June 12, 2024 • 37 mins
Jeff Rickett has been in radio and television, in front and behind the scenes for almost 30 years. He currently hosts The Morning Show in Wyoming on KIX 96.5 FM weekdays from 6-10 am MT. You can listen at bighornmountainradio.com and he also runs and hosts shows on CBJRadio.com.
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(00:06):
Hi everyone, Thank you so muchfor tuning in to the third season of
my podcast, Mind Your Music Business. So today we are going to talk
things all things radio with my guest, Jeff Rickett, the morning show host
of country radio station KIX Kicks ninetysix point five in Wyoming. He interviews
(00:28):
many different independent artists on his showand also runs the internet radio station CBJ
Radio. So, Jeff, thankyou so much for joining us today.
How are you doing great? Thanksfor having me, Sar. I appreciate
it. Yeah, of course.So can you start by telling us how
you started your career in radio andhow you got into radio. Well,
(00:53):
I've always wanted to be in radio. When I was sixteen, I worked
at an AM radio station and justdoing like nights or mornings. That kind
of got my bug going. Andthen I went to the University of Wyoming
and I took a radio class.I think I was a freshman. And
when I went in there, myinstructor, Don Woods. I'll never forget
(01:15):
first day we're in there, He'slike, what are you guys doing here?
Well, I want to be onthe radio. He goes, what
are you doing? The radio's dying? Going to TV. I was like
what, you just crushed my dreams. What are you talking about? Radio's
dying? So I did all theradio stuff, but I took his advice
and I went to TV and Igot a broadcast productions degree, and then
(01:36):
I went and directed TV news forfive or six years and then I it's
a story after that. But I'llstop there and let you answer or ask
me questions. Great. Yeah,it's interesting that you said. Back when
you were starting your career, theyeven said radio was dying. Then it
(01:56):
seems like that's just been a kindof a batter. I guess the last
couple of decades, well, satelliteradio was taking off. Then he was
working for the Woming Public Radio becausethey were affiliated with the university. So
I think he saw you all thebad sides of radio and satellite radio taking
over. And you know, thatwas before iHeart, and that was like
(02:17):
the beginning when corporate America was justbuying up a million radio stations, right,
And so what made you want toget into country radio specifically or did
you not really have a preference.I live in Wyoming, and if you
want anyone to hear you, youneed to be on the country radio station.
(02:38):
I would loved it well. Imean there's few and far between rock
stations and the number one station isa country station, and that's where I
went. And so, out ofall music genres, country music, in
my opinion, has the strongest relationshipwith radio, especially in a time of
(03:00):
technology and streaming right now where youcan listen to your music anywhere. So
why do you think that country musicstill relies heavily on the radio format?
And do you think that's going tochange in the future. That's a good
question. I think country radio one, it's more still kind of a down
(03:27):
home you know, it's a countrywhere people still listen to the radio where
and it's a different I think countryradio is more like twenty five to seventy
five or twenty five to fifty five, where you know, rock hip hop
Top forty is more fifteen to fortyfive. So I think you got an
(03:51):
older demographic. You got people thatlisten to the radio still. I mean,
being Aaron Wyoming, you would notbelieve how many people listen to my
show. It's like people still listento radio. It's like, Wow,
you go into stores, they gotthe radio on, you know, I
mean people are listening in their cars. You go to a city and people
are listening to Sirious, or peopleare listening to Satelle Radio, they're listening
(04:13):
to Spotify, or they're listening youknow, my daughter listens to Spotify non
stop. I don't even know shecould turn on her radio. But yet
you go into my mom's card,it's on the country radio station. So
I think it's an older demographic.It's more they're still with what they know,
what they like, and country radiois still personal where I think other
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you know, radio is more youknow, it's it's mainstream. It's cool,
but it's not really you know,touching you in country music is storytelling
where you you have more feeling inthe music. I mean some rock music
and that's what I love about rockmusic. And I interview a bunch of
rock artists. You mentioned. Ihave CBJA Radio. I do a rock
show on there on Wednesday nights.I interview a ton of rock guys.
(04:57):
But the people that have emotion intheir music, I'm like, you connect
more. Where rockets like ten percenthave emotion In country, I would say
it's the other way, it's ninetypercent. I mean it's got. You
know, there's mainstream country and youknow it's a lot of cookie cutter anymore
too, but there's a lot ofmotion. There's a lot of feeling.
You know, you're getting divorced,you're drinking, you're drunk, you lost
your dog, you know, you'rewhatever. So I think a lot of
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that has to deal with it.But it's crazy though, that how country
has taken off and it is hugeon the radio in the last ten twenty
years. Yeah, and to thatpoint, I think the radio format will
also stick around because it's still suchan important way to break artists. Of
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course, a lot of artists havebeen found through Spotify, playlist, YouTube,
TikTok et, cetera. But theradio format is so personal. Like
you mentioned, people can listen tointerviews of our before their song is played.
Radio kind of determines the rotation ofthese songs, so how many times
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it gets into people's ears, whereasstreaming format, people can choose what they
want to listen to. So it'sdefinitely important in that sense for newer artists.
And then the demographic like you mentioned, and also it's usually more of
a rural demographic, so people whoyou know, still have a CD player
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in their cars who are still listeningto CDs or they're just used to writing
around listening to the radio. SoI think that's an important factor in it
too. Yeah, I mean it'sSpotify is so huge, but it's still
like you said, And the onething that I try and do on my
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show is I try to feature newartists. I try to feature independent artists.
Try. I mean, I havea lot of free rein where I'm
not I'm luckily i'm not on asatellite radio station. And when I told
them, I said, Okay,if I'm going to do this show,
I'm going to do what I wantto do and I'm going to feature independent
artists. I'm going to feature newartists. And it's crazy. That's what
(07:15):
I said, for like the firstcouple of months, I'm going to expand
your musical taste buds. And evena guy called me yesterday and goes,
I really enjoyed mel who you hadon and I love it. You know,
you keep expanding my musical taste buds. And I was like, say,
it's working, you know. Imean they hear it. It's grinding
in and people check out my YouTubeand I mean it's you know, but
and I'm with country music, youcan do that I get a lot of
(07:38):
good reception. People want people,you know, I don't get much backlash
of why I am coming on thatshow. I mean, I'm out in
Wyoming. It's not like five millionpeople are listening to you, but they'll
go and they'll check you out,they'll go support you, they'll go listen
to your music. So it ithelps. Yeah, absolutely, And I
think it's great that you offer interviewsand a place for independent artists to come
(08:01):
and talk about their music, becausea lot of radio stations with bigger networks
don't do that. They'll just interviewsigned artists that people already know. So
that's definitely so important. And sowe're still in a time where, especially
in country music, where male artistsseem to get played more frequently than female
(08:24):
artist on country radio, especially someof these bigger radio stations. So it
might not be the case with allradio stations, but the majority of major
stations where record labels might have asay in what gets played. So why
do you think this is in thetime we are in now? It's sad,
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is what it is. I thinkcountry music. I mean, because
I've been doing the show for ayear and a half or year and year
and a half I've seen in theyear and a half, I had Adrian
Freeman, who was an African Americanfemale artist. She was trying to make
(09:11):
a career of it twenty years ago. She got so disgruntled, so put
down, so frustrated that she couldn'tget anywhere because she's a female and she's
African American. I mean, youcan name. I mean Beyonce. How
is Beyonce the first African American womanto have a number one country written song?
