August 4, 2025 • 52 mins
We sit down with Scott Woodside, half of the legendary Elliott and Woodside morning show that dominated Washington radio in the 1970s and '80s.
Scott takes us behind the scenes of one of the most iconic duos in DC radio history.
We talk about how he and Jim Elliott got paired up, the creative chemistry that helped them build a massive following, and the behind-the-scenes story of jumping from WPGC to Q107.
Scott opens up about the show's meteoric rise and eventual decline, reflecting on the impact of Jim Elliott's substance abuse, the slipping ratings, and how the partnership ultimately came to an end.
Scott also shares what he did after the show wrapped, and how he looks back on that chapter of his broadcasting career.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dcrtv-washington-radio-and-tv-podcast--6152954/support.
Scott takes us behind the scenes of one of the most iconic duos in DC radio history.
We talk about how he and Jim Elliott got paired up, the creative chemistry that helped them build a massive following, and the behind-the-scenes story of jumping from WPGC to Q107.
Scott opens up about the show's meteoric rise and eventual decline, reflecting on the impact of Jim Elliott's substance abuse, the slipping ratings, and how the partnership ultimately came to an end.
Scott also shares what he did after the show wrapped, and how he looks back on that chapter of his broadcasting career.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dcrtv-washington-radio-and-tv-podcast--6152954/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is the DCRTV podcast covering radio, television, and all
media for Washington, Baltimore and beyond Beyond.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Elliot in Woodside was one of the biggest morning shows
in Washington back in the seventies and eighties. Scott, what
were you and Jim Elliott doing at the time that
made the show so unique?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You know? That was the number one question asked by
a lot of people when the Arbitron ratings came out,
And the answer was, with all due respect, if we
told you, you wouldn't believe us. It was just being ourselves.
It was no structure and going with the flow every
single day in the nation's capital.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Elliot and Woodside have a really interesting story. They got
their start at WPGC. They built a real big following.
They caught the attention of Q one O seven, who
offered them a ton of money to come work for them.
They switched stations. Everything was going great, but eventually things
started to fall apart. And on the show today, we're
going to hear about the rise and fall of Elliott
(01:16):
and Woodside. Joining us on the podcast today is Scott
Woodside DCRTV. Today's episode is brought to us by Eugene
Eugene is a supporter of DCRTV, and if you like
what I'm doing and you want to support DCRTV, head
over to our Patreon page. You can find it at
(01:36):
dcrtv dot com, slash Patreon. Scott, let's start at the
very beginning. So Dan Mason was the program director of WPGC,
and he's the one that hired you and put you
and Jim Elliott together, right correct?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Dan Mason said, we're dead last in the ratings at WPGC,
We're non union, kicked the Marriott out. And I just
believe because I worked for Dan in Washington. I worked
for Dan in Atlanta at a Marriott radio station, and
(02:14):
we just with another partner, and in order to be noticed,
I'd write I'd just write weird news and do weird stuff.
And Dan said, use that same formula that you're using
in Atlanta. I believe, Scott, if I put you together
with Jim Elliott, that this show is going to be successful.
(02:34):
It was his gut feeling. I took him at his
word and pulled out the rearview mirror and went up
to Washington, d C with not a very big salary,
and the studios were ugly in Beltsville, Maryland. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Wow, so you come in as the news guy. Jim
is dead last in the ratings. How long did it
take until you guys were number one?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, it took us about six months according to the statistics.
I believe it was. It was a I mean, we
went viral overnight. Keep in mind, it was easy to
go viral back then because there was no We had
no iPhones, we had no social media, and there were
no crazy shows in Washington, DC, so audiences were craving
(03:26):
some kind of interaction. It didn't take long. We knew
something was happening, but we were working in a sleazy studio.
We used to joke about it and I said, well,
as long as I'm getting paid and get to go
on appearances, I guess I'm okay. And Elle would say, hey,
I'll toss you up our mitzvah, you can make some
extra money. He's Jewish. I'm not. I learned how to
be Jewish. It worked out great. So, but I could
(03:49):
tell because people were calling in not to request music,
but saying, you.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Guys are crazy. I can't believe what you guys just said.
You are unbelieve And it was just kudos. After kudos,
and you have to be careful and broadcasting. If you
believe everything you listen to on the phone, it's going
to mess with your head.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
But I believed it, Elliot started believing it, and then
when the ratings came out, we just went, really, wow,
we're number one.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's incredible. That's incredible. So coming in from Atlanta, where
you're joining the lowest rated morning show, I'm imagining they
didn't bring you in at a very high salary.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
No, they didn't because I was a newsman with no
I had credibility. I was the news director at WPGC
Woo Woo. But for me, I said, oh, I'm the
news director at an FM radio station in the nation's capital.
All right, I'll just build my brand as I go. Yeah,
(04:54):
the money wasn't good, but I was selling advertising and
marketing campaigns at in Atlanta to bank savings and loans
and automobile dealers throughout Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. So I
was burned out at a very early age. In about
twenty eight and I got the call from Mason, and
(05:16):
I said, I'll go up there on a wing and
a prayer, and if Mason's hiring me to go up
there to do what I do best, and not just
because I'm a good reader. I read the news fast.
I wrote every one of the newscasts, and I slipped
all kinds of salt and pepper and spices within there,
and I reframed the news to be the WPGC News
(05:41):
magazine sort of go because there was PM magazine at
that time on TV, so I wanted to put stuff
in the newscast to keep people listening. And then I
started teasing stories for the next twenty five minutes, and
Elliott would say, Hey, that was a hell of a tease.
(06:02):
Why don't you tell us now? I said, nope, nope,
pretend like I'm your girlfriend. You're not getting anything until
the top of the hour. Now.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
One thing that's really puzzling to me with Elliott and
Woodside is that you started out. I mean, it makes
sense your last place, you get to first place that
the show becomes huge at WPGCRE in really in Washington Radio.
But you never had a contract. How come they didn't
(06:31):
put you guys under contract when the show became number one?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Well, Dan, that's a great question, and I'm not the
person that decides on what whether a question is great
or not, but I don't really know. But back then
there was more of a loyalty in broadcasting. And the
other thing about radio, the program directors at every radio
(06:57):
station back then had cardboard boxes about two feet haul
I guess about two feet wide, three feet wide whatever,
full of audio cassettes and people that wanted to work
in radio. So anytime you would ask for a raise
or anything else, the program director would pick up this
(07:19):
big box of cassettes and he'd say, well, you know,
you're not that good, and if you're threatening, I mean
with more money, I can always let you go and
take one of these cassettes and call these people. So
we just we did it on a wing and a prayer.
The only reason they kept us there was the money.
(07:40):
And then when they decided to be tight on the money,
and we start, well, anyway, that's another chapter.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It was did they pay you more? Like when you
became number one? Did they give you a bump and pay?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
No? No? Wow. But Glenn Potter was the president of
First Media Corporation back then, and First Media was owned
by the Marriotts, and so Elliott and I both got
I believe it was a fifteen or sixteen inch Sony
Trinitron TV. It took about four people to carry it,
(08:19):
and they they engraved on the front something to a
fantastic thank you for a fantastic morning show, congratulations from
your friends at WPGC, and that's all we got. Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
If memory serves me correct, I may have gone up
there for twenty eight grand a year, and maybe they
bumped me to sixty, but I can't remember. Yeah, okay,
but it still wasn't enough to live. It wasn't enough
to live and I had just i'd been married and
had our first child. Oh scary. Yeah, but you know,
(08:57):
if you pull the rearview mirror out, believe and I
believed in Dan Mason one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So the show becomes hot. Your I guess Q and
O seven is struggling at that point, and they they're thinking, well,
maybe we can get Elliott and w side. This is
going to help us propel the radio station, and you
guys eventually ended up going there. How did that happen? Like,
how did Q one O seven reach out and start
(09:30):
the process to steal you guys?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, first of all, Q one O seven called Elliot
because I'm a newsman. At the time, they didn't see
the value of the two man morning show, and I
think probably when they first called Elliott, we didn't even
have jingles made that said Elliott and Woodside till about
a year later when the people at PGC decided Scott
(09:54):
Shannon came in. Dan Mason left but he still had
control over the and they decided to make it a team,
but no one else looked at it as a team.
Elliott was the disc jockey with the beautiful voice and
I was the newsman, so they just called him. They figured, well,
if they got him and he accepted, that would break
(10:16):
up the show. Elliott I think they offered him maybe
seventy thousand, and he was making sixty at PGC, and
he turned them down. He said no, no, no, Well,
Elliott also wanted to at that time Q one O
seven was owned by ABC, so then Elliott then they said, well,
(10:37):
how would you like to go to WABC and Elliott
I think the money was only eighty grand for him
to go to WPGC. He chose not to, but he
told the then program director, Steve Kingston that he probably
was going to go to WABC because they're going to
(10:57):
pay him eighty grand, and Kingston said, well, we don't
want to lose you. We'll go ahead and pay you
the eighty thousand. And then Elliot and I were pretty tight.
