October 9, 2020 • 46 mins
Staying inside the family, Ben and David welcome in longtime radio personality, Arnie Spanier for a few minutes. Having done it all, Arnie highlights some of the wild times in his long career and shares some intimate moments as a media personality working across the country,
Make sure to subscribe, rate, and post a review on iTunes whenever you get the chance.
Engage with the podcast by emailing us at RealFifthHour@gmail.com
Follow Ben on Twitter @BenMaller and on Instagram @BenMallerOnFOX
David is on Twitter @DavidJGascon and Instagram @DaveGascon
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
Show week days at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week
was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants of
the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
(00:21):
pill poppers in the penthouse, the Clearinghouse of hot takes,
break free or something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Maller starts right now that it does. It is a Friday,
which means a conversation with someone we like in someone
we know. I say that in air quotes because four
hours or not enough on the overnight show during the week,
(00:43):
and we do this now eight days a week, eight
days a week, and joined for better or worse. I
guess this week we would say for worse after that
performance the other night. We'll get to that in the
Saturday podcast where David guesstcon sabotaged the show one Night
of Torture as a producer sitting in for the Cooper Loop.
But he is over there a gascon. Somehow you made
(01:05):
it back to the podcast battered and bruised, but happy
to be here. As always a nice warm welcome from
you as uh we get into a Friday edition. So
thanks for having me back. I appreciate it. After that,
the militia thought you did a great job. I put
up there on my Twitter feed to grade the performance
of Gascon producing the show, and they really voted some
(01:26):
good things for you. So you got that kind of
an assholes produced, Like kind of an asshole are you?
I was just pointing out, you know, tough love. Tough
love makes you better. But it's not about you, guess
because right now one of our college I have worked
with this guy at two different places over the years,
at least two, probably more than that. The man he's
(01:47):
lived the life of like a military brat. He started
out in southern California. To my note, he's lived everywhere,
literally everywhere, from coast to coast in the United States
and done radio. Have a microphone, have phones, will work.
The man known as the Stinking Genius, the star of
fs are. On the weekends, the great Arnie Spaniard is saying,
(02:11):
Laker Fast, Let's go on, Arni, Arni, Oh my god,
I think we should start with that Arnie, because when
I when I first met you. You came in. You
had worked in Chicago, if I remember correctly, right, I
think you were in Chicago. I don't remember. I don't remember.
You worked all over the place, but you were hired
as the big afternoon guy at the sports station in
(02:34):
l A that we were was working at the time,
and I remember, I think it was Mike Thompson was
the program director, if I remember correctly, and Mike he
sang the praises of you, Arnie and oh my god,
and you came in there with guns of blazing. That
was back in the Shaq Kobe period of time. What
time that was. And the funny part is when I
(02:56):
was up in Chicago and I got the job offer,
company wouldn't let me leave because I was under contract
for another year. So I'm like, well, you're not gonna
keep me here for a year, and they're like, yeah,
you can't leave. I go, wait a minute. You're not
gonna give me a new contract. You're not gonna let
me go. Um, You're you're not gonna give me anything.
You're not gonna give me more money, and they just
(03:18):
stared at me. I go, I am not leaving this
office until you give me something, and I was so
furious at the owner that I reached over and grabbed
a dozen goal balls. I go, I'm taking these golf balls,
and I'm leaving. And I just walked out of the
office and I could hear them laughter you as I
walked out. It's hard to believe, Annie, that a radio
company would not treat its employees. Well, that does not
(03:39):
happen in radio, right, Arntie. I mean we were well paid,
we make a lot of money, we live a great life. Yes,
it's shocking and shocking. They just wouldn't say, yeah, go ahead,
do it, you lot, and they go moved to Los
Angeles and and bother. When I got the l you guys,
I mean, you guys treated me like I had leprosy,
the contagious leprosy, not the non contagious one in papion,
(04:02):
the one that's contagious. Because I'm like, who is this guy?
I can't believe they're giving him afternoon drive? What's wrong
with people around here? I can't believe this. It was.
It was insane. Well, Arnie, I gotta tell you you
know how to make an entrance, because you know who
knows if this is accurate, not but from what I remember,
you came in and you took shot. It's like going
(04:22):
to the church and taking shots at a priest. You
were you were taking shots at Kobe and Shock right away,
like you didn't waste any time the most And I
love that about you. Aren't because I'm right there with you. Man.
I despised the Lakers, but you were throwing haymakers at
the Lakers from day one. They're not gonna win, They're
(04:43):
not gonna win, and you were annoying the hell out
of people. Was a brilliant strategy by you on There
was no strategy in this. You know, I came there
and and we really doing this. You just said whatever
the hell you wanted back then, there was no you know,
let me tell you, you you gotta say this, you gotta
do that had and you've got to be this kind
of person. And it was It was just amazing because
(05:04):
you know, the Lakers had not won in a long
long time. And that's remember when we started that thing.
If the Lakers win the championship, I said that year,
I'll watch everybody's car in l a And how many
times do you say something when the season begins and
then you know, eight nine months later in June, it
actually turns out that the Lakers won the championship, and
(05:24):
we're playing that stupid song car wash like every day too,
or three times a day for eight months. I mean people,
people didn't wash their cars for like a year just
to go ahead get a watch for free in case
the Lakers won the championship. And if I remember correctly,
that was like the best day of my life, the
Lakers Woman Championship. We had that that we had like,
(05:46):
uh cars lined up like three four miles long, helicopters
flying over and it was you in Dave that we're
actually helping watching the cars and doing the show. Why,
I was just meeting, greeting people. I'm saying hello. It
was really great. Xactly was on Ventura Boulevard, and you know,
I think it was if I remember, it was the hand.
I don't know if it's still there or not. I
(06:06):
have not driven down. Yeah, the giant oversized hand on
Ventura Boulevard, which is a staple of l A in
the San Fernando Valley. And yeah, so you know, I
was the Benny I was doing the Ben and Dave
show at at the time, and so you know, we
were not, and we were competing. She was not a
competing We're on the same team, but you were the
big afternoon star. And so yeah, I remember we parked
(06:28):
there and the line of cars from the hand car
washing army as far as I could see down Ventura
Boulevard which goes on forever, right and as far as Legacy,
And then you're right, and you didn't wash any car.
You sat there in a Hawaiian shirt, smoking cigars, and
you were sitting in like a folding chair, if I
remember correctly. And we I actually watched, I actually got
(06:52):
my hands dirty. I did more car watching than you
did that day. And the police came up to men.
They go, you know, we're gonna have to shut this down.
It's causing too much of a uh you know, traffic jam.
And I said, don't you dare. You're not shut nothing. Now.
This is the best thing ever. And it was just great.
They had Laker players coming. You know. I want to
tell you when in that series, this was like the
(07:16):
best thing I ever did. I got in so much
trouble for this, not not really in trouble, trouble, but
believe me, if there if there was a baseball pat
somebody would have hit me over the head with it.
Do you remember when we were doing when we first
were doing remote at Staples, Um, right next to Staples,
there was that big glass room that there was nothing in.
I think, now it's a Starbucks, right then, help me
(07:37):
if i'm if I'm thinking that was Yeah, when Staples opened,
they didn't have anything. It was kind of empty. And
then and then across the street was a parking lot
which is now the l A Complex whatever they call it,
right next to Staples, right next to it it is
I think it's a Starbucks style. But it was wide open, glass,
wide open, and we were doing the show. I was
(07:58):
doing the show in there. I noticed I don't know
why this happened, but when I went to a commercial break, UM,
they would stop playing the commercials outside on the speaker.
But when I was doing the show, you could hear
the show, which is obvious, right. But when I went
to a commercial break, they would cut the commercials but
the mic was still hot, so like, oh no, yeah,
(08:21):
I could talk to the people outside. So I thought
I'd have a little fun and I and we went
to a commercial. I get on the I get on
the on the Mike and I go, welcome to Game
six Portland and los A. Kobe Bryant out broke and
Land and people told people are looking to be like
he is. He is, he told the Jude, I go,
(08:43):
he's God. He won't play that e R. All I
know is after after about thirty seconds of saying this um,
our boss came in Mike Thompson. He said something like
didn't you please stop? But not in those words, different words,
different tone, And let me tell you something had had
(09:05):
he could say, if he could have grabbed me by
the neck and thrown me out in traffic on the
four on the freeway, I would have been in traffic.
The Lakers have been so mad at me that they
called my bosses, who had to run down to the
remote and tell me to uh please be quiet and
something like that. But I mean, I've never seen on
(09:27):
a he was red faced A couple of times. He was.
He was like a boiling thing. I wanted to take
a pit and pop. But my thought he was thought
he could have a heart attack. You know, I love Mike,
our our old boss, Mike Thompson. I love the guy,
but he was such a hot ahead of times. I
remember we would do a bad segment of the Ben
and Dave Show, and he was listening in his office
and he would become he would become rumbling down the
(09:48):
hall and he would like bang his hands against the
wall about how bad that segment of radio was and
started screaming, shoutting. But as far as that classroom, arty,
all right, I have some of my favorite reason radio
in that classroom. I don't know if you were there
that night, and maybe not. They were the riot say
to riot after they were you in there? This? Yeah?
(10:09):
I was. I was there. You know what's funny. I
was coming out of Staples after the Lakers won the championship,
riding outside. Um. We were supposed to do the post
game from that room. Ye, all I had to do
was go out from Staples. You might have been with
me at that time, and all we had to do
was walk a hundred stats, not even that much. Go
to the room. I come out, I see, of course,
(10:31):
a couple of things getting burned, a couple of cop
cars getting burned. And and as soon as I step out,
I hear there's already sire, And I turned over to
the policeman and he goes, yeah, you're on your own.
So I said that. I said, Ben, why don't you
go over and get ready for the romote. I'm gonna
stay here for a while so I can figure out
how to get over. Arnie. Let me tell you that
(10:54):
was the craziest night because as you said, there were
several cop cars that got burned. There was a channel
to news van that guy burned, and we are broadcasting.
All there is is a bright of glass in front
of us, and the mob is outside, and I remember
they started a fire on the street in right across
from Staples Center. There right in front of us. There
was a little street which is still there, and they
(11:14):
were dancing. They were doing a chance dancing around the
fire in the street, as I remember. Uh. And then
we remember who we sent out. I don't know if
you came in there. I think you got in the evention.
But we sent out Vic the Brick because the mob
loved Vic. Vic was like our on site reporter. They
couldn't get enough of it. They were chanting his name,
and we love you, Vic. You got and we got
in trouble because they're like, they're riding and burning the
(11:37):
cop cars and and of course the boss comes to
this you can't say you that, don't say that. So
I got on the mic and go, come on down. Family,
filled out this year breathing. I want to I want
to say this speaking about her old boss. Do you
remember what he wanted me to do with that sports bar?
