Trevor Carey - Episode: 130

Let's get to know Fresno News Talk Radio Host, Trevor Carey. He's a long-time on-air personality, and one time record label rep. We find out how we went from the music biz to talk radio life with some fun stories in between.

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
This could get Me Fire podcast?What up? I'm Jizo. That is
John Magic and we are back superexcited about today's episode. We have a
special guest. He's a longtime radioon their personality, a one time record
label rep for Sony Music, andcurrently the host of a popular, highly
rated news talk show on our sisterstation, Power Talk ninety sixty seven.

(00:28):
It's called The Trevor carry Show.Joining us on the pod today, Trevor
Carrie. Yes, I'm older thanyou guys. I'm gonna this is gonna
be real quick. Because when hesaid the say could get me fire podcast,
I could get me fired? Yeah. No, okay, So you
know, since it sounds like youhaven't heard that title of our podcast,

(00:50):
how it came about was this waswhen Gizzo was doing the afternoon show.
Oh well he still does. Butwhen I came back in the building and
I would just sit down with himand commercial breaks and I'm sure you know
about commercial breaks. It's a goodfive minutes, six minutes long. It's
how I pay my rent. Yeah, exactly. Jess and I would just
start talking about random topics and thenwe would say we wish we could turn

(01:14):
on the mics and just say whatwe're saying right now. And then Joze's
like, yeah, but that canget us fired. We looked at each
other like, that's our podcast title, right. Some of the best radio
happens in the hallways. And it'sit's it's a thing that it's doesn't come
natural to people to be natural.It's acting at times, you're real you
feel that way, your stories you'retelling and all of that, but it

(01:38):
really is not. I mean,right now, was uh are we acting
kind of right right? Aren't we? The the it's rolling, it's on,
yeah, yeah, a little bit. It's showmanship, entertainment, it's
entertainment. We got five seconds thesedays to grab people's attention. So I
think when they when the first wordsout of his mouth were this could get

(01:59):
me fired podcast. That would grabmy ear right. I call it a
flume first words out of mouth.And I don't know if you remember that
training we got from the iHeart guysfrom back to East Coast. They were
saying, hey man, you gotto grab them these days, right,
And I was like, I alreadygot a word for that, flume first
words out of mouth. Wow.So your poon was good. Oh,

(02:20):
I appreciate that there's a big podcastfrom big Time Personalities in LA that would
message me and say, you guyshave the best podcast name title name.
Yeah, we're like really like youknow, I'm just came with it on
the fly, but I like itbecause we have the FCC. Right.
Yeah. But I always think,like with Simbad, it was harder to

(02:42):
be funnier and be not dirty.Yeah yeah in a way, right,
it's a skill to that, andin news talk I gotta have that on
my show today. Speaker of theHouse Mike Johnson, I'm gonna be as
far as I'll go with it.I always my mom listens into the sea.
Yeah, like I try, Ido it like how you would talk
in a bank line. I'm notgoing to say anything on a talk show
Conservati Grader that I wouldn't say ina bank line. But speaker Mike Johnson,

(03:07):
I'm gonna be like, Mike,why you being such a Johnson?
That's funny, Yeah, it's likeclean, Yeah, that's me pushing the
line. Yeah. So wow,guys, this is exciting stuff that you
do. How we work together.I see the sign up here recording though,
Yeah, yeah, don't entor doyou know that I'm fifty eight years
old. I started in radio atseventeen. This is the first time I've

(03:28):
ever been interviewed. This is Ohreally, how does it fel to be
on this side? Right? Hejust answered the question. You know what
I've learned by interviewing, and Iknow you've probably picked up on this is
because when the person you ask aquestion who's talking? Suddenly your brain goes
into all right, what am Igoing to say next? Yeah? Yeah,
and you almost don't listen to them, right, Yeah, that's exactly

(03:50):
where I was going. I dothat. I've gone back and listened to
interviews I've done and the person onthe other side said something and then my
grandma shut herself and Blubb was onthe wall, and then I come back.
I wasn't paying attention. And that'sfunny. That is true. That
does happen. I said in thebeginning on the top of this that I
was excited about this episode because Trevoris in a different department in where we

(04:15):
talk radio, because Jesse and Iare on the music side of it,
music driven. You're in a newstalk so it's different worlds, but we're
co workers. And the reason whyI'm super excited is because I've got to
hang out with Trevor at different eventsat live broadcast. You know, one
of my positions here is sort oflike an acting producer on live on live

(04:36):
on site broadcast. So I've gottento being car rides with him. I've
gotten to talk to him during commercialbreaks and the stories he has about radio.
We go to bath houses too,and I was like, Trevor would
be a perfect guest. We've hadpast radio jocks and we love hearing the

(04:59):
timeline of how they got into radio. So do you know how weird it
is to see B ninety five onthe walls right here and to see the
Marriott across the street when I pullout every night? When I was twenty
five years old, just married,wife worked over there until she was eight
months pregnant at the front and desk. My daughter born in Clovis, and
I was just so I was afternoonsat P ninety five. Yeah, see,

(05:24):
I didn't know that. You didn'tknow that I was music director and
then became programmed direct. Wow.And then somebody came in and bought it,
bought the company and said during thatsummer, took me to lunch getting
all the information near my guy.The day they took over, talk about
this could get you fired. Podcastsheaded into a firing right here. I
got a call the night before thenew ownership took over. Granted I just

(05:46):
had a baby who was an intensivecare and Sacramento who was home and healthy
now, but that kind of stageof life where every paycheck is my day
and I get the call, I'llshow it to work the next day.
They let eight of us go allin one day. It wasn't clear channel
yet or was it already. No, this is back early nineties. It
was a local guy that bought itfrom the receivership. It was in a
bank receivership and he took it over. Oh wow, and yeah, so

