In honor of his birthday this week, we wanted to highlight Scuba Steve. Scuba Steve is the executive producer of the Bobby Bones Show. They talk about how he got into radio, past relationships and how he got the job on the Bobby Bones Show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, welcome to the Bobby Cast. In honor of
Scuba Steve's birthday, which just happened, we wanted to share
this episode of the Bobby Cast. We brought on Scuba Steve,
who was the executive producer of The Bobby Bones Show,
and we basically get into his life, which we don't
do a lot on the radio show for him because
he's behind the scenes. He's running the show. So we
talked about how he got into it, his past relationships,
how he got the job on the Bobby Bones Show.
(00:21):
So in honor of his birthday, we thought we'd play
this again. Maybe you didn't hear it the first time.
Here is Scuba Steve by end our studio at home
with Scuba Steve. It's Eddie, Scuba and myself. And for
a while, when I first started to do this podcast,
I was putting people on the show Radio show one,
and now I just put them on so people could
get to know them. It's really before we dialed into
(00:41):
just being music. Right, we're putting anybody on just ConA
to Bobby Cast one. Yeah, but people like to get
to know members of the show better. And then I
thought I was talking to Mike about it. I said,
you know, Scooba moved here during a pandemic, so nobody
really hangs out like you come over and play basketball
have Do you ever hung out with Scubah? No, not
out side of work. That's why I'm saying your Christmas party?
(01:03):
What last last year? Oh yeah, not pandemic, but right
when he moved. I guess you moved here right before
the pandemic, like two or three months before the pandemic. Yeah,
and then it just all shut down. I guess we're
hanging out with He was situated, you're gonna taking one
of these days too, right, Yeah, that's coming. Um, So
(01:27):
I thought, why not have Scuba in Eddie and I
can ask some questions. We get to know you a
little better, all right, cool, and move on with our lives.
He's very interesting. So, like I would say, as soon
as we're done recording, you know, with the Bobby Bones
Show and everything, everything we do for the rest of
the day, it's usually just me and Scuba left for
like two hours after everyone's gone, so we've got to
(01:47):
know each other pretty well. What have you been doing
for two hours? Videos? Man? I got a list of
videos that I need to do and then when I'm
done with that, I go home and then school was
there for another four hours. So sometimes school we haven't
been afternoon at work and I'm like, you go back
to work. It is not having left work. Yeah, yeah,
um so let's just by the way Scoopa Steve as
our executive producer on the show. He's the guy pulling
all strings, line things up, making decisions. He's the guy
(02:11):
that is doing the work that you don't know who's
doing the work. I get all the credit, and I should.
There's also scuba and I'm totally fine with that. That's
the Yeah, I'm totally not kidding. But so you are
the executive producer, how would you describe your job? Like,
like you said, jack of all trades, managing the team
(02:31):
behind the scenes, making sure everyone's in line, put booking
the guests, dealing. One thing I didn't realize this is
part of my job that I didn't get into until
this happened, was sales. There are so much sales involved
with this. You get the emails daily of sales request. Uh,
there's a lot of things you don't get because I
handled before it even gets to or just cancel it
before it even gets to request ridiculous request? What's a
(02:53):
ridiculous request without saying anything exactly? Like what is something?
And I'm putting you on the spot here, So I'm
gonna van for a second. White think, Okay, I know
you get a lot of things sent to you or
a lot of asked from local sales or local sales
from all over the country, and you go, I'm not
even gonna take that to Bob because I know he's
gonna say, no, can you give me an example? Well,
I won't say the brands, but there's some brands that
(03:13):
just don't fit you and your personality, like which wouldn't
sell you cigarettes, like something like that pack our pills. No,
those go straight to you and then want you to
post about it on social and do a video about it,
and like, we're not going to do that. Or before
the pandemic was a lot of travel and we don't
have time to travel because we're doing the show daily. Um,
a lot of those kind of things or or low
(03:34):
ball offers that don't fit you should be paid for it. Yeah?
I like that. Yeah. Do you know though I don't
get paid for national spots? Yeah. I don't think anyone
does I don't. Did you know that? I knew that. Yeah,
there's there's a there's a percentage of like a pool
somewhere that gets pulled sword of. But I don't get
paid per commercial or if I go, yeah, I'll take it.
(03:56):
Come to me. It's more for the company than anything.
I mean a company guy. By taking large the national spot,
I'm being a show guy because if our show makes money,
they can pay these fat salaries like eddies. Ye, that's
really what it is. Like the more money the show makes,
the better we all look. The local spots is where
you make the money in your pocket. Correct, Yeah, but
it's always like in a small market, it's like thirty bucks.
(04:19):
You know. I can do the same spot in three
different places, and depending on how big the city is,
it's a different rate for each spot. So if I
do Tuscaloose, Alabama, I'm gonna make thirty dollars for that.
I'm just making up numbers here. Um, if I do Madison,
Wisconsin or Little Rock kind of a middle lish market,
I can make eighty or ninety dollars. Or if I
do Seattle, they can maybe three hundred bucks for a
(04:42):
sixty second read. So Tupelow could get Bobby Bones American
Idol Bobby Bones and do and I do them. That's
it's per market size. Basically, there's a rate for each
market you're You're also in that rate card too, you
lunch box. They really don't want to be honestly, usually
be first, and then Bubby says no. That still My
(05:05):
point is I wouldn't get me, dude. That's good there.
But I don't say no to small markets just because
they're a small market. Not at all. No. No, I'll
say no if it doesn't fit, like we talked about earlier.
So I'm kind of the bad guy in this so
and I don't mind being that bad guy. I'll play
the bad cop and handle that side for you so
(05:27):
you don't have to even ever deal with it. Um.
There's a furniture store in Auburn, Indiana that I've been
doing for like four years. I think I might pay
them to do it's fine. I'm so loyal and they
came on early and I'm like, let's go. It's fands
furniture yet yeah, yeah, they're still around. They love you, right,
I'll stay road. Baby's funny. I know all about it.
(05:50):
But people They're great people, though some small markets are.
They're good, genuine people and they just like to be
a part of the show. And I can't hate on that.
If I got into this for money, I wouldn't be here.
That was there were there were times when we would
do Raising Idiots and we do meet and greets, and
somebody from those small markets would come and they own
the furniture store and would be like, oh my gosh,
you're a Greg It's really funny, and it would I
(06:16):
would kind of I gotta treat them like they were
celebrities to me, I'm doing their commercials and never see
their face. Remember that. Or I would go somewhere and
see someone I would do like a real estate commercial
in like Virginia Beach, and I'm like, lone, this is crazy.
The guy's geeking out. They were geking out of me. Um. Okay,
(06:37):
so that's your job. But let's go back way back, um,
and I'll say this, I got you, and we'll get
here to second I end up ended up hiring you
from Ryan Seacrest. That's where you were before me. We
will get back around to there. Okay, but first let's
start with Scooba. Steve's life. I grew up in Orlando, Florida,
a small town called a Veto in Orlando. Is that
(06:58):
considered Orlando? Well, like it's like when you live anywhere else,
like San Francisco. You're not really from San Francisco, You're
from a suburb of that. So Orlando is the larger city.
But o Vito is where I was born and raised.
We'll take turns. Let's let's um back and forth on questions. Okay,
try to stay in somewhat line. But if you don't,
that's okay. Okay, you want to go and now me
another one. You know now where you ahead where I'm from? No, No,
I don't care about the round table. I love this
(07:26):
about Scuba. Yes, yes, yes, me right now? Okay, when
was your first girlfriend? First girlfriend? Was kindergarten? Not what? No,
this is a real girlfriend? First real girlfriend? Then that
would probably be Stacy in fifth grade? Bones. Okay, So
you grow up in Orlando. Yes, As you were getting older,
what was it that you wanted to do for your life,
Like when you're sixteen seventeen having to start to make
(07:47):
those decisions. Um, I think at that point I was Okay,
I definitely to do something in entertainment. You did, Yeah,
because I grew up in Orlando, where Nickelodeon was huge.
Nickelodeon Studios was located right there on Universal Lot. I
wanted something to do with acting or producing, directing of
some sort. Always television, always film. From even to this day,
that's when I that's still when my long term goals
(08:08):
is that. So I wanted to go for that. I
wanted to leave Orlando, moved to Hollywood, um, but that
didn't work out for a while. I got into like
a bunch of, you know, mediocre jobs, landscaping things like that,
and then eventually made the move to come out to California.
So you're hustling in Orlando, not in media, but just
trying to make enough money to pay rent and the bills.
(08:31):
And you hadn't at least dabbled in the Orlando media
world before you went to l A. Oh, yeah, because
so I was about eighteen nineteen I started getting into radio.
But how so I met somebody at a club event
in Orlando, maybe in Fishy about this, you met somebody
did something happened where he just clicked and said I
(08:51):
should just saw the did you. Well, there's a couple
things that happened when I went to when I went
to this, um this, so I tried it out. This
radio school called Connecticut School Broadcasting part of it, and
it's literally the biggest load of crap. And I don't
know that that's true, but you did it, and you
didn't like it. I didn't. Yes, you can see on
(09:12):
the news of some things that have happened at that school. Anyways, See,
I went there and it wasn't in Connecticut. It wasn't
in Connecticut. It was located in Orlando. They had locations
across the country, but Connecticut was where it was originally based.
And they promised you this whole Hey, if you come here,
we're gonna you're gonna learn from the all stars in
the industry and they're gonna hook you up. There were
no all stars in the industry that were there. It
was a bunch of people that didn't really make it
themselves either, and they taught you on equipment that wasn't
(09:35):
really what they were using at the radio stations and
in television in general. Um So, I went there for
a few months and then I met somebody out and
about so let me pause. You went there, that was
your very first step. You knew you wanted to do it,
you go and you pay money. Yes, how much money
it was? I think it was a thousand dollars a month.
And it was it was an ad that I heard
(09:55):
on on the radio because I was like, I was
listening to the radio, like, Oh, I want to get
on the radio. This is how you do it. So
I figured this is my chance, my shot to get in.
So I went there and paid that fee for per month,
and while I was there, learned the tools and met
somebody along the way who was like, hey, I worked
for a radio station locally in Orlando. Here, I think, uh,
(10:16):
you know, you've got some chops. Let's bring you in
meet the host. What chops did you have at Connecticut
School of Broadcasting. I guess I was always on time
I was there earlier. That's the choppiest of chops, honestly. Yeah,
so you want to do that? Do you have a
tape that you gave them? Um, he heard me record
some stuff in front of him. He was one of
the guys that was it came in every once in
a while. Wasn't one of the main teachers, like an
adjunct professor at CONNECTICU School badcasting. Yeah, yeah, exactly, Okay,
(10:39):
and go ahead. Sorry, no, I'm just trying to walk
through this with you. I know, I just got nineteen
questions like what's your favorite color? Go ahead, go ahead.
