August 12, 2025 • 22 mins
From breaking news to birthday shout-outs (yes, even the same ones every year ), Jim Ker has been making mornings brighter for decades across classic rock radio!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of course, I remember the first time I cracked the mic,
and I remember how I felt, I remember how.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Excited I was.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It was Saturday, February eleventh, nineteen sixty seven, at wynz
in Ipsilanti, Michigan, fifteen twenty on your dial. It was
at seventeen North Huron Street in Ipsilanty, upstairs, and I
sat down behind that control room and I turned on
the microphone and I spoke live on the radio for
(00:28):
the very first time.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It was a.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Feeling I had never ever had before, and a feeling
that I had hoped would never end. I had experience
speaking in the microphones at school, you know. Sometimes I
was the announcer for school assemblies or the narrator for
a concert, and occasionally I was allowed to make announcements
over the school PA system.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But to go on the air where.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
People would actually pick up what I was saying on
their radios in their cars, or on their transistor radios,
or on the portable radio on top of the refrigerator
was so exciting that, after all these years, I still
don't have the words to adequately explain it, but I
can tell you this. It's now twenty twenty five, and
(01:14):
it was just as exciting this morning to turn the
microphone on. What's been the highest point of my radio career?
Will There have been many. I think that being able
to provide a service to people is probably the most
(01:37):
gratifying part of my radio career. I mean, it's had
a lot of you know, high points and meeting lots
of celebrities and doing lots of special shows and stuff
like that. But when I think back and try to,
you know, create like my own mental highlight reel, I
go back to, for instance, to some twenty fourth nineteen
(02:02):
sixty nine. I was seventeen years old. I was working
at night on WOIA in ann Arbor, Michigan, which was
a rock station, and it was Christmas Eve, and I
got a phone call from a guy at a place
called ann Arborn Network.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Now ann Arburn Network.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Was an organization that provided food and temporary lodging for
kids who were in trouble, kids who ran away from home,
or kids who were for one reason or another, homeless.
And they asked me if I could go on the
air and ask our listeners to contribute food to them
on Christmas Eve because they didn't really have enough to
(02:44):
feed all of the people that they had to feed
that night. So I made an announcement, one announcement maybe
thirty seconds long. I mean, explaining this to you took
longer than the announcement on the air. And I got
a telephone call from a guy who owned drive in
restaurant on Washtonaw Avenue and Ann Arbor, Michigan. The restaurant
(03:04):
was called mister S. And he asked me how many
dinners do they need? So I called them back up
and they said they needed about one hundred. So I
called the guy at mister S restaurant and I said, well,
they need about one hundred, and he said, okay, I'll
keep my staff on for maybe another hour or so
and we'll cook up one hundred chicken dinners and we'll
(03:25):
get them right over. He said, there's only one thing
I ask of you, and I said to him, what's that?
He said, don't tell anybody we're doing this. This is
not for publicity. I want complete anonymity. I just think
it's the right thing to do. And that was the
power of radio, you know, just to be able to
make a simple announcement and helped to enrich the lives
(03:49):
of some people who were going through unfortunate circumstances in
their life on Christmas Eve made, you know, created a
memory that has never gone away. That is too difficult,
because when you've had on your show John Lennon and
(04:09):
Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and Elton
John and Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder, I mean, the
list just goes on and on and on. Each one
is memorable in its own unique and distinct way, so
you can't even really compare them to one another. A
(04:31):
conversation with Elton John standing next to Elton John's piano
while he's playing it, you know, has its own special
place in the radio memory bank. But then again, standing
on stage next to Paul McCartney sharing one microphone, standing
to his left, and forgetting what it was that I
(04:54):
was even saying, because I looked at the side of
his face and I said, oh my god, God, this
is exactly what George Harrison saw when they were on
stage and they would put their heads together to use
one microphone during the height of Beatlemania. So too many
awesome memories. Each one has its own special place on
(05:16):
the mountaintop. My favorite listener interactions probably took place during
the six years that I hosted the Saint Jude Children's
Research Hospital radiothons for the New York metropolitan area, because
we needed lots and lots of volunteers to be able
to pull those radiothons off. They were broadcast live on
(05:40):
the air, and we did them from the Woodbridge Center
Mall in Woodbridge, New Jersey. But it was twenty four
hours a day for three days, and so we needed
hundreds of listeners to volunteer because we didn't have enough
staff to be with us all through the day and
night to help us put on the show and raise
(06:00):
money for Saint Jude's.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And during all six of those years.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Largely through the assistance of those people who listened on
