October 16, 2021 • 36 mins
Big Ben shared stories of the week, including doing CAMEO wrong, how he became a nerd with the help of the Benettes Roberto and Eddie. Also shares stories from covering Dodgers playoff games and running down the hill of parking lots to beat the traffic. Enjoy this podcast and tell a friend. Sharing is caring!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kaboom. 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 pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearing house of
hot takes, break free for something special. The Fifth Hour
(00:23):
with Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere,
back at it on a Saturday, Saturday Saturday, another piping
hot edition of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallard and
gascon Free, not sullyed by anyone west of the four
(00:44):
or five. It is a one man band. The podcast
must go on no matter what, unless it actually doesn't
have to go on. But we do this as a
labor of love, eight days a week, because four hours
a night, five nights a week clearly not enough. The
podcast studio which is right next to the radio studio
(01:09):
deep in the north Woods, and I do thank you
for supporting the podcast. And now the podcast has done
so well that management gets very upset if we do
not have a piping hot edition of the Fifth Hour
podcast on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So uh we provide
them and please keep that up. That that helps out
(01:33):
the show in a large way, and you guys have
been doing a great job at that. So on this
edition of the podcast, we have the title of it
should be Revenge of the Nerds. Revenge of the Nerds,
we have that. We also have It's a downhill race,
passing in the night and whatever else pops up along
(01:56):
the way. On this edition of The Fifth Hour with
Ben mat Now, before we get to Revenge of the Nerds,
I would like to tell you about Cameo. This is
not a commercial for Cameo. I am not being paid
to tell you about Cameo. I just had a funny
story I thought you'd appreciate. So this podcast, The Fifth
Hour is dedicated to the extreme fan of the show.
(02:21):
There's a lot of casual listeners of the show, and
we have the hardcore, passionate listenership that is through and
through a really buys into what we do. And boy,
I thank you for that. And some of the biggest
fans of the show, I want to take you to
the next level and they want to get on Cameo
(02:41):
and and I will do a personalized Mallard monologue. We
don't do shout outs on the radio, but we do
do them on cameo. And so I got a cameo
request the other day. I'm gonna tell you the story
briefly here I won't bore you, and if I bore you,
just fast forward through the podcast. So I got a
cameo request. I don't usually promote cameo that much, and
so there's certain times of the year randomly I'll get
(03:04):
a bunch of cameo requests and then other times I'll
get none. And I'm fine with that. It's there. It's
something that if you you want it, that's great. Um
there's some people on that website cameo that are making
their living off that, and good for them. Those are
also TV people and movie people. The cast of the Office,
(03:24):
for example, does very well. A lot of people who
grew up watching The Office now are all they're all
grown up and they have a lot of disposable income,
liquid liquid money to toss around, so they love their
their cameo. Now, we have a little bit of a
smaller reach on cameo, but I did get a request
from a super duper p one and I will not
(03:46):
reveal the gentleman's name. Because it was a private cameo.
But this is a gentleman served in the United States Marines,
and he's a big fan. He's got a little insomnia,
and so he made the request, and I I felt like,
this is a special thing. You know, when you go
out of your way to to pay a little bit
of money on cameo, I want to give you your
(04:06):
money's worth. So I did the cameo. He wanted a
little pep talk, and I gave him a win one
for the gipper type speech unless I didn't, but I
gave what I thought was a decent pep talk. And
it's really up to him whether he liked it or not.
But anyway, the reason I'm telling the story, get to
the point. Please all right, I will get to the point.
So the reason I told the story or to you,
(04:29):
am telling you right now, is because I did the
cameo in the studio. I do these things usually in
the studio, I have all the equipment of a camera.
We record the monologues for YouTube for the company, and
so I did the cameo kind of like I do
this podcast or I do the radio show, and the
same share the same podcast microphone that I use and
(04:53):
I just let it rip. I just let rip and
and so I sent the cameo and you have to
uply upload the cameo on my end. My job is
pretty simple. Do the cameo, upload the cameo, Boom done.
Uh you know, the dumbest person on the block could
do it. It's not that hard. So anyway, I clicked
the button on the cameo app, and I send the
(05:13):
video to the gentleman who's a big fan and I'm
here to cheer him up. And it was a special request.
It is a twenty four hour request. You gotta pay
a little extra for that. Um. And so I did it.
And anyway, long story even longer. Why not, it's a podcast.
So I I forgot about it. I got a message
on my phone like two hours later saying that I
(05:34):
had not actually posted the cameo, and I said, what
what the hell? You know? I know, I did it.
I did the thing, and I clicked the button and
it said it was uploading. And so I then tried
to upload it again. I noticed that it had not uploaded.
The message was correct. So I clicked the upload button
on the cameo and I said, that's it. Okay, I'm good.
(05:55):
And then about fifteen minutes later I checked and again
it had not uploaded, and so I was like, what
the hell. So then I had to contact my rep
at Cameo and say, hey, I did the cameo. I
followed the instructions, I clicked the send button on said cameo,
and what the heck is going on here? So they're
(06:16):
very polite, good customer service, much better customer service than
I've had a lot of people a lot of places
I've talked you over the years, and and so anyway,
they got right back to me and they, you know,
said that, you know whatever, it had been fixed. So
it turns out I've been doing cameo wrong. I'm bad
(06:36):
at cameo. They told me the average cameo that people request,
and and I'm on the very low end of this.
I'm nobody. I'm an overnight guy. Who am I? But
some of these big TV stars and these movie stars
that are on there that that people loving athletes the
average cameo. You want to take a guess how long
the average cameo is? You gotta guess, Yeah, how about
(07:02):
one minute? One minute? For example, if you're listening to
me right now, and you've listened to the very beginning
of the podcast till now you've already you would have
heard over six almost seven cameos by now right, you know,
not even including the commercials. But the commercials is probably longer.
But the actual time of me talking on the fifth
(07:24):
hour podcast here is about now. It's up to seven,
give or take seven cameos. So anyway, my cameo to
this gentleman was, I think over seven minutes long, like
usually there are five. I try to do four or
five six minutes somewhere and there I went along on
the pep Talk one. So I have been doing too
much on the cameo. But screw cameo. I like, I
(07:46):
like doing these things, you know, from time to time.
I don't want to do too many of them, but
I also don't want to do them too short. I
think like one minute. It's like, you know, that's nothing, man.
I do four hours a night and plus an extra
three hours on the weekend. But twenty hours a week
plus the three hours or more sometimes we go avery
longer on the weekend. So that is the the brief
(08:08):
cameos story, which turned into the Extended Dance remix. Now
moving on the Revenge of the Nerds, The Revenge of
the Nerds, this being the Saturday podcast, which means the
life of Mallard. How boring is that? So during the
standard Mallard monolg we do four monologues a night. The
(08:29):
the a block of every hour is a monologue. I
can't guarantee it's gonna be a good monologue. And I
try to do a different monologue every hour during those monologues,
mainly because I get bored. Mainly because I get bored.
And good programming directors will tell you that you should
only do one topic radio and just keep repeating the
(08:50):
one topic, because the average radio listener does not listen
for more than a few minutes. Therefore, I'm actually doing
four times the work that I'm supposed to be doing.
