This could get Me Fire podcast? What up? I'm Jizo. That is
John Magic and we are back super excited about today's episode. We have a
special guest. He's a longtime radio on their personality, a one time record
label rep for Sony Music, and currently the host of a popular, highly
rated news talk show on our sister station, Power Talk ninety sixty seven.
It's called The Trevor carry Show. Joining us on the pod today, Trevor
Carrie. Yes, I'm older than you guys. I'm gonna this is gonna
be real quick. Because when he said the say could get me fire podcast,
I could get me fired? Yeah. No, okay, So you
know, since it sounds like you haven't heard that title of our podcast,
how it came about was this was when Gizzo was doing the afternoon show.
Oh well he still does. But when I came back in the building and
I would just sit down with him and commercial breaks and I'm sure you know
about commercial breaks. It's a good five minutes, six minutes long. It's
how I pay my rent. Yeah, exactly. Jess and I would just
start talking about random topics and then we would say we wish we could turn
on the mics and just say what we're saying right now. And then Joze's
like, yeah, but that can get us fired. We looked at each
other like, that's our podcast title, right. Some of the best radio
happens in the hallways. And it's it's it's a thing that it's doesn't come
natural to people to be natural. It's acting at times, you're real you
feel that way, your stories you're telling and all of that, but it
really is not. I mean, right now, was uh are we acting
kind of right right? Aren't we? The the it's rolling, it's on,
yeah, yeah, a little bit. It's showmanship, entertainment, it's
entertainment. We got five seconds these days to grab people's attention. So I
think when they when the first words out of his mouth were this could get
me fired podcast. That would grab my ear right. I call it a
flume first words out of mouth. And I don't know if you remember that
training we got from the iHeart guys from back to East Coast. They were
saying, hey man, you got to grab them these days, right,
And I was like, I already got a word for that, flume first
words out of mouth. Wow. So your poon was good. Oh,
I appreciate that there's a big podcast from big Time Personalities in LA that would
message me and say, you guys have the best podcast name title name.
Yeah, we're like really like you know, I'm just came with it on
the fly, but I like it because we have the FCC. Right.
Yeah. But I always think, like with Simbad, it was harder to
be funnier and be not dirty. Yeah yeah in a way, right,
it's a skill to that, and in news talk I gotta have that on
my show today. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, I'm gonna be as
far as I'll go with it. I always my mom listens into the sea.
Yeah, like I try, I do it like how you would talk
in a bank line. I'm not going to say anything on a talk show
Conservati Grader that I wouldn't say in a bank line. But speaker Mike Johnson,
I'm gonna be like, Mike, why you being such a Johnson?
That's funny, Yeah, it's like clean, Yeah, that's me pushing the
line. Yeah. So wow, guys, this is exciting stuff that you
do. How we work together. I see the sign up here recording though,
Yeah, yeah, don't entor do you know that I'm fifty eight years
old. I started in radio at seventeen. This is the first time I've
ever been interviewed. This is Oh really, how does it fel to be
on this side? Right? He just answered the question. You know what
I've learned by interviewing, and I know you've probably picked up on this is
because when the person you ask a question who's talking? Suddenly your brain goes
into all right, what am I going to say next? Yeah? Yeah,
and you almost don't listen to them, right, Yeah, that's exactly
where I was going. I do that. I've gone back and listened to
interviews I've done and the person on the other side said something and then my
grandma shut herself and Blubb was on the wall, and then I come back.
I wasn't paying attention. And that's funny. That is true. That
does happen. I said in the beginning on the top of this that I
was excited about this episode because Trevor is in a different department in where we
talk radio, because Jesse and I are on the music side of it,
music driven. You're in a news talk so it's different worlds, but we're
co workers. And the reason why I'm super excited is because I've got to
hang out with Trevor at different events at live broadcast. You know, one
of my positions here is sort of like an acting producer on live on live
on site broadcast. So I've gotten to being car rides with him. I've
gotten to talk to him during commercial breaks and the stories he has about radio.
We go to bath houses too, and I was like, Trevor would
be a perfect guest. We've had past radio jocks and we love hearing the
timeline of how they got into radio. So do you know how weird it
is to see B ninety five on the walls right here and to see the
Marriott across the street when I pull out every night? When I was twenty
five years old, just married, wife worked over there until she was eight
months pregnant at the front and desk. My daughter born in Clovis, and
I was just so I was afternoons at P ninety five. Yeah, see,
I didn't know that. You didn't know that I was music director and
then became programmed direct. Wow. And then somebody came in and bought it,
bought the company and said during that summer, took me to lunch getting
all the information near my guy. The day they took over, talk about
this could get you fired. Podcasts headed into a firing right here. I
got a call the night before the new ownership took over. Granted I just
had a baby who was an intensive care and Sacramento who was home and healthy
now, but that kind of stage of life where every paycheck is my day
and I get the call, I'll show it to work the next day.