the radio every day, we raised over a million dollars
each time. My toughest on air moment was on my birthday,
December ninth, nineteen eighty because the night before, John Lennon
(06:25):
was assassinated, and so I heard about that. I had
just gone to bed, and I heard the news bulletin,
and so I didn't go to sleep that night December eighth,
I just put my clothes back on and went to
the radio station and all of the employees of the
radio station. They were all coming in and we were
(06:48):
putting together special programming, and some people were going over
to the Dakota, and we were trying to contact friends
of John's, people who knew John Lennon to come on
the air and talk about his life and his legacy,
and it was just it was a bonding experience with
(07:09):
the audience.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Especially those.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Of us who grew up with the Beatles, because it
was kind of a permanent break with our youth, you know,
from the Beatle era to the post Beatle era.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And it was an incredibly.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Sad and difficult moment, but through the radio people bonded
together as a community. A couple of days later, thousands
and thousands and thousands of people gathered in Central Park
and many of the radio stations in New York, all
the rock stations but somebody weren't rock stations signed off
(07:53):
for ten minutes, for ten minutes of silence when the
John Lennon Memorial took place.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
In the park. But that was tough.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
But without the sense of community that was made possible
by the radio, people would have, you know, had to
mourn alone. Instead, we had an opportunity to all mourn together.
I've had on air oops moments I think everybody has.
I've been, you know, sometimes I've said the name of
(08:25):
the wrong station because I've worked at more than one,
and sometimes, especially after starting a new job, muscle memory
takes over when your mouth moves and you end up
referring to a station that you don't work at anymore.
I mean, I've made mistakes like that, but I think
probably there.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Were two things.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I fell asleep on the air when I was eighteen
at WJ in Orlando on a Saturday morning.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I just put my head down for a second.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I lifted my head back up, and thirty three minutes
had gone by, and Lonely Days By the Beg's was
the song I had been playing, and all I heard
on the speakers were because that's the noise that it
made at the end of the record. And I looked
down and all the phones were lit up, and it
(09:18):
was pretty embarrassing moment for me.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I got fired.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And then I once read a commercial on the air
without pre reading it at all, and the copywriter threw
in a joke line figuring that you know, people would
look at it on the paper laugh but never say
it on the air, and this I was still quite young,
(09:47):
and it was a commercial for a store called the
bra Shop. And I was just happily reading the commercial
for the braw Shop, including the last line, which was
for the tipit that just won't quit visit the bra Shop.
None of my boss has heard it, Thank goodness. I
(10:09):
probably wouldn't be here today talking with you had they
Is there any interview I would love to redo. I'd
like to redo a lot of them, but not because
I thought later that maybe I should have done this,
(10:29):
or maybe I should have done that. I would like
to redo them just because they were all so enjoyable.
I really like having guests on the show because you
see the guests when the guests are here. The guest
is the star. That's my philosophy on my show. The
guest is the star. We put the spotlight on the guest.
I'm the facilitator. I help the star to convey what
(10:55):
it is that they wish to get across.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
To my audience.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
So, although in a technical sense I may be leading
the interview, I spend a lot of time listening to
what they're saying. So then I follow up in a
manner that takes them where I perceive they want to go,
and so in a sense, they're leading the interview, not me.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So redoing.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I like having the same guests on more than once,
but not necessarily redoing.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
A specific interview.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
What's a challenge that radio people don't always see. I've
been thinking about that one because I don't really understand
the premise of the question. We see an experience the
(11:50):
same problems everybody else does, regardless.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Of what it was that they do for a living.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Those things that are unique to us, you know, like
trying to be funnier, entertaining or informative at five o'clock
in the morning are things that we just, you know,
get used to eventually over time. I suppose the getting
up at three o'clock in the morning, there's that, But
(12:19):
I don't I don't find other than each job than
anyone has has its own unique challenges. I think that's
something we all have in common. But the challenges that
are unique to each job are things that you know,
each individual gets used to, hopefully, you know, masters over time.
(12:43):
A tradition or a segment that I love doing well.
