
(35:06):
Strauss might have an accounting of the amount of money
we raised while we were the team there, but I
mean it had to be an extraordinary amount. Bullvine Bengo
was another good fundraiser too. What you do is you
go out to a parking lot and you draw squares
on the parking lot and you number every square and
you make a big area, and then you allow cows
to roam it, and people bet on the numbers wherever
(35:31):
the cow is.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Shit, that's bingo. I was like, that's the most genius thing.
I don't know. I was like, they did that for
like three years in a row, and I was like,
this is the most genius thing. And nothing happens.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
The cow just roams around, he eats a little grass
and wanders the parking lot. And but Bearman was so
good at just talking about it on the air.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
He was another great natural. I mean, you know why
we miss him.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Wow. I could sit here and listen to you to
radio stories all day.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
But.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I wasn't going to give you the butt. There's no butt, Yeah,
no bus. You tell them very well. Oh you know,
you're a great storyteller. What a cool career.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
It was fun. Thanks and such a cool guy. You know.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I talk about Todd very fondly whenever I and I
do reference you a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
There are people in my career that were just like
super into doing quality work and actually like gave a
shit copy production sound everything. He and I would just
sit together at my computer and just like produce spots together.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
I love that, Mike.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
You were so good with that.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
You were like a good foil for me because you
also cared and you also wanted to find just that
right sound effect. But then I had a problem with
you when you were totally cool about it. When we'd
do a take, you would cut out every pause in
the voice in the beginning. Yeah, you didn't let anything breathe. Yeah,
And I was like, dude, let it breathe. It creates
(36:56):
its own motion there. The parts you don't play are
as important as the parts you Yeah, you know, And
that's like something we all learn.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Well, I learned a lot and uh in my career,
and a lot from you, So thank you. And I
think I took your advice back then, and I think
I did a pretty decent job.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
We love having the radio nerds on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah, we can literally sit here for another two hours
and just listen to talk to you what we ought
to do to.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Start a new podcast just for talking about the radio
nerd bullshit, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
That's that's a whole What else do you guys talk about?
Who else do you talk to who have we had
on so far? We did Bob Holder. We did Tyler Rothrock,
local comedian. Oh Bob's also a local comedian, Blake Dannin.
We had George Whacker of Lehigh Allley with Love. We
had my sister randomly for Father's Day. And now you
(37:42):
and now you, Oh wow, Thank you so much for
coming on. Todd Halft Episode seven Blazed
Speaker 6 (37:48):
And Confused podcast with Becker and Joel don't forget to subscribe,
spark up and joined us next time
The plays in Confused.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Podcast is rated M from marijuana no minors, but your
audience is only.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Is it too loud? Turn it down? Here we go,
Here we go, one two, one two, a little louder.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Use a little more feet on me? Okay, yeah, just
a little bit. Just look tweak, just a little bit. Good.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Good levels are good? Levels are good? Yeah. Man, it
reminds me of the old days when we would record
together in the studio.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Man, so long ago.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You know, a good production director saves everything, ship everything.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Here's a good one. Should we start with this one?
Let's start with this one.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
There we go, there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Sorry for the smell, you know, you can't anything.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
What was it?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I didn't need lunch, so that was ti noodles. That
sounds really good, though probably doesn't smell tasted.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Noh my god.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
What year do we think this is from? I was
probably in what like the second grade, listening to you
on the radio when you were doing this, which is
probably yeah crazy. What year did you get your surgery?
Which surgery? Take a listener's the belly? That's the worst thing?
Would you have surgery on? I had?
Speaker 5 (01:11):
HEARNI had done one in the groin, one in the
belly really. Yeah, the belly is way worse than the groin.
It's so swollen. I can't wear pants really, they'll just
keep falling off. I can't use a belt or anything.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I'm talking about my surgery. Yeah, that's great, that's great.
Thanks your best, the best days, the best days, man.
So that must have been based on my voice. I
feel like I sound pretty young, man. I was probably
about four years old. I was nineteen, and that was
a two thousand and four when I arrived at the
(01:46):
radio station. Oh so that was probably I was probably
about twenty one. Year I came back was two thousand
and four. Yeah, that's when I started. Yeah, the same
year I came back, Yeah, was a four. And whatn't
you doing knights at that point? Weren't you ever on
knights on the Hawk? Well?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Even evening? All right, come on, dude, it's different. Starting
at seven o'clock and it's nights evening. They call it
nights now it's the evening. Here's another good one.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Does your loved one scrutum smell like mothballs? I think
that one was for Were you advertising that? I think
it was some kind of old folks home or something.