(06:11):
that boy radio. Have you guysbeen fired? I have, I have
not. I have not. Goodfor you and Chizo, You've done a
long span, man, And ifI if I could think back, I
would be don't move around as much. Lock yourself in and be and become
wherever you lock yourself I've been prettylocked in here. Yeah, yes,
you have and raised in this city. And so when you were eleven,

(06:31):
right, yeah, something like that. Exactly how were you when you shart?
I ride out of high school.So I was eighteen. He was
like an insern as John Magic's intern. See I didn't know that. Yeah,
yeah, you want to interview us. Actually, I am now back
around. It's while that you mentionedthe marryat because I have ties in that
too, when I first moved hereabout almost twenty five years ago. No,

(06:53):
no, I'm sorry, that's myradio career, twenty years of living
in Fresno. I used to Ihad to live at that Marriott when I
when they moved first moved me hereto Fresno to start the night show until
I found a spot. I livedthere for like two weeks. You want
to hear my Marriott story, Goahead. She was front desk. That's

(07:15):
where the phone calls come in.Right. George Bush President in one nine.
First George Bush was in Fresno fora day. He just they just
needed a place to set up theiroffices and for him to hang for a
minute before a flight or something likethat. He wasn't staying overnight because the
whole week before the Secret Service wasin clear it was new then, right,

(07:35):
they were clearing it all out andchecking the phone lines, and I
was like, just put me through. I was doing afternoon till just just
just to have them say no,the President's not available. I just wanted
that's a good sound by right.She wouldn't put would yeah? So all
right, well we always like tostart getting to know somebody. Would Are

(07:57):
you originally from the valley? Areyou really from here? No? No,
Born Tennessee, Union City, Tennessee. Lived there until about seven eight,
moved to Texas, lived there,moved back to Tennessee, and then
at thirteen my dad. My dadwas in radio. He was a news
director and then he became a preacherand he went back to Seminary Memphis and

(08:20):
graduated from seminary, and then hisfirst church was in California. We came
out to the High Desert in northernCalifornia. So I've lived in California,
like twenty eight of my fifty eightyears, lived all over California, but
left it so many times to goto different places. So it was weird
man in nineteen seventy nine to moveto California, because man, that as

(08:41):
a suddenly in seventh grade in Memphis, I was the star because he's moving
to California. Seriously, you werelike a rock? Is that how people
looked at California, like it wasa cool place to go. My brother
and I we'd watched Chips, youknow, same year. Do you know
how he was asleep when I firstspotted him out Riverside Way. I saw
him on the freeway when we weredriving, and I woke him up.

(09:03):
La la la, Look it's it'schipped when you see you mean, when
you staw a motorcycle real sea.I mean it was like driving into a
magical team day. They felt likethere was celebrities everywhere you looked or something.
And I think, if you're bornin race here and I tell people,
I say this on my show thatpeople in the valley that have been
born in razed right here. OhI just no. Look, you are

(09:24):
comparing yourself to postcards the Golden GayBridge mouths shoe. Yeah, you know
all the beauty. Eighty percent ofAmerica would love here because on our weather,
Yeah, it gets a little hot, but have you gone through humidity
and Union City, Tennessee. Iwas back this summer. It's a killer.
That's a good point. I thinksince we're so close to the La

(09:45):
and the Bay that we you know, people want to get out of here,
and they talk so much bad aboutFresno, but like you said,
it's actually really good here. Yeah, and they don't realize that in Buffalo
at the ritzy little vegetable fruit placesthey have that might be higher priced.
On the chalkboards they write sam JaiQuin Valley really seriously. Yeah, it
means something and people need to realizethat. I think. So you move

(10:07):
here, like you said, seventynine right, yeah, yeah, did
you know did you understand your dadwhat your dad was doing? Did you
understand he was a radio personality.He had me in production rooms when I
was ten. I think that's whyi'm five to five and three quarters because
I used to balk those old cartmachines to demagnetize them, to race them.
Oh that's when I started interning.Yeah, that was the grunt job.

(10:31):
You don't know about that hunt.It sounds familiar. Every song,
every commercial was on like an eighttrack kind of thing for a better term
there. They'd be three minutes long, or the commercial would be thirty seconds.
I still have one in my livingroom. I have a cart at
the car. But yeah, youwould. That's how you do racing.
You're racing with a magnet. Yeah, okay, but and you remember when
they didn't do it right, youwould hear all behind. But Trevor just

(10:56):
saying that just triggered my memory ofhaving to do this as an intern,
because when you felt it, whenit would it would vibrate your great and
you would like feel that it's eracing, like I don't know it just well
and neither office are real tall.My dad's five eleven. My brother is
about to say something. It wasthat demagnetizing, but I listen. I
love baseball. I would wear mylittle league uniform to school on game days.

(11:22):
I've got to interview Steve Garvey recently. I loved baseball. But when
on Saturdays, when my dad wasa general manager in Austin of KIXL,
he would go in on Saturday morningslike to do extra work, and I
would get to go with him,and that's when I would demagnetize. And
then he would turn on the reelto reel and I got to turn the
mic on and say things into it, and I knew how to stop it
and rewind it. It was likea cassette player, you know the volume.

