February 10, 2025 • 67 mins
Jimmy Bender, better known as "Jimmy the Geek," graces the Above the Bridge podcast with his vibrant storytelling and unique insights into Hawaii's sports and entertainment scene. Known for his dual role as a radio personality and high school sports commentator, Jimmy takes us on a nostalgic journey from his early days at I-94 to his impactful presence on Spectrum OC16. Discover the story behind his catchy nickname and learn about the radio legends like Michael W Perry, who shaped his career. Join us to celebrate his enduring contributions and get a behind-the-scenes look at the world of Hawaii radio and sports.
Exploring the evolution of music technology and radio broadcasting, we chart the fascinating transition from physical media to digital formats. Jimmy shares how these changes have reshaped the industry and enhanced the experience for both DJs and listeners. Through amusing anecdotes, we revisit the cultural adjustments of moving to Hawaii and celebrate the power of music and laughter in bridging cultural gaps. Hear tales of local parody groups and iconic bands that have left a mark on the community, and dive into the vibrant culture that makes Hawaii's music scene so unique.
As we look towards the future of radio, we discuss its challenges in the era of streaming platforms and podcasts while highlighting the enduring appeal and personal connections of live radio. From celebrity encounters to thrilling high school sports coverage, Jimmy shares memorable moments, including encounters with TLC, the Marley brothers, and more. We wrap up with exciting discussions on young athletes rising to fame and the positive impact of supporting local sports. Join us for a lively conversation with Jimmy Bender that promises entertainment, inspiration, and a touch of nostalgia.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
okay, welcome to another edition of the above the
bridge podcast.
I'm your host, thaddeus park.
Uh, I want to take time toshout out our sponsors.
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Lastly, I just want to thankeverybody for tuning in.
If you could like subscribe,leave a comment it matters on
(03:00):
our youtube, our podcastplatforms, whatever you can.
You also can check out ourwebsite at atbpodcom.
Thank you for your support andaloha.
Okay, this week my guest issomebody I had.
I was explaining to him earlierthat he's on my bucket list of
guests that I wanted for thisyear.
(03:22):
Somebody I've been a fan ofsince I was pretty much a kid.
He's been on the radio.
You see him on the sidelines atevery single high school
sporting event that's covered bySpectrum OC16 Sports, and
somebody that I really am a fanof Jimmy Bender.
(03:44):
Jimmy the Geek B bender.
What's up, man?
are you how?
You doing brother I'm doinggood, bro.
I'm super stoked to have you onand I appreciate the time being
that.
I know how busy you are and,yeah, I definitely appreciate
you coming on awesome to be here, man yeah.
So how's everything with you,man?
(04:06):
It's been.
Do you still go, uh, by thegeek?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
yeah, on on the radio .
I still use that.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
This on oc16 is jimmy bender okay, that's gonna be
the title that's gonna stickwith you forever, I guess
forever and I knew that from theget-go.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
It was one of those things that just like people
were like what did?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
you say well, you named yourself the geek, or like
someone yeah, somebody gave itto me oh, how did that come
about?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
so I don't know if you're old enough to remember.
There was a sportscaster guy bythe name of jimmy the greek, uh
, back on cbs back in the dayand he had gotten in trouble for
making some racial comments.
This is back in the late 80s,right?
Um?
And so the headline was in thepaper when I'm in my boss's
office and we're trying to comeup with a radio name for me, and
(05:01):
so there's the headline saysjimmy the greek fired blah, blah
.
And my boss looks at me andhe's like you should call
yourself jimmy the geek.
And you know, keep in mind I'm.
I'm like 17, 18 years old,right out of high school,
basically I weigh like a buck,20, soaking wet, and I've got
braces, and you know.
So he throws that at me and Iwas kind of like no, how about?
(05:26):
Uh?
But you know, he, he, just hekept kind of like yeah, you
should really do it, you shouldreally do it.
And so finally, a few weekslater, I just went on the air
without saying anything to himand I used it and, like I said,
the response that I startedgetting was like what?
And I knew that we hadsomething.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So yeah, that's pretty cool.
How did you get started inringo?
I think, if I can remember, youwere with um daniel tucker and
michael uh, what is it?
Oh q sang, q sang, michael qsang.
No, are you with those guys?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
No, I started at I-94 .
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Oh they were 93 FMQ.
That's right, right, Right, butthat's what I grew up listening
to right.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I listened to them.
But the way I got into radio isright out of high school I had
to go get a job.
My friend helped me get a jobat a Hallmark store that was in
the Davies Pacific Centerdowntown.
At a Hallmark store that was inthe Davies Pacific Center
downtown and that's the samebuilding I-94 was in right.
So I would you know the DJswould come down and we'd talk
(06:31):
story and eventually it kind ofbecame like hey, do you want to
come up and work with us?
And I was like sure that'ssuper cool.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Were you in high school and when you were growing
up were you like the classclown, center of attention, the
guy making all the jokes.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, kind of I've done voice impressions all my
life and it was the voiceimpressions that kind of got
their attention.
They were like, hey, you shouldcome up and do some of these on
the radio with us.
So I've kind of always beenthat.
But I never in my wildestdreams thought I would do radio
for a living.
I thought I was going to go tocollege and whatever.
(07:10):
And yeah, it just presenteditself and I was like, yeah, I
want to do this.
So it worked out.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Wow, that's super cool and it's been a couple of
decades of your career and I'vebeen a fan of you and I
explained to you yesterday I Iwanted to double check, but I
remember my friends brought meto a local wrestling event.
That's right jimmy the geek wasuh one of the contestants in a.
(07:44):
Jimmy the Geek was one of thecontestants in a WWE local style
wrestling match and I rememberit clearly because you threw out
T-shirts and I was one of thefans who caught it and it was a
green Extreme Radio T-shirt andI wanted to know at first when I
asked you I want to make surethat was you because I'm pretty,
(08:06):
I pretty have a good memory, soI kind of remember it being you
.
But how did that come about?
And that was that was a longtime ago.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, and I can't remember the name of whether it
was AZW or whatever thewrestling organization was, but
when I was at Extreme Radio,they, they came to us wanting to
do some promotions.
So initially actually, uh,cutmaster spaz and one of the
other djs at our station did amatch, a tag team match, with
two of the guys, and to promoteit we had the guys come on the
(08:39):
radio with us and you know, setit all up that they were gonna
to beat me up in the studio,like I.
Literally I had to call my wifeand I had to tell her, no
matter what anybody tells, you,don't worry, I'm okay.
And sure enough, her dad hadcalled her.
Like, oh, I heard somethinghappened to Jimmy on the radio,
(08:59):
but she knew already because Ihad told her ahead of time.
But so we set that whole thingup, and so the next time they
came to us then it was.
Then they said, okay, jimmy,now you're gonna be the one
that's gonna wrestle.
And so I had to go.
You know, ever beach they hadlike, uh, some backyard, they
had a big ring set up there andwe had to practice and
(09:19):
everything.
And that was a lot of fun, man,that was a lot of fun, that's
super cool.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I always lot of fun.
That's super cool.
I always wanted to do that,being a wrestling fan growing up
, that was cool.
Yeah, it was a legitorganization.
Back then I think we foughtJudo Punk.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I forget.
That's the only guy I remember.
Yeah, that sounds right, yeah,yeah yeah.
The only thing I regret is Inever went on the top rope.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I only went up to the second rope well, you're pretty
tall, so that's pretty high up.
That's cool.
I always wonder like the, thering and stuff is reinforced by
springs and stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
It's not like you're not landing on solid ground yeah
, it's bouncy right, and so thattook some getting used to it.
And even the ropes, I mean, youknow they're a little, they're
a little harder when you hitinto them than you think.
Um, but yeah, it's just it was.
It was so much fun, man, yeahyeah, I couldn't do it now.
I'm 55 and no, there's no way Icould do that now, but you
(10:26):
could be a wrestling manager.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, that's super cool.
So you work for extreme.
Back in the day, I remember along time ago, there was
something called radio freehawaii yeah, I remember radio
free, yeah and I kind of likethat station because there was
no kind of genre it wastargeting.
(10:49):
It was you could listen to rock, yeah, r&b, rap, whatever, it
was all on one station, but thatkind of I mean it literally was
.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I mean you could hear Barry Manilow next to Metallica
.
That's kind kind of you knowcause it was.
It was literally based onwhatever votes they got positive
.
I mean it was a veryinteresting concept.
I just think it was at the timekind of hard to monetize it, I
guess, and keep it going.
But it was an interestingconcept and it created a buzz.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah yeah, that was a cool, cool radio station.
As you've been in radio for somany years, what do you see?
The changes from back when youstarted to what it is now?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
So A that makes it so much easier.
You know, before we used tohave to like every hour you had
to go and pull all your.
When I first started it wascalled carts, which looked like
you know, eight track tapes,right, so all the songs, all the
commercials.
So you had to pull your hourstack of music and commercials
(11:59):
and you know, plug them in andplay them, and you know, then it
became CDs, so you had to gostack your cds.
Um, but once everything was oncomputer, I mean everything's so
much easier, you know, and andeven for me, like as a
production guy, editing stuff,you know, because you can see
the waveform and so like,everything just became so much
(12:21):
easier, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I definitely, I definitely understand that,
being in the club industry forall these years.
I've watched our DJs carry milkcrates of records to the books
of CDs and now all they have nowis a thumb drive and it's crazy
.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, these young DJs .
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I remember pulling up to world cafes and unloading
the van within like three milkcrates, with the hand truck and
wheeling them yeah, yeah, thesedjs got it made and even even
with software and video editingand obviously with the radio,
it's been, it's been convenientand it takes away of of the
(13:06):
learning process a lot, and Iwas talking to one of my guests
who does video and it's like allthe stuff that it took for you
to learn how to do something nowbecomes a app on your iphone
and you can do it right waitingin line at.
Target.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well, you know, I mean you know from the DJ side.
You know, you know all thecontrollers now that have a sync
button to automatically try tobeat match stuff, where before
we had to listen and pitch itthis way.
I want to pitch it this way andyou know, now it's just like
push a button.
Yeah, I want to pitch it thisway, and you know, now it's just
like push a button, yeah, soyou grew up here in Hawaii or
(13:52):
you kind of moved in from themainland, yeah, so I was a
military brat, right, so welived all over.
I grew up in Southern Cal as ayoung kid, then we went to
Michigan and Kansas City andthen my junior year is when we
moved out here.
So I did my junior year and mysenior year at Palo Alto.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Okay, all right, mustangs mustangs baby, yeah how
was it moving here?
I know you kind of explainedhow it was when you first moved
here, adjusting to like thelocal style and how, how it is.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I, you know, I really think it's just, you know, it's
kind of like anything in lifeor or sports is a great analogy.
It's a mindset thing, right,like I came here with a really
open mind and kind of excitedthat like, oh my God, we have to
live in Hawaii.
You know, I was coming from youknow two very cold places,
michigan and in Kansas city.
So I was like this is awesome,you know.
(14:46):
So I think having that openmindset and, you know, being
somebody who, I guess, you know,I always like to say like being
a military brat, made me kindof a chameleon, because I lived
around different people,different areas, you know.
So I wasn't just in one click Ilearned to be around different
people, different areas, youknow so.
So I, I wasn't just in oneclick, I learned to be around
(15:09):
different people, and so I thinkthat helped a lot too.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, plus you're humorous, so everybody likes
laughter.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Laughter is a connection.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Laughter and music, I always think is a good
connection for people.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, for sure yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So it didn't take you much time to adjust.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Then it kind of yeah, I don't think so.
Um, you know, obviously it wasvery different, but yeah, but
again, you know, having havingbeen in different places and and
seeing how you know thisdialect in california, this
dialect in Michigan, thisdialect in Kansas city, you know
(15:47):
, you just kind of learn thatevery place is different and you
just got to, you know, kind ofembrace it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh, that's cool.
Well, it works for you andyou're considered a local boy
and I know that you even had agroup of local boy talent.
I guess you guys, you guys,it's, you guys were like legit
singers.
Right, it was back in the day.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
No, I wouldn't go that far um, you know.
I mean, we did rap stuff and umyou know it started with
original songs but then kind ofthe forte became doing parody
stuff.
Uh, after the first parody songwe did was me so hungry and
that kind of was like, okay,this is the direction we want to
go, we want to do the parodything.