(11:58):
Refresh my memory. There were so many crazy promotions we
did with people being buried alive, and that's what he
wanted me to do. He wanted me to one to
be buried alive six feet under in the concrete and dude,
that's not happening. I will die down there in concrete.
So Tom Mooney did it. And it's funny, but I
(12:22):
think our boss passed out from drinking. So nobody was
guarding the area where Mooney was buried, and I remember
we were talking to we go. Tom was running out,
What are we going to do? We can't get you
out here? Running out and we had him been a
full paddent looking back at that, but it wasn't very funny,
but it was funny. Oh no, that stuff was hilarious.
(12:43):
We remember we put somebody on I don't know if
you were here at the time. We put somebody a
billboard into because the clippers had a long losing stream.
We put a Ali McKay. We put her on the
billboard for like until they won, and that became a
news story. One of the funny things. I want to
tell you one more the best, the best truck anybody
ever had when we were doing in l A. And
you known him, but you never brought up his name.
(13:03):
We had a guy that they hired I don't even
know who the hell he wants. We called him three
way Freddie, and all he had to do was take
this brand new Honda and drive around watching Dodger games
wherever they traveled. And at the end of the summer,
you got to keep the Honda and he would never
call it to night show. He was supposed to call
it like every day, and he would never call it.
(13:25):
And he kept the Hansa. Do you remember that I
got Freddie? I don't. I don't remember. I remember we
had Check was our our promotions guy at the time,
one of our promotions guys, and he was driving around
the promotions vehicle and we would google was a Honda Honda.
I don't remember that. But you know one of the
one of the one of the interns, Arnie at that
station is now the head football coach of the Texas
(13:48):
Long Lawrence. Can you aieve that that is a nuts?
Tom Herman, who's the coach of Texas, was an intern
at the station me and Arnie worked at back in
the day, Sam whatever your name is now, Yeah, how
much you think you get? I don't know how much
he's getting paid. He must be getting paid like five
million dollars a year to coach at Texas. I would
think he has a big time that we got that job,
(14:10):
because a coaching job. I I just remembered Arnie the
one of the other fun stories about that time we
were doing radio in l A. You mentioned the Freedom
we were doing. Me and Dave. We're doing a midday
show from that same glass room, and we sat there
for the for the riot after the Lakers won that championship.
We were we were in there and it was like
(14:31):
a day after the the Clippers had played the Lakers,
and the Clippers had scored like three points in a
quarter or two points in a ridiculous quarter, and then
it was so embarrassing. The team was terrible. You know,
I'm a Clipper house guy and I was then as well,
and and so Dave had this idea, so we gotta
you know, I want other Clippers to move back to
San Diego. So he had this brilliant idea, says, let's
(14:54):
put a petition together and we'll have our intern go
out and because our business people in downtown l A,
we'll have him signed the petition and we'll do a
bit out of it. So we send our intern out. Okay,
this is a great story on it. So we send
our intern out to get signatures from people who were
on lunch because we show and hand to guy all right.
About an hour later, a steaming man, Andy Roser, who
(15:18):
was Donald Sterling's right hand man, comes running in. Our
intern had asked Andy Roser to sign the petition to
move the Clippers back to San Diego because they're an embarrassment.
Oh my god, he was so pissed. He was so
angry are he he was spitting fire when he came
in there. He was firing brimstone. Oh my gosh. It
(15:38):
was a mess. By the way, I think now the
chance to kind of bring this up. Now, I know
people are listening for one story in one story only
kind of awkward that you haven't brought it up. Well,
I think we can talk about how you own the
eastern part of Vermont. If you want come to want
(15:59):
to know why you and I were in the hot
top with four topless women back in Indiana, they were
up to four topless women out. The number changes, but no,
fine whatever it was said, it was me you with
a mar Kenez so um all the time. Yeah, we
had we had different people in there, but we were
in Indianapolis on assignment, Arntie. We were big radio stars
(16:21):
on assignment at the NBA Finals for the Pacers. And
was that Reggie Miller's Pacers, right, I believe it's time
And they read it to from the David Letterman show.
That's right. That was the big thing because the Letterman
would send Biff out to do his goofy interviews and
that was that was we read it. It wasn't that
we ran him at a bar, right, He was like
he was kind of depressed and he was drinking a
(16:41):
little bit and uh, but that was a lot of fun.
So we were standing at the hotel there and we
somehow ended up I don't know how, yes, in a jacuzzi,
and as I remember the story, Arnie, there were a
couple of beautiful ladies there and they were pretty attractive,
and then they were kind end of uncomfortable when we
got in the hot tub. And then when you started talking,
(17:04):
they immediately got out. As I recall, first of all,
they were really uncomfortable when you took your shirt off.
I had my shirt off, and and everything was good
until that. I I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah,
I I've never seen someone exit a hot tub quicker
than that. As soon as as soon as they got
out of there, that oh my god, Frankenstein and his
(17:24):
son had gotten in into the into the hot tub.
I already I got. I found some photos a few
months ago. I should, I should, I should take a picture.
I have a photo of you. I think it's you, me,
Tony Bruno, and a bunch of the other guys. Uh No,
this was actually remember that, um we were broadcasting from
(17:46):
that bar in downtown Indianapolis. Remember it was like a
Hollywood theme bar thing if you yeah, yeah, they had
like they I forget what the name it was, but
that's where we did the show from. So we took up.
We took a photo, and I should send that. It's hilarious.
We look so he looks so different, Artie. Remember the
(18:07):
weather guy in Indianapolis spent his seven minutes of weather
just ripping me. Yes, yes, the local local. You know
you've arrived, Arnie when you are the top story on
the local news and they are bashing you and just
destroying you. Just smith the reens, Arnie. Oh my god,
that was hilarious. I forgot about that. That was it was.
(18:31):
It was a lot of good times out there, I think.
And we started off the show like this. Um never
in my wife did I think of all the things
I said on the air that the one thing that
people would always bring back up to me is a
Laker fan. I remember. I remember they brought me into
the office and I'm talking like some secret private office
(18:54):
that's only for the big wigs and people that are
about to get fired. And they brought me to the
office and it was like every person, um like every
boss one higher than the next. And and and one
guy says to me, you're you're going to have to
stop to say, You're gonna have to stop saying old
Laker fans. I said, I excuse me, They go stop
(19:16):
saying it is defensive. And I said, just tell me
which words offensive and I'll cut it out all Lakers
are fans, and he goes, you're going to cut it
out now, that's what he's going to do. And okay,
I said, I go, let's everybody calm down. Um, if
you brought me in, the fire me and just fire me.
But I'm not stopping a Laker fan. It's it's not
(19:37):
even anything. It's not even offensive. What's wrong with everybody here?
I don't know what's going on. So um, they kind
of left me alone after that, but with me, it
gets like a hundred guys about this whole be a
s Laker fans, Like, really, is that big of a deal? Unbelievable? Well,
remember the boss and the big Boss at that station.
Remember he would he would wear those purple suits and
those bright colored suits and stuff. He's walking around there
(20:00):
of the power suits and all that back and in
those days, remember one called Darth Vader. Oh that's right,
we had We had Darth Vader. And uh, you know,
I don't want to I'm not gonna name anybody, but
I remember what we were. Occasionally I would do the
morning show, we'd fill in on the morning show, and
I remember the Boss would come in every Monday after
a very tough weekend, and he would spend like the
(20:20):
first hour and a half kind of cleaning up in
the bathroom, if you know what I mean, Like you're
kind of rubbing his face with some water and trying
to wake up after a very tough weekend. Yeah. I
did love our boss, and I get it. One type.
He came in and when I was doing afternoons and
he pulled out three hundred dollars cash and I'll give
you three hundred dollars if you don't take any more
phone calls for the next hour. Oh yeah, he hated. Yeah,
(20:44):
he did not like the calls. He was not a Yeah,
it was funny. Uh, what are some of the I'm
trying to think of some of the other crazy stories
from back back in those days. What was the Los
Angeles That was just so many different places? I know,
unlike you just stayed that for your whole life. Well,
I was in San Diego, but yeah, I'm in southern California,
(21:05):
but I didn't do I'm beloved Boston Icono. I spent
two years filling in at w E. I already remotely
come on and I was ahead of my time. Everyone's
doing remote broadcast. Now I was ahead of my time already,
back in those days, they couldn't get anybody else. What
was that? Well, no, they actually wanted to hire me,
and they wanted me to move back there. And I
(21:27):
my wife of course, wouldn't allow me to to move
back there. But they're like, hey, we'll have you at night.
You know how radio stations are. They don't cann't put
anybody to put us on at night. They don't care
about that. He said, are you kidding me? Or Boston?
Who will pick l A? What's wrong with you? I
know Boston is a better sports town. I mean, I
love that I grew up in l A. Might stay
up here in Vermont. We we carry the Celtics, the Patriots,
(21:50):
the Bruins, um, you know, we we carry all the
teams out, Celtics, all of them. It was great already.
I was when I was working in e I I
would be on after the Red Sox. I would have
to do Red Sox review. After the Red Sox game,
people will be leaving Finway calling up. Of course, nobody
knew I was in l A. And they all thought.
I was like, you know, they're asking me about the game.
You know I was watching the game. But I wasn't there.
(22:11):
I was still thousands of miles away, but it was.
It was pretty crazy. So how did they? By the way,
I can't even understand their accents half the time. I'm like,
and I know I have a New York accent, but
Boston accents like one of the top three worth accents
in the United States. I love it. Man. They would
find that all the teams win all the time in
Boston and they still bitch and moment It's great. I
(22:31):
love it. They they find things to complain about it.
Just like, so, how the hell did you end up
in Vermont? Aren't you've lived all over the country. Why
didn't you settle on Vermont? Explain the secret? I must know?
Arnie Spaniard witness a relocation. No, um we I was
in Dallas. I had enough of Dallas. I mean had
a good time. I was doing nights, I was working
(22:52):
for CBS. That's just so funny. But when I when
I got hired by GPS UM, I was supposed to
go to Detroit, and and three days before I I
had my car packed and I was ready to roll.
Three days before I was supposed to go, I got
a call and go No, no, I can't do Detroit.
We're gonna send you to Dallas. And I'm like, Dallas, Texas.