(11:46):
So that was when it really started. All right, then, what
so you grow up? When wasthe first radio gig, like what's the
story on? My dad saw meafter he became a preacher, and I
didn't have access to those production roomsanymore. That was kind of a So
I had my Hatachi stereo and i'dhad the turntable on and I would record
commercials onto cassette from the radio rightKFI the mighty six ninety. I would

(12:11):
record the commercial, so I hadcommercials on a cassette, So I would
talk at as the record was ending, and I'd turn the volume down and
then flip it. I'm still talkingblah blah blah. I'd flip it over
to cassette and then we'll be backwith the latest from Olivy Newton John next,
and I'd hit the car. Iwas just practicing in mac you were
playing radio yeah, And he saidhe saw me doing that, and so

(12:33):
he took me down to twelve fortyKlaway in Ridgecrest John and Beth Quigley,
I remember their names, the oldercouple that owned it. And my dad
said, he's did some stuff andhe's doing it in his room. Where's
Rich I'm sorry. Lancaster, Palmdale, North You go to Bakersfeld fifty eight
when you're going to Vegas, yougo north. It's China Lake Naval Weapon

(12:54):
Center up there. But they hadthat was their only radio station, twelve
forty KL away. You could getKOs from LA and the rock station.
Yes it was say it was alittle mom pause station. So get he
goes here. He went over tothe teletype the news. He ripped something
off. He goes here, goin this room. He had play record.
He goes read it and close thedoor behind me. How old were

(13:16):
you at this? Seventeen? SoI'm in there and I'm reading it,
and I don't remember the interview after. But I ended up doing Saturday and
Sunday nights on twelve four doing it. So everybody in high school's out having
a great time every Saturday Sunday nightand you're losing the Occasionally they would flip
over and listen to me. Butuh, yeah, so I did that

(13:37):
Conna station. Was this They calledit middle of the Road. I know
the first record I played a LivyNoon John and John Travolta to the time
Wow. And then I go upto school Junior College in Chico, move
up best room from high school,and I'm like, I got to get
a radio job. I'm working atSwinson's ice Cream and Miller's out Post,
two jobs that summer to get moneygoing. And this girl at Swinson's ice

(14:01):
Cream goes. My boyfriend's a programdirector at Chico State Radio station. I
go, really she and she goes, and all the students go home,
and there's nobody look at that opportunity. So I go over there and I
walk in and they got like babydolls nailed to the wall, unk rock
right on there. My dodger hat, my op's kind of like, hey
man, and the dude let mego in and do a demo. I

(14:24):
took that real reel. I go, hey, can I take this home
and record it? And he goes, yeah, man, I guess whatever
you know. So I immediately tookit up to FM ninety seven KMVR Paradise,
Chico, the top forty station upthere, and I knock. I
left it for the guy. Oh, he'll get back with you, Andy
Manuel, I remember his name,he'll get back to you. And he
didn't get back to me. SoI go back up there. Well,

(14:46):
he didn't have time right now.Three or four times, but it was
one of these stations where you couldsee the DJ it burned down in that
Paradise fire. By the way,this building was an old Victorian ice cream
store on the bottom and the radiostation above, and you could see the
DJ on the ara there. That'sactually kind of cool. Yeah up there
at two am in the morning overnightthough it may not be too cool.
But I went up front the window, waved my arms and did the like

(15:09):
the pinky the phone signal signal,like why aren't you calling? Why want?
So I kept bugging him and sohe calls me. He goes,
do you want to do the Topforty countdown Saturday night? Yeah, all
right, you're you're in. Itold everybody listen, I'm gonna do the
Top forty count And I didn't knowhow to do a top party countdown,

(15:30):
but I was gonna go do it. I get there and it's Casey Casem.
He didn't. I'm just board oppingit. So I told everybody to
listen to me, spread the wordaround and I couldn't say a word,
but hey, it was the start. Yeah, yeah, that's how I
started on the boards. You knowwhat I'm saying. Yeah, But what's
funny is hearing Trevor's story. It'sit's the same story that we hear from
you, from me, from Carmen. We just did c K is that

(15:52):
we weren't gonna No one was gonnatell us no, you know what I'm
saying. You're gonna answer the phonecall, you're gonna do, You're gonna
hear my air check. And weall share that same story, which is
great, which is probably why we'restill here. I guess yeah. And
it's a love. And I thinkthe reason you wanted to talk to me
was the record thing. And doyou know when I got out of radio
and went to records, I tookartists to radio stations and it was so

(16:15):
miserable because I still love radio.Was this after the Chicos things. This
okay, I'm gonna close my eyesand I'm gonna give you ready, this
is the GPS, this is justradio. I'm gonna have to close my
eyes. We see Chico, Marysville, Santa Rosa, Colorado, strings Reno,
Fresno, Kansas City, San Jose, Phoenix. You did all those

(16:41):
cities, all those cities. Wow. And then in Phoenix that's when the
radio or the record thing opened up. I was twenty nine thirty and I
thought, well, I want togo try something different, you know,
and yeah, Relativity, Sony Sony, a bunch of different labels. Relativity
was their street label at the time. Bone Thugs and Harmony and Let's see

(17:07):
Common three six months via H Town, eight Ball, MJG, Fat Joe,
the beat Nuts, you remember thosenames. Yeah, these were all
songs artists that I was playing duringthe beginning of my clubbing days. I
want to reverse real quick, becauseyou did say you were in fresent at
that time. Is that when youwere here at ninety five? Yeah?
So what was the format at thattime? The Killer b B ninety five

(17:29):
men you got to live and learn. Let me see we uhre LC boys
to men We yeah, forty wellit was they called it rhythm crossover,
okay, yeah, and so itwas. Yeah, rap was played as
well, but more date parted thenI think I did nights. I remember
more rap was that during that night? Yeah? Yeah, that was a

(17:52):
violent time though it was. Thecrime was way worse that time period than
it is now. So it wasthe Peace on the Street. We actually
had sweepers. It said Peace onthe Street. We stole it from a
station in San Francisco that was airingit. But yeah. Yeah, I
was wondering. I wonder if thatwas during the time of when LA was
like no color lines, because theyhad those. Yeah. Yeah, it