I love having the rooster crow at six o'clock in
the morning on my show every morning at six the
rooster crows, and it's the same rooster that's been growing
here in New York City at six am since the
nineteen early nineteen eighties. I've taken that rooster with me
to every subsequent radio station. And the reason for the
(13:09):
rooster is because I've done my shows from beautiful studios
like this in Midtown Manhattan, looking out the window at
gigantic skyscrapers and looking down to the street and seeing
the sidewalks.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Filled with people.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
But radio covers a lot of ground, and even in
the pre app days. Now on the free IR radio
app you can pick us up pretty much everywhere. But
you know, it used to be from the transmitter tower
to your radio that was the.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Only way to get the signal.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
And it hadn't occurred to me, as a person who
lives in Manhattan and works in Manhattan, that farmers get
up in the morning and listen to my show. But
they do New Jerseys, for instance. It's a huge agricultural state.
And I got a call one morning from a person
who was up burly listening to the radio, and you know,
(14:02):
it's making a request, and I said, well where are you?
And he said, well, I'm at work, and I said
where do you work? And he said Valley Tone Farm.
And it turned out that there were farmers who got
up before the sun that listened.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
To the show.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So I decided I'd have the rooster crow in their
honor every morning at six. Also loved strange News because
people it's true. The strange news is real. We don't
make it up. I used to have a segment where
we'd make up strange news stories.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
But we labeled it news stories.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Shelley Sunstein never told you because we made them up,
so people knew that it was fiction. But strange News
is all based on reality, and people seem to get
a kick out of that. And people sometimes years later,
will you know, refer to one.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Of those stories.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I had a conversation in the nineteen seventies here in
New York City on radio. Every few years somebody walks
up to me because I guess I asked a question
on the air. Every few years to this day, somebody
will walk up to me and say, Jim, did you
ever find out what nuns wear to the beach? I
guess I asked that question once in the nineteen seventies,
(15:19):
but no, I still don't have an answer. If I
could relive one radio moment, what would it be. Well,
there are a few radio moments that I've had that
I do relive.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Annually, year after year after year. There are.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Multiple listeners whose births I've announced on the air on
the day of their birth and every birthday since. And
some of those people are, you know, in their forties now,
and I've announced their birthday on the air every single year.
(15:57):
I know a couple of them have all of those now.
They recorded them and are all collected, and you know,
I mean, it's just an awesome thing. And if it like,
there's a family on Long Island where that's true. Oh,
Alan and Dolores Salazo of New Jersey. Their first date
(16:22):
was at one of my personal appearances, and I just
announced their daughter's thirtieth birthday just a couple of weeks ago.
So moments like that I do get to relive, and
it makes me feel good every time I have that experience,
and I hope it makes them.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Feel good too.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The radio tradition that I hope never goes away is
keeping the audience first in your mind, always sitting down
behind the microphone, prepared to do the best that you
can to create an atmosphere in other people's lives that
(17:05):
provides some positivity, some joy, maybe a little happiness. That
may sound kind of pretentious, but it's not meant that way,
because a lot of people use radio not just for
entertainment or for information, not just to find out whether
Macy's is having a sale today, even though that's very important.
(17:27):
You know, commercials convey information that are and that information
is useful to people. But many people use the radio
for companionship. I know I did when I was a kid.
I know I still do now when I turn on
the radio and you know, hear that voice coming through
the speakers in the.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Dark of night.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I have so many good memories listening to the radio,
hearing people do that in a way that really benefited me.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
And I think that the.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Tradition we have of being a friend to our audience
is really really important.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
You know, not to not to just be a big
you know, company booster.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I want to be a big radio booster, which includes
all of our competitors, no matter who owns them, no
matter who operates them. My direct competitor, just like me.
We can both be your friend. Spotify can't be your friend.
Pandora can't be your friend. Algorithms are not, you know,
(18:37):
your friend. They have their place in the world, but
they can't be your friend. I can be your friend.
It's one of the greatest things about radio. Radio on
twenty twenty five, Like all media faces a lot of
challenges because of technological change and economic pressures, but you know,
(19:00):
radio has faced challenges many times in the past.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I remember when I was.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
A little kid, there were a lot of people saying, oh,
nobody listens to radio anymore, because you know, there was
radio with pictures, there was television, and it was radio.