That was one of them, So go ahead and we'll
save that for later. So you're doing what at this school?
Do they give you sheets to read ead? And are
(11:00):
you trying to be a newscaster or they going you're
gonna do commercials? It's both, So there's a radio side
and a television side. The radio side is, you know,
showing how to work their board and how to talk
up a song and had a recorded commercial. And the
people that were teaching you were just DJ's that didn't
work out most of them. And I say DJ's like,
I don't feel like I'm a DJ. And in either way,
I don't mix music and I didn't get into this
(11:21):
business to play music. Will there be a few songs
to play while I'm on the air, Yeah, but I
don't care, Like I like the music format. I picked
to be in with country because I felt like that
was the livestock group I can most relate to. But
if they were like, hey, come to Polka, You'll never
hear the song, We're just gonna put some polk on.
I'll be like, great, let's go as long as I
can be me, I'm fine. So you were working with
(11:44):
DJs who talked up music songs. Yes, yeah, and that
was your goal, and that was what they were trying
to teach us was how to do that okay, and
how to record it? Basically the basics of radio. Could
you still have that hit? Might get a song up
the Scooba can hit a post from Connectut School broadcasting
here he is, hold on, let' let's give us a gat.
You know what hitting a post is, right? Yeah, we
hit it right for the vocals come in. Mike has
(12:04):
given you the hardest song. That's like a thirty seven
second introil. You can tell your whole background. Is that
what you want to do? All right? Go and three
two one. So when I hear the song, that reminds
me of my father and we used to hang out
by the pool lot and he would be, hey, son,
grab me that beer over there. So I grabbed the beer.
(12:26):
He's like that screw driver next to you. Take that too?
All right, I'm the count of three. I want you
to pop the bottom. So I popped the bottom, throw
it to him. He'd drink it as fast as he can,
and he's shotgun it. And that was the first time
I learned how to shot gun a beer at the
age of nine. Wow. Yeah. And then, by the way,
we have some tickets to give away in ten minutes time.
(12:48):
What I really have to say? I get that a
solid sea plus though. And you came in raw. Yeah
you still you hit the post. You had to rush
it a little bit, story storry. I like that. Good. Good,
So you learned how to do that? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Who did you meet? What person? I met a guy
named Alex who was the who eventually got me into
(13:10):
the building at Clear Channel in Orlando, Florida. Was he
on the air? He was the morning show producer for
the morning show at XL. Is he still producing there?
He is not. He got cut No. Nine when they
had all those massive cuts, So he's not in radio anymore.
He's in radio, but he's doing smaller roles within Orlando. Okay,
so you're now in the building. What do you do
at XL in Orlando? So at first I was an intern,
(13:32):
so I had to use that CSB that I had
as my paperwork for going to school. Did you graduate?
I left before graduation, which really pissed them off because
they didn't they didn't get credit for me getting this internship.
There's a lot of a lot of because they they
basically the whole goal was to get somebody in there
and then get credit to say hey, X y Z
went to the school and look at them now, and
they were really piste that I left before graduation, didn't
(13:55):
fulfill the curriculum because I was like, I don't need this.
I met this guy, He's gonna get me in. I
got an intern to see you later. This is what
I needed. Huh. So they want you in so they
can say look what we did and get more money
from the next person. Yes, so they can get through
and say look what we did, and to keep that going,
keep that bio on the website of like, these are
all our people that go that went to the school,
and here they are now. Are you on the website now? No?
(14:15):
They hate me. They want nothing to do with me.
You say you're an intern, and you have you have
to have some way to prove that you're in school
when you're an intern. Yes, we need to pay for
Connecticut School of Broadcasting. Yes, okay, I used that. Michael
Brian was my p D who was the p D
at the local local affiliate Nashville when I moved here. Yeah,
he was the PDS. My first run into him, and
(14:35):
I was the intern there at XL and I did
that for about a good four or five months, kind
of played the sixth man on the show that all
the behind the scenes. Was it crazy to be on
the air though, even even though you weren't getting paid, Like,
was your life a little different? Because people started think
you were kind of famous. When I'd go downtown to
Orlando as an intern, you go to the club and
they would go, oh, it's Scuba Steve from the Johnny
J Morning Show. And it was the coolest thing for
me because I was in my hometown and I was
(14:56):
a small local celebrity. So for me, I got a
lot of cloud with my friend, free drinks, free entrances
the club. So well, let me mention Scooba Steven because
it sounds like that was already your name. Yes, yeah,
as an intern, they named you Scooba Steve. Yeah, birth
named Stephen and then Big Daddy was a popular movie
at the time, and they just named me Scuba Steve,
and I just rolled with it. Ever been scuba diving? Never?
Never in my life? You have an interest? No, My
(15:18):
my wife's father passed scuba diving, so I have no
interest in scooba diving. What's your wife's father died while
scuba diving? Yeah. On they were on some vacation back
when she was a kid and he went scuba diving.
And I've just had fear. I've had a fear of
it in general. But when she told me that, I
was like, I'm definitely not scuba diving ever. The irony
for her not think about this and by the way, lovely, Yeah,
(15:40):
I think your wife is a lovely Thank you. She's
got this dad he goes scuba diving, unfortunately passes away. Well,
it's time for her to live our life now. As
an adult, she meets a guy his name is scuba
and has to think about that every day. Everything was
manifested in so weird way. Wow, that would be like
(16:02):
your grandpa getting hit by a train. You meet a
guy named Chu McGhee and you're like, I'm gonna marry
too too. Dang man. It was a very weird coincidence. Okay,
so you're interning there, when does it turn into a
real job? And what's the real job? So I'm interning there.
They do all those massive cuts in two thousand nine,
and I was one of those. That was because I
(16:23):
got brought on part time for a little bit after
the internship. They cut me because they cut all part timers.
But then I met a guy my way out and
named Rick Everett. He's the p D at the rock
station there, and he's like, hey, look man, just hang tight,
I got something for you in the works. You know,
we'll get something on the books for you and in
the next couple of months. So I kind of just
I took his word. I waited a couple of months
he had. During that two months, I was applying at
every radio station across the country from Canada down to Mexico.
(16:46):
Were you also doing a job though, to make rent? No,
That's when I was living with my ex wife, who
was paying rent, who was paying rent, paying for everything,
and we found out on the radio show cheated on
him and he found out an Ashley Madison Go listen
to the Bobby Cast, No, go listen to the Bibones
show on Thursday. That was when that was, man, I
feel bad about that one. No, I don't know if
it's OK. Not at all? Great story though, I can't
(17:09):
believe he's Scuba Steve. I would have dropped that when
I met your wife. I would have been like, stunning Steve,
our spatula Steve. I just wouldn't to stay with scuba
Steve when your wife's dad died scuba diving. Yeah, yeah,
she was. I guess she's fine with it. She doesn't
have a problem. So have you ever asked her that? Um,
I've never really brought it up. I mean, it was
(17:30):
mentioned to me that that happened, and oh my god. Yeah,
I don't know, man, I think that's probably something you
need to change. Did she ever call you scuba? Never know?
I'm just I'm just is she comfortable you're talking about that? Yeah?
Totally so. I think the people on the radio show
would be blown away at that story, and not in
(17:50):
like a funny way. But then, you know, isn't it ironic?
Could I bring that up on the show next week?
It's fine? Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want
your wife to be upset. No, it's in a long time.
Her father passed when she was twelve, so it's also
been a very very long unbelievable Yeah wow, Okay, so
(18:12):
you're working part time at the rock station. Is that
they hired you on to do so then he brings
you back and then that's what it is. It's two things.
One he needs help launching a sports station, so that
was pretty much my main priority was to help get
the station launched, run it, do everything for production, run
the board for all the shows, get that off the ground,
and also help out at the Rock station, which my
goal was, Oh, I want to be on this rock
station in some capacity. Uh. And then I also started
(18:35):
working for Johnny again on the morning show. So I
was doing morning show from about four until about one,
and then one over to the sports station, did that
to the afternoon, did the rock station in the evening,
and went home and did it all over again for
seven days a week. And I'm not even gonna go
wow because I did the same craft because she just gotta.
I think it's great, but you know, I'm not gonna
be like, Damn, I can't believe you did that. Yeah
(18:55):
you have to, We've all done that crap. Way he
has and he kind of got brought in then Uh,
so you were working with Johnny? Was it Johnny and Jade? Jade? Yeah, Jade.
I think you know who she is. I know Jade
pretty well. She now she lives in Nashville now and
works for Apple Music. Apple. Yeah, and I know Jade
through a couple of different things. But yeah, so Jade
(19:16):
and I are were you guys? Cool? Yeah? Very cool. Yeah,
we still talked to this day. Well I like her. Yeah,
if he didn't, great. Yeah. When she was here in
town a year ago before Shook the gig, we went
lunch and everything. So she was one of the hosts
while you were what position? She was the co host
when I was intern, but then also became a person
on the show, a part time personality and producer. You
were you a producer on that show? Yes? What did
(19:38):
you produce? So? I was the associate producer. So I
would do kind of like what Abby does, screen calls,
edit audio, get some audio on the streets, put together
you know, one sheets, all that basic stuff. Okay, so
you're doing that for how long? I did that for
about about a year year and a half. And then
are you going I gotta get out of here and
go some more bigger or did you kind of get
(19:58):
pushed off. I wanted a full time because should they
dangled that cared for years, you know, we eventually a
full time I was working seven days a week, but
only logging twenty nine hours um, and I was fine
with that. Like you said, you have to you have
to grind, and I'm totally cool with that. And then
I got to a point where I wasn't going to
get that full time position anytime soon. My ex wife
at the time got the opportunity to move to San
Francisco and I knew nothing about it. I just knew
(20:20):
it was a bigger city, was California. It's an opportunity.
Let's do it. So I quit my job. And before
I quit my job, I remember the moment where we
were driving. We had the U haul packed the car
ready to go, everything to hit the road, and I
went back to the Clear Channel building before my email expired,
and I emailed all the p d's in San Francisco
and the operations manager and said, hey, this is me resume.
(20:40):
I'm heading that way, even if we can just have
a conversation, coffee whatever. UM, I have no job. I'm
willing to do whatever you need I'll do it. And
then I got some responses in the drive to San Francisco,
and then we apologiate for one secondary. What's the question
you wanna ask him? Imstening? I wanted blue and green.