And and I've had programmed reactors tell me, why not
just do one topic and just repeat it. And a
lot of afternoon shows and morning drive shows they'll do
(09:10):
like two different topics, one hour on one thing and
an hour or another. And they do that because there's
this sweet spot, the sweet spot on radio where it's
like the prime rush hour. So the first two hours
like the warm up act. It's like a lounge act.
You're testing out material. I'll give you the inside radio.
So you're testing out material and whatever really clicked, whatever
(09:32):
really resonated at least among the staff of the show,
the producer, of the board, op the host that then
gets regurgitated in the prime hour. Because most radio shows
are three hours. I do four, but most shows are
three hours, and that's kind of the standards become the
standard now. And so you do an hour warm up,
try something, an hour, another hour on something else, and
(09:54):
then which everyone works your third hour. You put it
all together. So we do the Mallon. Will said, I've
been known to take gratuitous cheap shots at Brainiac's. Yeah.
I'm not that bright, you know, I'm pretty dumb. I'm
doing radio, so I like to take my under the
table backhanded shots. Baseball executives we call super nerds. The
(10:17):
people that run the baseball franchises are the chief nerd.
We've got the geeks, the point dexters, you name it,
the Ivy League crowd, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So this week
I got my come upp It's this is a global exclusive.
No one else has this content, no one else has
(10:38):
this content content. If I could talk, that would help.
So I'm doing the radio show per normal. I'm shouting,
I'm yelling, I'm enthusiastically screaming like a crazy person in
a studio by myself, per normal. It is near the
end of the Wednesday show, Eddie says that, hey, I'd
(11:00):
like to get a nice photo. So we got the
crew together in the main studio. And typically we are
not together. I'm in the home studio and most of
the time now as I am right now doing this podcast,
so this was a rare and appropriate opportunity to get
a photo. So, okay, let's do some photos. So in walks,
(11:22):
Eddie in walks, Robert to in walks the Coop de
loop and we're all there. The team is altogether, we
formed Voltron ready for a little photo. So then lead
a Lap comes over, the producer of the morning show.
He's in the building. He comes over, he's the he's
the camera guy. Now during the flash mob photos session,
(11:44):
I do what I do most of the time. I
do not like the way I look in glasses. I
don't I need them because my parents gave me some
very bad eyes, which you know I'm fine with. I
love them to death, but they did not give me
the good jeans on the eyes. So I I have bifocals,
and I take my bifocals off, and I usually put
(12:07):
them either on my my shirt or I'll put them
in my pocket and uh. In this case, I put
the eyeglasses in my pocket. It's my right pocket. In
my right pocket, I had a set of car keys.
So I took the picture. Of the picture came out okay, fine,
and then I had to rush back to the chair
(12:29):
because it was about time to talk. The on air
light was coming on, so no time for grab bass.
So I sat down real fast, and then I reached
into my pocket to get the glasses out to put
them back on so I could read some comments from
you on Twitter and also the screen the call screener
that we had. So I reached into my my right
(12:51):
pocket with my right hand. I'm right handed, and much
to my surprise, the glasses come out and there's there's
a there's two different parts of the glasses. I now
have a matching set, the right part and the left part.
I have Jack and Jill his and hers classes, which
(13:12):
would not have been a problem if that was the
way they were supposed to be right. It wouldn't have
been an issue if I did not have another couple
of segments of radio to do and I had to
finish the show, and as they say in show businesses,
show must go on. My vision clearly is not that great.
It's okay from a distance. My reading is not good.
(13:37):
I had a website for years, Ben mallary dot com
and it it did not go you know, it went well, actually,
but I it didn't go well. My vision didn't go well.
So I've I've had two jobs that have left up.
You know, I don't have a real real job, like
you know, if you work as a contractor or a
garbage person or something construction, some thing with physical activity,
(14:01):
that's like a real job. You're gonna factory, right, You're you're,
you're more You've got more of a cheesemo than me.
But I do have the side effects of radio and
the internet job that I had is my hearing is
terrible because of the radio the headphones, and the vision
is pretty shitty. And that is a byproduct of my
(14:24):
parents inheriting some bad vision. They both wore glasses, but
also just being in front of computers, just being in
front of computers and monitors and things many hours a
day to get ready to do the show, to do
the show and all that stuff. So anyway, getting back
to the story, So I've now broken my glasses. I've
got to finish the show. That was only the start
(14:48):
of my problem, and I didn't realize at the time,
but my vision, as I said, not that great. I
really need the glasses to drive right, So I have
to have the glasses. Well, I was in studio, have
a long drive home. I moved very far away from
the studios, the main studios in Sherman Oaks in southern California,
(15:09):
on the corner of Sepulvida Inventura and the beautiful San
Fernando Valley. So I moved very far away. And that's
one of the reasons I don't come in that often
because I'm not close to the studio and Los Angeles
traffic even working my shift is terrible, at least half
of it's terrible. So I'm like, what am I gonna do.
(15:29):
I can't drive home without the glasses. I guess I could,
but that's a little bit of risky. As Bruce Arian says,
no risk it, no biscuit. So I'm talking to Roberto.
I'm like, hey, Roberto, look what happened. And I pull
out the glasses, the half the right and the left
half of my glass. I throw him down on the
table right in front of Roberto. Roberto looks at him
and he smiles. He's always smiling, Roberto, and he says,
(15:51):
you gotta go, curt Rambis. You gotta go, curt Rambis
nineteen eighties, n b A. And I said, you know what,
You're damn right, I gotta do that. And so that's
exactly what I did. And then I went into the
newsroom the update studio where Eddie works, and I'm chatting
with Eddie, catching up on life and whatnot. And so
(16:14):
Eddie then helped me and he held the glasses together.
I then took Scotch tape and proceeded to scotch tape,
said glasses together right in the middle, and I put
them on and went out to my car. The it's
(16:37):
really my Halloween costume. Like all all I was missing
was the pocket protector and I had a full point
dexter look instant nerd kit mill think Mill House from
The Simpsons, Dwight in the office. The it's pat movies, Napoleon,
(16:58):
Dynamite and of those nerd emoji. So anyway, I do
have a backup play a pair of glasses. I was
able to get those, but it is off to Costco.
We go for a new pair of bifocals. Get out
the credit card, Grandma. These things aren't cheap. These are
(17:21):
prescription glasses. Holy Moses, that's gonna be a pricey one. Alright,
moving on, it is a down hill race. What is
this all about? Well again, back at the Mothership this week,
couple of live shows. We'll have a couple of more shows.
The upcoming week. I'll be at the National League Championship
(17:43):
Series when it shifts back to Los Angeles. I'm very
excited about that. I love playoff baseball. There's an energy
in the air and it's a lot of fun. So
this past week I was covering the Dodger Giant sears.
Goodwin by the Dodgers, great call by the home plate umpire.
By the way, again, I just want to say that
on the podcast in case you missed the radio program,
if you somehow we're not able to tune in. Tremendous
(18:07):
job by the umpire in the ninth inning. What a call.