They let eight of us go all in one day. It wasn't clear channel
yet or was it already. No, this is back early nineties. It
was a local guy that bought it from the receivership. It was in a
bank receivership and he took it over. Oh wow, and yeah, so
that boy radio. Have you guys been fired? I have, I have
not. I have not. Good for you and Chizo, You've done a
long span, man, And if I if I could think back, I
would be don't move around as much. Lock yourself in and be and become
wherever you lock yourself I've been pretty locked in here. Yeah, yes,
you have and raised in this city. And so when you were eleven,
right, yeah, something like that. Exactly how were you when you shart?
I ride out of high school. So I was eighteen. He was
like an insern as John Magic's intern. See I didn't know that. Yeah,
yeah, you want to interview us. Actually, I am now back
around. It's while that you mentioned the marryat because I have ties in that
too, when I first moved here about almost twenty five years ago. No,
no, I'm sorry, that's my radio career, twenty years of living
in Fresno. I used to I had to live at that Marriott when I
when they moved first moved me here to Fresno to start the night show until
I found a spot. I lived there for like two weeks. You want
to hear my Marriott story, Go ahead. She was front desk. That's
where the phone calls come in. Right. George Bush President in one nine.
First George Bush was in Fresno for a day. He just they just
needed a place to set up their offices and for him to hang for a
minute before a flight or something like that. He wasn't staying overnight because the
whole week before the Secret Service was in clear it was new then, right,
they were clearing it all out and checking the phone lines, and I
was like, just put me through. I was doing afternoon till just just
just to have them say no, the President's not available. I just wanted
that's a good sound by right. She wouldn't put would yeah? So all
right, well we always like to start getting to know somebody. Would Are
you originally from the valley? Are you really from here? No? No,
Born Tennessee, Union City, Tennessee. Lived there until about seven eight,
moved to Texas, lived there, moved back to Tennessee, and then
at thirteen my dad. My dad was in radio. He was a news
director and then he became a preacher and he went back to Seminary Memphis and
graduated from seminary, and then his first church was in California. We came
out to the High Desert in northern California. So I've lived in California,
like twenty eight of my fifty eight years, lived all over California, but
left it so many times to go to different places. So it was weird
man in nineteen seventy nine to move to California, because man, that as
a suddenly in seventh grade in Memphis, I was the star because he's moving
to California. Seriously, you were like a rock? Is that how people
looked at California, like it was a cool place to go. My brother
and I we'd watched Chips, you know, same year. Do you know
how he was asleep when I first spotted him out Riverside Way. I saw
him on the freeway when we were driving, and I woke him up.
La la la, Look it's it's chipped when you see you mean, when
you staw a motorcycle real sea. I mean it was like driving into a
magical team day. They felt like there was celebrities everywhere you looked or something.
And I think, if you're born in race here and I tell people,
I say this on my show that people in the valley that have been
born in razed right here. Oh I just no. Look, you are
comparing yourself to postcards the Golden Gay Bridge mouths shoe. Yeah, you know
all the beauty. Eighty percent of America would love here because on our weather,
Yeah, it gets a little hot, but have you gone through humidity
and Union City, Tennessee. I was back this summer. It's a killer.
That's a good point. I think since we're so close to the La
and the Bay that we you know, people want to get out of here,
and they talk so much bad about Fresno, but like you said,
it's actually really good here. Yeah, and they don't realize that in Buffalo
at the ritzy little vegetable fruit places they have that might be higher priced.
On the chalkboards they write sam Jai Quin Valley really seriously. Yeah, it
means something and people need to realize that. I think. So you move
here, like you said, seventy nine right, yeah, yeah, did
you know did you understand your dad what your dad was doing? Did you
understand he was a radio personality. He had me in production rooms when I
was ten. I think that's why i'm five to five and three quarters because
I used to balk those old cart machines to demagnetize them, to race them.
Oh that's when I started interning. Yeah, that was the grunt job.
You don't know about that hunt. It sounds familiar. Every song,
every commercial was on like an eight track kind of thing for a better term
there. They'd be three minutes long, or the commercial would be thirty seconds.
I still have one in my living room. I have a cart at
the car. But yeah, you would. That's how you do racing.
You're racing with a magnet. Yeah, okay, but and you remember when
they didn't do it right, you would hear all behind. But Trevor just
saying that just triggered my memory of having to do this as an intern,
because when you felt it, when it would it would vibrate your great and
you would like feel that it's eracing, like I don't know it just well
and neither office are real tall. My dad's five eleven. My brother is
about to say something. It was that demagnetizing, but I listen. I
love baseball. I would wear my little league uniform to school on game days.
