December 11, 2025 • 49 mins
Terry Meiners is a radio host in Louisville, Kentucky on NewsRadio 840 WHAS. Terry has been on air since 1985 and is teammates with Matt at iHeartMedia.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is interrupted by Matt Jones on news radio. Wait
forty witas now here's Matt Jones. It is interrupted with
Matt Bye. Matt Jones here on a difficult week in
my world, but one that can help me be more happy,
(00:23):
which is to see my man, Terry Miners, who is
in Louisville. For those of you who are in Kentucky,
you know Terry's been on the radio forever on eight
forty whas When did you start radio? Terry in Lexington
a WKQQ.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I was a dude hanging tapes on automation and then
somebody got stick and they said, get on in there.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
What year was that? Wait? What year? Though?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Nineteen seventy six. I'm a freshman at UK, So you've
been on the radio for nearly fifty years, that's correct.
When is when do you When does it turn fifty?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Uh, it'll be next June. Technique, What are you gonna
do for your fiftieth.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I don't really know because my brain still works. I
always tell them, you know, you and I work for
the same people, So I always say, as long as
my brain works, I'm gonna keep doing it. And I
love doing it just like you, dude. We You and
I know each other very well.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
You told me fifteen years ago when I started, you
were like, I got like two more years left. You're
never gonna quit. Like they're going they're gonna you're gonna
be on the radio. They're gonna like put you to bed,
and it's you're still gonna be going weather in traffic
in five.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, when I start calling people by the wrong names,
I'm gonna say, give me the hook.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, then you can be president. I mean, if you start,
if you start calling people the wrong name. I tell
this story about you a lot, and I think it's
a good one, which is the graciousness that you have.
I kind of got my starting radio in part because
one time I was making fun of you and you
found and I didn't even know you, and you found
(02:01):
out about it and invited me on the air to
talk about it. And I did not have a radio
show at that time, and that kind of got my
foot in the door in the building, which I think
is I don't know if it's a good lesson, which
is harass radio hosts and then they'll give you a
chance to start. That's probably not the lesson you want,
but I do think it's like telling about how you
(02:23):
saw the entertainment value but also the power of being
kind and it was a good lesson taught me very early.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well, it's kind of you to say that, but Matt,
I also saw you have game.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
You.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I've said this to many people over the years. I've
heard various people come along and say, Oh, this guy
is going to be good. When I heard you come along,
I said, this is the guy that's going to replace me.
That was my first thought when I heard you on
the air. But what and why did you think that?
I mean I was like doing like childish stuff back then. Yeah,
but I like your expressiveness, your ability to express thoughts
(02:59):
on different times topics, and your enthusiasm. I mean that's
all part of it. And you just have a showmanship
about you that most people don't have.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So you've doubt you have been like the voice of
Louisville for fifty years. Yeah. I mean you were like
this young pop you know, punk rocker back in the day,
like middle fingers up, and now you're this city's elder statesman.
I mean, how does that happen? You're like, well, Snoop
(03:28):
Dogg now doing commercials and Snoop Dogg and ice Cube
during commercials for four exactly right. That's the thing is
in Lexington.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It was a rock it is a rock station w KQQ,
and I would start playing around with sound effects. I
would act like, I'd say, the boss is so cheap,
I have to cut the grass on the long songs.
So I played green Grass and High Tides is like
twelve minutes long, and start the sound of a lawnmower.
Start the music, and then you'd hear it fade away,
the lawnmower, and then when the music finally ended, you
(03:58):
hear the lawnmower come back up, and I'm oh my god,
I still got to do around the tower and there's
a dead monkey out there whatever, and just playing along
playing radio theater.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That's old school doing sound effects and things like that's
you know, that's not But you also were doing like
in the eighties. You know, you all had like women
flashing you at the Milk Factor. I mean, like Tony
Venetti would bring strippers in and flash the people at
the milk factory across the street like it's a it
(04:29):
was a different time. We did.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
There were people who would because we had a studio window,
people would come up and reveal and we were like,
is this necessary?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
But I mean that's what you were saying, is this necessary?
I bet that was not your exact reaction exactly to that.
But now you end up doing things like interviewing Mitch
McConnell and politicians. You know, I want to ask you
because part of what I wanted to do today is
sort of talk to you about what's going on in
(05:00):
the world and get your thought on it. First of all,
the state of Kentucky has disproportionate amount of politicians that
matter nationwide. I mean, Mitch McConnell, Ran Paul and even
now Andy Basheer are all three national figures. You've talked
to all three regularly. Does that surprise you that our
(05:20):
state like has punched above its weight, like it has.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
No McConnell's the trailblazer there though, because he knew how
to stack the bags of money and disperse it to
the various senators. He got the purse strings which gave
him that power, and so the other.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Guy like raising money for Republican candidates and then they're
kind of beholden to him.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
At that point of course, you got to come just
the ring. If you're going to get a check. It's
expensive to run for office, and so he was smart
enough to see it isn't about sitting there and voting.
It's about collecting the dollars and then making people come
and visit me and explained to me why they deserve money.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
A lot of people don't realize he actually came into
power in Jefferson County back when Jefferson County that's Louisville
for people who aren't in Kentucky, back when it was
a Republican city. You know, people don't kind of forget
it kind of was a Republican city. He became Democrat,
but he was the Jefferson County Judge executive. I think
(06:22):
it was. That's it. That's the title. And what was
interesting is the state of Kentucky was like all Democrats
back then, and he went around I studied this for
my book, and he found one person in each county
that would be the Mitch McConnell Republican in that county,
and he created his own network of one hundred and
twenty little Mitch McConnell's around the state. And then when
(06:45):
he ran for Senate and one they became the king
makers in their County, and he had this group of loyalists,
And I guess the lesson there is like finding people
who are loyal to you and who kind of owe
you something probably is a way to have a lot
of success in politics.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He played the long game from back in those Jefferson
County judge executive days. He saw what the opportunities were.
The people who went to law school with him always
said they could feel that out of him even as
a college student, that he was thinking long range, and
so he was a pro choice.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
He was pro choice back then. He was like anti
gun back then. Like if you go look at the
positions he had, he had a completely different set of
positions than he does now.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Rather fascinating. Yeah, the evolution, don't don't people say? Like
when when they asked Bill and Hillary about gay marriage
and they say, we've volt yes, that's the word we
the evult.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, people forget when Obama ran for president in two
thousand and eight, he wasn't for gay marriage. It was
actually Joe Biden that kind of He went on like
meet the Press and Joe Biden said, yes, gay people
should be able to be married. Obama had to flip
his position. But because of loud mouth. That's another thing
people forget terry that Joe Biden used to be considered
this like crazy loud, we'll say anything. Now we think
(08:09):
of him as the old guy that was president, But
he wasn't always like that.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
When he was a senator, his people contacted me and said, hey,
Senator Biden is in town. Would you want to talk
to him? I said sure, And a few hours later
he walks up to the front door by himself, walks in,
and we sat down and had him. We chewed on
all kinds of things, and he wanted to argue with
me about who pays taxes or whatever, like okay, dude,
take it easy. He was here to visit a family member.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, he used to be like a kind of a
dirty mouth, you know whatever, and then he just became
Now we all seem as just this old man. Of
all your years of interviewing politicians, who was the most
interesting and then who was the most boring?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, a lot of them are boring because you ask
them questions. And you know this, Matt, You've done it enough.
You asked them a direct question about something that's in
the news, and they immediately.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Just swerve to so who is the worst about that?
Or he is old governors? You know that.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I think that we're just sticking to points. I mean
Wallace Wilkinson and I got into it fiercely several times to.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You. Yes, I did his voice. I made him sound
like mister Haney. That's a good mister Haney. Now a
lot of that's an old man reference. I know it, though.
I like mister Haney was funny. Nickelodeon's around, everybody knows
what that is. Okay, yeah, well not they don't show
that anymore, Terry. They haven't shown Green Acres on Nickelodeon
(09:36):
in like thirty years. It's on one of those dumb channels. Yeah.
I loved Green Acres. When I was saying, well, who
was a politician you enjoyed interviewing the most? I like
John Bayner. He really the same suntan guy, right he was?
(09:57):
Was he like Ohio, I think of the United States? Yeah,
the House and he got on with me one day.
But he also comes from a huge family like me,
so we had connective tissue that way. You have how
many brothers and sisters?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I am one of fourteen, I'm number five of fourteen,
and we're all we all love each other. We're on
a text threat every day we talk about my son's
doing this.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
My daughter's that. All fourteen are on the same text thread. Yes,
every day. Cool, So fourteen, what's it like growing up
in a house of that many people.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I was just telling my daughter this today because she
was driving back from college to get home for Christmas
and I noticed what she got near Lexington. She drove
on I seventy five over Todd's Road and I was
talking to her on the phone and I said, I
used to have an apartment on Todd's Road. And it
was the first time ever I was alone. It was
(10:54):
so weird because you grow up in a house in
its film noise. Yeah, I know where are my pants?
Where a supper? Well, he's at football practice. Phones ran
Colleen there, No, she's not here. You know, that's just
noise constant. And so my dad and two of my
brothers came to Lexington to move me out of an
apartment that I've shared with someone else, and I moved
to my own. I made enough money so I could
(11:15):
go to get my own apartment off Todd's Road and
we went in there. They sat down that we ate
some Burgers, my brothers and dad drove back to Louisville,
and then I sat there and thought, oh my, I'm
by myself for.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The first time in my life. Fourteen years. So are
they all still alive? Yeah? Fourteen? So how many kids
between the fourteen we are in the fifties of fifty two,
I think, and.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
How many grandkids? So there have to be thirty five.