(18:12):
was after Rodney teen, Yeah,the early nineties. Yeah, yeah,
all right, addressing the violence.So how long were you in radio during
during that time before he became arep? Got into it in nineteen eighty
three and got out of it innineteen ninety five. Okay, so I
went twelve years. Yeah, onthe first round. Now there's second Round's

(18:33):
been a whole different journey doing newstalk. But yeah, the guy that
hey, and it always goes toshow be cool to people. Because when
I was a music director at Hotninety seven seven in San Jose, this
guy his name was Kevin Carroll.He worked for a label and he got
and I met him just a fewtimes, didn't know him that well,
but he got fired and they said, heybody wants to reach out, and
they his number was on there,you know, pre internet days, his

(18:57):
number was on there. So Ijust left him voicemail at his house.
I said, hey, man,you were a nice guy. If I
hear anybody saying anything open, I'lllet you know. And that was it.
But it stuck in his head obviously, because he called me back and
said, I got in LA opening. Are you interested in records? And
I said, oh wait, I'dalready been to an RCA interview where I
thought I was hired so much mymom made an RCA cake a really right,

(19:22):
But it ended up that's how weirdthe record company is that. But
I got the job in LA beingWest Coast at a time when rap talk
about violent. Yeah, nineteen ninetyfive and then ninety six and ninety seven,
Yeah, that was the shoot himup Tupop Biggie days. Yeah.
Yeah. Were you over the radiothing at this point? I thought I

(19:45):
was until I went out to radiostations and wanted to be behind, you
know, sitting at the board.Yeah, so I you know, at
the time, yeah, it paidbetter. It was a little bit more
stable. I thought, you know, rais rising up the rain, you
know, a lot of traveling,right, Uh yeah, yeah, that
was kind of the downside of it. So you were taking these artists to

(20:06):
different radio stations and doing the radioruns in the hall and you want to
hear my first story, and Iknow, you guys know this artist Kid
Frost, Kid Frost. Yeah,so New York calls me, and I'm
sitting in the office like three daysbecause the national guy there had there was
a death in his family, sohe would have been showing me the roads
that he wasn't in the office.So there really wasn't much at the distribution
center there with the label in Lathere wasn't a boss or a manager for

(20:29):
the label at that first few days. And I get this call town car
is going to pick you up,take you out to Riverside, zimmerdywards and
you're gonna pick up kid Frost andtake him down to a Jamin Z ninety
in San Diego. So that waslike leave it now kind of thing.
Oh out there and then down thatwas a hall, right, but that's
how we got the artist to aradio station event. So oh, excuse

(20:52):
me. Wasn't a town card wasa limo because it pulls up in front
of Frost's house and it's a youknow, as you know, a lot
of people think these artists are reallyreally rich and what them aren't, right,
especially when they start out. Itwas a normal middle class house and
with the grass grown up in thefront, and I go up and knock,
hey man, how you doing?Very friendly? Nice? Give me

(21:14):
a minute, Give me a minute. The sun's there, and he had
a football, and so we startthrowing the football in the front yard and
a little bit of high grass ofthe football. Here comes Frost all right,
Hey see you there's I get infirst because I'm going to slide all
the way to the front and lethim sit like Elvis. Right, what
did I step in in that frontyard thing? Oh? No, stuff

(21:34):
that ship? Yeah, and Idrug it across the carpet of the limo.
Right, your feet dragged when you'reslight. Ye, So we get
it. Hey, how you doingit? Man? You know Frost cross,
It's gonna be a good night.And we start driving. Oh man,

(21:56):
I oh dude, and ready forhis line he could have been made.
Will stop at kmart and get yousome kids. Hey, that was
his line. That's cool. Didyou guys do it? I went into
a gas station bathroom. I don'tneed to get into this. I cleaned
the shoes off, paper, towelsand soap and did the best. But

(22:18):
that was my star. Embarrassing andin front of artists. And I'll give
you another one. Almost getting firedwithin probably the first year, yeah,
or maybe six. We have togo back. We could guys a record
label rep right now. Bone obviouslyan established artists by the time I got
there because I played him in myin radio days in San Jose and Phoenix

(22:38):
Bone you know they yeah, AndI had do you guys ever know Pete
Manrikez that name. He was myintern in San Jose that years later was
the music director at Power Wino six. So it was can you imagine your
job being, Hey, it's yourjob to go hang out with one of
your good friends and you have acredit card to pay for whatever, yeah,

(23:03):
for the radio, and so it'slike we're working, just going jet
skime. We're sitting down on wasit Burbank Avenue there, Power whintw six
was in his car went I thinkit was a weekend. Yeah, it
was a weekend. It was aSaturday, and I said, hey,
listen to this cassette I got.They went in and remixed the Crossroads because

(23:25):
the first album came out Crossroad soundsdifferent. They did that DJ Unique mix.
I remixed on it, but itwas set on a cassette. He
popped it in his car and it'sthe Crossroads you know now sounding, and
he went he went upstairs at PowerWindow six and carted carted that thing up
and played it on the air allweekend. Wow, and those are the

(23:45):
days of calling when the phone linesblew up? What is this? It's
not in the record stores, it'snot on a video. What in the
where it? But you know whatthis? Remember? Somehow almost got fired.
There's another station in LA called ninetytwo three the Beat. So these
are the stations I grew up.Yeah, they're they're competitors. And you

(24:07):
know, as a record company,you want to you want to be republican.
Yeah, you want to balance ifyou do something, if I want
to say, you do something withthe beat. But here it seems like
look what we shuffled to them first, and they're playing it, and you
would do it on the weekend towhen the offices are closed. Yeah.
So by Sunday night, I'm thinking, hey, all right, this is

