June 8, 2024 • 39 mins
What does the future hold for Geek Therapy Radio after this final broadcast? https://www.geektherapyradio.com/
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Episode Transcript
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(00:09):
Welcome to geek Therapy Radio. You'vegot your mental curator, Johnny Hemberger.
It is with somewhat of a heavyheart that I start the show this week
by announcing that this is the finalbroadcast of Geek Therapy Radio on KPRC nine
(00:30):
Am. It's not broadcast anywhere else. I'm not going to any other radio
station or anywhere outside of iHeart anythinglike that. It's just it's this is
this is it. This is thefinal episode of geek Therapy Radio on KPRC
nine fifty am. It's the finalbroadcast I start a geek Therapy Radio.
(00:56):
There was there was a few yearsof groundwork before my first air date in
twenty seventeen, a lot of rejection, a lot of rejection at the UH,
at the idea, at the desireto go on the air. And
it was not a negative thing.It's it was what it amounted to was
(01:18):
proving trust. You know, youhave to you have to prove your trust,
prove your you have to show theradio station, you have to show
that you can protect the license forthe FCC. And it was about establishing
trust. And at that time Ihadn't had enough trust built up in me
yet, And it just took afew years of doing that, a few
(01:41):
years of proven myself, for yearsof practicing and proving the concept and and
all that. And I did littlesound bites for Live Nation for the concert
series. I was doing little fillcontent. I think it was called a
tech bite back then. And eventuallyI got the green light from the powers
that be, and Geek Therapy Radiowas born in twenty seventeen for the inaugural
(02:07):
broadcast, and I could not bemore thankful to the folks at iHeart so
Brian Erickson, Ramone, Roblaze,Michael Berry's producers, Michael Berry, all
the other hosts that I worked withwhen I ran the board. When I
(02:27):
was a board operator for seven fortyKTRH, I worked very closely with Michael
Berry and Ramone and all them overthere, and they all helped me get
my sea legs. They were mentors. Ramone was the program director of KPRC
nine fifty AM back then. Hewas the one who helped give the final
(02:49):
green light for Geek Therapy Radio,and I could not be more thankful to
him and everybody else at the radiostation. Kenny Webster, all my other
stablemates here, Jesse Kay, They'veall been great, even though if you've
listened to Geek Therapy Radio long enough, you know that I've I've disagreed.
I guess you could say with kindof the way some of these shows,
(03:14):
not some of the shows operates,because I don't want to say that,
and I didn't want to make thisfinal broadcast like that, like I have
any sort of beef with any ofmy other hosts around her. That's not
the case at all. I'm justsaying we have there's political differences, and
it's not necessarily that I am notconservative or I or not liberal or whatever
it is. It's nothing like that. It's this kind of being in this
(03:36):
radical middle is a It makes youlook around at the landscape at all different
types of radio talk show across thepolitical spectrum, and just like man,
I don't I don't personally agree withthe way some things are done. But
that doesn't mean that I disagree withthe people, or that I don't like
the people, that I don't likeMichael Barry or Jesse Kelly or Kenny Webster
(03:59):
anyth No, not like anything likethat at all. In fact, in
fact, I'll use this opportunity tosay that this is the last episode of
Geek Therapy Radio to air on KPRCnine fifty am. But this is not
the last you're hearing from me.Matter of fact, the podcast will continue.
The podcast will continue to be hostedon the iHeart Radio network. You
(04:27):
can also, you know, obviouslysubscribe to it through Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
all the other other audio platforms podcastplatforms. So you're the podcast.
Geek Therapy Radio is still going togo on as a podcast that lives under
the kPr c umbrella digitally. Thisis just the last broadcast, but you
still may hear me on kPr sayon KPRC nine fifty am from time to
(04:53):
time with phil content. They areallowing me to continue to provide pill content,
little snippets of the podcast to kindof promote the podcast. So you'll
be listening to a commercial break andyou may hear me come on during the
commercial break with some little cool geektidbit, some you know, sort of
cool geek news or whatever. Maybea minute long, thirty seconds long,
(05:15):
fifteen seconds long, maybe up totwo minutes long, who knows you will
you'll hear me from time to timehere and there throughout the day on KPRC
nine to fifty am do with littlechunks of content from the podcast to promote
the podcast, and you also mighthear me conceivably come on other shows.
I don't want to. I don'twant to name drop the shows necessarily,
(05:36):
you heard all the ones that Imentioned, but I don't want to put
them under the gun or anything likethat to feel like there's obviously there's no
obligation to have me on for anything. But let's say theoretically Kenny Webster or
Jesse Kelly is talking about AI orrobots or some sort of geek news,
some video game controversy, whatever,you may hear me come on for their
(05:58):
or SpaceX's in the news or whatevergoing on like that. So it is
conceivable that you might hear me comeon as a guest to other shows.
Most likely you're gonna hear me comeI can totally see it happening that I
join Michael Garfield a lot more oftenthe high Tech text, and that I
came on his show a lot moreoften. It's it's conceivable. It's not.
(06:18):
Again, there's no obligation for Michaelto reach out to me or anything
like that. But if you dohear me on a radio show. It's
gonna be in that capacity basically asa guest quote unquote expert in a given
kind of geek science y field whatever. So that's how you're gonna hear me.
I keep your sea going forward.But the actual hour of geek Therapy
(06:42):
Radio on Saturday and Sundays over theweekend, that's going I don't know that's
that's gone. No more hour longradio shows for me any anymore. I
don't know what they're gonna fill thattime with those hours over the weekend.
Probably some infomercials, if I wouldimagine if they're because that's just the way
it works. It's they can startmaking more money with my time slot basically,
(07:05):
and I would not fault them atall for doing that. I'd encourage
them, ye have please fill myhour with something that's gonna make more money
than geek Therapy Radio. Does thattotally, I understand, how completely.
So I'm keeping my foot in thedoor. You will hear me still from
time to time on this radio station. Probably more often actually you might hear
(07:26):
me, you know, because youprobably hear me throughout the week doing this
radio fill or throughout the week possiblycoming on as a guest to other hosts
shows. But I'll explain in thenext segment why I've reached this decision,
and it was an amical decision betweenme and iHeart Me and KPRC. I'll
explain that here in the next segmentcoming up. I also have COVID right
(07:48):
now, like really bad COVID.I'm recording my final episode through some massive
brain fog. You're listening to GeekTherapy Radio. Don't go anywhere. Welcome
to Geek Therapy Radio. You've gotyour mental curator, Johnny Hemburger. I'm
(08:11):
going to start explaining in this segmentwhy this is the last broadcast of Geek
Therapy Radio. But before I dothat, I will just mention that,
in true geek form, since thisis Geek Therapy Radio, the microphone you're
listening to right now, not thatit matters greatly on AM radio you might
not be able to tell the difference, but I am recording straight into the
(08:33):
microphone built into my rog Ally.I have the original rog Ally the I
know if you'll have been paying attentionto rgli X has come out. It
has the same processor, but youcan now put a bigger solid state drive
in there physically bigger comes twenty twoto eighty now instead of the twenty two
to thirty in their original rg ally. But the processor is the same,
(08:56):
the AMD the awesome rizin z oneExtreme is the same thing between this rg
ally that I'm holding in the newversion of the rg alli X. That's
the same processor, and there's afew other differences. No more. What
is this OCU link port on thetop for going out to egpuss now too,
(09:18):
thunderbolt full reports or USB four ports. So they've done a little bit
with the io. Apparently they've fixedthe micro SD issue is that plagued the
original ally even though I've not everrun into that issue with my rg ally.
