Mark Sutherland Director of Abbey's List a Dogumentary

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome in, Thank you for listening.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Mark Blazer, Chuck Douglas, and I'm going to introduce him
like this because he's he's probably gonna go the same
thing he just said off the air, but I don't
know if we're gonna go way back in the radio
time machine.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Now listen.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
There are a lot of people that listen to this
radio station who are familiar with the way back Radio Machine.
And there was a couple of guys on the air
that used to go by O'Malley and Olsen in the morning,
and the Olsen part of o'malleyan Olsen is here in
the studio. He's Mark Sutherland, and he was also, I mean, gosh,

(00:36):
your radio career is all over the United States, all over.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
I did that for a while.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
I wore out my welcome here in Columbus and to
go to Orlando and Toledo and Houston and Los Angeles.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
But I'm back here now.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
What also was funny is when we were during the
break and I this is the first time I heard
you say this. Mark was like, every time I see Michael,
Michael O'Malley, you're like and I apologize to him. I'm
sorry because you were just getting your start. You were
cutting your teeth.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
In radio what I was doing at all?

Speaker 1 (01:09):
And he did.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
He was an old veteran, but I mean not old,
but you know what I mean was he knew what
he was doing and he was so good to me.
We had a lot of fun back then. Of course,
back then in radio you could get away with anything.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I worked with him for a stint at my very
first gig, Oldies, and he was there and I'm like,
I didn't realize the brilliance of a lot of the
stuff that he did either, Mark, So I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
It was my first gig.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
I was nineteen.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
I was texting Michael the other night because he was
congratulating me on the film's release. Yeah, and I had
to tell him, and I don't think i'd ever told
him this before, when I said, you know, a lot
of my humor I learned watching you and listening to
you and seeing how you did stuff because he had
a real subtle sense of humor did and I learned
a lot from watching that.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, And it's stuck with me today.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
He's good people, man.

Speaker 5 (02:02):
You know what's said with all the things that he did,
all the stations he worked at, and everything I hear
the name, no matter who's saying it, Why there's I
hear O'Malley the first thing that your lives labster loose.
It will never leave my head. Yeah, it's since that
I associate that little bite with him for saying he
did a billion other things, but that one sound bite

(02:25):
will always be in my head.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
And then he uh, he got into real estate. Oh yeah,
he killed it and he's there. I'm guessing retired now.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
I think so.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
If he isn't retired, he's on the cusp. But he
did really well in real estate. Yeah, oh, I think
he missed radio. But you know, you realize it was.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Time, brother, when you're walking in today, and even though
I knew of you and we kind of had this
conversation the last time you were in.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
How long has it been since you were here?

Speaker 4 (02:50):
It's been probably four years or so maybe, oh has
it been there or four years? Maybe because we were
still shooting the film, because you're in the film, because
we taped the last time that I was on the
air with you, okay, and and so we taped it
and I put you in the film.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
I even put you on the poster there.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
I saw that and put your quote on the poster,
so I brought you a copy of the poster. It
just says Mark Blazer WTV and incredible in quotes, and uh,
I'm not sure the context you said it.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
You might have said you're an incredible.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Pain in the butt or something like that, but what
I heard was incredible and because of that, it made
the movie Fosters ID.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
I'm telling you for decades, you're a poster child for
one thing or another. Finally it's come true.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
It has come to fruition. You are correct once again,
my friend, you are correct again.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yes, I am, you are correct. But yeah, that's that
I was telling.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
You when we're I hadn't you know, seen you in
a while, and we a.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Little a little bit of communication on Facebook or whatever.
But you're you're crazy busy with all the different stuff
that you're doing. But anyway, I said, man, do you
miss doing this because that's literally been your entire career
up until I don't know how long you've been out
of radio, but it was a long time you were
in and I knew of you. And when you reached
out during this first part talking about this project that

(04:08):
you had going and you're like, hey, da da da
da da. And I was just like, oh, man, we
have a mutual friend who lives in Dallas who I
worked with at the oldie station way way back, who
you worked with at Radio Disney, and he was and
it's just like, how it's such a small community radio?