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I mean, are you shitting me? Can I cuss? I mean
it's just like, what really whencountry music's been around for one hundred years?
Yeah, I mean Tracy Chapman wasthe first one because Luke Combs covered
her. Yeah, I mean it'sit's ridiculous what country music has done.
And I mean it's great because thelast couple of years, and I was
(09:56):
just looking at my YouTube videos becauseI've done two hundred interviews. I started
my YouTube channel like a week likeApril twenty eighth of twenty twenty three.
I have two hundred and like seveninterviews on there. So I've had two
hundred artists on in the last year. On my morning show, which is
crazy, and I was looking andI was counting them up, and I
(10:20):
kind of like fifty of them andI was like twenty five. I mean
it was pretty close. How manyfemale. I was like, well,
that's good because and I mean,I'm not out looking for ladies or out
looking for guys or whatever. I'mjust looking for artists to show their stuff.
So it is getting better, ButI don't know what the hell I
mean. I talked to a bunchof Canadian artists. I talked to Gord
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Bamford. I called him the GarthBrooks of Canada. This guy's huge.
He's got like eleven albums. Hetours all over the place. He can't
even sniff America. I said,what the hell, Gord? He goes
it's like a I can't remember whathe said, like a brotherhood, or
you can't get in. You know, they don't want you in. They
(11:03):
don't want the outsiders in. AndI think that's what a lot of it
was. For years. You hadthe old Guy Club, you had the
dudes, the ladies. You know, go make the dinner whatever you can,
come cheer us on, but wedon't want you to singing the songs.
I mean, there's been big way. You know, we had Dolly
Reeba. I mean, you couldname Shanaiah, but there's like one,
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you know, every decade. It'slike now, Lady Wilson, there's one.
You know, there's one, there'stwo that I mean, and there's
fifty dudes. It's like, whatthe hell. I don't know why that's
been And I mean it's turning around, and I mean, and the good
thing is you ladies are out thereworking. And I had Babie ann On,
she's a Canadian artist today. Shehad been in it for like a
(11:48):
year and a half. She hasno clue all the shit that's had,
you know, you know, thebarriers that have been for women in the
last twenty years, the last onehundred years in country music. That's great.
So people, you know, andthe world's change in and I mean,
so the doors are opening up,but it's still I mean, I
mean, I don't I mean,you're amazing, Christine's amazing. I mean,
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but you still aren't there. It'slike, why not, you know,
And that's what I don't get.Morgan Wallin, He's got like freaking
twenty five of the top fifty songslast year. It's like, are you
shitting me? Come on, spreadthe love. I mean, jelly roll.
The guy comes down to is awhite rap guy. Now he's he
I mean, it's I mean,I don't know, but it's it's getting
(12:35):
better. Yeah. It's interesting becauseyou know, the record labels they're signing
these female artists, they obviously wantthem to be successful because they're putting so
much money into them. So theyare having their radio promotions teams reach out
to these stations to get spins.But I think it also boils down to
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sometimes what the audience wants to hear. And a lot of people that listen
to country radio are women, anda lot of these sometimes older women call
in and they want to hear maleartists or hear a male voice because it
sounds like they're singing to them.And so all of these different things factor
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into how many spins they get.And you know, what kind of song
is it? It doesn't sound familiar? Is it something that will put them
in a good mood? So Ithink these labels are trying to get females
to break more in radio, butsometimes they're having problems with some of these
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major radio stations. Yeah, andI don't know why, I mean,
it's just it's mind boggling because theladies songs are just as good or better
than a lot of the songs thatare out there right now. I mean,
Tracy Chairman did Fast Car before LukeCombs did Fast Car. You know,
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it's just like, come on,I mean now Beyonce Miley. I
mean, it's female ers doing JoeLeane. But it's like Dolly has written
so many amazing songs that so manyartists have covered. But yeah, I
don't know. I mean, maybethe ladies are like guys singing, but
it's just I don't know. It'sa head scratcher. I've never been able
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to figure out why. And itis an old boy club but yeah,
and it's it's getting better, butit's still not there at all. Yeah.
Well, radio host and program directorslike you are, you know,
doing a great job trying to putan effort and bring light to independent artists,
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female artist artist in general. Sothat is definitely beneficial for the music
industry. And then also we havelistener on this podcast that are not just
musicians, but some work on thebusiness side of the industry. Some are
trying to navigate their career in themusic industry. So do you have any
(15:11):
advice maybe for people who might wantto make a career in radio, What
would you say to them? Doyou think there's a future for that or
is it more on this streaming side. It's tough. I mean I I
(15:31):
directed TV news for like five orsix years, and then I got married,
had our son, and I movedback to Wyale. I was living
in I was directing TV news inMadison, Wisconsin for WNBC, and I
was just trying to make my way. My goal was to direct the Today
Show. That's what I wanted todo, and we had our son,
(15:56):
and my wife wanted to get closerto home. I grew up Wyoming,
so we moved to Sheridan, Woming, where I am now. But that
was like in two thousand. ThenI went and took a food job.
I sold food for seven years.Then my son was going to become a
kindergartener somewhere around there, and thenso I moved back to Sheridan so he'd
(16:17):
go to school here so we couldsettle down. Because we moved ten times
from when I got out of collegeto when we finally settled down, ten
times in ten years, so wewere moving all the time. So I
sold food for like seven years,and then I moved back here and then
I took over my father in law'sall state insurance agency and I did that
for fifteen years. I just quitthat December thirty first to twenty twenty three.
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But during that time, I didthe local sports team Sheriton High School
here. I did the play byplay for their sporting teams. So I
kind of still had my foot inmedia because I started missing it after doing
all those other bs for years.And so I did that for ten years.
And then a guy that my sonwas on a traveling basketball with one
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of the dads, we were talkingone day and we were like, would
it be cool to start a radiostation? Like, yeah, that would
be pretty cool. So we lookedinto actually starting a radio station, but
with the FCC and all the BSand everything, and what it costs is
one hundreds of thousands of dollars,it was just like, there's no way
we just won a hobby. Sowe looked into internet radio, and you
can have an internet radio station forfifty bucks a month. I mean you
(17:26):
spend fifty dollars a month or moreat Starbucks or on Core's light then you
know, I was like, Okay, well, then that's not too bad.
I can still I can have myown damn radio station, do whatever
I want to do and have funwith it. So I've done that for
seven almost eight years now, andthen when i quit All State, I
went back into radio. But I'vebeen looking around, and I mean,
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the one good thing with me isI'm not twenty five. I'm forty nine.
I think I'm pretty good, youknow. So I mean I've done
hundreds of interviews. I mean beforeI even took this job on my CBGA
radio internet station, I did fouror five hundred interviews, and then I've
done, like I said, attwo hundred in the last year. So
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I've done a ton of interviews.I I talk. I mean my stay
I play like two or three songsan hour right now because I've just been
talking so much. But when peopledig it to get into radio, it's
tough. I mean, you gotto start out. You're gonna start for
a while. You're not gonna makesquat. I'm not making squat right now
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doing this, but you know,I'm pretty much starting over. I started
over at age forty eight, andmy kids grab my youngest is graduating this
year from high school. So we'llsee where it goes. But you gotta
pound the payment. You gotta workhard. You gotta do a lot of
different things. You got to youknow, if you've got to get into
news, if you got to getinto whatever, do, if you got
(19:00):
to do voice stuff, do it, do anything. You can, just
go in and do commercials, Justgo do voice tracks, Just go do
whatever. I did voice tracks forlike four or five years for the station
I'm working for right now. Whenthey went off a satellite. He was
like, hey would you do becauseI was doing sports. He's like,
hey, would you be interested indoing voice tracks for me? Just to
make a sound live? And Iwas like, and I'm sitting here in
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my house. I've always had astudio in my house because of the internet
radio station. So I'm like,sure, why not, I'll do voice
tracks. So I did that fora while. I mean, you gotta
be flexible. You got to knowyou ain't gonna make any money for a
while. But then if you can, if you can break in. And
I don't know, I've been kind. I've reached out to a couple of
like iHeart and stuff. You don'thear anything back. It's like, people
(19:47):
call me because I did play byplay and I was you know, that's
pretty good. People call me whenthey're watching basketball games or football games.