Like that, that's bad. That's so nasty. Is your loved
one mistaken for dead while sleeping? You know I didn't
do any of this? Is they used a I tore
(02:33):
my voice.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
No, this ain't no AI, this is this is about
as real as it gets.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Here.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I have a hard drive of my entire career. Why
because the moment it's not sad.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You know what the funny thing is. I said to him,
I'm like, what are you gotten there for me? And
we looked and pretty much when I arrived is when
that place started really like the dumpster fire started to
be lit. And then suddenly there was like less and
less and less and less and less clips like as
if you were having less fun at Imagine that pretty
damn accurate. Imagine that. And now look at me. Yeah,
(03:06):
now we're on a podcast and we can smoke weed
and say fuck. I mean it's pretty cool. Yeah, isn't
it nice? I mean, is it is? It's a little strange.
It might be strange for you know, uh, a classic
I'm gonna slap you, You're gonna slap me. I don't
know how I can still hit No, I know, I know,
but you can say fucking to a microphone. Now, I
will admit that, listening back to previous episodes of this podcast,
(03:29):
my potty mount is bad. Actually, you know what, My
father made a comment to me. You know, you say
fuck every other word and oh your body mouth below
and I know Fading knows best.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So I was doing really well a few episodes one, two,
and three, and then like four came by and I was.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Like, yes, last week with your sister, your little potty mouth,
I think you were worse than me last week. We
should keep a running tally of who says fuck more.
You were me. Well, I'll bring my sister around. She's
gonna piss me off, and I'm gonna curse a lot
more so.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
In my family, you wouldn't know it from looking at
me or speaking to me, But the Heft family we
are notorious for being the picassos of profanity.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Really, our family reunions, it's like you'd be surprised there
were two PhDs in the room.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It's not me, by the way, So Todd Heft not
a big Ganja guy, not anymore, sir, used to be
back in the day. See, because all I hear is
that all I hear from from people of a certain age,
people of a certain age, is that to at some
point vacuum my day.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It was awful weed.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It was.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
It was here's how it was. So back in my time,
as they say, weed was very different. It was not supercharged,
because that's just a growing technique now, the way they've
hybridized the plants and the way they grow them for
maximum impact. Right, So my whole life I smoked one
kind of weed.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I didn't smoke for a number of years, and I
moved to Boston and I was managing bands up there.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Early on, I was managing this kick ass band and
we went to a party at the one guy's house
and he passes me a joint. He's like, here, you
hit on this, dude. So I'm like, sure, dude, don't
do that.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I was like why, oh no, and he was like,
oh that's right, year old man, it's not like the
wead you grew up with. I was like, what do
you mean?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
An hour later, I was tripping balls. I was just
like sitting on the couch. My eyes were bugging out
of my head. I was like, what the fuck is
in that?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
He's like, nothing, man, it's just weird. I was like,
I couldn't believe it. I was like, Okay, I need
to not do that. And so you had one bad
experience and then you were done with it. No, one
bad experience.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
No, So were you done after that or did you
continue to smoke marijuana after that?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's some time after that, Yeah, the story ends. What
about cigarettes?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Never never tasted like shit, even when you would drink,
like the drunk sticks don't count. You always hear people
say that, you know, it's weird, And I've heard that too.
I've had friends that just smoked when they drank, right,
But now I grew up My entire hire family smoked right,
my mother, so I was just like, I smelled it
my whole life. And there's a weird, kind of a
nostalgic psychological aspect to that. For me, this is not
(06:10):
to get too deep, but it's weird. So I smell
cigarette smoke and I don't mind it. You know, it
doesn't bother me. It don't flip out over it. Yeah,
because it reminds me of that. Plus Plus I lived
in nightclubs when I was at Zzo. You know I
was there. You could smoke in clubs back then. Yeah,
so I was around it. My whole life. I might
as well have been smoking, but I never liked it.
My lungs could never take it either. I as of
(06:31):
recently quit vaping. I've vaped really hard for like three years.
I mean, like, this is why vaping is ten times
worse than cigarettes is, because you do it all freaking
day long, all day, every day, middle of the night,
and all those times I got awful for I was
thinking about this today. I went to the doctor because
I felt like I was getting sick, and sure enough,
I have bronchitis. And my doctor listened to my chest
(06:53):
and like listen to my lungs or whatever, and said that, yeah,
and it said that my lungs sounded like a seventy
year old man. And he said, he said, I want
to see you back here in a month and a half,
and I want you to be done with that fucking vape.
And I swear, when your doctor says fuck to you,
there's profanity, it's something something, right, It hits a little
different when your doctor drops the little left bomb. Right.