I've got to interview Steve Garvey recently. I loved baseball. But when
on Saturdays, when my dad was a general manager in Austin of KIXL,
he would go in on Saturday mornings like to do extra work, and I
would get to go with him, and that's when I would demagnetize. And
then he would turn on the reel to reel and I got to turn the
mic on and say things into it, and I knew how to stop it
and rewind it. It was like a cassette player, you know the volume.
So that was when it really started. All right, then, what
so you grow up? When was the first radio gig, like what's the
story on? My dad saw me after he became a preacher, and I
didn't have access to those production rooms anymore. That was kind of a So
I had my Hatachi stereo and i'd had the turntable on and I would record
commercials onto cassette from the radio right KFI the mighty six ninety. I would
record the commercial, so I had commercials on a cassette, So I would
talk at as the record was ending, and I'd turn the volume down and
then flip it. I'm still talking blah blah blah. I'd flip it over
to cassette and then we'll be back with the latest from Olivy Newton John next,
and I'd hit the car. I was just practicing in mac you were
playing radio yeah, And he said he saw me doing that, and so
he took me down to twelve forty Klaway in Ridgecrest John and Beth Quigley,
I remember their names, the older couple that owned it. And my dad
said, he's did some stuff and he's doing it in his room. Where's
Rich I'm sorry. Lancaster, Palmdale, North You go to Bakersfeld fifty eight
when you're going to Vegas, you go north. It's China Lake Naval Weapon
Center up there. But they had that was their only radio station, twelve
forty KL away. You could get KOs from LA and the rock station.
Yes it was say it was a little mom pause station. So get he
goes here. He went over to the teletype the news. He ripped something
off. He goes here, go in this room. He had play record.
He goes read it and close the door behind me. How old were
you at this? Seventeen? So I'm in there and I'm reading it,
and I don't remember the interview after. But I ended up doing Saturday and
Sunday nights on twelve four doing it. So everybody in high school's out having
a great time every Saturday Sunday night and you're losing the Occasionally they would flip
over and listen to me. But uh, yeah, so I did that
Conna station. Was this They called it middle of the Road. I know
the first record I played a Livy Noon John and John Travolta to the time
Wow. And then I go up to school Junior College in Chico, move
up best room from high school, and I'm like, I got to get
a radio job. I'm working at Swinson's ice Cream and Miller's out Post,
two jobs that summer to get money going. And this girl at Swinson's ice
Cream goes. My boyfriend's a program director at Chico State Radio station. I
go, really she and she goes, and all the students go home,
and there's nobody look at that opportunity. So I go over there and I
walk in and they got like baby dolls nailed to the wall, unk rock
right on there. My dodger hat, my op's kind of like, hey
man, and the dude let me go in and do a demo. I
took that real reel. I go, hey, can I take this home
and record it? And he goes, yeah, man, I guess whatever
you know. So I immediately took it up to FM ninety seven KMVR Paradise,
Chico, the top forty station up there, and I knock. I
left it for the guy. Oh, he'll get back with you, Andy
Manuel, I remember his name, he'll get back to you. And he
didn't get back to me. So I go back up there. Well,
he didn't have time right now. Three or four times, but it was
one of these stations where you could see the DJ it burned down in that
Paradise fire. By the way, this building was an old Victorian ice cream
store on the bottom and the radio station above, and you could see the
DJ on the ara there. That's actually kind of cool. Yeah up there
at two am in the morning overnight though it may not be too cool.
But I went up front the window, waved my arms and did the like
the pinky the phone signal signal, like why aren't you calling? Why want?
So I kept bugging him and so he calls me. He goes,
do you want to do the Top forty countdown Saturday night? Yeah, all
right, you're you're in. I told everybody listen, I'm gonna do the
Top forty count And I didn't know how to do a top party countdown,
but I was gonna go do it. I get there and it's Casey Casem.
He didn't. I'm just board opping it. So I told everybody to
listen to me, spread the word around and I couldn't say a word,
but hey, it was the start. Yeah, yeah, that's how I
started on the boards. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, But what's
funny is hearing Trevor's story. It's it's the same story that we hear from
you, from me, from Carmen. We just did c K is that
we weren't gonna No one was gonna tell us no, you know what I'm
saying. You're gonna answer the phone call, you're gonna do, You're gonna
hear my air check. And we all share that same story, which is
great, which is probably why we're still here. I guess yeah. And
it's a love. And I think the reason you wanted to talk to me
was the record thing. And do you know when I got out of radio
and went to records, I took artists to radio stations and it was so
miserable because I still love radio. Was this after the Chicos things. This
okay, I'm gonna close my eyes and I'm gonna give you ready, this
is the GPS, this is just radio. I'm gonna have to close my
eyes. We see Chico, Marysville, Santa Rosa, Colorado, strings Reno,
Fresno, Kansas City, San Jose, Phoenix. You did all those
cities, all those cities. Wow. And then in Phoenix that's when the
radio or the record thing opened up. I was twenty nine thirty and I
thought, well, I want to go try something different, you know,
and yeah, Relativity, Sony Sony, a bunch of different labels. Relativity
was their street label at the time. Bone Thugs and Harmony and Let's see
Common three six months via H Town, eight Ball, MJG, Fat Joe,
the beat Nuts, you remember those names. Yeah, these were all
songs artists that I was playing during the beginning of my clubbing days. I
want to reverse real quick, because you did say you were in fresent at
that time. Is that when you were here at ninety five? Yeah?