My SD card has been just fine. So a SEUs itself, for
(09:39):
acis itself is in a bit ofhot water regarding a warranty issues and an
honesty and transparency. I won't getinto that too much in this episode because
this is the final episode and I'mjust explaining why this is the final episode
of geek therap PERIODIO. But yes, in true geek form, I am
recording this through the built in microphoneof my gaming hand teld and it doesn't
(10:00):
sound that bad. If you wantto hear it in full fidelity, you
can obviously go grab the podcast GeekTherapy Radio podcast in your favorite podcast player
and you can hear what this actuallysounds like. Now I've judged it,
obviously, I've eqed it, andI've added compression for broadcast, and it
sounds the best it can. Butyeah, you'll be able to hear exactly
what I'm talking about if you gosubscribe to the geek Therapy Radio podcast in
(10:24):
the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Speaker, Google podcasts, Apple podcast all that
could not Google podcast, Google podcastshas gone. You can subscribe to podcast
on YouTube now. You can typegeek their Parado podcast into YouTube and subscribe
to the podcast that way now too, which is really cool and across all
social media's Geek Therapy Radio all oversocial media Instagram, x, Facebook,
(10:48):
afore mentioned YouTube. I do havea TikTok, even though I don't keep
up with a TikTok as much,but it's all there. Geek Therapy Radio
is not going away as a asa show, as a podcast. The
podcast stays. So that's a goodsegue into explaining why I am now why
(11:11):
there's no more geek therap Puriity broadcast. Why this is the final broadcast of
Geek Therapy Radio. While you're notgoing to hear the show anymore on KPRC
nine fifty Am and the first segmentI explained, you'll still hear me from
time to time, possibly guesting onother shows. You'll still hear some fill
content in commercial breaks to promote GeekTherapy Radio podcast. But as far as
(11:33):
you know, having two hours overthe weekend of Geek Therapy Radio, that's
going away. It was an amicaldecision between me and the powers that be
at iHeart at KPRC nine fifty there'sstill my friends. I still consider them
very close. They're still allowing meto keep my foot in the radio door
(11:54):
here, keep my presence around,which might might wind up that you start
hearing me more often, because ifyou hear the field content or hear me
guesting on other shows, you're goingto hear that during more primetime hours,
So you might actually start hearing moreof my voice throughout the week. It
could be a blessing in disguise.But the reason why the radio show is
going away as a radio show,it's just a matter of life getting so
(12:20):
busy that I couldn't record new episodeseach week. It became difficult to continue
to record a fresh episode every week, work obligations, and I just had
my second child, and having athree year old an infant and work obligations,
it got to be too much.Too many spinning, too many plates
(12:43):
spinning, too many plates to keepspinning, and I didn't want any of
them to crash. So I said, you know what, I'm going to
take the obligation of recording a newradio show each week off the table.
I'm not making any money off ofGeek Their Radio. I don't make a
single penny off of Geek Therapy Radio. If you listen to the show and
(13:07):
you hear all the commercials playing betweenthe segments and everything, I don't make
a dime of that. That isbasically paying for Geek There Radio to be
on the air. That's basically coveringthe cost of airtime. But I myself
am not making a dime. Andthat's kind of part and parcel with the
decision to end making a broadcast isthat in order to make the show profitable,
(13:31):
it would happen. Two things needto happen. A. You need
to tow the line a little bit. I don't mean that in a negative
sense, but I've talked about that. I am I cut up a different
breed from typical that you might hearacross conservative talk radio. Nothing against conservative
talk radio. I am not atall saying that that anybody's doing anything wrong
(13:56):
or anything like that. It's justI can't you know, the sponsors.
Sponsors are the sponsors, and sponsorswant to know that you are aligned with
their values one hundred percent. Andwhile I don't, that just doesn't sit.
I'm not going to. I madea decision long ago which basically shot
(14:18):
myself in the foot from making theshow profitable, that I was too hung
up on sacrificing my values to sellthe cusps, sell the listener something.
You know, basically, when youtake on sponsors, it's just kind of
the reality of radio. And it'snot a good or a bad thing,
it's just what it is. Youcan't go. You have to start.
(14:43):
You have to plan your content inyour subject matter around what's not going to
piss your sponsors off. If someone'sgiving you money to do something and then
you talk about something that offends theperson giving you money or worse, really,
what kind of affects their market.Like, if you say something that
affects their customer base or reduces theirchances of making money or sending people to
(15:05):
the shop, then they're not gonnawant to sponsor you. So I never
wanted to have to censor myself.I never wanted to have to think about
the sponsor first before I open mymouth. And I'm not saying that that's
what every radio host does. Notat all, Not at all. You
know that other radio hosts are sittingdown with potential clients in their being honest
(15:31):
with them, saying you can sponsorme. But I'm gonna I'm gonna say
what I want to say. Ifyou're cool with that, cool, it's
even better. If you both lineup politically and morally and with all your
values, that's just even better.But I never, I don't know,
it never the way to make money, and radio never sat really well with
(15:56):
me. It was enough of afactor just to make me not pound the
pavement and go get sponsors. Idid get a few sponsors from time to
time. I had AUDI for awhile, I had AUDI Central Houston as
a sponsor. It was great.I won't go into details and why that
fell through. I will say thatit did not fall through because of anything
(16:17):
I did, but it was justkind of a It was just kind of
a shot in the arm. Itwas a warning of how this industry works,
and hey, I guess I can't. I'm not willing to tow the
line and play ball like I'm supposedto to have a successful radio show or
(16:37):
make it financially successful. And again, it's nothing, that's nothing negative,
it's nothing bad. It's just Isaw how the sausage is made, and
I don't it bought. Some ofit bothered me a little bit, and
it was bothered me enough to makeme not want to play the game so
hard as far as bringing in moneyand sponsors, and really what it amounts
(16:59):
to is just, you know,I work full time for the Houston Museum
of Natural Science, and just thefact of the matter is, it doesn't
matter what I think about my ethicsor taking on sponsors or what that means
and censorship and now I watch whatI say because I have sponsors. Now.
It was nothing like that. It'sbasically just time. I work full
time, and I just wouldn't havetime to go out and pound the pavement
because when I wasn't working full time. I had to be back home.
(17:22):
I have a three year old andan infant, and mommy and I both
have COVID, and now I've gotpink eye, and all these sorts of
things just come up, and it'slike, I don't have even if I'd
wanted to, I wouldn't have timeto go out there and shop the show
around to bring on sponsors. Soit's totally that's It's totally fine. That's
just what it was. That's whythere's no more Geek Therapy Radio on the
radio. It's just because I justran. I just don't have time to
(17:47):
record the podcast each week. MaybeI will in the future. More Geek
Therapy Radio coming up. Don't goanywhere, Welcome back to geek Therapy Radio.
(18:08):
You've got your mental curator, JohnnyHamburger. I apologize if this episode
is it feels off as I'm recordingit a little bit, not just because
this is the final episode of geekTherapy Radio, the final broadcast of Geek
Therapy Radio, but I am recordingthis final episode just battling through the molasses
(18:30):
of brain fog. My wife andI both have terrible COVID right now.
Losing our taste, losing our smell, I'm losing my mind, and I
don't think you can catch it throughthe radio. But anyways, Yes,
what a wonderful coincidence that I'm recordingthe final episode of Geek Therapy Radio broad
(18:53):
broadcast. Battling through the brain fogof COVID. I feel like I'm you
know, so, I know alot of you know this know what this
feeling is. You ever feel likeyou're watching a movie of yourself. You're
going through the motions of the day, but you feel like you're just watching
everything third person, like it's afriggin video game or something like you're watching
(19:15):
like you're playing God a war,except it's you. Krados's you. You
just got a camera lack of twois behind you with that, with the
Mario sixty four camera, just watchingyou run around. You feel like you're
watching yourself in a movie. Usuallyyou only feel that way when you're really
stoned, but I am not stoned. I just have COVID and I have
you know, it's coming. Withthe strong brain fog and everything I'm saying,
(19:37):
everything I'm doing, everything I'm operatingwith my body seems like it's doing
it through molasses right now. Inever knew what brain fog was because I
typically pretty sharp cognitively, But nowI fully understand what people are talking about
with COVID brain fog because I havethat right now. Anyways, this is
(19:59):
the final episode of Geek Therapy Radio. And again to just to recap very
quickly, it's it's an amicable decisionbetween me and I hearten all the powers
that be at KPRC nine to fiftywho I hold them all Barry and still
in very high esteem, high regard, high respect. All the other hosts
KPRC and k t H hold themin very high regard, high respect.