They're like, dude, you needto go work here. These people are
awful. You're a hundred times betterthan they are. And I mean even
I get people calling my radio show, why are you doing a show in
Buffalo, Wyoming. You need tobe in Denver. You need to be
somewhere else. I'm like, well, because my family's here. You know,
(20:10):
I'm waiting for my daughter graduate andthen we'll see what happens. But
the cool thing about radio, andjust like you being an entertainer, I
mean, the four hours that I'mon the radio is the best four hours
of the day. You know that'sI mean, no matter all the shit
that's going on, if my phone, my phone's went down, the internet
went I mean, I work fora station that's not the greatest station because
(20:34):
we're in Buffalo, Wyoming, butI make it happen and those four hours
are the best four hours of myday. And talking with artists like you
and meeting different people and I'll getthere. And that's the thing is you
got to stay positive. Just likebeing an artist. You get so many
no's, you get so much thatsong sucks you know or whatever, Oh
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that wasn't you know? Well,you're sitting are performing, and the assholes
out in the crowd are drinking andthey could care less about you. But
you gotta keep going. And Imean, not everyone's gonna love you.
Not everyone's gonna hate you. Buttake the positives and and and and go
out. I mean, look atHoward Stern. He did the same thing.
He busted his ass. He doesn'thave a great radio voice, but
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look at him now, he's makinga hundred million bucks a year. I
mean, and you can't. Youdon't always have to be the best singer,
but you gotta. I mean,and it's tough, and there's a
million of you out there, andit's I mean, but you got to
keep at it. You gotta believe, and it takes a thick skin.
Yeah yeah, just like with musicians. Uh, people who are into broadcasting
(21:41):
can say the same thing. There'sa million people who have their own podcast
and uh oh yeah, everybody andtheir dog has a Podcastdigulous, My wife
listens to half Michael. What areyou listening to? But I mean it's
yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.And even with you know, the fewture
of the radio format being unknown,people can still get into podcasting, broadcasting
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on TV like you mentioned, andvoiceover work. I know, during the
pandemic when I couldn't gig, Idid a lot of voiceover work on upwork.
So you just, yeah, youjust got to get creative with your
skills. And then we still havea Country Radio Seminar CRS happening in Nashville
(22:32):
every year, so that's a goodconference to come and meet other people that
work in radio to maybe find yournext gig. Yeah for sure. But
yeah, do do everything you can, get your name out there, meet
as many people as you can andbe ready. Yeah. Absolutely. So
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my last question for you is justin general, what do you hope is
the future with radio proof? Iwish we and when I And the thing
I like about the station that I'mat is we're not on satellite and we're
kind of community. I mean,we're radio needs to get back to get
(23:22):
off of satellite, Get off ofthe same damn station, the same five
DJs. You listen to a station, you hear a guy here and he's
in Dallas, he'son, you know, because it's just a guy sitting somewhere
because it's all on satellite, andI mean, I know it. It's
not going to work in everywhere,but I mean with country, especially in
the world places I and that's whatI told this station ten years ago,
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and they finally did it. Iwas like, get off of satellite,
get more community based, make people, you know, feel it and be
involved in it, and you know, make them make it a part of
their lives. Where I mean,a lot of people listen to and they
listen to whatever their morning show is. There's a ton of them out there,
but a lot of them are syndicatedand you know, it's in their
(24:07):
routine. But if there was somebodylocal that was talking more about you know,
to them and with them and tellingthem stuff that's going on, they'd
like that more, I think.And it works, but it's just you
know, they don't want to paythree people to run the station during the
day. They'd rather have a satellitefeed. So I think we need to
(24:29):
get back, you know, justlike a lot of things, we need
to get back. We've gone tooforward because they're Spotify and there's everything else
already out there. For them tochoose that. So let's get radio back
to not that you know, andmore localized and more community involved or more
the listener thinking that, you know, oh, this guy's talking to me
or this lady's talking to me here, right, you know, this is
(24:52):
my station. I mean, Igot people call me every day. It's
like you haven't life, But Imean, hey, whatever, keep calling
me every day because they love theshow. They feel like they're involved in
the show. And I mean,I don't know. I hope radio stays
because just like Don told me innineteen ninety three, the radio was dying,
(25:14):
it's still here. My boss,I tell him that. He's like,
radio will always still be here,because even we have an AM station
with our FM station and they doa bunch of community stuff on there.
But the lady from the emergency managementplace came in and she's like, well,
radio, you know, we candepend on you guys, because when
everything goes to hell, the radiowill still be on. Yeah, you
(25:37):
know that's true. You know,I mean when the tornadoes come and turn
your down radio on or your weatherradio or whatever, because it's still working.
But yeah, and I mean,it's corporate America. It's all about
the dollar. But yeah, Ijust, I mean, I don't think
radio will never completely die because youguys, you know, you got to
(25:57):
get your music out there, justout on streaming services because not everyone's going
to pay for it. I mean, it is getting harder, and stations
are getting fewer and fewer. Butyeah, I just, I mean,
I think they need to get morelocalized than all the satellite stuff. Yeah,
And I think that's the best partabout radio for me, that local
(26:21):
community feeling. I'm still someone wholistens to the radio. I grew up
listening to the radio, and likeyou said, you get your weather,
tornado updates or traffic updates when you'redriving, so something happens, you always
have the radio on and there foryou. And then also it's still good
(26:41):
to hear people calling into the radioin the morning and having those connections and
relationships. And then also when I'mdriving on the road, it's interesting to
hear what each local radio station communitysounds like like. Especially if I'm driving
(27:02):
back home to Knoxville, where I'mfrom, it always feels like home when
I turn the radio on, becauseit has just that specific feeling of hey,
I remember listening to this growing up. These they like to play these
kind of songs, they like totalk about this. This is what they
sound like. So it definitely hasthat special demographic feeling to it. Yeah,
(27:27):
they're playing the same cheesy liner they'vebeen playing with the ladies singing,
you know, four kbbs, youknow whatever. It's like they haven't changed
those in thirty years. But yeah, and they got the same you know,
they talk different Knoxville than they doin Chicago than they do in Wyoming,
(27:47):
and you hear it. Yeah.And I think one important thing to
mention is that radio is very heavilyrunning and funded on advertisements. So when
you hear those commercials on the radio, that's what's keeping radio holding on a
lot of the time. Now.Yeah, and it's getting harder and harder
(28:11):
because of everything else, because ofthe Internet and Facebook and everything. I
mean, I don't think Internet,well, I know, internet radio is
not effected radio serious and satellite radio. And my boss says, it's not
really our competition. It's more Facebookand computers and other ways they can get
(28:34):
their ads out there. It's justyou know, it's the Internet, all
the banners, all the pop upads. People have more avenues to put
their advertising money into where they didtwenty years ago, and that's where radio
is hurting, and radios had toadjust and do these online auctions, do
(28:55):
a lot of more video elements,do different things to be able to raise
money. And I mean it.I mean there's a radio station here in
town that's very successful and they maketons of money and they do really well
for themselves, but they've had topivot and they've had to do a lot
more video and a lot more differentavenues than just you know, selling radio
ads. But a lot of oldschool stations have a tough time dealing with
(29:18):
that. And but you know,you got to move with the times and
you know, adapt as you go. Yeah. Yeah, So I definitely
encourage listeners to take a break fromSpotify for a day and just listen to
your local radio station when you're ona drive and support your local radio.