What a call My favorite umpire, Gave Morales, and this
led us to to remind you there is no official
definition of a swing. Uh, there is no official definition
of a swing. The words swing appears in the Official
Baseball Rules twenty one times, fifteen times, it's in text,
(18:29):
six times, it's in the index. None of those appearances
in the Official Baseball rule Book include the definition of
a swing. It is a judgment call. And in the
judgment of Gave Morales, that was a good swing by
Wilma Flores of the Giants against Max Scherzer to end
the game. And I agree, I agree, good job by you,
(18:53):
Mr Morales, solid umpire. Anyway, Yeah, I'm getting side checked here.
Bad job by me. So let me tell you the backstory.
So I go to the Dodger Giants games in l
A and even in person, and it's you know, much
closer to get to the Sherman Oaks studios than the
Mallard Mansion home studio in the North Wood. So I
(19:14):
hide tail it out of the ballpark. I have to
leave right at the final out of the game. I
leave as late as possible. Sometimes when the game goes long,
I have to leave early. So I run down the hill.
Dodger Stadium is built in a very hilly area there,
right overlooking the skyline of downtown l A. So I
run down the ball game ends, I run down to
(19:37):
Lot fourteen. That's usually why park, not always, not always.
We don't believe in momentum on the show, we don't
believe there is momentum. But in the foot race downhill
that does exist. And so I'm running out of Dodger Stadium,
off the reserve level and sprinting as far as I
(19:58):
can down the hill. And so if you're one of
our listeners in Cali, in so Cal, you likely know
the area. I park real close to the Los Angeles
Fire Department Training Center. It's it's some more. It's named
after somebod I forget who was named after. But that
building used to be a Naval and Marine Reserve center.
(20:20):
It's actually a California Historic Landmark. And they filmed, much
like everything else in l A. They filmed a bunch
of TV shows and movies over the years that have
been filmed there. And what I like about that, You know,
it's a good reminder because there's a piece of the
World Trade Center South Tower that is at the Los
(20:43):
Angeles Fire Department Training Center right near Dodger Stadium there,
and it's a tribute to all of those firefighters. Was
three firefighters then close to three fifty that died on
September eleven, which it's crazy that it's been been twenty years.
But so that that that part kind of knew that,
(21:04):
and l A sent a bunch of firefighters to help
out their brothers and sisters in New York. And so
the people in New York as a gift, sent back
a piece of the World Trade Center as a memorial.
So it's kind of cool and it's hidden and all that. Anyway,
again I'm getting sidetracked. I apologize. It's a podcast, that's
what this is for. So anyway, that's why I park
and fun time catching up with a bunch of old friends,
(21:25):
people I hadn't seen a long time, hadn't been to
a game, you know, in a while, prior to that
Dodger Cardinal game that I had gone to. So I
had been on the Dodger beat from the mid to
early nineties to the mid two thousands and then I
go sporadically. But I've been going to games for a
gazillion years, and I know a lot of the people
(21:47):
worked behind the people work behind the scenes, but there's
so many new faces. There's only a handful of people
that I know really well. There's other people that I
know a little bit. And I'm not the most social guy.
I'm an introvert, but just crazy how fast time goes by.
I was standing right in front of the Dodger dugout
with a buddy of mine who's worked for the team
since the nineteen seventies, and he looked out at the
(22:10):
outfield and I looked at at the outfield, and we
had sensory overload from all of the advertisements. And I'm
not against it. I'm not ripping him. I'm just saying,
how different is that the people on the Dodgers, the
Googenheim group, this hedge fund group, they have squeezed every
dollar out of that ballpark. And when I started going
(22:33):
out there, Peter O'Malley owned the team, the O'Malley family
that had taken the team from Brooklyn, and the spot
of Walter O'Malley. Peter O'Malley, who was very kind to me.
Uh And anyway, they didn't have any other advertising and
there was a seventies six sign for gasoline, and there
(22:54):
were maybe one or two other ads. I think Farmer
John hot Dogs, which is not now associated with the
Dodgers was out there. Um and and then that was it,
and now it is again sensory overload. The other thing
that I know I noticed every time I go there,
and I mentioned running down the hill at Dodger Stadium
earlier here, but the parking lots. And that's the other thing.
(23:18):
Fifty cent of all parking revenue goes to Frank McCord,
the previous owner of the Dodgers. You're talking about one
of the great deals. I put that right up there
that the story. I think this deal ended. But the
A B A team in St. Louis, the St. Louis Spirit,
I think they were called their spirits, I think spirit,
(23:41):
and they made a deal when the A B A
and the NBA merged. If I remember, and I'm as
I understand it, maybe I'm wrong and you can correct me.
I'm just the just a podcast guy now on the
weekends and an overnight guy. But as I as I
remember a story, they made a deal of the A
B A and the NBA merged, there was a fusion
and the St. Louis team was not included in that,
(24:01):
and to end a lawsuit, to prevent them from suing,
they were promised a portion of the NBA television revenue
like forever, there was no end date. There was no
expiration date on it. And so the NBA when they
sliced up their revenue pie for all those years from
(24:24):
the A B A NBA merger up until a couple
of years ago, the same check that would go to
the Lakers, Clippers, Nick's, Timberwolves, Rockets, Miami Heat, or Lando Magic,
Golden State, Wars, whoever, doesn't matter, would go to the St.
Louis Spirit. They would get a percentage of the national
television revenue from the NBA TV package. It's an insane
(24:48):
amount of money. So I am Frank McCort, this guy
that you're still in the Dodgers. My buddy, you know,
my buddy was we were talking about how much money
Once a year the Dodgers have to cut a eck.
They don't do it every month, but once a year
they balance the books and determine how much money they
(25:11):
need to give to Frank McCourt. And it's a it's
a massive amount of money. As you might imagine. And
so I was telling my buddy, who has worked for
the Dodgers since the O'Malley days, and he told me
something that shocked me. He says, you know what, Ben,
I I've heard you over the years take shots at
Frank McCourt, and I do I admit guilty has charged
(25:32):
He said, you know, I've I've worked for a lot
of different owners here and this guy works behind the scenes.
By the way, he said that he does not have
a bad thing to say about Frank McCort. That Frank McCourt,
more than anyone else just about that has been around
there in the ownership side, treated the working stiff, the
(25:54):
HOI POLOI, the unwashed, behind the scenes better than anyone,
and that he was a big tipper and he you know,
those were his guys. He'd like to hang out with him.
And so the parking lot attending who just collects money
for money for nothing, money for nothing, turned out not
a bad guy, at least those that knew him, at
(26:17):
least those of them. I'll have to tell the story
sometimes because I actually got to go into the owner's
office at Dodger Stadium because of Frank mccoory. I got
called into the carpet, called onto the carpet in the
in the ownership meeting I had with Frank years ago
when he was trying to hold on to the Dodgers.
All right, now, passing in the night, passing in the night.
(26:40):
What is this all about? Well it is it's been net.
I mentioned, you know, the studio, and I love the
energy of coming to the studio. I love having a
radio studio in my home. I never thought I would
have that. I built a station for w e I
when I was doing remote broadcast back to Boston, and
I had that and then New Zealand. I used it
(27:01):
for my New Zealand broadcast and then I kind of
got away where I I got let go from Boston.
I had to leave that job. It was actually my
decision because I am now picked up by the Sports Hub.