A lot of them are still in the I'm going
to get married soon age. I was just in Lexington
for one of my niece's weddings a few months ago.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
So you think, And so if you got it it,
did they ever all get together? Is there anything? It
brings the whole miners crew Christmas Day? I have one
brother who rents this place. That's a big enough facility
for anybody who can get there. But a lot of
them are now in Florida, and then some are of
course committed other family projects elsewhere, other family gatherings, so
(12:16):
we don't get them all. But we can have eighty
or one hundred people at a place, and that's not shocking.
See that's because I have zero brothers and sisters I know,
and I feel like that combination of going from that's
that's wild, like you're one extreme and on the other.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But the camaraderie is a real thing. I know they
talk about twins know what the other one's thinking and
all that business. We're not that far down the line,
but pretty close. We all understand each other's personalities, even
the oldest to the youngest. And there's a twenty year
spread there. We know each other well enough to be
(12:55):
able to think, oh, it's getting to be that time
where such and such needs a little know, little rah rah.
And so you text somebody and say, how are you.
I know you went through a rough thing or whatever
it is. So we look out for each other or
each other's springboard.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Now, the city of Louisville, would you say, in twenty
twenty five, the city of Louisville, you think is doing
well very much? So okay, house.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Explained, because I lived through twenty twenty okay, And so
you know the difference between this five years five and
a half years later of a rock of scary frightening time.
It's like Dorothy walking out of the house and the
Wizard of Oz. There's another old reference for you opening
the door and here we are.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You're gonna have like a Warren G. Harding reference. Here
soon if we keep going this all but go ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
He's fascinating, but it is a complete change over from
the reality that we had there for a while, it
seemed like, you know, and that was only five years ago.
It seemed like everything came to a screeching halt. We
know that, but the climb out was slower than anticipated.
When the first happened, everybody said, two weeks, flooten mccurb,
(14:09):
floot mccurb. If we all just stay home and.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Don't anybody breathe on anybody else, two weeks it'll be over. Well,
we all know what. Well, but if you go back
to like the eighties, like Louisville, as the city was
in the dumps in general, the downtown was kind of dead.
You know, there was industry, but like I think Louisville,
especially the downtown had kind of just completely collapsed even
(14:33):
into the nineties, and then Jerry Abramson, a lot of
people give him a lot of credit for it, downtown
kind of revitalized. When I moved to Louisville in the
early twenty tens, downtown Louisville was like a scene like
it actually was not just socially but work wise, like
it felt like a major city downtown. And then COVID
happened in the protest, and it went completely the opposite way.
(14:56):
And it has not built back up to what it
was before. But do you I think it is on
that path.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Absolutely, And let me walk back a little further. You know,
you can look at photos and see in the nineteen fifties,
here it is mid December, people walking down. I mean,
the sidewalks are stuffed. It's like Manhattan Fifth Avenue. There's
sidewalks or stuff. The stores are filled, there's movie theaters,
all that business. That's all in photographs. We see that,
so we know Louisville was thriving then. And then the
(15:25):
sixties got turbulent, but that was another shift in American culture.
And then the seventies they built something in downtown, a
walking mall instead of having a.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Street, and that was a bomb. Yeah, River City Mall
is what it was called.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
And then you're right, Jerry Abramson was the new young
cool guy who came in with more ideas. Hey, let's
plant trees, let's do this, let's do that, let's have
community engagement. Things on the belvet are you know, like
we'll have Heritage Weekend, and so people started like, Okay,
we're back in Do you.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Think my friend Craig is doing well as mayor?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Without doubt, Craig's got the right energy and has a
wide lands vision for the community. He has not narrowly
focused on a couple of little things.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
He is.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
He really shakes hands in all corners of the county,
which is really now the city technically, but people know
him in Fairdale as well as they know him on
twenty eighth Street, you know, And that's great.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
And he's also a co owner of a wrestling company
with me, which I gave the worst political advice to
anyone on earth when he told me he was thinking
about running for mayor, and I went, don't do that.
You will definitely lose because I just assumed after the
Breonna Taylor stuff we were going to have an African
American mayor, Like I just thought that was like gonna happen.
(16:47):
And I goes like, why would you run for this,
You're going to lose, And he did not listen to me,
and then he won, and I actually think he's done
like a great job. I knew he he's an he
is really smart, Like he's not really an ideologue. He's
kind of a pragmatic person is and I knew he
would be like that, but I just thought, why would
(17:09):
you want to put yourself through this? And then of
course you know there was an assassination attempt don him.
I mean, he's really had just an unbelievable tenure in time.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
To bounce back from that assassination attempt was incredible in
that most people would be scared and say, I don't
need a public life. That's right, and that's what I
would probably do. Yeah, he'll get a farm and gross soybeans.
But he decided to know we're in and you know,
that story is horrific and that scar tissue that never
really heals, but he is. He's pushed through that so
(17:42):
well and I think is very highly loved around here.
And back to your other point. The second leading vote
getter at least in all the polling leading up to
because I had access to a lot of that too.
With Shamika Parrish, right, we were about to have a
black woman mayor, and Craig numbers kept surging and you know,
(18:02):
obviously he had a nice clear victory. But you're right,
there's a whole shift in the way Louisville looks at
itself dynamically, and we've got to address some lingering issues.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, let me ask you about that. I mean Louisville's history.
I think, especially for people who don't live in Kentucky,
they may not realize. I mean, look, Adam Elin once
told me in Lexington, everybody just wants to get along
and they don't like people who rock the boat, Whereas
in Louisville everyone rocks the boat and isn't very comfortable
(18:35):
with people who try to get along. I actually think
that's what I've lived in both cities a lot. I
actually think there's something to that, Like there's always a
controversy in Louisville, whereas in Lexington people just don't really
want that. Do you agree with those characterizations and if so,
why do you think that.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Is no Lexington I agree with that assessment. But in Louisville,
I think there are a lot of people who are
who are crowd sorcerers. They know how to bring people together,
and there are some people who know how to shoot
off a few flares and it gets them clicks. It's,
you know, engagement farming essentially, and that's okay, and because
that builds people's careers and they have to take an
(19:15):
opposition stance to something because their constituency relies upon it.
But all told, I hate even bringing this up. We
just went through another horrific thing in this city, a
jet crashing, and you see the way people immediately focus
on what needs to be done, and people came together
(19:36):
fully on that and just everybody's hurting.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I don't want to bring up the other tragedies, but
we all know about them. After these tragedies have happened,
mass shootings, I'll use that phrase. People come together and realize,
good lord, we're way we're way over our skis in
terms of not handling mental health issues, and we've got
(20:01):
to address these things. Now that the plane crash is
a different deal, of course, but it did show the
community again, no.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
They do. It does round And I love Louisville. Actually
people because I'm a Kentucky guy, they always want me
to hate Louisville because I think in the rest of
the state. You know, when I was growing what's weird
is especially if you live anywhere from Louisville East Lexington
is almost the de facto capital of Kentucky to them,
(20:28):
like they don't eat. Like Louisville seems like a different place.
When I was a kid, we never went to Louisville, Like,
I never spent any time in Louisville. But I think
Louisville is an amazing city. I mean when you talk
about food and options and different types of people. But
the one thing that I think still sort of haunts
(20:49):
the place is the long history of their kind of
being a racial divide in Louisville, specifically even a geographical
one the Ninth Street. Do you think things are better
in that regard for Louisville now? And like what can
it do to sort of because the race issue is
much more of an issue in Louisville to me than
(21:11):
it is Lexington. And how does how do you think
do you think that's getting better? It feels like it.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
When I was in high school, I worked at a
Baptist hospital and I was the only white person working
in that sector. Was in the kitchen and I was
delivering things around the different floors in there. And that
was a great education for me because I grew up
three miles from this microphone and we didn't have any
(21:38):
black people in our neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Well, I mean for people who don't know Louisville, there
is a it's literally the Ninth Street divide. And there
are people in Louisville who've never even been to the
West end of Louisville. What you know, I mean, it
just doesn't it's because of the river. It's segregated geographically too,
in a way that you just don't see in other places.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
But there are black people in all sectors. There are
now for sure, But Ninth Street. I'll go back to
that fifties thing I was describing all the shoppers, the stores,
all at business. Part of that had to do with
blowing up all the businesses that went down what's now
called Muhammad Ali Walnut Street, and it took away the
connectivity to the sector beyond Ninth Street because that whole
(22:21):
business sector just evaporated. You know, they had all these
ideas that we're going to put this factory here, in
all this nonsense that didn't work. The community feeling was gone.
It was like they there was a bridge and they
chopped off the end of it.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yeah see, I didn't know that. So you're saying that
they used to go past Ninth Street then the shop.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
One of the greatest stories about Muhammad Ali is when
he went to Central High School, he would go out
and run along the school bus. He didn't want to
be on the bus. He wanted to make fun of
the kids on the bus and then laugh at him
and then run to the next stop to get there
before the bus got there.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Did you ever get did you ever get an interview
Muhammad Ali? Oh? Yeah, but he was diminished at that point.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
But Muhammad would run down this street that's now called
Muhammad Ali Boulevard, and they said old men would laugh
at him because there were homes along there would laugh
at him, and he'd yell at him, I'm gonna be
the greatest. They'd say, oh, you're nuts. Who is this lunatic?
And so it's so great that that street is the
one name for him because of those two things, the
school bus chasing and the old men mocking him.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I just love that. I read that in the Jonathan
Eichman book. Clayton and Kroum was founded on a simple idea.