I go and I started to cry, I go, please,
(23:12):
don't don't do this to me. You know, I'm just
it's miserable. I can't do this. But um, I ended up,
you know, going to Dallas, and I had enough for
that for three years. It was fun, but I still got,
you know, stood out like a sore thumb. I went
to Puffle, where my wife was from, because my son
played hockey, and he went to a private school up there,
and then um, we took the next step because he
(23:33):
was getting really really good. We put him in another
program and that happened to be at Burlington Vermont and
we ended up staying here because we liked it. So
my son plays nowt in college and when he finishes there,
hopefully you'll play somewhere and you know, like in slap
shots the Federally or something like that. That's unbelievable, man,
Your little son, who you named after a baseball stadium,
(23:53):
is now in college. That is insane. That is nuts.
Hockey Goldie too, out of all positions the hockey goaling.
Wait a minute, the son of a sports talk show
host is a is an athlete and can play at
a professional level, possibly when he's done with college. Are
you kidding me? Aren't spend it's a federal league. It's
you know, it's like slap shot. You know, they get
(24:14):
drunk before the game and they go out there, they
play it. They make two a week or something. Yeah, well,
if that happened, maybe you never know, aren't you never?
Strangest things have happened. And I remember there was a
writer at the l a Times, a baseball writer whose
kid made the major leagues? Was it? Yeah, he's David Newsom.
I think Ross our newhand, Ross Newhand. He was a
(24:36):
baseball writer at the Times years ago, and his kids
like made the major league, and every sports writer it
was like orgasmic, you know, every every g sportswriter was
like cee cee. We don't really write about it, but
our kids can make it. We can figure our we
have genetics. Our kids can make it in baseball and
all that. Yeah, I just realized. I just realized, Arnie,
we have completely left David Gascon out of this exactly.
(25:01):
That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. But are
you proby eating some kale. Yesterday was kale Day or something.
It's probably eating some kale. Yeah, But it's the West
of the four or five guy, you know, Arnie from
when you lived in the in the l A. Area.
It's it's different West of the four oh five versus
four or five. It's a different, different animal. I'm just
I'm not allowing you guys to reminisce about the good
(25:22):
old days when you guys actually got paid. Well, you
guys had Christmas parties ever luxurious, and yes, yes we
got paid what we had freedom, As Arend said, right,
how great was it Aarnie when we would just b
s and shoot the ship and do whatever we wanted
pretty much, and it was wonderful. Oh the parties were
great too. They that have awesome parties. There was a
lot of good stuff back then. And I really sometimes
(25:46):
think that if I if I never left l A.
I think I went to atlant after l A. I wonder,
you know how long that would have ended up being
in Los Angeles? And I probably would have been an
old man like Ben out there in l How dare
you are used? When I was a little kid, aren't
I used to listen to you on the radio, and
I was a little just like you are, and it's
so serious I want to be. We had one of
your colleagues on last week. We had and you worked
(26:08):
in Chicago. Were at one on one right, you had
Peter Brown was on your your lineup right? You got Yeah,
you worked the same We had Peter on last week.
He's out of the business. He made so much money.
He's done. He's not doing anything. He's just kind of
hanging out these days. He's a glassblower. I don't know
if you know that he does glassblowing out there. I
haven't spoked to Peter in a long long wait wait wait,
wait wait wait. He said that that's not real? Is
(26:28):
he said that? I thought he was bssing. That's not real.
That's that's what he does. That He I guess, really
good at it. So that's what he does. Oh, I
thought he was kidding. I didn't know. I thought he
was pulling my chain. I thought that there's no way
he's not doing that. That's crazy. That's what he's doing
now night, I think Chicago. Yeah, a lot of guys
(26:51):
who used to work with there's that too many left around. Uh.
That are still doing radio. That's kind of scary, Aret,
right when you think about all the people we worked
with and some good people, some talented people, and like
we're like the last of the Mohicans here. It's crazy
for getting old, my friend, there's no doubt about that.
I don't know, well, my hair disappeared, But other than that,
(27:12):
I feel young, are other than my, other than my
But you know, I just bought a bunch of hats,
aren't That's all? And I'm gonna shave my I think
I'm gonna I think I'm gonna buzz my what's your advice?
Are you lost your hair for us? Like? Should I
just buzz my hair and get rid of it? Lose
my hair? I choose to wear like this? No, that's
a lie. That's a lie, Arn'tie, that's a lie. So really,
what we're saying, Gascon is you should learn how to
(27:33):
blow glass, is what we're saying. Well, there's plenty of
glass around here in Sherman Oaks. So for kind though,
our Arnie, you guys, well you're sons with sending us
the great Christmas gift of all time. Like we get
some kind of jankie gifts that I kind of popped
(27:55):
to Ben every year, but you send the maple syrup
and the pancake mix from Vermont, and well, I don't
know if it's you or your wife. I I you
don't understand the joy and glee that you get from
some of the colleagues here at Fox, because like that
(28:16):
is that really is a Christmas gift beyond Christmas gifts,
especially especially during the holiday season when we come in
here there's nobody around and then all of a sudden,
it's just a box of goodies from Arnie and courtesy Vera.
Somebody took the bosses I said, want to try to
get just about everybody, uh you know, producers on not
on air, but producers and and the blosses. Somebody took
(28:38):
the bosses one and walked out with it. It's good
because I wrote the names on each box and somebody
just said I'm taking this one and left with it.
The boss ever got one, It's it's glorious. Man. Hey,
do you have I mean, I'm kind of curious because
you and Ben A bounced all over the place with
stations and networks. Do you have any professional regrets? The
(29:01):
only professional regrets um I would have is not taking
a job to not being more serious. Um, when people
called me, I think when we first started out that
I went from the network to Phoenix. I got a
call from Seattle. Um that were really I mean that
the job certainly could have been mine. And and you
know what Sonny Betton's um uh and David the Jim Rome,
(29:24):
the syndicated show that he does now which was went
out of Sermon Oaks. That came down between me, Jim
and I think Scott Farrell and I knew nothing about syndication.
I was working in Phoenix and they called me up
and said, yeah, I go, what's this all about? The
said you'll have to move back to l A. Sherman Oaks.
I go, we could to stop there. I'm not moving anywhere.
(29:45):
I like Phoenix. I'm crushing it here, so you know,
I'm not doing nothing. So UM, you know that that
would have been a regret if I would have paid
that more. And I think the biggest regret I probably
have though I don't know how well I would have
done this job. Um. Do you remember Opie and Anthony? Yes, yes,
in New York and they got in trouble for doing
(30:06):
some sex spit where some listeners went to a church
or something like that, and they got fired and they
were looking for a replacement, and once again it came
down between me and Scott Pharrell. Um is the last
two and they gave it to Scott, and I think
they end up getting rid of him after a year.
That was like a really really tough job and we
(30:26):
were supposed to go solo. So um. I mean, those
those are a few, but for the most part, I
have no regrets. Man. You take the jobs you want,
you pass on the ones you don't, and you just
keep looking at the head and hopefully you did the
right decision. Yeah, we we had Farrell. He worked at
our place for a little bit in in l he
was he was out there, and we also worked at
(30:48):
Fox Sports Radio years ago. We you know, it beat
somebo I've start to Scott about this when it's I mean,
there's at least three or four times jobs have come
down just between Scott and I and I got two
of him and he got two of them, and UM,
it's just weird because you usually don't see something like that. No,
(31:08):
I'm not a guy. I mean I would certainly look
at a bunch of stuff, but I would turn out
a lot of jobs to now do you have a
big agent on because I had an agent like a
year and he just didn't work. He didn't do anything.
He's like, oh, you get the job, and then all
all of them the goost the contract. I'm like, well,
what's the point of that. I can do that. I mean,
I don't how to negotiate a contract. Well, who cares?
(31:28):
You know. I used to have an agent back in
the day, but they always say you are your own
best agent. Nobody's gonna work as hard for you as
you know. I I just thought, like some people in
the industry, um, you know that were former program directors.
But other than that, I've had an agent about twenty
years or something like that. Yeah, And I people ask me, like,
(31:50):
young guys are like, how do you get in the business?
You know, I was like, you pretty much just have
to stick around because like all the guys aren't that
used to be our producers and are you know the
guys behind the scenes, the board ops, they all be
game program directors and they all became you know, they
moved The people that stayed in radio, they all moved
up and they have good jobs now and they're people
people we know from years ago. I have producers who
(32:11):
now run are the program directors of Bosses in San Francisco,
in Detroit, in Scargotting, North Carolina. Um, it's amazing. And
now with podcasts like this, you if you're trying to
start off in the radio or anything, to start your
own podcasts and you know, get clicks and stuff like that,
it's a lot easier to get into radio now than
(32:33):
it was back then. For us. Oh yeah, it was
a nightmare to get a radio show, even like on
a Saturday morning. It was you couldn't do it. It's
all about getting your reps right already. Gotta get comfortable
from a microphone and find your style. And you can
do that on a podcast, which is obviously a lot
different than a radio show because the radio show you
get the clock and all that crap. You gotta deal
with a bunch of you. You look back at, you
(32:55):
look back at down. If we would have had podcasts
to kind of get our feet wet, things weren't been
a lot different. You know, think about that first station
in Los Angeles, CAMPC. It was like who's who? Famous
people out there like Jim Moiapily and stuff. Yeah, looking
at the stars of the world. Oh no, no. I
when I got into it, I thought I was gonna
be like a minor league played by Playgue. I interned
(33:16):
at six ninety in San Diego, had hacks On and
and Rome was doing a local show and they had,
you know, a bunch of a bunch of big name
guys also that we're doing shows there. And I was like, Yeah,
that's not gonna work. And then I just kind of
stuck around and but you're right, seven ten. They had
a huge budget and it didn't work. They didn't get
the numbers, and so they eventually changed they changed it
around after after what what's the most trouble you got
(33:38):
in Arnie, Like, what's the that's something you did on
the air? What is the craziest bit that you did
that Did you ever get in trouble with Like you
mentioned the Lakers, but like with a coach or a
player that you were going after and they were they
were upset with you. I don't know if I got
a lot of trouble for this, but I think it
one of the biggest regrets I had um when I
was doing this show with Dave, your former partner and
(33:59):
we had Rudy, I'm John of it, John, and things
were going great. We're having a great talk. And for
some reason, you know, I'm just such a smartass, I said, well, Rudy,
let it be one thing. Let it be known that
you certainly can take a punch, you know, because of
what happened in me. Yeah, for those killed, for those
(34:19):
under the age of like sixty. Uh. That one of
the great moments. I'm not one of the great moments,
were one of the crazy. He got punched Curvitt Washington right,
punched him, right, yeah, yeah, punch and it almost him. Yeah.
And when we when we say punched, not just like
a small punch, like a direct hit type of punch, yes, right, right,
And and I think he just said, um, okay, you
(34:41):
guys have a good day or something like that. He
he didn't think it was funny put it that way.