We had a trust tree going on between the two
of us. And Elliott said, you know, I don't know
if you know this or not, but I got an
offer to go here and here and here, and I
decided to stay. And Kingston but me up to eighty grand.
(11:21):
You ought to go in there and say, hey, give
me more money. And so I did and he said, no, no,
I'm not giving you any more money. I said, we
just gave Elliott a raise to eighty grand and I
think I was making sixty. And he said, I'll tell
you what, Scott, give me back the money you're making.
(11:41):
I don't remember the direct quote. Give me back half
of what you're making now, and that's what you're worth.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And it just hit me the wrong way because I
approached him after the morning show. I was tired, so
I called. I said, all right, you know what I'm
done with that. I've got a family defeat and I
can't continue going on all of these bar mitzvahs on
the weekend. And yeah, tire store, personal appearances and making
(12:12):
good money. But my god, and it seems like they
kept saying, Scott, be funny, Scott, be funny. Do this here,
do this character. I heard you do a character this
morning called Congressman cotton Picker. So I did a play
on Congress a congressman that had money in his pocket.
And then he said make up this or do that,
(12:33):
and I would do it, but I never got any
extra pay, and I said screw it. So I called
Q one O seven and just called called the front desk,
said hey, basspeak to Allan Burns. Alan answered, and I said, Alan,
this is Scott Woodside at WPGC, and I know that
(12:54):
you've talked to Elliott on a couple of at a
couple of times, and would you be interested in talking
to the Elliott and Woodside show as a team. And
he said, hell, yeah, yeah, we would love that you
would come over too. I said, absolutely, let's talk and
(13:16):
see what's out there. Wow, And he said, he said,
I'll bring my general manager, Ernie Fears. What about this?
How about we meet at the Hamburger Hamlet. It was
in December Hamburger Hamlet in Potomac and we'll just talk.
(13:39):
So we went there. He already had the appointment set
and he went to tell Ernie. I said, an appointment.
Elliot and Woodside, we got to go meet them at
noon on such and such a date. And we just
sat down and talked. And they said, do you have
any kind of a contract over there or anything? Because
ABC union they had contracts. Elliot and I were not union.
(14:02):
We were not. When I came up to DC, I
went to a non union radio station that was blackballed
by the union chief. Elliott crossed the picket line, so
he was persona non grata and ever getting his union
(14:22):
card back. So they said, or either one of you,
do you belong to the union? Said no, no, don't
belong to the union. ABC said, well, we're going to
talk to the union and we'll get you guys over
here if you agree to come over. And Elliott's the
money guy. Elliott says, well, let's talk. Let's talk cashier, Yay, Alan, Ernie,
(14:43):
let's talk. Elliot would have made a great manager. Yeah,
And so we did, and they threw multimillion dollar numbers
out on the table. Wow, they said, is this that
you'd be interested in? Plus, we'll give you a twenty
five thousand dollars cash signing bonus. If you choose to
(15:09):
do this, but we don't have a contract, I've got
to get it approved by Leonard Goldenson, who was the
Leonard Goldenson was the big guy at ABC, chairman of
the board, and he was playing golf in China and
Ernie had to call him on a satellite phone a
(15:31):
special hook up to get permission. But he said, if
you guys will agree on a handshake, I'll go ahead
and get the contracts written up.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Wow. So you went from making sixty thousand dollars a
year at PGC to a multi million dollar contract with
Q one oh seven.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah. Yeah, and with it was over two hundred grand year. Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So a five year, five year deal.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Yeah. We both had over a million in our five
year deal.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It was the largest contract ABC had ever paid any
radio personality anywhere in their New York. They had to
bump their team up. I can't remember who was doing
mornings at the time at WABC, but they had to
bump that dude up. They had to bump Harden and
Weaver up because Harden and Weaver was the only morning
(16:29):
show two person morning show on AM radio in Washington. Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah. And to put then perspective, this is in the
early eighties. Two hundred thousand dollars back then, it's probably
the equivalent of like six hundred thousand dollars today or
maybe even more. I mean, that's a huge contract.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
It was huge. It was it was mind boggling, to
say the least.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah. Yeah, and you guys worked that out like it
was basically Jim working that out. There was no lawyer,
you guys didn't have an agent. That was just you
guys talking, right.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So the next day I went to WPGC after the
show and I told Steve. I said, hey, Steve, I've
made a decision. I'm going to go ahead and I
have an offer to go to Q one O seven.
But I wanted to do the right thing and give
you two weeks notice and I'll continue doing my job,
(17:28):
but I'm heading over there. And he said, what about Elliot,
I said, you have to talk to Jim, but I'm
going It's a hell of a lot more money. And
that's when he said, well, you can just put all
your belongings in a little cardboard box and get the
hell out of here right now. To that effect, and
Kickson and I were friends, but it pissed him off,
(17:51):
and I said, okay, so I left and Elliott told
Kingston and Kingston said you can get the hell out
of here too, And Kingston and Elliott were good friends.
But I guess I don't know. It embarrassed the hell
out of Kingston because he was the gate guard to
(18:13):
Charles Giddens, the general manager, and who knows why he
didn't go to Charles. Well here something happened because I
got a call from Dick Marriott. He was on a
ski trip some ritzy place in Colorado because it was December.
His whole family was there, and he said, Scott, I
(18:34):
heard that you're going back. I hear you're leaving WPGC.
You're a very valuable asset. Asset at WPGC, said, let
me ask you. Why didn't you just come to me
and talk and Glen Potter, and I said, because you
set up a hierarchy with a program director, a GM,
(18:57):
then you, and then someone else. So I would be
breaking the chain of command if I went right to
you and create all kinds of stuff. I was in
the Navy for four years. I said, that's not how
I was trained. And he said, I'll tell you what.
Whatever you're making, I'll double it if you come back
to w p TC. And I said, mister or Dan
(19:21):
or whoever I was talking to, I was pretty nervous,
I said. He said, do you have a contract And
I said no, but I have a handshake and we
will have a contract. And he said, well, since you
don't have a contract, just come on back. We'll double
your money and we'll go from there. That night, I
(19:43):
guess the same night Charles Geddons God rest his soul.
He's deceased. I loaned him a luggage wreck for he
and his family to go somewhere over the holidays. He
came back in he was out of town. He took
the luggage ract that I lo them, unscrewed it in
front of my house and slung it like a discus
(20:05):
in the Olympics through my front yard. And I said, Charlie,
and he said something explative and drove off. Wow. Wow,
it didn't end well.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah, And famously you guys left PGC and you were
on the air like the next day at q UH.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I think we came on. I think it was the
first week in January. We went to q and met
everybody and saw the where we were going to be,
and you know there there was none of the WMAL
(20:47):
staff would talk to us because they were all Union.
And the Q one O seven staff was pissed off
because they fired Doug Lemerick and Dude Walker. Boom gone.
That's the thing they ever did. Though. They saved Dude
Walker and he became a news report, news, a news something,
(21:08):
a news voice for ABC and did very well. And
he retired with ABC and he was well known throughout
North America. A great guy and a great newscast.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
All right, So you get to Q. Now, they had
never had a morning show like you guys before. Did
they know how to manage you?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I don't believe they did. Now they had Dude Walker
that did voices. I never listened to Dude and Doug,
and then Doug might chime in occasionally between newscasts, but
they always had a leash. It wasn't really a two
person show as far as I know. I've never listened
(21:52):
Elliot and I never listened to the competition of anyone.
We just did our stuff every morning. But at PGC
we were never given a leash. They said, just do
what you do. And when we went to queue, they
kind of put leashes on us and they said, Woodside,
you're the news director. Now. I went, oh my god,
here we go. Here's your little studio. You can, you know,
(22:15):
just keep doing what you're doing, but less talk and
more music. Oh god, how's this going to play out?
And we want you to have meetings every morning and
do your write out your bits beforehand. I said, well
it was hell yeah, it's the best money I ever
made until I got into the business i'm in now,
(22:40):
which is not broadcasting. But up to that contract at
Q one O seven was the most money I ever
made in my life. And it was a It was
a double edged sword. Elliott wasn't happy. I wasn't happy.
Elliott said, screw it, We're just going to read the liners.
They can't fire. We had a we had a.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
What was it called they no cut contract.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, a no cut contract. They could they could get
rid of the contract for just cause and that's it.
So basically Elliot and I figured this out all by
our little brains. It was hard, though. Elliott says, screw it,
I'm just going to do by thing. You can do
your news and we'll just screw them, we'll spend their money.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Wow. So so the show just wasn't the same. They
hired you because of what you did at PGC. Yeah,
but then they get you over there and they totally
want to change it.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah. They blew us up, and they blew WPGC out
of the water and left WPGC without a morning show.
Imagine they were making money, hand over fist, big ass money.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
So did the show have the same notoriety and the
same ratings at Q?
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Like?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Were you guys number one? Q?