So what was the format at that time? The Killer b B ninety five
men you got to live and learn. Let me see we uhre LC boys
to men We yeah, forty well it was they called it rhythm crossover,
okay, yeah, and so it was. Yeah, rap was played as
well, but more date parted then I think I did nights. I remember
more rap was that during that night? Yeah? Yeah, that was a
violent time though it was. The crime was way worse that time period than
it is now. So it was the Peace on the Street. We actually
had sweepers. It said Peace on the Street. We stole it from a
station in San Francisco that was airing it. But yeah. Yeah, I
was wondering. I wonder if that was during the time of when LA was
like no color lines, because they had those. Yeah. Yeah, it
was after Rodney teen, Yeah, the early nineties. Yeah, yeah,
all right, addressing the violence. So how long were you in radio during
during that time before he became a rep? Got into it in nineteen eighty
three and got out of it in nineteen ninety five. Okay, so I
went twelve years. Yeah, on the first round. Now there's second Round's
been a whole different journey doing news talk. But yeah, the guy that
hey, and it always goes to show be cool to people. Because when
I was a music director at Hot ninety seven seven in San Jose, this
guy his name was Kevin Carroll. He worked for a label and he got
and I met him just a few times, didn't know him that well,
but he got fired and they said, heybody wants to reach out, and
they his number was on there, you know, pre internet days, his
number was on there. So I just left him voicemail at his house.
I said, hey, man, you were a nice guy. If I
hear anybody saying anything open, I'll let you know. And that was it.
But it stuck in his head obviously, because he called me back and
said, I got in LA opening. Are you interested in records? And
I said, oh wait, I'd already been to an RCA interview where I
thought I was hired so much my mom made an RCA cake a really right,
But it ended up that's how weird the record company is that. But
I got the job in LA being West Coast at a time when rap talk
about violent. Yeah, nineteen ninety five and then ninety six and ninety seven,
Yeah, that was the shoot him up Tupop Biggie days. Yeah.
Yeah. Were you over the radio thing at this point? I thought I
was until I went out to radio stations and wanted to be behind, you
know, sitting at the board. Yeah, so I you know, at
the time, yeah, it paid better. It was a little bit more
stable. I thought, you know, rais rising up the rain, you
know, a lot of traveling, right, Uh yeah, yeah, that
was kind of the downside of it. So you were taking these artists to
different radio stations and doing the radio runs in the hall and you want to
hear my first story, and I know, you guys know this artist Kid
Frost, Kid Frost. Yeah, so New York calls me, and I'm
sitting in the office like three days because the national guy there had there was
a death in his family, so he would have been showing me the roads
that he wasn't in the office. So there really wasn't much at the distribution
center there with the label in La there wasn't a boss or a manager for
the label at that first few days. And I get this call town car
is going to pick you up, take you out to Riverside, zimmerdywards and
you're gonna pick up kid Frost and take him down to a Jamin Z ninety
in San Diego. So that was like leave it now kind of thing.
Oh out there and then down that was a hall, right, but that's
how we got the artist to a radio station event. So oh, excuse
me. Wasn't a town card was a limo because it pulls up in front
of Frost's house and it's a you know, as you know, a lot
of people think these artists are really really rich and what them aren't, right,
especially when they start out. It was a normal middle class house and
with the grass grown up in the front, and I go up and knock,
hey man, how you doing? Very friendly? Nice? Give me
a minute, Give me a minute. The sun's there, and he had
a football, and so we start throwing the football in the front yard and
a little bit of high grass of the football. Here comes Frost all right,
Hey see you there's I get in first because I'm going to slide all
the way to the front and let him sit like Elvis. Right, what
did I step in in that front yard thing? Oh? No, stuff
that ship? Yeah, and I drug it across the carpet of the limo.
Right, your feet dragged when you're slight. Ye, So we get
it. Hey, how you doing it? Man? You know Frost cross,
It's gonna be a good night. And we start driving. Oh man,
I oh dude, and ready for his line he could have been made.