Who listens to radio? And I remember that there was
an advertising campaign in the early nineteen sixties, so I
would have been I don't know, nine, ten years old,
(19:27):
and the sad campaign had real famous singers, you know,
like elephus Gerald or somebody like that, you know, big
name singers. I'm not sure that that was her, but
big name singers. And they had a special song about radio,
and it was called who listens to Radio?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Now?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
The population of the United States at that time was
about one hundred forty five hundred and fifty million people,
and the song went The lyric were at the end
of the phrase, who listens to radio? Just one hundred
and thirty five million people, that's all, you know. And
(20:11):
that was at a time when radio was facing a real,
real strong challenge because of technological change. Well, here we
are again, and we face challenges because of technological change.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
What do we do?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
We find ways to put our programming on more and
more platforms that more and more people have access to,
so they can take what they like best about radio
with them anywhere they go, no matter what kind of
equipment they use. So that's one of the big challenges today.
Another challenge that we have today is just trying to
(20:48):
convey to the listening public and to the advertising community
of the relevancy of radio. We've had an easier time
convincing the audience because what ninety two percent of the
population of the United States listens to radio. It's like
that old jingle I was telling you about a while
(21:09):
back in the early nineteen sixties that we know is fact,
and we know that people like the radio because they
listen to it. But the media landscape can sometimes gets
so confusing and so overwhelming that our friends in the
advertising industry sometimes lose focus when it comes to radio,
and we have to find a way to keep our
message alive.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Right there in front.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Of them all the time, being a part of the
iHeartRadio family. What's my favorite thing? That's the question. Well,
that's an easy answer. I get an opportunity to come
to work every morning and see all of my colleagues,
whose company I enjoy so much. You know, people ask
(21:53):
me sometimes, oh, you get up so early, you go
to work so early, what is that like? Well, I
get here to work and I've We've got Elvis Duran
and his whole crew down the hall at C.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
One hundred.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I've got Cubby and Christine right next door, two of
the nicest people you'd ever want to meet in your life.
And the WKTU studios are right down the hall over there,
and we've got War over that way and Power one
oh five point one. I can't tell you how much
fun it has been for me to watch young Charlemagne
(22:24):
turn into such a big, big star while remaining such
a real, nice, unassuming, friendly guy. We spend a lot
of time together here. We have a lot in common
with one another because we get up in the middle
of the night and come and do radio shows. We
help each other out. The environment is really, really good.
(22:49):
It's creative, it's stimulating, and don't tell the bosses, but
I'd do it if they didn't pay me.
Of course, I remember the first time I cracked the mic,
and I remember how I felt, I remember how.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Excited I was.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It was Saturday, February eleventh, nineteen sixty seven, at wynz
in Ipsilanti, Michigan, fifteen twenty on your dial. It was
at seventeen North Huron Street in Ipsilanty, upstairs, and I
sat down behind that control room and I turned on
the microphone and I spoke live on the radio for
(00:28):
the very first time.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It was a.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Feeling I had never ever had before, and a feeling
that I had hoped would never end. I had experience
speaking in the microphones at school, you know. Sometimes I
was the announcer for school assemblies or the narrator for
a concert, and occasionally I was allowed to make announcements
over the school PA system.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But to go on the air where.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
People would actually pick up what I was saying on
their radios in their cars, or on their transistor radios,
or on the portable radio on top of the refrigerator
was so exciting that, after all these years, I still
don't have the words to adequately explain it, but I
can tell you this. It's now twenty twenty five, and
(01:14):
it was just as exciting this morning to turn the
microphone on. What's been the highest point of my radio career?
Will There have been many. I think that being able
to provide a service to people is probably the most
(01:37):
gratifying part of my radio career. I mean, it's had
a lot of you know, high points and meeting lots
of celebrities and doing lots of special shows and stuff
like that. But when I think back and try to,
you know, create like my own mental highlight reel, I
go back to, for instance, to some twenty fourth nineteen
(02:02):
sixty nine. I was seventeen years old. I was working
at night on WOIA in ann Arbor, Michigan, which was
a rock station, and it was Christmas Eve, and I
got a phone call from a guy at a place
called ann Arborn Network.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Now ann Arburn Network.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Was an organization that provided food and temporary lodging for
kids who were in trouble, kids who ran away from home,
or kids who were for one reason or another, homeless.