Speaker 3 (24:02):
No, we steadily went down, went down like a body
with a boulder tied to its feet.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
And the reason Elliot and I part of our magic
was we would talk about government waste. We talk about
how Pepco and whoever were gouging customers, and we were
like the common guys. We were like our listeners. And
(24:33):
ABC couldn't get that news to the Washington Post fast
enough and the trades that they had awarded us a
five year, no cut guaranteed contract. Wow. And when listeners
read that in the Washington Post, they said, oh, you're
just like the rest. I can remember after we signed
the contract, Ernie Fears said, gentlemen, how does it feel
(24:57):
to know that you make more money than the President
of the United States of America. Wow, that was huge
back then. Yeah, I said, wow, more than Ronald Reagan. Wow,
we're peers now.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It was pretty well documented at some point that Jim
Elliott was really struggling with some addiction issues. Did that
have an effect on the show too? I get while
that was going on.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Well, yeah, it did have an effect. And I was
doing it too, and I saw what it was doing.
I lived in Prince George's County and was pretty active
in Prince George's County, and my wife was, and we
knew a lot of the players in Prince George's County
(25:47):
and basketball and all of that. And Len Bias I
was doing cocaine. And Len Bias had just received a
contract from Nike, which was the largest one ever, and
he went out, apparently this is all here, and celebrated
by buying a large bag of cocaine, stuck his head
in it, took a deep breath inhaled it, and died.
(26:09):
And I thought, holy crap. I never knew cocaine was bad.
I didn't think it was that bad, and I started
reading up on it, bought books, read and I said,
holy crap, I need to quit. I need to figure
this out and quit. And then I quit, and I
saw what it was doing to the team because Elliott
(26:31):
kept doing it, and it just got worse and worse
and worse. The ratings kept going down. We get morning
show meetings from Ernie and Allen saying, why isn't the
show funny anymore? Oh, I don't know, Well, you need
to plan out your bits more. You're just hanging by
the seat of your pants. What's the real reason? Now?
(26:53):
I could have said it's because of cocaine, but everybody
and the almost everybody radio was doing cocaine. It was not.
We were uneducated. We didn't know what it did. So
I couldn't say, well, cocaine's causing the problem because everybody
(27:14):
was doing it. Right, So going to that show every
morning and going through that and making that kind of money,
I went. I went to the largest, the number one,
(27:36):
I said, I found the largest that the number one
contract negotiation attorney in Washington, d C. I can't remember
his name. I had a meeting with him and I said,
I want out of the contract. It's a drug issue.
He says, I can't take your case. Got if I
take your case, No judge in DC is going to
(27:57):
let you out of this contract. It's ironclad, and you're
making a boatload of money. Why would you do that?
And I said, well because of the drugs. I said,
I'm unhappy and if I haven't found out anything else
in life. This may sound stupid and pollyannic, but I said,
the money is great, but I could care less about it.
(28:18):
My family is more important than my peace of mind.
And going home every oh every morning after that show
was just brutal. So it got worse. That Big Attorney
was the after sag attorney too. At the time, I
can't remember his name. Nice guy. And I talked to
(28:45):
a friend of mine who had a friend who was
a psychologist, and I talked to the psychologist and he said, well,
Jim's a great guy, but we're probably going to have
to You're going to have to do an intervention. Well
we did an intervention. It didn't work, and then I
didn't know what else to do. At the time, I
(29:06):
was totally distraught. Elliott wouldn't quit. He didn't care. I
didn't I didn't care, but I was in a precarious
position knowing that the franchise was going down fast, so
I asked to have a special meeting with Ernie Fears
without Jim said, Ernie, I'm sorry to come to you,
but how would you feel if you bought a brand
(29:29):
new Mercedes Bins gas powered and put diesel fuel in it.
That's what's wrong with our show. And I explained to everything,
and he says, I'll handle it personally. I'll talk to Jim.
I'll be in the studio every morning with Alan Burns,
the PD and we'll figure it out. We'll get him straight.
(29:53):
Because Ernie and Jim were good buds, Ernie didn't want
this to get out. It didn't work, and Ernie would
call me in, how do you think the show went?
I said, look, Ernie, it sucks. It's too format it
it sucks. The ratings are going down. He says, if
I can just get Jim back on his feet, he says,
(30:15):
I'm ready to offer you and Jim another five year
contract to double the money. We got to figure this out.
And I said, Ernie, there's no amount of money in
the world you could throw at me where I would
do that. I'm miserable. So at the time ABC was
purchased by Disney or vice versa, and they had cocaine
(30:39):
was so bad in the mid eighties, they had a
cocaine hotline, not a drug hotline, cocaine hotline. So I
called it and I talked to the person, and I said,
something's not fair here. I got to go to work
being miserable every morning and nothing's happening on the other
(31:03):
side of the screen. Is still doing coke. I don't
want to get him arrested or anything, but it puts
me in a precarious position, and I don't know what
to do anymore. And the counselor said, you're absolutely right,
mister Woodside, thanks for bringing this up to us. Beginning
tomorrow morning, Elliott will no longer be at WABS or
(31:28):
at QWO one oh seven. So I went there in
the morning and I was the only guy there trying
to do a show without Elliott. That was an even
bigger nightmare, bigger nightmare. Okay, it's all on you, Woodside. God,
holy crap, I got I don't know if we had
a year and a half left on our contract or
a year left or whatever. And we tried, and we tried,
(31:52):
and Elliot went to rehab and came back but it
didn't work, and then he went to rehab the second time.
One day I had a meet with Alan Burns had left.
He knew the franchise was going down the toilet, and
Randy Lane was brought in as a program director to
try to keep the show and float. But everybody was
(32:13):
doing it the coke and Randy came in and he said, Scott,
we've decided to terminate Elliott. Well, he'd already been terminated,
but he said, you have X number of months left
on your contract. It's not working. We're going to pay
(32:35):
you off. And Dan Willeth, who's retired now but he
was the big ABC controller at the time, we'll write
a check to you and have it delivered by courier
anywhere you'd like. Let's say, okay, well okay. I was relieved. Yeah,
(32:57):
I didn't know they were going to pay me. And
he said, we'll have a check. Where do you want it?
I said, r J. Bentley's in College Park because I
lived in University Park and you used to hang out
at Bentley's. And I'll be damned if the courier didn't come.
And he said, mister Woodside, here's your check. And I
think it was for like a hundred and some odd
(33:17):
one hundred thousand plus dollars. I said, wow, thank you,
and so hey everybody. I think it was about two
or three in the afternoon, starting before a happy hour.
I stood up on a chair and said, hey, Scott Woodside,
I'm no longer with Q one O seven. I got
my last check and I've always wanted to buy everyone
(33:39):
in a bar drinks. Drink as long as you want
and as much as you want. It's on me.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Oh wow, that's great.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And I never really did talk to Elliott after that.
Steve Kingston tried to hire me in Baltimore with Elliott,
and I said, Steve, I don't feel comfortable going back
with Ellie. I don't know that I could trust him.
And Kingston apologized. He said, I was only kidding. You
(34:09):
took it the own way, the wrong way. I said, well,
it's over. It's water over the dam. But Elliot and
I have talked. We talked once or twice a year birthdays,
and after all of that, he sent me a really
(34:29):
nice letter. It's emotional because he said, I attribute you
to saving my life, and I don't know how I
could ever thank you for that. So I'm glad because
he's a hell of a guy, a hell of a talent,
and we have a good relationship now. But we're far
(34:54):
removed from doing radio. Why would we want to go
back into radio? So somebody could irs so that's all
they do. Yeah, So I guess that pretty much tells
the story. Could you know it's been what forty years?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Forty years? Yeah, it's a long long time. So tell
me about you. So after things ended at Q, you
ended up going back to PGC for a while, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I went to WPGC and it was called Classy ninety
five and I can't remember the program director's name, Alan.
Somebody hired me to work with Jeff Baker. He said,
Jeff does voices, you do news. Let's put it together.
(35:50):
My work. Well, it didn't work. It just didn't work.
And then nothing was working at WPGC Classy ninety five
and Charles Giddens, the GM hired Jerry Clifton to come
in and he said, we need to give this radio
station an inmo. What are you going to do for us?
(36:10):
And Jerry Clifton said, we're going to turn it to urban.
So I guess for three or four months I was doing,
excuse me, doing morning shows on an urban radio station,
the new WPGC, and playing urban music, which music back
then was great. And Dan Mason came to town. Excuse me,
(36:37):
he was back in charge. By then it was all
of the radio stations were owned by cook Inlet and
he was the president of cook Inlet. I guess, and
he came in. He said, Scott Son, I'm sorry to
have to terminate you, but this is an urban station.
We can't, we can't, we can't keep you doing the
(36:59):
morning show. He says, you're the last white guy here,
and we gotta, we gotta, you gotta leave.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
They gave me a severance, and he felt bad about it,
but he was right. It was urban radio. I did
my best, and so then you know, everybody by then
it was the Elliott and Woodside team. No one wanted
Woodside without.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Elliott, right.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Elliott did do part time work up in New York,
I think at w ABC, but there was no room
for a two person show. So from there I pulled
out my chits. At the time, Paris Glenn Denning was
the county executive of Prince George's and I helped him,
taught him how to read a telepropter and was in
(37:55):
his campaign because he was one of my neighbors and
he was a friend. I didn't care about politics. He
was a friend and my next door neighbor. God rest
his God, everybody's dying, God rest his soul. John Davey
was the chief executive officer of PG County and I said, John,
(38:18):
I need a job. I really would like to take
Prince George's television and build it from scratch now that
we were going to have cable in Prince George's County,
and be the executive director. So overnight I became the
executive director of Prince George's County. I designed the studio,
I hired the staff, I bought all of the equipment.