(29:40):
And songwriters get paid more from aradio spend than a stream on Spotify anyway,
so it's definitely more of a beneficialformat in my opinion. Well,
and listen to the radio, justlike I say, expand your musical taste,
but listening to the same ten artiststhat you've been listening to on your
Spotify play and listen to the radioand you might hear somebody it's either new
(30:03):
or old that you haven't heard,and you'd be like, oh, that's
a cool song, and then youcan go check them out, listen to
twenty of their other songs and helpthem out that way. Yeah. Yeah,
there's still especially on major radio countryradio stations, I'll hear the same
country songs being spinned throughout the day, but I still am able to hear
new music through tuning in. Ohyeah, yeah. Or listen to Kicks
(30:27):
ninety six to five. You canstream us at Bigger amountain Radio dot com.
Yeah, because I program the station. There's all kinds of new artists
out there that you've ever heard of. Yeah, absolutely, so, Yeah,
everyone tune in to Jeff's internet radiostation CBJ Radio and Kicks ninety six
point five. I think a lotof your interviews are on YouTube too.
(30:52):
Yeah, you can go check outmy YouTube page. You can just go
type in Jeff Rickett and now youcan go there and check them out.
You can type in Sarah's name,Sarah Harrelson KIX and her interview will come
up. Christine Bauer, you gochair I think I was one of the
first people to ever interview Christine.I think so too. Yeah, I
guess she was on your interview beforeI was. But yeah, yeah,
(31:15):
yeah, she's a two timer.Okay, got to get you back on
Yeah, and any other independent artistslistening should go listen to Jeff's show and
reach out to him as well ifthey want to be on. Yeah.
Well, and speaking of women,before we wrap up here, I've had
a ton of interviews, and Imean I have a lot of new artists,
(31:36):
but I also have had I mean, I had Lazy J. Dalton,
I've had pay Pam Tillis on whichPam Tillis when I had her on
and I researched her. I mean, you all know locking in Memphis,
we know her hits, and she'sdaughter of Mel Tillis, so that helped.
But she was like the first popcountry She brought a ton of pop
(31:59):
into country music. And I waslike, you don't really get any credit
for this, Pam at all.I mean, and she kind of,
you know, she's like, eh, you know, people because people shunned
her because her dad was a countryartist and now she has pop country and
they were like, you know,they didn't like it, but now look
where we are, you know,And that happens a lot in music.
(32:23):
You know, when you when you'rethe first one to do it people,
you get a lot of resistance,and she got a ton of resistance.
I think her record label dropped her. I mean, you can go listen.
It's been months now. But it'sjust crazy some of the things that
females like Adrian females have went throughon their journey. But and that was
(32:44):
the thing she didn't stop. She'sstill doing it. I mean, I
mean, you got to have athick skin. But yeah, it's just
it's crazy some of the all thedifferent things that artists have been through.
And that's the cool thing about doingwhat I do is I get to talk
to a million people and hear theirstories and yeah, go check out my
YouTube page. Yeah yeah, Andit definitely makes it more personal when you
(33:07):
are having a conversation with someone,hearing someone's story, rather than just kind
of being one sidedly listening to aplaylist. Yeah. Well, and on
my interviews, I research every guestbefore they come on the show, so
I have a conversation with I don'task them the same I listened to tons
(33:30):
of interviews that people do with artists, and it's so, how'd you get
in the business, So who areyour influences? So what are we got
going on? Nowhere? Where canwe find you? I already know all
that before I get into the interview. So we're going to talk about different
things. So when you talk,when you listen to some of the interviews,
you'll you'll catch on after a while, you'll start hearing stuff that you
(33:51):
didn't know about the artists, andlike with Pam and tons of different artists.
But yeah, so that's that's somethingelse to go listen to my interviews
instead of then oh well I readher bio. I know what she's all
about. Yeah. And there's somany especially music podcasts, that are like
that, where it's just kind ofreading through someone's bio, whereas you're kind
(34:14):
of getting to the point asking thedeeper questions. Yeah. Yeah, Oh
it's funny. I listen. Ilistened to so many different interviews and it's
the same five questions. And thenif the if the person goes off script,
they don't even know what to do. And I was like, oh,
okay, well I'll wait till heshuts up. So I can ask
my next question. There's no followup, and they could have said that
(34:34):
they just burned their house down,and some of them would have no follow
up. It's just it's crazy,but they're like anyway. Then there's some
people that are sitting. There wasone guy I was watching the other day
when I was researching a guests.He's like sitting at his table, eating
dinner, doing an interview with anartist, and you can hear like his
kids in the background. I waslike, what is going on here?
(34:57):
But yeah, it's that's the internetthough too. Yeah, people getting too
comfortable. Yeah yeah, and thinkthat and think they're a broadcaster. Yeah.
Well, thank you so much forbeing on my podcast again today.
But before we go, I wantyou to describe to everyone this collection of
(35:22):
wrestler Mania dolls you have behind you. You can't see me, but yes,
I'm a huge wrestling fan. I'vebeen a wrestling fan my entire life.
I was brainwashed as a young child. But no, I love WWWE,
I love I just love professional wrestling. I was a huge WCW guy.
If you've watched professional wrestling at all. But yeah, I have shelves
(35:44):
in my studio here in the inthe walls. I have shells full of
wrestling figures and then the walls.During the pandemic, I bought wrestling figures
and I would buy the sets andI would tack them to my wall.
So but Sarah is seeing like twohundred wrestling figures behind me, and some
of my pictures. Me and mybrother a dresses kiss and I'm a big
(36:07):
doors fan, and I have aJim Morrison picture that I'm actually in very
small with five thousand other people.But yeah, that's my this is my
man cave slash studio. I'm notmusical, so I have to put up,
you know, other crap to coverthe walls. I was about to
say, the dolls look like theyprovide good insulation for they kind of do.
(36:30):
Yeah, exactly, guy, SeeI have I have eight crates,
all eight crates and stuff all overin front of me, and then wrestling
figures all the way around. Myroom's too big, and I have records.
I just my wife calls me apack rat, but it's my room,
so I said, just but youcan come in here and you will
see something different, or you cansit in here for hours and never see
(36:52):
this. It'll be like wow,look at that. Okay, so much
crap around, I'm sure it's myhole. Thank you again, Jeff.
Everyone go listen to CBJ Radio andKicks ninety six point five in Wyoming.
Thank you again, Jeff. Yeah, thank you, Sarah appreciate it.