Thank you. You don't have any like signed questions. This
(21:00):
is a good story relief. I'm good, Okay. I want
you to to see left out of it. You made fun
of my first question. I'm scarred by that. You're driving,
you get emails back, emails back saying hey, when you
come to town, hit me up. I would love to
talk to you. By the way, there almost isn't a
further drive. Oh, it's super far because you're going from
the bottom right basically to the upper left. I mean
you could have gone to Seattle. I guess I'd have
(21:21):
been further but Seattle Portland. But other than that, that's
about as far as you can go. Yeah, I'm in
with a car with somebody that I sort of hate
at the time. So it was a fun three to
four day drive. We mean sort of hey, because you
weren't divorcing then, no, but we were. Our relationship was
sort of on that verge of things weren't going right,
and you still thought you wanted to move with her,
even though things weren't going right. Yeah, because I saw
this as an opportunity to change me as a person
(21:42):
and take me out of my hometown, which was I
love Orlando, but I wanted to grow, and for me
to grow, I have to go somewhere. So so what
were the emails saying as you were driving? They were
just basically just like, hey, when you get to town,
hit us up. And I responded, say, no problem, I'll
be there in this date. Let's lock in a date
when I get to town, and and then that happened.
I talked to three different people. One of them was
Cat Collins, who's a p D over there UH at
(22:05):
Wild nine, who was like the top forty station in
San Francisco. UH. Andrew Jeffreys was another one. He was
just a p D at the time for Star like
a hot a C. And then Don Parker, who is
the operations manager, and they're all like, hey, we don't
have any gigs at the moment, but we'd love for
you to come in and just just, you know, just talk.
I talked to Cat for like two hours, just talking
about radio and life and the move, and everyone seemed
(22:27):
to be pretty interested and me taking the chance of
quit my job and moving out here with this girl
and hopes that things just happen to work out. And
what job did you get eventually? So eventually Andrew Jeffries
was like, hey man, I got something for you. Um
it's not a morning show producer or anything that you
were looking for, but it's an end of the building
and if you get in and as you know, that's you,
(22:48):
that's the ticket. You just want to get into the building.
Get that email, get that key card. And so he's like, hey,
I have a producer position where you basically take the
Seacrest show in the local end and you localize it,
inserted into the system and watched the board. Which is
kind of funny because later in life and I'm working
for secrets doing the opposite sending this stuff exactly. Yeah,
So how long did you do that? So? I did
(23:08):
that for about three or four months, and then there
was a morning show opportunity with a guy named Don
blue Uh at star Win O one three, and I
became his morning show producer from that, and then from
that did that for about a good two years, and
then the in the building was the j V show.
He used to do this show called The Doghouse, and
him and Rico needed a executive producer because they were
gonna start taking on affiliates and they just had they
(23:30):
didn't have any organization within their show, and they needed
someone to kind of help that out and play in
the day and do all the day to day stuff.
So I went on did that and that was a
wild ride for a good three three or four years.
Um the fact that those personalities, I've ever met them
before them. Um j V is a great guy, but
(23:50):
he's from that old school radio era of I'm gonna
piss you off to the absolute brink and watch you
break for content. So he would like push my buttons
and wish my buttons, and push my buttons and just
wreck me. Mean literally ripped the flesh off my skin,
not literally, not literally, but figuratively to get our reaction
out of me for whatever was going on. Like basically
I was the butt of every joke for everything, no
(24:11):
matter how hard I worked or did whatever, which at
the moment, I was like, gotta hate this guy. This
is so ridiculous, but it made me who I am today,
gave me the thick skin and gave me the tools
to take it on to the next level. Ever getting
an off air screaming match with him on air and
off air, but in the off air that was extremely intense.
On air, you can at least a little bit ago.
That's for the show, like I turned it up for
(24:32):
the show. Sure you ever getting an off air screaming match? Well,
the problem to a lot of our offer screen matches.
He'd press recording the box pro and they would turn
into an on air match without even realizing, or he'd
flipped the mics on, Like I cursed in the air
three or four times, said the F word, the S word,
not knowing it, but just because I didn't know I
was we were alive on the radio, he flip it
on and all of a sudden, I'll be tell him
to go f himself and uh, And then there it was.
(24:54):
Why did that relationship end? That ended because of money
and the dying need to come to l A at
some point. So you weren't getting paid enough for what
you were doing. Oh not at all. No. Now you've
established yourself as a producer, But are you going I'm
a talent, Why am I producing? Or are you like
(25:15):
dang this producing is who knew where it's at. Well,
I think it was a combination of both, because then
when I went to as I was leaving in San Francisco,
I made relationships in the all format, uh, and I
was like, look, I want to track. Can I do
some tracking the side to kind of have my own
creative thing. That's why tracked like Stockton, Bakersfield small markets outside?
What what shifts? Uh? Mid day? Well, first it was
(25:36):
fill in shifts, and then when I got to the
Seacrest show, then I was full time mid day on
a ALL station. So I would basically wake up super
early in the morning track that midday shift and then
go over to my desk at the secret studio and
do my job there. Did you know fun fact pop
up videos poop that when we were doing this show, Uh,
it really started to gain some steam. Probably had about
(25:57):
a hundred affiliates. Eddie and I were also doing Afternoon
Is on a rock station under fake names, and we
never said it really Yeah, it was pretty cool. I
was like a Mexican dude. We had like a bad accent,
really is missing their bones? Yes, yes, it was me
and at the time my assistant and Eddie and it
was Slappy the Wonder Boy in Zeus and Eddie would
(26:18):
jo Slappy the Wonder Boy and Cruz was Zeus and
Eddie was Chico. Yeah, that is so cool, and we
did it forever and we're just doing it. We're just
going to my office for there a studio and get
out in thirty five minutes. We were yeah while doing
the Bones show. Yeah yeah, yeah, we just did. After
the shift we walk in and we thought it was
hilarious and we would play we need to play. This
(26:40):
is a good one. I like this one. It slappy
the one. This one was really good your Chico Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Us, Yeah,
I like Bones. That's pretty rad. That's really cool. So
we did that for a while. I just can pop
up videos over. Um. So you want to go to
(27:02):
l A. Do you have a job first? No? So
I quit that job as well. Um. And at that
point I was with my wife, I want to say
current wife, but my forever wife, my my soul mate,
and she had seen what this job had done to me,
the hours that I put into it, versus the compensation
I was receiving in the way I was being treated.
She's like, look, I support you. You want to go
(27:22):
to l A. I'll stay here in San Francisco with
my family. And she had a good job in the city,
paid really really well. It's like, look, you go ahead
and go and if it works out. I'll come down
there and meet you. If it doesn't work out, then
at least come back here and we'll figure it out.
So I moved down to l A. And within a
few days I had a connection and I got a
job by Dr Phil Show where I was running and
doing p a work um and that. While I was
(27:45):
doing that, I got a phone call from my guy
named Dennis Clark, who I met in San Francisco, and
he's like, hey, I know you're in l A. I
heard you left. He goes, uh, he goes sit tight.
I got something for you. Do you ever meet Dr Phil? Yeah,
a couple of times. Yeah, thumbs out, thumbs down, thumbs
in the middle. Good at. I mean, I always hate
to say about people because you just never know their
mood that day. And he always seemed like he's very
(28:06):
busy and his goal was to get in and get out.
So I can't really say I didn't like the guy.
I just can say that he was just there. You're
not saying you dislike him, but you are saying you
didn't like him. Yeah, it was. It wasn't different on it. Yeah,
he seemed like he was just trying to get do
his job and go home. It sounds like you didn't
have a lot of time to get to know him. Yeah,
just what it got to know. But he was living
(28:26):
up in a Barly Hills mansion, like we had a
different lifestyle. I was a runner and he was the
host of the show. So Dennis Clark, who I know
as well, hits you up and says, we got a
job for you. What's the job? And then as the
supervising producer for Seacrest National Show. And I was like,
holy crap, this is really cool. I'll entertain this. So
it started off and I built onto. It was basically
it was very bare minimum. You basically took the local
(28:48):
show and you had a team of editors and a
writer and stripped it down road pickups approved the edits
and they shipped it out and then dealt with some affiliates.
Very basic, very easy, good paying job. It was much.
It was much better than Dr Phil show and working
in San Francisco. So yeah, it was fine. It wasn't
(29:09):
the greatest, but it definitely paid much better, so I
was cool with it. Would you say you were thriving
or just starting to do better than surviving? Um, I
would say starting to do better than surviving? L A
is expensive. That's the thing too. If if I made
this salary anywhere else, I'd be great, But in l
A it was very expensive with rent and just the
cost of living was really high. Drugs, drugs, Yeah, Hooker's process.
(29:32):
So you are working with Ryan. Did our paths ever
cross before you came here? There was a couple of times.
There was I think one time when you were doing
but I didn't know you. So there was one time
you came by. I recognized you because they're like, oh,
it's Bobby, and I was like, oh, it's Bobby. And
(29:52):
then I googled and figured it out and uh, you
were what was it? What was I doing working in
the building? Well, you were I think in the building
tracking or doing something because you were doing dance with
us ours I believe. And you came over and I
think you're looking for Tanya UM. Which that's a funny
story too about their producer UM. And you were you
came to the black glass room looking for somebody, and
I guess that we were tracking and recording, and so
you like waved and left. But I knew that there
(30:14):
was a moment on that show that we were trying
to connect Tanya with you. That was that wasn't gonna happen. Yeah,
it wasn't gonna happen. But but they but she was
trying to and they were trying to not saying you
reached out for it or anything, but they were trying
to make it happen. But and I was gonna put
it on the National Show and the local producer, who
I think has a crush on her, he got really
but hurt about it, and he was like, I ticked
(30:35):
it off, We're not airing that, And I said, f him.
So I put on the National Show anyways, because him
and I didn't get along. We butt heads a little bit. Interesting. Yeah,
So that was our first run in first run, in
the second run in was it was actually right before
I took this job, very very close to it. We're
at a hotel. I was at the bar and um,
it's this hotel that's in Hollywood at the corner of
(30:56):
right near the mall. You know, the what's that big mall,
Beverly Hill Mall. Whatever. Anyway, there's a hotel Crosstreet from
the mall, and we were over at that. We were
at the bar, and when I was in the interviewing process,
before I had actually even got to you or anyone,
it was just kind of behind the scenes of I
may make this move. I said, the bar with some
friends and and you were sitting in another area, just
chilling by yourself, and to look over and they're like
(31:17):
and then my friend John Manuel was like, Hey, it's Bobby.
And I was like, look over, so because that's a
weird coincidence, and I was like, yeah, you should go
over and say hid. And I was like, no, I'm
not gonna I'm not gonna say anything, and he goes
all right, and then we end up walking sort of
together toward the elevator to go up and you win
another elevator. I win another. All that happened, you didn'tven
say hello. I didn't say anything because I was like,
I didn't know, you can lose it, just stay hi.