(07:15):
So I was thinking about this earlier today, though, I'm
so excited to go back to my doctor and be
like I'm done with this. I finally quit it like
I did the I'm a month and a half in
now yeah. No, I feel like I can breathe now. Yeah.
But the weed does that to your lungs too. Okay,
so this brings me to my next point. So I'm
over at my parents' house yesterday and I said to
my I said to my mother, I'm like, I'm very
(07:35):
proud of myself. I'm excited to tell my doctor I
finally quit the vaping. And I said, but next, I
want to quit weed. A long pause, and then I said,
I still kind of smoke weed every day, and she
goes every day, and she was so like, oh, by
every day.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Why are you telling your mother this?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I don't know, because I feel like if I tell
my mother this, then it's easier for me to hold
myself accountable and get my shit together. However, this weed
theme podcast ain't helped me much. You know.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
The bottom line is you want to push your mother's
buttons and you know it.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
I mean, I wouldn't say that.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I don't know. You're pretty good at it for a
guy who's not I think every teenager.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, I think I'm a teenager. Toddlee. Practically, I might
act like a teenager, but I'm not a teenager.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Todd Half. You were just talking about how you had
managed bands at one point. Yeah, you had a cool
radio career. Most people are probably listening to this. No
me best from my radio career. But after I left here,
I went. I lived in New England and I did
two things. I was a promotion and marketing executive for
record companies and I also on the side was managing
artists and I got one of them signed and so
(08:40):
that was an amazing experience. So I worked all the
Northeast and mid Atlantic states. The first band we broke
was Tool.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know this is a great kind of radio slash
record story. So when we were working Tool, they had
released the EP that had been big at college radio
undertow right Yeah, without a amazing track on it, with
stop motion kind of Jesus stuff going on in there, right,
And that was mind blowing, and I'm like, hell, yeah,
I want this job. So they hired a big field staff.
(09:10):
I was working out of Boston. Like I said, I
worked in mid Atlantic in New England, and so the
release was on Himah. The first single was called anybody.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Oh Man, You're gonna stump the DJs stink fist.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Okay, which was five minutes long. I think I got
that in college one time.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Okay, where's the rim shot?
Speaker 6 (09:31):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait pause, because I have
one of those wait wait wait, wait, wait, keep and
hang on wait where is it? Oh?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Here?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
It is.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
All right, So we get this and of course it's
an amazing album. They actually took us all into New
York City. I don't know if you're familiar with that album,
deeply familiar with it. But Tool had hired one of
the greatest producers of all time, who'd produced the albums
from King Crimson in the nineteen seventies. This guy was
like a genius at placing little things in the in
the sound spectrum all over the place, right, so his
(10:04):
sound mixes would go all around you. This guy was amazing.
When I heard they hired him, I was just like,
oh my god, this is so exciting. So they flew
us all into New York and there was at the time,
there was a Harmon Cardon showroom, you know, Harmon Cardon
Beautiful that, so it was like a showroom and they
had decked it out like a living room for us
set up all the chairs in a big circle and
(10:25):
they played this album at concert level sound, and I
mean there wasn't a hint of distortion and it sounded
better than anything I'd ever heard in my life. And
that album came out, it was just my head completely exploded.
So we were taking Stinkfist to radio and I was
like it might be a tough sell.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Just the name. The song is brilliant, right, but there's
no apparent chorus, long ass intro but powerful, you know,
it just like cooked from this first beat. So well,
what was on the playlist then is the important thing
I was trying to get to, Like, The Cure was
the most played band at that time at all alternative radio,
so we were working mainstream rock, which we knew would
be slow to the party. I was having to bring
(11:05):
in all the alternative stations in New England. So I
go to this guy out in Northampton, Massachusetts, small station,
important station. Boston was on the fence. BCN was the leader.
Then they were on the fence. They were almost there.
I go out to Northampton. I'm telling this guy the story,
I play him the song and he just about throws
me out.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Of the radio station. He's like, just there's no fucking
whim ever playing this song. I was like, listen, dude,
you're in Northampton, Massachusetts. I no, it's a hip little town.
But outside of this town, it's just dudes laying bricks
all day. They're getting their pickup trucks. At the end
of the day, they want to drink a beer and
they want to rock on their way home, and this song.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Is going to do it.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
He's like, it's called stink Fist. I said, I know,
so don't say the title. Play the song. They don't
say that in there.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
You know, it's not like they're going stink fings, you know,
nothing like that. Nobody will even know what the words mean.
Just play it.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Guarantee you this is going to be a monster. Well
he resisted for weeks, you know, until stations started slowly
coming in. BCN adds it. I finally talked to this
guy after he adds it. He's like, oh my god, dude.