We've been on the Sports Hub, which is the rival
of w e I in Boston, so we've been on
there for a while. Anyway, UM, you just get to
the point piece please on this. So I've been in
(27:22):
the studio a little bit recently and it was kind
of neat because when I get done with my show
for years working out of that studio. I'd get done,
the morning show would come on, and the morning show
was in Chicago or Cincinnati, or Indianapolis or Washington, d C.
Or Milwaukee or New York City anywhere filling the blank.
(27:44):
It wasn't in Los Angeles at the studio, but now
it is at least part of it. The morning show
that follows the Ben Maller Show with Jonas Knox and
LaVar Arrington and Brady Quinn, A couple of jocks and
uh a cup of Joe right, something like that, A
couple of Yeah, I think that's the name. But anyway,
we had Jonas on the podcast. I forget though. It's
(28:07):
very early in the morning as I am recording this anyway,
so it was nice to see the fellows and uh
me and LaVar. You know, I remember LaVar. We talked
about him when he was a star in college and
then with the Washington Redskins and cool guy, cool guy
catching up with him, and LaVar actually lives. I can't
say where he lives, but he lives in a place
(28:27):
I used to live. Of course, he likely lives in
a bigger house than I lived in. Being and having
all that NFL money, but we were telling stories about
the neighborhood and I didn't realize he lived in that area,
had no idea. And I gotta get LaVar on the podcast.
I gotta make that happen. Always good to hang out
with Jonas. Always a good time to see Jonas. We
(28:49):
go way back, and I remember when Jonas started at
the company, and that's one of the reasons we got
him on the podcast. I was like, Hey, Jonas, I man,
I'm here, why don't we do the podcast? Uh last
week and um, but most every morning show. We've had
a lot of morning shows since I started at Fox
Sports Radio when it began, and I'm trying to think
how many morning host can I name that followed me
(29:12):
at one point or another, whether I was the weekend
host or the uh, the full time host during the
week Now, Steve's Aben loves Abe. We've been trying to
get Zabe on the podcast. Zabe is a good radio guy.
I love radio guys. Steve's Aben. I am a fan
(29:32):
loves Abe. He was very positive to me early on
when I started at Fox Sports Radio and I was
drowning on a nightly basis, and he was very kind
and The problem we've had getting zabon is logistically he
does a couple of radio shows a day, does a
morning show he's part of in Milwaukee, and then he
(29:55):
does an afternoon type show in d C. And typically
when he's on would be the windows I record the podcast.
So we've been able to get him on, but I'd
love to try to work that out at some point
have Za on the podcast. Uh, there was a morning show,
Zack and Jack. If you're a Fox Sports radio historian,
(30:16):
you might remember that stephen A. Smith. I wonder whatever
happened to him. Stephen A was one of the morning hosts.
Now I'm talking about the East Coast morning show. There's
a West Coast morning show which Tony Bruno hosted and
Dan Patrick's been doing it for years. Um who else,
Mike North and Andy Ferman. We've had both those lads
on Good People, Good Radio Guys. Clay Travis, who's replaced
(30:39):
Rush Limbaugh. Can you imagine that replacing the goat Rush Limbaugh?
And Clay has been doing that. So but it's a
rare treat. As I was weird, like I had to
get my stuff and leave and get out of there
because it's the that's the other show is coming in,
you know, nip. Typically, when there's no other show in there,
you can put your feet up and you don't have
to her. You can take your time, you can pick
(31:01):
your nose, get a couple of water, do whatever you want,
you know, grab your ass, it doesn't matter. But when
there's somebody in there, we only have a few minutes.
And so that's how that goes. Now, I was gonna
get to let's get scientifical. I just wanted let me
give you one story. We don't have a lot of time,
and we we have more podcasting to do, and there's
(31:24):
also a Dodger game with the Atlanta Braves today that
I am distracted. Yeah, you might guess when we're recording
this anyway, uh live, it's almost live. It's just just
almost life, just hours before anyway. So the unexpected radio signals,
I'll give you that because it's kind of radio related
and this will be our closer. So that's the headline here,
(31:48):
and what is the story? All right? So the headline
unexpected radio signals detected in deep space may reveal hidden planets.
Now may is a classic weasel word. This comes from
Brisbane Australia. Shout out Ozzy Momentum, Shout out Ozzy Guy
and these several other proud members of the Mallard Militia
(32:11):
who are not as well known but live in Australia,
because in Australia we're not a dope overnight show. We're
like an evening show. So as anyway, the story comes
from Queensland University using the world's most powerful radio antenna
and they have made a discovery surprising radio waves coming
from distant stars that maybe revealing the presence of undiscovered
(32:37):
planets in those solar systems. How cool is that. The
story says that they have discovered signals from nineteen distant
red dwarf stars, four of which are best explained by
the existence of planets orbiting them. This comes from someone
(32:59):
who has studied the planets, the cosmos and and looked
into all that, and so they that's what they're saying,
all because of the radio waves. That is cool to
think about that when we do the terrestrial radio show,
(33:19):
it gets boomed out into the heavens, into the cosmos
and in theory, if there is a creature like us
that has the ability to hear as we know it
then that said creature would be able to hear the noise.
They wouldn't likely understand what we're saying, unless there's some
(33:40):
kind of advanced species of human being. But they just
hear the sound of blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, and interstellar gas
will be fearing. So actually we could. That could be
my new nick an interstellar gas man or gas bag.
(34:02):
Now I am gas bag man here, but providing interstellar
gas I might have to use that at the top
of the hour one of these days. Maybe I'll add
that to my my repertoire, if you will. That's kind
of cool. So yeah, I I do. We talked about
this on the podcast before. But I am in the camp.
(34:24):
There is other life out there. I think there's a
lot of life out there. Even if this planet is
a mistake, that doesn't mean we're the only mistake. There
are other mistakes, and they're likely crazier and wilder and
goofier and more outrageous. Whatever you could possibly imagine. It's
either better or worse than that. Like I look up
(34:48):
and you know not, I don't do this that oft
and I work overnight, but then you do too, probably
if you listen to the radio show. But when I
have some downtime, maybe on the weekends, and I go
out and if I'm away from the city lights, and
I look up in the sky and I look at
all of those stars, and I say, even if there's
less than one percent, even if there is less than
(35:10):
one percent of those planets that have life, that's a lot.