(20:23):
They helped me get where I amtoday. They helped me give me advice
on starting my radio show and whatto talk about. Let me talk.
Here's a little, a little anecdote. This is a good way to This
would be a good story to tellon the final broadcast of Geek Therapy Radio.
A long time ago, six seven, ten years ago, maybe I
(20:47):
was one of the producers on inthe board op call screener for the Michael
Berry Show. This was back ify'all can remember far enough before Michael Barry,
I believe Chris Baker at the driveTime. That's when I started at
KTRH in two thousand and nine.Michael Barry was a young blood city councilman.
(21:11):
You listen to Michael Berry's enough,you know his whole background. But
I was there ground floor bringing hisshow to the masses in Houston, then
eventually nationally and syndication. Michael BerryShow has absolutely skyrocketed in popularity over the
past ten years, and I wasthere on the ground floor helping get that
(21:32):
going, especially get the Michael BerryShow podcast out to as many people as
possible. There's ideas that I implementedin the podcast and that I brought to
the higher ups to help make thepodcast grow even further. One of the
implementations I made was, Hey,we have to take a little more care
in how we upload the podcast andwhat we upload and what we say about
(21:56):
it. It can't just be MichaelBerry's Show. November eleventh, twenty twelve.
It can't just be that. Ithas to be the titles have to
be snappy and grabby, the descriptionshave to have plenty of SEO Search engine
optimization in there so that as manypeople can find the Michael Berry Show podcast
as possible who've never heard the radioshow. So somebody up in Minnesota somewhere
(22:22):
who has never heard the Michael BerryShow. When you title the podcasts correctly
for search engine optimization, and youleave a snappy headline in there in a
nice description, you'll get the attentionof people who otherwise have not heard of
you, and then they've heard ofyou, and now they're subscribed to you.
So those are implementations that I madein the podcast early on to help
(22:45):
the broadcast reach more people, andtherefore even reaching more people, it helps
the show, the terrestrial radio showgrow better because someone hears it on the
podcast, Oh I want that,and then they call ktr Chure, ihearten
say I want them syndicate on mychannel. The podcast helps with all that,
and I'm happy that I was ableto rejigger j the podcast and how
(23:10):
we upload Michael Berry Show podcast tohelp it reach all the more people.
I think it reaches millions of peoplenow, it's insane. But early on,
before I started Geek Therapy Radio,my bugaboo, my main concern.
I didn't understand how I would beable to talk for ten minutes at a
(23:33):
time, like how do you dothat, Michael? But I would ask
him, Michael, how do youtalk for an entire segment at a time,
just a stream of consciousness? Tenminutes per segments, give or take
whatever, How do you do that? And what I learned was I'll just
tell more about Michael's response later,but what I learned was obviously, how
(23:53):
do you stop talking at ten minutes? That quickly became the real issue was
And Michael told me this, He'slike, the issue isn't going to be
how do you talk for ten minutes? The issue is going to be the
clock and how do you stop?How do you wrap it up? That
the trick, the goal is reallyand the expertise comes in where Ramon is
on the other side of the glass, you know, wiggle in his finger
(24:15):
saying wrap it up, you know, thirty seconds starting to play that butt
music in how do you wrap upyour thought in a decent way to segue
into the next segment, to segueto keep listeners through the rate to the
commercial break and keep them listening sothat they're here for the next segment start.
That's where the expertise comes is hittingyour post naturally and stop talking.
It's not how do you talk forten minutes stopping talking? That's the real
(24:38):
thing. But one of the bestpieces of advice that Michael Barry gave me
early on when I was starting withthe Gee Therapy radio. He may not
even remember this, but he calledit like it was like the cheeseburger analogy,
the hamburger analogy. He said,if you don't know what to talk
about, or you're vamping, oryou don't know, how do you feel
(24:59):
the time? How do you engagea listener? He said, Describe a
cheeseburger. You describe how juicy thebeef patty is. You describe how it
sizzles when it's broiled, the fatdripping down into the coals or into the
flames, and the fire kissing thebeef patty and searing in all the spices
and flavors. Then you talk aboutthe bun and how soft yet crunchy the
(25:21):
toasted bun is. Talk about thecoloration, the nice soft golden color of
the bun, the sesame seeds dottingthe bun, how the bun has a
little bit of butter on it,and when you bite into it you get
the softness of the bun. Andthen a little bit of the crunch of
the toasted part of the bun,and then you bite into the cheese,
which melts in your mouth and itfills your stomach with such warmth and joy.
(25:42):
And the lettuce is crispy, andyou chew on it and it kind
of breaks in your mouth and youcan feel the explosion of water trapped inside
the lettuce leaf, fill your mouthwith the other juices of the hamburger and
the cheese, and basically doing maybea great job of it. But describe
a hamburger if that's how you connectwith people. As you start describing,
(26:06):
it's the radio. They can't seewhat you're doing. They can't see what
you have, So you have todescribe quote unquote the hamburger. That helps
with the stream of consciousness, Thathelps fill the time between segments. And
you know what, if you listento the Michael Berry Show, that for
any disagreement that I have with MichaelBarry over politics or whatever, the best
(26:27):
and y'all will you will all agreewith me on this. There's no way
any of you would disagree with meon this. I'm that confident in this
next statement the best of Michael Berry. When Michael Barry is at his absolute
perfection. And what Michael Barry doesbetter than probably any other radio host that
I've ever heard, even better thanRush Limbaugh. I know that's a big
(26:48):
thing to say here is he's sogreat at digging into people's lives, making
you really care and fascinated about whatpeople do for a living. I will
tune in the Michael Berry Show fromtime to time and I find myself listening
for hours when he has a caller, and he might be a completely other
subject. You might be talking aboutKamala Harris or something that's going on,
(27:10):
but I'll have a caller call in. You'll say, what do you do
for a living? Bob? Oh, I'm a truck driver? Oh?
How much was your rig? Doyou pay off your rig? And he
goes into all the nuance of Bob'slife as a truck driver has nothing to
do with politics, has nothing todo with sensationalism, has everything to do
with human connection and making you feelthat you understand Bob better because Michael Barry
(27:36):
did such an an excellent job atextracting the threads and yarns of truck driver
Bob's life. That is, whenMichael Berry is at his best, and
that is like the That is whatI take away from my relationship with Michael
Berry, the mentorship that he hadhad for me over the years, is
(27:56):
he's just an expert at talking topeople and getting people to talk. Having
Bob the truck driver explained what kindof truck he has? Oh, he
had transmission problem. How much didthe transmission costs? Oh? Where did
you take it? What was theproblem with it? Dude, It's fascinating.
That is so much better, inmy opinion, than Hunter Biden's laptop.
(28:18):
That's just me. I like hearingabout truck driver Bob and truck driver
Bob's life. Then I care abouthearing Hunter Biden's laptop. But whatever that's
to me. That's like perfect radio. Is Michael Barry talking to truck driver
Bob about truck driving in the lifethat comes along with it. I'm just
(28:38):
waxing here, waxing poetically on thelast broadcast of Geek Therapy Radio. Got
the last commercial break coming up?Stick with me. I am your mental
curator, Johnny Hamburger. There isone more segment of Geek Therapy Radio coming
up. Don't Go Anywhere. Welcomeback to the final segment ever of Geek
(29:17):
Therapy Radio on KPRC nine to fiftyam. This broadcast is coming to an
end. Geek Therapy Radio on theradio is coming to the end, and
this is it. It is witha half heavy heart that I announced that
I've been with you on for sevenyears and you have been with me for
seven years. I've I've built thepodcast side of geek Therapy Radio up nicely.