(16:35):
But but it was funny because youknow it's three local boys and
it's a holiday guy, a Filipinoand a Japanese guy but it worked
out I mean we had a lot of funwith that and that gave us an
opportunity, you know, on top ofthe radio, to just kind of
branch out and do other thingsyeah, I remember you guys had
rice, rice gravy or somethinglike that rice, rice, baby, yeah
(16:58):
, yeah I remember that and, um,you guys are pretty popular and
you guys are pretty popular andyou guys got you explained to me
yesterday you got to not touror I guess maybe tour or do
shows with one of my closefriends, ronnie from BBC New
(17:19):
Generation.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
How was?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
that era, I think like.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Forte was around then too Forte was it.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Forte actually even came a little bit later than
that.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
So you know.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
BBC was the big one back then.
You know Ronnie, nito, maestro,tiff and Freddie.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
And that was just so much fun.
I mean you know you said wewere popular.
Uh, they were popular and andit was.
It was so crazy to.
You know we would hit all thehigh schools or or do like shows
at malls or whatever, and justto see all the girls that would
come out and scream me for them.
And I mean you know I'm not oldenough to have been around when
(17:59):
the beatles, but everybodyalways compares stuff to that
and and that was just likeinsanity.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Everywhere we would go with them yeah, it's funny
because my first ever encounterwith bbc and ronnie, who's one
of my closest friends, was hewas on a poster in my sister's
room.
That was the first time I'veever seen ronnie and those guys
(18:27):
are were super popular I, I didyou did you get to do those
castle park shows?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
um, we did a couple up there.
I remember, like uh, who does?
The guys that sang the robocopsong, the sleaze boys, I think
they did a show out there.
Uh, and bbc was there, so we,because we were the same record
label, right as as bbc, uh, thematt young thing.
So us, uh that group, if youremember them.
(18:55):
Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, so we allused to like go and tour all the
schools and do stuff like thatoh, that's super cool.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I miss castle park.
I always talk I always talk tomy daughter about it and she's
like why did they tear thatplace down?
That was the tell me.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Not castle park was the best thing on on the island
as a young kid I mean it was, itwas a cool spot and and like
you know, being able to do theconcerts there and stuff like
that, you know the huge arcade,huge arcade which you know back
in the 80s.
You know kids don't understandnow because video games are
right near your house, but youknow back in the 80s we were at
(19:32):
the arcade nonstop.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Just dropping quarter .
Dropping quarter, droppingquarter yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
I was definitely a mall rat in Windermere Mall and
Tilt was the Tilt and McDonald'sthat whole area yeah yeah, yeah
yeah, windward Mall was mystopping grounds, man.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That was the spot.
We were always there.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, that Yellow Brick Road.
I don't know if you rememberYellow Brick Road.
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And the one memory that sticks out in my head of
Windward Mall is when they firstopened the Cinnabons and how
crowded it was.
But the fact too that the smellbecause that's not a huge mall
the smell it didn't matter whatside of the mall you walked in
from.
You could smell it as soon asyou walked in the mall.
You're like, oh, cinnabons.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
That's true.
Now they got the cookie corner.
Trying to do that like yeah, itjust walks.
Yeah, that's right it's soweird I'm gonna age myself.
But uh, when winward mallopened, I was at cnans and I was
second grade and they had thegrand opening and we got to go
(20:43):
as a class and we went to thegrand opening and we had a time
capsule that they put in thereand then they dug it out and I
haven't heard what happened.
But I don't know what, but Iknow, I know we did it.
We gotta find out what happenedto that thing.
Yeah, it'd be kind of cool.
I, I know our class made a tape, a cassette.
(21:05):
Cassette right right right,really aging myself.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I had a guy.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I mean speaking of Three Local Boys.
I had a guy come up to me theother day we were doing we had
All For One in the music hall atthe radio station.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
And a guy came up to me with the original Three Local
Boys album on cassette and hadme autograph it and I was like,
oh my God, I can't believe youstill have this thing.
And he said, yeah, he actuallystill has a player that can play
it.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Oh that's sick, that is insane.
Do you have any of that stuff?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I think I still have at least one of all of them.
Yeah, um, yeah, yeah, I have itsomewhere.
Um, but yeah, because that'sall.
The three local boys stuff wasonly on cassette.
We never did cds for the threelocal boys, so it's all.
All of it was only on cassette.
So even if you have it, youknow most people don't even have
anything to play it on.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, exactly, you ever let your kids watch or
listen to some of that stuffyeah, yeah, they've heard all of
it.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Oh, okay, you know, and they kind of you know like,
okay, yeah, it's hard to impresskids, I know.
But I, they taught me a termrecently that I guess the kids
use nowadays, which is you know,either mom lore or dad lore,
and it's when you find outsomething about your parents
that blows your mind.
And I I learned that, uh,because my youngest son said it
(22:38):
to me when I told him um, theyknow glenn maderos, but they
know gl Medeiros because theyknow his kids.
Lyric and Chord worked at theSumner Fund that they used to go
to.
So they know Lyric and Chordreally well.
So they know Glenn as UncleGlenn.
And so when I told my youngestson that I actually came out at
(23:01):
Brown Bags and did the BobbyBrown rap on she ain't worth it
for glenn my son was just likedad lord like they can't picture
their dad doing stuff like thatright man, they, they don't
have brown bags anymore, do they?
uh, no, I know it was going on afew years back it was.
(23:23):
It was, uh, somebody had boughtit from the radio station.
Remember I 94 was brown bagsfor years.
Yeah, somebody had bought itand and was doing it as like a
TV show on OC 16, but I thinkeven that's gone now.
So yeah, there's not, there'snothing.
That was such a huge deal backin the day.
Yeah, I remember seeing Capenafirst.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I was like who's this holly guy singing falsetto?
I think I was like eighth gradeor something.
I was like these guys are goodthey're good and then they just
blew up.
I remember that we had a littlesituation with Brown Bags.
I played football for Damien.
(24:04):
I played football for Damienand one of the DJs was talking
trash about our football team atthe time.
I think it could have been RoryWilde.
I might be wrong.
I forget what it was, but hecame later on in the year.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
He came to our school for brown bags.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Oh, we may or may not have.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Uh took it out on his car for all the the shit that
he was telling us allegedly Ithink, the statute of
limitations is up, so you'refine yeah, yeah, his antenna may
have looked like a heartbeat,that's funny yeah, but brown
(24:52):
bags are super cool.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
I remember that, that and it was the local talent and
then the every winners from theschool had it like it was like
the the big final.
Yeah, the big one yeah, yeah,so that's.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
you know, one of the things that really like kind of
helped launch our careers foralumni and myself when we were
partnering together was that wedid all the Brown bank shows at
the schools, so not only theschools on Oahu, we did all the
neighbor Island stuff.
So you know we were constantlyout and about, so that that kind
of helped us and we got toperform, you know, as three
(25:28):
local boys or whatever, at theBrown Bank shows too.
So, um, you know, I think thatreally was just a big boost for
us to always be in front of thataudience.
Uh, you know that was going tobuy our stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, oh man.
Imagine if there was a socialmedia presence back then, how
much bigger you guys would havebeen well, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I I feel like it's a, it's a blessing sometimes if
there wasn't social media back,oh yeah I agree too I might, may
have way more evidence.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, definitely agree with that.
It's different.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Well, big side of it, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, Well, you're still in radio and I got to talk
to you a little bit yesterday.
You got.
You're currently part of theKSSK morning show.
And like I explained to youyesterday, it was the show that
my dad would listen to, takingme to school every morning.
(26:29):
So I was on board with Perryand Price every morning and it
was my way to school everymorning, and now you're a part
of it.
Price is no longer there andyou kind of Right.
And Michael W Perry is Like theiconic Iconic Radio guy in
(26:53):
Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah, I mean, think about it.
They started that show in 1983,so it's been Almost 42 years
that that show has been going on.
And, like you said, I mean Iwas the same way when we first
moved here.
It's been almost 42 years thatthat show has been going on.
And, like you said, I mean Iwas the same way when we first
(27:15):
moved here.
My dad would listen to Perryand price and you know I'm a
teenager, I'm like I don't wantto listen to this, I don't.
You know, I want to look at theMichael Q saying and you know I
wouldn't even call into MichaelQ saying that's how much I love
.
I would call in and do sillyvoices, and so you know, it's
kind of that thing where I waslike that's my dad's thing, I
don't want to listen to the kid.
And now I'm there, Right.
So it's just, it's such a weirdkind of surreal type of thing
(27:37):
for me to be like I'm workingwith this dude.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, he's, he's, yeah, he must be up there.
Yeah, he must be up there,right?
I mean, they've been 40 years.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
But he's still like you said.
I mean, he's an icon and he'sjust a consummate professional
when it comes to radio.
So much fun to work with.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, I can imagine.
You guys must have some stories.
I think yeah it's good fun.
Yeah, I think they had uh backin the day.
They would do a Sunday show atthe Hanohano room.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Uh, the Saturday.
Yeah, they would do it on.
Saturday and see back back thenthey used to do it every week.
So think about that.
They were, they were working,you know the five days a week.
You know doing the the fivedays a week, you know doing the
morning show.
Then they were doing theSaturday show and I mean that's
just crazy.
You know, now now the Saturdayshow is really more like just a
(28:33):
special occasion thing, like aMother's Day or Valentine's or
Thanksgiving, christmas.
You know, it's not, it's notthe every week thing, because
that's just too much.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, that's too much .
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I read on your Instagram.
Instagram you're the producerof the show.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, yeah, so that's my official title, right is,
I'm the producer.
So you know, mike's in one roomin his studio and then I'm in
the other room and basically youknow, as a producer, my job is
just to make sure thateverything is right there, ready
for him.
So, like I said before, we hadto pull the the cards or the cds
(29:13):
.
Now it's just, it's all in acomputer.
So I just got to stack and makesure the songs, the commercials
, whatever is all there andready to go so he can just focus
on doing the show.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, must be fun, is it?
Is it stressful or you'realready?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I mean, it's live radio, right.
You never know what's going tohappen.
So so it can you know, andthere's a lot of sometimes oh,
you know we talk too long.
I got to move some stuff around, but you know, like you said,
though, it's fun, you know, it'sa great, it's a great crew that
we got with Mike and Mandywho's been doing our news now
(29:54):
for almost a year.
Just just so much fun, you know.
So so, even waking up at threein the morning, it doesn't
really bother me that much.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I guess it's something to get used to.
I think with radio now, wheredo you see it going in the
future, because a lot ofstreaming platforms are coming
out?
I know a few uh close friendsof mine that were radio djs that
got let go recently right andit's, I know it's.
It's an industry that's not asstrong as it used to be because
(30:28):
of the streaming platforms, butwhere do you see radio going in
the future?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Interestingly, though I mean the numbers still say
that we're one of the mostlistened to things.
So people are still listening.
Like you know we haven't lostaudience.
Like you know we haven't lostaudience.
But but I think you know, youknow it definitely is one of
those things where you have tolearn to adapt, you have to
(31:03):
learn to do new things.
You know podcasts are obviouslythe big thing nowadays and our
company where even just you know, taking part of your radio show
and putting it on a podcast ora segment that people can listen
to later if they can't listento right, then you know, it's
just things of that nature.
But again, you know, what itboils down to with radio is the
(31:26):
live aspect of it is havingsomebody there that you know,
like a Michael W Perry that youthink of is.
I've known this guy for 40something years.
You know, I trust him.
You know, 15 years ago, whenall the streaming stuff started,
(31:49):
everybody's like, oh, radio isgoing to be done.
No, I think we'll be fine.
I think it just needs to kindof adapt a little bit.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Okay, radio stations that were locally based have
outsourced to a mainland show, Ithink the woody show before it
was um, who was it?
Mike?
Oh, what was it?
Scotty b, scotty b and hudson,yeah, yeah, and then and that's,
you know that's.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
That's one of the natures of radio itself too, is
you know?
I mean Seacrest was one toSeacrest, you know, was
syndicated all across thecountry.
Elvis Duran, howard Stern, youknow all of the guys like that.
You know it's.
It's.
If it's a big enough name thatcompanies are comfortable with
(32:44):
putting it in a different marketeven though they're not from
there, they'll do it.
But again, to me the guys likeMike Perry are invaluable.
The guys like Rory Wilde, who'sbeen doing this for years,
they're invaluable becausethey're from here and they're
(33:04):
tapped into everything that'sgoing on here.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, and the audience resonates with that,
definitely.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I don't want to ask you and I always get a little
starstruck but have you got tomeet certain celebrities where,
because I know you, I mean you,you guys, you just met all for
one this past couple days ago,but hundreds of them.
For the amount of time you'vebeen in radio, you must have met
a lot of celebrities andartists, which one stood out to
(33:38):
you the most, that you were likelike fanboyed out right um.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
One of the first ones I remember was meeting TLC when
they were here for a show atthe Blaisdell and when I and I
were.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Wait, sorry, I think I went to that show, it was.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
TLC.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Boyz II Men at MC Hammer.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Was that the?