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (04:26):
Really?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's this huge thing that spans you know, hundreds of stations,
thousands of radio stations, and then but it's this little
teeny community.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
It's You're never it's that.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
What's the one thing where I think it's the Is
it the Kevin Bacon.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
Just what I was going to say, Yeah, because a
lot of us get fired a lot and move around
a lot, and so there are only a.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Few hundred people in the industry.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
But everybody knows everybody, or everybody knows someone who knows everybody.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Right, And that was exactly like I was like, Man,
I you know, didn't really know you, but I feel
like I did because I listened to Brian, our well friend,
and I said I would listen to him, you know,
talk about you and how he knew you and all
this stuff. But I remembered you from way back, and
I was even saying, Now, fast forward to our conversation
we walked in today. I was like, you know, do
you miss this business. It's like, and to your point

(05:14):
with your comment about Michael O'Malley, it's like it never
it gets in your blood when if you do it
long enough and it never leaves you ever.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
Because I told you, I said, I don't miss doing
it every day, but I really miss being on the
air because there's just something about it.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's it's hard to describe.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
It can be a grind at times, so it could
be tiring, but for the most part, it's just such
a great way to make a living.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
And the thing that was also interesting with with your situation,
especially in Orlando, when you worked on Disney's property, like
getting in and out of that's a that's like that's
a feat within itself every day when you look back
on that to you go, man, I navigated around there
like all.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
The time your studios were there on the property, right.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah, we were behind glass there and then they built
a glass studio for us in Disneyland and Los Angeles
moved us out there in under the Rocket Rods in Tomorrowland,
and that was just that was crazy too.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
But it was great being.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
A part of it from tomorrow Lands. That would be
a good that's.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Cool, incredible, It was so fun.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
It was wild, and we were on a huge stage
because there were a ton of radio stage. We had
more listeners than Howard Stern And now granted we weren't
doing the same stick right, but.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
No, yeah, it was. It was good.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
But you know, I radio ran its course and I
needed something else to do. I was looking for something
else to do, and my dog and I decided to
hit the road.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
So and that brings us to Abby's list a documentary.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
And I've seen this. It's your fourteen year old whippet.
Her name is Abby and you're her dad. And so
you go on this cross country bucket list trip and
decide to you document everything. And then I mean, it's
it's so simple, the idea behind it, but it's so

(07:04):
well done. And if if you love animals as most
people do in this world, animals are better than.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Most people in this world. Let's just say it.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, I mean you you And And on a side note,
Dale want like you're it's a deer that lives near
your area in Worthington, Is it Dale Dell?

Speaker 4 (07:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Del there are a few of them.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
Dell Scout Trooper is a friend that got me into
deer before. But yeah, we have wild deer in Worthington
and I they.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Come up to him.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
He's got all the videos on Facebook and it's a
deer whisperer.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
It's really cool.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
I mean it's cool. It's like you have a gang
of them that come by there.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
You're they're like your crew.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
You know.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
I've driven up there and watched them walk on the
streets and ic and calm. People are walking their dog
on one side of the street, there's a deer walking
down the other side of the street. They're just they're
part of the community.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
It's crazy.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
Well, they probably realize I'm on their side, yes, and
I dig hanging out with them.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Animals are pretty smart.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
One of the things that when Abby and I were
on the road, we went to Sea World and the Dolphin.
There were probably thirty or forty people there, and all
the people too are left, and the dolphin once they
saw Abby looking through the glass at them and saw
that there was a dog there, they ignored all the
people and like every dolphin in that aquarium was right

(08:25):
in front of Abby for like ten or fifteen minutes.
In fact, it was kind of pissing the people off
because their kids were there and they're like, you know,
the guy brought a dog. That's not fair. But you
could just tell that Abby and these dolphin it's one
of the sweetest moments in the film. These they're communicating.
I didn't know what they were saying, but they're nonverbal
said this is incredible, you know, and I could just

(08:47):
tell by Abby's.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Reactions as well.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
One of the toughest things about that part of the
film was cutting it and making sure that I did
justice what we watched happen. Yes, it was just something
magical about it, and we managed to catch it on film,
and then you don't want to blow it in the
editing bay, right.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
That's the thing that capturing the the what you're witnessing
while you're there with her, this entire journey and doing
it justice is the trick with making something. And that's
like any filmmaking. There could be something incredible going on,
but if you don't have I guess I'm gonna be
really kind of boneheaded here, but I would feel like

(09:30):
the lighting and different camera angles and all of that,
you can lose something that was incredibly magical if you're
standing there with between a couple of actors, an actor whatever,
and then you later look at it and you're like this,
And it's the same kind of thing when you're like
with your phone watching at sunset and you're like, let
me try to capture this, and you look at it again,

(09:51):
you go look at it sucks, like what, Yeah, that's
the trick it is.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
And I'll tell you radio was hugely helpful to me
because if you get the story right, then you can
figure out the other parts and you go, Okay, the
audio or the video is not quite as good as
I wanted it to be here, but I can maybe
tell some of that story with better music here or
whatever it is, whatever's in your toolbox. You can fill
in with other things, but the story has to be right.