(29:41):
In my opinion, It's not millions, it's not Joe Rogan, it
can't. It's not a pimple onthe butt of the Michael Barry podcast that
to my own horn I helped buildup. But it is my own it
is my own show. It ismy own growth on my own podcast.
It's hundreds of hundred thousands of thenwhatever, downloads, now whatever. At
(30:03):
one point it was a lot hotterthan it is now. My only focus
in life was geek Therapy of podcast. When I started geek Therapy Radio,
I had just been divorced. There'sanother let's get reover a minute here.
In the last segment of geek TherapyRadio in twenty seventeen, I needed a
win. I needed a win inmy life, and it was my dream
(30:27):
to have my own radio show.I come from a broadcasting background. My
dad and my uncles all broadcasters whoFor those of you who don't know my
father, God rest his soul.He died in twenty thirteen in October.
My father was Alan Hemburger. Youmight remember him from Channel thirteen, Marvin
(30:48):
Zendler, Bob Allen, all that, all those folks at Brandon, Dave
Ward, Sheriff Fryar, Sheriff Fryer, who's still over on k t h
R sister station. But yeah,my father was Alan Hemburger, and it
was important to me that I carrya torch. You know. It's funny
that my dad said, please don'tget into radio. There's no more money
(31:11):
in mass communications. Please pick somethingstable that you know you will make a
living at. But I got intoradio anyways. So anyways, in twenty
seventeen, I had been divorced intwenty sixteen. I don't know how much
detail I want to go into withthe parameters around the divorce. I will
just say that I was blindsided byit. I will just say it like
(31:36):
that. But I needed a win, and so I wasn't married anymore.
I was going through that trauma ofdivorce and I needed I felt like I
just it sure would be nice tohave a wind in my life. So
I had been dipping my toes inthe broadcast waters. I had been working
at iHeart since two thousand and nine, back when it was Clear Channel,
(32:00):
building the trust, showing them thatyou can trust me with of the FCC
license, which I demonstrated fully.But I wanted my own radio show,
and we're coming after the divorce.I needed a win, so eventually the
show was green lit. Gee TherapyRadio was green lit in spring of twenty
(32:22):
seventeen. I remember going out tomy car after meeting with Brian Rickson and
Ramone Robless and they gave me thegreen light thumbs up. Ramone was the
PD of KPRC at that time.Callum Reid would later take over his spot
as program director for KPRC, andat fifty went out to my car after
getting the green light finally after years, and this was, you know,
(32:43):
almost a year after my divorce,and it was a wonderful, praise God
moment. I was singing in thecar. I was cheering for the first
time in a long time. Iwent out to my car cheering. I
had a win. I had awin, and at the beginning, UK
Therapy Radio was my only thing.It was the only thing that I was
(33:04):
sinking all of my energy into inmy life. I wasn't married anymore.
I didn't have kids with my exwife, thank god, I didn't have
property with max wife. It wasfor as terrible. The circumstances were financially
and kind of like as far asstrings attached, there's silver lining was there
wasn't any financial things tying together andthere was no strings attached, so that
(33:29):
like kids, in property, anythinglike that. Not even any vehicles in
each other's names, nothing like that. If we had a bank account in
each other's name, and that waseasy to separate. But all my energy
was going into Geek Therapy Radio.All my energy was going into this radio
show and building it up and findingout figuring out what it was actually gonna
be, what it was going tobe about, what I was going to
(33:51):
talk about, how I was goingto relate to the audience, and all
the energy went into that. Atone point I was doing five podcasts per
week, if not six podcasts perweek. I was doing the radio show
and then five more podcasts per weekfor Geek therapy radio. Life changes a
lot in seven years. Fast forwardtwenty twenty four. Right now, I've
(34:13):
got a three and a half yearold boy, just gave My wife just
gave birth to our son. Heis one month old as of recording.
Right now, I've got an infinitea kid, full time job at the
Houston Museum of Natural Science. Ino longer board up at a k TRH
anymore. I was full time boardup at k t H. What a
ride that was. Now. Iwasn't here for Ike actually, sorry,
(34:36):
hurricanes Harvey, standing at the kt H Helm for countless hours, like
sixteen hours a day at least.During Harvey, I was sleeping under a
desk in the It was in theold building, and I would go down
to the sales floor and I wouldsleep under like I would sleep under Rob
Reese's desk. That's not real,Rob, I did not sleep under your
(34:58):
desk, but I did go downto the sales office and I was sleeping
under desks during Harvey for a fewhours at a time before i'd get back
up and go man the helm atk t H again. During Hart it
was wild. Oh the PTSD man, I don't want to use that term
lightly. But you know, emergencyalerts. You know, I can't actually
do the sounds because that's an it'sa heavy finds. You can lose your
(35:21):
license. But those annoying severe thunderstormalerts that kind of interrupt astros games.
With the Michael Barry Show, therewas the machine that handles emergency alerts during
Harvey basically burst into flames. Itwas just constantly printing, constantly firing off
those stones. We had to callthe EAS and WS and FCC and just
(35:45):
tell them, hey, we cannotkeep broadcast. There's no physical way for
us to keep broadcasting these warnings.Y'all are piling up. There's twelve warnings
coming in at a time every thirtyseconds. We cannot break into the program.
I am thirty times every thirty secondsto air each new alert. Just
people know it's raining. They thelake is in their house, they're swimming
(36:09):
on their second floor. They knowthat it's raining. Please give us a
little leeway here, don't hold usover the flames. Don't find us if
we don't play every emergency alert.Because we're in the hurricane right now.
We can't break away too. It'stoo many, it's too many. We
can't do it. People get it, we can't do it. So we
(36:30):
just need a little grace here withairing the emergency alers, which they allowed,
of course, and it was understandable. But that was part of my
career at iHeart and a kth.It all paved the way for Geek therap
p Radio. I did have Geektherap Py Radio at the time. I
think I just started. I hadjust recently. It says twenty seventeen.
(36:52):
Harvey was twenty seventeen, so Ihad just started Geek therap Piradio in spring
of twenty seventeen. And then formy birthday if y'all remember August twenty fifth
is my birthday, that's when Harveyhit. So I had my show for
like two or three months, maybethree or four months before Harvey, and
(37:14):
it was an absolutely I did anepisode. I remember a record of something
Fate for YouTube from a geek thereperiode of YouTube. Hey check out where
I'm sleeping during Harvey. This iswe got the food. Check out the
food and the vending machines that werebeing provided and it was acting. I
mean, it was a terrible experiencefor the entire city and it was a
harrowing experience for the person manning thehelm at KTI r H during the storm,
(37:37):
which was me, if you remember, me and a couple other board
ops, because a lot of otherboard ops were just they could not swim
to work to come out. Theyneed to be with their families, and
who would blame them? I wasn'tmarried anymore. I was just basically sleeping
at the radio station. So anyways, Geek Therapy Radio is basically me rambling
(38:00):
different things, trying to connect withyou over our passions, our hobbies,
and our interests. I'm going toend the show one final time. By
the way, Geek their period ofpodcast will still continue, just not every
week. You'll get it when youget it. Geek their periodio podcast and
all of your podcast apps. Butlet me leave you with this one final
time. Please listen to me.Turn your radio up all the way.
(38:20):
I want you to listen to thisand seer it into your brains. If
it's the only thing you remember frommy radio show, are you ready?
You are worthy of love, youwere worthy of giving love, you were
worthy of receiving love, and youwere worthy of your own self respect.
Lean into your geek thing. Thenit'll treat you right. Thank you so
(38:44):
much for joining me over the pastseven years on the radio. It has
been my absolute pleasure. Take careof y'all.