One yeah that was the one.
Okay, go ahead.
So Lanai and I were doing somekind of TV show thing and so we
recorded a segment with them,not even backstage, outside the
back part of the arena there,but you know, left Eye was still
(34:23):
there and the one thing Iremember is she gave me one of
her condoms.
Remember she would put thecondoms in the safety pin.
She gave me one.
I don't know what happened toit, but that was one of those
things I was like, oh my God,left Eye gave me her condom.
But the other one that, likeyou know, you're right.
(34:45):
Right, we met a lot of peopleand and people are cool, but the
one that really made me fan boywas, uh, when I was working at
fm 100, um damian, junior gongmarley, and, uh, his brother, um
julian, had come to town andgetting to meet them because
(35:06):
it's like you're Bob's kids.
I was like, oh my God, you guysare Bob's kids.
That's insane.
And then I remember the show wasat the Shell that night and we
were sitting backstage, but kindof like on the side.
So we're like looking directline from the side at Julian
(35:28):
while he was performing and Iswear to God, it was like he
became Bob, like you looked athim and it's like, and the way
he was performing, I was likethat's exactly all the videos
I've seen of Bob and how he was.
Oh my God, he's like channelinghis dad.
So yeah, that was the moment.
That was really just kind ofsurreal.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Oh, that's cool.
I know they say it's never goodto meet your heroes or
celebrities that you have.
What were some of the negativeones?
That you got?
Like celebrity you got to meetand I was like, oh man, that
guy's a douche.
Wish I never met him um, did Isay it?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I think I told some people.
Maybe I can't say this, um.
So one of the first ones that Igot to meet was new kids on the
block, but this was before theyblew up.
Okay, um, I think they weredoing a show at aloha tower.
So I get a call at like 10 or11 o'clock at night and somebody
says you need to come down tothe station because we need you
(36:32):
to help produce something forthis music group.
I'm like, ok, I didn't knowwhat was going on.
I show up and I don't.
I don't really know who theyare.
I think please don't go, girl,maybe you just come out.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Oh OK.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
So I kind of knew who , but you know I didn't really
know much.
So they just wanted me to puttogether the tape on reel to
reel that they were going to useas their show tape.
So I just had to splice somesongs together for them and I
just remember, like Danny wasnot very cool.
And even the next time we methim, we opened for them.
(37:08):
Three local boys opened for newkids at the Blaisdell Like
about three years later, I thinkit was, and he was not very
cool.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
So I was like oh, sorry, bro, but I'm Jimmy the
geek, the geek man, don't youknow?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
I wasn't thinking that.
I was thinking like um, you'renot the star of the group yeah,
you're the background everybodyloves joey and and jordan and
danny, they're not.
Or I mean donnie, they're notworried about you.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, you're not the Justin Timberlake.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
That's funny, you ain't the guy.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
You should be the nice.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
You're not going to have a solo career.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Man, not only are you doing radio and I touched on it
earlier but you are big time inhigh school sports and I am
blown away for one with theproduction OC16 does on these
sporting events for these highschool athletes.
And my daughter goes to leisuredon she, she's in high school
(38:27):
and she plays volleyball.
She, she only played, but theirvarsity was showcased in one of
these, um, one of one of the oneof the games and the production
trailers.
And they we get pick up yourkid early and they're gonna have
this blocked off.
I'm like it's oc60 and when Igot there you guys had two
(38:53):
trailers.
You it was a, it was it.
That gym turned into a, aproduction, it I was.
I had no idea how much goesinto those shows, but it makes
sense, cause they are well done.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
I and that's the thing I mean.
You know, cause we don't.
We don't have professionalsports here.
Yeah, we do have some collegestuff, but you know high school
sports in Hawaii becauseeverybody knows somebody.
You know, at any given time youhave a niece, a cousin, a
whatever that somehow you have aconnection to a certain school
(39:32):
and a sport and so people willwant to watch.
But yeah, you know, from fromday one, back in 1989, when you
know mitzi lejano said let's dothis.
Um, it's been all about, youknow, making it the best that it
can be, and so you know that'swhy you see the production value
.
You see guys like felipeojastro, who, I mean, my god,
(39:55):
that guy is the.
I mean, he's only 30 something,but he's the goat, right, I
mean he.
Nobody does their homeworkbetter, nobody.
You know no disrespect toanybody else that does this, but
you know cause.
I know guys like Kanoa Lehi areawesome too, but but Felipe is
at like practices every daytalking to the kids or he just
(40:17):
knows everything and, and sothat's why it has become such a
a cool thing.
And you know, now there'sfelipe stickers everywhere you
go and all that head on a posterand stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
That's right.
Yeah, I'm I'm definitely a fanof that guy.
He, yeah, blows me away withhis knowledge of the athletes,
and be able to do play-by-playand call those games in multiple
sports and not miss a beatthat's mind-blowing.
Like you could be good at onesport, and that's cool, but he's
(40:52):
good at all of them.
So are you, though, and yoursideline presence is always
appreciated, and it brings moreaction to the game and what
you're watching, and I like whatyou said, though, like how a
lot of people can watch thesehigh school sports.
Like for me, I I graduated fromdamien I get to watch them play
(41:14):
and hear from them, and and thestuff we never had before.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
But how did you?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
get stuck with that job.
That seems like the coolest jobever.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
And so, you know, kind of like my radio career,
another thing that kind of youknow just came to me.
You know it wasn't anything Iwas pursuing, but when did I
start 2015.
So what happened was OC hadstarted doing what they call X
cast, so they could, you know,do multiple games in one night.
(41:44):
And because they were doingmultiple games, they needed
another sideline reporter.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Jen Boniza was the sideline reporter back then oh,
that's right, that was a longtime ago.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, they needed another one.
So Dave Vinton and I werealready friends.
He would come on the radio showand talk about oc60 sports, so
he knew I was a sports fan andso he just, uh, reached out to
me and said, hey, look, you know, we're doing this thing.
We need sideline reporter.
Um, you know, how would you feelabout you know, doing something
(42:16):
like that?
I'm like, yeah, that soundspretty cool and sure enough,
it's pretty cool.
Um, so, yeah, I just, I justjumped right into it and you
know again, like, for me, I'mnot, I'm not Felipe, I don't, I
don't know as much as he does,but I'm a fan of, of all the
sports and I just love theexcitement that the kids have
(42:40):
for it.
Right, I mean, you, you see it,with the interviews, the kids
are always, you know, justhaving such a good time.
You know saying some, somecrazy things, but you know it's
stuff that's awesome because,you know, pro athletes, or maybe
even college athletes, are, youknow, a little more reserved
and they have their cliches.
They're going to say, but thekids are just like, oh, I just
(43:03):
seen green grass and I wentwrong.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yup, local boys, they don't hold back.
They is what they is.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Shout out to shout out to Kauai for that one.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Just see green grass.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Why may I?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Those guys beat my Damien team in the.
I know, bro, that that runningback he looked like a man.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Those guys beat my.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Damien team in the.
I know, yeah, oh, bro that thatrunning back he looked like a
man.
Somebody had to check his birthcertificate.
He had a full beard.
Six kids in the stands.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
There was a.
There was a kid.
He plays basketball over herenow at Maryknoll, but when he
was a freshman we first saw him.
He was over on Maui as afreshman.
This dude had a full beard andwas, like you know, 6'5" and
you're just like what.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yo, like full-sleeved tats.
I was like wow, what are thesekids Right?
It's cool to see, though,though, and how has it been on
the sidelines?
I always wanted to know.
Okay, you're you have clipshere and there of throughout the
game, but what are you doingwhen you're not, because you're
(44:16):
not on camera the whole time?
So are you in a mingling?
Are you watching the games?
And what are you doing when thecamera's not on you?
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Yeah, a little bit of everything.
I mean, I'll talk story withsome of the people there just to
see you know what's going on orif there's any.
You know things you know that Ican talk about.
But I also, you know, because Ido a highlight package in the
post game show, so I've got tobe watching, for you know
(44:46):
certain plays that I've got totell the truck, okay, I want the
replay of this one, I want thereplay of that one, um, but I
mean, it is a bottom line, isI'm watching sports, you know,
and it's a job yeah, yeah, soyeah it.
It really is.
I mean that that's one of thethings you know.
People always say to me, like,how can you do radio?
And that it's because they'reboth fun.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Right, that's the bottom line for me yep, it seems
fun and you always have thatpositive energy and that fun
aspect of of what you're doingand it definitely resonates with
the Hawaii community andeverybody watches it there's
everybody.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
I hope so, man.
Yeah, like I said, you know,we're just there having fun and
we want to make sure the kidsare having fun, so yeah, you
guys are busy because, as a fanI watched.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
I remember a month I think it was in November where
you guys had state high schoolfootball playoffs, girls
volleyball, high school stateplayoffs all at the same time
and you guys are banging out acouple of games in a row every
single day.
I'm thinking like wow for one.
(45:57):
How do you guys even deciphereverything?
But it's like one after another.
It got busy at some point.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah, and we're in that right now with the winter
sports, so soccer tournaments,basketball tournaments when they
hit the postseason it gets kindof crowded, but again it's only
for like a week or a week and ahalf at a time.
So just punch through, let's doall these games and usually
(46:29):
postseason games those are someof the most fun.
I mean, you see some reallygood action.
So, yeah, you just push throughit and enjoy it for what it is.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah, I watched.
One of my close friends, alikaKosner, is the head coach for
Milani.
Shout out to them for winningthe OIA last weekend.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
That's right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
How was that game?
Because that was a close gameand it ended kind of with a
weird situation where the goaliekind of punched the guy in the
head On accident it looked likeit was, but it was a hard hit
punched the guy in the head onaccident.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
It looked it looked like it was, but it was a hard
hit.
Prior to that he had kind ofmade a little flub too, where he
came running out of the box youknow where the goalie can't
touch the ball and almosttouched it like he was.
Just he was just a little tooamped up when the game got.
You know, to that point I think, and so that in that moment you
know he's just going up tryingto punch the ball and.
But you know, that's the thingabout sports man, you just never
(47:28):
know what's going to happen inthose moments.
And soccer is one of those games.
I was talking to the coaches.
It really is.
You know, it's just a matter ofinches where the ball lands and
gets on the guy's left footversus his right foot so he can
take a solid shot, and itcompletely changes the game.
So you know, that was obviouslya huge moment because it
(47:48):
created the walk-off.
You know, uh, penalty kick formililani.
But you know, both of thosegames that night were were
unbelievable.
The d2 one as well was a 2-1game and you know where, um uh,
who scored two goals in a matterof five minutes, but in the
last 10 minutes of the game theywere down one nil for most of
(48:10):
the game and all of a suddenboom and boom and like, yeah, oh
, they win and they were late,too right.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
That's why everything was pushed back.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, their boss was like anhour and a half late, so, yeah,
that was a very interestingnight yeah, but yeah that that
Campbell um Milani game wassuper cool I was happy of the
outcome because that's my goodfriend and I was glad he won.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
But I was also happy Campbell gets a spot in the
state tournament and it wasunfortunate how it ended because
, like you said, the goalie washighly intense and made a
mistake.
But when you get a yellow cardyou got to leave the game.
So they had the backup goaliein for the penalty kick and I
(48:57):
was like, oh, that sucks to bethat dude.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
It's the double whammy, right, like you give up
up the penalty kick, but youalso get sent out for that one
play, but that's the only playthat really mattered at that
point.
So yeah, and that's really.
That is why I love life sports,because anything can happen
yeah, well being that you'vebeen doing it for so long.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
What games and sport were you so amped up like, oh, I
can't wait for this one.
And what games were those like?
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Well, I, you know, I'm a baseball dude, so you know
, baseball season, softballseason, is always my favorite.
But you know, that being said,football championships are
always so good here in Hawaii.
You know, and especially youknow, we had Kahuku, had that
three-peat run going, and thenSt Louis beat them.
And remember last year's gamethat they won.
(49:53):
The three-peat with Mililaniwas a close game too, and then
this year the one with St Louiswas, you know, it's down to the
wire, and those are the gamesyou want to see when it's
championship night yeah,definitely you don't want
championship to be like 50 to 14.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
You know you want it to be close, yeah yeah, unless
it's the niners and they're inthe super bowl and they're
winning by that much, then I'mcool.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, oh yeah, I don't think we'll ever be in the
super bowl, so I don't have toworry about that you guys had a
decent season this year.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
I mean you started off, I don't know.
Yeah, bears, I don't know.
I remember walter peyton in theuh, refrigerator perry years.
Those are, those are the hadesbut you're a baseball guy are
you still?
Are you a Cubs fan or?