But I didn't know. I was by myself, just chilling
(31:39):
somewhere by yourself. And then I think I think it
was maybe Jessica at some point came over, uh your
syste yeah exactly, yeah, and she came over and and
did something and you like went away. Huh Yeah, I'm
chilling at a hotel by yourself, weirdo, Scoopa. Steve didn't
even say hi to you guys. Well I wanted to
when I felt weird by myself all the time, but
not not as much anymore. But pre Caitlin a life,
(32:00):
they're just chilling on your phone. You give me a
look like who the hell is this guy? And I'm
just kidding, Okay, I'll probably get you look like please
not a friend, anybody, anybody my friend? Actually, you had
that thing and I had this like gut feeling you
probably just happened all you before we were sitting there.
You want to say hi to somebody, could be anybody
of any capacity, and you just have this feeling you
should say it, and you should say it, and you
don't say it, and I just almost like threw up
and I was like, I'm not gonna do this. I'm
just gonna leave it. So I didn't know Scooba, but
(32:23):
he was recommended by a couple of different people that
I trust, and I was like, okay, great, So Scooba
flies in. We interview was fantastic. Interviewed like three or
four people that all were highly recommended, and because I
had always just hired people that I knew or trained,
and I was like, man, for me to grow, I
need somebody that knows things other than what I know,
because I only know what I figured out myself. And
(32:44):
so offered to Scuba. He was like, I need more money.
But also on the on the quiet side, I was like,
Scooba just telling me you you need more money. I was like,
don't don't take the first deal, like hold out because
I knew we were going to get him, but I
also wanted him to squeeze him for as much as
he could get what was he available or how No,
but that was a whole other thing. He wasn't He
(33:05):
was working with Ryan, and so I reached out to
Ryan and was like, hey, I would love to talk
to Scuba. But Ryan's team loves Scuba so much they
didn't really want to get rid of Scuba. And so
there was this whole month or so. I was like,
I'd like to have Scuba, and they were like, we
don't want you to have scuba and finally I was like,
it would mean a lot to me because I want
to elevate him. This will be literally the biggest position.
(33:26):
Finally Ryan call was like, Okay, you can have Scooba,
but it's a little type for a bit. It was. Yeah,
it was almost a good month and a half, two
months going back and forth, and I had to wait
for Ryan because Ryan was on vacation at the moment,
and then when he came back, and then we eventually
had to have the conversation over the phone, which wasn't
what I wanted. I wanted to talk to him face
to face because I have a lot of respect from
him and he really helped me out with my career
at that moment and did a lot for me and
I learned a lot from him, and it it was pretty
(33:46):
cool to work with Ryan seacrest Um. And we had
that weird conversation on the phone where I kept cutting
out and I would say something, go, what's that. I
had all planned out, like bullet points of what I
wanted to say, and I had to keep saying it
over and over and over, and eventually I was like, God,
he's not gonna get what I'm trying to say. But
at the end he kind of understood what it's also,
what I'm trying to hear you is that you want
to grow. You're looking to move your family a different
location and increase your pay. I'm like, hey, he goes,
(34:08):
I'm totally cool with that. I hate to see you go.
I love you, you work hard, You're one of the
best employees on my team. But if this is what
you want, I give you my blessing. And I was like, perfect, cool,
That's what I was looking for, was his blessing. And
then he called me. I was like, yeah, fine, you know,
I was like, you think, thank you? Yeah. So I
moved over um, and here you are. Now, how do
you feel a year? And this last year has been
(34:29):
weird though, so it's kind of hard to It hasn't
been extremely normal, but it hasn't been for anyone, but
you've almost put your entire existence here abnormal. It has
been if the abnormal has become normal, it's been weird
because you come to the city and it's a fun,
cool city to go out and do things and check
things out, and you really can't. And my wife, we
have a kid, and she was pregnant throughout this pandemic,
and so I was also very paranoid about going anywhere
(34:50):
and seeing anything. And you meet labels and people and
everyone's wearing a mask, so you don't know what anyone
looks like. You meet him six seven times. It's been
a really weird year, but it's been a cool year,
and it's helped me grow a lot as a person
and as an employee. So it's been weird, but it's
been cool and I'm down with it. I another kid,
get two kids now? Yeah? Um, And you talked about
Dr Phil, I talked about Ryan Secret. What about me?
(35:10):
Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Now you're great, your thumbs up.
What's the hardest part of executive producing my show? About me?
What's the hardest part about me? About you? Personally? About
me as a talent? Like what's the what are you
constantly like, oh my god, I don't know how I'm
gonna get this or get him to do this, or like,
what is the the thing that you go to your
wife and complain the most about me? Well, I don't
(35:32):
complain to her because this is the one job I
will say. I haven't complained about anything because I finally
found a position where I feel like, okay, this is
like you talked about, it's a great position, it's a
growing position, it's a show that's thriving. There are a
lot of people when I got this job like, damn, dude,
you got the position, like that's the show to be
on because that show is growing and the company believes
in it. And I've noticed that through my conference calls
and meetings. This is the show the company is backing
(35:53):
and believes them, which is great. So I made the
right decision. I think. One thing, um, and it's also
my problem too, is because you're someone who has done
a lot of it yourself, and because you've you know,
you've even told me we had meetings before in the past,
like hey man, there was one time I had seven
commerses and I was running this and doing this whole
thing and figuring out everything on my own. You have that.
It's that kind of personality where you're like, look, this
(36:16):
is me, this is my baby. It's tough to let go.
But you even preface it. When I had the interview,
You're like, hey, look man, there's a group of people
that we've been together for a long time. This is
it's gonna be tough to jump in. Somebody knew everyone's
been together for ten plus years. You know, you're the
new guy. You got to kind of find your way
in and I found my way, and I feel like
with pretty much everybody, Um, I would say everyone, yeah,
except for Mike. Mike doesn't seem really like doesn't Yeah,
(36:39):
It's okay though, just um. So it's been the control
that Yeah, me going and still need control, yes, and
I but I but I'm also a person to understands
that because I'm also the exact same personality type. So
if I didn't have that type of personality, I'd be like, man,
what the hell do Why does he just give me
a little more control? But I understand that, and I
also understand this is a long term game and it's
(37:00):
a building the relationship and getting you to trust me,
which I feel like that has grown over this last
year of gaining some sort of trust and also just
letting you know, like, hey, look, I would never crap
on the show. I would never ruin it. I would
never do anything that would jeopardize you or this show.
So I hope that over this next few years that
we continue to grow and build on that so you
(37:20):
can get more trust to me, and I understand that.
I get that. I'm totally fine with that. I do
feel I've gotten a little better at it, though you
have a little bit yeah, yeah, a little bit. In
the beginning, it was I was like, damn, I pitched
ideas or things or say stuff for even just like
little things like within the show content, and I'm like, okay,
all right, and I would beat myself down on like,
I get it. This is show, this is your show.
It's got your name on it. I respect that a
hunter and ten percent um. So I just for me,
(37:42):
it's it's a it's a it's a process to to
kind of just get you to really trust me to
where we can have a relationship to where all right, cooy,
you got it, this is your thing. I want to
do like Maddie in the morning Mike and just walking
everything's done. Yeah, I think I want that, But then
I can never do you can't do that. It's tough.
And I understand that maybe it'd be cool. There are
a lot of personalities that have that where they walk
in and there's a stack of papers and it's all
(38:04):
organized from top of show dan to show and they
literally look at it, read it and just go from
one to the next, one to the next. But then
those shows don't have the life that this show has.
So I've cost also come to understanding that that's okay
that it is in that way, because this show wouldn't
be where it is if if you weren't more in
control of it, because this is your brand, this is
your product, and I feel like the way we do
it is is actually it's okay and it's fine, and
(38:26):
it works. That's better than okay and fine, you know
what I mean. I mean it is a mediocre, it's fair,
you know, milk toast, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Well, okay.
On the opposite, what's the best thing? The best thing? Um,
I would say that this show, it has been inclusive
(38:47):
and they have invited me in and not on the
personal level like teach me to shot gun Eddie but
I don't hang out, but at work, I would say
this team has been more inviting and more welcoming and
more open to me coming on of the show being
the guy that's the newest of this show, and that's
been the coolest and everyone has been accepting of me
and and has allowed me to come in and work
(39:09):
with me and work well with me, which has been cool.
We're gonna end this on one Eddie question. Okay, Eddie,
what's the one question that you'd like to ask Cooper Steve.
It's Friday night, you got nothing to do? What are
you ordering to eat? And what are you gonna watch
on TV? Wow? Okay, he starts to cry. All that
other stuff doesn't do any toe down. He starts to
(39:29):
get emotional. My mom wants pasta. Um, but if I'm
in this city, I don't really know what I'm eating.
But if I'm eating in a city that has my
food that I want, I'm eating at Little Taiocha and Vanye, California.
What is that? What is that? It's Thai food, Um,
Thai food Vans, California. They got this amazing orange chicken.
(39:49):
They got this pork, this fried pork belly with buck
choi and Chinese broccoli dipped in this like amazing black sauce.
I don't know what it is that some sort of
like soy sauce mixed with pison sauce. A couple that things.
Uh they're hot drop soup. Uh, they're Vietnamese coffee or
tea whatever it is. And probably watching I would say
Law and Order, um, Special Victims Unit or Criminal Intent. Brothers, sisters.
(40:16):
I'm the oldest of four twin brother and sister and
little sister. Parents still alive. Mom's alive. Dad passed way recently.
But we didn't have a relationship, so step dad. I
had three stepdads. Wow, that was cool. No, it wasn't.
On the next episode, I've been married twice. Its signed
(40:37):
with your forever wife. Correct. Okay, I feel like Edde,
you learned something here. Yeah. Man, I'm telling you, this
guy's full of stories and and we're gonna go on
and on and then like in a few months ago,
you're gonna find something. We would be like what, Oh
my gosh, we gotta talk about this, more about this,
because that's what it is. Dude. He's got all kinds
of stories, like the man, the mansion he lived in,
things like that, and then like like even my life
(41:00):
the other day was just like he really found dead
bodies in his house, well not bodies, dead people. Yeah,
you can't make it up, though, I just found nine
dead bodies, a monkey and uh talking dog. Stop Like
how I just made that up? Though? I came here
in a spaceship. Okay, all right, Scool Steve. Thank you.
(41:20):
I follow Scooba Steve on Instagram, Instagram, Twitter, y, you
don't know my handles. It's at at Scuba Steve Radio.
I did see the B team Facebook page. Now people
follow you the other day? Yeah, yeah, they were cool.
You don't. I don't need facebooks. I don't check that out. No, no,
they were. They have a Facebook. I don't do Facebook.
They have a Facebook group. It's actually the only good
(41:40):
Facebook group with our show because our show page is evil.