And they asked me if I could go on the
air and ask our listeners to contribute food to them
on Christmas Eve because they didn't really have enough to
(02:44):
feed all of the people that they had to feed
that night. So I made an announcement, one announcement maybe
thirty seconds long. I mean, explaining this to you took
longer than the announcement on the air. And I got
a telephone call from a guy who owned drive in
restaurant on Washtonaw Avenue and Ann Arbor, Michigan. The restaurant
(03:04):
was called mister S. And he asked me how many
dinners do they need? So I called them back up
and they said they needed about one hundred. So I
called the guy at mister S restaurant and I said, well,
they need about one hundred, and he said, okay, I'll
keep my staff on for maybe another hour or so
and we'll cook up one hundred chicken dinners and we'll
(03:25):
get them right over. He said, there's only one thing
I ask of you, and I said to him, what's that?
He said, don't tell anybody we're doing this. This is
not for publicity. I want complete anonymity. I just think
it's the right thing to do. And that was the
power of radio, you know, just to be able to
make a simple announcement and helped to enrich the lives
(03:49):
of some people who were going through unfortunate circumstances in
their life on Christmas Eve made, you know, created a
memory that has never gone away. That is too difficult,
because when you've had on your show John Lennon and
(04:09):
Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and Elton
John and Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder, I mean, the
list just goes on and on and on. Each one
is memorable in its own unique and distinct way, so
you can't even really compare them to one another. A
(04:31):
conversation with Elton John standing next to Elton John's piano
while he's playing it, you know, has its own special
place in the radio memory bank. But then again, standing
on stage next to Paul McCartney sharing one microphone, standing
to his left, and forgetting what it was that I
(04:54):
was even saying, because I looked at the side of
his face and I said, oh my god, God, this
is exactly what George Harrison saw when they were on
stage and they would put their heads together to use
one microphone during the height of Beatlemania. So too many
awesome memories. Each one has its own special place on
(05:16):
the mountaintop. My favorite listener interactions probably took place during
the six years that I hosted the Saint Jude Children's
Research Hospital radiothons for the New York metropolitan area, because
we needed lots and lots of volunteers to be able
to pull those radiothons off. They were broadcast live on
(05:40):
the air, and we did them from the Woodbridge Center
Mall in Woodbridge, New Jersey. But it was twenty four
hours a day for three days, and so we needed
hundreds of listeners to volunteer because we didn't have enough
staff to be with us all through the day and
night to help us put on the show and raise
(06:00):
money for Saint Jude's.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And during all six of those years.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Largely through the assistance of those people who listened on
the radio every day, we raised over a million dollars
each time. My toughest on air moment was on my birthday,
December ninth, nineteen eighty because the night before, John Lennon
(06:25):
was assassinated, and so I heard about that. I had
just gone to bed, and I heard the news bulletin,
and so I didn't go to sleep that night December eighth,
I just put my clothes back on and went to
the radio station and all of the employees of the
radio station. They were all coming in and we were
(06:48):
putting together special programming, and some people were going over
to the Dakota, and we were trying to contact friends
of John's, people who knew John Lennon to come on
the air and talk about his life and his legacy,
and it was just it was a bonding experience with
(07:09):
the audience.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Especially those.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Of us who grew up with the Beatles, because it
was kind of a permanent break with our youth, you know,
from the Beatle era to the post Beatle era.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And it was an incredibly.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Sad and difficult moment, but through the radio people bonded
together as a community. A couple of days later, thousands
and thousands and thousands of people gathered in Central Park
and many of the radio stations in New York, all
the rock stations but somebody weren't rock stations signed off
(07:53):
for ten minutes, for ten minutes of silence when the
John Lennon Memorial took place.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
In the park. But that was tough.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
But without the sense of community that was made possible
by the radio, people would have, you know, had to
mourn alone. Instead, we had an opportunity to all mourn together.
I've had on air oops moments I think everybody has.
I've been, you know, sometimes I've said the name of
(08:25):
the wrong station because I've worked at more than one,
and sometimes, especially after starting a new job, muscle memory
takes over when your mouth moves and you end up
referring to a station that you don't work at anymore.
I mean, I've made mistakes like that, but I think
probably there.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Were two things.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I fell asleep on the air when I was eighteen
at WJ in Orlando on a Saturday morning.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I just put my head down for a second.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I lifted my head back up, and thirty three minutes
had gone by, and Lonely Days By the Beg's was
the song I had been playing, and all I heard
on the speakers were because that's the noise that it
made at the end of the record. And I looked
down and all the phones were lit up, and it
(09:18):
was pretty embarrassing moment for me.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I got fired.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And then I once read a commercial on the air
without pre reading it at all, and the copywriter threw
in a joke line figuring that you know, people would
look at it on the paper laugh but never say
it on the air, and this I was still quite young,
(09:47):
and it was a commercial for a store called the
bra Shop. And I was just happily reading the commercial
for the braw Shop, including the last line, which was
for the tipit that just won't quit visit the bra Shop.