Will stop at kmart and get you some kids. Hey, that was
his line. That's cool. Did you guys do it? I went into
a gas station bathroom. I don't need to get into this. I cleaned
the shoes off, paper, towels and soap and did the best. But
that was my star. Embarrassing and in front of artists. And I'll give
you another one. Almost getting fired within probably the first year, yeah,
or maybe six. We have to go back. We could guys a record
label rep right now. Bone obviously an established artists by the time I got
there because I played him in my in radio days in San Jose and Phoenix
Bone you know they yeah, And I had do you guys ever know Pete
Manrikez that name. He was my intern in San Jose that years later was
the music director at Power Wino six. So it was can you imagine your
job being, Hey, it's your job to go hang out with one of
your good friends and you have a credit card to pay for whatever, yeah,
for the radio, and so it's like we're working, just going jet
skime. We're sitting down on was it Burbank Avenue there, Power whintw six
was in his car went I think it was a weekend. Yeah, it
was a weekend. It was a Saturday, and I said, hey,
listen to this cassette I got. They went in and remixed the Crossroads because
the first album came out Crossroad sounds different. They did that DJ Unique mix.
I remixed on it, but it was set on a cassette. He
popped it in his car and it's the Crossroads you know now sounding, and
he went he went upstairs at Power Window six and carted carted that thing up
and played it on the air all weekend. Wow, and those are the
days of calling when the phone lines blew up? What is this? It's
not in the record stores, it's not on a video. What in the
where it? But you know what this? Remember? Somehow almost got fired.
There's another station in LA called ninety two three the Beat. So these
are the stations I grew up. Yeah, they're they're competitors. And you
know, as a record company, you want to you want to be republican.
Yeah, you want to balance if you do something, if I want
to say, you do something with the beat. But here it seems like
look what we shuffled to them first, and they're playing it, and you
would do it on the weekend to when the offices are closed. Yeah.
So by Sunday night, I'm thinking, hey, all right, this is
good. Power's playing, you know, a new guy not realizing. And
I get a call Sunday night about things I never heard of, like a
cease and desist. An attorney's been sent out, and Tommy Thompson, the
VP of Urban, is calling for your job. Right, because that's a
mess up. I messed up, right, I messed up so good that
that song at the number one. They forgot about it, and I was
promoted to New York. So there you go, oh wow a little later.
Yeah, but yeah, I went through that. Okay, I'm done.
I tried it for less than a year. It didn't work. I
got fired. That's what I was thinking going into that Monday. Yeah.
So every time I hear that song, I think I didn't get fired the
Crossroads. I did not get fired on that one. Uh, Okay,
you want to talk about artists not making as much money. When I first
got started, Bone Thugs was being nominated at the American Music Awards, and
my boss was coming out when the bosses whom New York was coming out,
and he's like, hey, we're gonna, uh, we're gonna get the
music director and program director from the Beat to go with us. You know,
we got to do good now, right and I I let me see,
we just got going. I remember I just had borrowed money for my
dad to hook up PG and E service. That's that's where the money was
at at that moment, right, married two kids. At this point,
LA deposits all this kind of stuff. So it goes to show you're getting
out the American Music Awards and a limo and you just had to ask your
dad to borrow PG. Yeah. So the Beat guys ended up they couldn't
go. They ended up they could and go this. So we had two
extra fifth row right American Musical Ward tickets with a n after party. So
my boss and I'm like, well, they're just gonna put fillers in the
seat, people dressed up. I go. Knowing I didn't have much money,
I said, hey, let me go. Let me so I did
the Yeah, oh, I profiled because I didn't want to pick a lunatic
that would get me called when they run and tackle Mariah Carey live on the
New York Feed. But I was like, hey, I found this couple
and they looked like I said, hey, face value, no more than
face value. It was almost like three hundred each or something. He's like
yeah, yeah, gosh, yeah that Quickly I went back to my boss
split half said here you go, man, there you go. So they
sat next to me the whole time. You think I'd remember their names,
but that was you know, getting out of the lima limo with hardly any
money in your bank account. Sure, I wasn't the only one after the
record label run? When was it where you decided to get back consider the
radio game. I know the I know the exactly I go this story.
You'll know why. I worked in New York and saw how much indies made
independent. Yeah, yet the guys that Attorney General New York of Elliott Spitzer
went after them. And now, right, it don't matter what company you
work at, right, there's always ad adndum at the bottom. We take
training right online, training about Paola, where we're all trained on what you
can and cannot do. Jizo can't have a buddy that has a fish restaurant
and just off the cup, like, hey, what a great fish restaurant.
Here address, and here's he's got to go through the sales department.