(24:30):
good. Power's playing, you know, a new guy not realizing. And
I get a call Sunday night aboutthings I never heard of, like a
cease and desist. An attorney's beensent out, and Tommy Thompson, the
VP of Urban, is calling foryour job. Right, because that's a
mess up. I messed up,right, I messed up so good that

(24:51):
that song at the number one.They forgot about it, and I was
promoted to New York. So thereyou go, oh wow a little later.
Yeah, but yeah, I wentthrough that. Okay, I'm done.
I tried it for less than ayear. It didn't work. I
got fired. That's what I wasthinking going into that Monday. Yeah.
So every time I hear that song, I think I didn't get fired the
Crossroads. I did not get firedon that one. Uh, Okay,

(25:12):
you want to talk about artists notmaking as much money. When I first
got started, Bone Thugs was beingnominated at the American Music Awards, and
my boss was coming out when thebosses whom New York was coming out,
and he's like, hey, we'regonna, uh, we're gonna get the
music director and program director from theBeat to go with us. You know,
we got to do good now,right and I I let me see,

(25:36):
we just got going. I rememberI just had borrowed money for my
dad to hook up PG and Eservice. That's that's where the money was
at at that moment, right,married two kids. At this point,
LA deposits all this kind of stuff. So it goes to show you're getting
out the American Music Awards and alimo and you just had to ask your
dad to borrow PG. Yeah.So the Beat guys ended up they couldn't

(25:57):
go. They ended up they couldand go this. So we had two
extra fifth row right American Musical Wardtickets with a n after party. So
my boss and I'm like, well, they're just gonna put fillers in the
seat, people dressed up. Igo. Knowing I didn't have much money,
I said, hey, let mego. Let me so I did
the Yeah, oh, I profiledbecause I didn't want to pick a lunatic

(26:18):
that would get me called when theyrun and tackle Mariah Carey live on the
New York Feed. But I waslike, hey, I found this couple
and they looked like I said,hey, face value, no more than
face value. It was almost likethree hundred each or something. He's like
yeah, yeah, gosh, yeahthat Quickly I went back to my boss
split half said here you go,man, there you go. So they

(26:41):
sat next to me the whole time. You think I'd remember their names,
but that was you know, gettingout of the lima limo with hardly any
money in your bank account. Sure, I wasn't the only one after the
record label run? When was itwhere you decided to get back consider the
radio game. I know the Iknow the exactly I go this story.

(27:04):
You'll know why. I worked inNew York and saw how much indies made
independent. Yeah, yet the guysthat Attorney General New York of Elliott Spitzer
went after them. And now,right, it don't matter what company you
work at, right, there's alwaysad adndum at the bottom. We take
training right online, training about Paola, where we're all trained on what you

(27:26):
can and cannot do. Jizo can'thave a buddy that has a fish restaurant
and just off the cup, like, hey, what a great fish restaurant.
Here address, and here's he's gotto go through the sales department.
So there was a lot of PlugolaPaola in radio going way back in the
days. Right, But these guys, the independence, I think it's around
two thousand and seven, they gotpopped in. It really kind of burst

(27:48):
the bubble. But I saw theinvoices we were paying these independent guys,
and I thought, all it takesis relationships in radio to be an independent,
That's all that it is. AndI said, I have those so
make long story real long, movedback to California, started detections of music,
my own company named after my firstson, Dominic dom Detections of Music

(28:14):
dom and I got a few stations, went with McCluskey and Chicago who funded
it, and I was making moremoney than I ever made my life.
And I was working a day anda half a week. I mean,
because I don't want to get intothe whole world of how independence blocked the
record companies from how they forced themto work with them, because that really
was the whole setup out there.It was all above board, but they

(28:37):
blew it up with Elliott Spitzer.But I was taking some promotional CDs off
to the side of the answer YourQuestion to the side of the house to
throw them away from my truck,and my son, who's now thirty in
the Air Force, was eight onhis bike. Dad, damn, wait,
don't's music away? What are youdoing? And I said, it's
not good music, Dominic like itwas something I let them eight ball and

(29:00):
mjby, I don't want my eightyear old. Now I go, it's
not good music Dominica go, Andhe goes, why did they send it
to you? I had a momentof stun like hypocrisy because I was protect
I shield them from you know,they got to listen to what I mean.
It was so fun to have peopleand that would send Hillary Duff advanced

(29:21):
stuff to my daughter. You know, they were all into music and what
were the boy bands? I can'teating we're all into that. I didn't
want him in the eight ball andMJG kind of crap, That's what I
was throwing away. But I shieldedthem from stuff that I knew I was
promoting to other other kids. Andit's kind of like I felt like I
said, go ride your bike,and it bothered me for months. And

(29:45):
I told the wife at the timeto a divorce that I felt like,
I want to try news talk radio. And I was kind of quietly.
You didn't go to college. Neitherdid Rush Limbaugh. More. I listened
to Glenn Beck's and in my office, to my independent production music office down
there. You know, working aday and a half gives you a lot

(30:06):
of time to listen to news talk. And I listened more and more.
And I'd always listen to Rush,and I was always into politics. But
I thought I can't talk for threeyeah, and I Eventually, after talking
to a pastor the church, Iwent to, can you imagine getting advice
from a man that looks like andtalks like Martin Luther King? That would
make you listen? I mean,Pastor read it, read it? Andrew,