But um, they were like, I gotta go follow Scoob
Steve on Instagram. Awesome, thank you much, followers. All right,
that's it, thank you very much, Scoob Steve, every buddy
Hey guys, welcome to the Bobby Cast. In honor of
Scuba Steve's birthday, which just happened, we wanted to share
this episode of the Bobby Cast. We brought on Scuba Steve,
who was the executive producer of The Bobby Bones Show,
and we basically get into his life, which we don't
do a lot on the radio show for him because
he's behind the scenes. He's running the show. So we
talked about how he got into it, his past relationships,
how he got the job on the Bobby Bones Show.
(00:21):
So in honor of his birthday, we thought we'd play
this again. Maybe you didn't hear it the first time.
Here is Scuba Steve by end our studio at home
with Scuba Steve. It's Eddie, Scuba and myself. And for
a while, when I first started to do this podcast,
I was putting people on the show Radio show one,
and now I just put them on so people could
get to know them. It's really before we dialed into
(00:41):
just being music. Right, we're putting anybody on just ConA
to Bobby Cast one. Yeah, but people like to get
to know members of the show better. And then I
thought I was talking to Mike about it. I said,
you know, Scooba moved here during a pandemic, so nobody
really hangs out like you come over and play basketball
have Do you ever hung out with Scubah? No, not
out side of work. That's why I'm saying your Christmas party?
(01:03):
What last last year? Oh yeah, not pandemic, but right
when he moved. I guess you moved here right before
the pandemic, like two or three months before the pandemic. Yeah,
and then it just all shut down. I guess we're
hanging out with He was situated, you're gonna taking one
of these days too, right, Yeah, that's coming. Um, So
(01:27):
I thought, why not have Scuba in Eddie and I
can ask some questions. We get to know you a
little better, all right, cool, and move on with our lives.
He's very interesting. So, like I would say, as soon
as we're done recording, you know, with the Bobby Bones
Show and everything, everything we do for the rest of
the day, it's usually just me and Scuba left for
like two hours after everyone's gone, so we've got to
(01:47):
know each other pretty well. What have you been doing
for two hours? Videos? Man? I got a list of
videos that I need to do and then when I'm
done with that, I go home and then school was
there for another four hours. So sometimes school we haven't
been afternoon at work and I'm like, you go back
to work. It is not having left work. Yeah, yeah,
um so let's just by the way Scoopa Steve as
our executive producer on the show. He's the guy pulling
all strings, line things up, making decisions. He's the guy
(02:11):
that is doing the work that you don't know who's
doing the work. I get all the credit, and I should.
There's also scuba and I'm totally fine with that. That's
the Yeah, I'm totally not kidding. But so you are
the executive producer, how would you describe your job? Like,
like you said, jack of all trades, managing the team
(02:31):
behind the scenes, making sure everyone's in line, put booking
the guests, dealing. One thing I didn't realize this is
part of my job that I didn't get into until
this happened, was sales. There are so much sales involved
with this. You get the emails daily of sales request. Uh,
there's a lot of things you don't get because I
handled before it even gets to or just cancel it
before it even gets to request ridiculous request? What's a
(02:53):
ridiculous request without saying anything exactly? Like what is something?
And I'm putting you on the spot here, So I'm
gonna van for a second. White think, Okay, I know
you get a lot of things sent to you or
a lot of asked from local sales or local sales
from all over the country, and you go, I'm not
even gonna take that to Bob because I know he's
gonna say, no, can you give me an example? Well,
I won't say the brands, but there's some brands that
(03:13):
just don't fit you and your personality, like which wouldn't
sell you cigarettes, like something like that pack our pills. No,
those go straight to you and then want you to
post about it on social and do a video about it,
and like, we're not going to do that. Or before
the pandemic was a lot of travel and we don't
have time to travel because we're doing the show daily. Um,
a lot of those kind of things or or low
(03:34):
ball offers that don't fit you should be paid for it. Yeah?
I like that. Yeah. Do you know though I don't
get paid for national spots? Yeah. I don't think anyone
does I don't. Did you know that? I knew that. Yeah,
there's there's a there's a percentage of like a pool
somewhere that gets pulled sword of. But I don't get
paid per commercial or if I go, yeah, I'll take it.
(03:56):
Come to me. It's more for the company than anything.
I mean a company guy. By taking large the national spot,
I'm being a show guy because if our show makes money,
they can pay these fat salaries like eddies. Ye, that's
really what it is. Like the more money the show makes,
the better we all look. The local spots is where
you make the money in your pocket. Correct, Yeah, but
it's always like in a small market, it's like thirty bucks.
(04:19):
You know. I can do the same spot in three
different places, and depending on how big the city is,
it's a different rate for each spot. So if I
do Tuscaloose, Alabama, I'm gonna make thirty dollars for that.
I'm just making up numbers here. Um, if I do Madison,
Wisconsin or Little Rock kind of a middle lish market,
I can make eighty or ninety dollars. Or if I
do Seattle, they can maybe three hundred bucks for a
(04:42):
sixty second read. So Tupelow could get Bobby Bones American
Idol Bobby Bones and do and I do them. That's
it's per market size. Basically, there's a rate for each
market you're You're also in that rate card too, you
lunch box. They really don't want to be honestly, usually
be first, and then Bubby says no. That still My
(05:05):
point is I wouldn't get me, dude. That's good there.
But I don't say no to small markets just because
they're a small market. Not at all. No. No, I'll
say no if it doesn't fit, like we talked about earlier.
So I'm kind of the bad guy in this so
and I don't mind being that bad guy. I'll play
the bad cop and handle that side for you so
(05:27):
you don't have to even ever deal with it. Um.
There's a furniture store in Auburn, Indiana that I've been
doing for like four years. I think I might pay
them to do it's fine. I'm so loyal and they
came on early and I'm like, let's go. It's fands
furniture yet yeah, yeah, they're still around. They love you, right,
I'll stay road. Baby's funny. I know all about it.
(05:50):
But people They're great people, though some small markets are.
They're good, genuine people and they just like to be
a part of the show. And I can't hate on that.
If I got into this for money, I wouldn't be here.
That was there were there were times when we would
do Raising Idiots and we do meet and greets, and
somebody from those small markets would come and they own
the furniture store and would be like, oh my gosh,
you're a Greg It's really funny, and it would I
(06:16):
would kind of I gotta treat them like they were
celebrities to me, I'm doing their commercials and never see
their face. Remember that. Or I would go somewhere and
see someone I would do like a real estate commercial
in like Virginia Beach, and I'm like, lone, this is crazy.
The guy's geeking out. They were geking out of me. Um. Okay,
(06:37):
so that's your job. But let's go back way back, um,
and I'll say this, I got you, and we'll get
here to second I end up ended up hiring you
from Ryan Seacrest. That's where you were before me. We
will get back around to there. Okay, but first let's
start with Scooba. Steve's life. I grew up in Orlando, Florida,
a small town called a Veto in Orlando. Is that
(06:58):
considered Orlando? Well, like it's like when you live anywhere else,
like San Francisco. You're not really from San Francisco, You're
from a suburb of that. So Orlando is the larger city.
But o Vito is where I was born and raised.
We'll take turns. Let's let's um back and forth on questions. Okay,
try to stay in somewhat line. But if you don't,
that's okay. Okay, you want to go and now me
another one. You know now where you ahead where I'm from? No, No,
I don't care about the round table. I love this
(07:26):
about Scuba. Yes, yes, yes, me right now? Okay, when
was your first girlfriend? First girlfriend? Was kindergarten? Not what? No,
this is a real girlfriend? First real girlfriend? Then that
would probably be Stacy in fifth grade? Bones. Okay, So
you grow up in Orlando. Yes, As you were getting older,
what was it that you wanted to do for your life,
Like when you're sixteen seventeen having to start to make
(07:47):
those decisions. Um, I think at that point I was Okay,
I definitely to do something in entertainment. You did, Yeah,
because I grew up in Orlando, where Nickelodeon was huge.
Nickelodeon Studios was located right there on Universal Lot. I
wanted something to do with acting or producing, directing of
some sort. Always television, always film. From even to this day,
that's when I that's still when my long term goals
(08:08):
is that. So I wanted to go for that. I
wanted to leave Orlando, moved to Hollywood, um, but that
didn't work out for a while. I got into like
a bunch of, you know, mediocre jobs, landscaping things like that,
and then eventually made the move to come out to California.
So you're hustling in Orlando, not in media, but just
trying to make enough money to pay rent and the bills.
(08:31):
And you hadn't at least dabbled in the Orlando media
world before you went to l A. Oh, yeah, because
so I was about eighteen nineteen I started getting into radio.
But how so I met somebody at a club event
in Orlando, maybe in Fishy about this, you met somebody
did something happened where he just clicked and said I
(08:51):
should just saw the did you. Well, there's a couple
things that happened when I went to when I went
to this, um this, so I tried it out. This
radio school called Connecticut School Broadcasting part of it, and
it's literally the biggest load of crap. And I don't
know that that's true, but you did it, and you
didn't like it. I didn't. Yes, you can see on
(09:12):
the news of some things that have happened at that school. Anyways, See,
I went there and it wasn't in Connecticut. It wasn't
in Connecticut. It was located in Orlando. They had locations
across the country, but Connecticut was where it was originally based.
And they promised you this whole Hey, if you come here,
we're gonna you're gonna learn from the all stars in
the industry and they're gonna hook you up. There were
no all stars in the industry that were there. It
was a bunch of people that didn't really make it
themselves either, and they taught you on equipment that wasn't
(09:35):
really what they were using at the radio stations and
in television in general. Um So, I went there for
a few months and then I met somebody out and
about so let me pause. You went there, that was
your very first step. You knew you wanted to do it,
you go and you pay money. Yes, how much money
it was? I think it was a thousand dollars a month.
And it was it was an ad that I heard
(09:55):
on on the radio because I was like, I was
listening to the radio, like, Oh, I want to get
on the radio. This is how you do it. So
I figured this is my chance, my shot to get in.
So I went there and paid that fee for per month,
and while I was there, learned the tools and met
somebody along the way who was like, hey, I worked
for a radio station locally in Orlando. Here, I think, uh,
(10:16):
you know, you've got some chops. Let's bring you in
meet the host. What chops did you have at Connecticut
School of Broadcasting. I guess I was always on time
I was there earlier. That's the choppiest of chops, honestly. Yeah,
so you want to do that? Do you have a
tape that you gave them? Um, he heard me record
some stuff in front of him. He was one of
the guys that was it came in every once in
a while. Wasn't one of the main teachers, like an
adjunct professor at CONNECTICU School badcasting. Yeah, yeah, exactly, Okay,
(10:39):
and go ahead. Sorry, no, I'm just trying to walk
through this with you. I know, I just got nineteen
questions like what's your favorite color? Go ahead, go ahead.