Welcome to geek Therapy Radio. You'vegot your mental curator, Johnny Hemberger.
It is with somewhat of a heavyheart that I start the show this week
by announcing that this is the finalbroadcast of Geek Therapy Radio on KPRC nine
(00:30):
Am. It's not broadcast anywhere else. I'm not going to any other radio
station or anywhere outside of iHeart anythinglike that. It's just it's this is
this is it. This is thefinal episode of geek Therapy Radio on KPRC
nine fifty am. It's the finalbroadcast I start a geek Therapy Radio.
(00:56):
There was there was a few yearsof groundwork before my first air date in
twenty seventeen, a lot of rejection, a lot of rejection at the UH,
at the idea, at the desireto go on the air. And
it was not a negative thing.It's it was what it amounted to was
(01:18):
proving trust. You know, youhave to you have to prove your trust,
prove your you have to show theradio station, you have to show
that you can protect the license forthe FCC. And it was about establishing
trust. And at that time Ihadn't had enough trust built up in me
yet, And it just took afew years of doing that, a few
(01:41):
years of proven myself, for yearsof practicing and proving the concept and and
all that. And I did littlesound bites for Live Nation for the concert
series. I was doing little fillcontent. I think it was called a
tech bite back then. And eventuallyI got the green light from the powers
that be, and Geek Therapy Radiowas born in twenty seventeen for the inaugural
(02:07):
broadcast, and I could not bemore thankful to the folks at iHeart so
Brian Erickson, Ramone, Roblaze,Michael Berry's producers, Michael Berry, all
the other hosts that I worked withwhen I ran the board. When I
(02:27):
was a board operator for seven fortyKTRH, I worked very closely with Michael
Berry and Ramone and all them overthere, and they all helped me get
my sea legs. They were mentors. Ramone was the program director of KPRC
nine fifty AM back then. Hewas the one who helped give the final
(02:49):
green light for Geek Therapy Radio,and I could not be more thankful to
him and everybody else at the radiostation. Kenny Webster, all my other
stablemates here, Jesse Kay, They'veall been great, even though if you've
listened to Geek Therapy Radio long enough, you know that I've I've disagreed.
I guess you could say with kindof the way some of these shows,
(03:14):
not some of the shows operates,because I don't want to say that,
and I didn't want to make thisfinal broadcast like that, like I have
any sort of beef with any ofmy other hosts around her. That's not
the case at all. I'm justsaying we have there's political differences, and
it's not necessarily that I am notconservative or I or not liberal or whatever
it is. It's nothing like that. It's this kind of being in this
(03:36):
radical middle is a It makes youlook around at the landscape at all different
types of radio talk show across thepolitical spectrum, and just like man,
I don't I don't personally agree withthe way some things are done. But
that doesn't mean that I disagree withthe people, or that I don't like
the people, that I don't likeMichael Barry or Jesse Kelly or Kenny Webster
(03:59):
anyth No, not like anything likethat at all. In fact, in
fact, I'll use this opportunity tosay that this is the last episode of
Geek Therapy Radio to air on KPRCnine fifty am. But this is not
the last you're hearing from me.Matter of fact, the podcast will continue.
The podcast will continue to be hostedon the iHeart Radio network. You
(04:27):
can also, you know, obviouslysubscribe to it through Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
all the other other audio platforms podcastplatforms. So you're the podcast.
Geek Therapy Radio is still going togo on as a podcast that lives under
the kPr c umbrella digitally. Thisis just the last broadcast, but you
still may hear me on kPr sayon KPRC nine fifty am from time to
(04:53):
time with phil content. They areallowing me to continue to provide pill content,
little snippets of the podcast to kindof promote the podcast. So you'll
be listening to a commercial break andyou may hear me come on during the
commercial break with some little cool geektidbit, some you know, sort of
cool geek news or whatever. Maybea minute long, thirty seconds long,
(05:15):
fifteen seconds long, maybe up totwo minutes long, who knows you will
you'll hear me from time to timehere and there throughout the day on KPRC
nine to fifty am do with littlechunks of content from the podcast to promote
the podcast, and you also mighthear me conceivably come on other shows.
I don't want to. I don'twant to name drop the shows necessarily,
(05:36):
you heard all the ones that Imentioned, but I don't want to put
them under the gun or anything likethat to feel like there's obviously there's no
obligation to have me on for anything. But let's say theoretically Kenny Webster or
Jesse Kelly is talking about AI orrobots or some sort of geek news,
some video game controversy, whatever,you may hear me come on for their
(05:58):
or SpaceX's in the news or whatevergoing on like that. So it is
conceivable that you might hear me comeon as a guest to other shows.
Most likely you're gonna hear me comeI can totally see it happening that I
join Michael Garfield a lot more oftenthe high Tech text, and that I
came on his show a lot moreoften. It's it's conceivable. It's not.
(06:18):
Again, there's no obligation for Michaelto reach out to me or anything
like that. But if you dohear me on a radio show. It's
gonna be in that capacity basically asa guest quote unquote expert in a given
kind of geek science y field whatever. So that's how you're gonna hear me.
I keep your sea going forward.But the actual hour of geek Therapy
(06:42):
Radio on Saturday and Sundays over theweekend, that's going I don't know that's
that's gone. No more hour longradio shows for me any anymore. I
don't know what they're gonna fill thattime with those hours over the weekend.
Probably some infomercials, if I wouldimagine if they're because that's just the way
it works. It's they can startmaking more money with my time slot basically,
(07:05):
and I would not fault them atall for doing that. I'd encourage
them, ye have please fill myhour with something that's gonna make more money
than geek Therapy Radio. Does thattotally, I understand, how completely.
So I'm keeping my foot in thedoor. You will hear me still from
time to time on this radio station. Probably more often actually you might hear
(07:26):
me, you know, because youprobably hear me throughout the week doing this
radio fill or throughout the week possiblycoming on as a guest to other hosts
shows. But I'll explain in thenext segment why I've reached this decision,
and it was an amical decision betweenme and iHeart Me and KPRC. I'll
explain that here in the next segmentcoming up. I also have COVID right
(07:48):
now, like really bad COVID.I'm recording my final episode through some massive
brain fog. You're listening to GeekTherapy Radio. Don't go anywhere. Welcome
to Geek Therapy Radio. You've gotyour mental curator, Johnny Hemburger. I'm
(08:11):
going to start explaining in this segmentwhy this is the last broadcast of Geek
Therapy Radio. But before I dothat, I will just mention that,
in true geek form, since thisis Geek Therapy Radio, the microphone you're
listening to right now, not thatit matters greatly on AM radio you might
not be able to tell the difference, but I am recording straight into the
(08:33):
microphone built into my rog Ally.I have the original rog Ally the I
know if you'll have been paying attentionto rgli X has come out. It
has the same processor, but youcan now put a bigger solid state drive
in there physically bigger comes twenty twoto eighty now instead of the twenty two
to thirty in their original rg ally. But the processor is the same,
(08:56):
the AMD the awesome rizin z oneExtreme is the same thing between this rg
ally that I'm holding in the newversion of the rg alli X. That's
the same processor, and there's afew other differences. No more. What
is this OCU link port on thetop for going out to egpuss now too,
(09:18):
thunderbolt full reports or USB four ports. So they've done a little bit
with the io. Apparently they've fixedthe micro SD issue is that plagued the
original ally even though I've not everrun into that issue with my rg ally.