Speaker 1 (50:43):
yeah, yeah, oh.
So.
So my, my dad, is from northernIllinois, so we were just kind
of born and raised, as you know,even though we didn't live in
in that area growing up becausewe're military, but that's what
my dad, you know, instilled inus was Cubs and Bears that's
super cool.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
I was blessed a few years ago.
My daughter had a nationalvolleyball tournament in chicago
and I got to go to the iconicwrigley field to watch the clubs
play the phillies and nothingbetter man oh man, you walk in
there and it's, that's chickenskin it's a vibe oh it's, I was.
(51:23):
It was like the.
The nostalgic aspect of that,that um stadium was just
something you can't explain.
Walking in there just beinglike whoa, this is wrigley field
, like this is it, see, seeingit, and being there it was.
It was cool.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Yeah, it was what I love is, you know, I I've been
to games at wrigley where youknow we win by 10.
I've been to games at wrigleywhere we lose by 10.
What I love about wrigley isthe fans are the same, no matter
what the score is.
They stay all the way throughthe game.
They don't leave.
The energy is there, it's.
It's just a differentatmosphere because, you know, we
(52:02):
lived in arizona for 12 years.
We used to go to diamondbacksgames that's like you know,
people show up in the secondinning and leave in the seventh,
just like they do in la right,and I'm like, no, you guys, you
guys don't get it.
This is not what it's aboutyeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
and with um, with sports here in Hawaii, like you
said, we don't have the luxuryof watching pro sports, so
watching these young kids ispretty awesome.
And of course, the college.
But I think for college the wayHawaii is is more kind of in
(52:40):
tune to volleyball, becausethey're winning more.
Speaker 1 (52:46):
I would agree.
I mean you know, you thinkabout on a regular basis what
our volleyball teams are able toput inside an arena versus most
other colleges across thenation.
I mean it's, it's a wholedifferent animal.
But you're right too, it helpsit that they win championships,
right, I mean that's, and thearena is nice.
I mean you know, look, thebiggest problem and you know I
(53:07):
do a sports show too, uh, acouple days a week.
You know, on our, on our sisterstations and we talk about a
lot.
You know, the biggest problemfor UH football.
I love Timmy chain and I, I, Itruly believe that that he was a
great guy for that job Becauseof his history with the program,
(53:29):
his offensive mindset.
I just love the culture hetries to do with the Brotherhood
.
But for me you've got thatstadium.
That's just not a real stadium,right?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (53:41):
I mean, I played on it in high school, it's just not
a real stadium, right?
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Yeah, I mean, I played on it in high school.
It's just difficult, yeah, it'sjust so difficult to get
anything going until they canbuild a new stadium.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:53):
So got to get that done.
Speaker 2 (53:56):
Yeah, I agree, and they can't even agree to
anything.
They didn't even tear down theold one yet.
And the rail literally stops atthe stadium.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
It's not even open so you know just little things
like that.
I mean I, I obviously know, youknow the nil thing too yeah, I
was just gonna say you know it'shard for a college like hawaii
to compete with some of thebigger schools in that.
I get that.
But at the same time we're notdoing ourselves any favors by
(54:26):
having such a small, rinky-dinklittle facility right now to
watch the games.
Speaker 2 (54:32):
Yeah, I agree, and I think, like you said, with the
NIL deals it makes it kind ofhard for Hawaii players to stay
in Hawaii and with the transferportal it makes it easy for
anybody.
To me, it kind of is killingthe sport.
I mean, you see, kids go tothree different colleges.
It's not about the school orthe loyalty to the program or
(54:56):
the nostalgic value of playingwhere your dad played or
anything like that.
It's about where can I get themost money now and where can I
portal out to.
And it is what it is and Ithink it kind of changed the
dynamic of college sports.
I do think the kids should getcompensated.
They're the ones putting theirlife on the line.
(55:18):
But there could have beenbetter ways to do it where you
still have the pride of theschool and the aspect of where
it's something that you'rebacking, not just I'm playing
for this team because I can getpaid here.
(55:39):
I mean NFL teams can't even dothat.
You cannot jump from team toteam every year.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
Unless you have a free agency.
You can ask for it.
You're not going to get it.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
Yeah, but I mean it's a blessing for some people like
Gabriel.
After his injury he was able tofigure it out and now he's
going to be somewhere next year,hopefully.
But for UH it's going to besomewhere next year, hopefully
it.
But for uh it's going to berough, especially for our
football team, because our nildeals is not going to be like
(56:10):
how, yeah, but I don't know.
It is what it is.
My, my one of my good friends,chris brown, is one of the um
coaches there he he brings a lotof kids from where he used to
coach at Bishop Gorman, so hehas a good kind of vein from
some of those kids to come hereand play, at least for the start
(56:32):
of their college career.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
Yeah, and we've seen more starting to stay home or
come back home from other placesthrough the portal, so that's a
good sign.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
So we'll see where it goes from there yeah, I want to
ask you what was some of thetop players that you got to meet
through oc16 when they're inhigh school that now are doing
big things?
Speaker 1 (56:56):
well, the biggest one would be right.
Yeah, um, we were there for thechampionship game.
Um, when, when he won it and Igot to interview him and it was
it, was it even a full year?
It might not even been a fullyear later, oh, maybe just over
a year that he won the nationalchampionship with Alabama as a
(57:16):
freshman yeah right.
So it was like, oh my god,that's, that's the guy that just
last year was at Aloha Stadium.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
And I had him on the sideline, that's right.
Speaker 1 (57:29):
I interviewed him after the game and yeah, so Tua
was a big one.
And obviously Dylan Gabriel youmentioned Dylan, I mean because
he was playing as a freshman.
So we had him on OC from as afreshman, we had him on OC16
from as a freshman.
How many times did I interviewthat kid winning Impact Player
(57:50):
Awards?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Just a bunch of them.
Man, it's a and in all thesports too, you know.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Yeah, it's cool.
It's cool to see and yeah, Imean you kind of followed their
career Like Tua.
I remember that that nationalchampionship game he he was
brought in to take out JalenHurts who's playing for the
Superbowl, and he came in andjust dropped some dimes and then
he was the guy after.
Speaker 1 (58:22):
Yep, that's crazy.
Yeah, that's one of the thingsthat was was cool when I first
started with osc 16.
When we started that summer westarted doing um cal ripken
baseball, uh, which is you?
know the 12 news, and then westarted doing the 10 years, like
a couple years later.
But so young kids playingbaseball, you know, in the state
(58:43):
tournaments out here and we gothigh level baseball out here at
the at the youth levels.
I'm telling you it's, it's goodstuff that we have.
And so to see those kids too,you know, from those first years
, you know, and you got some ofthe kids that were on the little
league world series team, thatwere part of all of that, but
just to see them grow up and bein high school and you know some
(59:06):
of them have even graduatedhigh school already you know
that's kind of a trip too to seethem from that young up to that
level.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
Oh yeah, I didn't even think of that.
That's cool, I didn't realizeyou guys did like Little League
or Cal Ripken League, at least.
Speaker 1 (59:24):
Yeah, yeah, did like literally well, cal ripken
league at least.
Speaker 2 (59:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah we started doing it the same year I
started, so 2015.
Yeah, you guys weren't the onesdoing the trans pack volleyball
this past.
What two weeks ago?
Speaker 1 (59:33):
no, I think that was on like k5 I think oh, that's
right, yeah, yeah yeah, butthat's I.
I've been a part of that, uh,several years, because I know
Savan, I know Ed Chun, oh yeah,that is.
That thing has blown up so bigand the amount of teams that
(59:54):
they bring in, not just from themainland but from all over the
world, I mean, they've got theseinternational teams from
Canadaada, mexico, china, justall over the place, and it's
huge.
That is such a cool tournament,so it was fun to be a part of
it.
You know, a few years ago Ithink, even before covid I that
I was, I was doing some stuffwith them, but yeah, so to see
(01:00:16):
them get on tv for it too aswell, that was awesome, yeah it
was super cool and my, mydaughter, got to play in the
tournament, so our whole weekendwas volleyball and that was
insane it we played a team fromguam, one from alaska.
Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
They had yeah, they had british columbia there.
They had yeah, they, they saida total of over 400 teams and
yes, it was the number I heardfrom the, from the tourism
people.
Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
The number I heard was 25 000 people came in from
out of town for that nice,that's good for the economy yeah
exactly right, that's so.
That's something that I thinkyou know.
Tourism officials are lookingat this like let's keep growing
this, let's make this somethingreally big yeah and it, oh man,
(01:01:05):
it's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
It's gonna be even bigger next year.
I think that whole girls well,it had boys too, but girls
volleyball.
I didn't even know what I wasgetting into until my daughter
started, because as a as a guy.
I had no idea how big clubvolleyball was and brah it the
(01:01:26):
first convention tournament wewent to like a couple years ago
and I walked in there and I'mlike this is not real and it was
insane it's high?
Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
yeah, because the biggest impact is the ones in in
the mainland.
The convention centers are waymore massive.
I mean, they're just insane.
But I'll tell you this rightnow, as somebody who's seen all
the different sports clubvolleyball, you picked one of
the most expensive.
Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Oh, yeah, definitely.
We're going to have afundraiser this week.
I'm going to sell my kidney.
We're traveling twice this yearwe're going to Vegas and and um
dallas that's right.
Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
I'm like, yeah, I'm slinging.
That's why stevan and ed wantedto do trans.
Specific is so that therewasn't a thing for the kids here
to stay here and not have to doanother travel to the mainland
and spend way more money.
Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Yeah, and it's good because they have a lot of looks
.
They had a lot of scouts here.
They had a lot of eyeballs onthem because the women's
collegiate level volleyball isnot in season and everybody
wants to come to Hawaii sothey're going to come down here
and check out the talent.
Yeah, it was insane.
I was like, yeah, especiallythe mainland tournaments, like
(01:02:49):
our first one was Chicago and wewent into that convention
center and there were 160 courtsand I'm thinking like wow this
is insane.
Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
like yeah, let me know whenever you're selling
Zippy's chili tickets, I'll helpyou out.
I'll buy from you.
Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
We're going to be at Bellows on Sunday slinging huli
huli Soy chicken.
Last week we were slingingdonuts on the side of the road,
the Krispy.
Kreme I promise you I'm goinggonna sell my kidney next year
for yeah, yeah, it's fun and itgets the, the girls team closer
(01:03:32):
and it's good for them to workfor something that they're gonna
, you know.
I mean, if you just pay for it,all the girls just pay for when
they're playing, they're gonna,they're not gonna be thinking
like, oh man, we gotta win.
We just spent like three of oursundays out there in the hot sun
like you earn it now you gottawin it like we're not here just
to show up, but yeah, it's beencool, it's been fun.
(01:03:53):
Well, man, we've been going foran hour and I know how busy you
are, and it was a blessing.
A blessing, and not so muchthat the games got cancelled
today because of the weather,although, man, how different
does a day make?
It is sunny and blue skiestoday.
Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
And yesterday was monsoon season.
Right, but today they're havingto make up the games from
yesterday so they can get to thesemifinals and all that that
we're planning to air on TVRight.
So yeah.
Yep Weather weather got themyeah that's super.
Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
I mean it was.
It was a good blessing for mebecause you were able to come on
my show and, yeah, I know yourtime is precious and I
definitely appreciate it and anytime and any time for precious
and I definitely appreciate itand anytime, anytime for you.
Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Right on, bro we know all the same people from the
club days, bro, oh yeah, that'sthat's a good and bad Right.
Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Right, they're still sucking me back in.
We're about to do Eve, the newclub at um Bala Moana, Like
we're.
They're they're asking us to dothat.
It used to be vintage cave yeah, vintage cave, yeah yeah yeah,
uncle bo owns it yeah oh, okay,yeah no one wants to let artist
(01:05:14):
group network have a peacefulbow out.
Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
They want us back every single time.
Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Yeah, like bro, I'm too old to be trying to do it
these young kids in the club butwhatever, we'll make it fun for
them.
If you ever want to guess dj,let me know oh my gosh, I
haven't done that in so longjimmy the geek, live on the ones
in twos you would trip out.
Now, like I say you don't justbring a thumb drive, you don't
(01:05:42):
even need yeah but uh, where canpeople find you on social media
?
Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
uh, so my ig is at jimmy doug geek and facebook.
I'm jimmy the geek bender,gotta have the whole thing in
there.
Um, and then catch me on theradio.
I'm on with you know, perry andthe posse, every weekday
morning from five to 10 on 92,three KSSK and, of course, watch
all the high school sports.
As Felipe always says, supporthigh school sports.
Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
I agree, that's definitely and for us, as always
, you can find us on Instagramat above the bridge podcasts, on
our YouTube above the bridgepodcast, our website, atbpodcom,
and my Instagram isthaddydaddyhi.