He wasn't laughed. And that guy was laughing. Oh, that's
that's that's crazy. And who's who's the I just got you.
You're like, oh my god, did you really say that.
I'm not even laughed. That's that's that's who's the worst
program actor? You had? Aren't you want the worst program
(35:03):
director X me you already talked about the golf balls
in Chicago. We both have great stories about our program
director we had in l A who I love the
death but I used I love the guy in retrospect.
But I mean, we've we've had some crazy things that
have happened. I've had program directors who have given me
terrible advice. What's the worst advice you got from a
program director? The worst thing? I had one in Phoenix
had no business at a sports station, and he told
(35:25):
me he wanted to get rid of me. And I
was not, um. You know, I had no idea what
the hell was going on with radio and how things
were supposed to be handled. And I remember he goes,
he goes, who did you have on to that? I said,
that was Paul Westfaul. He goes, who's that? And I
just almost started to cry. I know who is this guy?
And you don't even know Westca. I wouldn't worry about
it if I were you, But I don't think you're
gonna be here much longer. We're gonna get rid of you.
(35:48):
I said, you're gonna get rid of me? Huh? I said,
I'll tell you what I picked up the phone right
there in front of everybody. We were having a meeting.
I was so friendly, didn't say that in front of
people's was just too much. And I called the owner
um of the of the of the whole cluster, and
I said, right here in a meeting with so and so,
he said that you guys are getting rid of me.
This is in front of him. And the guy tells
(36:09):
me on the phone. He goes, yeah, I wouldn't worry
about that. He's the one we're getting rid of. And
I just hug up the phone. Oh wow, that's great.
And they fired him a day later. So that was
that was That was one uncomfortable situation. But otherwise, for
the most party kind of got wrong with my boss?
Is it? Then you would always pick on people like
us because you can't pick on the athletes, you know,
(36:31):
like the loans of the world that you used to
work with. You you can't do that, so you have
to pick on people like us. Oh yeah, we remember
that station they had Karl Malone Terry Bradshaw did a
show at the station. Yeah. Yeah, there was like a
different there was a code. There was a pecking order,
as there is in every business. But yeah, the regular
radio working stiff like Arnie Spanier and me. We would
(36:52):
we would take the brunt of the races, like if
the ratings were not good or if you know, the
program director was having a bad day, he would take
it out on guys like us. But the star athlete,
you know, you're doing a great job. I remember they
had to go to and I love Terry Bradshaw, but
they had to go to his house sometimes because he
forgot to do the show and they had to find
him to do the show. And they never really yelled
(37:13):
at him for that. If I imagine if we had
done that, aren't you we're not going to show up
one of these days? Even remember when we were we
were in first back, we were on the high Rise,
I don't know, like four fourteen fifteen, and I was
coming in through the afternoon drive and the guy that
was on before me, I'm not going to say his name.
I saw him hallway and he was literally on before me,
(37:33):
and I go hey, he goes hey, and he just
lucks by, and I think I must be going to
the bathroom and I walk into the to the you know,
to the offices. I walked by the studio about two
or three minutes later, I got here, we're so and so,
we're so, and so I go I just some walked
by me, got an elevator. The guy went down to
(37:54):
get a sandwich in the middle of the so I'm
cool that and they fired the producer and they had
to tell the guy that you can't fire the producer
because the host was out. They get a sandwich that
I got a sandwich, build the show, well, Arnie, in fairness,
that cafeteria did have good sandwiches in that Bo was right.
(38:16):
It was right near the Warner Brothers, right across the
street from Brothers, and they had amazing And did you
ever go to adults in those days? Aren't we remember?
You guys would, but you've never invited me, So I
would never, Arnie. I I my entire twenties, late twenties,
I spent adults. It was unbelievable. Everyone I never you
(38:36):
never went with We had all like that, those nineties
sitcoms like I'm Trying to Signfeld was on at that time.
Here not er. I don't think Scheers was on. That
was more of the eighties. But you guys would never.
You would always call what you guys tears I'd like
to go with you. No, no, no, we're just going home.
It was it was crazy like l a bar with
all the burbank but all these Hollywood people from those
(38:59):
sitcoms that carry show they would come in there. That
was there. But you get to hang out with guys
like Gascon you know the day here in Vermont. I'm
like one of the four famous guys out here. It
Spending Jerry, Me and and uh and Bernie Sanders. So
that's pretty much the four famous people that live out
here in Vermont. Is there a sign Arnie when you
(39:20):
enter this is the home of Arnie Spaniard, the stinking genius,
Oh Laker fans, Well, there would be, but we have
a lot here. There's no billboards allowed in the state,
so we keep the queen out here. Bet we don't
allow that stuff. But isn't there Like the taxes are good,
right like I when I when I did stuff at
e I, a lot of the people would live in
they live in Vermont, New Hampshire. Yeah, New Hampshire. That's
(39:41):
right because it was cheaper and you didn't you didn't
have to pay the taxes of message. Not so cheap
up here in Vermont. Especially in Berwin did it's not
so cheap. Think I live in a townhouse. I live
in a condo. You you live in a mansion. You
live in a man That is a lie. You have
like an entire block acres and acres of land, and
(40:03):
you've got like maple trees and like the whole thing.
You got, you got the whole thing going on. Don't
lie to me. You're you're you're the ball or you're
the ball. Are Arnies fan? You're come on? You know
they have a place. It's so funny. But everything gets
so big here. There's only my wife and I was
my soul's in college, and our places like square feet.
(40:23):
I go, we need to place this big. I like,
it's it's ridiculous. It's like three levels and there's only
two people in the house. Well, every night on you
can go to a different room. It's like you're in
a it's like you're staying at a hotel. Right, I'm
gonna looking at this roll. It's unbelievable. It's amazing here.
It's not that big. But I live. I live in
(40:43):
an area where there's a lot of retired people, so
I'm like the youngest, I'm my block. People go to
Vermont to retire. I thought you go to Florida, Arizona retired.
They come up here for the summers and then they
go down to South Carolina or Florida for the winners,
so they do one of those days. Yeah, well, you're
like an old New Yorker. Shouldn't you go to Florida? Like,
shouldn't you have a place in Florida? Also, Yeah, I
(41:05):
haven't left here though, you know, I got my own
studio up here. I haven't, you know, with the Corona,
I'm not traveling munch. It's it's it's pretty easy. I'm
right across from New York, and it takes me about
four hours or three three hours to get the Boston
four and a half to get to New York. I'm
about an hour from Montreal, so I'm not that far
for some major places. It's pretty cool. Are you are
(41:28):
you a waiting guest? Are you awake over there and fall?
It's it's Friday night. I'm of course I'm awake. I'm
just doing I'm Friday night. I thought it was Friday morning.
I didn't know what it was going, not have any idea.
He's just ready to go party. This weekend. That guy
now with King Newsom. Here in this state, we don't
do any of that, aren't. I don't know what it's
like out Vermont, oh, Arnie, Yeah, yeah, it's brewing California. Man,
(41:50):
you can't. They don't even want you to leave your
house today. It's like a police state out here. It's nuts.
We I look at the numbers here for Vermont, Um.
We usually get like two to five new infections a day.
We had one that was in like twelve and people
were freaking out, going, oh my goodness, we're here. It
comes we're really gonna be bombarded now. But we're usually
(42:10):
single digits per day. A matter of fact, we alway
have had about eighteen hundred new infections since March, since
it's all started. We're we're like the last state. The
state above us is triple the amount of us. So
we're really having it not pretty decent out here. Well,
I think it's probably because you guys took the appropriate
steps like we're supposed to do now, where you guys
(42:33):
actually eat your food and then put your mask back
on eat your food. I saw that. I mean most
people out here, we have a lot of outdoor seating
I'm sure you guys have that in California too, So
we do a lot of that, a lot of take out,
but we don't have a lot of people, as you
know out here. I think it's like four hundred five
hundred thousand in my you know, in the whole growing
(42:54):
pin uh, pretty much less than a million in the
whole damn state. Now, Arnie, what do you coming back
to l A? I guess not after. I guess it's
gonna have to wait till after COVID. Right, you came
out here, well, I wanted to come back to see
my marvels an assistant living. Um, I couldn't do that
in the summer. I was actually to come back a
couple of weeks ago, but the assistant living is closed.
(43:17):
I'm just gonna have to wait, so probably after the
first of the year and let this thing, you know,
hopefully died down a little bit and I'll travel is
I you know, it's just so tough right now, and
then when you come back, you got to quarantine yourself,
and it's just too tough right now. So hopefully I'll
be back in l A soon, but I hope it's
probably gonna take till after the first of the year.
(43:38):
You know, it's crazy. And I read a story that like,
do you think flying is like unsafe right because of
the air, But they say that it's actually not because
they actually the planes now for many years have taken
outside air. That's so it's not you're not actually breathing
the same air over and over again. And so that
was actually I haven't gone anywhere. I haven't flown anywhere
since this all started. But from what I read that,
(43:58):
you know, who knows, maybe it's bullcrap, but they made
it seem like it's not that risky as long as
I have like a private airport for me here in Brobington.
You know that I live like two miles from the airport.
So if I'm leaving for a flight, I will leave
no earlier than maybe forty five minutes before my flight.
It takes me five minutes to get there. The t
S A agent. The t S A agent. His name
(44:21):
is Jarvis. He used to be my boss at the
radio station here, so he's like hery lord, I got Jarvis,
just come out, bro walk out. I'm to day. It's
about twenty minutes. Yeah, of course, l a X. Here's
you know, Arenie, you gotta get there three hours before
the flight. And oh my god, what a nightmare, man,
What a bleeping nightmare that is? It is? Are you
(44:43):
doing the radio seven days a week now? Aren't you're doing?
Because you were? I'm not doing nothing too extensive. I'm
doing four pm to six Monday to Friday here locally,
UM one of my U, one of the local pumpkins
here in town, and then U the Sunday and Sunday
night and at Fox. So I'm keeping myself busy. No
(45:04):
doubt that the grind, the Arnie Span, your grind, making
the big real grind, the real grind. You're the highest
paid radio guy in Vermont? Is that true or false?
There you can look at you alright, Arnie. I love you, man.
We go way back me. Man, you're the greatest Arnie.