So there was a lot of Plugola Paola in radio going way back in the
days. Right, But these guys, the independence, I think it's around
two thousand and seven, they got popped in. It really kind of burst
the bubble. But I saw the invoices we were paying these independent guys,
and I thought, all it takes is relationships in radio to be an independent,
That's all that it is. And I said, I have those so
make long story real long, moved back to California, started detections of music,
my own company named after my first son, Dominic dom Detections of Music
dom and I got a few stations, went with McCluskey and Chicago who funded
it, and I was making more money than I ever made my life.
And I was working a day and a half a week. I mean,
because I don't want to get into the whole world of how independence blocked the
record companies from how they forced them to work with them, because that really
was the whole setup out there. It was all above board, but they
blew it up with Elliott Spitzer. But I was taking some promotional CDs off
to the side of the answer Your Question to the side of the house to
throw them away from my truck, and my son, who's now thirty in
the Air Force, was eight on his bike. Dad, damn, wait,
don't's music away? What are you doing? And I said, it's
not good music, Dominic like it was something I let them eight ball and
mjby, I don't want my eight year old. Now I go, it's
not good music Dominica go, And he goes, why did they send it
to you? I had a moment of stun like hypocrisy because I was protect
I shield them from you know, they got to listen to what I mean.
It was so fun to have people and that would send Hillary Duff advanced
stuff to my daughter. You know, they were all into music and what
were the boy bands? I can't eating we're all into that. I didn't
want him in the eight ball and MJG kind of crap, That's what I
was throwing away. But I shielded them from stuff that I knew I was
promoting to other other kids. And it's kind of like I felt like I
said, go ride your bike, and it bothered me for months. And
I told the wife at the time to a divorce that I felt like,
I want to try news talk radio. And I was kind of quietly.
You didn't go to college. Neither did Rush Limbaugh. More. I listened
to Glenn Beck's and in my office, to my independent production music office down
there. You know, working a day and a half gives you a lot
of time to listen to news talk. And I listened more and more.
And I'd always listen to Rush, and I was always into politics. But
I thought I can't talk for three yeah, and I Eventually, after talking
to a pastor the church, I went to, can you imagine getting advice
from a man that looks like and talks like Martin Luther King? That would
make you listen? I mean, Pastor read it, read it? Andrew,
he was dead on Martin Luther King. So he's like, Trevor,
is what you're involved in? Because you know, there's a lot of dealings
that were going. Is it? Is it on the up and up?
Is it? Is it good or evil? There's a lot of evil.
Well even after some evil. I said yeah. He said, well,
then you know what God wants you to do? And I didn't do it.
I thought God wanted me to do. I kept doing it for a
while, right, but then I just like, do I want to do
this or as? Is this what I want to? You know, other
people's talent being based I'm good or not? You know, hey, good
job or not good job? Based on how good somebody else sang or raped
or something. It kind of felt a little empty and shallow, even though
it was it paid good money to do it. But I just said I'm
gonna try news talk and I did and it worked. You know, Jesse
and I come from like we said the music side of it, where we
would turn in air checks. That's how that's how I was trying to get
an audition by turning in a sample of how we would sound on the radio.
How does it work for news talk? How did you? How did
you look for a job? You know what? I did that industry to
get started. While we were in the process of the divorce, we went
back to Colorado. Both set your grandparents were back there. So I got
a job at Alis one O five nine in Denver to have a production room,
right, And so I would listen to KOA, one of our iHeart
stations in Denver, news talk, and I would literally with a pen and
paper write down what they were saying. And then I went back and put
it into my own kind of words and just made a demo and mailed it
out. And there was a talk station in Denver back when American Idol was
just starting they did called talk Idol, send in your three minutes and bill
if we almost like one of like our want to be a DJ. He
did those. Yeah. Yeah, So for talk radio there was something like
that as a contest Talk Idol. Yeah, that's funny. And I was
coming back from a divorce family court thing in California. My dad picked me
up the airport in Denver and goes, oh, you got a call.
They want you to do the audition for the talk, and I'm like at
that moment, I was like, no, I'm not doing it. And
that was my first thing when it was real. I thought, you kind
of shook. Oh yeah, I was like, I can't. I can
talk for a little while and some music going, but no. I walked
into that audition with a suitcase like I was going on an airplane. I
had that much prep. I couldn't talked for two weeks, and I was
amazed how little of it I went through that first. But if I went
back and listen to that now, it's horrible. Yeah, that's what I
think about. Listening to that old air checks probably sounds so bad. I
have mine. I have a suitcase of cassettes from eighty four on. Really,
we were just talking about that. I wish I would have saved mine.
I don't have any of my cassettes anymore. It's weird. I can
do a break. Here's somebody laugh in the background, and remember who it
was, Oh wow, and that they were holding a dairy Queen Freezy.