And that was so rewarding to be part of that project.
I mean, that was just amazing. And you know, I
covered all their shows on that tour for god about
a year, and uh, if it wasn't for us in
(12:21):
the field really badgering the ship at our program directors
and music directors. It wouldn't have gotten on and they
wouldn't be the band they are today.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Wow, it was a cool thing to be a part of.
We want to talk about your radio career, but we
should tell it. Do you wanted that later?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah? We should? I should. We should click the open button,
shouldn't we? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
But seriously, an awesome way to start the show. Tot
half episode seven The Blaze the Confused podcasts. We're gonna
start it right now.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
Welcome to the Blazed and Confused podcast with Becker and Joel,
the trivia podcast where the questions.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Are high, and so are they.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
He's time to stuck your curiosity and light up some knowledge.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Though.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Blazed and Confused Podcast starts now.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
All right, So, like the format of the show is
that we have four questions that we'll go back and forth.
I'll give him four questions, he'll give me four questions,
and you're like the lifeline. We don't have official rules,
just kind of figuring that out as we go out
every episode. That what it is the six episodes that
we still don't have several rules. Yeah, wah, yeah, but
last time you said that you could use the lifeline twice. Yeah,
(13:26):
there's four questions. Yeah, that's half the question. I know,
at least it's fifty to fifty. It should be one time,
all right, it shouldn't be one time.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Question number one?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
First category tonight today, whenever you're listening, Are you smarter
than a fifth grader? Are you asking me? Yeah? Is
that the first question? I mean the answer for me?
You know it's an easy one. Are you smarter than
a fifth grader? Now that's a category. Remember the show
that back on the Day with us Jeff Foxworthy? You know,
are you smarter than the fifth grader?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
How many adjectives are in this sentence? Can I write
it down?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Or no? You don't need a This is going to
be so embarrassing for you, Becker, because you write you
do copyrighting, Still doing copyrighting? Yeah, okay, go.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Billy made a rude noise in clash? An adjective, adjective?
How many adjectives? No, don't, don't give events.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I was a peace sign man.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Billy made a rude noise in clash. Oh there's two,
there's two. He made no, hold on? Hold on?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Now I'm questioning what a fucking adjective is?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Good question? I knew you would do this.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Adjectives and adverbs are a big stumbling block.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
My answer is too. Is that your final answer? Final answer?
And the answer is wrong. Yeah, the answer is one.
What was the adjective rude? Because it's a described descriptor? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Right?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
What I was right before?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I said it was the DISCRIBI you were wrong because
he said too. Oh yeah, oh that question too. Hmmm.
Adjectives were you and not?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Again?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Hello, Joe, Hello, I'm looking at these questions here, trying
to take charge of the board and stuff. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
He's also clearly in charge of the weed.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Exactly, which, by the way, I need moore. All right,
so do you heal you? That'll help health? Okay? What's
the medical term for high blood pressure? Dude?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Come on? Is it like an acronym? That is so easy?
Is it an acronym? Remember you have blood pressure? Remember
you have ane? No, he gives it to me now
and fucking tell you that. Oh god, you have a lifeline.
Use your lifeline, Todd. The answer is hyper hypertension. I
never have guessed that, never would have gotten never.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Okay, all right, so too wrong?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We get to hang him out the window upside down
if he gets all wrong and shake his pockets out
and see what happened.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Actually, come on, P Diddy, Oh god.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
P Diddy, come on, I know you got that money
in your pockets.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
On that note, let's go to question three.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Let's question three.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
How many rings are on the Audi logo?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Four?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Four?
Speaker 6 (16:30):
Four?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Very good? Very good. See I love picking these questions
that he knows the answer to. But he sits here
and he's.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Like, second, guess, I guess is the wrong?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Guess?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Is wrong?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
A natural inclination on that is three? Right?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
You think about that, but you're like, no, the Olympics
would have a problem with that. It's got it before.
That's the way my mind goes. Wait, the Olympics have
three rings?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Three rings? Really? Don't they have five? Is it watched smoking? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I know? Yeah? Really get in the contact.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Question four twenty?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
What?
Speaker 4 (17:05):
All right?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I have one more question for you. Let's do it.
It's this music question that I hope you get wrong.
Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, and Ray Wilson have all served
as lead singer of what British rock band.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Genesis Wow Very good?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Some other like man I didn't know about him. Oh,
very good.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I was piecing it together, very good. So I did
pretty well. What did I get three out of two
or three out of four?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Three out of two? Yeah, you got three out of two.
I have more of that joint.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Trivia you didn't know you needed, or maybe you still don't.