(38:40):
I learned all about television, which I knew nothing about.
I went to WJLA TV and talked to a guy
I knew who was the chief engineer at WJLA, and
I said, can we talk? And he said sure, what Sibe?
What are you doing? And I told him and I said,
I have one question for you. What would you do
differently if you could design a television studio? He said, oh, well,
(39:04):
you need this, you need this, you need storage for
the props. You need this and this, and I wrote
everything down and that's how I designed the studio at
Prince George's Television. I had. I did the first newscast
at Prince George's Television. It had to be taped, and
just started it. But it wasn't a lot of money,
(39:27):
you know, government was not a lot of money. And
then Dan Mason called after about six months and he said, son,
what are you doing. I said, I'm working for Prince
George's Television. Blah blah blah. He says, hey, I got a.
I got a How would you like to be reunited
with your old partner that you worked with in Atlanta,
(39:53):
Barry Chase. I said, I don't know that. I kind
of went south. And he said, ye, yeah, but you're
both grown men. You're both in your late thirties or
I was probably forty by then. And he said, you
can go on down there, talk to the fly you
(40:14):
down there, talk to the general manager and the program director,
and we're going to put you guys back together. I said, okay,
I'll think about it. Well, when I went down there,
they said this is your salary and I said, really,
I said, is that what Berry's making. Oh no, no,
you're the news man. I said, I'm not interested in
coming back. No, I'm not doing it either. You give
(40:35):
me what you're giving him, and I'm going to ask
him and he better not be lying because I don't know.
This is not a way to start. And he said, okay,
this is what we're paying him, we'll pay you the same.
I said, okay, my parents were sick. They lived in Savannah.
I thought maybe it was a good time to leave
DC because I was kind of floundering money wise, and
(41:01):
I made some bad investments in DC, so I really
needed to kind of cut loose and leave. And I
had a three year contract at Z ninety three Radio.
It was a classic rock and roll format with Chase
and Woodside, and we did a two man morning show
(41:22):
and it was pretty successful to begin with because there
were no rules. And then Z ninety three and Mason
started hiring consultants. The consultant came in and he said, Woodside,
you need to get into the news at this particular time,
and you get out of the news at this particular
time because people are waiting to get in their cars
(41:45):
to hear a hard driving rock and roll song. Coming
out of the top of the hour as soon as
you finished the news BAM, I said, I disagree with you.
I don't And I've got a picture of Stepford wives
in neighborhoods holding briefcases for their husbands and everybody waiting
(42:06):
to get in the car at the top of the hour.
And I just told him, I said, that's BS doesn't work.
So then I had the flu and the consultant came
back into town and I didn't like him anyway, and
I said, oh, you're not going to believe it. When
I was sick, I wanted to verify what you were
telling me, so i'd look out of the window. I
(42:28):
live in a cul de sac, and I'll be damned
if you're not right. Everybody was out waiting to get
in their cars at the top of the hour. Laughed
at his face. And about two weeks later, they said,
we're not going to renew your contract, and we're not
going to renew Barry Chase's contract. And I said fine,
(42:51):
and that was my last radio show.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Really, wow, that is crazy. And then can you do
traffic for a while after that?
Speaker 3 (43:03):
Well, yeah, because it's hard to pull the rearview mirror
out when you've done almost twenty five to thirty years
in broadcasting, and you grew from the bottom of broadcasting
and created a good brand for yourself. But I went
to a home improvement company. They needed a video producer,
and I said, I've got background on video. I can
(43:24):
produce your commercials from what I learned to in print
George's County. And he said, yeah, but you got name recognition.
He said, why don't you sell? If you learned this script,
you can go out and sell. I'll pay you commission only.
I'll pay you ten percent on anything you sell. You've
got this. You've got a great personality. And I said, well,
(43:44):
what kind of money are we talking about? He said
anywhere from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand.
I said, well, that's what I was used to making
at Z ninety three. I'll try that. So I did,
and I was successful. Then he closed his company and
I floundered. And I was listening to the radio on
(44:06):
Z ninety three, and at the time Gary McKee was
out of work. He was a big deal in Atlanta
and Z ninety three. I don't know who they had
doing mornings, but I thought, if they can bring Gary
McKee back. They could bring me back without Barry Chase,
and they said, yeah, that's a great idea. I talked
(44:28):
to the GM and said we'll bring you back as
traffic and I said, oh god. And it was a
low salary, but it was mornings only, and I had
to do something. And I was tired of selling home
improvements for a defunct company. And I did traffic, but
I did it just like I did the news. I'd
(44:48):
call moron traffic and it didn't last long. People loved it.
People would listen to the traffic reports because I never
knew what I was going to Saint X and I said,
some moron woman just decided to pull over in the
inbound lane of the Beltway and change her tire, and
(45:14):
she's slowing traffic down, and there's a major back up
here in Atlanta that's going to have. It's going to
be there for about two hours. So whenever she gets
to work, she'll be late wherever the hell she works
in Atlanta. Her give her a bunch of grief if
she lives. I'll be surprised if she lives, because someone's
(45:34):
going to run into her and kill her. Well. I
got a call at my house from Dwight Douglas, who
was the program director at the time, and he said, Hey,
what side we need you to come to the radio station.
I said, oh boy. So I went in and they said,
(45:56):
you know that lady you called a moron, she went
into work and everybody gave her shit for the entire day.
And you can't call our listeners morons. And I said,
no one listening thinks that they're the moron. They're laughing
at the other person. It's just to get more listeners.
(46:16):
I didn't do any well, you're fired.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
So then I was given the opportunity of a lifetime.
It's another long story, so I won't bore you with it.
Let's just say I had an opportunity. It came out
of nowhere to head up the number two stationary company
(46:45):
in Japan as their Atlanta CEO, in charge of operations
and in charge of creating the brand in Atlanta, out
of Atlanta where I lived, and creating the brand throughout
North America. Did that for ten years and it went great,
and then bad recession hit nineteen in two thousand and
(47:12):
seven and Japan pulled out of the US market, and
I decided I had learned enough that I was really
a good salesperson, so I looked for sales jobs, but
I was looking for sales companies that were W two
companies No. Ten ninety nine with benefits four oh one
(47:36):
K and four oh one K matching. And back then
everything was do in the newspaper. So I bought an
Atlanta Journal Constitution Sunday paper. There were some online stuff
and I saw this ad that said, do not let
this opportunity pass you by. And I thought, boy, I'm
(47:58):
up against the rock and a hard spot right now.
I've depleted my funds, my wife is a travel agent.
We're just not making ends meet. And it was about
a four inch column and two inches wide. I said this,
(48:22):
take this, learn more about this opportunity. It said matching
four oh one K, health plan, recession proof, on and
on and on and on and on selling plots at
our cemetery in Atlanta, and I thought, holy crap, that
(48:45):
cemetery is a publicly traded company. Come to find out
here in Atlanta we have forty rooftops, funeral homes and cemeteries.
At the time, I didn't know that. And throughout North America, Canada,
in Puerto Rico. We have over two thousand locations and
(49:06):
we're the largest provider of death care in the world.
And I was fifty seven years old. I was up
against the wall. I sent faxes out every day because
there was no email. I sent the facts and as
soon as I sent it, I got a call from
the sales manager at Arlington Cemetery in Sandy Springs in Atlanta,
(49:31):
and he said, I love your resume. He said, you're
perfectly qualified to be a family service advisor with our company.
Come in learn about the opportunity. I said, I don't know, man.
He said, just listen to us. And when I found
out I could be myself selling pre arranged funerals and
(49:51):
pre arranged cemetery and cremation options to people that came
into this one hundred fifty acres cemetery, I thought, and
make two hundred plus k a year. I thought, I
can do this. I can do it. So I went
(50:14):
home and told my wife. She says, oh my god,
you're going to work at a graveyard. And I said,
look look at their stuff. Luck, let's research. And I
went back and said I'll take it. And I never
ever looked back. I got two offers of radio, and
I told both of those people to pound sound, pound
(50:36):
sand respectfully, because I would never go into a culture
that was going to fire me.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
And so I've been a sales manager with this company
for eighteen of the twenty years. I managed three locations
and we've been doing just fantastic. And now I'm a
sales consultant with the company and I go wherever and
(51:13):
help salespeople that have just come on to get them
ready to roll and be successful. And that's pretty much
what I've been doing.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (51:24):
Semi retired, but I'm still hooked into the company that
I love more than anything in the world.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Well, Scott, I just I want to thank you. I mean,
this was such a fascinating look into your career and
into Elliot and Woodside, and I really just appreciate how
honest and open you've been with us today. I really
think that this was really fascinating talking to you today,
And thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
Dan, thank you. But you know, the metrics say people
lose interest after a minute and a half.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yeah, I don't know if anyone's still listening. This has
been going on a while, but you know, I'm here
and you're here. I'm sure at least one person is listening.