My SD card has been just fine. So a SEUs itself, for
(09:39):
acis itself is in a bit ofhot water regarding a warranty issues and an
honesty and transparency. I won't getinto that too much in this episode because
this is the final episode and I'mjust explaining why this is the final episode
of geek therap PERIODIO. But yes, in true geek form, I am
recording this through the built in microphoneof my gaming hand teld and it doesn't
(10:00):
sound that bad. If you wantto hear it in full fidelity, you
can obviously go grab the podcast GeekTherapy Radio podcast in your favorite podcast player
and you can hear what this actuallysounds like. Now I've judged it,
obviously, I've eqed it, andI've added compression for broadcast, and it
sounds the best it can. Butyeah, you'll be able to hear exactly
what I'm talking about if you gosubscribe to the geek Therapy Radio podcast in
(10:24):
the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Speaker, Google podcasts, Apple podcast all that
could not Google podcast, Google podcastshas gone. You can subscribe to podcast
on YouTube now. You can typegeek their Parado podcast into YouTube and subscribe
to the podcast that way now too, which is really cool and across all
social media's Geek Therapy Radio all oversocial media Instagram, x, Facebook,
(10:48):
afore mentioned YouTube. I do havea TikTok, even though I don't keep
up with a TikTok as much,but it's all there. Geek Therapy Radio
is not going away as a asa show, as a podcast. The
podcast stays. So that's a goodsegue into explaining why I am now why
(11:11):
there's no more geek therap Puriity broadcast. Why this is the final broadcast of
Geek Therapy Radio. While you're notgoing to hear the show anymore on KPRC
nine fifty Am and the first segmentI explained, you'll still hear me from
time to time, possibly guesting onother shows. You'll still hear some fill
content in commercial breaks to promote GeekTherapy Radio podcast. But as far as
(11:33):
you know, having two hours overthe weekend of Geek Therapy Radio, that's
going away. It was an amicaldecision between me and the powers that be
at iHeart at KPRC nine fifty there'sstill my friends. I still consider them
very close. They're still allowing meto keep my foot in the radio door
(11:54):
here, keep my presence around,which might might wind up that you start
hearing me more often, because ifyou hear the field content or hear me
guesting on other shows, you're goingto hear that during more primetime hours,
So you might actually start hearing moreof my voice throughout the week. It
could be a blessing in disguise.But the reason why the radio show is
going away as a radio show,it's just a matter of life getting so
(12:20):
busy that I couldn't record new episodeseach week. It became difficult to continue
to record a fresh episode every week, work obligations, and I just had
my second child, and having athree year old an infant and work obligations,
it got to be too much.Too many spinning, too many plates
(12:43):
spinning, too many plates to keepspinning, and I didn't want any of
them to crash. So I said, you know what, I'm going to
take the obligation of recording a newradio show each week off the table.
I'm not making any money off ofGeek Their Radio. I don't make a
single penny off of Geek Therapy Radio. If you listen to the show and
(13:07):
you hear all the commercials playing betweenthe segments and everything, I don't make
a dime of that. That isbasically paying for Geek There Radio to be
on the air. That's basically coveringthe cost of airtime. But I myself
am not making a dime. Andthat's kind of part and parcel with the
decision to end making a broadcast isthat in order to make the show profitable,
(13:31):
it would happen. Two things needto happen. A. You need
to tow the line a little bit. I don't mean that in a negative
sense, but I've talked about that. I am I cut up a different
breed from typical that you might hearacross conservative talk radio. Nothing against conservative
talk radio. I am not atall saying that that anybody's doing anything wrong
(13:56):
or anything like that. It's justI can't you know, the sponsors.
Sponsors are the sponsors, and sponsorswant to know that you are aligned with
their values one hundred percent. Andwhile I don't, that just doesn't sit.
I'm not going to. I madea decision long ago which basically shot
(14:18):
myself in the foot from making theshow profitable, that I was too hung
up on sacrificing my values to sellthe cusps, sell the listener something.
You know, basically, when youtake on sponsors, it's just kind of
the reality of radio. And it'snot a good or a bad thing,
it's just what it is. Youcan't go. You have to start.
(14:43):
You have to plan your content inyour subject matter around what's not going to
piss your sponsors off. If someone'sgiving you money to do something and then
you talk about something that offends theperson giving you money or worse, really,
what kind of affects their market.Like, if you say something that
affects their customer base or reduces theirchances of making money or sending people to
(15:05):
the shop, then they're not gonnawant to sponsor you. So I never
wanted to have to censor myself.I never wanted to have to think about
the sponsor first before I open mymouth. And I'm not saying that that's
what every radio host does. Notat all, Not at all. You
know that other radio hosts are sittingdown with potential clients in their being honest
(15:31):
with them, saying you can sponsorme. But I'm gonna I'm gonna say
what I want to say. Ifyou're cool with that, cool, it's
even better. If you both lineup politically and morally and with all your
values, that's just even better.But I never, I don't know,
it never the way to make money, and radio never sat really well with
(15:56):
me. It was enough of afactor just to make me not pound the
pavement and go get sponsors. Idid get a few sponsors from time to
time. I had AUDI for awhile, I had AUDI Central Houston as
a sponsor. It was great.I won't go into details and why that
fell through. I will say thatit did not fall through because of anything
(16:17):
I did, but it was justkind of a It was just kind of
a shot in the arm. Itwas a warning of how this industry works,
and hey, I guess I can't. I'm not willing to tow the
line and play ball like I'm supposedto to have a successful radio show or
(16:37):
make it financially successful. And again, it's nothing, that's nothing negative,
it's nothing bad. It's just Isaw how the sausage is made, and
I don't it bought. Some ofit bothered me a little bit, and
it was bothered me enough to makeme not want to play the game so
hard as far as bringing in moneyand sponsors, and really what it amounts
(16:59):
to is just, you know,I work full time for the Houston Museum
of Natural Science, and just thefact of the matter is, it doesn't
matter what I think about my ethicsor taking on sponsors or what that means
and censorship and now I watch whatI say because I have sponsors. Now.
It was nothing like that. It'sbasically just time. I work full
time, and I just wouldn't havetime to go out and pound the pavement
because when I wasn't working full time. I had to be back home.
(17:22):
I have a three year old andan infant, and mommy and I both
have COVID, and now I've gotpink eye, and all these sorts of
things just come up, and it'slike, I don't have even if I'd
wanted to, I wouldn't have timeto go out there and shop the show
around to bring on sponsors. Soit's totally that's It's totally fine. That's
just what it was. That's whythere's no more Geek Therapy Radio on the
radio. It's just because I justran. I just don't have time to
(17:47):
record the podcast each week. MaybeI will in the future. More Geek
Therapy Radio coming up. Don't goanywhere, Welcome back to geek Therapy Radio.
(18:08):
You've got your mental curator, JohnnyHamburger. I apologize if this episode
is it feels off as I'm recordingit a little bit, not just because
this is the final episode of geekTherapy Radio, the final broadcast of Geek
Therapy Radio, but I am recordingthis final episode just battling through the molasses
(18:30):
of brain fog. My wife andI both have terrible COVID right now.
Losing our taste, losing our smell, I'm losing my mind, and I
don't think you can catch it throughthe radio. But anyways, Yes,
what a wonderful coincidence that I'm recordingthe final episode of Geek Therapy Radio broad
(18:53):
broadcast. Battling through the brain fogof COVID. I feel like I'm you
know, so, I know alot of you know this know what this
feeling is. You ever feel likeyou're watching a movie of yourself. You're
going through the motions of the day, but you feel like you're just watching
everything third person, like it's afriggin video game or something like you're watching
(19:15):
like you're playing God a war,except it's you. Krados's you. You
just got a camera lack of twois behind you with that, with the
Mario sixty four camera, just watchingyou run around. You feel like you're
watching yourself in a movie. Usuallyyou only feel that way when you're really
stoned, but I am not stoned. I just have COVID and I have
you know, it's coming. Withthe strong brain fog and everything I'm saying,
(19:37):
everything I'm doing, everything I'm operatingwith my body seems like it's doing
it through molasses right now. Inever knew what brain fog was because I
typically pretty sharp cognitively, But nowI fully understand what people are talking about
with COVID brain fog because I havethat right now. Anyways, this is
(19:59):
the final episode of Geek Therapy Radio. And again to just to recap very
quickly, it's it's an amicable decisionbetween me and I hearten all the powers
that be at KPRC nine to fiftywho I hold them all Barry and still
in very high esteem, high regard, high respect. All the other hosts
KPRC and k t H hold themin very high regard, high respect.