It's still Blazed and Confused podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
I've got stuff for you. Now. Yeah, you should go
back to giving me multiple choice. I liked when you
did that.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Everyone complained.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
They're like, you give him multiple choice questions and that's
how he gets them right on the time. But yeah,
but now I don't do that anymore. Uh oh, gonna
make it more even, all right.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Question number one?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
All right, buddy, here we go. What is a palindrome?
I give you? Have you ever heard of that word before?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Now?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It sounds like a Ford or something for Yeah, No,
not a forty fourteen eighty three Ford palandrome. Oh fort
palandro fort palandrome like a war thing.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That's not it at all. Palandrome.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You have to give yourself the buzzer because you got
it wrong. That was a stupid That was a dumb
ask question a palindrome is when a word is spelled
the same way forwards are backwards. So race car is
r A C E C A R If you spell
it backwards, it's still race car.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, but is race one level?
Speaker 2 (18:43):
L e v E L L e v E L
rot r O t O R R O t O
R palindromes.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Rot r t O R ro. What was the question again?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Who are you?
Speaker 4 (19:00):
You question too?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
What is a group of flamingos called a ship? I
know this too. I've asked this as a trivia question before,
not to you, but as at my various trivia events,
and I don't remember. You know, you would think that
after three years a host and a weekly trivia night
that you would retain some sense of information, And now
(19:26):
you don't really, at least in my case, don't really.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You know, a group of crows is a murder, which
I think is a pretty cool A group of flamingos
of flock? That's wrong, You're not You're kind of close.
You got the first two letters right.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Block. Oh, should I be going to my lifeline here
for question? Now?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Don't know the answer to that? Okay, what's the answer, Joel?
I don't know what is the answer is a flamboyant, Yes, a.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Mingos. Flamboyants of flamingos. You remember that one?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Now?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
No, probably not, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Question three, which state is the only state that has
a flag a state flag that is not rectangular or square?
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Dude, it's that rectangular or square?
Speaker 6 (20:20):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (20:21):
One?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I give them all these easy ones, which.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
By the way, I didn't even take the SATs. You
know that I took the PSATs and I got an
embarrassingly low st Go on.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
What was it?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
What was your embarrassing what's the highest you can get
on that thing? Like a fifteen hundred, right, isn't that
what it is? I was twenty one, twenty one hundred.
I think I got like a seven something or got
a seven seven. It's not like a seven hundred something.
So you get a certain amount of points for getting
your name scale.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Ye. That all I remember.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
About the p s A TS, the practice SSATS, was
that I paid money to take it, right, and then
they packed us all in a room like fucking sardine.
And you get to the one point in the math
portion of it, which is no calculator. It may you
turn your calculator in. Yeah, I just literally thought, oh,
I'm never getting any of these right. So I just
went up and down with the scantron like ABCD BCD,
(21:14):
you know, and you make like little fun drawings on
the well Christmas tree shop. Yeah you little drawl. Yeah yeah,
it's like seven, which is pretty good at battleship, you know,
battleship for a seven hundred with the PSA TS and
I paid for that. What a scam? What kind of
bullshit is that?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Asked me the question again.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
What state has the only state flag that is not
rectangular or a square? There's only one state even I
knew this before I looked it.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Up for and I want to say Arkansas. No, it's Ohio.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
The internet said it was a burgie shaped flag. No clue.
It's like, uh, it goes like this and then comes
in at an angle like a tryang almost, and then
it comes back out like like the old school things
in medieval yay movies, like in medieval times. Yeah, yeah,
maybe you'll know this one doubted question four twenty. What
(22:13):
Dutch engineer lou Autens Jesus was famous? What the oh
my god? He was famous for inventing this in nineteen
sixty two. It was introduced to the public in nineteen
sixty three. What was his name?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Lou Autens? How the hell am I supposed to know that?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
What kind of a device was it?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
You would listen to it in sixty two?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, he developed it, invented it in nineteen sixty two,
and it was introduced to the public in nineteen sixty three.
Became very popular on how you would listen to musicytte? Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow.
I figured there was gonna be something audible.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Thanks hit, Why did you think that I would ever
know that with just the guy's name? Listen.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
People kept telling me you were getting these easy questions,
So I'm trying to make it a little more difficult
for you and.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
You're learning something at the same time. Oh wow, you're
never going to retain any of this, but it's still
fun for me. I feel like I learned a lot.
What was the guy's name? Oh jeez?