So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
Well, Dan, thanks for reaching out, and hey, you should
reach out to Elliott if you ever get the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
I think I will. I think I will. I think
that would be great.
Speaker 3 (52:19):
Take care, man.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, make sure
you hit the follow button. That way, you'll be notified
when the next episode comes out. My name is Dan
Lane and this has been the dcr TV podcast dr
TV
This is the DCRTV podcast covering radio, television, and all
media for Washington, Baltimore and beyond Beyond.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Elliot in Woodside was one of the biggest morning shows
in Washington back in the seventies and eighties. Scott, what
were you and Jim Elliott doing at the time that
made the show so unique?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You know? That was the number one question asked by
a lot of people when the Arbitron ratings came out,
And the answer was, with all due respect, if we
told you, you wouldn't believe us. It was just being ourselves.
It was no structure and going with the flow every
single day in the nation's capital.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Elliot and Woodside have a really interesting story. They got
their start at WPGC. They built a real big following.
They caught the attention of Q one O seven, who
offered them a ton of money to come work for them.
They switched stations. Everything was going great, but eventually things
started to fall apart. And on the show today, we're
going to hear about the rise and fall of Elliott
(01:16):
and Woodside. Joining us on the podcast today is Scott
Woodside DCRTV. Today's episode is brought to us by Eugene
Eugene is a supporter of DCRTV, and if you like
what I'm doing and you want to support DCRTV, head
over to our Patreon page. You can find it at
(01:36):
dcrtv dot com, slash Patreon. Scott, let's start at the
very beginning. So Dan Mason was the program director of WPGC,
and he's the one that hired you and put you
and Jim Elliott together, right correct?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Dan Mason said, we're dead last in the ratings at WPGC,
We're non union, kicked the Marriott out. And I just
believe because I worked for Dan in Washington. I worked
for Dan in Atlanta at a Marriott radio station, and
(02:14):
we just with another partner, and in order to be noticed,
I'd write I'd just write weird news and do weird stuff.
And Dan said, use that same formula that you're using
in Atlanta. I believe, Scott, if I put you together
with Jim Elliott, that this show is going to be successful.
(02:34):
It was his gut feeling. I took him at his
word and pulled out the rearview mirror and went up
to Washington, d C with not a very big salary,
and the studios were ugly in Beltsville, Maryland. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Wow, so you come in as the news guy. Jim
is dead last in the ratings. How long did it
take until you guys were number one?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, it took us about six months according to the statistics.
I believe it was. It was a I mean, we
went viral overnight. Keep in mind, it was easy to
go viral back then because there was no We had
no iPhones, we had no social media, and there were
no crazy shows in Washington, DC, so audiences were craving
(03:26):
some kind of interaction. It didn't take long. We knew
something was happening, but we were working in a sleazy studio.
We used to joke about it and I said, well,
as long as I'm getting paid and get to go
on appearances, I guess I'm okay. And Elle would say, hey,
I'll toss you up our mitzvah, you can make some
extra money. He's Jewish. I'm not. I learned how to
be Jewish. It worked out great. So, but I could
(03:49):
tell because people were calling in not to request music,
but saying, you.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Guys are crazy. I can't believe what you guys just said.
You are unbelieve And it was just kudos. After kudos,
and you have to be careful and broadcasting. If you
believe everything you listen to on the phone, it's going
to mess with your head.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
But I believed it, Elliot started believing it, and then
when the ratings came out, we just went, really, wow,
we're number one.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's incredible. That's incredible. So coming in from Atlanta, where
you're joining the lowest rated morning show, I'm imagining they
didn't bring you in at a very high salary.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
No, they didn't because I was a newsman with no
I had credibility. I was the news director at WPGC
Woo Woo. But for me, I said, oh, I'm the
news director at an FM radio station in the nation's capital.
All right, I'll just build my brand as I go. Yeah,
(04:54):
the money wasn't good, but I was selling advertising and
marketing campaigns at in Atlanta to bank savings and loans
and automobile dealers throughout Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. So I
was burned out at a very early age. In about
twenty eight and I got the call from Mason, and
(05:16):
I said, I'll go up there on a wing and
a prayer, and if Mason's hiring me to go up
there to do what I do best, and not just
because I'm a good reader. I read the news fast.
I wrote every one of the newscasts, and I slipped
all kinds of salt and pepper and spices within there,
and I reframed the news to be the WPGC News
(05:41):
magazine sort of go because there was PM magazine at
that time on TV, so I wanted to put stuff
in the newscast to keep people listening. And then I
started teasing stories for the next twenty five minutes, and
Elliott would say, Hey, that was a hell of a tease.
(06:02):
Why don't you tell us now? I said, nope, nope,
pretend like I'm your girlfriend. You're not getting anything until
the top of the hour. Now.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
One thing that's really puzzling to me with Elliott and
Woodside is that you started out. I mean, it makes
sense your last place, you get to first place that
the show becomes huge at WPGCRE in really in Washington Radio.
But you never had a contract. How come they didn't
(06:31):
put you guys under contract when the show became number one?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Well, Dan, that's a great question, and I'm not the
person that decides on what whether a question is great
or not, but I don't really know. But back then
there was more of a loyalty in broadcasting. And the
other thing about radio, the program directors at every radio
(06:57):
station back then had cardboard boxes about two feet haul
I guess about two feet wide, three feet wide whatever,
full of audio cassettes and people that wanted to work
in radio. So anytime you would ask for a raise
or anything else, the program director would pick up this
(07:19):
big box of cassettes and he'd say, well, you know,
you're not that good, and if you're threatening, I mean
with more money, I can always let you go and
take one of these cassettes and call these people. So
we just we did it on a wing and a prayer.
The only reason they kept us there was the money.
(07:40):
And then when they decided to be tight on the money,
and we start, well, anyway, that's another chapter.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It was did they pay you more? Like when you
became number one? Did they give you a bump and pay?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
No? No? Wow. But Glenn Potter was the president of
First Media Corporation back then, and First Media was owned
by the Marriotts, and so Elliott and I both got
I believe it was a fifteen or sixteen inch Sony
Trinitron TV. It took about four people to carry it,
(08:19):
and they they engraved on the front something to a
fantastic thank you for a fantastic morning show, congratulations from
your friends at WPGC, and that's all we got. Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
If memory serves me correct, I may have gone up
there for twenty eight grand a year, and maybe they
bumped me to sixty, but I can't remember. Yeah, okay,
but it still wasn't enough to live. It wasn't enough
to live and I had just i'd been married and
had our first child. Oh scary. Yeah, but you know,
(08:57):
if you pull the rearview mirror out, believe and I
believed in Dan Mason one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So the show becomes hot. Your I guess Q and
O seven is struggling at that point, and they they're thinking, well,
maybe we can get Elliott and w side. This is
going to help us propel the radio station, and you
guys eventually ended up going there. How did that happen? Like,
how did Q one O seven reach out and start
(09:30):
the process to steal you guys?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, first of all, Q one O seven called Elliot
because I'm a newsman. At the time, they didn't see
the value of the two man morning show, and I
think probably when they first called Elliott, we didn't even
have jingles made that said Elliott and Woodside till about
a year later when the people at PGC decided Scott
(09:54):
Shannon came in. Dan Mason left but he still had
control over the and they decided to make it a team,
but no one else looked at it as a team.
Elliott was the disc jockey with the beautiful voice and
I was the newsman, so they just called him. They figured, well,
if they got him and he accepted, that would break
(10:16):
up the show. Elliott I think they offered him maybe
seventy thousand, and he was making sixty at PGC, and
he turned them down. He said no, no, no, Well,
Elliott also wanted to at that time Q one O
seven was owned by ABC, so then Elliott then they said, well,
(10:37):
how would you like to go to WABC and Elliott
I think the money was only eighty grand for him
to go to WPGC. He chose not to, but he
told the then program director, Steve Kingston that he probably
was going to go to WABC because they're going to
(10:57):
pay him eighty grand, and Kingston said, well, we don't
want to lose you. We'll go ahead and pay you
the eighty thousand. And then Elliot and I were pretty tight.
We had a trust tree going on between the two
of us. And Elliott said, you know, I don't know
if you know this or not, but I got an
offer to go here and here and here, and I
decided to stay. And Kingston but me up to eighty grand.
(11:21):
You ought to go in there and say, hey, give
me more money. And so I did and he said, no, no,
I'm not giving you any more money. I said, we
just gave Elliott a raise to eighty grand and I
think I was making sixty. And he said, I'll tell
you what, Scott, give me back the money you're making.