Cbjradio dot com, Bighormountain Radio dotcom, and then click listening down or
(37:15):
Kicks ninety six five. Come listento me six to ten am Mountain Time,
eight to noon Eastern Time, Mondaythrough Friday
Hi everyone, Thank you so muchfor tuning in to the third season of
my podcast, Mind Your Music Business. So today we are going to talk
things all things radio with my guest, Jeff Rickett, the morning show host
of country radio station KIX Kicks ninetysix point five in Wyoming. He interviews
(00:28):
many different independent artists on his showand also runs the internet radio station CBJ
Radio. So, Jeff, thankyou so much for joining us today.
How are you doing great? Thanksfor having me, Sar. I appreciate
it. Yeah, of course.So can you start by telling us how
you started your career in radio andhow you got into radio. Well,
(00:53):
I've always wanted to be in radio. When I was sixteen, I worked
at an AM radio station and justdoing like nights or mornings. That kind
of got my bug going. Andthen I went to the University of Wyoming
and I took a radio class.I think I was a freshman. And
when I went in there, myinstructor, Don Woods. I'll never forget
(01:15):
first day we're in there, He'slike, what are you guys doing here?
Well, I want to be onthe radio. He goes, what
are you doing? The radio's dying? Going to TV. I was like
what, you just crushed my dreams. What are you talking about? Radio's
dying? So I did all theradio stuff, but I took his advice
and I went to TV and Igot a broadcast productions degree, and then
(01:36):
I went and directed TV news forfive or six years and then I it's
a story after that. But I'llstop there and let you answer or ask
me questions. Great. Yeah,it's interesting that you said. Back when
you were starting your career, theyeven said radio was dying. Then it
(01:56):
seems like that's just been a kindof a batter. I guess the last
couple of decades, well, satelliteradio was taking off. Then he was
working for the Woming Public Radio becausethey were affiliated with the university. So
I think he saw you all thebad sides of radio and satellite radio taking
over. And you know, thatwas before iHeart, and that was like
(02:17):
the beginning when corporate America was justbuying up a million radio stations, right,
And so what made you want toget into country radio specifically or did
you not really have a preference.I live in Wyoming, and if you
want anyone to hear you, youneed to be on the country radio station.
(02:38):
I would loved it well. Imean there's few and far between rock
stations and the number one station isa country station, and that's where I
went. And so, out ofall music genres, country music, in
my opinion, has the strongest relationshipwith radio, especially in a time of
(03:00):
technology and streaming right now where youcan listen to your music anywhere. So
why do you think that country musicstill relies heavily on the radio format?
And do you think that's going tochange in the future. That's a good
question. I think country radio one, it's more still kind of a down
(03:27):
home you know, it's a countrywhere people still listen to the radio where
and it's a different I think countryradio is more like twenty five to seventy
five or twenty five to fifty five, where you know, rock hip hop
Top forty is more fifteen to fortyfive. So I think you got an
(03:51):
older demographic. You got people thatlisten to the radio still. I mean,
being Aaron Wyoming, you would notbelieve how many people listen to my
show. It's like people still listento radio. It's like, Wow,
you go into stores, they gotthe radio on, you know, I
mean people are listening in their cars. You go to a city and people
are listening to Sirious, or peopleare listening to Satelle Radio, they're listening
(04:13):
to Spotify, or they're listening youknow, my daughter listens to Spotify non
stop. I don't even know shecould turn on her radio. But yet
you go into my mom's card,it's on the country radio station. So
I think it's an older demographic.It's more they're still with what they know,
what they like, and country radiois still personal where I think other
(04:33):
you know, radio is more youknow, it's it's mainstream. It's cool,
but it's not really you know,touching you in country music is storytelling
where you you have more feeling inthe music. I mean some rock music
and that's what I love about rockmusic. And I interview a bunch of
rock artists. You mentioned. Ihave CBJA Radio. I do a rock
show on there on Wednesday nights.I interview a ton of rock guys.
(04:57):
But the people that have emotion intheir music, I'm like, you connect
more. Where rockets like ten percenthave emotion In country, I would say
it's the other way, it's ninetypercent. I mean it's got. You
know, there's mainstream country and youknow it's a lot of cookie cutter anymore
too, but there's a lot ofmotion. There's a lot of feeling.
You know, you're getting divorced,you're drinking, you're drunk, you lost
your dog, you know, you'rewhatever. So I think a lot of
(05:20):
that has to deal with it.But it's crazy though, that how country
has taken off and it is hugeon the radio in the last ten twenty
years. Yeah, and to thatpoint, I think the radio format will
also stick around because it's still suchan important way to break artists. Of
(05:45):
course, a lot of artists havebeen found through Spotify, playlist, YouTube,
TikTok et, cetera. But theradio format is so personal. Like
you mentioned, people can listen tointerviews of our before their song is played.
Radio kind of determines the rotation ofthese songs, so how many times
(06:08):
it gets into people's ears, whereasstreaming format, people can choose what they
want to listen to. So it'sdefinitely important in that sense for newer artists.
And then the demographic like you mentioned, and also it's usually more of
a rural demographic, so people whoyou know, still have a CD player
(06:31):
in their cars who are still listeningto CDs or they're just used to writing
around listening to the radio. SoI think that's an important factor in it
too. Yeah, I mean it'sSpotify is so huge, but it's still
like you said, And the onething that I try and do on my
(06:54):
show is I try to feature newartists. I try to feature independent artists.
Try. I mean, I havea lot of free rein where I'm
not I'm luckily i'm not on asatellite radio station. And when I told
them, I said, Okay,if I'm going to do this show,
I'm going to do what I wantto do and I'm going to feature independent
artists. I'm going to feature newartists. And it's crazy. That's what
(07:15):
I said, for like the firstcouple of months, I'm going to expand
your musical taste buds. And evena guy called me yesterday and goes,
I really enjoyed mel who you hadon and I love it. You know,
you keep expanding my musical taste buds. And I was like, say,
it's working, you know. Imean they hear it. It's grinding
in and people check out my YouTubeand I mean it's you know, but
and I'm with country music, youcan do that I get a lot of
(07:38):
good reception. People want people,you know, I don't get much backlash
of why I am coming on thatshow. I mean, I'm out in
Wyoming. It's not like five millionpeople are listening to you, but they'll
go and they'll check you out,they'll go support you, they'll go listen
to your music. So it ithelps. Yeah, absolutely, And I
think it's great that you offer interviewsand a place for independent artists to come
(08:01):
and talk about their music, becausea lot of radio stations with bigger networks
don't do that. They'll just interviewsigned artists that people already know. So
that's definitely so important. And sowe're still in a time where, especially
in country music, where male artistsseem to get played more frequently than female
(08:24):
artist on country radio, especially someof these bigger radio stations. So it
might not be the case with allradio stations, but the majority of major
stations where record labels might have asay in what gets played. So why
do you think this is in thetime we are in now? It's sad,
(08:50):
is what it is. I thinkcountry music. I mean, because
I've been doing the show for ayear and a half or year and year
and a half I've seen in theyear and a half, I had Adrian
Freeman, who was an African Americanfemale artist. She was trying to make
(09:11):
a career of it twenty years ago. She got so disgruntled, so put
down, so frustrated that she couldn'tget anywhere because she's a female and she's
African American. I mean, youcan name. I mean Beyonce. How
is Beyonce the first African American womanto have a number one country written song?
(09:35):
I mean, are you shitting me? Can I cuss? I mean
it's just like, what really whencountry music's been around for one hundred years?
Yeah, I mean Tracy Chapman wasthe first one because Luke Combs covered
her. Yeah, I mean it'sit's ridiculous what country music has done.