Congrats to you on all yoursuccess, and to be in radio this
(01:06:33):
long and to be doing thatsports for Hawaii is huge and,
yeah, props to you guys and,like I said, you are one of my
bucket list guests that I wanted, so thank you again.
Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
I'll bring you a cassette.
Then I'll bring a cassette.
Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Oh, you got to sign it, bro.
For sure, I'll show it toRonnie.
Yeah, right on, man Whoa, we'reout.
Shout out to the Artist GroupNetwork.
Oh wait, wait, shockers for thecameras.
Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Right on, we're out.
Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Shout out to the Artist Group Network Aloha Outro
Music.
okay, welcome to another edition of the above the
bridge podcast.
I'm your host, thaddeus park.
Uh, I want to take time toshout out our sponsors.
First, we have defend hawaiiand they have a store, windward
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You can find their stuff alsoat tnc and other locations, but
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Lastly, I just want to thankeverybody for tuning in.
If you could like subscribe,leave a comment it matters on
(03:00):
our youtube, our podcastplatforms, whatever you can.
You also can check out ourwebsite at atbpodcom.
Thank you for your support andaloha.
Okay, this week my guest issomebody I had.
I was explaining to him earlierthat he's on my bucket list of
guests that I wanted for thisyear.
(03:22):
Somebody I've been a fan ofsince I was pretty much a kid.
He's been on the radio.
You see him on the sidelines atevery single high school
sporting event that's covered bySpectrum OC16 Sports, and
somebody that I really am a fanof Jimmy Bender.
(03:44):
Jimmy the Geek B bender.
What's up, man?
are you how?
You doing brother I'm doinggood, bro.
I'm super stoked to have you onand I appreciate the time being
that.
I know how busy you are and,yeah, I definitely appreciate
you coming on awesome to be here, man yeah.
So how's everything with you,man?
(04:06):
It's been.
Do you still go, uh, by thegeek?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
yeah, on on the radio .
I still use that.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
This on oc16 is jimmy bender okay, that's gonna be
the title that's gonna stickwith you forever, I guess
forever and I knew that from theget-go.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
It was one of those things that just like people
were like what did?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
you say well, you named yourself the geek, or like
someone yeah, somebody gave itto me oh, how did that come
about?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
so I don't know if you're old enough to remember.
There was a sportscaster guy bythe name of jimmy the greek, uh
, back on cbs back in the dayand he had gotten in trouble for
making some racial comments.
This is back in the late 80s,right?
Um?
And so the headline was in thepaper when I'm in my boss's
office and we're trying to comeup with a radio name for me, and
(05:01):
so there's the headline saysjimmy the greek fired blah, blah
.
And my boss looks at me andhe's like you should call
yourself jimmy the geek.
And you know, keep in mind I'm.
I'm like 17, 18 years old,right out of high school,
basically I weigh like a buck,20, soaking wet, and I've got
braces, and you know.
So he throws that at me and Iwas kind of like no, how about?
(05:26):
Uh?
But you know, he, he, just hekept kind of like yeah, you
should really do it, you shouldreally do it.
And so finally, a few weekslater, I just went on the air
without saying anything to himand I used it and, like I said,
the response that I startedgetting was like what?
And I knew that we hadsomething.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So yeah, that's pretty cool.
How did you get started inringo?
I think, if I can remember, youwere with um daniel tucker and
michael uh, what is it?
Oh q sang, q sang, michael qsang.
No, are you with those guys?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
No, I started at I-94 .
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Oh they were 93 FMQ.
That's right, right, Right, butthat's what I grew up listening
to right.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I listened to them.
But the way I got into radio isright out of high school I had
to go get a job.
My friend helped me get a jobat a Hallmark store that was in
the Davies Pacific Centerdowntown.
At a Hallmark store that was inthe Davies Pacific Center
downtown and that's the samebuilding I-94 was in right.
So I would you know the DJswould come down and we'd talk
(06:31):
story and eventually it kind ofbecame like hey, do you want to
come up and work with us?
And I was like sure that'ssuper cool.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Were you in high school and when you were growing
up were you like the classclown, center of attention, the
guy making all the jokes.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, kind of I've done voice impressions all my
life and it was the voiceimpressions that kind of got
their attention.
They were like, hey, you shouldcome up and do some of these on
the radio with us.
So I've kind of always beenthat.
But I never in my wildestdreams thought I would do radio
for a living.
I thought I was going to go tocollege and whatever.
(07:10):
And yeah, it just presenteditself and I was like, yeah, I
want to do this.
So it worked out.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Wow, that's super cool and it's been a couple of
decades of your career and I'vebeen a fan of you and I
explained to you yesterday I Iwanted to double check, but I
remember my friends brought meto a local wrestling event.
That's right jimmy the geek wasuh one of the contestants in a.
(07:44):
Jimmy the Geek was one of thecontestants in a WWE local style
wrestling match and I rememberit clearly because you threw out
T-shirts and I was one of thefans who caught it and it was a
green Extreme Radio T-shirt andI wanted to know at first when I
asked you I want to make surethat was you because I'm pretty,
(08:06):
I pretty have a good memory, soI kind of remember it being you
.
But how did that come about?
And that was that was a longtime ago.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, and I can't remember the name of whether it
was AZW or whatever thewrestling organization was, but
when I was at Extreme Radio,they, they came to us wanting to
do some promotions.
So initially actually, uh,cutmaster spaz and one of the
other djs at our station did amatch, a tag team match, with
two of the guys, and to promoteit we had the guys come on the
(08:39):
radio with us and you know, setit all up that they were gonna
to beat me up in the studio,like I.
Literally I had to call my wifeand I had to tell her, no
matter what anybody tells, you,don't worry, I'm okay.
And sure enough, her dad hadcalled her.
Like, oh, I heard somethinghappened to Jimmy on the radio,
(08:59):
but she knew already because Ihad told her ahead of time.
But so we set that whole thingup, and so the next time they
came to us then it was.
Then they said, okay, jimmy,now you're gonna be the one
that's gonna wrestle.
And so I had to go.
You know, ever beach they hadlike, uh, some backyard, they
had a big ring set up there andwe had to practice and
(09:19):
everything.
And that was a lot of fun, man,that was a lot of fun, that's
super cool.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I always lot of fun.
That's super cool.
I always wanted to do that,being a wrestling fan growing up
, that was cool.
Yeah, it was a legitorganization.
Back then I think we foughtJudo Punk.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I forget.
That's the only guy I remember.
Yeah, that sounds right, yeah,yeah yeah.
The only thing I regret is Inever went on the top rope.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I only went up to the second rope well, you're pretty
tall, so that's pretty high up.
That's cool.
I always wonder like the, thering and stuff is reinforced by
springs and stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
It's not like you're not landing on solid ground yeah
, it's bouncy right, and so thattook some getting used to it.
And even the ropes, I mean, youknow they're a little, they're
a little harder when you hitinto them than you think.
Um, but yeah, it's just it was.
It was so much fun, man, yeahyeah, I couldn't do it now.
I'm 55 and no, there's no way Icould do that now, but you
(10:26):
could be a wrestling manager.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, that's super cool.
So you work for extreme.
Back in the day, I remember along time ago, there was
something called radio freehawaii yeah, I remember radio
free, yeah and I kind of likethat station because there was
no kind of genre it wastargeting.
(10:49):
It was you could listen to rock, yeah, r&b, rap, whatever, it
was all on one station, but thatkind of I mean it literally was
.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I mean you could hear Barry Manilow next to Metallica
.
That's kind kind of you knowcause it was.
It was literally based onwhatever votes they got positive
.
I mean it was a veryinteresting concept.
I just think it was at the timekind of hard to monetize it, I
guess, and keep it going.
But it was an interestingconcept and it created a buzz.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah yeah, that was a cool, cool radio station.
As you've been in radio for somany years, what do you see?
The changes from back when youstarted to what it is now?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
So A that makes it so much easier.
You know, before we used tohave to like every hour you had
to go and pull all your.
When I first started it wascalled carts, which looked like
you know, eight track tapes,right, so all the songs, all the
commercials.
So you had to pull your hourstack of music and commercials
(11:59):
and you know, plug them in andplay them, and you know, then it
became CDs, so you had to gostack your cds.
Um, but once everything was oncomputer, I mean everything's so
much easier, you know, and andeven for me, like as a
production guy, editing stuff,you know, because you can see
the waveform and so like,everything just became so much
(12:21):
easier, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I definitely, I definitely understand that,
being in the club industry forall these years.
I've watched our DJs carry milkcrates of records to the books
of CDs and now all they have nowis a thumb drive and it's crazy
.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, these young DJs .
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I remember pulling up to world cafes and unloading
the van within like three milkcrates, with the hand truck and
wheeling them yeah, yeah, thesedjs got it made and even even
with software and video editingand obviously with the radio,
it's been, it's been convenientand it takes away of of the
(13:06):
learning process a lot, and Iwas talking to one of my guests
who does video and it's like allthe stuff that it took for you
to learn how to do something nowbecomes a app on your iphone
and you can do it right waitingin line at.
Target.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well, you know, I mean you know from the DJ side.
You know, you know all thecontrollers now that have a sync
button to automatically try tobeat match stuff, where before
we had to listen and pitch itthis way.
I want to pitch it this way andyou know, now it's just like
push a button.
Yeah, I want to pitch it thisway, and you know, now it's just
like push a button, yeah, soyou grew up here in Hawaii or
(13:52):
you kind of moved in from themainland, yeah, so I was a
military brat, right, so welived all over.
I grew up in Southern Cal as ayoung kid, then we went to
Michigan and Kansas City andthen my junior year is when we
moved out here.
So I did my junior year and mysenior year at Palo Alto.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Okay, all right, mustangs mustangs baby, yeah how
was it moving here?
I know you kind of explainedhow it was when you first moved
here, adjusting to like thelocal style and how, how it is.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I, you know, I really think it's just, you know, it's
kind of like anything in lifeor or sports is a great analogy.
It's a mindset thing, right,like I came here with a really
open mind and kind of excitedthat like, oh my God, we have to
live in Hawaii.
You know, I was coming from youknow two very cold places,
michigan and in Kansas city.
So I was like this is awesome,you know.
(14:46):
So I think having that openmindset and, you know, being
somebody who, I guess, you know,I always like to say like being
a military brat, made me kindof a chameleon, because I lived
around different people,different areas, you know.
So I wasn't just in one click Ilearned to be around different
people, different areas, youknow so.
So I, I wasn't just in oneclick, I learned to be around
(15:09):
different people, and so I thinkthat helped a lot too.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, plus you're humorous, so everybody likes
laughter.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Laughter is a connection.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Laughter and music, I always think is a good
connection for people.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, for sure yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So it didn't take you much time to adjust.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Then it kind of yeah, I don't think so.
Um, you know, obviously it wasvery different, but yeah, but
again, you know, having havingbeen in different places and and
seeing how you know thisdialect in california, this
dialect in Michigan, thisdialect in Kansas city, you know
(15:47):
, you just kind of learn thatevery place is different and you
just got to, you know, kind ofembrace it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh, that's cool.
Well, it works for you andyou're considered a local boy
and I know that you even had agroup of local boy talent.
I guess you guys, you guys,it's, you guys were like legit
singers.
Right, it was back in the day.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
No, I wouldn't go that far um, you know.
I mean, we did rap stuff and umyou know it started with
original songs but then kind ofthe forte became doing parody
stuff.
Uh, after the first parody songwe did was me so hungry and
that kind of was like, okay,this is the direction we want to
go, we want to do the parodything.
(16:35):
But but it was funny because youknow it's three local boys and
it's a holiday guy, a Filipinoand a Japanese guy but it worked
out I mean we had a lot of funwith that and that gave us an
opportunity, you know, on top ofthe radio, to just kind of
branch out and do other thingsyeah, I remember you guys had
rice, rice gravy or somethinglike that rice, rice, baby, yeah
(16:58):
, yeah I remember that and, um,you guys are pretty popular and
you guys are pretty popular andyou guys got you explained to me
yesterday you got to not touror I guess maybe tour or do
shows with one of my closefriends, ronnie from BBC New
(17:19):
Generation.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
How was?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
that era, I think like.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Forte was around then too Forte was it.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Forte actually even came a little bit later than
that.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
So you know.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
BBC was the big one back then.
You know Ronnie, nito, maestro,tiff and Freddie.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
And that was just so much fun.
I mean you know you said wewere popular.
Uh, they were popular and andit was.
It was so crazy to.
You know we would hit all thehigh schools or or do like shows
at malls or whatever, and justto see all the girls that would
come out and scream me for them.