You know the memories come back. Listen to those old air checks. Did
you win that idol concess? No? The station changed format a few months,
and then I got an audition in Albuquerque, and then are you this
has a way way way local tie in here? I was mailing it out
everywhere, and I would even get people call back and go, are you
on koa? Because I used their imaging eight to fifty KOA? And then
it meets I made it sound real. I said, no, it's just
something I've made up in the in there. But it was a program director
in Bakershield named Blake Taylor who's over with Cumulus at KMJ here our competitor to
power TUK. So he calls me from Bakersfield he went, and he goes,
hey, we got a night opening. You interested? Yeah, Wow,
Yeah, And it ended up they didn't have the budget for it,
so it didn't happen. But he just by chance happened to be on the
phone talking to a general manager in Colorado, north of Denver and Greeley.
He goes, there's a guy in Denver there that's looking to do talk.
So he put us together and I bartered I did chicken for a bag of
grain. I said, you give me ten at night till one in the
morning, and I get commercials, and I get eight commercials throughout the day,
and he went deal. I went all right, as a page like
as your pay, my pay. It was barter. I didn't get paid.
But see I had the first minute of each stop break that were mine
to go sell. So I was a salesman and a talk so oh,
okay, I get it. But hey, as we know, it's it's
real hard to sell midnight, isn't there. Yeah, but that was yeah,
yeah. That was during the housing crisis in Colorado had way over built.
So I went out to this builder and I said, hey, man,
I'll give you commercials at night on my show, and I'll give you
all eight during the day. Because he had empty places out there and it
worked out. I couldn't believe. I was like, this only has to
be God making this happen, as he said, because I needed a place
to live, right, but I didn't have a If I left Alice in
Denver, I wasn't going to have a paycheck. I was going to be
bartering. So I had to immediately have a place to live. This builder
gives me three subdivisions. He goes, here's key A, B C for
the uh, the ones that they show the model hotel. Yeah, he
goes go pick one. Wow, that's cool, so bam. So then
what happened was, Hey, I'm on at night in Colorado. Hello,
Bakersfield, you want to put me on? Yeah? So I'm syndicated right
like that, just like your first talk radio first talk radio gig. I'm
on in two places. So uh, seven months into it, the baker
Shilt station told me I'm not Handity enough and they dropped me because I was
Rampaul, I was against the Republicans. I wasn't for Bush. I hated
the word. I just wasn't quote Hannity enough. So that was my current
competitor. Program director across the street told me, I wasn't Hannity enough.
Now I'm taking him on. Who do I come on after? Handed?
Now here is the stranger story to this. All our bosses here, the
area regional president for what what, Steve Darnell now spoke Anne down to southern
California. So he was back then working Yeah, riverside, he's all over
and he's our boss here in this building and he was at that time working
in Bakersfield, commuting from President to bakers driving working at a radio station.
There's sales, and I had people in Denmer going, you're doing what you
left Alice one oh five nine to go to Tenant night and you're not getting
a paycheck. Little did I know I was auditioning for my future boss because
he would listen to my show in Bakersfield when he was driving here and then
I ended up boom, I mean de Fresno and he's here. So little
do you know when you're working for free, just hustling, that you're literally
auditioning for your future boss when you were doing your you know, talk radio
when in the beginning stages of it. We always like a subject that Gesso
and I always bring up is when we started, we used to emulate people
we heard in our before we found our voices. Did who were you listening
to? Was there someone you were trying to compare yourself to. I think
in music radio that's easier to do, like I remember always trying to be
Hollywood Hamilton with the sadus and true, and I think it is I guess
it. In talk would be more policy driven, like I'm true. Who
do you listen to because I'll tell you right now, my critique of talk
radio is they need to top forty it up some it's like because you got
guys that have never been in radio. Guy, all right, cut seven
go. You know on my show Bam, I just fire it and it's
and it's there and my bumper music I run. You almost have that radio
mentality that music radio with the talk radio content. And if you hear my
show, it sounds different than it sounds. I call it top forty talk
because it's moving, it's kind of it's audio and I don't say. And
here's what Gavin Newsom had to say at his press conference on Tuesday, roll
that I'm going, can you believe what he said? And the next thing
you hear is Gavin talking. That is true. Sometimes when I'm listening to
the talk radio, you hear like a lot of dead airs. You can
hear the papers shuffling. They made know a couple of seconds and then they
start talking. I'll even hear people eating. If I hear I would fire
somebody if I was a boss and I heard somebody eating them, Yeah,
that's somebody's ear. Yeah right, yeah, yeah, This is something I've
witnessed in person. Because you know, like I said, when we do
remote broadcast and there's a board off that Trevor has to communicate with, he
always likes his show super tight. Yeah, the volume right, everything from
hitting the sweepers out right. Yeah, I respect yeah, man, because
I'm the same way I like things sounding. Here's the thing. The listener