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(23:51):
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Built to last. One of our our current governor is
being talked about as potentially being president. There hasn't been
(24:12):
a really serious presidential contender from Kentucky. Trying to think
since when when would have been the last Barkley? Yeah,
I mean it may have been Alvin Barkley. I'm not
probably was. I mean, so we're I mean ran, Paul ran,
but wasn't really a s I mean we're talking sixty
(24:32):
seventy seventy five years. He will be a candidate. I
don't know how well he'll do, but how do you
think he'll do? I like Andy personally. I saw him
at the football game a couple of weeks ago, but
that was quick. The last time I got to talk
to him, I was saying to him, you really ought
(24:53):
to get on some opposition shows, because Shapiro does it.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Newsom does it. Go sit down with people who are
conservatives and they push them hard. And I don't see
Andy do that yet. I think he needs to do
that to open up the lanes a little wider. He's
he's loved here in Kentucky. He just did a nine
minute CNN sit down about the economy and who whose
problem it is about inflation, healthcare, and regional hospitals, and
(25:21):
he got all that stuff in there that you and
I are used to hearing his regular talking points. He
is great with people. He's a guy that knows how
to hug somebody. Some people can't do that. Yeah, No,
he's very good at that. That goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Shapiro and Newsom are very strong. I see them in
strong positions in bigger, more powerful states, and so that's
an issue too well.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
His lane, to me, if he's going to run in
the Democratic primary, his lane is this because he's not
going to be able to out snark Newsome, right, and
he's not going to be able to He's not in
a swing state like Shapiro. So his lane is going
to have to be if America, and specifically the Democrats,
(26:07):
say we are so exhausted of the constant fighting and
Trump being a jerk, and he's the opposite of that.
He's basically like, if you want to elect a nice guy,
if we're tired of twelve years of screaming at each other,
here's mister nice guy.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Don't you think that's the lane he has the best
chance in. Well, he's absolutely the best suited for that
description you just gave. I don't know that America still
really wants to go.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
That's why I don't either. I don't know if they
do either, specially do the Democrats want. I mean, there's
a part of the Democrats that are like, we want
our Trump, we want the guy who's out there. You know,
here's one of the biggest problems. We have cell phones
and everybody's online. Everybody's a commentator. So every day when
you try to just look for some content that matters,
it's somebody's shrieking face, yeah, yelling and cursing about whatever.
(27:02):
And they don't change one mind. But again, it's about
getting clicks. There's so many people who need to be
outraged about something, you know what what? But but do
you think at some point people go, I'm exhausted by that,
(27:23):
right and and and I mean, that is his that's
his lane, because like in a democratic primery, it is
going to be hard for a moderate to win, and
I think the only way for a moderate to win
is to be like everybody's dad. And I feel like
that's something Andy does a pretty good job of. He
(27:46):
did good work following the COVID. Oh that was when
he was at COVID and then the floods and the tornado.
That's when he said his bond.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
It was beers with the sheer in the afternoon because
he had to have a daily update on the COVID crisis.
And I think that a lot of people warmed up
to him then thought, Oh, this guy's he's not going
to punch me in the face, and he's not gonna
call me piggy, and he's not going to do this
or that or whatever. I mean, you know, just some
of that childish stuff. Andy doesn't engage in childishness. So
(28:17):
you got to give him credit for just acting like
an adult.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Now, unlike most people on radio, your political beliefs are
harder to sort of tie down. No, I mean that, like,
I mean, everybody would know. Everybody would know that I'm
a Democrat, and like there are people on in Louisville
that are Republican. I make fun of Vinetti saying he's
like gotten this little Maga conspiracy theory streak in him.
(28:44):
I've never really totally known what you are. If I
had to guess, you're a little more Republican than Democrat,
but I I don't always know, which I think is
a testament to you. So how would you describe yourself?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I'm a Catholic, and that to me is more important
than choosing a political side. Okay, that's my and I
don't push religion on anybody anytime. I just I want
to feel calm. You were just talking about calmness. That's
where I find the centering is thinking about people that
are suffering, people that are having challenges. I say my
(29:24):
prayers at night. I wish the best for them. I
don't really get into all that. I mean, I see it,
I take it in and and I make cracks about
it on the air, but they don't really mean anything
to me. I'm never deeply attached to anybody in politics.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
And that's how we used to be though, Like it
used to be that people have had their beliefs, but
they didn't become attached to personalities. And I think one
of the changes in politics is that now people are
attached to people more than ideas, right, So than saying
I am someone who believes in tax cuts or in
(30:04):
universal health care, it's I love Trump, I hate Trump,
I whatever, and it's about the person. And then that
person's views can just flip and then the people follow
whatever they say that's I think not good, right, Yeah,
And I get email or whatever people get in DMS
(30:24):
and they write things, you know, you conservative, this you
you vile liberal.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Well, I have this thing in my house. Every day
when I finish exercise, I walk up the steps. I
have a couple of things. There's a hate letter from
a woman that's framed. We have a little shelf there
and it's just they make me laugh. And there's a
big email with font that must be forty eight size
and it says, yours what am I allowed to say
on this show?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
By the way, we can weep it. Go for it,
we can beep it.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Your show sucks, you liberal p word? And then he
signs a bomb and I look at that.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Everybody liked he signed Bob though, remember Bob. But the
font was so big it was just like, why are
you shouting? What did I say?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I don't even know what you're referencing so people they
get mad at me on both sides.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
But that's those fringe people that.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
They can't be happy at eating a ham sandwich without
thinking about Trump makes me.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
But I noticed you still didn't tell me what you
what you are like.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Because I mean, the Courier Journal outed me years ago
I'm a registered Democrat. They went through a bunch of
different people and said, did you looked up public out?
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Did you? Okay? Gotcha they did.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
I mean because I don't want to be labeled. I
like to talk to everybody. I want to hear what
they have to say, and I don't. I'm not the story.
I'm trying to get people to pour their information.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
It's a good thing. The yammer enough, that's good old
school view. I like that you said, but I did
when I did ask you what you were, you said
it firstly a Catholic, so it's important I would think that.
So like take my parents. The thing that bothers my
mom and dad the most about Donald Trump is not
(32:19):
really his views. It's just his callousness and meanness, And
I think it comes from their religion. They don't like
how he treats people. They don't like how he talks
to people and they don't like just how mean he is.
And they are not Catholic, they're Protestant, but they are
(32:40):
like you, And the first thing they would say is
I'm a Christian. That's how they would start their thing.
You like entertainment. There's no doubt he's entertaining. That's right.
Does it make you? But do you does the Catholic
in you cringe at how mean he is?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
There's no doubt about that that I I just shake
my head and think, why is that necessary to say that?
And you're right, because what I do for a living,
I get sound bites that I get to play on
the air and use, as you know, as my own
contribution to culture by saying this and then maybe making
a comment about it. But I mean, he's putting fuel
(33:19):
in my gas tank by saying crazy things. So is
that right for me to use Trump's insults sometimes? And
a thing I don't mean it is I hear I
go to confession, you're an entertainer.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
But I do think, like, I don't think society's better
when because of how mean he is, Like everybody can
argue about whether or not it's better because of the policies.
I would say no, but other people might disagree, but
I don't. I think objectively, the meanness has made society
(33:55):
coarser and worse. I'm not a prude.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I don't care what people do, but you don't have
to be cruel when you do it. Yeah, I mean again,
read the messaging that you get. I get, Venetti gets
other people, anybody across the air. There's a woman on
TV somewhere. I saw her video clip this week. She
read the insults that were coming to her because she's
she's not rail thin, and you know, I wish you'd
(34:22):
go after me as hard as you do those midnight
snacks or whatever. She read her the insults on TV,
and I was like, good for her.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Jimmy Kimmel where people come on and read that, and
uh and I actually think it's actually think it's it's
really funny when you look when you look at the world. Now,
So let's do Terry Miners on pop culture. Do you
watch television very little? I love sports. I mean I'm
in on sports. So you're still into sports even with
(34:50):
the nil sometimes Likenetti's I was like, I'm done with sports.
College sports there.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
I still think they're great, But do you I watched
the Cats last night they blew out and North Carolina Central.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, and you know, I was interested in just to see.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
How how big the deal was going to be and
what adjustments Mark Pope was going to make. And he did,
and he obviously sat down some guys. He yelled at
Garrison for not chasing that guy down, and it's like
he's coaching the team.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
And so I love all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
I watched Indiana a couple of times and then so
now Kentucky and Indiana get out at this center, it's
going to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
To see you say you always say you like both
Kentucky and Louisville. I call bs. You're not allowed to
like both of them. That's my view. I never trust
anyone who likes them both. But I actually think you
do genuinely like them both, am I right? I do?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
I love Kentucky and I've had some U of l
stuff up in my dorm room when I went there.
It just wasn't as hateful then. But still, so you
room for both if they don't play each other.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
But the thing about me is once the game's over,
it's like, okay, games over. I don't let it ruin
the next three hours of my life. For the next day.
There's too many other things going on. There's too much
joy to be found in life.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
So you don't let a lot like so a big loss,
you know, you just get over it immediately. I don't
know how you do that, like it ruins my way.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I like a battle. I mean, Monday Night football was great.