And I mean you know I'm not oldenough to have been around when
(17:59):
the beatles, but everybodyalways compares stuff to that
and and that was just likeinsanity.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Everywhere we would go with them yeah, it's funny
because my first ever encounterwith bbc and ronnie, who's one
of my closest friends, was hewas on a poster in my sister's
room.
That was the first time I'veever seen ronnie and those guys
(18:27):
are were super popular I, I didyou did you get to do those
castle park shows?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
um, we did a couple up there.
I remember, like uh, who does?
The guys that sang the robocopsong, the sleaze boys, I think
they did a show out there.
Uh, and bbc was there, so we,because we were the same record
label, right as as bbc, uh, thematt young thing.
So us, uh that group, if youremember them.
(18:55):
Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, so we allused to like go and tour all the
schools and do stuff like thatoh, that's super cool.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I miss castle park.
I always talk I always talk tomy daughter about it and she's
like why did they tear thatplace down?
That was the tell me.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Not castle park was the best thing on on the island
as a young kid I mean it was, itwas a cool spot and and like
you know, being able to do theconcerts there and stuff like
that, you know the huge arcade,huge arcade which you know back
in the 80s.
You know kids don't understandnow because video games are
right near your house, but youknow back in the 80s we were at
(19:32):
the arcade nonstop.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Just dropping quarter .
Dropping quarter, droppingquarter yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
I was definitely a mall rat in Windermere Mall and
Tilt was the Tilt and McDonald'sthat whole area yeah yeah, yeah
yeah, windward Mall was mystopping grounds, man.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That was the spot.
We were always there.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, that Yellow Brick Road.
I don't know if you rememberYellow Brick Road.
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And the one memory that sticks out in my head of
Windward Mall is when they firstopened the Cinnabons and how
crowded it was.
But the fact too that the smellbecause that's not a huge mall
the smell it didn't matter whatside of the mall you walked in
from.
You could smell it as soon asyou walked in the mall.
You're like, oh, cinnabons.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
That's true.
Now they got the cookie corner.
Trying to do that like yeah, itjust walks.
Yeah, that's right it's soweird I'm gonna age myself.
But uh, when winward mallopened, I was at cnans and I was
second grade and they had thegrand opening and we got to go
(20:43):
as a class and we went to thegrand opening and we had a time
capsule that they put in thereand then they dug it out and I
haven't heard what happened.
But I don't know what, but Iknow, I know we did it.
We gotta find out what happenedto that thing.
Yeah, it'd be kind of cool.
I, I know our class made a tape, a cassette.
(21:05):
Cassette right right right,really aging myself.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I had a guy.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I mean speaking of Three Local Boys.
I had a guy come up to me theother day we were doing we had
All For One in the music hall atthe radio station.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
And a guy came up to me with the original Three Local
Boys album on cassette and hadme autograph it and I was like,
oh my God, I can't believe youstill have this thing.
And he said, yeah, he actuallystill has a player that can play
it.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Oh that's sick, that is insane.
Do you have any of that stuff?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I think I still have at least one of all of them.
Yeah, um, yeah, yeah, I have itsomewhere.
Um, but yeah, because that'sall.
The three local boys stuff wasonly on cassette.
We never did cds for the threelocal boys, so it's all.
All of it was only on cassette.
So even if you have it, youknow most people don't even have
anything to play it on.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, exactly, you ever let your kids watch or
listen to some of that stuffyeah, yeah, they've heard all of
it.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Oh, okay, you know, and they kind of you know like,
okay, yeah, it's hard to impresskids, I know.
But I, they taught me a termrecently that I guess the kids
use nowadays, which is you know,either mom lore or dad lore,
and it's when you find outsomething about your parents
that blows your mind.
And I I learned that, uh,because my youngest son said it
(22:38):
to me when I told him um, theyknow glenn maderos, but they
know gl Medeiros because theyknow his kids.
Lyric and Chord worked at theSumner Fund that they used to go
to.
So they know Lyric and Chordreally well.
So they know Glenn as UncleGlenn.
And so when I told my youngestson that I actually came out at
(23:01):
Brown Bags and did the BobbyBrown rap on she ain't worth it
for glenn my son was just likedad lord like they can't picture
their dad doing stuff like thatright man, they, they don't
have brown bags anymore, do they?
uh, no, I know it was going on afew years back it was.
(23:23):
It was, uh, somebody had boughtit from the radio station.
Remember I 94 was brown bagsfor years.
Yeah, somebody had bought itand and was doing it as like a
TV show on OC 16, but I thinkeven that's gone now.
So yeah, there's not, there'snothing.
That was such a huge deal backin the day.
Yeah, I remember seeing Capenafirst.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I was like who's this holly guy singing falsetto?
I think I was like eighth gradeor something.
I was like these guys are goodthey're good and then they just
blew up.
I remember that we had a littlesituation with Brown Bags.
I played football for Damien.
(24:04):
I played football for Damienand one of the DJs was talking
trash about our football team atthe time.
I think it could have been RoryWilde.
I might be wrong.
I forget what it was, but hecame later on in the year.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
He came to our school for brown bags.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Oh, we may or may not have.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Uh took it out on his car for all the the shit that
he was telling us allegedly Ithink, the statute of
limitations is up, so you'refine yeah, yeah, his antenna may
have looked like a heartbeat,that's funny yeah, but brown
(24:52):
bags are super cool.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
I remember that, that and it was the local talent and
then the every winners from theschool had it like it was like
the the big final.
Yeah, the big one yeah, yeah,so that's.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
you know, one of the things that really like kind of
helped launch our careers foralumni and myself when we were
partnering together was that wedid all the Brown bank shows at
the schools, so not only theschools on Oahu, we did all the
neighbor Island stuff.
So you know we were constantlyout and about, so that that kind
of helped us and we got toperform, you know, as three
(25:28):
local boys or whatever, at theBrown Bank shows too.
So, um, you know, I think thatreally was just a big boost for
us to always be in front of thataudience.
Uh, you know that was going tobuy our stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, oh man.
Imagine if there was a socialmedia presence back then, how
much bigger you guys would havebeen well, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I I feel like it's a, it's a blessing sometimes if
there wasn't social media back,oh yeah I agree too I might, may
have way more evidence.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, definitely agree with that.
It's different.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Well, big side of it, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, Well, you're still in radio and I got to talk
to you a little bit yesterday.
You got.
You're currently part of theKSSK morning show.
And like I explained to youyesterday, it was the show that
my dad would listen to, takingme to school every morning.
(26:29):
So I was on board with Perryand Price every morning and it
was my way to school everymorning, and now you're a part
of it.
Price is no longer there andyou kind of Right.
And Michael W Perry is Like theiconic Iconic Radio guy in
(26:53):
Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah, I mean, think about it.
They started that show in 1983,so it's been Almost 42 years
that that show has been going on.
And, like you said, I mean Iwas the same way when we first
moved here.
It's been almost 42 years thatthat show has been going on.
And, like you said, I mean Iwas the same way when we first
(27:15):
moved here.
My dad would listen to Perryand price and you know I'm a
teenager, I'm like I don't wantto listen to this, I don't.
You know, I want to look at theMichael Q saying and you know I
wouldn't even call into MichaelQ saying that's how much I love
.
I would call in and do sillyvoices, and so you know, it's
kind of that thing where I waslike that's my dad's thing, I
don't want to listen to the kid.
And now I'm there, Right.
So it's just, it's such a weirdkind of surreal type of thing
(27:37):
for me to be like I'm workingwith this dude.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, he's, he's, yeah, he must be up there.
Yeah, he must be up there,right?
I mean, they've been 40 years.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
But he's still like you said.
I mean, he's an icon and he'sjust a consummate professional
when it comes to radio.
So much fun to work with.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, I can imagine.
You guys must have some stories.
I think yeah it's good fun.
Yeah, I think they had uh backin the day.
They would do a Sunday show atthe Hanohano room.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Uh, the Saturday.
Yeah, they would do it on.
Saturday and see back back thenthey used to do it every week.
So think about that.
They were, they were working,you know the five days a week.
You know doing the the fivedays a week, you know doing the
morning show.
Then they were doing theSaturday show and I mean that's
just crazy.
You know, now now the Saturdayshow is really more like just a
(28:33):
special occasion thing, like aMother's Day or Valentine's or
Thanksgiving, christmas.
You know, it's not, it's notthe every week thing, because
that's just too much.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, that's too much .
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I read on your Instagram.
Instagram you're the producerof the show.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, yeah, so that's my official title, right is,
I'm the producer.
So you know, mike's in one roomin his studio and then I'm in
the other room and basically youknow, as a producer, my job is
just to make sure thateverything is right there, ready
for him.
So, like I said before, we hadto pull the the cards or the cds
(29:13):
.
Now it's just, it's all in acomputer.
So I just got to stack and makesure the songs, the commercials
, whatever is all there andready to go so he can just focus
on doing the show.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, must be fun, is it?
Is it stressful or you'realready?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I mean, it's live radio, right.
You never know what's going tohappen.
So so it can you know, andthere's a lot of sometimes oh,
you know we talk too long.
I got to move some stuff around, but you know, like you said,
though, it's fun, you know, it'sa great, it's a great crew that
we got with Mike and Mandywho's been doing our news now
(29:54):
for almost a year.
Just just so much fun, you know.
So so, even waking up at threein the morning, it doesn't
really bother me that much.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I guess it's something to get used to.
I think with radio now, wheredo you see it going in the
future, because a lot ofstreaming platforms are coming
out?
I know a few uh close friendsof mine that were radio djs that
got let go recently right andit's, I know it's.
It's an industry that's not asstrong as it used to be because
(30:28):
of the streaming platforms, butwhere do you see radio going in
the future?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Interestingly, though I mean the numbers still say
that we're one of the mostlistened to things.
So people are still listening.
Like you know we haven't lostaudience.
Like you know we haven't lostaudience.
But but I think you know, youknow it definitely is one of
those things where you have tolearn to adapt, you have to
(31:03):
learn to do new things.
You know podcasts are obviouslythe big thing nowadays and our
company where even just you know, taking part of your radio show
and putting it on a podcast ora segment that people can listen
to later if they can't listento right, then you know, it's
just things of that nature.
But again, you know, what itboils down to with radio is the
(31:26):
live aspect of it is havingsomebody there that you know,
like a Michael W Perry that youthink of is.
I've known this guy for 40something years.
You know, I trust him.
You know, 15 years ago, whenall the streaming stuff started,
(31:49):
everybody's like, oh, radio isgoing to be done.
No, I think we'll be fine.
I think it just needs to kindof adapt a little bit.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Okay, radio stations that were locally based have
outsourced to a mainland show, Ithink the woody show before it
was um, who was it?
Mike?
Oh, what was it?
Scotty b, scotty b and hudson,yeah, yeah, and then and that's,
you know that's.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
That's one of the natures of radio itself too, is
you know?
I mean Seacrest was one toSeacrest, you know, was
syndicated all across thecountry.
Elvis Duran, howard Stern, youknow all of the guys like that.
You know it's.
It's.
If it's a big enough name thatcompanies are comfortable with
(32:44):
putting it in a different marketeven though they're not from
there, they'll do it.
But again, to me the guys likeMike Perry are invaluable.
The guys like Rory Wilde, who'sbeen doing this for years,
they're invaluable becausethey're from here and they're
(33:04):
tapped into everything that'sgoing on here.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, and the audience resonates with that,
definitely.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I don't want to ask you and I always get a little
starstruck but have you got tomeet certain celebrities where,
because I know you, I mean you,you guys, you just met all for
one this past couple days ago,but hundreds of them.
For the amount of time you'vebeen in radio, you must have met
a lot of celebrities andartists, which one stood out to
(33:38):
you the most, that you were likelike fanboyed out right um.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
One of the first ones I remember was meeting TLC when
they were here for a show atthe Blaisdell and when I and I
were.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Wait, sorry, I think I went to that show, it was.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
TLC.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Boyz II Men at MC Hammer.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Was that the?
One yeah that was the one.
Okay, go ahead.
So Lanai and I were doing somekind of TV show thing and so we
recorded a segment with them,not even backstage, outside the
back part of the arena there,but you know, left Eye was still
(34:23):
there and the one thing Iremember is she gave me one of
her condoms.
Remember she would put thecondoms in the safety pin.
She gave me one.
I don't know what happened toit, but that was one of those
things I was like, oh my God,left Eye gave me her condom.
But the other one that, likeyou know, you're right.
(34:45):
Right, we met a lot of peopleand and people are cool, but the
one that really made me fan boywas, uh, when I was working at
fm 100, um damian, junior gongmarley, and, uh, his brother, um
julian, had come to town andgetting to meet them because
(35:06):
it's like you're Bob's kids.