(11:41):
I don't remember the direct quote. Give me back half
of what you're making now, and that's what you're worth.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And it just hit me the wrong way because I
approached him after the morning show. I was tired, so
I called. I said, all right, you know what I'm
done with that. I've got a family defeat and I
can't continue going on all of these bar mitzvahs on
the weekend. And yeah, tire store, personal appearances and making
(12:12):
good money. But my god, and it seems like they
kept saying, Scott, be funny, Scott, be funny. Do this here,
do this character. I heard you do a character this
morning called Congressman cotton Picker. So I did a play
on Congress a congressman that had money in his pocket.
And then he said make up this or do that,
(12:33):
and I would do it, but I never got any
extra pay, and I said screw it. So I called
Q one O seven and just called called the front desk,
said hey, basspeak to Allan Burns. Alan answered, and I said, Alan,
this is Scott Woodside at WPGC, and I know that
(12:54):
you've talked to Elliott on a couple of at a
couple of times, and would you be interested in talking
to the Elliott and Woodside show as a team. And
he said, hell, yeah, yeah, we would love that you
would come over too. I said, absolutely, let's talk and
(13:16):
see what's out there. Wow, And he said, he said,
I'll bring my general manager, Ernie Fears. What about this?
How about we meet at the Hamburger Hamlet. It was
in December Hamburger Hamlet in Potomac and we'll just talk.
(13:39):
So we went there. He already had the appointment set
and he went to tell Ernie. I said, an appointment.
Elliot and Woodside, we got to go meet them at
noon on such and such a date. And we just
sat down and talked. And they said, do you have
any kind of a contract over there or anything? Because
ABC union they had contracts. Elliot and I were not union.
(14:02):
We were not. When I came up to DC, I
went to a non union radio station that was blackballed
by the union chief. Elliott crossed the picket line, so
he was persona non grata and ever getting his union
(14:22):
card back. So they said, or either one of you,
do you belong to the union? Said no, no, don't
belong to the union. ABC said, well, we're going to
talk to the union and we'll get you guys over
here if you agree to come over. And Elliott's the
money guy. Elliott says, well, let's talk. Let's talk cashier, Yay, Alan, Ernie,
(14:43):
let's talk. Elliot would have made a great manager. Yeah,
And so we did, and they threw multimillion dollar numbers
out on the table. Wow, they said, is this that
you'd be interested in? Plus, we'll give you a twenty
five thousand dollars cash signing bonus. If you choose to
(15:09):
do this, but we don't have a contract, I've got
to get it approved by Leonard Goldenson, who was the
Leonard Goldenson was the big guy at ABC, chairman of
the board, and he was playing golf in China and
Ernie had to call him on a satellite phone a
(15:31):
special hook up to get permission. But he said, if
you guys will agree on a handshake, I'll go ahead
and get the contracts written up.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Wow. So you went from making sixty thousand dollars a
year at PGC to a multi million dollar contract with
Q one oh seven.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah. Yeah, and with it was over two hundred grand year. Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So a five year, five year deal.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Yeah. We both had over a million in our five
year deal.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It was the largest contract ABC had ever paid any
radio personality anywhere in their New York. They had to
bump their team up. I can't remember who was doing
mornings at the time at WABC, but they had to
bump that dude up. They had to bump Harden and
Weaver up because Harden and Weaver was the only morning
(16:29):
show two person morning show on AM radio in Washington. Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah. And to put then perspective, this is in the
early eighties. Two hundred thousand dollars back then, it's probably
the equivalent of like six hundred thousand dollars today or
maybe even more. I mean, that's a huge contract.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
It was huge. It was it was mind boggling, to
say the least.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah. Yeah, and you guys worked that out like it
was basically Jim working that out. There was no lawyer,
you guys didn't have an agent. That was just you
guys talking, right.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So the next day I went to WPGC after the
show and I told Steve. I said, hey, Steve, I've
made a decision. I'm going to go ahead and I
have an offer to go to Q one O seven.
But I wanted to do the right thing and give
you two weeks notice and I'll continue doing my job,
(17:28):
but I'm heading over there. And he said, what about Elliot,
I said, you have to talk to Jim, but I'm
going It's a hell of a lot more money. And
that's when he said, well, you can just put all
your belongings in a little cardboard box and get the
hell out of here right now. To that effect, and
Kickson and I were friends, but it pissed him off,
(17:51):
and I said, okay, so I left and Elliott told
Kingston and Kingston said you can get the hell out
of here too, And Kingston and Elliott were good friends.
But I guess I don't know. It embarrassed the hell
out of Kingston because he was the gate guard to
(18:13):
Charles Giddens, the general manager, and who knows why he
didn't go to Charles. Well here something happened because I
got a call from Dick Marriott. He was on a
ski trip some ritzy place in Colorado because it was December.
His whole family was there, and he said, Scott, I
(18:34):
heard that you're going back. I hear you're leaving WPGC.
You're a very valuable asset. Asset at WPGC, said, let
me ask you. Why didn't you just come to me
and talk and Glen Potter, and I said, because you
set up a hierarchy with a program director, a GM,
(18:57):
then you, and then someone else. So I would be
breaking the chain of command if I went right to
you and create all kinds of stuff. I was in
the Navy for four years. I said, that's not how
I was trained. And he said, I'll tell you what.
Whatever you're making, I'll double it if you come back
to w p TC. And I said, mister or Dan
(19:21):
or whoever I was talking to, I was pretty nervous,
I said. He said, do you have a contract And
I said no, but I have a handshake and we
will have a contract. And he said, well, since you
don't have a contract, just come on back. We'll double
your money and we'll go from there. That night, I
(19:43):
guess the same night Charles Geddons God rest his soul.
He's deceased. I loaned him a luggage wreck for he
and his family to go somewhere over the holidays. He
came back in he was out of town. He took
the luggage ract that I lo them, unscrewed it in
front of my house and slung it like a discus
(20:05):
in the Olympics through my front yard. And I said, Charlie,
and he said something explative and drove off. Wow. Wow,
it didn't end well.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah, And famously you guys left PGC and you were
on the air like the next day at q UH.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I think we came on. I think it was the
first week in January. We went to q and met
everybody and saw the where we were going to be,
and you know there there was none of the WMAL
(20:47):
staff would talk to us because they were all Union.
And the Q one O seven staff was pissed off
because they fired Doug Lemerick and Dude Walker. Boom gone.
That's the thing they ever did. Though. They saved Dude
Walker and he became a news report, news, a news something,
(21:08):
a news voice for ABC and did very well. And
he retired with ABC and he was well known throughout
North America. A great guy and a great newscast.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
All right, So you get to Q. Now, they had
never had a morning show like you guys before. Did
they know how to manage you?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I don't believe they did. Now they had Dude Walker
that did voices. I never listened to Dude and Doug,
and then Doug might chime in occasionally between newscasts, but
they always had a leash. It wasn't really a two
person show as far as I know. I've never listened
(21:52):
Elliot and I never listened to the competition of anyone.
We just did our stuff every morning. But at PGC
we were never given a leash. They said, just do
what you do. And when we went to queue, they
kind of put leashes on us and they said, Woodside,
you're the news director. Now. I went, oh my god,
here we go. Here's your little studio. You can, you know,
(22:15):
just keep doing what you're doing, but less talk and
more music. Oh god, how's this going to play out?
And we want you to have meetings every morning and
do your write out your bits beforehand. I said, well
it was hell yeah, it's the best money I ever
made until I got into the business i'm in now,
(22:40):
which is not broadcasting. But up to that contract at
Q one O seven was the most money I ever
made in my life. And it was a It was
a double edged sword. Elliott wasn't happy. I wasn't happy.
Elliott said, screw it, We're just going to read the liners.
They can't fire. We had a we had a.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
What was it called they no cut contract.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, a no cut contract. They could they could get
rid of the contract for just cause and that's it.
So basically Elliot and I figured this out all by
our little brains. It was hard, though. Elliott says, screw it,
I'm just going to do by thing. You can do
your news and we'll just screw them, we'll spend their money.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Wow. So so the show just wasn't the same. They
hired you because of what you did at PGC. Yeah,
but then they get you over there and they totally
want to change it.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah. They blew us up, and they blew WPGC out
of the water and left WPGC without a morning show.
Imagine they were making money, hand over fist, big ass money.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
So did the show have the same notoriety and the
same ratings at Q?
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Like?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Were you guys number one? Q?
Speaker 3 (24:02):
No, we steadily went down, went down like a body
with a boulder tied to its feet.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
And the reason Elliot and I part of our magic
was we would talk about government waste. We talk about
how Pepco and whoever were gouging customers, and we were
like the common guys. We were like our listeners. And
(24:33):
ABC couldn't get that news to the Washington Post fast
enough and the trades that they had awarded us a
five year, no cut guaranteed contract. Wow. And when listeners
read that in the Washington Post, they said, oh, you're
just like the rest. I can remember after we signed
the contract, Ernie Fears said, gentlemen, how does it feel
(24:57):
to know that you make more money than the President
of the United States of America. Wow, that was huge
back then. Yeah, I said, wow, more than Ronald Reagan. Wow,
we're peers now.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It was pretty well documented at some point that Jim
Elliott was really struggling with some addiction issues. Did that
have an effect on the show too? I get while
that was going on.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Well, yeah, it did have an effect. And I was
doing it too, and I saw what it was doing.