I thank you for doing. Thank you for finally asking
me after three and a half years of doing your
(45:26):
podcast about as every person and every every even people
out of radio. But I do appreciate that gas guy,
you need to not talk as much next time. You
took up way too much time. Hey, listen, I give
away for you guys. Consider the fact. So we're doing
old Guy Radio, Me and and Arnie Man. We're talking
(45:48):
about war stories. Man, back in the good old days,
all right, come on, if they were good old days,
but they were days, they were days. We love you, Arnie,
Thank you Man, appreciate it. I love you guys. Those
read you later. To be sure to catch live editions
of The Ben Miller Show weekdays at two am Eastern
eleven pm Pacific
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
Show week days at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week
was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants of
the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
(00:21):
pill poppers in the penthouse, the Clearinghouse of hot takes,
break free or something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Maller starts right now that it does. It is a Friday,
which means a conversation with someone we like in someone
we know. I say that in air quotes because four
hours or not enough on the overnight show during the week,
(00:43):
and we do this now eight days a week, eight
days a week, and joined for better or worse. I
guess this week we would say for worse after that
performance the other night. We'll get to that in the
Saturday podcast where David guesstcon sabotaged the show one Night
of Torture as a producer sitting in for the Cooper Loop.
But he is over there a gascon. Somehow you made
(01:05):
it back to the podcast battered and bruised, but happy
to be here. As always a nice warm welcome from
you as uh we get into a Friday edition. So
thanks for having me back. I appreciate it. After that,
the militia thought you did a great job. I put
up there on my Twitter feed to grade the performance
of Gascon producing the show, and they really voted some
(01:26):
good things for you. So you got that kind of
an assholes produced, Like kind of an asshole are you?
I was just pointing out, you know, tough love. Tough
love makes you better. But it's not about you, guess
because right now one of our college I have worked
with this guy at two different places over the years,
at least two, probably more than that. The man he's
(01:47):
lived the life of like a military brat. He started
out in southern California. To my note, he's lived everywhere,
literally everywhere, from coast to coast in the United States
and done radio. Have a microphone, have phones, will work.
The man known as the Stinking Genius, the star of
fs are. On the weekends, the great Arnie Spaniard is saying,
(02:11):
Laker Fast, Let's go on, Arni, Arni, Oh my god,
I think we should start with that Arnie, because when
I when I first met you. You came in. You
had worked in Chicago, if I remember correctly, right, I
think you were in Chicago. I don't remember. I don't remember.
You worked all over the place, but you were hired
as the big afternoon guy at the sports station in
(02:34):
l A that we were was working at the time,
and I remember, I think it was Mike Thompson was
the program director, if I remember correctly, and Mike he
sang the praises of you, Arnie and oh my god,
and you came in there with guns of blazing. That
was back in the Shaq Kobe period of time. What
time that was. And the funny part is when I
(02:56):
was up in Chicago and I got the job offer,
company wouldn't let me leave because I was under contract
for another year. So I'm like, well, you're not gonna
keep me here for a year, and they're like, yeah,
you can't leave. I go, wait a minute. You're not
gonna give me a new contract. You're not gonna let
me go. Um, You're you're not gonna give me anything.
You're not gonna give me more money, and they just
(03:18):
stared at me. I go, I am not leaving this
office until you give me something, and I was so
furious at the owner that I reached over and grabbed
a dozen goal balls. I go, I'm taking these golf balls,
and I'm leaving. And I just walked out of the
office and I could hear them laughter you as I
walked out. It's hard to believe, Annie, that a radio
company would not treat its employees. Well, that does not
(03:39):
happen in radio, right, Arntie. I mean we were well paid,
we make a lot of money, we live a great life. Yes,
it's shocking and shocking. They just wouldn't say, yeah, go ahead,
do it, you lot, and they go moved to Los
Angeles and and bother. When I got the l you guys,
I mean, you guys treated me like I had leprosy,
the contagious leprosy, not the non contagious one in papion,
(04:02):
the one that's contagious. Because I'm like, who is this guy?
I can't believe they're giving him afternoon drive? What's wrong
with people around here? I can't believe this. It was.
It was insane. Well, Arnie, I gotta tell you you
know how to make an entrance, because you know who
knows if this is accurate, not but from what I remember,
you came in and you took shot. It's like going
(04:22):
to the church and taking shots at a priest. You
were you were taking shots at Kobe and Shock right away,
like you didn't waste any time the most And I
love that about you. Aren't because I'm right there with you. Man.
I despised the Lakers, but you were throwing haymakers at
the Lakers from day one. They're not gonna win, They're
(04:43):
not gonna win, and you were annoying the hell out
of people. Was a brilliant strategy by you on There
was no strategy in this. You know, I came there
and and we really doing this. You just said whatever
the hell you wanted back then, there was no you know,
let me tell you, you you gotta say this, you gotta
do that had and you've got to be this kind
of person. And it was It was just amazing because
(05:04):
you know, the Lakers had not won in a long
long time. And that's remember when we started that thing.
If the Lakers win the championship, I said that year,
I'll watch everybody's car in l a And how many
times do you say something when the season begins and
then you know, eight nine months later in June, it
actually turns out that the Lakers won the championship, and
(05:24):
we're playing that stupid song car wash like every day too,
or three times a day for eight months. I mean people,
people didn't wash their cars for like a year just
to go ahead get a watch for free in case
the Lakers won the championship. And if I remember correctly,
that was like the best day of my life, the
Lakers Woman Championship. We had that that we had like,
(05:46):
uh cars lined up like three four miles long, helicopters
flying over and it was you in Dave that we're
actually helping watching the cars and doing the show. Why,
I was just meeting, greeting people. I'm saying hello. It
was really great. Xactly was on Ventura Boulevard, and you know,
I think it was if I remember, it was the hand.
I don't know if it's still there or not. I
(06:06):
have not driven down. Yeah, the giant oversized hand on
Ventura Boulevard, which is a staple of l A in
the San Fernando Valley. And yeah, so you know, I
was the Benny I was doing the Ben and Dave
show at at the time, and so you know, we
were not, and we were competing. She was not a
competing We're on the same team, but you were the
big afternoon star. And so yeah, I remember we parked
(06:28):
there and the line of cars from the hand car
washing army as far as I could see down Ventura
Boulevard which goes on forever, right and as far as Legacy,
And then you're right, and you didn't wash any car.
You sat there in a Hawaiian shirt, smoking cigars, and
you were sitting in like a folding chair, if I
remember correctly. And we I actually watched, I actually got
(06:52):
my hands dirty. I did more car watching than you
did that day. And the police came up to men.
They go, you know, we're gonna have to shut this down.
It's causing too much of a uh you know, traffic jam.
And I said, don't you dare. You're not shut nothing. Now.
This is the best thing ever. And it was just great.
They had Laker players coming. You know. I want to
tell you when in that series, this was like the
(07:16):
best thing I ever did. I got in so much
trouble for this, not not really in trouble, trouble, but
believe me, if there if there was a baseball pat
somebody would have hit me over the head with it.
Do you remember when we were doing when we first
were doing remote at Staples, Um, right next to Staples,
there was that big glass room that there was nothing in.
I think, now it's a Starbucks, right then, help me
(07:37):
if i'm if I'm thinking that was Yeah, when Staples opened,
they didn't have anything. It was kind of empty. And
then and then across the street was a parking lot
which is now the l A Complex whatever they call it,
right next to Staples, right next to it it is
I think it's a Starbucks style. But it was wide open, glass,
wide open, and we were doing the show. I was
(07:58):
doing the show in there. I noticed I don't know
why this happened, but when I went to a commercial break, UM,
they would stop playing the commercials outside on the speaker.
But when I was doing the show, you could hear
the show, which is obvious, right. But when I went
to a commercial break, they would cut the commercials but
the mic was still hot, so like, oh no, yeah,
(08:21):
I could talk to the people outside. So I thought
I'd have a little fun and I and we went
to a commercial. I get on the I get on
the on the Mike and I go, welcome to Game
six Portland and los A. Kobe Bryant out broke and
Land and people told people are looking to be like
he is. He is, he told the Jude, I go,
(08:43):
he's God. He won't play that e R. All I
know is after after about thirty seconds of saying this um,
our boss came in Mike Thompson. He said something like
didn't you please stop? But not in those words, different words,
different tone, And let me tell you something had had
(09:05):
he could say, if he could have grabbed me by
the neck and thrown me out in traffic on the
four on the freeway, I would have been in traffic.
The Lakers have been so mad at me that they
called my bosses, who had to run down to the
remote and tell me to uh please be quiet and
something like that. But I mean, I've never seen on
(09:27):
a he was red faced A couple of times. He was.
He was like a boiling thing. I wanted to take
a pit and pop. But my thought he was thought
he could have a heart attack. You know, I love Mike,
our our old boss, Mike Thompson. I love the guy,
but he was such a hot ahead of times. I
remember we would do a bad segment of the Ben
and Dave Show, and he was listening in his office
and he would become he would become rumbling down the
(09:48):
hall and he would like bang his hands against the
wall about how bad that segment of radio was and
started screaming, shoutting. But as far as that classroom, arty,
all right, I have some of my favorite reason radio
in that classroom. I don't know if you were there
that night, and maybe not. They were the riot say
to riot after they were you in there? This? Yeah?
(10:09):
I was. I was there. You know what's funny. I
was coming out of Staples after the Lakers won the championship,
riding outside. Um. We were supposed to do the post
game from that room. Ye, all I had to do
was go out from Staples. You might have been with
me at that time, and all we had to do
was walk a hundred stats, not even that much. Go
to the room. I come out, I see, of course,
(10:31):
a couple of things getting burned, a couple of cop
cars getting burned. And and as soon as I step out,
I hear there's already sire, And I turned over to
the policeman and he goes, yeah, you're on your own.
So I said that. I said, Ben, why don't you
go over and get ready for the romote. I'm gonna
stay here for a while so I can figure out
how to get over. Arnie. Let me tell you that
(10:54):
was the craziest night because as you said, there were
several cop cars that got burned. There was a channel
to news van that guy burned, and we are broadcasting.
All there is is a bright of glass in front
of us, and the mob is outside, and I remember
they started a fire on the street in right across
from Staples Center. There right in front of us. There
was a little street which is still there, and they
(11:14):
were dancing. They were doing a chance dancing around the
fire in the street, as I remember. Uh. And then
we remember who we sent out. I don't know if
you came in there. I think you got in the evention.
But we sent out Vic the Brick because the mob
loved Vic. Vic was like our on site reporter. They
couldn't get enough of it. They were chanting his name,
and we love you, Vic. You got and we got
in trouble because they're like, they're riding and burning the
(11:37):
cop cars and and of course the boss comes to
this you can't say you that, don't say that. So
I got on the mic and go, come on down. Family,
filled out this year breathing. I want to I want
to say this speaking about her old boss. Do you
remember what he wanted me to do with that sports bar?
(11:58):
Refresh my memory. There were so many crazy promotions we
did with people being buried alive, and that's what he
wanted me to do. He wanted me to one to
be buried alive six feet under in the concrete and dude,
that's not happening. I will die down there in concrete.