I mean, there is an endless amount. And just thinking
every star that we see there's like a bunch of
other planets around it. The math on that is insane. Anyway,
let's have a wonderful rest of your Saturday. If you
did not catch the Jerome Jeroovich sit that headline sports,
(35:34):
I love Jerome and that was a great story. He
told a couple of really good stories on that I
recommend going back and listening to. Jerome told the story
about meeting Jolton, Joe DiMaggio Joel did Joe DiMaggio back
in the day. And also he is most known as
the CNN guy, and he explained the origin of Jarome
(35:58):
much how he started saying, and it is a wonderful
broadcast type behind the scenes story very relatable. Anybody has
ever done radio for a day or television can relate
to that, or even a podcast you gotta hit a
heart out, you gotta hit heart out and Jerome started
(36:19):
screaming his name in part because of that. You can
hear him tell the story on the Friday edition of
the podcast. We'll catch you on Sunday. We'll have a
big bad mail bag until then. Aloha, mahalo, arriva, der
Chase say Anara, audio s, muchachos,
Kaboom. 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 pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearing house of
hot takes, break free for something special. The Fifth Hour
(00:23):
with Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere,
back at it on a Saturday, Saturday Saturday, another piping
hot edition of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallard and
gascon Free, not sullyed by anyone west of the four
(00:44):
or five. It is a one man band. The podcast
must go on no matter what, unless it actually doesn't
have to go on. But we do this as a
labor of love, eight days a week, because four hours
a night, five nights a week clearly not enough. The
podcast studio which is right next to the radio studio
(01:09):
deep in the north Woods, and I do thank you
for supporting the podcast. And now the podcast has done
so well that management gets very upset if we do
not have a piping hot edition of the Fifth Hour
podcast on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So uh we provide
them and please keep that up. That that helps out
(01:33):
the show in a large way, and you guys have
been doing a great job at that. So on this
edition of the podcast, we have the title of it
should be Revenge of the Nerds. Revenge of the Nerds,
we have that. We also have It's a downhill race,
passing in the night and whatever else pops up along
(01:56):
the way. On this edition of The Fifth Hour with
Ben mat Now, before we get to Revenge of the Nerds,
I would like to tell you about Cameo. This is
not a commercial for Cameo. I am not being paid
to tell you about Cameo. I just had a funny
story I thought you'd appreciate. So this podcast, The Fifth
Hour is dedicated to the extreme fan of the show.
(02:21):
There's a lot of casual listeners of the show, and
we have the hardcore, passionate listenership that is through and
through a really buys into what we do. And boy,
I thank you for that. And some of the biggest
fans of the show, I want to take you to
the next level and they want to get on Cameo
(02:41):
and and I will do a personalized Mallard monologue. We
don't do shout outs on the radio, but we do
do them on cameo. And so I got a cameo
request the other day. I'm gonna tell you the story
briefly here I won't bore you, and if I bore you,
just fast forward through the podcast. So I got a
cameo request. I don't usually promote cameo that much, and
so there's certain times of the year randomly I'll get
(03:04):
a bunch of cameo requests and then other times I'll
get none. And I'm fine with that. It's there. It's
something that if you you want it, that's great. Um
there's some people on that website cameo that are making
their living off that, and good for them. Those are
also TV people and movie people. The cast of the Office,
(03:24):
for example, does very well. A lot of people who
grew up watching The Office now are all they're all
grown up and they have a lot of disposable income,
liquid liquid money to toss around, so they love their
their cameo. Now, we have a little bit of a
smaller reach on cameo, but I did get a request
from a super duper p one and I will not
(03:46):
reveal the gentleman's name. Because it was a private cameo.
But this is a gentleman served in the United States Marines,
and he's a big fan. He's got a little insomnia,
and so he made the request, and I I felt like,
this is a special thing. You know, when you go
out of your way to to pay a little bit
of money on cameo, I want to give you your
(04:06):
money's worth. So I did the cameo. He wanted a
little pep talk, and I gave him a win one
for the gipper type speech unless I didn't, but I
gave what I thought was a decent pep talk. And
it's really up to him whether he liked it or not.
But anyway, the reason I'm telling the story, get to
the point. Please all right, I will get to the point.
So the reason I told the story or to you,
(04:29):
am telling you right now, is because I did the
cameo in the studio. I do these things usually in
the studio, I have all the equipment of a camera.
We record the monologues for YouTube for the company, and
so I did the cameo kind of like I do
this podcast or I do the radio show, and the
same share the same podcast microphone that I use and
(04:53):
I just let it rip. I just let rip and
and so I sent the cameo and you have to
uply upload the cameo on my end. My job is
pretty simple. Do the cameo, upload the cameo, Boom done.
Uh you know, the dumbest person on the block could
do it. It's not that hard. So anyway, I clicked
the button on the cameo app, and I send the
(05:13):
video to the gentleman who's a big fan and I'm
here to cheer him up. And it was a special request.
It is a twenty four hour request. You gotta pay
a little extra for that. Um. And so I did it.
And anyway, long story even longer. Why not, it's a podcast.
So I I forgot about it. I got a message
on my phone like two hours later saying that I
(05:34):
had not actually posted the cameo, and I said, what
what the hell? You know? I know, I did it.
I did the thing, and I clicked the button and
it said it was uploading. And so I then tried
to upload it again. I noticed that it had not uploaded.
The message was correct. So I clicked the upload button
on the cameo and I said, that's it. Okay, I'm good.
(05:55):
And then about fifteen minutes later I checked and again
it had not uploaded, and so I was like, what
the hell. So then I had to contact my rep
at Cameo and say, hey, I did the cameo. I
followed the instructions, I clicked the send button on said cameo,
and what the heck is going on here? So they're
(06:16):
very polite, good customer service, much better customer service than
I've had a lot of people a lot of places
I've talked you over the years, and and so anyway,
they got right back to me and they, you know,
said that, you know whatever, it had been fixed. So
it turns out I've been doing cameo wrong. I'm bad
(06:36):
at cameo. They told me the average cameo that people request,
and and I'm on the very low end of this.
I'm nobody. I'm an overnight guy. Who am I? But
some of these big TV stars and these movie stars
that are on there that that people loving athletes the
average cameo. You want to take a guess how long
the average cameo is? You gotta guess, Yeah, how about
(07:02):
one minute? One minute? For example, if you're listening to
me right now, and you've listened to the very beginning
of the podcast till now you've already you would have
heard over six almost seven cameos by now right, you know,
not even including the commercials. But the commercials is probably longer.
But the actual time of me talking on the fifth
(07:24):
hour podcast here is about now. It's up to seven,
give or take seven cameos. So anyway, my cameo to
this gentleman was, I think over seven minutes long, like
usually there are five. I try to do four or
five six minutes somewhere and there I went along on
the pep Talk one. So I have been doing too
much on the cameo. But screw cameo. I like, I
(07:46):
like doing these things, you know, from time to time.
I don't want to do too many of them, but
I also don't want to do them too short. I
think like one minute. It's like, you know, that's nothing, man.
I do four hours a night and plus an extra
three hours on the weekend. But twenty hours a week
plus the three hours or more sometimes we go avery
longer on the weekend. So that is the the brief
(08:08):
cameos story, which turned into the Extended Dance remix. Now
moving on the Revenge of the Nerds, The Revenge of
the Nerds, this being the Saturday podcast, which means the
life of Mallard. How boring is that? So during the
standard Mallard monolg we do four monologues a night. The
(08:29):
the a block of every hour is a monologue. I
can't guarantee it's gonna be a good monologue. And I
try to do a different monologue every hour during those monologues,
mainly because I get bored. Mainly because I get bored.
And good programming directors will tell you that you should
only do one topic radio and just keep repeating the
(08:50):
one topic, because the average radio listener does not listen
for more than a few minutes. Therefore, I'm actually doing
four times the work that I'm supposed to be doing.