(30:29):
he was dead on Martin Luther King. So he's like, Trevor,
is what you're involved in? Becauseyou know, there's a lot of dealings
that were going. Is it?Is it on the up and up?
Is it? Is it good orevil? There's a lot of evil.
Well even after some evil. Isaid yeah. He said, well,
then you know what God wants youto do? And I didn't do it.
I thought God wanted me to do. I kept doing it for a

(30:51):
while, right, but then Ijust like, do I want to do
this or as? Is this whatI want to? You know, other
people's talent being based I'm good ornot? You know, hey, good
job or not good job? Basedon how good somebody else sang or raped
or something. It kind of felta little empty and shallow, even though
it was it paid good money todo it. But I just said I'm
gonna try news talk and I didand it worked. You know, Jesse

(31:15):
and I come from like we saidthe music side of it, where we
would turn in air checks. That'show that's how I was trying to get
an audition by turning in a sampleof how we would sound on the radio.
How does it work for news talk? How did you? How did
you look for a job? Youknow what? I did that industry to
get started. While we were inthe process of the divorce, we went

(31:37):
back to Colorado. Both set yourgrandparents were back there. So I got
a job at Alis one O fivenine in Denver to have a production room,
right, And so I would listento KOA, one of our iHeart
stations in Denver, news talk,and I would literally with a pen and
paper write down what they were saying. And then I went back and put
it into my own kind of wordsand just made a demo and mailed it

(31:59):
out. And there was a talkstation in Denver back when American Idol was
just starting they did called talk Idol, send in your three minutes and bill
if we almost like one of likeour want to be a DJ. He
did those. Yeah. Yeah,So for talk radio there was something like
that as a contest Talk Idol.Yeah, that's funny. And I was
coming back from a divorce family courtthing in California. My dad picked me

(32:22):
up the airport in Denver and goes, oh, you got a call.
They want you to do the auditionfor the talk, and I'm like at
that moment, I was like,no, I'm not doing it. And
that was my first thing when itwas real. I thought, you kind
of shook. Oh yeah, Iwas like, I can't. I can
talk for a little while and somemusic going, but no. I walked

(32:42):
into that audition with a suitcase likeI was going on an airplane. I
had that much prep. I couldn'ttalked for two weeks, and I was
amazed how little of it I wentthrough that first. But if I went
back and listen to that now,it's horrible. Yeah, that's what I
think about. Listening to that oldair checks probably sounds so bad. I
have mine. I have a suitcaseof cassettes from eighty four on. Really,

(33:04):
we were just talking about that.I wish I would have saved mine.
I don't have any of my cassettesanymore. It's weird. I can
do a break. Here's somebody laughin the background, and remember who it
was, Oh wow, and thatthey were holding a dairy Queen Freezy.
You know the memories come back.Listen to those old air checks. Did
you win that idol concess? No? The station changed format a few months,
and then I got an audition inAlbuquerque, and then are you this

(33:28):
has a way way way local tiein here? I was mailing it out
everywhere, and I would even getpeople call back and go, are you
on koa? Because I used theirimaging eight to fifty KOA? And then
it meets I made it sound real. I said, no, it's just
something I've made up in the inthere. But it was a program director
in Bakershield named Blake Taylor who's overwith Cumulus at KMJ here our competitor to

(33:52):
power TUK. So he calls mefrom Bakersfield he went, and he goes,
hey, we got a night opening. You interested? Yeah, Wow,
Yeah, And it ended up theydidn't have the budget for it,
so it didn't happen. But hejust by chance happened to be on the
phone talking to a general manager inColorado, north of Denver and Greeley.
He goes, there's a guy inDenver there that's looking to do talk.

(34:15):
So he put us together and Ibartered I did chicken for a bag of
grain. I said, you giveme ten at night till one in the
morning, and I get commercials,and I get eight commercials throughout the day,
and he went deal. I wentall right, as a page like
as your pay, my pay.It was barter. I didn't get paid.

(34:35):
But see I had the first minuteof each stop break that were mine
to go sell. So I wasa salesman and a talk so oh,
okay, I get it. Buthey, as we know, it's it's
real hard to sell midnight, isn'tthere. Yeah, but that was yeah,
yeah. That was during the housingcrisis in Colorado had way over built.
So I went out to this builderand I said, hey, man,

(34:55):
I'll give you commercials at night onmy show, and I'll give you
all eight during the day. Becausehe had empty places out there and it
worked out. I couldn't believe.I was like, this only has to
be God making this happen, ashe said, because I needed a place
to live, right, but Ididn't have a If I left Alice in
Denver, I wasn't going to havea paycheck. I was going to be

(35:17):
bartering. So I had to immediatelyhave a place to live. This builder
gives me three subdivisions. He goes, here's key A, B C for
the uh, the ones that theyshow the model hotel. Yeah, he
goes go pick one. Wow,that's cool, so bam. So then
what happened was, Hey, I'mon at night in Colorado. Hello,

(35:38):
Bakersfield, you want to put meon? Yeah? So I'm syndicated right
like that, just like your firsttalk radio first talk radio gig. I'm
on in two places. So uh, seven months into it, the baker
Shilt station told me I'm not Handityenough and they dropped me because I was
Rampaul, I was against the Republicans. I wasn't for Bush. I hated

(35:59):
the word. I just wasn't quoteHannity enough. So that was my current
competitor. Program director across the streettold me, I wasn't Hannity enough.
Now I'm taking him on. Whodo I come on after? Handed?
Now here is the stranger story tothis. All our bosses here, the
area regional president for what what,Steve Darnell now spoke Anne down to southern

(36:22):
California. So he was back thenworking Yeah, riverside, he's all over
and he's our boss here in thisbuilding and he was at that time working
in Bakersfield, commuting from President tobakers driving working at a radio station.
There's sales, and I had peoplein Denmer going, you're doing what you