(20:23):
They helped me get where I amtoday. They helped me give me advice
on starting my radio show and whatto talk about. Let me talk.
Here's a little, a little anecdote. This is a good way to This
would be a good story to tellon the final broadcast of Geek Therapy Radio.
A long time ago, six seven, ten years ago, maybe I
(20:47):
was one of the producers on inthe board op call screener for the Michael
Berry Show. This was back ify'all can remember far enough before Michael Barry,
I believe Chris Baker at the driveTime. That's when I started at
KTRH in two thousand and nine.Michael Barry was a young blood city councilman.
(21:11):
You listen to Michael Berry's enough,you know his whole background. But
I was there ground floor bringing hisshow to the masses in Houston, then
eventually nationally and syndication. Michael BerryShow has absolutely skyrocketed in popularity over the
past ten years, and I wasthere on the ground floor helping get that
(21:32):
going, especially get the Michael BerryShow podcast out to as many people as
possible. There's ideas that I implementedin the podcast and that I brought to
the higher ups to help make thepodcast grow even further. One of the
implementations I made was, Hey,we have to take a little more care
in how we upload the podcast andwhat we upload and what we say about
(21:56):
it. It can't just be MichaelBerry's Show. November eleventh, twenty twelve.
It can't just be that. Ithas to be the titles have to
be snappy and grabby, the descriptionshave to have plenty of SEO Search engine
optimization in there so that as manypeople can find the Michael Berry Show podcast
as possible who've never heard the radioshow. So somebody up in Minnesota somewhere
(22:22):
who has never heard the Michael BerryShow. When you title the podcasts correctly
for search engine optimization, and youleave a snappy headline in there in a
nice description, you'll get the attentionof people who otherwise have not heard of
you, and then they've heard ofyou, and now they're subscribed to you.
So those are implementations that I madein the podcast early on to help
(22:45):
the broadcast reach more people, andtherefore even reaching more people, it helps
the show, the terrestrial radio showgrow better because someone hears it on the
podcast, Oh I want that,and then they call ktr Chure, ihearten
say I want them syndicate on mychannel. The podcast helps with all that,
and I'm happy that I was ableto rejigger j the podcast and how
(23:10):
we upload Michael Berry Show podcast tohelp it reach all the more people.
I think it reaches millions of peoplenow, it's insane. But early on,
before I started Geek Therapy Radio,my bugaboo, my main concern.
I didn't understand how I would beable to talk for ten minutes at a
(23:33):
time, like how do you dothat, Michael? But I would ask
him, Michael, how do youtalk for an entire segment at a time,
just a stream of consciousness? Tenminutes per segments, give or take
whatever, How do you do that? And what I learned was I'll just
tell more about Michael's response later,but what I learned was obviously, how
(23:53):
do you stop talking at ten minutes? That quickly became the real issue was
And Michael told me this, He'slike, the issue isn't going to be
how do you talk for ten minutes? The issue is going to be the
clock and how do you stop?How do you wrap it up? That
the trick, the goal is reallyand the expertise comes in where Ramon is
on the other side of the glass, you know, wiggle in his finger
(24:15):
saying wrap it up, you know, thirty seconds starting to play that butt
music in how do you wrap upyour thought in a decent way to segue
into the next segment, to segueto keep listeners through the rate to the
commercial break and keep them listening sothat they're here for the next segment start.
That's where the expertise comes is hittingyour post naturally and stop talking.
It's not how do you talk forten minutes stopping talking? That's the real
(24:38):
thing. But one of the bestpieces of advice that Michael Barry gave me
early on when I was starting withthe Gee Therapy radio. He may not
even remember this, but he calledit like it was like the cheeseburger analogy,
the hamburger analogy. He said,if you don't know what to talk
about, or you're vamping, oryou don't know, how do you feel
(24:59):
the time? How do you engagea listener? He said, Describe a
cheeseburger. You describe how juicy thebeef patty is. You describe how it
sizzles when it's broiled, the fatdripping down into the coals or into the
flames, and the fire kissing thebeef patty and searing in all the spices
and flavors. Then you talk aboutthe bun and how soft yet crunchy the
(25:21):
toasted bun is. Talk about thecoloration, the nice soft golden color of
the bun, the sesame seeds dottingthe bun, how the bun has a
little bit of butter on it,and when you bite into it you get
the softness of the bun. Andthen a little bit of the crunch of
the toasted part of the bun,and then you bite into the cheese,
which melts in your mouth and itfills your stomach with such warmth and joy.
(25:42):
And the lettuce is crispy, andyou chew on it and it kind
of breaks in your mouth and youcan feel the explosion of water trapped inside
the lettuce leaf, fill your mouthwith the other juices of the hamburger and
the cheese, and basically doing maybea great job of it. But describe
a hamburger if that's how you connectwith people. As you start describing,
(26:06):
it's the radio. They can't seewhat you're doing. They can't see what
you have, So you have todescribe quote unquote the hamburger. That helps
with the stream of consciousness, Thathelps fill the time between segments. And
you know what, if you listento the Michael Berry Show, that for
any disagreement that I have with MichaelBarry over politics or whatever, the best
(26:27):
and y'all will you will all agreewith me on this. There's no way
any of you would disagree with meon this. I'm that confident in this
next statement the best of Michael Berry. When Michael Barry is at his absolute
perfection. And what Michael Barry doesbetter than probably any other radio host that
I've ever heard, even better thanRush Limbaugh. I know that's a big
(26:48):
thing to say here is he's sogreat at digging into people's lives, making
you really care and fascinated about whatpeople do for a living. I will
tune in the Michael Berry Show fromtime to time and I find myself listening
for hours when he has a caller, and he might be a completely other
subject. You might be talking aboutKamala Harris or something that's going on,
(27:10):
but I'll have a caller call in. You'll say, what do you do
for a living? Bob? Oh, I'm a truck driver? Oh?
How much was your rig? Doyou pay off your rig? And he
goes into all the nuance of Bob'slife as a truck driver has nothing to
do with politics, has nothing todo with sensationalism, has everything to do
with human connection and making you feelthat you understand Bob better because Michael Barry
(27:36):
did such an an excellent job atextracting the threads and yarns of truck driver
Bob's life. That is, whenMichael Berry is at his best, and
that is like the That is whatI take away from my relationship with Michael
Berry, the mentorship that he hadhad for me over the years, is
(27:56):
he's just an expert at talking topeople and getting people to talk. Having
Bob the truck driver explained what kindof truck he has? Oh, he
had transmission problem. How much didthe transmission costs? Oh? Where did
you take it? What was theproblem with it? Dude, It's fascinating.
That is so much better, inmy opinion, than Hunter Biden's laptop.
(28:18):
That's just me. I like hearingabout truck driver Bob and truck driver
Bob's life. Then I care abouthearing Hunter Biden's laptop. But whatever that's
to me. That's like perfect radio. Is Michael Barry talking to truck driver
Bob about truck driving in the lifethat comes along with it. I'm just
(28:38):
waxing here, waxing poetically on thelast broadcast of Geek Therapy Radio. Got
the last commercial break coming up?Stick with me. I am your mental
curator, Johnny Hamburger. There isone more segment of Geek Therapy Radio coming
up. Don't Go Anywhere. Welcomeback to the final segment ever of Geek
(29:17):
Therapy Radio on KPRC nine to fiftyam. This broadcast is coming to an
end. Geek Therapy Radio on theradio is coming to the end, and
this is it. It is witha half heavy heart that I announced that
I've been with you on for sevenyears and you have been with me for
seven years. I've I've built thepodcast side of geek Therapy Radio up nicely.