And and I've had programmed reactors tell me, why not
just do one topic and just repeat it. And a
lot of afternoon shows and morning drive shows they'll do
(09:10):
like two different topics, one hour on one thing and
an hour or another. And they do that because there's
this sweet spot, the sweet spot on radio where it's
like the prime rush hour. So the first two hours
like the warm up act. It's like a lounge act.
You're testing out material. I'll give you the inside radio.
So you're testing out material and whatever really clicked, whatever
(09:32):
really resonated at least among the staff of the show,
the producer, of the board, op the host that then
gets regurgitated in the prime hour. Because most radio shows
are three hours. I do four, but most shows are
three hours, and that's kind of the standards become the
standard now. And so you do an hour warm up,
try something, an hour, another hour on something else, and
(09:54):
then which everyone works your third hour. You put it
all together. So we do the Mallon. Will said, I've
been known to take gratuitous cheap shots at Brainiac's. Yeah.
I'm not that bright, you know, I'm pretty dumb. I'm
doing radio, so I like to take my under the
table backhanded shots. Baseball executives we call super nerds. The
(10:17):
people that run the baseball franchises are the chief nerd.
We've got the geeks, the point dexters, you name it,
the Ivy League crowd, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So this week
I got my come upp It's this is a global exclusive.
No one else has this content, no one else has
(10:38):
this content content. If I could talk, that would help.
So I'm doing the radio show per normal. I'm shouting,
I'm yelling, I'm enthusiastically screaming like a crazy person in
a studio by myself, per normal. It is near the
end of the Wednesday show, Eddie says that, hey, I'd
(11:00):
like to get a nice photo. So we got the
crew together in the main studio. And typically we are
not together. I'm in the home studio and most of
the time now as I am right now doing this podcast,
so this was a rare and appropriate opportunity to get
a photo. So, okay, let's do some photos. So in walks,
(11:22):
Eddie in walks, Robert to in walks the Coop de
loop and we're all there. The team is altogether, we
formed Voltron ready for a little photo. So then lead
a Lap comes over, the producer of the morning show.
He's in the building. He comes over, he's the he's
the camera guy. Now during the flash mob photos session,
(11:44):
I do what I do most of the time. I
do not like the way I look in glasses. I
don't I need them because my parents gave me some
very bad eyes, which you know I'm fine with. I
love them to death, but they did not give me
the good jeans on the eyes. So I I have bifocals,
and I take my bifocals off, and I usually put
(12:07):
them either on my my shirt or I'll put them
in my pocket and uh. In this case, I put
the eyeglasses in my pocket. It's my right pocket. In
my right pocket, I had a set of car keys.
So I took the picture. Of the picture came out okay, fine,
and then I had to rush back to the chair
(12:29):
because it was about time to talk. The on air
light was coming on, so no time for grab bass.
So I sat down real fast, and then I reached
into my pocket to get the glasses out to put
them back on so I could read some comments from
you on Twitter and also the screen the call screener
that we had. So I reached into my my right
(12:51):
pocket with my right hand. I'm right handed, and much
to my surprise, the glasses come out and there's there's
a there's two different parts of the glasses. I now
have a matching set, the right part and the left part.
I have Jack and Jill his and hers classes, which
(13:12):
would not have been a problem if that was the
way they were supposed to be right. It wouldn't have
been an issue if I did not have another couple
of segments of radio to do and I had to
finish the show, and as they say in show businesses,
show must go on. My vision clearly is not that great.
It's okay from a distance. My reading is not good.
(13:37):
I had a website for years, Ben mallary dot com
and it it did not go you know, it went well, actually,
but I it didn't go well. My vision didn't go well.
So I've I've had two jobs that have left up.
You know, I don't have a real real job, like
you know, if you work as a contractor or a
garbage person or something construction, some thing with physical activity,
(14:01):
that's like a real job. You're gonna factory, right, You're you're,
you're more You've got more of a cheesemo than me.
But I do have the side effects of radio and
the internet job that I had is my hearing is
terrible because of the radio the headphones, and the vision
is pretty shitty. And that is a byproduct of my
(14:24):
parents inheriting some bad vision. They both wore glasses, but
also just being in front of computers, just being in
front of computers and monitors and things many hours a
day to get ready to do the show, to do
the show and all that stuff. So anyway, getting back
to the story, So I've now broken my glasses. I've
got to finish the show. That was only the start
(14:48):
of my problem, and I didn't realize at the time,
but my vision, as I said, not that great. I
really need the glasses to drive right, So I have
to have the glasses. Well, I was in studio, have
a long drive home. I moved very far away from
the studios, the main studios in Sherman Oaks in southern California,
(15:09):
on the corner of Sepulvida Inventura and the beautiful San
Fernando Valley. So I moved very far away. And that's
one of the reasons I don't come in that often
because I'm not close to the studio and Los Angeles
traffic even working my shift is terrible, at least half
of it's terrible. So I'm like, what am I gonna do.
(15:29):
I can't drive home without the glasses. I guess I could,
but that's a little bit of risky. As Bruce Arian says,
no risk it, no biscuit. So I'm talking to Roberto.
I'm like, hey, Roberto, look what happened. And I pull
out the glasses, the half the right and the left
half of my glass. I throw him down on the
table right in front of Roberto. Roberto looks at him
and he smiles. He's always smiling, Roberto, and he says,
(15:51):
you gotta go, curt Rambis. You gotta go, curt Rambis
nineteen eighties, n b A. And I said, you know what,
You're damn right, I gotta do that. And so that's
exactly what I did. And then I went into the
newsroom the update studio where Eddie works, and I'm chatting
with Eddie, catching up on life and whatnot. And so
(16:14):
Eddie then helped me and he held the glasses together.
I then took Scotch tape and proceeded to scotch tape,
said glasses together right in the middle, and I put
them on and went out to my car. The it's
(16:37):
really my Halloween costume. Like all all I was missing
was the pocket protector and I had a full point
dexter look instant nerd kit mill think Mill House from
The Simpsons, Dwight in the office. The it's pat movies, Napoleon,
(16:58):
Dynamite and of those nerd emoji. So anyway, I do
have a backup play a pair of glasses. I was
able to get those, but it is off to Costco.
We go for a new pair of bifocals. Get out
the credit card, Grandma. These things aren't cheap. These are
(17:21):
prescription glasses. Holy Moses, that's gonna be a pricey one. Alright,
moving on, it is a down hill race. What is
this all about? Well again, back at the Mothership this week,
couple of live shows. We'll have a couple of more shows.
The upcoming week. I'll be at the National League Championship
(17:43):
Series when it shifts back to Los Angeles. I'm very
excited about that. I love playoff baseball. There's an energy
in the air and it's a lot of fun. So
this past week I was covering the Dodger Giant sears.
Goodwin by the Dodgers, great call by the home plate umpire.
By the way, again, I just want to say that
on the podcast in case you missed the radio program,
if you somehow we're not able to tune in. Tremendous
(18:07):
job by the umpire in the ninth inning. What a call.
What a call My favorite umpire, Gave Morales, and this
led us to to remind you there is no official
definition of a swing. Uh, there is no official definition
of a swing. The words swing appears in the Official
Baseball Rules twenty one times, fifteen times, it's in text,
(18:29):
six times, it's in the index. None of those appearances
in the Official Baseball rule Book include the definition of
a swing. It is a judgment call. And in the
judgment of Gave Morales, that was a good swing by
Wilma Flores of the Giants against Max Scherzer to end
the game. And I agree, I agree, good job by you,
(18:53):
Mr Morales, solid umpire. Anyway, Yeah, I'm getting side checked here.