None of my boss has heard it, Thank goodness. I
(10:09):
probably wouldn't be here today talking with you had they
Is there any interview I would love to redo. I'd
like to redo a lot of them, but not because
I thought later that maybe I should have done this,
(10:29):
or maybe I should have done that. I would like
to redo them just because they were all so enjoyable.
I really like having guests on the show because you
see the guests when the guests are here. The guest
is the star. That's my philosophy on my show. The
guest is the star. We put the spotlight on the guest.
I'm the facilitator. I help the star to convey what
(10:55):
it is that they wish to get across.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
To my audience.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
So, although in a technical sense I may be leading
the interview, I spend a lot of time listening to
what they're saying. So then I follow up in a
manner that takes them where I perceive they want to go,
and so in a sense, they're leading the interview, not me.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So redoing.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I like having the same guests on more than once,
but not necessarily redoing.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
A specific interview.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
What's a challenge that radio people don't always see. I've
been thinking about that one because I don't really understand
the premise of the question. We see an experience the
(11:50):
same problems everybody else does, regardless.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Of what it was that they do for a living.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Those things that are unique to us, you know, like
trying to be funnier, entertaining or informative at five o'clock
in the morning are things that we just, you know,
get used to eventually over time. I suppose the getting
up at three o'clock in the morning, there's that, But
(12:19):
I don't I don't find other than each job than
anyone has has its own unique challenges. I think that's
something we all have in common. But the challenges that
are unique to each job are things that you know,
each individual gets used to, hopefully, you know, masters over time.
(12:43):
A tradition or a segment that I love doing well.
I love having the rooster crow at six o'clock in
the morning on my show every morning at six the
rooster crows, and it's the same rooster that's been growing
here in New York City at six am since the
nineteen early nineteen eighties. I've taken that rooster with me
to every subsequent radio station. And the reason for the
(13:09):
rooster is because I've done my shows from beautiful studios
like this in Midtown Manhattan, looking out the window at
gigantic skyscrapers and looking down to the street and seeing
the sidewalks.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Filled with people.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
But radio covers a lot of ground, and even in
the pre app days. Now on the free IR radio
app you can pick us up pretty much everywhere. But
you know, it used to be from the transmitter tower
to your radio that was the.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Only way to get the signal.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
And it hadn't occurred to me, as a person who
lives in Manhattan and works in Manhattan, that farmers get
up in the morning and listen to my show. But
they do New Jerseys, for instance. It's a huge agricultural state.
And I got a call one morning from a person
who was up burly listening to the radio, and you know,
(14:02):
it's making a request, and I said, well where are you?
And he said, well, I'm at work, and I said
where do you work? And he said Valley Tone Farm.
And it turned out that there were farmers who got
up before the sun that listened.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
To the show.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So I decided I'd have the rooster crow in their
honor every morning at six. Also loved strange News because
people it's true. The strange news is real. We don't
make it up. I used to have a segment where
we'd make up strange news stories.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
But we labeled it news stories.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Shelley Sunstein never told you because we made them up,
so people knew that it was fiction. But strange News
is all based on reality, and people seem to get
a kick out of that. And people sometimes years later,
will you know, refer to one.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Of those stories.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I had a conversation in the nineteen seventies here in
New York City on radio. Every few years somebody walks
up to me because I guess I asked a question
on the air. Every few years to this day, somebody
will walk up to me and say, Jim, did you
ever find out what nuns wear to the beach? I
guess I asked that question once in the nineteen seventies,
(15:19):
but no, I still don't have an answer. If I
could relive one radio moment, what would it be. Well,
there are a few radio moments that I've had that
I do relive.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Annually, year after year after year. There are.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Multiple listeners whose births I've announced on the air on
the day of their birth and every birthday since. And
some of those people are, you know, in their forties now,
and I've announced their birthday on the air every single year.
(15:57):
I know a couple of them have all of those now.