I didn't have a stake in that emotionally. The Chargers
and the.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Packers, right, aren't you a big Packagers? You love the Packers.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
That's the one I will admit to. That is one
that does affect me a little bit. That has to
do with my childhood. Okay, I think that's watching NFL
with my dad is probably what that's about.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Connection to your dad. That makes sense. But you are
None of the other stuff hurts me. Do you do
you like how crazy Aaron Rodgers is. I mean, you've
had You've had two great quarterbacks that their post career
was a little you know, Brett pharmacy, like that might
bother you at all.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
The Brett farm thing that bothers me is the money
out of Mississippi schools.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
It's like, dude, not texting it not texting is Genitalia.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
There was the well that's not good either, but stealing
money from and then pretending like you didn't know what
I didn't understand the text from?
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah you did.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, I mean that's silly. You're not nine years old
and you didn't understand the rules. So that's a disappointment
to me. Aaron Rodgers' cookiness is I think, great theater.
I don't know what he's going to do. I'm glad
he's still in there with the stealers because he's gonna
do something goofy and then we'll get to.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Try You're gonna listen to his inevitable conspiracy theory podcast
that he hosts when he retires. Is Terry Miners going
to be a subscriber.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
I saw McAfee the other day, had Jordan Love on,
and I know McAfee's just sitting there like, gosh, this
is so boring because he doesn't have Aaron Rodgers saying
crazy things.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
I was talking to a guy on Jupiter last night.
What do you think about like, I mean, it's an
old school radio guy like yourself. What do you think
about the McAfee's rogans, THEO Vaughn's the kind of new
age of media. Do you like it? Do you not
like it? It's different, but it's also I think expanded
(38:12):
the world of audio.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
No doubt about it. Those guys are great for it.
There there are a lot of women with powerful podcasts
as well, Alex Cooper, and there's a lot of people. Yes, yeah,
I think McAfee is great because and I know you
would appreciate this, he's like a wrestling star.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
I knowl yes, he he does wrestling.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Oh he does, okay, because he uses wrestling methodology to
draw attention and to whoop up crowds. And that's great.
I mean, that's that's that's great show business. I mean
it's funny. When he first started appearing on college game day,
you could see the other guys just standing there turning
and looking at him like what have we done here?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
You know, it's like being perfect for it. And I'm
not even a huge, huge fan of his, but he's
I think he's actually better on college game Day than
anything else he does. I think that is like made
for him, that sort of there's all these people in
the crowd, you know, that's just him. Man. I actually
(39:16):
think it's perfect for him.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Joe Rogan gets a little rough on certain things sometimes
and is a bit of a know it all, but
he does do homework too.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
He's also a know it all and an idiot, which
is a tough combination, it really is. But you know,
if it inspires dialogue, Okay, it's true. I do like
that about him. He does have people talk. So you're
not somebody who thinks there were, especially years ago, broadcasters
who are like I don't like the podcast people, they're
not trained, etc. You don't feel You've never felt like that. No,
(39:46):
absolutely not. The more voices the better. I told you.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
The only thing that just drives me nuts is all
these people with the phone right in front of their face,
and you know, they got a crooked tooth and a
big wart and they're going and they're screaming like maniacs,
and it's like, does this really sway anyone?
Speaker 1 (40:04):
I mean, is this a Halloween horror house? What is
going on here? If you we've been able to make
successful this medium that people think is dead, which is
like talk radio, but if you were to say the
thing that radio needs to change the most to sort
of keep up with the times, what do you think
(40:25):
that is? I mean, I've just sort of even on ESPN,
I've made it to where I'm just gonna do what
I'm gonna do and people are either gonna like it
or not. But there's still this idea that you have
to do it a certain way. Are you? Are you?
What do you think radio needs to do or change
in the coming years.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
First off, I loved radio because it's the most intimate medium.
I have our question, Nathan. When I walk in the
grocery store, people say hi to men. I'm on TV
a lot, so they're used to see in my face.
But people will say to me, I heard you, you know,
ask where the beans were, and I know your voice,
and so it's like, wow, that's that's something. It's like
a fingerprint, you know, it's an indelible mark. You said
(41:09):
radio is the most intimate, though.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
It is like it is. You can hide who you
are on television, right, but you can't hide who you
are on the radio. Would you agree with that? That's
absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I equate hosting a show with flying an airplane on
final approach for three hours every day. You are all
attention in, all in, all the time, and there's no
way you can't be yourself I mean, you couldn't. Nobody
could act for that for well, for me nearly fifty years.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
But does that leave you like I've struggled over the
years with In order to do radio the way I
want to do it, you have to be yourself, which
for me at least implies some amount of vulnerability, right
Like you have to you know. I mean I I
(42:00):
just had this situation with my dad right where my
dad has got a very serious health diagnosis, and because
Kentucky had two major basketball games, and because they were
hiring a football coach, I couldn't just disappear, even though
I wanted to disappear, Even though I wanted to do
(42:25):
what most normal people do, which is just turn the
world off. I felt like I had to say to
people what was happening, even though I don't know that
I wanted to, and I certainly don't know that my
parents wanted to, but I felt like I had to.
That's where it stinks. Do you feel like that at all?
(42:48):
Good for you for doing the right thing. I mean,
this is just a job. This puts cookies in the cupboard.
Taking care of your parents is why you're on this earth,
and that's that's We're all supposed to be of service
to someone in some capacity. Not everyone's a parent, but
you are of service to someone, and so that's much
(43:11):
more pressing than any babbling about well I can't believe
Johnson only got nine rebounds. Yeah, but I also like
have had to almost like I've like, if all of
my listeners know who my dad is, even though they don't,
even though he's never once appeared on the show, people
(43:32):
feel like they do. And that's both good because they
express such care for him, but also has made it
to where this private person almost has his private issues
known by a state of people, and that balance has
always been hard for me. How do I talk about
(43:53):
who I am while also trying to let maintain some privacy?
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Does that I mean? Have you ever had to deal
with things like that? I'm both my parents are gone now,
and it's just yeah, I had to, I had to
talk to you. Did you talk through it on the
air a little bit? I mean, it's tough, because it's crueling.
I was there when my father passed. It happened at
three in the morning, and he was at a place
(44:18):
a mile away from the radio station, and I didn't
know what else to do because we are We are
where animals drawn to what we do. I drove to
the radio station and sat down and cried a little
bit on the air with Tony the Morning Guy, And
but I told you.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Your dad died at three, and you went on the
radio that morning.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Four hours later and just talked for a couple of minutes,
and then I then I was gone.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
For a week or so.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
But I mean, I just wanted the people to hear
it from me. My dad was, uh, it took him
a while to get used to this. I know your
mom and dad. I know how proud they are of you.
They get they get you know. They just if you
could see your mother smile when you there at ks
bar and you're doing something or other and all these
(45:04):
people are listening to you, and she just stands over
there and she's got a smile on her face like
she just won the lottery. She's looking at her boy.
She loves you, and she's the sweetest person. She just
texted me the other day and congratulated me on forty years.
And she's under all this pressure because of the medical
situation in the family, but she thought about me, and
(45:24):
I thought, God, that's so huge.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
I appreciate that your parents are the.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Guiding lights that blaze the path that you're supposed to follow,
and you honor them by living the best life you can.
They brought you here. You you just you gotta do
(46:07):
what's right or learn from mistakes to honor the legacy
of your parents, your grandparents and so forth right up
the line. And that's the way I feel. And so
I love the way I see your mom and dad
love you. I think about my own parents. My dad
thought that radio was so stupid when I got in it,
(46:28):
and I was in Lexington four years And when my
dad would drive a truck overnight, he'd sleep all day.
And you walk in our parents home in the middle
of the day, and if you heard Frank Sinatra singing
the it was on the oldies, you know, Monavani music station.
The music would waft down from upstairs, and you think,
I have to be quiet because Dan's sleep and he's
going to drive all night tonight. And so I take
(46:51):
a job in Louisville and I walk in my parents
home at one o'clock in the afternoon. What do I
hear wafting down the steps Pink Floyd And I thought,
good lord, my father loves me. That he listened to you,
that he was listening to hear me on a commercial
or something. He just wanted to hear his kid's voice
(47:12):
was like boom, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
No, I listen. That's beautiful. And uh my mom sits
and listens to two hours of sports and she doesn't
even watch sports. She's never watched watched without you know,
I I but it is, it is. You get this
(47:38):
in a way that a lot of people don't. It
is hard to put yourself out there for the world
in times where you yourself are not one hundred percent right.
You don't get to go into a hole. You don't
just get to go and say, you know what, I'm
(47:59):
gonna sit in my office today, close the door and
not talk to people, and like, if you're gonna do
it the way I do it, which is I live
my life on the air and I talk about what's
going behind the scenes, et cetera. That's just sometimes you're
just like, I don't want to do this, but I
have to anyway. And that's tough.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
That's the trick about the clock. It shows up for you.
Ten am, shows up, whether or not.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Dave Letterman used to say about his show. We don't
go on at eleven thirty because the show is ready.
We go on at eleven thirty because it's eleven thirty, right,
And there's a lot of truth to that.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
I feel that way about three o'clock every day. That's
the same thing, and that's the important metaphor too. Eventually
the clock stops ticking for every one of us. So
hopefully you've walked the path that I just described in
the right direction. You have to feel good about that
so that the people that are following you learn as well,
and so I try to live by that. I've done
(49:02):
so many dumb things in my life I'm sorry for,
but I'm trying to stay on that path and move
in the right direction. It's a way of honoring all
who came before me.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
Great stuff. An you've got to do that here in
just a few minutes, So I will let you go. Terry,
thank you very much, and thank you all very much
for listening to Interrupted by Matt Jones. We'll see you
next week.