That was one of them, So go ahead and we'll
save that for later. So you're doing what at this school?
Do they give you sheets to read ead? And are
(11:00):
you trying to be a newscaster or they going you're
gonna do commercials? It's both, So there's a radio side
and a television side. The radio side is, you know,
showing how to work their board and how to talk
up a song and had a recorded commercial. And the
people that were teaching you were just DJ's that didn't
work out most of them. And I say DJ's like,
I don't feel like I'm a DJ. And in either way,
I don't mix music and I didn't get into this
(11:21):
business to play music. Will there be a few songs
to play while I'm on the air, Yeah, but I
don't care, Like I like the music format. I picked
to be in with country because I felt like that
was the livestock group I can most relate to. But
if they were like, hey, come to Polka, You'll never
hear the song, We're just gonna put some polk on.
I'll be like, great, let's go as long as I
can be me, I'm fine. So you were working with
(11:44):
DJs who talked up music songs. Yes, yeah, and that
was your goal, and that was what they were trying
to teach us was how to do that okay, and
how to record it? Basically the basics of radio. Could
you still have that hit? Might get a song up
the Scooba can hit a post from Connectut School broadcasting
here he is, hold on, let' let's give us a gat.
You know what hitting a post is, right? Yeah, we
hit it right for the vocals come in. Mike has
(12:04):
given you the hardest song. That's like a thirty seven
second introil. You can tell your whole background. Is that
what you want to do? All right? Go and three
two one. So when I hear the song, that reminds
me of my father and we used to hang out
by the pool lot and he would be, hey, son,
grab me that beer over there. So I grabbed the beer.
(12:26):
He's like that screw driver next to you. Take that too?
All right, I'm the count of three. I want you
to pop the bottom. So I popped the bottom, throw
it to him. He'd drink it as fast as he can,
and he's shotgun it. And that was the first time
I learned how to shot gun a beer at the
age of nine. Wow. Yeah. And then, by the way,
we have some tickets to give away in ten minutes time.
(12:48):
What I really have to say? I get that a
solid sea plus though. And you came in raw. Yeah
you still you hit the post. You had to rush
it a little bit, story storry. I like that. Good. Good,
So you learned how to do that? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Who did you meet? What person? I met a guy
named Alex who was the who eventually got me into
(13:10):
the building at Clear Channel in Orlando, Florida. Was he
on the air? He was the morning show producer for
the morning show at XL. Is he still producing there?
He is not. He got cut No. Nine when they
had all those massive cuts, So he's not in radio anymore.
He's in radio, but he's doing smaller roles within Orlando. Okay,
so you're now in the building. What do you do
at XL in Orlando? So at first I was an intern,
(13:32):
so I had to use that CSB that I had
as my paperwork for going to school. Did you graduate?
I left before graduation, which really pissed them off because
they didn't they didn't get credit for me getting this internship.
There's a lot of a lot of because they they
basically the whole goal was to get somebody in there
and then get credit to say hey, X y Z
went to the school and look at them now, and
they were really piste that I left before graduation, didn't
(13:55):
fulfill the curriculum because I was like, I don't need this.
I met this guy, He's gonna get me in. I
got an intern to see you later. This is what
I needed. Huh. So they want you in so they
can say look what we did and get more money
from the next person. Yes, so they can get through
and say look what we did, and to keep that going,
keep that bio on the website of like, these are
all our people that go that went to the school,
and here they are now. Are you on the website now? No?
(14:15):
They hate me. They want nothing to do with me.
You say you're an intern, and you have you have
to have some way to prove that you're in school
when you're an intern. Yes, we need to pay for
Connecticut School of Broadcasting. Yes, okay, I used that. Michael
Brian was my p D who was the p D
at the local local affiliate Nashville when I moved here. Yeah,
he was the PDS. My first run into him, and
(14:35):
I was the intern there at XL and I did
that for about a good four or five months, kind
of played the sixth man on the show that all
the behind the scenes. Was it crazy to be on
the air though, even even though you weren't getting paid, Like,
was your life a little different? Because people started think
you were kind of famous. When I'd go downtown to
Orlando as an intern, you go to the club and
they would go, oh, it's Scuba Steve from the Johnny
J Morning Show. And it was the coolest thing for
me because I was in my hometown and I was
(14:56):
a small local celebrity. So for me, I got a
lot of cloud with my friend, free drinks, free entrances
the club. So well, let me mention Scooba Steven because
it sounds like that was already your name. Yes, yeah,
as an intern, they named you Scooba Steve. Yeah, birth
named Stephen and then Big Daddy was a popular movie
at the time, and they just named me Scuba Steve,
and I just rolled with it. Ever been scuba diving? Never?
Never in my life? You have an interest? No, My
(15:18):
my wife's father passed scuba diving, so I have no
interest in scooba diving. What's your wife's father died while
scuba diving? Yeah. On they were on some vacation back
when she was a kid and he went scuba diving.
And I've just had fear. I've had a fear of
it in general. But when she told me that, I
was like, I'm definitely not scuba diving ever. The irony
for her not think about this and by the way, lovely, Yeah,
(15:40):
I think your wife is a lovely Thank you. She's
got this dad he goes scuba diving, unfortunately passes away. Well,
it's time for her to live our life now. As
an adult, she meets a guy his name is scuba
and has to think about that every day. Everything was
manifested in so weird way. Wow, that would be like
(16:02):
your grandpa getting hit by a train. You meet a
guy named Chu McGhee and you're like, I'm gonna marry
too too. Dang man. It was a very weird coincidence. Okay,
so you're interning there, when does it turn into a
real job? And what's the real job? So I'm interning there.
They do all those massive cuts in two thousand nine,
and I was one of those. That was because I
(16:23):
got brought on part time for a little bit after
the internship. They cut me because they cut all part timers.
But then I met a guy my way out and
named Rick Everett. He's the p D at the rock
station there, and he's like, hey, look man, just hang tight,
I got something for you in the works. You know,
we'll get something on the books for you and in
the next couple of months. So I kind of just
I took his word. I waited a couple of months
he had. During that two months, I was applying at
every radio station across the country from Canada down to Mexico.
(16:46):
Were you also doing a job though, to make rent? No,
That's when I was living with my ex wife, who
was paying rent, who was paying rent, paying for everything,
and we found out on the radio show cheated on
him and he found out an Ashley Madison Go listen
to the Bobby Cast, No, go listen to the Bibones
show on Thursday. That was when that was, man, I
feel bad about that one. No, I don't know if
it's OK. Not at all? Great story though, I can't
(17:09):
believe he's Scuba Steve. I would have dropped that when
I met your wife. I would have been like, stunning Steve,
our spatula Steve. I just wouldn't to stay with scuba
Steve when your wife's dad died scuba diving. Yeah, yeah,
she was. I guess she's fine with it. She doesn't
have a problem. So have you ever asked her that? Um,
I've never really brought it up. I mean, it was
(17:30):
mentioned to me that that happened, and oh my god. Yeah,
I don't know, man, I think that's probably something you
need to change. Did she ever call you scuba? Never know?
I'm just I'm just is she comfortable you're talking about that? Yeah?
Totally so. I think the people on the radio show
would be blown away at that story, and not in
(17:50):
like a funny way. But then, you know, isn't it ironic?
Could I bring that up on the show next week?
It's fine? Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want
your wife to be upset. No, it's in a long time.
Her father passed when she was twelve, so it's also
been a very very long unbelievable Yeah wow, Okay, so
(18:12):
you're working part time at the rock station. Is that
they hired you on to do so then he brings
you back and then that's what it is. It's two things.
One he needs help launching a sports station, so that
was pretty much my main priority was to help get
the station launched, run it, do everything for production, run
the board for all the shows, get that off the ground,
and also help out at the Rock station, which my
goal was, Oh, I want to be on this rock
station in some capacity. Uh. And then I also started
(18:35):
working for Johnny again on the morning show. So I
was doing morning show from about four until about one,
and then one over to the sports station, did that
to the afternoon, did the rock station in the evening,
and went home and did it all over again for
seven days a week. And I'm not even gonna go
wow because I did the same craft because she just gotta.
I think it's great, but you know, I'm not gonna
be like, Damn, I can't believe you did that. Yeah
(18:55):
you have to, We've all done that crap. Way he
has and he kind of got brought in then Uh,
so you were working with Johnny? Was it Johnny and Jade? Jade? Yeah, Jade.
I think you know who she is. I know Jade
pretty well. She now she lives in Nashville now and
works for Apple Music. Apple. Yeah, and I know Jade
through a couple of different things. But yeah, so Jade
(19:16):
and I are were you guys? Cool? Yeah? Very cool. Yeah,
we still talked to this day. Well I like her. Yeah,
if he didn't, great. Yeah. When she was here in
town a year ago before Shook the gig, we went
lunch and everything. So she was one of the hosts
while you were what position? She was the co host
when I was intern, but then also became a person
on the show, a part time personality and producer. You
were you a producer on that show? Yes? What did
(19:38):
you produce? So? I was the associate producer. So I
would do kind of like what Abby does, screen calls,
edit audio, get some audio on the streets, put together
you know, one sheets, all that basic stuff. Okay, so
you're doing that for how long? I did that for
about about a year year and a half. And then
are you going I gotta get out of here and
go some more bigger or did you kind of get
(19:58):
pushed off. I wanted a full time because should they
dangled that cared for years, you know, we eventually a
full time I was working seven days a week, but
only logging twenty nine hours um, and I was fine
with that. Like you said, you have to you have
to grind, and I'm totally cool with that. And then
I got to a point where I wasn't going to
get that full time position anytime soon. My ex wife
at the time got the opportunity to move to San
Francisco and I knew nothing about it. I just knew
(20:20):
it was a bigger city, was California. It's an opportunity.
Let's do it. So I quit my job. And before
I quit my job, I remember the moment where we
were driving. We had the U haul packed the car
ready to go, everything to hit the road, and I
went back to the Clear Channel building before my email expired,
and I emailed all the p d's in San Francisco
and the operations manager and said, hey, this is me resume.
(20:40):
I'm heading that way, even if we can just have
a conversation, coffee whatever. UM, I have no job. I'm
willing to do whatever you need I'll do it. And
then I got some responses in the drive to San Francisco,
and then we apologiate for one secondary. What's the question
you wanna ask him? Imstening? I wanted blue and green.