I was like, oh my God, you guysare Bob's kids.
That's insane.
And then I remember the show wasat the Shell that night and we
were sitting backstage, but kindof like on the side.
So we're like looking directline from the side at Julian
(35:28):
while he was performing and Iswear to God, it was like he
became Bob, like you looked athim and it's like, and the way
he was performing, I was likethat's exactly all the videos
I've seen of Bob and how he was.
Oh my God, he's like channelinghis dad.
So yeah, that was the moment.
That was really just kind ofsurreal.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Oh, that's cool.
I know they say it's never goodto meet your heroes or
celebrities that you have.
What were some of the negativeones?
That you got?
Like celebrity you got to meetand I was like, oh man, that
guy's a douche.
Wish I never met him um, did Isay it?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I think I told some people.
Maybe I can't say this, um.
So one of the first ones that Igot to meet was new kids on the
block, but this was before theyblew up.
Okay, um, I think they weredoing a show at aloha tower.
So I get a call at like 10 or11 o'clock at night and somebody
says you need to come down tothe station because we need you
(36:32):
to help produce something forthis music group.
I'm like, ok, I didn't knowwhat was going on.
I show up and I don't.
I don't really know who theyare.
I think please don't go, girl,maybe you just come out.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Oh OK.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
So I kind of knew who , but you know I didn't really
know much.
So they just wanted me to puttogether the tape on reel to
reel that they were going to useas their show tape.
So I just had to splice somesongs together for them and I
just remember, like Danny wasnot very cool.
And even the next time we methim, we opened for them.
(37:08):
Three local boys opened for newkids at the Blaisdell Like
about three years later, I thinkit was, and he was not very
cool.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
So I was like oh, sorry, bro, but I'm Jimmy the
geek, the geek man, don't youknow?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
I wasn't thinking that.
I was thinking like um, you'renot the star of the group yeah,
you're the background everybodyloves joey and and jordan and
danny, they're not.
Or I mean donnie, they're notworried about you.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, you're not the Justin Timberlake.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
That's funny, you ain't the guy.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
You should be the nice.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
You're not going to have a solo career.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Man, not only are you doing radio and I touched on it
earlier but you are big time inhigh school sports and I am
blown away for one with theproduction OC16 does on these
sporting events for these highschool athletes.
And my daughter goes to leisuredon she, she's in high school
(38:27):
and she plays volleyball.
She, she only played, but theirvarsity was showcased in one of
these, um, one of one of the oneof the games and the production
trailers.
And they we get pick up yourkid early and they're gonna have
this blocked off.
I'm like it's oc60 and when Igot there you guys had two
(38:53):
trailers.
You it was a, it was it.
That gym turned into a, aproduction, it I was.
I had no idea how much goesinto those shows, but it makes
sense, cause they are well done.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
I and that's the thing I mean.
You know, cause we don't.
We don't have professionalsports here.
Yeah, we do have some collegestuff, but you know high school
sports in Hawaii becauseeverybody knows somebody.
You know, at any given time youhave a niece, a cousin, a
whatever that somehow you have aconnection to a certain school
(39:32):
and a sport and so people willwant to watch.
But yeah, you know, from fromday one, back in 1989, when you
know mitzi lejano said let's dothis.
Um, it's been all about, youknow, making it the best that it
can be, and so you know that'swhy you see the production value
.
You see guys like felipeojastro, who, I mean, my god,
(39:55):
that guy is the.
I mean, he's only 30 something,but he's the goat, right, I
mean he.
Nobody does their homeworkbetter, nobody.
You know no disrespect toanybody else that does this, but
you know cause.
I know guys like Kanoa Lehi areawesome too, but but Felipe is
at like practices every daytalking to the kids or he just
(40:17):
knows everything and, and sothat's why it has become such a
a cool thing.
And you know, now there'sfelipe stickers everywhere you
go and all that head on a posterand stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
That's right.
Yeah, I'm I'm definitely a fanof that guy.
He, yeah, blows me away withhis knowledge of the athletes,
and be able to do play-by-playand call those games in multiple
sports and not miss a beatthat's mind-blowing.
Like you could be good at onesport, and that's cool, but he's
(40:52):
good at all of them.
So are you, though, and yoursideline presence is always
appreciated, and it brings moreaction to the game and what
you're watching, and I like whatyou said, though, like how a
lot of people can watch thesehigh school sports.
Like for me, I I graduated fromdamien I get to watch them play
(41:14):
and hear from them, and and thestuff we never had before.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
But how did you?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
get stuck with that job.
That seems like the coolest jobever.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
And so, you know, kind of like my radio career,
another thing that kind of youknow just came to me.
You know it wasn't anything Iwas pursuing, but when did I
start 2015.
So what happened was OC hadstarted doing what they call X
cast, so they could, you know,do multiple games in one night.
(41:44):
And because they were doingmultiple games, they needed
another sideline reporter.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Jen Boniza was the sideline reporter back then oh,
that's right, that was a longtime ago.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, they needed another one.
So Dave Vinton and I werealready friends.
He would come on the radio showand talk about oc60 sports, so
he knew I was a sports fan andso he just, uh, reached out to
me and said, hey, look, you know, we're doing this thing.
We need sideline reporter.
Um, you know, how would you feelabout you know, doing something
(42:16):
like that?
I'm like, yeah, that soundspretty cool and sure enough,
it's pretty cool.
Um, so, yeah, I just, I justjumped right into it and you
know again, like, for me, I'mnot, I'm not Felipe, I don't, I
don't know as much as he does,but I'm a fan of, of all the
sports and I just love theexcitement that the kids have
(42:40):
for it.
Right, I mean, you, you see it,with the interviews, the kids
are always, you know, justhaving such a good time.
You know saying some, somecrazy things, but you know it's
stuff that's awesome because,you know, pro athletes, or maybe
even college athletes, are, youknow, a little more reserved
and they have their cliches.
They're going to say, but thekids are just like, oh, I just
(43:03):
seen green grass and I wentwrong.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yup, local boys, they don't hold back.
They is what they is.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Shout out to shout out to Kauai for that one.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Just see green grass.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Why may I?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Those guys beat my Damien team in the.
I know, bro, that that runningback he looked like a man.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Those guys beat my.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Damien team in the.
I know, yeah, oh, bro that thatrunning back he looked like a
man.
Somebody had to check his birthcertificate.
He had a full beard.
Six kids in the stands.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
There was a.
There was a kid.
He plays basketball over herenow at Maryknoll, but when he
was a freshman we first saw him.
He was over on Maui as afreshman.
This dude had a full beard andwas, like you know, 6'5" and
you're just like what.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yo, like full-sleeved tats.
I was like wow, what are thesekids Right?
It's cool to see, though,though, and how has it been on
the sidelines?
I always wanted to know.
Okay, you're you have clipshere and there of throughout the
game, but what are you doingwhen you're not, because you're
(44:16):
not on camera the whole time?
So are you in a mingling?
Are you watching the games?
And what are you doing when thecamera's not on you?
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Yeah, a little bit of everything.
I mean, I'll talk story withsome of the people there just to
see you know what's going on orif there's any.
You know things you know that Ican talk about.
But I also, you know, because Ido a highlight package in the
post game show, so I've got tobe watching, for you know
(44:46):
certain plays that I've got totell the truck, okay, I want the
replay of this one, I want thereplay of that one, um, but I
mean, it is a bottom line, isI'm watching sports, you know,
and it's a job yeah, yeah, soyeah it.
It really is.
I mean that that's one of thethings you know.
People always say to me, like,how can you do radio?
And that it's because they'reboth fun.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Right, that's the bottom line for me yep, it seems
fun and you always have thatpositive energy and that fun
aspect of of what you're doingand it definitely resonates with
the Hawaii community andeverybody watches it there's
everybody.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
I hope so, man.
Yeah, like I said, you know,we're just there having fun and
we want to make sure the kidsare having fun, so yeah, you
guys are busy because, as a fanI watched.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
I remember a month I think it was in November where
you guys had state high schoolfootball playoffs, girls
volleyball, high school stateplayoffs all at the same time
and you guys are banging out acouple of games in a row every
single day.
I'm thinking like wow for one.
(45:57):
How do you guys even deciphereverything?
But it's like one after another.
It got busy at some point.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah, and we're in that right now with the winter
sports, so soccer tournaments,basketball tournaments when they
hit the postseason it gets kindof crowded, but again it's only
for like a week or a week and ahalf at a time.
So just punch through, let's doall these games and usually
(46:29):
postseason games those are someof the most fun.
I mean, you see some reallygood action.
So, yeah, you just push throughit and enjoy it for what it is.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah, I watched.
One of my close friends, alikaKosner, is the head coach for
Milani.
Shout out to them for winningthe OIA last weekend.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
That's right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
How was that game?
Because that was a close gameand it ended kind of with a
weird situation where the goaliekind of punched the guy in the
head On accident it looked likeit was, but it was a hard hit
punched the guy in the head onaccident.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
It looked it looked like it was, but it was a hard
hit.
Prior to that he had kind ofmade a little flub too, where he
came running out of the box youknow where the goalie can't
touch the ball and almosttouched it like he was.
Just he was just a little tooamped up when the game got.
You know, to that point I think, and so that in that moment you
know he's just going up tryingto punch the ball and.
But you know, that's the thingabout sports man, you just never
(47:28):
know what's going to happen inthose moments.
And soccer is one of those games.
I was talking to the coaches.
It really is.
You know, it's just a matter ofinches where the ball lands and
gets on the guy's left footversus his right foot so he can
take a solid shot, and itcompletely changes the game.
So you know, that was obviouslya huge moment because it
(47:48):
created the walk-off.
You know, uh, penalty kick formililani.
But you know, both of thosegames that night were were
unbelievable.
The d2 one as well was a 2-1game and you know where, um uh,
who scored two goals in a matterof five minutes, but in the
last 10 minutes of the game theywere down one nil for most of
(48:10):
the game and all of a suddenboom and boom and like, yeah, oh
, they win and they were late,too right.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
That's why everything was pushed back.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, their boss was like anhour and a half late, so, yeah,
that was a very interestingnight yeah, but yeah that that
Campbell um Milani game wassuper cool I was happy of the
outcome because that's my goodfriend and I was glad he won.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
But I was also happy Campbell gets a spot in the
state tournament and it wasunfortunate how it ended because
, like you said, the goalie washighly intense and made a
mistake.
But when you get a yellow cardyou got to leave the game.
So they had the backup goaliein for the penalty kick and I
(48:57):
was like, oh, that sucks to bethat dude.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
It's the double whammy, right, like you give up
up the penalty kick, but youalso get sent out for that one
play, but that's the only playthat really mattered at that
point.
So yeah, and that's really.
That is why I love life sports,because anything can happen
yeah, well being that you'vebeen doing it for so long.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
What games and sport were you so amped up like, oh, I
can't wait for this one.
And what games were those like?
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Well, I, you know, I'm a baseball dude, so you know
, baseball season, softballseason, is always my favorite.
But you know, that being said,football championships are
always so good here in Hawaii.
You know, and especially youknow, we had Kahuku, had that
three-peat run going, and thenSt Louis beat them.
And remember last year's gamethat they won.
(49:53):
The three-peat with Mililaniwas a close game too, and then
this year the one with St Louiswas, you know, it's down to the
wire, and those are the gamesyou want to see when it's
championship night yeah,definitely you don't want
championship to be like 50 to 14.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
You know you want it to be close, yeah yeah, unless
it's the niners and they're inthe super bowl and they're
winning by that much, then I'mcool.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, oh yeah, I don't think we'll ever be in the
super bowl, so I don't have toworry about that you guys had a
decent season this year.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
I mean you started off, I don't know.
Yeah, bears, I don't know.
I remember walter peyton in theuh, refrigerator perry years.
Those are, those are the hadesbut you're a baseball guy are
you still?
Are you a Cubs fan or?
Speaker 1 (50:43):
yeah, yeah, oh.
So.
So my, my dad, is from northernIllinois, so we were just kind
of born and raised, as you know,even though we didn't live in
in that area growing up becausewe're military, but that's what
my dad, you know, instilled inus was Cubs and Bears that's
super cool.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
I was blessed a few years ago.
My daughter had a nationalvolleyball tournament in chicago
and I got to go to the iconicwrigley field to watch the clubs
play the phillies and nothingbetter man oh man, you walk in
there and it's, that's chickenskin it's a vibe oh it's, I was.
(51:23):
It was like the.
The nostalgic aspect of that,that um stadium was just
something you can't explain.