This is interrupted by Matt Jones on news radio. Wait
forty witas now here's Matt Jones. It is interrupted with
Matt Bye. Matt Jones here on a difficult week in
my world, but one that can help me be more happy,
(00:23):
which is to see my man, Terry Miners, who is
in Louisville. For those of you who are in Kentucky,
you know Terry's been on the radio forever on eight
forty whas When did you start radio? Terry in Lexington
a WKQQ.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I was a dude hanging tapes on automation and then
somebody got stick and they said, get on in there.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
What year was that? Wait? What year? Though?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Nineteen seventy six. I'm a freshman at UK, So you've
been on the radio for nearly fifty years, that's correct.
When is when do you When does it turn fifty?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Uh, it'll be next June. Technique, What are you gonna
do for your fiftieth.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I don't really know because my brain still works. I
always tell them, you know, you and I work for
the same people, So I always say, as long as
my brain works, I'm gonna keep doing it. And I
love doing it just like you, dude. We You and
I know each other very well.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
You told me fifteen years ago when I started, you
were like, I got like two more years left. You're
never gonna quit. Like they're going they're gonna you're gonna
be on the radio. They're gonna like put you to bed,
and it's you're still gonna be going weather in traffic
in five.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, when I start calling people by the wrong names,
I'm gonna say, give me the hook.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, then you can be president. I mean, if you start,
if you start calling people the wrong name. I tell
this story about you a lot, and I think it's
a good one, which is the graciousness that you have.
I kind of got my starting radio in part because
one time I was making fun of you and you
found and I didn't even know you, and you found
(02:01):
out about it and invited me on the air to
talk about it. And I did not have a radio
show at that time, and that kind of got my
foot in the door in the building, which I think
is I don't know if it's a good lesson, which
is harass radio hosts and then they'll give you a
chance to start. That's probably not the lesson you want,
but I do think it's like telling about how you
(02:23):
saw the entertainment value but also the power of being
kind and it was a good lesson taught me very early.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well, it's kind of you to say that, but Matt,
I also saw you have game.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
You.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I've said this to many people over the years. I've
heard various people come along and say, Oh, this guy
is going to be good. When I heard you come along,
I said, this is the guy that's going to replace me.
That was my first thought when I heard you on
the air. But what and why did you think that?
I mean I was like doing like childish stuff back then. Yeah,
but I like your expressiveness, your ability to express thoughts
(02:59):
on different times topics, and your enthusiasm. I mean that's
all part of it. And you just have a showmanship
about you that most people don't have.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So you've doubt you have been like the voice of
Louisville for fifty years. Yeah. I mean you were like
this young pop you know, punk rocker back in the day,
like middle fingers up, and now you're this city's elder statesman.
I mean, how does that happen? You're like, well, Snoop
(03:28):
Dogg now doing commercials and Snoop Dogg and ice Cube
during commercials for four exactly right. That's the thing is
in Lexington.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It was a rock it is a rock station w KQQ,
and I would start playing around with sound effects. I
would act like, I'd say, the boss is so cheap,
I have to cut the grass on the long songs.
So I played green Grass and High Tides is like
twelve minutes long, and start the sound of a lawnmower.
Start the music, and then you'd hear it fade away,
the lawnmower, and then when the music finally ended, you
(03:58):
hear the lawnmower come back up, and I'm oh my god,
I still got to do around the tower and there's
a dead monkey out there whatever, and just playing along
playing radio theater.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That's old school doing sound effects and things like that's
you know, that's not But you also were doing like
in the eighties. You know, you all had like women
flashing you at the Milk Factor. I mean, like Tony
Venetti would bring strippers in and flash the people at
the milk factory across the street like it's a it
(04:29):
was a different time. We did.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
There were people who would because we had a studio window,
people would come up and reveal and we were like,
is this necessary?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
But I mean that's what you were saying, is this necessary?
I bet that was not your exact reaction exactly to that.
But now you end up doing things like interviewing Mitch
McConnell and politicians. You know, I want to ask you
because part of what I wanted to do today is
sort of talk to you about what's going on in
(05:00):
the world and get your thought on it. First of all,
the state of Kentucky has disproportionate amount of politicians that
matter nationwide. I mean, Mitch McConnell, Ran Paul and even
now Andy Basheer are all three national figures. You've talked
to all three regularly. Does that surprise you that our
(05:20):
state like has punched above its weight, like it has.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
No McConnell's the trailblazer there though, because he knew how
to stack the bags of money and disperse it to
the various senators. He got the purse strings which gave
him that power, and so the other.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Guy like raising money for Republican candidates and then they're
kind of beholden to him.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
At that point of course, you got to come just
the ring. If you're going to get a check. It's
expensive to run for office, and so he was smart
enough to see it isn't about sitting there and voting.
It's about collecting the dollars and then making people come
and visit me and explained to me why they deserve money.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
A lot of people don't realize he actually came into
power in Jefferson County back when Jefferson County that's Louisville
for people who aren't in Kentucky, back when it was
a Republican city. You know, people don't kind of forget
it kind of was a Republican city. He became Democrat,
but he was the Jefferson County Judge executive. I think
(06:22):
it was. That's it. That's the title. And what was
interesting is the state of Kentucky was like all Democrats
back then, and he went around I studied this for
my book, and he found one person in each county
that would be the Mitch McConnell Republican in that county,
and he created his own network of one hundred and
twenty little Mitch McConnell's around the state. And then when
(06:45):
he ran for Senate and one they became the king
makers in their County, and he had this group of loyalists,
And I guess the lesson there is like finding people
who are loyal to you and who kind of owe
you something probably is a way to have a lot
of success in politics.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He played the long game from back in those Jefferson
County judge executive days. He saw what the opportunities were.
The people who went to law school with him always
said they could feel that out of him even as
a college student, that he was thinking long range, and
so he was a pro choice.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
He was pro choice back then. He was like anti
gun back then. Like if you go look at the
positions he had, he had a completely different set of
positions than he does now.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Rather fascinating. Yeah, the evolution, don't don't people say? Like
when when they asked Bill and Hillary about gay marriage
and they say, we've volt yes, that's the word we
the evult.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, people forget when Obama ran for president in two
thousand and eight, he wasn't for gay marriage. It was
actually Joe Biden that kind of He went on like
meet the Press and Joe Biden said, yes, gay people
should be able to be married. Obama had to flip
his position. But because of loud mouth. That's another thing
people forget terry that Joe Biden used to be considered
this like crazy loud, we'll say anything. Now we think
(08:09):
of him as the old guy that was president, But
he wasn't always like that.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
When he was a senator, his people contacted me and said, hey,
Senator Biden is in town. Would you want to talk
to him? I said sure, And a few hours later
he walks up to the front door by himself, walks in,
and we sat down and had him. We chewed on
all kinds of things, and he wanted to argue with
me about who pays taxes or whatever, like okay, dude,
take it easy. He was here to visit a family member.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, he used to be like a kind of a
dirty mouth, you know whatever, and then he just became
Now we all seem as just this old man. Of
all your years of interviewing politicians, who was the most
interesting and then who was the most boring?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, a lot of them are boring because you ask
them questions. And you know this, Matt, You've done it enough.
You asked them a direct question about something that's in
the news, and they immediately.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Just swerve to so who is the worst about that?
Or he is old governors? You know that.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I think that we're just sticking to points. I mean
Wallace Wilkinson and I got into it fiercely several times to.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You. Yes, I did his voice. I made him sound
like mister Haney. That's a good mister Haney. Now a
lot of that's an old man reference. I know it, though.
I like mister Haney was funny. Nickelodeon's around, everybody knows
what that is. Okay, yeah, well not they don't show
that anymore, Terry. They haven't shown Green Acres on Nickelodeon
(09:36):
in like thirty years. It's on one of those dumb channels. Yeah.
I loved Green Acres. When I was saying, well, who
was a politician you enjoyed interviewing the most? I like
John Bayner. He really the same suntan guy, right he was?
(09:57):
Was he like Ohio, I think of the United States? Yeah,
the House and he got on with me one day.
But he also comes from a huge family like me,
so we had connective tissue that way. You have how
many brothers and sisters?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I am one of fourteen, I'm number five of fourteen,
and we're all we all love each other. We're on
a text threat every day we talk about my son's
doing this.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
My daughter's that. All fourteen are on the same text thread. Yes,
every day. Cool, So fourteen, what's it like growing up
in a house of that many people.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I was just telling my daughter this today because she
was driving back from college to get home for Christmas
and I noticed what she got near Lexington. She drove
on I seventy five over Todd's Road and I was
talking to her on the phone and I said, I
used to have an apartment on Todd's Road. And it
was the first time ever I was alone. It was
(10:54):
so weird because you grow up in a house in
its film noise. Yeah, I know where are my pants?
Where a supper? Well, he's at football practice. Phones ran
Colleen there, No, she's not here. You know, that's just
noise constant. And so my dad and two of my
brothers came to Lexington to move me out of an
apartment that I've shared with someone else, and I moved
to my own. I made enough money so I could
(11:15):
go to get my own apartment off Todd's Road and
we went in there. They sat down that we ate
some Burgers, my brothers and dad drove back to Louisville,
and then I sat there and thought, oh my, I'm
by myself for.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The first time in my life. Fourteen years. So are
they all still alive? Yeah? Fourteen? So how many kids
between the fourteen we are in the fifties of fifty two,
I think, and.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
How many grandkids? So there have to be thirty five.