Thank you. You don't have any like signed questions. This
(21:00):
is a good story relief. I'm good, Okay. I want
you to to see left out of it. You made fun
of my first question. I'm scarred by that. You're driving,
you get emails back, emails back saying hey, when you
come to town, hit me up. I would love to
talk to you. By the way, there almost isn't a
further drive. Oh, it's super far because you're going from
the bottom right basically to the upper left. I mean
you could have gone to Seattle. I guess I'd have
(21:21):
been further but Seattle Portland. But other than that, that's
about as far as you can go. Yeah, I'm in
with a car with somebody that I sort of hate
at the time. So it was a fun three to
four day drive. We mean sort of hey, because you
weren't divorcing then, no, but we were. Our relationship was
sort of on that verge of things weren't going right,
and you still thought you wanted to move with her,
even though things weren't going right. Yeah, because I saw
this as an opportunity to change me as a person
(21:42):
and take me out of my hometown, which was I
love Orlando, but I wanted to grow, and for me
to grow, I have to go somewhere. So so what
were the emails saying as you were driving? They were
just basically just like, hey, when you get to town,
hit us up. And I responded, say, no problem, I'll
be there in this date. Let's lock in a date
when I get to town, and and then that happened.
I talked to three different people. One of them was
Cat Collins, who's a p D over there UH at
(22:05):
Wild nine, who was like the top forty station in
San Francisco. UH. Andrew Jeffreys was another one. He was
just a p D at the time for Star like
a hot a C. And then Don Parker, who is
the operations manager, and they're all like, hey, we don't
have any gigs at the moment, but we'd love for
you to come in and just just, you know, just talk.
I talked to Cat for like two hours, just talking
about radio and life and the move, and everyone seemed
(22:27):
to be pretty interested and me taking the chance of
quit my job and moving out here with this girl
and hopes that things just happen to work out. And
what job did you get eventually? So eventually Andrew Jeffries
was like, hey man, I got something for you. Um
it's not a morning show producer or anything that you
were looking for, but it's an end of the building
and if you get in and as you know, that's you,
(22:48):
that's the ticket. You just want to get into the building.
Get that email, get that key card. And so he's like, hey,
I have a producer position where you basically take the
Seacrest show in the local end and you localize it,
inserted into the system and watched the board. Which is
kind of funny because later in life and I'm working
for secrets doing the opposite sending this stuff exactly. Yeah,
So how long did you do that? So? I did
(23:08):
that for about three or four months, and then there
was a morning show opportunity with a guy named Don
blue Uh at star Win O one three, and I
became his morning show producer from that, and then from
that did that for about a good two years, and
then the in the building was the j V show.
He used to do this show called The Doghouse, and
him and Rico needed a executive producer because they were
gonna start taking on affiliates and they just had they
(23:30):
didn't have any organization within their show, and they needed
someone to kind of help that out and play in
the day and do all the day to day stuff.
So I went on did that and that was a
wild ride for a good three three or four years.
Um the fact that those personalities, I've ever met them
before them. Um j V is a great guy, but
(23:50):
he's from that old school radio era of I'm gonna
piss you off to the absolute brink and watch you
break for content. So he would like push my buttons
and wish my buttons, and push my buttons and just
wreck me. Mean literally ripped the flesh off my skin,
not literally, not literally, but figuratively to get our reaction
out of me for whatever was going on. Like basically
I was the butt of every joke for everything, no
(24:11):
matter how hard I worked or did whatever, which at
the moment, I was like, gotta hate this guy. This
is so ridiculous, but it made me who I am today,
gave me the thick skin and gave me the tools
to take it on to the next level. Ever getting
an off air screaming match with him on air and
off air, but in the off air that was extremely intense.
On air, you can at least a little bit ago.
That's for the show, like I turned it up for
(24:32):
the show. Sure you ever getting an off air screaming match? Well,
the problem to a lot of our offer screen matches.
He'd press recording the box pro and they would turn
into an on air match without even realizing, or he'd
flipped the mics on, Like I cursed in the air
three or four times, said the F word, the S word,
not knowing it, but just because I didn't know I
was we were alive on the radio, he flip it
on and all of a sudden, I'll be tell him
to go f himself and uh, And then there it was.
(24:54):
Why did that relationship end? That ended because of money
and the dying need to come to l A at
some point. So you weren't getting paid enough for what
you were doing. Oh not at all. No. Now you've
established yourself as a producer, But are you going I'm
a talent, Why am I producing? Or are you like
(25:15):
dang this producing is who knew where it's at. Well,
I think it was a combination of both, because then
when I went to as I was leaving in San Francisco,
I made relationships in the all format, uh, and I
was like, look, I want to track. Can I do
some tracking the side to kind of have my own
creative thing. That's why tracked like Stockton, Bakersfield small markets outside?
What what shifts? Uh? Mid day? Well, first it was
(25:36):
fill in shifts, and then when I got to the
Seacrest show, then I was full time mid day on
a ALL station. So I would basically wake up super
early in the morning track that midday shift and then
go over to my desk at the secret studio and
do my job there. Did you know fun fact pop
up videos poop that when we were doing this show, Uh,
it really started to gain some steam. Probably had about
(25:57):
a hundred affiliates. Eddie and I were also doing Afternoon
Is on a rock station under fake names, and we
never said it really Yeah, it was pretty cool. I
was like a Mexican dude. We had like a bad accent,
really is missing their bones? Yes, yes, it was me
and at the time my assistant and Eddie and it
was Slappy the Wonder Boy in Zeus and Eddie would
(26:18):
jo Slappy the Wonder Boy and Cruz was Zeus and
Eddie was Chico. Yeah, that is so cool, and we
did it forever and we're just doing it. We're just
going to my office for there a studio and get
out in thirty five minutes. We were yeah while doing
the Bones show. Yeah yeah, yeah, we just did. After
the shift we walk in and we thought it was
hilarious and we would play we need to play. This
(26:40):
is a good one. I like this one. It slappy
the one. This one was really good your Chico Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Us, Yeah,
I like Bones. That's pretty rad. That's really cool. So
we did that for a while. I just can pop
up videos over. Um. So you want to go to
(27:02):
l A. Do you have a job first? No? So
I quit that job as well. Um. And at that
point I was with my wife, I want to say
current wife, but my forever wife, my my soul mate,
and she had seen what this job had done to me,
the hours that I put into it, versus the compensation
I was receiving in the way I was being treated.
She's like, look, I support you. You want to go
(27:22):
to l A. I'll stay here in San Francisco with
my family. And she had a good job in the city,
paid really really well. It's like, look, you go ahead
and go and if it works out. I'll come down
there and meet you. If it doesn't work out, then
at least come back here and we'll figure it out.
So I moved down to l A. And within a
few days I had a connection and I got a
job by Dr Phil Show where I was running and
doing p a work um and that. While I was
(27:45):
doing that, I got a phone call from my guy
named Dennis Clark, who I met in San Francisco, and
he's like, hey, I know you're in l A. I
heard you left. He goes, uh, he goes sit tight.
I got something for you. Do you ever meet Dr Phil? Yeah,
a couple of times. Yeah, thumbs out, thumbs down, thumbs
in the middle. Good at. I mean, I always hate
to say about people because you just never know their
mood that day. And he always seemed like he's very
(28:06):
busy and his goal was to get in and get out.
So I can't really say I didn't like the guy.
I just can say that he was just there. You're
not saying you dislike him, but you are saying you
didn't like him. Yeah, it was. It wasn't different on it. Yeah,
he seemed like he was just trying to get do
his job and go home. It sounds like you didn't
have a lot of time to get to know him. Yeah,
just what it got to know. But he was living
(28:26):
up in a Barly Hills mansion, like we had a
different lifestyle. I was a runner and he was the
host of the show. So Dennis Clark, who I know
as well, hits you up and says, we got a
job for you. What's the job? And then as the
supervising producer for Seacrest National Show. And I was like,
holy crap, this is really cool. I'll entertain this. So
it started off and I built onto. It was basically
it was very bare minimum. You basically took the local
(28:48):
show and you had a team of editors and a
writer and stripped it down road pickups approved the edits
and they shipped it out and then dealt with some affiliates.
Very basic, very easy, good paying job. It was much.
It was much better than Dr Phil show and working
in San Francisco. So yeah, it was fine. It wasn't
(29:09):
the greatest, but it definitely paid much better, so I
was cool with it. Would you say you were thriving
or just starting to do better than surviving? Um, I
would say starting to do better than surviving? L A
is expensive. That's the thing too. If if I made
this salary anywhere else, I'd be great, But in l
A it was very expensive with rent and just the
cost of living was really high. Drugs, drugs, Yeah, Hooker's process.
(29:32):
So you are working with Ryan. Did our paths ever
cross before you came here? There was a couple of times.
There was I think one time when you were doing
but I didn't know you. So there was one time
you came by. I recognized you because they're like, oh,
it's Bobby, and I was like, oh, it's Bobby. And
(29:52):
then I googled and figured it out and uh, you
were what was it? What was I doing working in
the building? Well, you were I think in the building
tracking or doing something because you were doing dance with
us ours I believe. And you came over and I
think you're looking for Tanya UM. Which that's a funny
story too about their producer UM. And you were you
came to the black glass room looking for somebody, and
I guess that we were tracking and recording, and so
you like waved and left. But I knew that there
(30:14):
was a moment on that show that we were trying
to connect Tanya with you. That was that wasn't gonna happen. Yeah,
it wasn't gonna happen. But but they but she was
trying to and they were trying to not saying you
reached out for it or anything, but they were trying
to make it happen. But and I was gonna put
it on the National Show and the local producer, who
I think has a crush on her, he got really
but hurt about it, and he was like, I ticked
(30:35):
it off, We're not airing that, And I said, f him.
So I put on the National Show anyways, because him
and I didn't get along. We butt heads a little bit. Interesting. Yeah,
So that was our first run in first run, in
the second run in was it was actually right before
I took this job, very very close to it. We're
at a hotel. I was at the bar and um,
it's this hotel that's in Hollywood at the corner of
(30:56):
right near the mall. You know, the what's that big mall,
Beverly Hill Mall. Whatever. Anyway, there's a hotel Crosstreet from
the mall, and we were over at that. We were
at the bar, and when I was in the interviewing process,
before I had actually even got to you or anyone,
it was just kind of behind the scenes of I
may make this move. I said, the bar with some
friends and and you were sitting in another area, just
chilling by yourself, and to look over and they're like
(31:17):
and then my friend John Manuel was like, Hey, it's Bobby.
And I was like, look over, so because that's a
weird coincidence, and I was like, yeah, you should go
over and say hid. And I was like, no, I'm
not gonna I'm not gonna say anything, and he goes
all right, and then we end up walking sort of
together toward the elevator to go up and you win
another elevator. I win another. All that happened, you didn'tven
say hello. I didn't say anything because I was like,
I didn't know, you can lose it, just stay hi.