And I mean it's great because thelast couple of years, and I was
(09:56):
just looking at my YouTube videos becauseI've done two hundred interviews. I started
my YouTube channel like a week likeApril twenty eighth of twenty twenty three.
I have two hundred and like seveninterviews on there. So I've had two
hundred artists on in the last year. On my morning show, which is
crazy, and I was looking andI was counting them up, and I
(10:20):
kind of like fifty of them andI was like twenty five. I mean
it was pretty close. How manyfemale. I was like, well,
that's good because and I mean,I'm not out looking for ladies or out
looking for guys or whatever. I'mjust looking for artists to show their stuff.
So it is getting better, ButI don't know what the hell I
mean. I talked to a bunchof Canadian artists. I talked to Gord
(10:41):
Bamford. I called him the GarthBrooks of Canada. This guy's huge.
He's got like eleven albums. Hetours all over the place. He can't
even sniff America. I said,what the hell, Gord? He goes
it's like a I can't remember whathe said, like a brotherhood, or
you can't get in. You know, they don't want you in. They
(11:03):
don't want the outsiders in. AndI think that's what a lot of it
was. For years. You hadthe old Guy Club, you had the
dudes, the ladies. You know, go make the dinner whatever you can,
come cheer us on, but wedon't want you to singing the songs.
I mean, there's been big way. You know, we had Dolly
Reeba. I mean, you couldname Shanaiah, but there's like one,
(11:24):
you know, every decade. It'slike now, Lady Wilson, there's one.
You know, there's one, there'stwo that I mean, and there's
fifty dudes. It's like, whatthe hell. I don't know why that's
been And I mean it's turning around, and I mean, and the good
thing is you ladies are out thereworking. And I had Babie ann On,
she's a Canadian artist today. Shehad been in it for like a
(11:48):
year and a half. She hasno clue all the shit that's had,
you know, you know, thebarriers that have been for women in the
last twenty years, the last onehundred years in country music. That's great.
So people, you know, andthe world's change in and I mean,
so the doors are opening up,but it's still I mean, I
mean, I don't I mean,you're amazing, Christine's amazing. I mean,
(12:13):
but you still aren't there. It'slike, why not, you know,
And that's what I don't get.Morgan Wallin, He's got like freaking
twenty five of the top fifty songslast year. It's like, are you
shitting me? Come on, spreadthe love. I mean, jelly roll.
The guy comes down to is awhite rap guy. Now he's he
I mean, it's I mean,I don't know, but it's it's getting
(12:35):
better. Yeah. It's interesting becauseyou know, the record labels they're signing
these female artists, they obviously wantthem to be successful because they're putting so
much money into them. So theyare having their radio promotions teams reach out
to these stations to get spins.But I think it also boils down to
(12:58):
sometimes what the audience wants to hear. And a lot of people that listen
to country radio are women, anda lot of these sometimes older women call
in and they want to hear maleartists or hear a male voice because it
sounds like they're singing to them.And so all of these different things factor
(13:24):
into how many spins they get.And you know, what kind of song
is it? It doesn't sound familiar? Is it something that will put them
in a good mood? So Ithink these labels are trying to get females
to break more in radio, butsometimes they're having problems with some of these
(13:45):
major radio stations. Yeah, andI don't know why, I mean,
it's just it's mind boggling because theladies songs are just as good or better
than a lot of the songs thatare out there right now. I mean,
Tracy Chairman did Fast Car before LukeCombs did Fast Car. You know,
(14:07):
it's just like, come on,I mean now Beyonce Miley. I
mean, it's female ers doing JoeLeane. But it's like Dolly has written
so many amazing songs that so manyartists have covered. But yeah, I
don't know. I mean, maybethe ladies are like guys singing, but
it's just I don't know. It'sa head scratcher. I've never been able
(14:28):
to figure out why. And itis an old boy club but yeah,
and it's it's getting better, butit's still not there at all. Yeah.
Well, radio host and program directorslike you are, you know,
doing a great job trying to putan effort and bring light to independent artists,
(14:48):
female artist artist in general. Sothat is definitely beneficial for the music
industry. And then also we havelistener on this podcast that are not just
musicians, but some work on thebusiness side of the industry. Some are
trying to navigate their career in themusic industry. So do you have any
(15:11):
advice maybe for people who might wantto make a career in radio, What
would you say to them? Doyou think there's a future for that or
is it more on this streaming side. It's tough. I mean I I
(15:31):
directed TV news for like five orsix years, and then I got married,
had our son, and I movedback to Wyale. I was living
in I was directing TV news inMadison, Wisconsin for WNBC, and I
was just trying to make my way. My goal was to direct the Today
Show. That's what I wanted todo, and we had our son,
(15:56):
and my wife wanted to get closerto home. I grew up Wyoming,
so we moved to Sheridan, Woming, where I am now. But that
was like in two thousand. ThenI went and took a food job.
I sold food for seven years.Then my son was going to become a
kindergartener somewhere around there, and thenso I moved back to Sheridan so he'd
(16:17):
go to school here so we couldsettle down. Because we moved ten times
from when I got out of collegeto when we finally settled down, ten
times in ten years, so wewere moving all the time. So I
sold food for like seven years,and then I moved back here and then
I took over my father in law'sall state insurance agency and I did that
for fifteen years. I just quitthat December thirty first to twenty twenty three.
(16:41):
But during that time, I didthe local sports team Sheriton High School
here. I did the play byplay for their sporting teams. So I
kind of still had my foot inmedia because I started missing it after doing
all those other bs for years.And so I did that for ten years.
And then a guy that my sonwas on a traveling basketball with one
(17:03):
of the dads, we were talkingone day and we were like, would
it be cool to start a radiostation? Like, yeah, that would
be pretty cool. So we lookedinto actually starting a radio station, but
with the FCC and all the BSand everything, and what it costs is
one hundreds of thousands of dollars,it was just like, there's no way
we just won a hobby. Sowe looked into internet radio, and you
can have an internet radio station forfifty bucks a month. I mean you
(17:26):
spend fifty dollars a month or moreat Starbucks or on Core's light then you
know, I was like, Okay, well, then that's not too bad.
I can still I can have myown damn radio station, do whatever
I want to do and have funwith it. So I've done that for
seven almost eight years now, andthen when i quit All State, I
went back into radio. But I'vebeen looking around, and I mean,
(17:52):
the one good thing with me isI'm not twenty five. I'm forty nine.
I think I'm pretty good, youknow. So I mean I've done
hundreds of interviews. I mean beforeI even took this job on my CBGA
radio internet station, I did fouror five hundred interviews, and then I've
done, like I said, attwo hundred in the last year. So
(18:14):
I've done a ton of interviews.I I talk. I mean my stay
I play like two or three songsan hour right now because I've just been
talking so much. But when peopledig it to get into radio, it's
tough. I mean, you gotto start out. You're gonna start for
a while. You're not gonna makesquat. I'm not making squat right now
(18:36):
doing this, but you know,I'm pretty much starting over. I started
over at age forty eight, andmy kids grab my youngest is graduating this
year from high school. So we'llsee where it goes. But you gotta
pound the payment. You gotta workhard. You gotta do a lot of
different things. You got to youknow, if you've got to get into
news, if you got to getinto whatever, do, if you got
(19:00):
to do voice stuff, do it, do anything. You can, just
go in and do commercials, Justgo do voice tracks, Just go do
whatever. I did voice tracks forlike four or five years for the station
I'm working for right now. Whenthey went off a satellite. He was
like, hey would you do becauseI was doing sports. He's like,
hey, would you be interested indoing voice tracks for me? Just to
make a sound live? And Iwas like, and I'm sitting here in
(19:22):
my house. I've always had astudio in my house because of the internet
radio station. So I'm like,sure, why not, I'll do voice
tracks. So I did that fora while. I mean, you gotta
be flexible. You got to knowyou ain't gonna make any money for a
while. But then if you can, if you can break in. And
I don't know, I've been kind. I've reached out to a couple of
like iHeart and stuff. You don'thear anything back. It's like, people
(19:47):
call me because I did play byplay and I was you know, that's
pretty good. People call me whenthey're watching basketball games or football games.