So Tom Mooney did it. And it's funny, but I
(12:22):
think our boss passed out from drinking. So nobody was
guarding the area where Mooney was buried, and I remember
we were talking to we go. Tom was running out,
What are we going to do? We can't get you
out here? Running out and we had him been a
full paddent looking back at that, but it wasn't very funny,
but it was funny. Oh no, that stuff was hilarious.
(12:43):
We remember we put somebody on I don't know if
you were here at the time. We put somebody a
billboard into because the clippers had a long losing stream.
We put a Ali McKay. We put her on the
billboard for like until they won, and that became a
news story. One of the funny things. I want to
tell you one more the best, the best truck anybody
ever had when we were doing in l A. And
you known him, but you never brought up his name.
(13:03):
We had a guy that they hired I don't even
know who the hell he wants. We called him three
way Freddie, and all he had to do was take
this brand new Honda and drive around watching Dodger games
wherever they traveled. And at the end of the summer,
you got to keep the Honda and he would never
call it to night show. He was supposed to call
it like every day, and he would never call it.
(13:25):
And he kept the Hansa. Do you remember that I
got Freddie? I don't. I don't remember. I remember we
had Check was our our promotions guy at the time,
one of our promotions guys, and he was driving around
the promotions vehicle and we would google was a Honda Honda.
I don't remember that. But you know one of the
one of the one of the interns, Arnie at that
station is now the head football coach of the Texas
(13:48):
Long Lawrence. Can you aieve that that is a nuts?
Tom Herman, who's the coach of Texas, was an intern
at the station me and Arnie worked at back in
the day, Sam whatever your name is now, Yeah, how
much you think you get? I don't know how much
he's getting paid. He must be getting paid like five
million dollars a year to coach at Texas. I would
think he has a big time that we got that job,
(14:10):
because a coaching job. I I just remembered Arnie the
one of the other fun stories about that time we
were doing radio in l A. You mentioned the Freedom
we were doing. Me and Dave. We're doing a midday
show from that same glass room, and we sat there
for the for the riot after the Lakers won that championship.
We were we were in there and it was like
(14:31):
a day after the the Clippers had played the Lakers,
and the Clippers had scored like three points in a
quarter or two points in a ridiculous quarter, and then
it was so embarrassing. The team was terrible. You know,
I'm a Clipper house guy and I was then as well,
and and so Dave had this idea, so we gotta
you know, I want other Clippers to move back to
San Diego. So he had this brilliant idea, says, let's
(14:54):
put a petition together and we'll have our intern go
out and because our business people in downtown l A,
we'll have him signed the petition and we'll do a
bit out of it. So we send our intern out. Okay,
this is a great story on it. So we send
our intern out to get signatures from people who were
on lunch because we show and hand to guy all right.
About an hour later, a steaming man, Andy Roser, who
(15:18):
was Donald Sterling's right hand man, comes running in. Our
intern had asked Andy Roser to sign the petition to
move the Clippers back to San Diego because they're an embarrassment.
Oh my god, he was so pissed. He was so
angry are he he was spitting fire when he came
in there. He was firing brimstone. Oh my gosh. It
(15:38):
was a mess. By the way, I think now the
chance to kind of bring this up. Now, I know
people are listening for one story in one story only
kind of awkward that you haven't brought it up. Well,
I think we can talk about how you own the
eastern part of Vermont. If you want come to want
(15:59):
to know why you and I were in the hot
top with four topless women back in Indiana, they were
up to four topless women out. The number changes, but no,
fine whatever it was said, it was me you with
a mar Kenez so um all the time. Yeah, we
had we had different people in there, but we were
in Indianapolis on assignment, Arntie. We were big radio stars
(16:21):
on assignment at the NBA Finals for the Pacers. And
was that Reggie Miller's Pacers, right, I believe it's time
And they read it to from the David Letterman show.
That's right. That was the big thing because the Letterman
would send Biff out to do his goofy interviews and
that was that was we read it. It wasn't that
we ran him at a bar, right, He was like
he was kind of depressed and he was drinking a
(16:41):
little bit and uh, but that was a lot of fun.
So we were standing at the hotel there and we
somehow ended up I don't know how, yes, in a jacuzzi,
and as I remember the story, Arnie, there were a
couple of beautiful ladies there and they were pretty attractive,
and then they were kind end of uncomfortable when we
got in the hot tub. And then when you started talking,
(17:04):
they immediately got out. As I recall, first of all,
they were really uncomfortable when you took your shirt off.
I had my shirt off, and and everything was good
until that. I I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah,
I I've never seen someone exit a hot tub quicker
than that. As soon as as soon as they got
out of there, that oh my god, Frankenstein and his
(17:24):
son had gotten in into the into the hot tub.
I already I got. I found some photos a few
months ago. I should, I should, I should take a picture.
I have a photo of you. I think it's you, me,
Tony Bruno, and a bunch of the other guys. Uh No,
this was actually remember that, um we were broadcasting from
(17:46):
that bar in downtown Indianapolis. Remember it was like a
Hollywood theme bar thing if you yeah, yeah, they had
like they I forget what the name it was, but
that's where we did the show from. So we took up.
We took a photo, and I should send that. It's hilarious.
We look so he looks so different, Artie. Remember the
(18:07):
weather guy in Indianapolis spent his seven minutes of weather
just ripping me. Yes, yes, the local local. You know
you've arrived, Arnie when you are the top story on
the local news and they are bashing you and just
destroying you. Just smith the reens, Arnie. Oh my god,
that was hilarious. I forgot about that. That was it was.
(18:31):
It was a lot of good times out there, I think.
And we started off the show like this. Um never
in my wife did I think of all the things
I said on the air that the one thing that
people would always bring back up to me is a
Laker fan. I remember. I remember they brought me into
the office and I'm talking like some secret private office
(18:54):
that's only for the big wigs and people that are
about to get fired. And they brought me to the
office and it was like every person, um like every
boss one higher than the next. And and and one
guy says to me, you're you're going to have to
stop to say, You're gonna have to stop saying old
Laker fans. I said, I excuse me, They go stop
(19:16):
saying it is defensive. And I said, just tell me
which words offensive and I'll cut it out all Lakers
are fans, and he goes, you're going to cut it
out now, that's what he's going to do. And okay,
I said, I go, let's everybody calm down. Um, if
you brought me in, the fire me and just fire me.
But I'm not stopping a Laker fan. It's it's not
(19:37):
even anything. It's not even offensive. What's wrong with everybody here?
I don't know what's going on. So um, they kind
of left me alone after that, but with me, it
gets like a hundred guys about this whole be a
s Laker fans, Like, really, is that big of a deal? Unbelievable? Well,
remember the boss and the big Boss at that station.
Remember he would he would wear those purple suits and
those bright colored suits and stuff. He's walking around there
(20:00):
of the power suits and all that back and in
those days, remember one called Darth Vader. Oh that's right,
we had We had Darth Vader. And uh, you know,
I don't want to I'm not gonna name anybody, but
I remember what we were. Occasionally I would do the
morning show, we'd fill in on the morning show, and
I remember the Boss would come in every Monday after
a very tough weekend, and he would spend like the
(20:20):
first hour and a half kind of cleaning up in
the bathroom, if you know what I mean, Like you're
kind of rubbing his face with some water and trying
to wake up after a very tough weekend. Yeah. I
did love our boss, and I get it. One type.
He came in and when I was doing afternoons and
he pulled out three hundred dollars cash and I'll give
you three hundred dollars if you don't take any more
phone calls for the next hour. Oh yeah, he hated. Yeah,
(20:44):
he did not like the calls. He was not a Yeah,
it was funny. Uh, what are some of the I'm
trying to think of some of the other crazy stories
from back back in those days. What was the Los
Angeles That was just so many different places? I know,
unlike you just stayed that for your whole life. Well,
I was in San Diego, but yeah, I'm in southern California,
(21:05):
but I didn't do I'm beloved Boston Icono. I spent
two years filling in at w E. I already remotely
come on and I was ahead of my time. Everyone's
doing remote broadcast. Now I was ahead of my time already,
back in those days, they couldn't get anybody else. What
was that? Well, no, they actually wanted to hire me,
and they wanted me to move back there. And I
(21:27):
my wife of course, wouldn't allow me to to move
back there. But they're like, hey, we'll have you at night.
You know how radio stations are. They don't cann't put
anybody to put us on at night. They don't care
about that. He said, are you kidding me? Or Boston?
Who will pick l A? What's wrong with you? I
know Boston is a better sports town. I mean, I
love that I grew up in l A. Might stay
up here in Vermont. We we carry the Celtics, the Patriots,
(21:50):
the Bruins, um, you know, we we carry all the
teams out, Celtics, all of them. It was great already.
I was when I was working in e I I
would be on after the Red Sox. I would have
to do Red Sox review. After the Red Sox game,
people will be leaving Finway calling up. Of course, nobody
knew I was in l A. And they all thought.
I was like, you know, they're asking me about the game.
You know I was watching the game. But I wasn't there.
(22:11):
I was still thousands of miles away, but it was.
It was pretty crazy. So how did they? By the way,
I can't even understand their accents half the time. I'm like,
and I know I have a New York accent, but
Boston accents like one of the top three worth accents
in the United States. I love it. Man. They would
find that all the teams win all the time in
Boston and they still bitch and moment It's great. I
(22:31):
love it. They they find things to complain about it.
Just like, so, how the hell did you end up
in Vermont? Aren't you've lived all over the country. Why
didn't you settle on Vermont? Explain the secret? I must know?
Arnie Spaniard witness a relocation. No, um we I was
in Dallas. I had enough of Dallas. I mean had
a good time. I was doing nights, I was working
(22:52):
for CBS. That's just so funny. But when I when
I got hired by GPS UM, I was supposed to
go to Detroit, and and three days before I I
had my car packed and I was ready to roll.
Three days before I was supposed to go, I got
a call and go No, no, I can't do Detroit.
We're gonna send you to Dallas. And I'm like, Dallas, Texas.
I go and I started to cry, I go, please,
(23:12):
don't don't do this to me. You know, I'm just
it's miserable. I can't do this. But um, I ended up,
you know, going to Dallas, and I had enough for
that for three years. It was fun, but I still got,
you know, stood out like a sore thumb. I went
to Puffle, where my wife was from, because my son
played hockey, and he went to a private school up there,
and then um, we took the next step because he
(23:33):
was getting really really good. We put him in another
program and that happened to be at Burlington Vermont and
we ended up staying here because we liked it. So
my son plays nowt in college and when he finishes there,
hopefully you'll play somewhere and you know, like in slap
shots the Federally or something like that. That's unbelievable, man,
Your little son, who you named after a baseball stadium,
(23:53):
is now in college. That is insane. That is nuts.