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Trivia, man, it's like the universe asking us questions, you know.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Yeah, the Blazing Confused podcast.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
She actually did have one question that I could have
asked you about the longest running TV show in TV histories,
Meet the Fucking Press.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Did you know that I did not know that you
would have gotten that right, you knew that that or
sixty minutes I would have guessed.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Are you good with trivia?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Depends what it is trivia of Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
You ever go to a trivia night and like rip
it up?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Not really? I used to host them though, like you,
I mean so yeah, you know it's crazy people get
nutty about their trivia.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Especially when they want to challenge you on an answer.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Sometimes I just want to be like yeah, like dude,
your dude, it's on the card.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, listen to.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Man, listen, you're playing for a fifty dollars gift card.
Let's let's relax, let's calm down a little bit. I
had a guy at Guy that wanted to punch me
in the face because of a question about a month ago.
My question was something about the MLB teams that like
changed their name, changed their changed their name or something. Yes, nuts,
but this question was about the baseball teams that changed
(24:14):
their name. This dude wanted to fight me that the
Oakland Athletics changed their name and should count because they're
no longer in Oakland, and I'm like, yeah, but they're
still the athletic Athletics. Yeah, but he like loves me
on it. He fought me, and so finally I told him,
I'm like, listen, I'm gonna give you the point back,
but you're still, you know, gonna lose. It's like not
going to make that. It's not gonna make a difference.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
But he got the satisfaction, did he though? I don't know,
people get nice, you're nice. You at least listen to
these people. Hear him out my former boss Bill, Oh Bill.
I used to do trivia with him and if somebody
came up and challenged him, he'd be like the fuck
out of here. I always thought it was really cool
to like work in the record field, and it's so
cool that you got a chance to do that and
(24:56):
with tool of all bands, like promoting.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Them, putting them on the map. I started in records
in seven ninety seven. I was at Zzo for fourteen years. Wow,
you were more than that. No, because I was in
Hartford in between that kind of station, rock station, very
similar to Zezo.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Did you do night or evenings?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Now?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Was the program director up there and there's a difference.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Droll.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
No, it's funny you said that. When you walked in,
I said, Wow, this is fucking cool, just like when
Blake was here. I'm like, man, I used to listen
to you guys. Now you're in my apartment. This is
like for a radio nerd. Pretty cool. Okay, pretty cool,
pretty cool, glad I could but make your day. But
you said, you said, mister radio man, you said, well,
you didn't listen to me on zez Oh you're right.
I was born one year after you left. Fuck, I'm right,
(25:44):
you're right.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
You know, we were talking with Blake. He was talking about,
you know, fun radio times, things like stripper Tuesday. You
don't look like the stripper Tuesday type. If I had
to guess, uh oh oh man, I'm wrong, but you
it wasn't the stripper. Yeah, no one wants to see
that shit. But do you recall some of like really
just amazing times saying your radio career with Zizia.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Well, sort of building off of what you said, the
late Fred Shade. Fred just passed away a little while ago.
I don't know if you if you knew of Fred,
but he was the name. He was a producer of
mine when I did remotes, and he also was kind
of like what we called the whipping boy at the
radio station. So basically we had him do everything. Great guy,
great personality, really outgoing, really over the top. He would
(26:27):
do anything that needed to be done, and I mean
like crazy stuff. But he was also a little out
of his mind too, which was great. So he was
like he was like my guy. Anyway, I was doing
afternoon Drive and back then you got to understand how
big radio was. I mean, today's radio is miniscule audience
wise compared to what we were different back then it
was lifestyle. You know, we were of the demo we
(26:50):
were targeting, and all of our friends listened, and if
you had listeners, you had like three hundred thousand.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
People listening to you. You know, it was. It was crazy.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
So they sent me to do my afternoon Drive show
from Daytona. Spring Break is when MTV used to host it.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Oh man, I was like, yeah, we go down there
with no plan.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Fread's my producer, all right. So the idea of a producer,
as you know, is to kind of take all the
pressure off the talent so the talent can do a
great show, set up everything, come up with ideas, get
us to where we need to go, you know, do
all the stuff that so I can just think about entertaining.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Back then, we had to do the show with the
first cell phones. Now, this cell phone was about the
size of your laptop there with a handset on it.
But basically I was pre recording every break, but I
was doing it close to the airtime. So first day
we go down there, it's like great wet t shirt
contest at the pool.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
One o'clock. Let's go record, you know, go in there.
I do it up, do it up, do it up.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
You know, there's a lot of exaggeration that goes on.
It's radio. We have to make it sound like it's
a complete mess of insanity theater, even though I'm standing
on the back, like, you know, yelling into the phone.
A lot of great background noise because those college kids
from all over the country that are going out of
their minds. Yeah, describing the girls on stage, et cetera.