Bad job by me. So let me tell you the backstory.
So I go to the Dodger Giants games in l
A and even in person, and it's you know, much
closer to get to the Sherman Oaks studios than the
Mallard Mansion home studio in the North Wood. So I
(19:14):
hide tail it out of the ballpark. I have to
leave right at the final out of the game. I
leave as late as possible. Sometimes when the game goes long,
I have to leave early. So I run down the hill.
Dodger Stadium is built in a very hilly area there,
right overlooking the skyline of downtown l A. So I
run down the ball game ends, I run down to
(19:37):
Lot fourteen. That's usually why park, not always, not always.
We don't believe in momentum on the show, we don't
believe there is momentum. But in the foot race downhill
that does exist. And so I'm running out of Dodger Stadium,
off the reserve level and sprinting as far as I
(19:58):
can down the hill. And so if you're one of
our listeners in Cali, in so Cal, you likely know
the area. I park real close to the Los Angeles
Fire Department Training Center. It's it's some more. It's named
after somebod I forget who was named after. But that
building used to be a Naval and Marine Reserve center.
(20:20):
It's actually a California Historic Landmark. And they filmed, much
like everything else in l A. They filmed a bunch
of TV shows and movies over the years that have
been filmed there. And what I like about that, You know,
it's a good reminder because there's a piece of the
World Trade Center South Tower that is at the Los
(20:43):
Angeles Fire Department Training Center right near Dodger Stadium there,
and it's a tribute to all of those firefighters. Was
three firefighters then close to three fifty that died on
September eleven, which it's crazy that it's been been twenty years.
But so that that that part kind of knew that,
(21:04):
and l A sent a bunch of firefighters to help
out their brothers and sisters in New York. And so
the people in New York as a gift, sent back
a piece of the World Trade Center as a memorial.
So it's kind of cool and it's hidden and all that. Anyway,
again I'm getting sidetracked. I apologize. It's a podcast, that's
what this is for. So anyway, that's why I park
and fun time catching up with a bunch of old friends,
(21:25):
people I hadn't seen a long time, hadn't been to
a game, you know, in a while, prior to that
Dodger Cardinal game that I had gone to. So I
had been on the Dodger beat from the mid to
early nineties to the mid two thousands and then I
go sporadically. But I've been going to games for a
gazillion years, and I know a lot of the people
(21:47):
worked behind the people work behind the scenes, but there's
so many new faces. There's only a handful of people
that I know really well. There's other people that I
know a little bit. And I'm not the most social guy.
I'm an introvert, but just crazy how fast time goes by.
I was standing right in front of the Dodger dugout
with a buddy of mine who's worked for the team
since the nineteen seventies, and he looked out at the
(22:10):
outfield and I looked at at the outfield, and we
had sensory overload from all of the advertisements. And I'm
not against it. I'm not ripping him. I'm just saying,
how different is that the people on the Dodgers, the
Googenheim group, this hedge fund group, they have squeezed every
dollar out of that ballpark. And when I started going
(22:33):
out there, Peter O'Malley owned the team, the O'Malley family
that had taken the team from Brooklyn, and the spot
of Walter O'Malley. Peter O'Malley, who was very kind to me.
Uh And anyway, they didn't have any other advertising and
there was a seventies six sign for gasoline, and there
(22:54):
were maybe one or two other ads. I think Farmer
John hot Dogs, which is not now associated with the
Dodgers was out there. Um and and then that was it,
and now it is again sensory overload. The other thing
that I know I noticed every time I go there,
and I mentioned running down the hill at Dodger Stadium
earlier here, but the parking lots. And that's the other thing.
(23:18):
Fifty cent of all parking revenue goes to Frank McCord,
the previous owner of the Dodgers. You're talking about one
of the great deals. I put that right up there
that the story. I think this deal ended. But the
A B A team in St. Louis, the St. Louis Spirit,
I think they were called their spirits, I think spirit,
(23:41):
and they made a deal when the A B A
and the NBA merged. If I remember, and I'm as
I understand it, maybe I'm wrong and you can correct me.
I'm just the just a podcast guy now on the
weekends and an overnight guy. But as I as I
remember a story, they made a deal of the A
B A and the NBA merged, there was a fusion
and the St. Louis team was not included in that,
(24:01):
and to end a lawsuit, to prevent them from suing,
they were promised a portion of the NBA television revenue
like forever, there was no end date. There was no
expiration date on it. And so the NBA when they
sliced up their revenue pie for all those years from
(24:24):
the A B A NBA merger up until a couple
of years ago, the same check that would go to
the Lakers, Clippers, Nick's, Timberwolves, Rockets, Miami Heat, or Lando Magic,
Golden State, Wars, whoever, doesn't matter, would go to the St.
Louis Spirit. They would get a percentage of the national
television revenue from the NBA TV package. It's an insane
(24:48):
amount of money. So I am Frank McCort, this guy
that you're still in the Dodgers. My buddy, you know,
my buddy was we were talking about how much money
Once a year the Dodgers have to cut a eck.
They don't do it every month, but once a year
they balance the books and determine how much money they
(25:11):
need to give to Frank McCourt. And it's a it's
a massive amount of money. As you might imagine. And
so I was telling my buddy, who has worked for
the Dodgers since the O'Malley days, and he told me
something that shocked me. He says, you know what, Ben,
I I've heard you over the years take shots at
Frank McCourt, and I do I admit guilty has charged
(25:32):
He said, you know, I've I've worked for a lot
of different owners here and this guy works behind the scenes.
By the way, he said that he does not have
a bad thing to say about Frank McCort. That Frank McCourt,
more than anyone else just about that has been around
there in the ownership side, treated the working stiff, the
(25:54):
HOI POLOI, the unwashed, behind the scenes better than anyone,
and that he was a big tipper and he you know,
those were his guys. He'd like to hang out with him.
And so the parking lot attending who just collects money
for money for nothing, money for nothing, turned out not
a bad guy, at least those that knew him, at
(26:17):
least those of them. I'll have to tell the story
sometimes because I actually got to go into the owner's
office at Dodger Stadium because of Frank mccoory. I got
called into the carpet, called onto the carpet in the
in the ownership meeting I had with Frank years ago
when he was trying to hold on to the Dodgers.
All right, now, passing in the night, passing in the night.
(26:40):
What is this all about? Well it is it's been net.
I mentioned, you know, the studio, and I love the
energy of coming to the studio. I love having a
radio studio in my home. I never thought I would
have that. I built a station for w e I
when I was doing remote broadcast back to Boston, and
I had that and then New Zealand. I used it
(27:01):
for my New Zealand broadcast and then I kind of
got away where I I got let go from Boston.
I had to leave that job. It was actually my
decision because I am now picked up by the Sports Hub.