(29:41):
In my opinion, It's not millions, it's not Joe Rogan, it
can't. It's not a pimple onthe butt of the Michael Barry podcast that
to my own horn I helped buildup. But it is my own it
is my own show. It ismy own growth on my own podcast.
It's hundreds of hundred thousands of thenwhatever, downloads, now whatever. At
(30:03):
one point it was a lot hotterthan it is now. My only focus
in life was geek Therapy of podcast. When I started geek Therapy Radio,
I had just been divorced. There'sanother let's get reover a minute here.
In the last segment of geek TherapyRadio in twenty seventeen, I needed a
win. I needed a win inmy life, and it was my dream
(30:27):
to have my own radio show.I come from a broadcasting background. My
dad and my uncles all broadcasters whoFor those of you who don't know my
father, God rest his soul.He died in twenty thirteen in October.
My father was Alan Hemburger. Youmight remember him from Channel thirteen, Marvin
(30:48):
Zendler, Bob Allen, all that, all those folks at Brandon, Dave
Ward, Sheriff Fryar, Sheriff Fryer, who's still over on k t h
R sister station. But yeah,my father was Alan Hemburger, and it
was important to me that I carrya torch. You know. It's funny
that my dad said, please don'tget into radio. There's no more money
(31:11):
in mass communications. Please pick somethingstable that you know you will make a
living at. But I got intoradio anyways. So anyways, in twenty
seventeen, I had been divorced intwenty sixteen. I don't know how much
detail I want to go into withthe parameters around the divorce. I will
just say that I was blindsided byit. I will just say it like
(31:36):
that. But I needed a win, and so I wasn't married anymore.
I was going through that trauma ofdivorce and I needed I felt like I
just it sure would be nice tohave a wind in my life. So
I had been dipping my toes inthe broadcast waters. I had been working
at iHeart since two thousand and nine, back when it was Clear Channel,
(32:00):
building the trust, showing them thatyou can trust me with of the FCC
license, which I demonstrated fully.But I wanted my own radio show,
and we're coming after the divorce.I needed a win, so eventually the
show was green lit. Gee TherapyRadio was green lit in spring of twenty
(32:22):
seventeen. I remember going out tomy car after meeting with Brian Rickson and
Ramone Robless and they gave me thegreen light thumbs up. Ramone was the
PD of KPRC at that time.Callum Reid would later take over his spot
as program director for KPRC, andat fifty went out to my car after
getting the green light finally after years, and this was, you know,
(32:43):
almost a year after my divorce,and it was a wonderful, praise God
moment. I was singing in thecar. I was cheering for the first
time in a long time. Iwent out to my car cheering. I
had a win. I had awin, and at the beginning, UK
Therapy Radio was my only thing.It was the only thing that I was
(33:04):
sinking all of my energy into inmy life. I wasn't married anymore.
I didn't have kids with my exwife, thank god, I didn't have
property with max wife. It wasfor as terrible. The circumstances were financially
and kind of like as far asstrings attached, there's silver lining was there
wasn't any financial things tying together andthere was no strings attached, so that
(33:29):
like kids, in property, anythinglike that. Not even any vehicles in
each other's names, nothing like that. If we had a bank account in
each other's name, and that waseasy to separate. But all my energy
was going into Geek Therapy Radio.All my energy was going into this radio
show and building it up and findingout figuring out what it was actually gonna
be, what it was going tobe about, what I was going to
(33:51):
talk about, how I was goingto relate to the audience, and all
the energy went into that. Atone point I was doing five podcasts per
week, if not six podcasts perweek. I was doing the radio show
and then five more podcasts per weekfor Geek therapy radio. Life changes a
lot in seven years. Fast forwardtwenty twenty four. Right now, I've
(34:13):
got a three and a half yearold boy, just gave My wife just
gave birth to our son. Heis one month old as of recording.
Right now, I've got an infinitea kid, full time job at the
Houston Museum of Natural Science. Ino longer board up at a k TRH
anymore. I was full time boardup at k t H. What a
ride that was. Now. Iwasn't here for Ike actually, sorry,
(34:36):
hurricanes Harvey, standing at the kt H Helm for countless hours, like
sixteen hours a day at least.During Harvey, I was sleeping under a
desk in the It was in theold building, and I would go down
to the sales floor and I wouldsleep under like I would sleep under Rob
Reese's desk. That's not real,Rob, I did not sleep under your
(34:58):
desk, but I did go downto the sales office and I was sleeping
under desks during Harvey for a fewhours at a time before i'd get back
up and go man the helm atk t H again. During Hart it
was wild. Oh the PTSD man, I don't want to use that term
lightly. But you know, emergencyalerts. You know, I can't actually
do the sounds because that's an it'sa heavy finds. You can lose your
(35:21):
license. But those annoying severe thunderstormalerts that kind of interrupt astros games.
With the Michael Barry Show, therewas the machine that handles emergency alerts during
Harvey basically burst into flames. Itwas just constantly printing, constantly firing off
those stones. We had to callthe EAS and WS and FCC and just
(35:45):
tell them, hey, we cannotkeep broadcast. There's no physical way for
us to keep broadcasting these warnings.Y'all are piling up. There's twelve warnings
coming in at a time every thirtyseconds. We cannot break into the program.
I am thirty times every thirty secondsto air each new alert. Just
people know it's raining. They thelake is in their house, they're swimming
(36:09):
on their second floor. They knowthat it's raining. Please give us a
little leeway here, don't hold usover the flames. Don't find us if
we don't play every emergency alert.Because we're in the hurricane right now.
We can't break away too. It'stoo many, it's too many. We
can't do it. People get it, we can't do it. So we
(36:30):
just need a little grace here withairing the emergency alers, which they allowed,
of course, and it was understandable. But that was part of my
career at iHeart and a kth.It all paved the way for Geek therap
p Radio. I did have Geektherap Py Radio at the time. I
think I just started. I hadjust recently. It says twenty seventeen.
(36:52):
Harvey was twenty seventeen, so Ihad just started Geek therap Piradio in spring
of twenty seventeen. And then formy birthday if y'all remember August twenty fifth
is my birthday, that's when Harveyhit. So I had my show for
like two or three months, maybethree or four months before Harvey, and
(37:14):
it was an absolutely I did anepisode. I remember a record of something
Fate for YouTube from a geek thereperiode of YouTube. Hey check out where
I'm sleeping during Harvey. This iswe got the food. Check out the
food and the vending machines that werebeing provided and it was acting. I
mean, it was a terrible experiencefor the entire city and it was a
harrowing experience for the person manning thehelm at KTI r H during the storm,
(37:37):
which was me, if you remember, me and a couple other board
ops, because a lot of otherboard ops were just they could not swim
to work to come out. Theyneed to be with their families, and
who would blame them? I wasn'tmarried anymore. I was just basically sleeping
at the radio station. So anyways, Geek Therapy Radio is basically me rambling
(38:00):
different things, trying to connect withyou over our passions, our hobbies,
and our interests. I'm going toend the show one final time. By
the way, Geek their period ofpodcast will still continue, just not every
week. You'll get it when youget it. Geek their periodio podcast and
all of your podcast apps. Butlet me leave you with this one final
time. Please listen to me.Turn your radio up all the way.
(38:20):
I want you to listen to thisand seer it into your brains. If
it's the only thing you remember frommy radio show, are you ready?
You are worthy of love, youwere worthy of giving love, you were
worthy of receiving love, and youwere worthy of your own self respect.
Lean into your geek thing. Thenit'll treat you right. Thank you so
(38:44):
much for joining me over the pastseven years on the radio. It has
been my absolute pleasure. Take careof y'all.
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