I lived in Prince George's County and was pretty active
in Prince George's County, and my wife was, and we
knew a lot of the players in Prince George's County
(25:47):
and basketball and all of that. And Len Bias I
was doing cocaine. And Len Bias had just received a
contract from Nike, which was the largest one ever, and
he went out, apparently this is all here, and celebrated
by buying a large bag of cocaine, stuck his head
in it, took a deep breath inhaled it, and died.
(26:09):
And I thought, holy crap. I never knew cocaine was bad.
I didn't think it was that bad, and I started
reading up on it, bought books, read and I said,
holy crap, I need to quit. I need to figure
this out and quit. And then I quit, and I
saw what it was doing to the team because Elliott
(26:31):
kept doing it, and it just got worse and worse
and worse. The ratings kept going down. We get morning
show meetings from Ernie and Allen saying, why isn't the
show funny anymore? Oh, I don't know, Well, you need
to plan out your bits more. You're just hanging by
the seat of your pants. What's the real reason? Now?
(26:53):
I could have said it's because of cocaine, but everybody
and the almost everybody radio was doing cocaine. It was not.
We were uneducated. We didn't know what it did. So
I couldn't say, well, cocaine's causing the problem because everybody
(27:14):
was doing it. Right, So going to that show every
morning and going through that and making that kind of money,
I went. I went to the largest, the number one,
(27:36):
I said, I found the largest that the number one
contract negotiation attorney in Washington, d C. I can't remember
his name. I had a meeting with him and I said,
I want out of the contract. It's a drug issue.
He says, I can't take your case. Got if I
take your case, No judge in DC is going to
(27:57):
let you out of this contract. It's ironclad, and you're
making a boatload of money. Why would you do that?
And I said, well because of the drugs. I said,
I'm unhappy and if I haven't found out anything else
in life. This may sound stupid and pollyannic, but I said,
the money is great, but I could care less about it.
(28:18):
My family is more important than my peace of mind.
And going home every oh every morning after that show
was just brutal. So it got worse. That Big Attorney
was the after sag attorney too. At the time, I
can't remember his name. Nice guy. And I talked to
(28:45):
a friend of mine who had a friend who was
a psychologist, and I talked to the psychologist and he said, well,
Jim's a great guy, but we're probably going to have
to You're going to have to do an intervention. Well
we did an intervention. It didn't work, and then I
didn't know what else to do. At the time, I
(29:06):
was totally distraught. Elliott wouldn't quit. He didn't care. I
didn't I didn't care, but I was in a precarious
position knowing that the franchise was going down fast, so
I asked to have a special meeting with Ernie Fears
without Jim said, Ernie, I'm sorry to come to you,
but how would you feel if you bought a brand
(29:29):
new Mercedes Bins gas powered and put diesel fuel in it.
That's what's wrong with our show. And I explained to everything,
and he says, I'll handle it personally. I'll talk to Jim.
I'll be in the studio every morning with Alan Burns,
the PD and we'll figure it out. We'll get him straight.
(29:53):
Because Ernie and Jim were good buds, Ernie didn't want
this to get out. It didn't work, and Ernie would
call me in, how do you think the show went?
I said, look, Ernie, it sucks. It's too format it
it sucks. The ratings are going down. He says, if
I can just get Jim back on his feet, he says,
(30:15):
I'm ready to offer you and Jim another five year
contract to double the money. We got to figure this out.
And I said, Ernie, there's no amount of money in
the world you could throw at me where I would
do that. I'm miserable. So at the time ABC was
purchased by Disney or vice versa, and they had cocaine
(30:39):
was so bad in the mid eighties, they had a
cocaine hotline, not a drug hotline, cocaine hotline. So I
called it and I talked to the person, and I said,
something's not fair here. I got to go to work
being miserable every morning and nothing's happening on the other
(31:03):
side of the screen. Is still doing coke. I don't
want to get him arrested or anything, but it puts
me in a precarious position, and I don't know what
to do anymore. And the counselor said, you're absolutely right,
mister Woodside, thanks for bringing this up to us. Beginning
tomorrow morning, Elliott will no longer be at WABS or
(31:28):
at QWO one oh seven. So I went there in
the morning and I was the only guy there trying
to do a show without Elliott. That was an even
bigger nightmare, bigger nightmare. Okay, it's all on you, Woodside. God,
holy crap, I got I don't know if we had
a year and a half left on our contract or
a year left or whatever. And we tried, and we tried,
(31:52):
and Elliot went to rehab and came back but it
didn't work, and then he went to rehab the second time.
One day I had a meet with Alan Burns had left.
He knew the franchise was going down the toilet, and
Randy Lane was brought in as a program director to
try to keep the show and float. But everybody was
(32:13):
doing it the coke and Randy came in and he said, Scott,
we've decided to terminate Elliott. Well, he'd already been terminated,
but he said, you have X number of months left
on your contract. It's not working. We're going to pay
(32:35):
you off. And Dan Willeth, who's retired now but he
was the big ABC controller at the time, we'll write
a check to you and have it delivered by courier
anywhere you'd like. Let's say, okay, well okay. I was relieved. Yeah,
(32:57):
I didn't know they were going to pay me. And
he said, we'll have a check. Where do you want it?
I said, r J. Bentley's in College Park because I
lived in University Park and you used to hang out
at Bentley's. And I'll be damned if the courier didn't come.
And he said, mister Woodside, here's your check. And I
think it was for like a hundred and some odd
(33:17):
one hundred thousand plus dollars. I said, wow, thank you,
and so hey everybody. I think it was about two
or three in the afternoon, starting before a happy hour.
I stood up on a chair and said, hey, Scott Woodside,
I'm no longer with Q one O seven. I got
my last check and I've always wanted to buy everyone
(33:39):
in a bar drinks. Drink as long as you want
and as much as you want. It's on me.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Oh wow, that's great.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And I never really did talk to Elliott after that.
Steve Kingston tried to hire me in Baltimore with Elliott,
and I said, Steve, I don't feel comfortable going back
with Ellie. I don't know that I could trust him.
And Kingston apologized. He said, I was only kidding. You
(34:09):
took it the own way, the wrong way. I said, well,
it's over. It's water over the dam. But Elliot and
I have talked. We talked once or twice a year birthdays,
and after all of that, he sent me a really
(34:29):
nice letter. It's emotional because he said, I attribute you
to saving my life, and I don't know how I
could ever thank you for that. So I'm glad because
he's a hell of a guy, a hell of a talent,
and we have a good relationship now. But we're far
(34:54):
removed from doing radio. Why would we want to go
back into radio? So somebody could irs so that's all
they do. Yeah, So I guess that pretty much tells
the story. Could you know it's been what forty years?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Forty years? Yeah, it's a long long time. So tell
me about you. So after things ended at Q, you
ended up going back to PGC for a while, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I went to WPGC and it was called Classy ninety
five and I can't remember the program director's name, Alan.
Somebody hired me to work with Jeff Baker. He said,
Jeff does voices, you do news. Let's put it together.
(35:50):
My work. Well, it didn't work. It just didn't work.
And then nothing was working at WPGC Classy ninety five
and Charles Giddens, the GM hired Jerry Clifton to come
in and he said, we need to give this radio
station an inmo. What are you going to do for us?
(36:10):
And Jerry Clifton said, we're going to turn it to urban.
So I guess for three or four months I was doing,
excuse me, doing morning shows on an urban radio station,
the new WPGC, and playing urban music, which music back
then was great. And Dan Mason came to town. Excuse me,
(36:37):
he was back in charge. By then it was all
of the radio stations were owned by cook Inlet and
he was the president of cook Inlet. I guess, and
he came in. He said, Scott Son, I'm sorry to
have to terminate you, but this is an urban station.
We can't, we can't, we can't keep you doing the
(36:59):
morning show. He says, you're the last white guy here,
and we gotta, we gotta, you gotta leave.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
They gave me a severance, and he felt bad about it,
but he was right. It was urban radio. I did
my best, and so then you know, everybody by then
it was the Elliott and Woodside team. No one wanted
Woodside without.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Elliott, right.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Elliott did do part time work up in New York,
I think at w ABC, but there was no room
for a two person show. So from there I pulled
out my chits. At the time, Paris Glenn Denning was
the county executive of Prince George's and I helped him,
taught him how to read a telepropter and was in
(37:55):
his campaign because he was one of my neighbors and
he was a friend. I didn't care about politics. He
was a friend and my next door neighbor. God rest
his God, everybody's dying, God rest his soul. John Davey
was the chief executive officer of PG County and I said, John,
(38:18):
I need a job. I really would like to take
Prince George's television and build it from scratch now that
we were going to have cable in Prince George's County,
and be the executive director. So overnight I became the
executive director of Prince George's County. I designed the studio,
I hired the staff, I bought all of the equipment.
(38:40):
I learned all about television, which I knew nothing about.
I went to WJLA TV and talked to a guy
I knew who was the chief engineer at WJLA, and
I said, can we talk? And he said sure, what Sibe?