We've been on the Sports Hub, which is the rival
of w e I in Boston, so we've been on
there for a while. Anyway, UM, you just get to
the point piece please on this. So I've been in
(27:22):
the studio a little bit recently and it was kind
of neat because when I get done with my show
for years working out of that studio. I'd get done,
the morning show would come on, and the morning show
was in Chicago or Cincinnati, or Indianapolis or Washington, d C.
Or Milwaukee or New York City anywhere filling the blank.
(27:44):
It wasn't in Los Angeles at the studio, but now
it is at least part of it. The morning show
that follows the Ben Maller Show with Jonas Knox and
LaVar Arrington and Brady Quinn, A couple of jocks and
uh a cup of Joe right, something like that, A
couple of Yeah, I think that's the name. But anyway,
we had Jonas on the podcast. I forget though. It's
(28:07):
very early in the morning as I am recording this anyway,
so it was nice to see the fellows and uh
me and LaVar. You know, I remember LaVar. We talked
about him when he was a star in college and
then with the Washington Redskins and cool guy, cool guy
catching up with him, and LaVar actually lives. I can't
say where he lives, but he lives in a place
(28:27):
I used to live. Of course, he likely lives in
a bigger house than I lived in. Being and having
all that NFL money, but we were telling stories about
the neighborhood and I didn't realize he lived in that area,
had no idea. And I gotta get LaVar on the podcast.
I gotta make that happen. Always good to hang out
with Jonas. Always a good time to see Jonas. We
(28:49):
go way back, and I remember when Jonas started at
the company, and that's one of the reasons we got
him on the podcast. I was like, Hey, Jonas, I man,
I'm here, why don't we do the podcast? Uh last
week and um, but most every morning show. We've had
a lot of morning shows since I started at Fox
Sports Radio when it began, and I'm trying to think
how many morning host can I name that followed me
(29:12):
at one point or another, whether I was the weekend
host or the uh, the full time host during the
week Now, Steve's Aben loves Abe. We've been trying to
get Zabe on the podcast. Zabe is a good radio guy.
I love radio guys. Steve's Aben. I am a fan
(29:32):
loves Abe. He was very positive to me early on
when I started at Fox Sports Radio and I was
drowning on a nightly basis, and he was very kind
and The problem we've had getting zabon is logistically he
does a couple of radio shows a day, does a
morning show he's part of in Milwaukee, and then he
(29:55):
does an afternoon type show in d C. And typically
when he's on would be the windows I record the podcast.
So we've been able to get him on, but I'd
love to try to work that out at some point
have Za on the podcast. Uh, there was a morning show,
Zack and Jack. If you're a Fox Sports radio historian,
(30:16):
you might remember that stephen A. Smith. I wonder whatever
happened to him. Stephen A was one of the morning hosts.
Now I'm talking about the East Coast morning show. There's
a West Coast morning show which Tony Bruno hosted and
Dan Patrick's been doing it for years. Um who else,
Mike North and Andy Ferman. We've had both those lads
on Good People, Good Radio Guys. Clay Travis, who's replaced
(30:39):
Rush Limbaugh. Can you imagine that replacing the goat Rush Limbaugh?
And Clay has been doing that. So but it's a
rare treat. As I was weird, like I had to
get my stuff and leave and get out of there
because it's the that's the other show is coming in,
you know, nip. Typically, when there's no other show in there,
you can put your feet up and you don't have
to her. You can take your time, you can pick
(31:01):
your nose, get a couple of water, do whatever you want,
you know, grab your ass, it doesn't matter. But when
there's somebody in there, we only have a few minutes.
And so that's how that goes. Now, I was gonna
get to let's get scientifical. I just wanted let me
give you one story. We don't have a lot of time,
and we we have more podcasting to do, and there's
(31:24):
also a Dodger game with the Atlanta Braves today that
I am distracted. Yeah, you might guess when we're recording
this anyway, uh live, it's almost live. It's just just
almost life, just hours before anyway. So the unexpected radio signals,
I'll give you that because it's kind of radio related
and this will be our closer. So that's the headline here,
(31:48):
and what is the story? All right? So the headline
unexpected radio signals detected in deep space may reveal hidden planets.
Now may is a classic weasel word. This comes from
Brisbane Australia. Shout out Ozzy Momentum, Shout out Ozzy Guy
and these several other proud members of the Mallard Militia
(32:11):
who are not as well known but live in Australia,
because in Australia we're not a dope overnight show. We're
like an evening show. So as anyway, the story comes
from Queensland University using the world's most powerful radio antenna
and they have made a discovery surprising radio waves coming
from distant stars that maybe revealing the presence of undiscovered
(32:37):
planets in those solar systems. How cool is that. The
story says that they have discovered signals from nineteen distant
red dwarf stars, four of which are best explained by
the existence of planets orbiting them. This comes from someone
(32:59):
who has studied the planets, the cosmos and and looked
into all that, and so they that's what they're saying,
all because of the radio waves. That is cool to
think about that when we do the terrestrial radio show,
(33:19):
it gets boomed out into the heavens, into the cosmos
and in theory, if there is a creature like us
that has the ability to hear as we know it
then that said creature would be able to hear the noise.
They wouldn't likely understand what we're saying, unless there's some
(33:40):
kind of advanced species of human being. But they just
hear the sound of blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, and interstellar gas
will be fearing. So actually we could. That could be
my new nick an interstellar gas man or gas bag.
(34:02):
Now I am gas bag man here, but providing interstellar
gas I might have to use that at the top
of the hour one of these days. Maybe I'll add
that to my my repertoire, if you will. That's kind
of cool. So yeah, I I do. We talked about
this on the podcast before. But I am in the camp.
(34:24):
There is other life out there. I think there's a
lot of life out there. Even if this planet is
a mistake, that doesn't mean we're the only mistake. There
are other mistakes, and they're likely crazier and wilder and
goofier and more outrageous. Whatever you could possibly imagine. It's
either better or worse than that. Like I look up
(34:48):
and you know not, I don't do this that oft
and I work overnight, but then you do too, probably
if you listen to the radio show. But when I
have some downtime, maybe on the weekends, and I go
out and if I'm away from the city lights, and
I look up in the sky and I look at
all of those stars, and I say, even if there's
less than one percent, even if there is less than
(35:10):
one percent of those planets that have life, that's a lot.
I mean, there is an endless amount. And just thinking
every star that we see there's like a bunch of
other planets around it. The math on that is insane. Anyway,
let's have a wonderful rest of your Saturday. If you
did not catch the Jerome Jeroovich sit that headline sports,
(35:34):
I love Jerome and that was a great story. He
told a couple of really good stories on that I
recommend going back and listening to. Jerome told the story
about meeting Jolton, Joe DiMaggio Joel did Joe DiMaggio back
in the day. And also he is most known as
the CNN guy, and he explained the origin of Jarome
(35:58):
much how he started saying, and it is a wonderful
broadcast type behind the scenes story very relatable. Anybody has
ever done radio for a day or television can relate
to that, or even a podcast you gotta hit a
heart out, you gotta hit heart out and Jerome started
(36:19):
screaming his name in part because of that. You can
hear him tell the story on the Friday edition of
the podcast. We'll catch you on Sunday. We'll have a
big bad mail bag until then. Aloha, mahalo, arriva, der
Chase say Anara, audio s, muchachos,
Host
Ben Maller
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