(36:42):
left Alice one oh five nine togo to Tenant night and you're not getting
a paycheck. Little did I knowI was auditioning for my future boss because
he would listen to my show inBakersfield when he was driving here and then
I ended up boom, I meande Fresno and he's here. So little
do you know when you're working forfree, just hustling, that you're literally

(37:06):
auditioning for your future boss when youwere doing your you know, talk radio
when in the beginning stages of it. We always like a subject that Gesso
and I always bring up is whenwe started, we used to emulate people
we heard in our before we foundour voices. Did who were you listening
to? Was there someone you weretrying to compare yourself to. I think

(37:28):
in music radio that's easier to do, like I remember always trying to be
Hollywood Hamilton with the sadus and true, and I think it is I guess
it. In talk would be morepolicy driven, like I'm true. Who
do you listen to because I'll tellyou right now, my critique of talk
radio is they need to top fortyit up some it's like because you got
guys that have never been in radio. Guy, all right, cut seven

(37:49):
go. You know on my showBam, I just fire it and it's
and it's there and my bumper musicI run. You almost have that radio
mentality that music radio with the talkradio content. And if you hear my
show, it sounds different than itsounds. I call it top forty talk
because it's moving, it's kind ofit's audio and I don't say. And

(38:10):
here's what Gavin Newsom had to sayat his press conference on Tuesday, roll
that I'm going, can you believewhat he said? And the next thing
you hear is Gavin talking. Thatis true. Sometimes when I'm listening to
the talk radio, you hear likea lot of dead airs. You can
hear the papers shuffling. They madeknow a couple of seconds and then they
start talking. I'll even hear peopleeating. If I hear I would fire

(38:32):
somebody if I was a boss andI heard somebody eating them, Yeah,
that's somebody's ear. Yeah right,yeah, yeah, This is something I've
witnessed in person. Because you know, like I said, when we do
remote broadcast and there's a board offthat Trevor has to communicate with, he
always likes his show super tight.Yeah, the volume right, everything from

(38:57):
hitting the sweepers out right. Yeah, I respect yeah, man, because
I'm the same way I like thingssounding. Here's the thing. The listener
doesn't quite know all the time whythey liked something. It's a feeling it
gives them and not having let meask a question of you, guys,
is it Do you like the freedomof doing a podcast long form like this,

(39:17):
not having an intro that you gotto talk over with. Yeah,
it's definitely a switch up. It'sa you know, we can talk longer
on certain topics, we can saywhat we want, and we do like
it. It's kind of the biggestreason why we started it, honestly,
for sure. The same. Yeah. Now, let me ask you you
ever had any aspirations of as youage in this industry because a lot of

(39:38):
people do that of doing talk toswitch to talk radio. Yeah, I
don't know. Things. It canget you fired. Go ahead say it
doesn't hard, but you know,because you do what's three hours, and
I think if we add it upall the time we talk in it's probably
like five minutes honestly, if timethat we talk in a show. So
just when I think of what youdo and the amount of content that you

(40:00):
have to talk about, it justseems like a lot. But then to
your point, we're just doing iton a podcast essentially, So that's the
difference. I guess For me,I'm sort of real with myself. I
feel like I'm not a great talker, let's leave. Okay, especially watching
you, I've seen you. Iprep though I'm not a great talker for

(40:24):
sure, but I mean even Ifeel like I don't have a great vocal
Like I don't have great vocabulary.It's my words are super simple. But
you know, I like listening toHoward Stern and you know you, and
yeah, I feel like I can'tdo it. Well that's that's being honest,
all right, Yeah, yeah,out that way too. Remember when

(40:44):
my dad told me, my reactionwas, ah, I don't think I
want to do this, man,I can't. I can't do it,
but I call it now. Ihad a buddy that did talk in Phoenix
for a year and he was likeevery show. He's like, right when
it got done, I was like, oh, another one's tomorrow. Ah,
And I said, yes, that'swhat it's like for a year or
two. But then you start totrust the process. My prep process is

(41:08):
so key. If I don't havethat, throw it away, I'd be
phoning it in. Do you everget in those situations where you're prepping in
You're just I don't have enough contentto get through an hour old? Well,
so we live in California. Yeah, there's always something to talk about.
I wake up and content is justwaiting for me. Right, Yeah,
it would be hard maybe to doa talk show if hey, everything's

(41:30):
pretty good, Yeah, nothing goingon? You kind of needed I Hey,
there were some people I know,including myself, depressed when Biden became
president, and I said, allright, we're depressed, but hey it's
good for business. Yeah yeah,yeah, yeah, it's like it is,
it really is. I'm let's switchit up a little bit with some
little fun questions that you know,I'm interested about throughout your long career.

(41:53):
Any live interviews that stand out toyou, like, you know obviously you
Mets the Levens. Ready, ready, okay, record, here's one Southeast
I donety seven seven, just afew days away from Christmas here in the
studio. I can't believe it,man, I'm so wow. You're one
of my favorite Mary J. Bligewelcome, man. Wow. And she's

(42:13):
got her hood hoodie up and Ican't really see her face as she's over
by the mic right here. OK, something like that. She just said
something I said, and I don'tremember how the whole interview went, but
I went, uh, you gotany old Christmas memories? Is I'm trying
to keep out you got any oldChristmas memories of like one of your favorite
gifts you got in your little girlor something like that? Dolls head,

(42:36):
A doll's head, She said,a dolls How do you respond after that?
You respond by, did you saya doll's head? And she nods.
It's on the radio, so she'snodding. It went probably a minute
twenty two seconds or something. Well, thank you Mary J. Blige for
coming in. Merry Christmas. Therecord guy was like this. They were