(10:19):
And I learned that doing radio, because really what you're
doing here and what I was doing for years, is
you're telling stories like literally like five minute stories or
sixty second stories, and you're doing it thousands of times.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
And you figure out what works story wise.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Then you just have to figure out how to work
that into an arc of a film which is ninety
minutes long and The other thing about the film. One
of the reasons I think Abby's List is taking off,
and we got picked up by AMC theaters nationwide.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
That's a credible which is work never happens cool.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
And it opens this Friday, and Columbus is one of
the cities at AMC Theaters. But one of the reasons
why I think it worked is.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
Because I'm a radio guy.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
So really what I did was I did radio bits,
but brought a camera along. And so again when I
wanted to do her bucket list, and her bucket list
in air quotes, because really a lot of it was
mine obviously, you know, you're her dad. The first thing
we did was I let her sail a yacht, you know,
and it you know, most people would take them on

(11:20):
a yacht and film the dog just enjoying the breeze
and the rest of it.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
But we put her behind the wheel and let her.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
Sail this thing and captain it, and that at that
point it becomes funny, you know, It's it's the absurdity
is what makes it fun and funny. We took her
to Secho National Force so she could pee on the
tass trees in the world.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
I'd like to do that, and we drove, you know.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
We drove five hours, dodged thunderstorms and forest fire and
the rest of it to do that, hoping that she'd
have to pee when we got there, and it worked.
There were other forces at work here. You know, I'm
a much I'm a much firmer believer in God now
than I was when I started the film, because there

(12:05):
were so many things that just shouldn't have happened but did.
But and part of it, too is maybe just how
my life has rolled out, and I knew how to
do a film. I didn't know, I knew it, but
I knew how to do it because of all my
training and radio.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
You put so much work into Abbey's list. You've put
so much work. I remember eight years well, and part
just the little scooch of that. I remember you saying,
I am trying to get the licensing for the music, yeah,
for this, and it's like you're contacting this person and

(12:40):
that person who going and you're like it is so expensive,
but so.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
Expensive and so time consuming. But then there were other
things that just like magic. We literally had to have
this thing packaged up and out to festivals. And I
had two weeks and I wanted this song from War
on Drugs. They're Grammy Ward winning artists, and I got
in touch with somebody who knew them and got in

(13:04):
touch with them, and they said, yes, absolutely, and we
had the deal worked within a week. That should never happen.
First of all, just being able to get them on
the film, you know, and use their music on the
film as just unbelievable. But those negotiations would take months,
and we put that together in a week, and you know,
just an awful lot of really really cool things happen

(13:25):
like that. What an adventure, what a journey? And the
other thing too. Do I have another thirty seconds or
so to share this here?

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
We started out and the idea was just to cross
the country and do some fun stuff on our bucket
list and share the videos with friends. We didn't We
thought if we were going to make a film, maybe
it'd be a short. But she started aging in reverse.
I watched that like a week or two in. She
was really having fun and and then we went crazy
viral to the tune of like over five million views

(13:53):
all across the world. We're like, something's happening here. Let's
just keep going. So that's what we did, and and
three weeks became three years. We traveled for almost three years,
and I didn't think she'd live more than a few
more months when we hit the road, and she did
it just a complete one eighty.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
And isn't that incredible?

Speaker 5 (14:13):
Yeah, happiness does wonderful things, even for animals.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
It's crazy.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
And and the other thing is, and this is a
through line in the film, get off the couch and
live life now.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Yeah, yep, man, Yeah, I'm assuming this is rated G. Yeah,
it's not rated, but if it were be rated.

Speaker 5 (14:29):
Oh, AMC's carrying it without a rating. That's awesome. Well
they trust me, Yeah, that means they Yeah, it's made
an impression. What you've done already has made an impression
on that's great.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, it's family friendly.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
So yeah, it's your video on demand streaming platforms here
in the US and Canada a little bit later next month.
It's in theaters like you said on Friday.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, in AMC theaters and select cities across the country,
including Columbus in Town here or at AMC Ublin Village
and also AMC Easton Town Center. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
I was looking at like some of the stuff that
you It's Abbey's List, a documentary, independent film, and it's
about fourteen year old Abbey and we shot a lot.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
And we shot a lot here in Columbus too. In fact,
we had Jack Hannah in the film.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
Oh yeah. Jack was just wonderful

Speaker 2 (15:21):
And so Abby's dad and the creator of the film,
Marked Sutherland, who's here in studio