A lot of them are still in the I'm going
to get married soon age. I was just in Lexington
for one of my niece's weddings a few months ago.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
So you think, And so if you got it it,
did they ever all get together? Is there anything? It
brings the whole miners crew Christmas Day? I have one
brother who rents this place. That's a big enough facility
for anybody who can get there. But a lot of
them are now in Florida, and then some are of
course committed other family projects elsewhere, other family gatherings, so
(12:16):
we don't get them all. But we can have eighty
or one hundred people at a place, and that's not shocking.
See that's because I have zero brothers and sisters I know,
and I feel like that combination of going from that's
that's wild, like you're one extreme and on the other.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But the camaraderie is a real thing. I know they
talk about twins know what the other one's thinking and
all that business. We're not that far down the line,
but pretty close. We all understand each other's personalities, even
the oldest to the youngest. And there's a twenty year
spread there. We know each other well enough to be
(12:55):
able to think, oh, it's getting to be that time
where such and such needs a little know, little rah rah.
And so you text somebody and say, how are you.
I know you went through a rough thing or whatever
it is. So we look out for each other or
each other's springboard.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Now, the city of Louisville, would you say, in twenty
twenty five, the city of Louisville, you think is doing
well very much? So okay, house.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Explained, because I lived through twenty twenty okay, And so
you know the difference between this five years five and
a half years later of a rock of scary frightening time.
It's like Dorothy walking out of the house and the
Wizard of Oz. There's another old reference for you opening
the door and here we are.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You're gonna have like a Warren G. Harding reference. Here
soon if we keep going this all but go ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
He's fascinating, but it is a complete change over from
the reality that we had there for a while, it
seemed like, you know, and that was only five years ago.
It seemed like everything came to a screeching halt. We
know that, but the climb out was slower than anticipated.
When the first happened, everybody said, two weeks, flooten mccurb,
(14:09):
floot mccurb. If we all just stay home and.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Don't anybody breathe on anybody else, two weeks it'll be over. Well,
we all know what. Well, but if you go back
to like the eighties, like Louisville, as the city was
in the dumps in general, the downtown was kind of dead.
You know, there was industry, but like I think Louisville,
especially the downtown had kind of just completely collapsed even
(14:33):
into the nineties, and then Jerry Abramson, a lot of
people give him a lot of credit for it, downtown
kind of revitalized. When I moved to Louisville in the
early twenty tens, downtown Louisville was like a scene like
it actually was not just socially but work wise, like
it felt like a major city downtown. And then COVID
happened in the protest, and it went completely the opposite way.
(14:56):
And it has not built back up to what it
was before. But do you I think it is on
that path.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Absolutely, And let me walk back a little further. You know,
you can look at photos and see in the nineteen fifties,
here it is mid December, people walking down. I mean,
the sidewalks are stuffed. It's like Manhattan Fifth Avenue. There's
sidewalks or stuff. The stores are filled, there's movie theaters,
all that business. That's all in photographs. We see that,
so we know Louisville was thriving then. And then the
(15:25):
sixties got turbulent, but that was another shift in American culture.
And then the seventies they built something in downtown, a
walking mall instead of having a.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Street, and that was a bomb. Yeah, River City Mall
is what it was called.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
And then you're right, Jerry Abramson was the new young
cool guy who came in with more ideas. Hey, let's
plant trees, let's do this, let's do that, let's have
community engagement. Things on the belvet are you know, like
we'll have Heritage Weekend, and so people started like, Okay,
we're back in Do you.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Think my friend Craig is doing well as mayor?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Without doubt, Craig's got the right energy and has a
wide lands vision for the community. He has not narrowly
focused on a couple of little things.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
He is.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
He really shakes hands in all corners of the county,
which is really now the city technically, but people know
him in Fairdale as well as they know him on
twenty eighth Street, you know, And that's great.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
And he's also a co owner of a wrestling company
with me, which I gave the worst political advice to
anyone on earth when he told me he was thinking
about running for mayor, and I went, don't do that.
You will definitely lose because I just assumed after the
Breonna Taylor stuff we were going to have an African
American mayor, Like I just thought that was like gonna happen.
(16:47):
And I goes like, why would you run for this,
You're going to lose, And he did not listen to me,
and then he won, and I actually think he's done
like a great job. I knew he he's an he
is really smart, Like he's not really an ideologue. He's
kind of a pragmatic person is and I knew he
would be like that, but I just thought, why would
(17:09):
you want to put yourself through this? And then of
course you know there was an assassination attempt don him.
I mean, he's really had just an unbelievable tenure in time.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
To bounce back from that assassination attempt was incredible in
that most people would be scared and say, I don't
need a public life. That's right, and that's what I
would probably do. Yeah, he'll get a farm and gross soybeans.
But he decided to know we're in and you know,
that story is horrific and that scar tissue that never
really heals, but he is. He's pushed through that so
(17:42):
well and I think is very highly loved around here.
And back to your other point. The second leading vote
getter at least in all the polling leading up to
because I had access to a lot of that too.
With Shamika Parrish, right, we were about to have a
black woman mayor, and Craig numbers kept surging and you know,
(18:02):
obviously he had a nice clear victory. But you're right,
there's a whole shift in the way Louisville looks at
itself dynamically, and we've got to address some lingering issues.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well, let me ask you about that. I mean Louisville's history.
I think, especially for people who don't live in Kentucky,
they may not realize. I mean, look, Adam Elin once
told me in Lexington, everybody just wants to get along
and they don't like people who rock the boat, Whereas
in Louisville everyone rocks the boat and isn't very comfortable
(18:35):
with people who try to get along. I actually think
that's what I've lived in both cities a lot. I
actually think there's something to that, Like there's always a
controversy in Louisville, whereas in Lexington people just don't really
want that. Do you agree with those characterizations and if so,
why do you think that.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Is no Lexington I agree with that assessment. But in Louisville,
I think there are a lot of people who are
who are crowd sorcerers. They know how to bring people together,
and there are some people who know how to shoot
off a few flares and it gets them clicks. It's,
you know, engagement farming essentially, and that's okay, and because
that builds people's careers and they have to take an
(19:15):
opposition stance to something because their constituency relies upon it.
But all told, I hate even bringing this up. We
just went through another horrific thing in this city, a
jet crashing, and you see the way people immediately focus
on what needs to be done, and people came together
(19:36):
fully on that and just everybody's hurting.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I don't want to bring up the other tragedies, but
we all know about them. After these tragedies have happened,
mass shootings, I'll use that phrase. People come together and realize,
good lord, we're way we're way over our skis in
terms of not handling mental health issues, and we've got
(20:01):
to address these things. Now that the plane crash is
a different deal, of course, but it did show the
community again, no.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
They do. It does round And I love Louisville. Actually
people because I'm a Kentucky guy, they always want me
to hate Louisville because I think in the rest of
the state. You know, when I was growing what's weird
is especially if you live anywhere from Louisville East Lexington
is almost the de facto capital of Kentucky to them,
(20:28):
like they don't eat. Like Louisville seems like a different place.
When I was a kid, we never went to Louisville, Like,
I never spent any time in Louisville. But I think
Louisville is an amazing city. I mean when you talk
about food and options and different types of people. But
the one thing that I think still sort of haunts
(20:49):
the place is the long history of their kind of
being a racial divide in Louisville, specifically even a geographical
one the Ninth Street. Do you think things are better
in that regard for Louisville now? And like what can
it do to sort of because the race issue is
much more of an issue in Louisville to me than
(21:11):
it is Lexington. And how does how do you think
do you think that's getting better? It feels like it.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
When I was in high school, I worked at a
Baptist hospital and I was the only white person working
in that sector. Was in the kitchen and I was
delivering things around the different floors in there. And that
was a great education for me because I grew up
three miles from this microphone and we didn't have any
(21:38):
black people in our neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Well, I mean for people who don't know Louisville, there
is a it's literally the Ninth Street divide. And there
are people in Louisville who've never even been to the
West end of Louisville. What you know, I mean, it
just doesn't it's because of the river. It's segregated geographically too,
in a way that you just don't see in other places.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
But there are black people in all sectors. There are
now for sure, But Ninth Street. I'll go back to
that fifties thing I was describing all the shoppers, the stores,
all at business. Part of that had to do with
blowing up all the businesses that went down what's now
called Muhammad Ali Walnut Street, and it took away the
connectivity to the sector beyond Ninth Street because that whole
(22:21):
business sector just evaporated. You know, they had all these
ideas that we're going to put this factory here, in
all this nonsense that didn't work. The community feeling was gone.
It was like they there was a bridge and they
chopped off the end of it.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yeah see, I didn't know that. So you're saying that
they used to go past Ninth Street then the shop.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
One of the greatest stories about Muhammad Ali is when
he went to Central High School, he would go out
and run along the school bus. He didn't want to
be on the bus. He wanted to make fun of
the kids on the bus and then laugh at him
and then run to the next stop to get there
before the bus got there.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Did you ever get did you ever get an interview
Muhammad Ali? Oh? Yeah, but he was diminished at that point.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
But Muhammad would run down this street that's now called
Muhammad Ali Boulevard, and they said old men would laugh
at him because there were homes along there would laugh
at him, and he'd yell at him, I'm gonna be
the greatest. They'd say, oh, you're nuts. Who is this lunatic?
And so it's so great that that street is the
one name for him because of those two things, the
school bus chasing and the old men mocking him.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I just love that. I read that in the Jonathan
Eichman book. Clayton and Kroum was founded on a simple idea.