But I didn't know. I was by myself, just chilling
(31:39):
somewhere by yourself. And then I think I think it
was maybe Jessica at some point came over, uh your
syste yeah exactly, yeah, and she came over and and
did something and you like went away. Huh Yeah, I'm
chilling at a hotel by yourself, weirdo, Scoopa. Steve didn't
even say hi to you guys. Well I wanted to
when I felt weird by myself all the time, but
not not as much anymore. But pre Caitlin a life,
(32:00):
they're just chilling on your phone. You give me a
look like who the hell is this guy? And I'm
just kidding, Okay, I'll probably get you look like please
not a friend, anybody, anybody my friend? Actually, you had
that thing and I had this like gut feeling you
probably just happened all you before we were sitting there.
You want to say hi to somebody, could be anybody
of any capacity, and you just have this feeling you
should say it, and you should say it, and you
don't say it, and I just almost like threw up
and I was like, I'm not gonna do this. I'm
just gonna leave it. So I didn't know Scooba, but
(32:23):
he was recommended by a couple of different people that
I trust, and I was like, okay, great, So Scooba
flies in. We interview was fantastic. Interviewed like three or
four people that all were highly recommended, and because I
had always just hired people that I knew or trained,
and I was like, man, for me to grow, I
need somebody that knows things other than what I know,
because I only know what I figured out myself. And
(32:44):
so offered to Scuba. He was like, I need more money.
But also on the on the quiet side, I was like,
Scooba just telling me you you need more money. I was like,
don't don't take the first deal, like hold out because
I knew we were going to get him, but I
also wanted him to squeeze him for as much as
he could get what was he available or how No,
but that was a whole other thing. He wasn't He
(33:05):
was working with Ryan, and so I reached out to
Ryan and was like, hey, I would love to talk
to Scuba. But Ryan's team loves Scuba so much they
didn't really want to get rid of Scuba. And so
there was this whole month or so. I was like,
I'd like to have Scuba, and they were like, we
don't want you to have scuba and finally I was like,
it would mean a lot to me because I want
to elevate him. This will be literally the biggest position.
(33:26):
Finally Ryan call was like, Okay, you can have Scooba,
but it's a little type for a bit. It was. Yeah,
it was almost a good month and a half, two
months going back and forth, and I had to wait
for Ryan because Ryan was on vacation at the moment,
and then when he came back, and then we eventually
had to have the conversation over the phone, which wasn't
what I wanted. I wanted to talk to him face
to face because I have a lot of respect from
him and he really helped me out with my career
at that moment and did a lot for me and
I learned a lot from him, and it it was pretty
(33:46):
cool to work with Ryan seacrest Um. And we had
that weird conversation on the phone where I kept cutting
out and I would say something, go, what's that. I
had all planned out, like bullet points of what I
wanted to say, and I had to keep saying it
over and over and over, and eventually I was like, God,
he's not gonna get what I'm trying to say. But
at the end he kind of understood what it's also,
what I'm trying to hear you is that you want
to grow. You're looking to move your family a different
location and increase your pay. I'm like, hey, he goes,
(34:08):
I'm totally cool with that. I hate to see you go.
I love you, you work hard, You're one of the
best employees on my team. But if this is what
you want, I give you my blessing. And I was like, perfect, cool,
That's what I was looking for, was his blessing. And
then he called me. I was like, yeah, fine, you know,
I was like, you think, thank you? Yeah. So I
moved over um, and here you are. Now, how do
you feel a year? And this last year has been
(34:29):
weird though, so it's kind of hard to It hasn't
been extremely normal, but it hasn't been for anyone, but
you've almost put your entire existence here abnormal. It has
been if the abnormal has become normal, it's been weird
because you come to the city and it's a fun,
cool city to go out and do things and check
things out, and you really can't. And my wife, we
have a kid, and she was pregnant throughout this pandemic,
and so I was also very paranoid about going anywhere
(34:50):
and seeing anything. And you meet labels and people and
everyone's wearing a mask, so you don't know what anyone
looks like. You meet him six seven times. It's been
a really weird year, but it's been a cool year,
and it's helped me grow a lot as a person
and as an employee. So it's been weird, but it's
been cool and I'm down with it. I another kid,
get two kids now? Yeah? Um, And you talked about
Dr Phil, I talked about Ryan Secret. What about me?
(35:10):
Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Now you're great, your thumbs up.
What's the hardest part of executive producing my show? About me?
What's the hardest part about me? About you? Personally? About
me as a talent? Like what's the what are you
constantly like, oh my god, I don't know how I'm
gonna get this or get him to do this, or like,
what is the the thing that you go to your
wife and complain the most about me? Well, I don't
(35:32):
complain to her because this is the one job I
will say. I haven't complained about anything because I finally
found a position where I feel like, okay, this is
like you talked about, it's a great position, it's a
growing position, it's a show that's thriving. There are a
lot of people when I got this job like, damn, dude,
you got the position, like that's the show to be
on because that show is growing and the company believes
in it. And I've noticed that through my conference calls
and meetings. This is the show the company is backing
(35:53):
and believes them, which is great. So I made the
right decision. I think. One thing, um, and it's also
my problem too, is because you're someone who has done
a lot of it yourself, and because you've you know,
you've even told me we had meetings before in the past,
like hey man, there was one time I had seven
commerses and I was running this and doing this whole
thing and figuring out everything on my own. You have that.
It's that kind of personality where you're like, look, this
(36:16):
is me, this is my baby. It's tough to let go.
But you even preface it. When I had the interview,
You're like, hey, look man, there's a group of people
that we've been together for a long time. This is
it's gonna be tough to jump in. Somebody knew everyone's
been together for ten plus years. You know, you're the
new guy. You got to kind of find your way
in and I found my way, and I feel like
with pretty much everybody, Um, I would say everyone, yeah,
except for Mike. Mike doesn't seem really like doesn't Yeah,
(36:39):
It's okay though, just um. So it's been the control
that Yeah, me going and still need control, yes, and
I but I but I'm also a person to understands
that because I'm also the exact same personality type. So
if I didn't have that type of personality, I'd be like, man,
what the hell do Why does he just give me
a little more control? But I understand that, and I
also understand this is a long term game and it's
(37:00):
a building the relationship and getting you to trust me,
which I feel like that has grown over this last
year of gaining some sort of trust and also just
letting you know, like, hey, look, I would never crap
on the show. I would never ruin it. I would
never do anything that would jeopardize you or this show.
So I hope that over this next few years that
we continue to grow and build on that so you
(37:20):
can get more trust to me, and I understand that.
I get that. I'm totally fine with that. I do
feel I've gotten a little better at it, though you
have a little bit yeah, yeah, a little bit. In
the beginning, it was I was like, damn, I pitched
ideas or things or say stuff for even just like
little things like within the show content, and I'm like, okay,
all right, and I would beat myself down on like,
I get it. This is show, this is your show.
It's got your name on it. I respect that a
hunter and ten percent um. So I just for me,
(37:42):
it's it's a it's a it's a process to to
kind of just get you to really trust me to
where we can have a relationship to where all right, cooy,
you got it, this is your thing. I want to
do like Maddie in the morning Mike and just walking
everything's done. Yeah, I think I want that, But then
I can never do you can't do that. It's tough.
And I understand that maybe it'd be cool. There are
a lot of personalities that have that where they walk
in and there's a stack of papers and it's all
(38:04):
organized from top of show dan to show and they
literally look at it, read it and just go from
one to the next, one to the next. But then
those shows don't have the life that this show has.
So I've cost also come to understanding that that's okay
that it is in that way, because this show wouldn't
be where it is if if you weren't more in
control of it, because this is your brand, this is
your product, and I feel like the way we do
it is is actually it's okay and it's fine, and
(38:26):
it works. That's better than okay and fine, you know
what I mean. I mean it is a mediocre, it's fair,
you know, milk toast, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Well, okay.
On the opposite, what's the best thing? The best thing? Um,
I would say that this show, it has been inclusive
(38:47):
and they have invited me in and not on the
personal level like teach me to shot gun Eddie but
I don't hang out, but at work, I would say
this team has been more inviting and more welcoming and
more open to me coming on of the show being
the guy that's the newest of this show, and that's
been the coolest and everyone has been accepting of me
and and has allowed me to come in and work
(39:09):
with me and work well with me, which has been cool.
We're gonna end this on one Eddie question. Okay, Eddie,
what's the one question that you'd like to ask Cooper Steve.
It's Friday night, you got nothing to do? What are
you ordering to eat? And what are you gonna watch
on TV? Wow? Okay, he starts to cry. All that
other stuff doesn't do any toe down. He starts to
(39:29):
get emotional. My mom wants pasta. Um, but if I'm
in this city, I don't really know what I'm eating.
But if I'm eating in a city that has my
food that I want, I'm eating at Little Taiocha and Vanye, California.
What is that? What is that? It's Thai food, Um,
Thai food Vans, California. They got this amazing orange chicken.
(39:49):
They got this pork, this fried pork belly with buck
choi and Chinese broccoli dipped in this like amazing black sauce.
I don't know what it is that some sort of
like soy sauce mixed with pison sauce. A couple that things.
Uh they're hot drop soup. Uh, they're Vietnamese coffee or
tea whatever it is. And probably watching I would say
Law and Order, um, Special Victims Unit or Criminal Intent. Brothers, sisters.
(40:16):
I'm the oldest of four twin brother and sister and
little sister. Parents still alive. Mom's alive. Dad passed way recently.
But we didn't have a relationship, so step dad. I
had three stepdads. Wow, that was cool. No, it wasn't.
On the next episode, I've been married twice. Its signed
(40:37):
with your forever wife. Correct. Okay, I feel like Edde,
you learned something here. Yeah. Man, I'm telling you, this
guy's full of stories and and we're gonna go on
and on and then like in a few months ago,
you're gonna find something. We would be like what, Oh
my gosh, we gotta talk about this, more about this,
because that's what it is. Dude. He's got all kinds
of stories, like the man, the mansion he lived in,
things like that, and then like like even my life
(41:00):
the other day was just like he really found dead
bodies in his house, well not bodies, dead people. Yeah,
you can't make it up, though, I just found nine
dead bodies, a monkey and uh talking dog. Stop Like
how I just made that up? Though? I came here
in a spaceship. Okay, all right, Scool Steve. Thank you.
(41:20):
I follow Scooba Steve on Instagram, Instagram, Twitter, y, you
don't know my handles. It's at at Scuba Steve Radio.
I did see the B team Facebook page. Now people
follow you the other day? Yeah, yeah, they were cool.
You don't. I don't need facebooks. I don't check that out. No, no,
they were. They have a Facebook. I don't do Facebook.
They have a Facebook group. It's actually the only good
(41:40):
Facebook group with our show because our show page is evil.
But um, they were like, I gotta go follow Scoob
Steve on Instagram. Awesome, thank you much, followers. All right,
that's it, thank you very much, Scoob Steve, every buddy
Host
Bobby Bones
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