They're like, dude, you needto go work here. These people are
awful. You're a hundred times betterthan they are. And I mean even
I get people calling my radio show, why are you doing a show in
Buffalo, Wyoming. You need tobe in Denver. You need to be
somewhere else. I'm like, well, because my family's here. You know,
(20:10):
I'm waiting for my daughter graduate andthen we'll see what happens. But
the cool thing about radio, andjust like you being an entertainer, I
mean, the four hours that I'mon the radio is the best four hours
of the day. You know that'sI mean, no matter all the shit
that's going on, if my phone, my phone's went down, the internet
went I mean, I work fora station that's not the greatest station because
(20:34):
we're in Buffalo, Wyoming, butI make it happen and those four hours
are the best four hours of myday. And talking with artists like you
and meeting different people and I'll getthere. And that's the thing is you
got to stay positive. Just likebeing an artist. You get so many
no's, you get so much thatsong sucks you know or whatever, Oh
(20:57):
that wasn't you know? Well,you're sitting are performing, and the assholes
out in the crowd are drinking andthey could care less about you. But
you gotta keep going. And Imean, not everyone's gonna love you.
Not everyone's gonna hate you. Buttake the positives and and and and go
out. I mean, look atHoward Stern. He did the same thing.
He busted his ass. He doesn'thave a great radio voice, but
(21:18):
look at him now, he's makinga hundred million bucks a year. I
mean, and you can't. Youdon't always have to be the best singer,
but you gotta. I mean,and it's tough, and there's a
million of you out there, andit's I mean, but you got to
keep at it. You gotta believe, and it takes a thick skin.
Yeah yeah, just like with musicians. Uh, people who are into broadcasting
(21:41):
can say the same thing. There'sa million people who have their own podcast
and uh oh yeah, everybody andtheir dog has a Podcastdigulous, My wife
listens to half Michael. What areyou listening to? But I mean it's
yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.And even with you know, the fewture
of the radio format being unknown,people can still get into podcasting, broadcasting
(22:07):
on TV like you mentioned, andvoiceover work. I know, during the
pandemic when I couldn't gig, Idid a lot of voiceover work on upwork.
So you just, yeah, youjust got to get creative with your
skills. And then we still havea Country Radio Seminar CRS happening in Nashville
(22:32):
every year, so that's a goodconference to come and meet other people that
work in radio to maybe find yournext gig. Yeah for sure. But
yeah, do do everything you can, get your name out there, meet
as many people as you can andbe ready. Yeah. Absolutely. So
(22:55):
my last question for you is justin general, what do you hope is
the future with radio proof? Iwish we and when I And the thing
I like about the station that I'mat is we're not on satellite and we're
kind of community. I mean,we're radio needs to get back to get
(23:22):
off of satellite, Get off ofthe same damn station, the same five
DJs. You listen to a station, you hear a guy here and he's
in Dallas, he'son, you know, because it's just a guy sitting somewhere
because it's all on satellite, andI mean, I know it. It's
not going to work in everywhere,but I mean with country, especially in
the world places I and that's whatI told this station ten years ago,
(23:45):
and they finally did it. Iwas like, get off of satellite,
get more community based, make people, you know, feel it and be
involved in it, and you know, make them make it a part of
their lives. Where I mean,a lot of people listen to and they
listen to whatever their morning show is. There's a ton of them out there,
but a lot of them are syndicatedand you know, it's in their
(24:07):
routine. But if there was somebodylocal that was talking more about you know,
to them and with them and tellingthem stuff that's going on, they'd
like that more, I think.And it works, but it's just you
know, they don't want to paythree people to run the station during the
day. They'd rather have a satellitefeed. So I think we need to
(24:29):
get back, you know, justlike a lot of things, we need
to get back. We've gone tooforward because they're Spotify and there's everything else
already out there. For them tochoose that. So let's get radio back
to not that you know, andmore localized and more community involved or more
the listener thinking that, you know, oh, this guy's talking to me
or this lady's talking to me here, right, you know, this is
(24:52):
my station. I mean, Igot people call me every day. It's
like you haven't life, But Imean, hey, whatever, keep calling
me every day because they love theshow. They feel like they're involved in
the show. And I mean,I don't know. I hope radio stays
because just like Don told me innineteen ninety three, the radio was dying,
(25:14):
it's still here. My boss,I tell him that. He's like,
radio will always still be here,because even we have an AM station
with our FM station and they doa bunch of community stuff on there.
But the lady from the emergency managementplace came in and she's like, well,
radio, you know, we candepend on you guys, because when
everything goes to hell, the radiowill still be on. Yeah, you
(25:37):
know that's true. You know,I mean when the tornadoes come and turn
your down radio on or your weatherradio or whatever, because it's still working.
But yeah, and I mean,it's corporate America. It's all about
the dollar. But yeah, Ijust, I mean, I don't think
radio will never completely die because youguys, you know, you got to
(25:57):
get your music out there, justout on streaming services because not everyone's going
to pay for it. I mean, it is getting harder, and stations
are getting fewer and fewer. Butyeah, I just, I mean,
I think they need to get morelocalized than all the satellite stuff. Yeah,
And I think that's the best partabout radio for me, that local
(26:21):
community feeling. I'm still someone wholistens to the radio. I grew up
listening to the radio, and likeyou said, you get your weather,
tornado updates or traffic updates when you'redriving, so something happens, you always
have the radio on and there foryou. And then also it's still good
(26:41):
to hear people calling into the radioin the morning and having those connections and
relationships. And then also when I'mdriving on the road, it's interesting to
hear what each local radio station communitysounds like like. Especially if I'm driving
(27:02):
back home to Knoxville, where I'mfrom, it always feels like home when
I turn the radio on, becauseit has just that specific feeling of hey,
I remember listening to this growing up. These they like to play these
kind of songs, they like totalk about this. This is what they
sound like. So it definitely hasthat special demographic feeling to it. Yeah,
(27:27):
they're playing the same cheesy liner they'vebeen playing with the ladies singing,
you know, four kbbs, youknow whatever. It's like they haven't changed
those in thirty years. But yeah, and they got the same you know,
they talk different Knoxville than they doin Chicago than they do in Wyoming,
(27:47):
and you hear it. Yeah.And I think one important thing to
mention is that radio is very heavilyrunning and funded on advertisements. So when
you hear those commercials on the radio, that's what's keeping radio holding on a
lot of the time. Now.Yeah, and it's getting harder and harder
(28:11):
because of everything else, because ofthe Internet and Facebook and everything. I
mean, I don't think Internet,well, I know, internet radio is
not effected radio serious and satellite radio. And my boss says, it's not
really our competition. It's more Facebookand computers and other ways they can get
(28:34):
their ads out there. It's justyou know, it's the Internet, all
the banners, all the pop upads. People have more avenues to put
their advertising money into where they didtwenty years ago, and that's where radio
is hurting, and radios had toadjust and do these online auctions, do
(28:55):
a lot of more video elements,do different things to be able to raise
money. And I mean it.I mean there's a radio station here in
town that's very successful and they maketons of money and they do really well
for themselves, but they've had topivot and they've had to do a lot
more video and a lot more differentavenues than just you know, selling radio
ads. But a lot of oldschool stations have a tough time dealing with
(29:18):
that. And but you know,you got to move with the times and
you know, adapt as you go. Yeah. Yeah, So I definitely
encourage listeners to take a break fromSpotify for a day and just listen to
your local radio station when you're ona drive and support your local radio.