Hockey Goldie too, out of all positions the hockey goaling.
Wait a minute, the son of a sports talk show
host is a is an athlete and can play at
a professional level, possibly when he's done with college. Are
you kidding me? Aren't spend it's a federal league. It's
you know, it's like slap shot. You know, they get
(24:14):
drunk before the game and they go out there, they
play it. They make two a week or something. Yeah, well,
if that happened, maybe you never know, aren't you never?
Strangest things have happened. And I remember there was a
writer at the l a Times, a baseball writer whose
kid made the major leagues? Was it? Yeah, he's David Newsom.
I think Ross our newhand, Ross Newhand. He was a
(24:36):
baseball writer at the Times years ago, and his kids
like made the major league, and every sports writer it
was like orgasmic, you know, every every g sportswriter was
like cee cee. We don't really write about it, but
our kids can make it. We can figure our we
have genetics. Our kids can make it in baseball and
all that. Yeah, I just realized. I just realized, Arnie,
we have completely left David Gascon out of this exactly.
(25:01):
That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. But are
you proby eating some kale. Yesterday was kale Day or something.
It's probably eating some kale. Yeah, But it's the West
of the four or five guy, you know, Arnie from
when you lived in the in the l A. Area.
It's it's different West of the four oh five versus
four or five. It's a different, different animal. I'm just
I'm not allowing you guys to reminisce about the good
(25:22):
old days when you guys actually got paid. Well, you
guys had Christmas parties ever luxurious, and yes, yes we
got paid what we had freedom, As Arend said, right,
how great was it Aarnie when we would just b
s and shoot the ship and do whatever we wanted
pretty much, and it was wonderful. Oh the parties were
great too. They that have awesome parties. There was a
lot of good stuff back then. And I really sometimes
(25:46):
think that if I if I never left l A.
I think I went to atlant after l A. I wonder,
you know how long that would have ended up being
in Los Angeles? And I probably would have been an
old man like Ben out there in l How dare
you are used? When I was a little kid, aren't
I used to listen to you on the radio, and
I was a little just like you are, and it's
so serious I want to be. We had one of
your colleagues on last week. We had and you worked
(26:08):
in Chicago. Were at one on one right, you had
Peter Brown was on your your lineup right? You got Yeah,
you worked the same We had Peter on last week.
He's out of the business. He made so much money.
He's done. He's not doing anything. He's just kind of
hanging out these days. He's a glassblower. I don't know
if you know that he does glassblowing out there. I
haven't spoked to Peter in a long long wait wait wait,
wait wait wait. He said that that's not real? Is
(26:28):
he said that? I thought he was bssing. That's not real.
That's that's what he does. That He I guess, really
good at it. So that's what he does. Oh, I
thought he was kidding. I didn't know. I thought he
was pulling my chain. I thought that there's no way
he's not doing that. That's crazy. That's what he's doing
now night, I think Chicago. Yeah, a lot of guys
(26:51):
who used to work with there's that too many left around. Uh.
That are still doing radio. That's kind of scary, Aret,
right when you think about all the people we worked
with and some good people, some talented people, and like
we're like the last of the Mohicans here. It's crazy
for getting old, my friend, there's no doubt about that.
I don't know, well, my hair disappeared, But other than that,
(27:12):
I feel young, are other than my, other than my
But you know, I just bought a bunch of hats,
aren't That's all? And I'm gonna shave my I think
I'm gonna I think I'm gonna buzz my what's your advice?
Are you lost your hair for us? Like? Should I
just buzz my hair and get rid of it? Lose
my hair? I choose to wear like this? No, that's
a lie. That's a lie, Arn'tie, that's a lie. So really,
what we're saying, Gascon is you should learn how to
(27:33):
blow glass, is what we're saying. Well, there's plenty of
glass around here in Sherman Oaks. So for kind though,
our Arnie, you guys, well you're sons with sending us
the great Christmas gift of all time. Like we get
some kind of jankie gifts that I kind of popped
(27:55):
to Ben every year, but you send the maple syrup
and the pancake mix from Vermont, and well, I don't
know if it's you or your wife. I I you
don't understand the joy and glee that you get from
some of the colleagues here at Fox, because like that
(28:16):
is that really is a Christmas gift beyond Christmas gifts,
especially especially during the holiday season when we come in
here there's nobody around and then all of a sudden,
it's just a box of goodies from Arnie and courtesy Vera.
Somebody took the bosses I said, want to try to
get just about everybody, uh you know, producers on not
on air, but producers and and the blosses. Somebody took
(28:38):
the bosses one and walked out with it. It's good
because I wrote the names on each box and somebody
just said I'm taking this one and left with it.
The boss ever got one, It's it's glorious. Man. Hey,
do you have I mean, I'm kind of curious because
you and Ben A bounced all over the place with
stations and networks. Do you have any professional regrets? The
(29:01):
only professional regrets um I would have is not taking
a job to not being more serious. Um, when people
called me, I think when we first started out that
I went from the network to Phoenix. I got a
call from Seattle. Um that were really I mean that
the job certainly could have been mine. And and you
know what Sonny Betton's um uh and David the Jim Rome,
(29:24):
the syndicated show that he does now which was went
out of Sermon Oaks. That came down between me, Jim
and I think Scott Farrell and I knew nothing about syndication.
I was working in Phoenix and they called me up
and said, yeah, I go, what's this all about? The
said you'll have to move back to l A. Sherman Oaks.
I go, we could to stop there. I'm not moving anywhere.
(29:45):
I like Phoenix. I'm crushing it here, so you know,
I'm not doing nothing. So UM, you know that that
would have been a regret if I would have paid
that more. And I think the biggest regret I probably
have though I don't know how well I would have
done this job. Um. Do you remember Opie and Anthony? Yes, yes,
in New York and they got in trouble for doing
(30:06):
some sex spit where some listeners went to a church
or something like that, and they got fired and they
were looking for a replacement, and once again it came
down between me and Scott Pharrell. Um is the last
two and they gave it to Scott, and I think
they end up getting rid of him after a year.
That was like a really really tough job and we
(30:26):
were supposed to go solo. So um. I mean, those
those are a few, but for the most part, I
have no regrets. Man. You take the jobs you want,
you pass on the ones you don't, and you just
keep looking at the head and hopefully you did the
right decision. Yeah, we we had Farrell. He worked at
our place for a little bit in in l he
was he was out there, and we also worked at
(30:48):
Fox Sports Radio years ago. We you know, it beat
somebo I've start to Scott about this when it's I mean,
there's at least three or four times jobs have come
down just between Scott and I and I got two
of him and he got two of them, and UM,
it's just weird because you usually don't see something like that. No,
(31:08):
I'm not a guy. I mean I would certainly look
at a bunch of stuff, but I would turn out
a lot of jobs to now do you have a
big agent on because I had an agent like a
year and he just didn't work. He didn't do anything.
He's like, oh, you get the job, and then all
all of them the goost the contract. I'm like, well,
what's the point of that. I can do that. I mean,
I don't how to negotiate a contract. Well, who cares?
(31:28):
You know. I used to have an agent back in
the day, but they always say you are your own
best agent. Nobody's gonna work as hard for you as
you know. I I just thought, like some people in
the industry, um, you know that were former program directors.
But other than that, I've had an agent about twenty
years or something like that. Yeah, And I people ask me, like,
(31:50):
young guys are like, how do you get in the business?
You know, I was like, you pretty much just have
to stick around because like all the guys aren't that
used to be our producers and are you know the
guys behind the scenes, the board ops, they all be
game program directors and they all became you know, they
moved The people that stayed in radio, they all moved
up and they have good jobs now and they're people
people we know from years ago. I have producers who
(32:11):
now run are the program directors of Bosses in San Francisco,
in Detroit, in Scargotting, North Carolina. Um, it's amazing. And
now with podcasts like this, you if you're trying to
start off in the radio or anything, to start your
own podcasts and you know, get clicks and stuff like that,
it's a lot easier to get into radio now than
(32:33):
it was back then. For us. Oh yeah, it was
a nightmare to get a radio show, even like on
a Saturday morning. It was you couldn't do it. It's
all about getting your reps right already. Gotta get comfortable
from a microphone and find your style. And you can
do that on a podcast, which is obviously a lot
different than a radio show because the radio show you
get the clock and all that crap. You gotta deal
with a bunch of you. You look back at, you
(32:55):
look back at down. If we would have had podcasts
to kind of get our feet wet, things weren't been
a lot different. You know, think about that first station
in Los Angeles, CAMPC. It was like who's who? Famous
people out there like Jim Moiapily and stuff. Yeah, looking
at the stars of the world. Oh no, no. I
when I got into it, I thought I was gonna
be like a minor league played by Playgue. I interned
(33:16):
at six ninety in San Diego, had hacks On and
and Rome was doing a local show and they had,
you know, a bunch of a bunch of big name
guys also that we're doing shows there. And I was like, Yeah,
that's not gonna work. And then I just kind of
stuck around and but you're right, seven ten. They had
a huge budget and it didn't work. They didn't get
the numbers, and so they eventually changed they changed it
around after after what what's the most trouble you got
(33:38):
in Arnie, Like, what's the that's something you did on
the air? What is the craziest bit that you did
that Did you ever get in trouble with Like you
mentioned the Lakers, but like with a coach or a
player that you were going after and they were they
were upset with you. I don't know if I got
a lot of trouble for this, but I think it
one of the biggest regrets I had um when I
was doing this show with Dave, your former partner and
(33:59):
we had Rudy, I'm John of it, John, and things
were going great. We're having a great talk. And for
some reason, you know, I'm just such a smartass, I said, well, Rudy,
let it be one thing. Let it be known that
you certainly can take a punch, you know, because of
what happened in me. Yeah, for those killed, for those
(34:19):
under the age of like sixty. Uh. That one of
the great moments. I'm not one of the great moments,
were one of the crazy. He got punched Curvitt Washington right,
punched him, right, yeah, yeah, punch and it almost him. Yeah.
And when we when we say punched, not just like
a small punch, like a direct hit type of punch, yes, right, right,
And and I think he just said, um, okay, you
(34:41):
guys have a good day or something like that. He
he didn't think it was funny put it that way.
He wasn't laughed. And that guy was laughing. Oh, that's
that's that's crazy. And who's who's the I just got you.
You're like, oh my god, did you really say that.