They recorded them and are all collected, and you know,
I mean, it's just an awesome thing. And if it like,
there's a family on Long Island where that's true. Oh,
Alan and Dolores Salazo of New Jersey. Their first date
(16:22):
was at one of my personal appearances, and I just
announced their daughter's thirtieth birthday just a couple of weeks ago.
So moments like that I do get to relive, and
it makes me feel good every time I have that experience,
and I hope it makes them.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Feel good too.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The radio tradition that I hope never goes away is
keeping the audience first in your mind, always sitting down
behind the microphone, prepared to do the best that you
can to create an atmosphere in other people's lives that
(17:05):
provides some positivity, some joy, maybe a little happiness. That
may sound kind of pretentious, but it's not meant that way,
because a lot of people use radio not just for
entertainment or for information, not just to find out whether
Macy's is having a sale today, even though that's very important.
(17:27):
You know, commercials convey information that are and that information
is useful to people. But many people use the radio
for companionship. I know I did when I was a kid.
I know I still do now when I turn on
the radio and you know, hear that voice coming through
the speakers in the.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Dark of night.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I have so many good memories listening to the radio,
hearing people do that in a way that really benefited me.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
And I think that the.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Tradition we have of being a friend to our audience
is really really important.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
You know, not to not to just be a big
you know, company booster.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I want to be a big radio booster, which includes
all of our competitors, no matter who owns them, no
matter who operates them. My direct competitor, just like me.
We can both be your friend. Spotify can't be your friend.
Pandora can't be your friend. Algorithms are not, you know,
(18:37):
your friend. They have their place in the world, but
they can't be your friend. I can be your friend.
It's one of the greatest things about radio. Radio on
twenty twenty five, Like all media faces a lot of
challenges because of technological change and economic pressures, but you know,
(19:00):
radio has faced challenges many times in the past.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I remember when I was.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
A little kid, there were a lot of people saying, oh,
nobody listens to radio anymore, because you know, there was
radio with pictures, there was television, and it was radio.
Who listens to radio? And I remember that there was
an advertising campaign in the early nineteen sixties, so I
would have been I don't know, nine, ten years old,
(19:27):
and the sad campaign had real famous singers, you know,
like elephus Gerald or somebody like that, you know, big
name singers. I'm not sure that that was her, but
big name singers. And they had a special song about radio,
and it was called who listens to Radio?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Now?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
The population of the United States at that time was
about one hundred forty five hundred and fifty million people,
and the song went The lyric were at the end
of the phrase, who listens to radio? Just one hundred
and thirty five million people, that's all, you know. And
(20:11):
that was at a time when radio was facing a real,
real strong challenge because of technological change. Well, here we
are again, and we face challenges because of technological change.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
What do we do?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
We find ways to put our programming on more and
more platforms that more and more people have access to,
so they can take what they like best about radio
with them anywhere they go, no matter what kind of
equipment they use. So that's one of the big challenges today.
Another challenge that we have today is just trying to
(20:48):
convey to the listening public and to the advertising community
of the relevancy of radio. We've had an easier time
convincing the audience because what ninety two percent of the
population of the United States listens to radio. It's like
that old jingle I was telling you about a while
(21:09):
back in the early nineteen sixties that we know is fact,
and we know that people like the radio because they
listen to it. But the media landscape can sometimes gets
so confusing and so overwhelming that our friends in the
advertising industry sometimes lose focus when it comes to radio,
and we have to find a way to keep our
message alive.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Right there in front.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Of them all the time, being a part of the
iHeartRadio family. What's my favorite thing? That's the question. Well,
that's an easy answer. I get an opportunity to come
to work every morning and see all of my colleagues,
whose company I enjoy so much. You know, people ask
(21:53):
me sometimes, oh, you get up so early, you go
to work so early, what is that like? Well, I
get here to work and I've We've got Elvis Duran
and his whole crew down the hall at C.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
One hundred.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I've got Cubby and Christine right next door, two of
the nicest people you'd ever want to meet in your life.
And the WKTU studios are right down the hall over there,
and we've got War over that way and Power one
oh five point one. I can't tell you how much
fun it has been for me to watch young Charlemagne
(22:24):
turn into such a big, big star while remaining such
a real, nice, unassuming, friendly guy. We spend a lot
of time together here. We have a lot in common
with one another because we get up in the middle
of the night and come and do radio shows. We
help each other out. The environment is really, really good.
(22:49):
It's creative, it's stimulating, and don't tell the bosses, but
I'd do it if they didn't pay me.
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