(42:57):
leaving, like, hey, she'sbeen weird all day, man, I'm
sorry always something so that one sticksout in my mind now. When we
had to pull out of Afghanistan andI had a trustee of the school board,
Major Terry Sladeck, Marine and hisinterpreter when he was over there serving
John, his interpreter was running fromthe Talmont and his sister. They'd already

(43:20):
killed his mom, and we hadhim on the phone live on the air,
and I thought it was going tobe a yes, mister Sladick,
a major sletic, thank you,I'm going to remain strong and you hang
in there, John, We're herefor you, buddy. I thought it
was gonna be one of those.But it was a man crying terror.
And I got to see why thetrustee was also a major, because at

(43:43):
that moment, live talking to downon the other side of the world,
he went into being a commander likewhat you would do to a soldier,
like, soldier, get a holdof yourself. So that was life changing.
Now, I'll tell you he madeit out, His sister made it
out. John'son Sacramento, married andhas a baby now. But that Mary
J. Blige and that there yougo. Yeah, there's the two extremes.

(44:04):
You know. You you talk aboutthe different cities you've done radio in.
How about one story of I'm assumingyou've been fired? Oh yeah,
yeah, because I you know,I've told my story in the podcast.
How about is there a wild storyof you getting fired from one of these
stations? January seventeenth, nineteen ninetyfour. Is that what you're doing?

(44:24):
Oh? My goodness, San Jose. Right before I was on doing ten
to three, a lot of musicdirectors then did the midday shift. You
remember those days? Really? Yeah, so you have your music call time
anyhow. But I got the messageright before I went on at ten,
and it was in a business communitypark up there. So I walked out

(44:45):
of the station and went got somethingfrom a little restaurant there, went sat
on a park bench and just letit soak in. All right, I
just got fired, And what happens? There's somebody filling in for me,
at least a Fox. I remembershe went down to work with That's all
famili with Ryan Seacrest. She wasdown in l a Ryan Seacrest and Lisa
Fox. She was at that timethough, in San Jose. So she

(45:07):
came to fill in at ten,to fill in for the guy that just
got fired. So who calls thehotline but my wife, right highest Trevor
there. You know that's a hardplace to put her in, right,
I don't even remember if she said, well he got fired or something,
but yeah, that's that was thetoughest because even the guy that fired me

(45:28):
said, it's not right, it'snot you know, as they always say,
it's it's not you, it's odd. Yeah, the budget, it's
all. Yeah. So yeah,that was a but that's what eventually let
me go to the going doing somerecord stuff. So how long have you
been in Fresno Powers Hog? Howlong? Nine years now? And hey,

(45:49):
the longest I'd ever lived anywhere myentire life was four Oh wow,
so more than double, more thandoubled. I just sometimes got to take
a different street to work because Iget tired of the same, the routine.
But that sense of being rooted,I well, now I can understand
it a little bit more. Youknow somebody that's been there their whole life,
that's really deep rooted. Yeah,for sure, definitely is you've seen

(46:14):
the you know, the rise ofradio, you know all these years.
Something that I'm interested in your thoughtsis where do you see it going with?
You know, you've seen as us, we've seen so many people get
let go. This building used tohave hundreds of employees. Now you can

(46:34):
count them with two hands. Wheredo you think the future of radio is
going the way you just said?I think that there's a lot of mistakes
made. When you walk into acrowded party and you look around a room
filled with people and you see somebodythat you recognize or not, you're drawn
there. You know them. Thereare people in Fresno that no Jozone,

(46:57):
no Trevor. We live here,We drive on this streets, we talk
about the same potholes, we experiencethe same kind of weather. We know
what presno State's record is. Weknow what the issues and problems are,
what's good, what's bad, Sothat I mean people are drawn to that.
So the more local, local,local that you can be, I

(47:19):
think is the direction that it shouldgo. Because if everything becomes national and
generic. You think about it,when you sit down to watch TV anymore,
they got thousands of choices, youfeel overwhelmed, right, And I
think a lot of people they don'trecognize anything. I hear all these podcasts
on my show that are being advertised. How does a podcast you know,
you got your Joe Rogan's you gotyour This is going to get me fired?

(47:42):
You know I'm putting you up there? Yeah, right next to But
I guess my question now is howdoes content stick out? Right? Because
people always say, well radio I'vehad people say well radio is going away
man with technology and on I go, well maybe it will, but whatever,
there's going to need content. SoI'm content whether and a lot of

(48:05):
people my mom and dad listen onthe app in Tennessee. I'm always thinking
how can I spread that online?You know, to get people listen to
the app online, the iHeartRadio appor go to power Talk ninety six seven
dot com and click listen life youalmost how do you market that in the
sea of tens of thousands of choices? Right? Yeah, I know they

(48:27):
have our rankings. Did you getto see your iHeart ranking? No,
I haven't seen it. With podcasts, no, No, I just know
I looked at it and thought,all right, I got to catch c
K on there. But yeah,they have those check that out. Yeah
yeah, all right, Well Imean that's all I got. Yeah,
man, anything you want to addor let people know when they could listen
to you to the show, Ohyeah, three to six Monday through Friday

(48:52):
and all the podcasts I got fivetwo and forty two hours up. Wow,
And you can get all these podcastsPowerTalk ninety six to seven dot com.
But you know what I don't likeabout the art podcasting is online when
you go down and you have tohit so many to get it, like
a month or two back, andif you click on one, it takes
you right back to the top again. Noticed. Yeah, so all right,

(49:15):
can you guys send an email andget that fix. Yeah, we'll
get that fixed. Hi, TrevorKerrey. Until next time, John Magic
Gizzo. This could give me forour podcasts.