(29:40):
And songwriters get paid more from aradio spend than a stream on Spotify anyway,
so it's definitely more of a beneficialformat in my opinion. Well,
and listen to the radio, justlike I say, expand your musical taste,
but listening to the same ten artiststhat you've been listening to on your
Spotify play and listen to the radioand you might hear somebody it's either new
(30:03):
or old that you haven't heard,and you'd be like, oh, that's
a cool song, and then youcan go check them out, listen to
twenty of their other songs and helpthem out that way. Yeah. Yeah,
there's still especially on major radio countryradio stations, I'll hear the same
country songs being spinned throughout the day, but I still am able to hear
new music through tuning in. Ohyeah, yeah. Or listen to Kicks
(30:27):
ninety six to five. You canstream us at Bigger amountain Radio dot com.
Yeah, because I program the station. There's all kinds of new artists
out there that you've ever heard of. Yeah, absolutely, so, Yeah,
everyone tune in to Jeff's internet radiostation CBJ Radio and Kicks ninety six
point five. I think a lotof your interviews are on YouTube too.
(30:52):
Yeah, you can go check outmy YouTube page. You can just go
type in Jeff Rickett and now youcan go there and check them out.
You can type in Sarah's name,Sarah Harrelson KIX and her interview will come
up. Christine Bauer, you gochair I think I was one of the
first people to ever interview Christine.I think so too. Yeah, I
guess she was on your interview beforeI was. But yeah, yeah,
(31:15):
yeah, she's a two timer.Okay, got to get you back on
Yeah, and any other independent artistslistening should go listen to Jeff's show and
reach out to him as well ifthey want to be on. Yeah.
Well, and speaking of women,before we wrap up here, I've had
a ton of interviews, and Imean I have a lot of new artists,
(31:36):
but I also have had I mean, I had Lazy J. Dalton,
I've had pay Pam Tillis on whichPam Tillis when I had her on
and I researched her. I mean, you all know locking in Memphis,
we know her hits, and she'sdaughter of Mel Tillis, so that helped.
But she was like the first popcountry She brought a ton of pop
(31:59):
into country music. And I waslike, you don't really get any credit
for this, Pam at all.I mean, and she kind of,
you know, she's like, eh, you know, people because people shunned
her because her dad was a countryartist and now she has pop country and
they were like, you know,they didn't like it, but now look
where we are, you know,And that happens a lot in music.
(32:23):
You know, when you when you'rethe first one to do it people,
you get a lot of resistance,and she got a ton of resistance.
I think her record label dropped her. I mean, you can go listen.
It's been months now. But it'sjust crazy some of the things that
females like Adrian females have went throughon their journey. But and that was
(32:44):
the thing she didn't stop. She'sstill doing it. I mean, I
mean, you got to have athick skin. But yeah, it's just
it's crazy some of the all thedifferent things that artists have been through.
And that's the cool thing about doingwhat I do is I get to talk
to a million people and hear theirstories and yeah, go check out my
YouTube page. Yeah yeah, Andit definitely makes it more personal when you
(33:07):
are having a conversation with someone,hearing someone's story, rather than just kind
of being one sidedly listening to aplaylist. Yeah. Well, and on
my interviews, I research every guestbefore they come on the show, so
I have a conversation with I don'task them the same I listened to tons
(33:30):
of interviews that people do with artists, and it's so, how'd you get
in the business, So who areyour influences? So what are we got
going on? Nowhere? Where canwe find you? I already know all
that before I get into the interview. So we're going to talk about different
things. So when you talk,when you listen to some of the interviews,
you'll you'll catch on after a while, you'll start hearing stuff that you
(33:51):
didn't know about the artists, andlike with Pam and tons of different artists.
But yeah, so that's that's somethingelse to go listen to my interviews
instead of then oh well I readher bio. I know what she's all
about. Yeah. And there's somany especially music podcasts, that are like
that, where it's just kind ofreading through someone's bio, whereas you're kind
(34:14):
of getting to the point asking thedeeper questions. Yeah. Yeah, Oh
it's funny. I listen. Ilistened to so many different interviews and it's
the same five questions. And thenif the if the person goes off script,
they don't even know what to do. And I was like, oh,
okay, well I'll wait till heshuts up. So I can ask
my next question. There's no followup, and they could have said that
(34:34):
they just burned their house down,and some of them would have no follow
up. It's just it's crazy,but they're like anyway. Then there's some
people that are sitting. There wasone guy I was watching the other day
when I was researching a guests.He's like sitting at his table, eating
dinner, doing an interview with anartist, and you can hear like his
kids in the background. I waslike, what is going on here?
(34:57):
But yeah, it's that's the internetthough too. Yeah, people getting too
comfortable. Yeah yeah, and thinkthat and think they're a broadcaster. Yeah.
Well, thank you so much forbeing on my podcast again today.
But before we go, I wantyou to describe to everyone this collection of
(35:22):
wrestler Mania dolls you have behind you. You can't see me, but yes,
I'm a huge wrestling fan. I'vebeen a wrestling fan my entire life.
I was brainwashed as a young child. But no, I love WWWE,
I love I just love professional wrestling. I was a huge WCW guy.
If you've watched professional wrestling at all. But yeah, I have shelves
(35:44):
in my studio here in the inthe walls. I have shells full of
wrestling figures and then the walls.During the pandemic, I bought wrestling figures
and I would buy the sets andI would tack them to my wall.
So but Sarah is seeing like twohundred wrestling figures behind me, and some
of my pictures. Me and mybrother a dresses kiss and I'm a big
(36:07):
doors fan, and I have aJim Morrison picture that I'm actually in very
small with five thousand other people.But yeah, that's my this is my
man cave slash studio. I'm notmusical, so I have to put up,
you know, other crap to coverthe walls. I was about to
say, the dolls look like theyprovide good insulation for they kind of do.
(36:30):
Yeah, exactly, guy, SeeI have I have eight crates,
all eight crates and stuff all overin front of me, and then wrestling
figures all the way around. Myroom's too big, and I have records.
I just my wife calls me apack rat, but it's my room,
so I said, just but youcan come in here and you will
see something different, or you cansit in here for hours and never see
(36:52):
this. It'll be like wow,look at that. Okay, so much
crap around, I'm sure it's myhole. Thank you again, Jeff.
Everyone go listen to CBJ Radio andKicks ninety six point five in Wyoming.
Thank you again, Jeff. Yeah, thank you, Sarah appreciate it.
Cbjradio dot com, Bighormountain Radio dotcom, and then click listening down or
(37:15):
Kicks ninety six five. Come listento me six to ten am Mountain Time,
eight to noon Eastern Time, Mondaythrough Friday
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