I'm not even laughed. That's that's that's who's the worst
program actor? You had? Aren't you want the worst program
(35:03):
director X me you already talked about the golf balls
in Chicago. We both have great stories about our program
director we had in l A who I love the
death but I used I love the guy in retrospect.
But I mean, we've we've had some crazy things that
have happened. I've had program directors who have given me
terrible advice. What's the worst advice you got from a
program director? The worst thing? I had one in Phoenix
had no business at a sports station, and he told
(35:25):
me he wanted to get rid of me. And I
was not, um. You know, I had no idea what
the hell was going on with radio and how things
were supposed to be handled. And I remember he goes,
he goes, who did you have on to that? I said,
that was Paul Westfaul. He goes, who's that? And I
just almost started to cry. I know who is this guy?
And you don't even know Westca. I wouldn't worry about
it if I were you, But I don't think you're
gonna be here much longer. We're gonna get rid of you.
(35:48):
I said, you're gonna get rid of me? Huh? I said,
I'll tell you what I picked up the phone right
there in front of everybody. We were having a meeting.
I was so friendly, didn't say that in front of
people's was just too much. And I called the owner
um of the of the of the whole cluster, and
I said, right here in a meeting with so and so,
he said that you guys are getting rid of me.
This is in front of him. And the guy tells
(36:09):
me on the phone. He goes, yeah, I wouldn't worry
about that. He's the one we're getting rid of. And
I just hug up the phone. Oh wow, that's great.
And they fired him a day later. So that was
that was That was one uncomfortable situation. But otherwise, for
the most party kind of got wrong with my boss?
Is it? Then you would always pick on people like
us because you can't pick on the athletes, you know,
(36:31):
like the loans of the world that you used to
work with. You you can't do that, so you have
to pick on people like us. Oh yeah, we remember
that station they had Karl Malone Terry Bradshaw did a
show at the station. Yeah. Yeah, there was like a
different there was a code. There was a pecking order,
as there is in every business. But yeah, the regular
radio working stiff like Arnie Spanier and me. We would
(36:52):
we would take the brunt of the races, like if
the ratings were not good or if you know, the
program director was having a bad day, he would take
it out on guys like us. But the star athlete,
you know, you're doing a great job. I remember they
had to go to and I love Terry Bradshaw, but
they had to go to his house sometimes because he
forgot to do the show and they had to find
him to do the show. And they never really yelled
(37:13):
at him for that. If I imagine if we had
done that, aren't you we're not going to show up
one of these days? Even remember when we were we
were in first back, we were on the high Rise,
I don't know, like four fourteen fifteen, and I was
coming in through the afternoon drive and the guy that
was on before me, I'm not going to say his name.
I saw him hallway and he was literally on before me,
(37:33):
and I go hey, he goes hey, and he just
lucks by, and I think I must be going to
the bathroom and I walk into the to the you know,
to the offices. I walked by the studio about two
or three minutes later, I got here, we're so and so,
we're so, and so I go I just some walked
by me, got an elevator. The guy went down to
(37:54):
get a sandwich in the middle of the so I'm
cool that and they fired the producer and they had
to tell the guy that you can't fire the producer
because the host was out. They get a sandwich that
I got a sandwich, build the show, well, Arnie, in fairness,
that cafeteria did have good sandwiches in that Bo was right.
(38:16):
It was right near the Warner Brothers, right across the
street from Brothers, and they had amazing And did you
ever go to adults in those days? Aren't we remember?
You guys would, but you've never invited me, So I
would never, Arnie. I I my entire twenties, late twenties,
I spent adults. It was unbelievable. Everyone I never you
(38:36):
never went with We had all like that, those nineties
sitcoms like I'm Trying to Signfeld was on at that time.
Here not er. I don't think Scheers was on. That
was more of the eighties. But you guys would never.
You would always call what you guys tears I'd like
to go with you. No, no, no, we're just going home.
It was it was crazy like l a bar with
all the burbank but all these Hollywood people from those
(38:59):
sitcoms that carry show they would come in there. That
was there. But you get to hang out with guys
like Gascon you know the day here in Vermont. I'm
like one of the four famous guys out here. It
Spending Jerry, Me and and uh and Bernie Sanders. So
that's pretty much the four famous people that live out
here in Vermont. Is there a sign Arnie when you
(39:20):
enter this is the home of Arnie Spaniard, the stinking genius,
Oh Laker fans, Well, there would be, but we have
a lot here. There's no billboards allowed in the state,
so we keep the queen out here. Bet we don't
allow that stuff. But isn't there Like the taxes are good,
right like I when I when I did stuff at
e I, a lot of the people would live in
they live in Vermont, New Hampshire. Yeah, New Hampshire. That's
(39:41):
right because it was cheaper and you didn't you didn't
have to pay the taxes of message. Not so cheap
up here in Vermont. Especially in Berwin did it's not
so cheap. Think I live in a townhouse. I live
in a condo. You you live in a mansion. You
live in a man That is a lie. You have
like an entire block acres and acres of land, and
(40:03):
you've got like maple trees and like the whole thing.
You got, you got the whole thing going on. Don't
lie to me. You're you're you're the ball or you're
the ball. Are Arnies fan? You're come on? You know
they have a place. It's so funny. But everything gets
so big here. There's only my wife and I was
my soul's in college, and our places like square feet.
(40:23):
I go, we need to place this big. I like,
it's it's ridiculous. It's like three levels and there's only
two people in the house. Well, every night on you
can go to a different room. It's like you're in
a it's like you're staying at a hotel. Right, I'm
gonna looking at this roll. It's unbelievable. It's amazing here.
It's not that big. But I live. I live in
(40:43):
an area where there's a lot of retired people, so
I'm like the youngest, I'm my block. People go to
Vermont to retire. I thought you go to Florida, Arizona retired.
They come up here for the summers and then they
go down to South Carolina or Florida for the winners,
so they do one of those days. Yeah, well, you're
like an old New Yorker. Shouldn't you go to Florida? Like,
shouldn't you have a place in Florida? Also, Yeah, I
(41:05):
haven't left here though, you know, I got my own
studio up here. I haven't, you know, with the Corona,
I'm not traveling munch. It's it's it's pretty easy. I'm
right across from New York, and it takes me about
four hours or three three hours to get the Boston
four and a half to get to New York. I'm
about an hour from Montreal, so I'm not that far
for some major places. It's pretty cool. Are you are
(41:28):
you a waiting guest? Are you awake over there and fall?
It's it's Friday night. I'm of course I'm awake. I'm
just doing I'm Friday night. I thought it was Friday morning.
I didn't know what it was going, not have any idea.
He's just ready to go party. This weekend. That guy
now with King Newsom. Here in this state, we don't
do any of that, aren't. I don't know what it's
like out Vermont, oh, Arnie, Yeah, yeah, it's brewing California. Man,
(41:50):
you can't. They don't even want you to leave your
house today. It's like a police state out here. It's nuts.
We I look at the numbers here for Vermont, Um.
We usually get like two to five new infections a day.
We had one that was in like twelve and people
were freaking out, going, oh my goodness, we're here. It
comes we're really gonna be bombarded now. But we're usually
(42:10):
single digits per day. A matter of fact, we alway
have had about eighteen hundred new infections since March, since
it's all started. We're we're like the last state. The
state above us is triple the amount of us. So
we're really having it not pretty decent out here. Well,
I think it's probably because you guys took the appropriate
steps like we're supposed to do now, where you guys
(42:33):
actually eat your food and then put your mask back
on eat your food. I saw that. I mean most
people out here, we have a lot of outdoor seating
I'm sure you guys have that in California too, So
we do a lot of that, a lot of take out,
but we don't have a lot of people, as you
know out here. I think it's like four hundred five
hundred thousand in my you know, in the whole growing
(42:54):
pin uh, pretty much less than a million in the
whole damn state. Now, Arnie, what do you coming back
to l A? I guess not after. I guess it's
gonna have to wait till after COVID. Right, you came
out here, well, I wanted to come back to see
my marvels an assistant living. Um, I couldn't do that
in the summer. I was actually to come back a
couple of weeks ago, but the assistant living is closed.
(43:17):
I'm just gonna have to wait, so probably after the
first of the year and let this thing, you know,
hopefully died down a little bit and I'll travel is
I you know, it's just so tough right now, and
then when you come back, you got to quarantine yourself,
and it's just too tough right now. So hopefully I'll
be back in l A soon, but I hope it's
probably gonna take till after the first of the year.
(43:38):
You know, it's crazy. And I read a story that like,
do you think flying is like unsafe right because of
the air, But they say that it's actually not because
they actually the planes now for many years have taken
outside air. That's so it's not you're not actually breathing
the same air over and over again. And so that
was actually I haven't gone anywhere. I haven't flown anywhere
since this all started. But from what I read that,
(43:58):
you know, who knows, maybe it's bullcrap, but they made
it seem like it's not that risky as long as
I have like a private airport for me here in Brobington.
You know that I live like two miles from the airport.
So if I'm leaving for a flight, I will leave
no earlier than maybe forty five minutes before my flight.
It takes me five minutes to get there. The t
S A agent. The t S A agent. His name
(44:21):
is Jarvis. He used to be my boss at the
radio station here, so he's like hery lord, I got Jarvis,
just come out, bro walk out. I'm to day. It's
about twenty minutes. Yeah, of course, l a X. Here's
you know, Arenie, you gotta get there three hours before
the flight. And oh my god, what a nightmare, man,
What a bleeping nightmare that is? It is? Are you
(44:43):
doing the radio seven days a week now? Aren't you're doing?
Because you were? I'm not doing nothing too extensive. I'm
doing four pm to six Monday to Friday here locally,
UM one of my U, one of the local pumpkins
here in town, and then U the Sunday and Sunday
night and at Fox. So I'm keeping myself busy. No
(45:04):
doubt that the grind, the Arnie Span, your grind, making
the big real grind, the real grind. You're the highest
paid radio guy in Vermont? Is that true or false?
There you can look at you alright, Arnie. I love you, man.
We go way back me. Man, you're the greatest Arnie.
I thank you for doing. Thank you for finally asking
me after three and a half years of doing your
(45:26):
podcast about as every person and every every even people
out of radio. But I do appreciate that gas guy,
you need to not talk as much next time. You
took up way too much time. Hey, listen, I give
away for you guys. Consider the fact. So we're doing
old Guy Radio, Me and and Arnie Man. We're talking
(45:48):
about war stories. Man, back in the good old days,
all right, come on, if they were good old days,
but they were days, they were days. We love you, Arnie,
Thank you Man, appreciate it. I love you guys. Those
read you later. To be sure to catch live editions
of The Ben Miller Show weekdays at two am Eastern
eleven pm Pacific
Host
Ben Maller
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!