Walking in there just beinglike whoa, this is wrigley field
, like this is it, see, seeingit, and being there it was.
It was cool.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Yeah, it was what I love is, you know, I I've been
to games at wrigley where youknow we win by 10.
I've been to games at wrigleywhere we lose by 10.
What I love about wrigley isthe fans are the same, no matter
what the score is.
They stay all the way throughthe game.
They don't leave.
The energy is there, it's.
It's just a differentatmosphere because, you know, we
(52:02):
lived in arizona for 12 years.
We used to go to diamondbacksgames that's like you know,
people show up in the secondinning and leave in the seventh,
just like they do in la right,and I'm like, no, you guys, you
guys don't get it.
This is not what it's aboutyeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
and with um, with sports here in Hawaii, like you
said, we don't have the luxuryof watching pro sports, so
watching these young kids ispretty awesome.
And of course, the college.
But I think for college the wayHawaii is is more kind of in
(52:40):
tune to volleyball, becausethey're winning more.
Speaker 1 (52:46):
I would agree.
I mean you know, you thinkabout on a regular basis what
our volleyball teams are able toput inside an arena versus most
other colleges across thenation.
I mean it's, it's a wholedifferent animal.
But you're right too, it helpsit that they win championships,
right, I mean that's, and thearena is nice.
I mean you know, look, thebiggest problem and you know I
(53:07):
do a sports show too, uh, acouple days a week.
You know, on our, on our sisterstations and we talk about a
lot.
You know, the biggest problemfor UH football.
I love Timmy chain and I, I, Itruly believe that that he was a
great guy for that job Becauseof his history with the program,
(53:29):
his offensive mindset.
I just love the culture hetries to do with the Brotherhood
.
But for me you've got thatstadium.
That's just not a real stadium,right?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (53:41):
I mean, I played on it in high school, it's just not
a real stadium, right?
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Yeah, I mean, I played on it in high school.
It's just difficult, yeah, it'sjust so difficult to get
anything going until they canbuild a new stadium.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:53):
So got to get that done.
Speaker 2 (53:56):
Yeah, I agree, and they can't even agree to
anything.
They didn't even tear down theold one yet.
And the rail literally stops atthe stadium.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
It's not even open so you know just little things
like that.
I mean I, I obviously know, youknow the nil thing too yeah, I
was just gonna say you know it'shard for a college like hawaii
to compete with some of thebigger schools in that.
I get that.
But at the same time we're notdoing ourselves any favors by
(54:26):
having such a small, rinky-dinklittle facility right now to
watch the games.
Speaker 2 (54:32):
Yeah, I agree, and I think, like you said, with the
NIL deals it makes it kind ofhard for Hawaii players to stay
in Hawaii and with the transferportal it makes it easy for
anybody.
To me, it kind of is killingthe sport.
I mean, you see, kids go tothree different colleges.
It's not about the school orthe loyalty to the program or
(54:56):
the nostalgic value of playingwhere your dad played or
anything like that.
It's about where can I get themost money now and where can I
portal out to.
And it is what it is and Ithink it kind of changed the
dynamic of college sports.
I do think the kids should getcompensated.
They're the ones putting theirlife on the line.
(55:18):
But there could have beenbetter ways to do it where you
still have the pride of theschool and the aspect of where
it's something that you'rebacking, not just I'm playing
for this team because I can getpaid here.
(55:39):
I mean NFL teams can't even dothat.
You cannot jump from team toteam every year.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
Unless you have a free agency.
You can ask for it.
You're not going to get it.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
Yeah, but I mean it's a blessing for some people like
Gabriel.
After his injury he was able tofigure it out and now he's
going to be somewhere next year,hopefully.
But for UH it's going to besomewhere next year, hopefully
it.
But for uh it's going to berough, especially for our
football team, because our nildeals is not going to be like
(56:10):
how, yeah, but I don't know.
It is what it is.
My, my one of my good friends,chris brown, is one of the um
coaches there he he brings a lotof kids from where he used to
coach at Bishop Gorman, so hehas a good kind of vein from
some of those kids to come hereand play, at least for the start
(56:32):
of their college career.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
Yeah, and we've seen more starting to stay home or
come back home from other placesthrough the portal, so that's a
good sign.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
So we'll see where it goes from there yeah, I want to
ask you what was some of thetop players that you got to meet
through oc16 when they're inhigh school that now are doing
big things?
Speaker 1 (56:56):
well, the biggest one would be right.
Yeah, um, we were there for thechampionship game.
Um, when, when he won it and Igot to interview him and it was
it, was it even a full year?
It might not even been a fullyear later, oh, maybe just over
a year that he won the nationalchampionship with Alabama as a
(57:16):
freshman yeah right.
So it was like, oh my god,that's, that's the guy that just
last year was at Aloha Stadium.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
And I had him on the sideline, that's right.
Speaker 1 (57:29):
I interviewed him after the game and yeah, so Tua
was a big one.
And obviously Dylan Gabriel youmentioned Dylan, I mean because
he was playing as a freshman.
So we had him on OC from as afreshman, we had him on OC16
from as a freshman.
How many times did I interviewthat kid winning Impact Player
(57:50):
Awards?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Just a bunch of them.
Man, it's a and in all thesports too, you know.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Yeah, it's cool.
It's cool to see and yeah, Imean you kind of followed their
career Like Tua.
I remember that that nationalchampionship game he he was
brought in to take out JalenHurts who's playing for the
Superbowl, and he came in andjust dropped some dimes and then
he was the guy after.
Speaker 1 (58:22):
Yep, that's crazy.
Yeah, that's one of the thingsthat was was cool when I first
started with osc 16.
When we started that summer westarted doing um cal ripken
baseball, uh, which is you?
know the 12 news, and then westarted doing the 10 years, like
a couple years later.
But so young kids playingbaseball, you know, in the state
(58:43):
tournaments out here and we gothigh level baseball out here at
the at the youth levels.
I'm telling you it's, it's goodstuff that we have.
And so to see those kids too,you know, from those first years
, you know, and you got some ofthe kids that were on the little
league world series team, thatwere part of all of that, but
just to see them grow up and bein high school and you know some
(59:06):
of them have even graduatedhigh school already you know
that's kind of a trip too to seethem from that young up to that
level.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
Oh yeah, I didn't even think of that.
That's cool, I didn't realizeyou guys did like Little League
or Cal Ripken League, at least.
Speaker 1 (59:24):
Yeah, yeah, did like literally well, cal ripken
league at least.
Speaker 2 (59:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah we started doing it the same year I
started, so 2015.
Yeah, you guys weren't the onesdoing the trans pack volleyball
this past.
What two weeks ago?
Speaker 1 (59:33):
no, I think that was on like k5 I think oh, that's
right, yeah, yeah yeah, butthat's I.
I've been a part of that, uh,several years, because I know
Savan, I know Ed Chun, oh yeah,that is.
That thing has blown up so bigand the amount of teams that
(59:54):
they bring in, not just from themainland but from all over the
world, I mean, they've got theseinternational teams from
Canadaada, mexico, china, justall over the place, and it's
huge.
That is such a cool tournament,so it was fun to be a part of
it.
You know, a few years ago Ithink, even before covid I that
I was, I was doing some stuffwith them, but yeah, so to see
(01:00:16):
them get on tv for it too aswell, that was awesome, yeah it
was super cool and my, mydaughter, got to play in the
tournament, so our whole weekendwas volleyball and that was
insane it we played a team fromguam, one from alaska.
Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
They had yeah, they had british columbia there.
They had yeah, they, they saida total of over 400 teams and
yes, it was the number I heardfrom the, from the tourism
people.
Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
The number I heard was 25 000 people came in from
out of town for that nice,that's good for the economy yeah
exactly right, that's so.
That's something that I thinkyou know.
Tourism officials are lookingat this like let's keep growing
this, let's make this somethingreally big yeah and it, oh man,
(01:01:05):
it's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
It's gonna be even bigger next year.
I think that whole girls well,it had boys too, but girls
volleyball.
I didn't even know what I wasgetting into until my daughter
started, because as a as a guy.
I had no idea how big clubvolleyball was and brah it the
(01:01:26):
first convention tournament wewent to like a couple years ago
and I walked in there and I'mlike this is not real and it was
insane it's high?
Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
yeah, because the biggest impact is the ones in in
the mainland.
The convention centers are waymore massive.
I mean, they're just insane.
But I'll tell you this rightnow, as somebody who's seen all
the different sports clubvolleyball, you picked one of
the most expensive.
Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Oh, yeah, definitely.
We're going to have afundraiser this week.
I'm going to sell my kidney.
We're traveling twice this yearwe're going to Vegas and and um
dallas that's right.
Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
I'm like, yeah, I'm slinging.
That's why stevan and ed wantedto do trans.
Specific is so that therewasn't a thing for the kids here
to stay here and not have to doanother travel to the mainland
and spend way more money.
Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Yeah, and it's good because they have a lot of looks
.
They had a lot of scouts here.
They had a lot of eyeballs onthem because the women's
collegiate level volleyball isnot in season and everybody
wants to come to Hawaii sothey're going to come down here
and check out the talent.
Yeah, it was insane.
I was like, yeah, especiallythe mainland tournaments, like
(01:02:49):
our first one was Chicago and wewent into that convention
center and there were 160 courtsand I'm thinking like wow this
is insane.
Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
like yeah, let me know whenever you're selling
Zippy's chili tickets, I'll helpyou out.
I'll buy from you.
Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
We're going to be at Bellows on Sunday slinging huli
huli Soy chicken.
Last week we were slingingdonuts on the side of the road,
the Krispy.
Kreme I promise you I'm goinggonna sell my kidney next year
for yeah, yeah, it's fun and itgets the, the girls team closer
(01:03:32):
and it's good for them to workfor something that they're gonna
, you know.
I mean, if you just pay for it,all the girls just pay for when
they're playing, they're gonna,they're not gonna be thinking
like, oh man, we gotta win.
We just spent like three of oursundays out there in the hot sun
like you earn it now you gottawin it like we're not here just
to show up, but yeah, it's beencool, it's been fun.
(01:03:53):
Well, man, we've been going foran hour and I know how busy you
are, and it was a blessing.
A blessing, and not so muchthat the games got cancelled
today because of the weather,although, man, how different
does a day make?
It is sunny and blue skiestoday.
Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
And yesterday was monsoon season.
Right, but today they're havingto make up the games from
yesterday so they can get to thesemifinals and all that that
we're planning to air on TVRight.
So yeah.
Yep Weather weather got themyeah that's super.
Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
I mean it was.
It was a good blessing for mebecause you were able to come on
my show and, yeah, I know yourtime is precious and I
definitely appreciate it and anytime and any time for precious
and I definitely appreciate itand anytime, anytime for you.
Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Right on, bro we know all the same people from the
club days, bro, oh yeah, that'sthat's a good and bad Right.
Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Right, they're still sucking me back in.
We're about to do Eve, the newclub at um Bala Moana, Like
we're.
They're they're asking us to dothat.
It used to be vintage cave yeah, vintage cave, yeah yeah yeah,
uncle bo owns it yeah oh, okay,yeah no one wants to let artist
(01:05:14):
group network have a peacefulbow out.
Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
They want us back every single time.
Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Yeah, like bro, I'm too old to be trying to do it
these young kids in the club butwhatever, we'll make it fun for
them.
If you ever want to guess dj,let me know oh my gosh, I
haven't done that in so longjimmy the geek, live on the ones
in twos you would trip out.
Now, like I say you don't justbring a thumb drive, you don't
(01:05:42):
even need yeah but uh, where canpeople find you on social media
?
Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
uh, so my ig is at jimmy doug geek and facebook.
I'm jimmy the geek bender,gotta have the whole thing in
there.
Um, and then catch me on theradio.
I'm on with you know, perry andthe posse, every weekday
morning from five to 10 on 92,three KSSK and, of course, watch
all the high school sports.
As Felipe always says, supporthigh school sports.
Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
I agree, that's definitely and for us, as always
, you can find us on Instagramat above the bridge podcasts, on
our YouTube above the bridgepodcast, our website, atbpodcom,
and my Instagram isthaddydaddyhi.
Congrats to you on all yoursuccess, and to be in radio this
(01:06:33):
long and to be doing thatsports for Hawaii is huge and,
yeah, props to you guys and,like I said, you are one of my
bucket list guests that I wanted, so thank you again.
Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
I'll bring you a cassette.
Then I'll bring a cassette.
Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Oh, you got to sign it, bro.
For sure, I'll show it toRonnie.
Yeah, right on, man Whoa, we'reout.
Shout out to the Artist GroupNetwork.
Oh wait, wait, shockers for thecameras.
Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Right on, we're out.
Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Shout out to the Artist Group Network Aloha Outro
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