So so, and then we do a few more breaks.
(28:13):
You know, you gotta do what you got to do
some of those breaks. And then every night we saw
a different band. You know, it was great. So the
next day comes, I'm like Fred, what's going on. He's like,
not much. There's really not that much going on. Another
wet t shirt contest. I was like, okay, fuck, okay,
so we'll go there. So I do it again. It's crazy, crazy,
crazy do the show and it's great. It's playing really
(28:33):
well back here in town. Third day comes again. I'm like, Fred,
I just this is insane, going to like Groundhog Day.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It was crazy, Like you know how many wet t
shirt contests can a full grown viril male handle.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Not many, apparently, because it was like I was like,
this is actually getting boring, and I can't believe I
actually said that to myself. I'm like, what am I
going to talk about? I can't I'm doing the same thing.
So but we go through it the third day and
my fiance calls.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Me in tears.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I mean, she's freaking out and she's like, so much fun.
I'm like, honey, I swear to god, it's pretend I
am making up everything.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
No, you're not, Yes, I am.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I'm like, Fred, be a good producer.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Fred.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Now it was true, but it.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Was very tough to communicate that, and that just shows
I was creating this image of total cacophony right and
it was fun and that was the magic of it,
but also got me into a lot of Trouble. We
also that night saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers pool Side.
That was one of the greatest shows of my life because,
for one thing, it was very small. The one thing
(29:45):
I remember, I remember just being blown away first time
i'd seen him. They were such great musicians. They're playing
one of their tunes and in the middle of it,
they just launched into back and Black, I mean, no warning,
just like it's going going, going the boom and the
beat was completely opposite. I was like, oh my god,
(30:07):
that was such a great show. I mean, that's one
of the great things about my early life is I
experienced so much great music and art. A lot of
it was art that was coming along and so happy.
A lot of those bands are still with us too,
and I'm still a huge fan of all those bands.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Do you have any radio outlets now? Do you ever
get the edge to get behind the mic and do anything? Now?
Speaker 3 (30:26):
What you guys, podcasting is the first exciting thing I've
seen because, for one thing, you can do whatever you want.
It is the thing we all complained about in radio
when we were having our hands held by the corporation
quote unquote corporation saying you gotta do this, you got
to do that. You gotta do this, you got that.
Don't go crazy, you're going to offend people. Don't talk
(30:47):
about this and I'll talk about that. I'm like, you're
tying my hands. It's not interesting. And then we had
to be creative within those confines. Now it's great because
it's completely dependent on your personality usually your ability to
interview or at least do bits. So I think it's
it's a whole brave new world podcasting. I mean, if
I was going to do something, I would do something
like this, but I'd probably do like an interview show
(31:08):
or something. I really loved doing interviews. I interviewed a
million artists. I still have the tapes. I just can't
do a podcast because I don't know the clearance, you know,
to put the music on.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Best interview, go.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Oh, I'll take the story up to the interview too.
It had to be Chris Robinson of the Black Crows.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Cool, who were playing music Fest this year.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
They played a few years ago, five years ago. Maybe
I saw him down.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
At they like Bethlehem.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, God, they're an amazing band.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
So their second album was coming out, you know, the
first album slowly became massive, and then the second album's
about to come out. They had just released a remedy
you know what you know is just a great song,
fucking balls out. I mean we were flipping out over
this song, playing the shit out of it. So he
and Rich Robinson are coming in for an interview along
with their record guy, and they are going to be
on my show for the whole as long as I
(31:56):
want them. Right, this is really cool. I'm really excited,
really getting anxious, getting aamped up, really excited to hang
with these guys. I had hung out with them before this.
They had actually played on their first tour through the
area at a place called the Airport Music Hall in Allentown.
I think the record was out a week and after
the show, I was like, you guys are great, went
up to the dressing room, hung out with them for
a while, talked to classic music.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
They were like the fans of the same stuff I
was growing up, like those early Rod Stewart albums, which
are all very raw, you know, and that's the kind
of vibe they're trying to capture on the first album,
and they succeeded really well. And the second album, I thought,
did that times ten But anyway, so I'm really excited
about seeing these guys. I'm standing out at the window
that overlooked the parking lot and I see this big
(32:39):
car pull up, and I kid you not, the door
opened and smoke poured out of it. It was a
Cheech and Chong movie right in front of my eyes.
I couldn't believe it. I started laughing my ass off.
I said, this is gonna be great. Their eyes were
as red as that candle wax. It was great. But man,
that's a dude who will just riff when you ask
(33:01):
him one question. Him and Jeane Simmons a kiss. You
can kind of like, so, how you doing today, and
just like sit back and relax.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
I mean, they'll talk forever, and they're great at it.