All leather goods should last a lifetime. They make everything
from bags, belts, walts, and much more. And the best part,
they're doing it right here in Kentucky. You can check
them out at Claytoninkroom dot com, c r u me
(23:51):
dot com, or visit one of their retail stores in Louisville,
Charleston and now opening Nashville. Clayton and Krome Quality Goods
Built to last. One of our our current governor is
being talked about as potentially being president. There hasn't been
(24:12):
a really serious presidential contender from Kentucky. Trying to think
since when when would have been the last Barkley? Yeah,
I mean it may have been Alvin Barkley. I'm not
probably was. I mean, so we're I mean ran, Paul ran,
but wasn't really a s I mean we're talking sixty
(24:32):
seventy seventy five years. He will be a candidate. I
don't know how well he'll do, but how do you
think he'll do? I like Andy personally. I saw him
at the football game a couple of weeks ago, but
that was quick. The last time I got to talk
to him, I was saying to him, you really ought
(24:53):
to get on some opposition shows, because Shapiro does it.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Newsom does it. Go sit down with people who are
conservatives and they push them hard. And I don't see
Andy do that yet. I think he needs to do
that to open up the lanes a little wider. He's
he's loved here in Kentucky. He just did a nine
minute CNN sit down about the economy and who whose
problem it is about inflation, healthcare, and regional hospitals, and
(25:21):
he got all that stuff in there that you and
I are used to hearing his regular talking points. He
is great with people. He's a guy that knows how
to hug somebody. Some people can't do that. Yeah, No,
he's very good at that. That goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Shapiro and Newsom are very strong. I see them in
strong positions in bigger, more powerful states, and so that's
an issue too well.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
His lane, to me, if he's going to run in
the Democratic primary, his lane is this because he's not
going to be able to out snark Newsome, right, and
he's not going to be able to He's not in
a swing state like Shapiro. So his lane is going
to have to be if America, and specifically the Democrats,
(26:07):
say we are so exhausted of the constant fighting and
Trump being a jerk, and he's the opposite of that.
He's basically like, if you want to elect a nice guy,
if we're tired of twelve years of screaming at each other,
here's mister nice guy.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Don't you think that's the lane he has the best
chance in. Well, he's absolutely the best suited for that
description you just gave. I don't know that America still
really wants to go.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
That's why I don't either. I don't know if they
do either, specially do the Democrats want. I mean, there's
a part of the Democrats that are like, we want
our Trump, we want the guy who's out there. You know,
here's one of the biggest problems. We have cell phones
and everybody's online. Everybody's a commentator. So every day when
you try to just look for some content that matters,
it's somebody's shrieking face, yeah, yelling and cursing about whatever.
(27:02):
And they don't change one mind. But again, it's about
getting clicks. There's so many people who need to be
outraged about something, you know what what? But but do
you think at some point people go, I'm exhausted by that,
(27:23):
right and and and I mean, that is his that's
his lane, because like in a democratic primery, it is
going to be hard for a moderate to win, and
I think the only way for a moderate to win
is to be like everybody's dad. And I feel like
that's something Andy does a pretty good job of. He
(27:46):
did good work following the COVID. Oh that was when
he was at COVID and then the floods and the tornado.
That's when he said his bond.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
It was beers with the sheer in the afternoon because
he had to have a daily update on the COVID crisis.
And I think that a lot of people warmed up
to him then thought, Oh, this guy's he's not going
to punch me in the face, and he's not gonna
call me piggy, and he's not going to do this
or that or whatever. I mean, you know, just some
of that childish stuff. Andy doesn't engage in childishness. So
(28:17):
you got to give him credit for just acting like
an adult.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Now, unlike most people on radio, your political beliefs are
harder to sort of tie down. No, I mean that, like,
I mean, everybody would know. Everybody would know that I'm
a Democrat, and like there are people on in Louisville
that are Republican. I make fun of Vinetti saying he's
like gotten this little Maga conspiracy theory streak in him.
(28:44):
I've never really totally known what you are. If I
had to guess, you're a little more Republican than Democrat,
but I I don't always know, which I think is
a testament to you. So how would you describe yourself?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I'm a Catholic, and that to me is more important
than choosing a political side. Okay, that's my and I
don't push religion on anybody anytime. I just I want
to feel calm. You were just talking about calmness. That's
where I find the centering is thinking about people that
are suffering, people that are having challenges. I say my
(29:24):
prayers at night. I wish the best for them. I
don't really get into all that. I mean, I see it,
I take it in and and I make cracks about
it on the air, but they don't really mean anything
to me. I'm never deeply attached to anybody in politics.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
And that's how we used to be though, Like it
used to be that people have had their beliefs, but
they didn't become attached to personalities. And I think one
of the changes in politics is that now people are
attached to people more than ideas, right, So than saying
I am someone who believes in tax cuts or in
(30:04):
universal health care, it's I love Trump, I hate Trump,
I whatever, and it's about the person. And then that
person's views can just flip and then the people follow
whatever they say that's I think not good, right, Yeah,
And I get email or whatever people get in DMS
(30:24):
and they write things, you know, you conservative, this you
you vile liberal.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Well, I have this thing in my house. Every day
when I finish exercise, I walk up the steps. I
have a couple of things. There's a hate letter from
a woman that's framed. We have a little shelf there
and it's just they make me laugh. And there's a
big email with font that must be forty eight size
and it says, yours what am I allowed to say
on this show?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
By the way, we can weep it. Go for it,
we can beep it.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Your show sucks, you liberal p word? And then he
signs a bomb and I look at that.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Everybody liked he signed Bob though, remember Bob. But the
font was so big it was just like, why are
you shouting? What did I say?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I don't even know what you're referencing so people they
get mad at me on both sides.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
But that's those fringe people that.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
They can't be happy at eating a ham sandwich without
thinking about Trump makes me.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
But I noticed you still didn't tell me what you
what you are like.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Because I mean, the Courier Journal outed me years ago
I'm a registered Democrat. They went through a bunch of
different people and said, did you looked up public out?
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Did you? Okay? Gotcha they did.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
I mean because I don't want to be labeled. I
like to talk to everybody. I want to hear what
they have to say, and I don't. I'm not the story.
I'm trying to get people to pour their information.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
It's a good thing. The yammer enough, that's good old
school view. I like that you said, but I did
when I did ask you what you were, you said
it firstly a Catholic, so it's important I would think that.
So like take my parents. The thing that bothers my
mom and dad the most about Donald Trump is not
(32:19):
really his views. It's just his callousness and meanness, And
I think it comes from their religion. They don't like
how he treats people. They don't like how he talks
to people and they don't like just how mean he is.
And they are not Catholic, they're Protestant, but they are
(32:40):
like you, And the first thing they would say is
I'm a Christian. That's how they would start their thing.
You like entertainment. There's no doubt he's entertaining. That's right.
Does it make you? But do you does the Catholic
in you cringe at how mean he is?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
There's no doubt about that that I I just shake
my head and think, why is that necessary to say that?
And you're right, because what I do for a living,
I get sound bites that I get to play on
the air and use, as you know, as my own
contribution to culture by saying this and then maybe making
a comment about it. But I mean, he's putting fuel
(33:19):
in my gas tank by saying crazy things. So is
that right for me to use Trump's insults sometimes? And
a thing I don't mean it is I hear I
go to confession, you're an entertainer.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
But I do think, like, I don't think society's better
when because of how mean he is, Like everybody can
argue about whether or not it's better because of the policies.
I would say no, but other people might disagree, but
I don't. I think objectively, the meanness has made society
(33:55):
coarser and worse. I'm not a prude.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I don't care what people do, but you don't have
to be cruel when you do it. Yeah, I mean again,
read the messaging that you get. I get, Venetti gets
other people, anybody across the air. There's a woman on
TV somewhere. I saw her video clip this week. She
read the insults that were coming to her because she's
she's not rail thin, and you know, I wish you'd
(34:22):
go after me as hard as you do those midnight
snacks or whatever. She read her the insults on TV,
and I was like, good for her.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Jimmy Kimmel where people come on and read that, and
uh and I actually think it's actually think it's it's
really funny when you look when you look at the world. Now,
So let's do Terry Miners on pop culture. Do you
watch television very little? I love sports. I mean I'm
in on sports. So you're still into sports even with
(34:50):
the nil sometimes Likenetti's I was like, I'm done with sports.
College sports there.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
I still think they're great, But do you I watched
the Cats last night they blew out and North Carolina Central.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, and you know, I was interested in just to see.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
How how big the deal was going to be and
what adjustments Mark Pope was going to make. And he did,
and he obviously sat down some guys. He yelled at
Garrison for not chasing that guy down, and it's like
he's coaching the team.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
And so I love all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
I watched Indiana a couple of times and then so
now Kentucky and Indiana get out at this center, it's
going to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
To see you say you always say you like both
Kentucky and Louisville. I call bs. You're not allowed to
like both of them. That's my view. I never trust
anyone who likes them both. But I actually think you
do genuinely like them both, am I right? I do?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
I love Kentucky and I've had some U of l
stuff up in my dorm room when I went there.
It just wasn't as hateful then. But still, so you
room for both if they don't play each other.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
But the thing about me is once the game's over,
it's like, okay, games over. I don't let it ruin
the next three hours of my life. For the next day.
There's too many other things going on. There's too much
joy to be found in life.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
So you don't let a lot like so a big loss,
you know, you just get over it immediately. I don't
know how you do that, like it ruins my way.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I like a battle. I mean, Monday Night football was great.