What are you doing? And I told him and I said,
I have one question for you. What would you do
differently if you could design a television studio? He said, oh, well,
(39:04):
you need this, you need this, you need storage for
the props. You need this and this, and I wrote
everything down and that's how I designed the studio at
Prince George's Television. I had. I did the first newscast
at Prince George's Television. It had to be taped, and
just started it. But it wasn't a lot of money,
(39:27):
you know, government was not a lot of money. And
then Dan Mason called after about six months and he said, son,
what are you doing. I said, I'm working for Prince
George's Television. Blah blah blah. He says, hey, I got a.
I got a How would you like to be reunited
with your old partner that you worked with in Atlanta,
(39:53):
Barry Chase. I said, I don't know that. I kind
of went south. And he said, ye, yeah, but you're
both grown men. You're both in your late thirties or
I was probably forty by then. And he said, you
can go on down there, talk to the fly you
(40:14):
down there, talk to the general manager and the program director,
and we're going to put you guys back together. I said, okay,
I'll think about it. Well, when I went down there,
they said this is your salary and I said, really,
I said, is that what Berry's making. Oh no, no,
you're the news man. I said, I'm not interested in
coming back. No, I'm not doing it either. You give
(40:35):
me what you're giving him, and I'm going to ask
him and he better not be lying because I don't know.
This is not a way to start. And he said, okay,
this is what we're paying him, we'll pay you the same.
I said, okay, my parents were sick. They lived in Savannah.
I thought maybe it was a good time to leave
DC because I was kind of floundering money wise, and
(41:01):
I made some bad investments in DC, so I really
needed to kind of cut loose and leave. And I
had a three year contract at Z ninety three Radio.
It was a classic rock and roll format with Chase
and Woodside, and we did a two man morning show
(41:22):
and it was pretty successful to begin with because there
were no rules. And then Z ninety three and Mason
started hiring consultants. The consultant came in and he said, Woodside,
you need to get into the news at this particular time,
and you get out of the news at this particular
time because people are waiting to get in their cars
(41:45):
to hear a hard driving rock and roll song. Coming
out of the top of the hour as soon as
you finished the news BAM, I said, I disagree with you.
I don't And I've got a picture of Stepford wives
in neighborhoods holding briefcases for their husbands and everybody waiting
(42:06):
to get in the car at the top of the hour.
And I just told him, I said, that's BS doesn't work.
So then I had the flu and the consultant came
back into town and I didn't like him anyway, and
I said, oh, you're not going to believe it. When
I was sick, I wanted to verify what you were
telling me, so i'd look out of the window. I
(42:28):
live in a cul de sac, and I'll be damned
if you're not right. Everybody was out waiting to get
in their cars at the top of the hour. Laughed
at his face. And about two weeks later, they said,
we're not going to renew your contract, and we're not
going to renew Barry Chase's contract. And I said fine,
(42:51):
and that was my last radio show.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Really, wow, that is crazy. And then can you do
traffic for a while after that?
Speaker 3 (43:03):
Well, yeah, because it's hard to pull the rearview mirror
out when you've done almost twenty five to thirty years
in broadcasting, and you grew from the bottom of broadcasting
and created a good brand for yourself. But I went
to a home improvement company. They needed a video producer,
and I said, I've got background on video. I can
(43:24):
produce your commercials from what I learned to in print
George's County. And he said, yeah, but you got name recognition.
He said, why don't you sell? If you learned this script,
you can go out and sell. I'll pay you commission only.
I'll pay you ten percent on anything you sell. You've
got this. You've got a great personality. And I said, well,
(43:44):
what kind of money are we talking about? He said
anywhere from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand.
I said, well, that's what I was used to making
at Z ninety three. I'll try that. So I did,
and I was successful. Then he closed his company and
I floundered. And I was listening to the radio on
(44:06):
Z ninety three, and at the time Gary McKee was
out of work. He was a big deal in Atlanta
and Z ninety three. I don't know who they had
doing mornings, but I thought, if they can bring Gary
McKee back. They could bring me back without Barry Chase,
and they said, yeah, that's a great idea. I talked
(44:28):
to the GM and said we'll bring you back as
traffic and I said, oh god. And it was a
low salary, but it was mornings only, and I had
to do something. And I was tired of selling home
improvements for a defunct company. And I did traffic, but
I did it just like I did the news. I'd
(44:48):
call moron traffic and it didn't last long. People loved it.
People would listen to the traffic reports because I never
knew what I was going to Saint X and I said,
some moron woman just decided to pull over in the
inbound lane of the Beltway and change her tire, and
(45:14):
she's slowing traffic down, and there's a major back up
here in Atlanta that's going to have. It's going to
be there for about two hours. So whenever she gets
to work, she'll be late wherever the hell she works
in Atlanta. Her give her a bunch of grief if
she lives. I'll be surprised if she lives, because someone's
(45:34):
going to run into her and kill her. Well. I
got a call at my house from Dwight Douglas, who
was the program director at the time, and he said, Hey,
what side we need you to come to the radio station.
I said, oh boy. So I went in and they said,
(45:56):
you know that lady you called a moron, she went
into work and everybody gave her shit for the entire day.
And you can't call our listeners morons. And I said,
no one listening thinks that they're the moron. They're laughing
at the other person. It's just to get more listeners.
(46:16):
I didn't do any well, you're fired.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
So then I was given the opportunity of a lifetime.
It's another long story, so I won't bore you with it.
Let's just say I had an opportunity. It came out
of nowhere to head up the number two stationary company
(46:45):
in Japan as their Atlanta CEO, in charge of operations
and in charge of creating the brand in Atlanta, out
of Atlanta where I lived, and creating the brand throughout
North America. Did that for ten years and it went great,
and then bad recession hit nineteen in two thousand and
(47:12):
seven and Japan pulled out of the US market, and
I decided I had learned enough that I was really
a good salesperson, so I looked for sales jobs, but
I was looking for sales companies that were W two
companies No. Ten ninety nine with benefits four oh one
(47:36):
K and four oh one K matching. And back then
everything was do in the newspaper. So I bought an
Atlanta Journal Constitution Sunday paper. There were some online stuff
and I saw this ad that said, do not let
this opportunity pass you by. And I thought, boy, I'm
(47:58):
up against the rock and a hard spot right now.
I've depleted my funds, my wife is a travel agent.
We're just not making ends meet. And it was about
a four inch column and two inches wide. I said this,
(48:22):
take this, learn more about this opportunity. It said matching
four oh one K, health plan, recession proof, on and
on and on and on and on selling plots at
our cemetery in Atlanta, and I thought, holy crap, that
(48:45):
cemetery is a publicly traded company. Come to find out
here in Atlanta we have forty rooftops, funeral homes and cemeteries.
At the time, I didn't know that. And throughout North America, Canada,
in Puerto Rico. We have over two thousand locations and
(49:06):
we're the largest provider of death care in the world.
And I was fifty seven years old. I was up
against the wall. I sent faxes out every day because
there was no email. I sent the facts and as
soon as I sent it, I got a call from
the sales manager at Arlington Cemetery in Sandy Springs in Atlanta,
(49:31):
and he said, I love your resume. He said, you're
perfectly qualified to be a family service advisor with our company.
Come in learn about the opportunity. I said, I don't know, man.
He said, just listen to us. And when I found
out I could be myself selling pre arranged funerals and
(49:51):
pre arranged cemetery and cremation options to people that came
into this one hundred fifty acres cemetery, I thought, and
make two hundred plus k a year. I thought, I
can do this. I can do it. So I went
(50:14):
home and told my wife. She says, oh my god,
you're going to work at a graveyard. And I said,
look look at their stuff. Luck, let's research. And I
went back and said I'll take it. And I never
ever looked back. I got two offers of radio, and
I told both of those people to pound sound, pound
(50:36):
sand respectfully, because I would never go into a culture
that was going to fire me.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
And so I've been a sales manager with this company
for eighteen of the twenty years. I managed three locations
and we've been doing just fantastic. And now I'm a
sales consultant with the company and I go wherever and
(51:13):
help salespeople that have just come on to get them
ready to roll and be successful. And that's pretty much
what I've been doing.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (51:24):
Semi retired, but I'm still hooked into the company that
I love more than anything in the world.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Well, Scott, I just I want to thank you. I mean,
this was such a fascinating look into your career and
into Elliot and Woodside, and I really just appreciate how
honest and open you've been with us today. I really
think that this was really fascinating talking to you today,
And thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
Dan, thank you. But you know, the metrics say people
lose interest after a minute and a half.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yeah, I don't know if anyone's still listening. This has
been going on a while, but you know, I'm here
and you're here. I'm sure at least one person is listening.
So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
Well, Dan, thanks for reaching out, and hey, you should
reach out to Elliott if you ever get the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
I think I will. I think I will. I think
that would be great.
Speaker 3 (52:19):
Take care, man.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, make sure
you hit the follow button. That way, you'll be notified
when the next episode comes out. My name is Dan
Lane and this has been the dcr TV podcast dr
TV
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