They're incredibly entertaining. That was a great interview. They didn't
do an in studio performance. They weren't prepared to do
that at that point. We were set up at Zzo
that we could do performance in the studio. You know,
did you ever see that studio back in the day. Yeah,
I remember that you would have seen it, but I
had little feet in there. Did in studio performance, which
(33:27):
is great. Matthew Sweet came in ironically enough that I
worked with Matthew At. He was on the same label
as Tool, so I worked his records right after the
Tool records. But Matthew did a great in studio performance
that was fantastic.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
It's so cool.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
I had all kinds of cool indie artists coming through,
Like I was all about, like, get everybody in here,
get everybody up here. That's another thing I don't hear
going on in terrestrial radio anymore either. Back in the day,
the live radio, oh my god, it was great. We
did a ton of fundraising as EZO two. One of
the good things.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
People would show up for it, you know, dude, Like
you said, it was a lifestyle before, I very much
believe that. That's so active it was.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I mean, people would come up the next day in
the grocery store and talk to you about what you
said on the other day before.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
That was so funny, so great. You're out of control, dude,
you know that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
It's like real human connection. Yeah, that's exactly what it's
all about. And because it was live, you know. So
this is one of my greatest memories. We had a
fundraiser for muscular Dystropee. Like I said, we did a ton.
I mean every month we were doing something. We could
do big numbers for these local charities.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
So we did this thing at Muscular Dystrophee at the
Lehigh Valley Mall and I did my show laying on
a table and we asked people to come stack quarters
around me. Now I'm six four, that's a lot of
area to cover, right, But I mean we had a
wall that was probably two feet tall, a quarters you know,
around you and all around.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
And that was like many thousands of dollars. And they
were so appreciative, and you know what, it took two hours. Yeah,
you know it's great, just good badger people on the air.
They're walking by this from malls mattered, you know, they're
walking by. They're just taking their loose change out putting
it on the table. It's so simple, wow, you know.
And that's the way we gave back. We I Rick
(35:06):
Strauss might have an accounting of the amount of money
we raised while we were the team there, but I
mean it had to be an extraordinary amount. Bullvine Bengo
was another good fundraiser too. What you do is you
go out to a parking lot and you draw squares
on the parking lot and you number every square and
you make a big area, and then you allow cows
to roam it, and people bet on the numbers wherever
(35:31):
the cow is.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Shit, that's bingo. I was like, that's the most genius thing.
I don't know. I was like, they did that for
like three years in a row, and I was like,
this is the most genius thing. And nothing happens.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
The cow just roams around, he eats a little grass
and wanders the parking lot. And but Bearman was so
good at just talking about it on the air.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
He was another great natural. I mean, you know why
we miss him.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Wow. I could sit here and listen to you to
radio stories all day.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
But.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I wasn't going to give you the butt. There's no butt, Yeah,
no bus. You tell them very well. Oh you know,
you're a great storyteller. What a cool career.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
It was fun. Thanks and such a cool guy. You know.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I talk about Todd very fondly whenever I and I
do reference you a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
There are people in my career that were just like
super into doing quality work and actually like gave a
shit copy production sound everything. He and I would just
sit together at my computer and just like produce spots together.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
I love that, Mike.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
You were so good with that.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
You were like a good foil for me because you
also cared and you also wanted to find just that
right sound effect. But then I had a problem with
you when you were totally cool about it. When we'd
do a take, you would cut out every pause in
the voice in the beginning. Yeah, you didn't let anything breathe. Yeah,
And I was like, dude, let it breathe. It creates
(36:56):
its own motion there. The parts you don't play are
as important as the parts you Yeah, you know, And
that's like something we all learn.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Well, I learned a lot and uh in my career,
and a lot from you, So thank you. And I
think I took your advice back then, and I think
I did a pretty decent job.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
We love having the radio nerds on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah, we can literally sit here for another two hours
and just listen to talk to you what we ought
to do to.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Start a new podcast just for talking about the radio
nerd bullshit, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
That's that's a whole What else do you guys talk about?
Who else do you talk to who have we had
on so far? We did Bob Holder. We did Tyler Rothrock,
local comedian. Oh Bob's also a local comedian, Blake Dannin.
We had George Whacker of Lehigh Allley with Love. We
had my sister randomly for Father's Day. And now you
(37:42):
and now you, Oh wow, Thank you so much for
coming on. Todd Halft Episode seven Blazed
Speaker 6 (37:48):
And Confused podcast with Becker and Joel don't forget to subscribe,
spark up and joined us next time
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