I didn't have a stake in that emotionally. The Chargers
and the.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Packers, right, aren't you a big Packagers? You love the Packers.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
That's the one I will admit to. That is one
that does affect me a little bit. That has to
do with my childhood. Okay, I think that's watching NFL
with my dad is probably what that's about.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Connection to your dad. That makes sense. But you are
None of the other stuff hurts me. Do you do
you like how crazy Aaron Rodgers is. I mean, you've
had You've had two great quarterbacks that their post career
was a little you know, Brett pharmacy, like that might
bother you at all.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
The Brett farm thing that bothers me is the money
out of Mississippi schools.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
It's like, dude, not texting it not texting is Genitalia.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
There was the well that's not good either, but stealing
money from and then pretending like you didn't know what
I didn't understand the text from?
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah you did.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, I mean that's silly. You're not nine years old
and you didn't understand the rules. So that's a disappointment
to me. Aaron Rodgers' cookiness is I think, great theater.
I don't know what he's going to do. I'm glad
he's still in there with the stealers because he's gonna
do something goofy and then we'll get to.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Try You're gonna listen to his inevitable conspiracy theory podcast
that he hosts when he retires. Is Terry Miners going
to be a subscriber.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
I saw McAfee the other day, had Jordan Love on,
and I know McAfee's just sitting there like, gosh, this
is so boring because he doesn't have Aaron Rodgers saying
crazy things.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
I was talking to a guy on Jupiter last night.
What do you think about like, I mean, it's an
old school radio guy like yourself. What do you think
about the McAfee's rogans, THEO Vaughn's the kind of new
age of media. Do you like it? Do you not
like it? It's different, but it's also I think expanded
(38:12):
the world of audio.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
No doubt about it. Those guys are great for it.
There there are a lot of women with powerful podcasts
as well, Alex Cooper, and there's a lot of people. Yes, yeah,
I think McAfee is great because and I know you
would appreciate this, he's like a wrestling star.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
I knowl yes, he he does wrestling.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Oh he does, okay, because he uses wrestling methodology to
draw attention and to whoop up crowds. And that's great.
I mean, that's that's that's great show business. I mean
it's funny. When he first started appearing on college game day,
you could see the other guys just standing there turning
and looking at him like what have we done here?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
You know, it's like being perfect for it. And I'm
not even a huge, huge fan of his, but he's
I think he's actually better on college game Day than
anything else he does. I think that is like made
for him, that sort of there's all these people in
the crowd, you know, that's just him. Man. I actually
(39:16):
think it's perfect for him.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Joe Rogan gets a little rough on certain things sometimes
and is a bit of a know it all, but
he does do homework too.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
He's also a know it all and an idiot, which
is a tough combination, it really is. But you know,
if it inspires dialogue, Okay, it's true. I do like
that about him. He does have people talk. So you're
not somebody who thinks there were, especially years ago, broadcasters
who are like I don't like the podcast people, they're
not trained, etc. You don't feel You've never felt like that. No,
(39:46):
absolutely not. The more voices the better. I told you.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
The only thing that just drives me nuts is all
these people with the phone right in front of their face,
and you know, they got a crooked tooth and a
big wart and they're going and they're screaming like maniacs,
and it's like, does this really sway anyone?
Speaker 1 (40:04):
I mean, is this a Halloween horror house? What is
going on here? If you we've been able to make
successful this medium that people think is dead, which is
like talk radio, but if you were to say the
thing that radio needs to change the most to sort
of keep up with the times, what do you think
(40:25):
that is? I mean, I've just sort of even on ESPN,
I've made it to where I'm just gonna do what
I'm gonna do and people are either gonna like it
or not. But there's still this idea that you have
to do it a certain way. Are you? Are you?
What do you think radio needs to do or change
in the coming years.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
First off, I loved radio because it's the most intimate medium.
I have our question, Nathan. When I walk in the
grocery store, people say hi to men. I'm on TV
a lot, so they're used to see in my face.
But people will say to me, I heard you, you know,
ask where the beans were, and I know your voice,
and so it's like, wow, that's that's something. It's like
a fingerprint, you know, it's an indelible mark. You said
(41:09):
radio is the most intimate, though.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
It is like it is. You can hide who you
are on television, right, but you can't hide who you
are on the radio. Would you agree with that? That's
absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I equate hosting a show with flying an airplane on
final approach for three hours every day. You are all
attention in, all in, all the time, and there's no
way you can't be yourself I mean, you couldn't. Nobody
could act for that for well, for me nearly fifty years.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
But does that leave you like I've struggled over the
years with In order to do radio the way I
want to do it, you have to be yourself, which
for me at least implies some amount of vulnerability, right
Like you have to you know. I mean I I
(42:00):
just had this situation with my dad right where my
dad has got a very serious health diagnosis, and because
Kentucky had two major basketball games, and because they were
hiring a football coach, I couldn't just disappear, even though
I wanted to disappear, Even though I wanted to do
(42:25):
what most normal people do, which is just turn the
world off. I felt like I had to say to
people what was happening, even though I don't know that
I wanted to, and I certainly don't know that my
parents wanted to, but I felt like I had to.
That's where it stinks. Do you feel like that at all?
(42:48):
Good for you for doing the right thing. I mean,
this is just a job. This puts cookies in the cupboard.
Taking care of your parents is why you're on this earth,
and that's that's We're all supposed to be of service
to someone in some capacity. Not everyone's a parent, but
you are of service to someone, and so that's much
(43:11):
more pressing than any babbling about well I can't believe
Johnson only got nine rebounds. Yeah, but I also like
have had to almost like I've like, if all of
my listeners know who my dad is, even though they don't,
even though he's never once appeared on the show, people
(43:32):
feel like they do. And that's both good because they
express such care for him, but also has made it
to where this private person almost has his private issues
known by a state of people, and that balance has
always been hard for me. How do I talk about
(43:53):
who I am while also trying to let maintain some privacy?
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Does that I mean? Have you ever had to deal
with things like that? I'm both my parents are gone now,
and it's just yeah, I had to, I had to
talk to you. Did you talk through it on the
air a little bit? I mean, it's tough, because it's crueling.
I was there when my father passed. It happened at
three in the morning, and he was at a place
(44:18):
a mile away from the radio station, and I didn't
know what else to do because we are We are
where animals drawn to what we do. I drove to
the radio station and sat down and cried a little
bit on the air with Tony the Morning Guy, And
but I told you.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Your dad died at three, and you went on the
radio that morning.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Four hours later and just talked for a couple of minutes,
and then I then I was gone.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
For a week or so.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
But I mean, I just wanted the people to hear
it from me. My dad was, uh, it took him
a while to get used to this. I know your
mom and dad. I know how proud they are of you.
They get they get you know. They just if you
could see your mother smile when you there at ks
bar and you're doing something or other and all these
(45:04):
people are listening to you, and she just stands over
there and she's got a smile on her face like
she just won the lottery. She's looking at her boy.
She loves you, and she's the sweetest person. She just
texted me the other day and congratulated me on forty years.
And she's under all this pressure because of the medical
situation in the family, but she thought about me, and
(45:24):
I thought, God, that's so huge.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
I appreciate that your parents are the.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Guiding lights that blaze the path that you're supposed to follow,
and you honor them by living the best life you can.
They brought you here. You you just you gotta do
(46:07):
what's right or learn from mistakes to honor the legacy
of your parents, your grandparents and so forth right up
the line. And that's the way I feel. And so
I love the way I see your mom and dad
love you. I think about my own parents. My dad
thought that radio was so stupid when I got in it,
(46:28):
and I was in Lexington four years And when my
dad would drive a truck overnight, he'd sleep all day.
And you walk in our parents home in the middle
of the day, and if you heard Frank Sinatra singing
the it was on the oldies, you know, Monavani music station.
The music would waft down from upstairs, and you think,
I have to be quiet because Dan's sleep and he's
going to drive all night tonight. And so I take
(46:51):
a job in Louisville and I walk in my parents
home at one o'clock in the afternoon. What do I
hear wafting down the steps Pink Floyd And I thought,
good lord, my father loves me. That he listened to you,
that he was listening to hear me on a commercial
or something. He just wanted to hear his kid's voice
(47:12):
was like boom, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
No, I listen. That's beautiful. And uh my mom sits
and listens to two hours of sports and she doesn't
even watch sports. She's never watched watched without you know,
I I but it is, it is. You get this
(47:38):
in a way that a lot of people don't. It
is hard to put yourself out there for the world
in times where you yourself are not one hundred percent right.
You don't get to go into a hole. You don't
just get to go and say, you know what, I'm
(47:59):
gonna sit in my office today, close the door and
not talk to people, and like, if you're gonna do
it the way I do it, which is I live
my life on the air and I talk about what's
going behind the scenes, et cetera. That's just sometimes you're
just like, I don't want to do this, but I
have to anyway. And that's tough.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
That's the trick about the clock. It shows up for you.
Ten am, shows up, whether or not.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Dave Letterman used to say about his show. We don't
go on at eleven thirty because the show is ready.
We go on at eleven thirty because it's eleven thirty, right,
And there's a lot of truth to that.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
I feel that way about three o'clock every day. That's
the same thing, and that's the important metaphor too. Eventually
the clock stops ticking for every one of us. So
hopefully you've walked the path that I just described in
the right direction. You have to feel good about that
so that the people that are following you learn as well,
and so I try to live by that. I've done
(49:02):
so many dumb things in my life I'm sorry for,
but I'm trying to stay on that path and move
in the right direction. It's a way of honoring all
who came before me.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
Great stuff. An you've got to do that here in
just a few minutes, So I will let you go. Terry,
thank you very much, and thank you all very much
for listening to Interrupted by Matt Jones. We'll see you
next week.
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