doesn't quite know all the time why they liked something. It's a feeling it
gives them and not having let me ask a question of you, guys,
is it Do you like the freedom of doing a podcast long form like this,
not having an intro that you got to talk over with. Yeah,
it's definitely a switch up. It's a you know, we can talk longer
on certain topics, we can say what we want, and we do like
it. It's kind of the biggest reason why we started it, honestly,
for sure. The same. Yeah. Now, let me ask you you
ever had any aspirations of as you age in this industry because a lot of
people do that of doing talk to switch to talk radio. Yeah, I
don't know. Things. It can get you fired. Go ahead say it
doesn't hard, but you know, because you do what's three hours, and
I think if we add it up all the time we talk in it's probably
like five minutes honestly, if time that we talk in a show. So
just when I think of what you do and the amount of content that you
have to talk about, it just seems like a lot. But then to
your point, we're just doing it on a podcast essentially, So that's the
difference. I guess For me, I'm sort of real with myself. I
feel like I'm not a great talker, let's leave. Okay, especially watching
you, I've seen you. I prep though I'm not a great talker for
sure, but I mean even I feel like I don't have a great vocal
Like I don't have great vocabulary. It's my words are super simple. But
you know, I like listening to Howard Stern and you know you, and
yeah, I feel like I can't do it. Well that's that's being honest,
all right, Yeah, yeah, out that way too. Remember when
my dad told me, my reaction was, ah, I don't think I
want to do this, man, I can't. I can't do it,
but I call it now. I had a buddy that did talk in Phoenix
for a year and he was like every show. He's like, right when
it got done, I was like, oh, another one's tomorrow. Ah,
And I said, yes, that's what it's like for a year or
two. But then you start to trust the process. My prep process is
so key. If I don't have that, throw it away, I'd be
phoning it in. Do you ever get in those situations where you're prepping in
You're just I don't have enough content to get through an hour old? Well,
so we live in California. Yeah, there's always something to talk about.
I wake up and content is just waiting for me. Right, Yeah,
it would be hard maybe to do a talk show if hey, everything's
pretty good, Yeah, nothing going on? You kind of needed I Hey,
there were some people I know, including myself, depressed when Biden became
president, and I said, all right, we're depressed, but hey it's
good for business. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like it is,
it really is. I'm let's switch it up a little bit with some
little fun questions that you know, I'm interested about throughout your long career.
Any live interviews that stand out to you, like, you know obviously you
Mets the Levens. Ready, ready, okay, record, here's one Southeast
I donety seven seven, just a few days away from Christmas here in the
studio. I can't believe it, man, I'm so wow. You're one
of my favorite Mary J. Blige welcome, man. Wow. And she's
got her hood hoodie up and I can't really see her face as she's over
by the mic right here. OK, something like that. She just said
something I said, and I don't remember how the whole interview went, but
I went, uh, you got any old Christmas memories? Is I'm trying
to keep out you got any old Christmas memories of like one of your favorite
gifts you got in your little girl or something like that? Dolls head,
A doll's head, She said, a dolls How do you respond after that?
You respond by, did you say a doll's head? And she nods.
It's on the radio, so she's nodding. It went probably a minute
twenty two seconds or something. Well, thank you Mary J. Blige for
coming in. Merry Christmas. The record guy was like this. They were
leaving, like, hey, she's been weird all day, man, I'm
sorry always something so that one sticks out in my mind now. When we
had to pull out of Afghanistan and I had a trustee of the school board,
Major Terry Sladeck, Marine and his interpreter when he was over there serving
John, his interpreter was running from the Talmont and his sister. They'd already
killed his mom, and we had him on the phone live on the air,
and I thought it was going to be a yes, mister Sladick,
a major sletic, thank you, I'm going to remain strong and you hang
in there, John, We're here for you, buddy. I thought it
was gonna be one of those. But it was a man crying terror.
And I got to see why the trustee was also a major, because at
that moment, live talking to down on the other side of the world,
he went into being a commander like what you would do to a soldier,
like, soldier, get a hold of yourself. So that was life changing.
Now, I'll tell you he made it out, His sister made it
out. John'son Sacramento, married and has a baby now. But that Mary
J. Blige and that there you go. Yeah, there's the two extremes.
You know. You you talk about the different cities you've done radio in.
How about one story of I'm assuming you've been fired? Oh yeah,
yeah, because I you know, I've told my story in the podcast.
How about is there a wild story of you getting fired from one of these
stations? January seventeenth, nineteen ninety four. Is that what you're doing?
Oh? My goodness, San Jose. Right before I was on doing ten
to three, a lot of music directors then did the midday shift. You
remember those days? Really? Yeah, so you have your music call time
anyhow. But I got the message right before I went on at ten,
and it was in a business community park up there. So I walked out
of the station and went got something from a little restaurant there, went sat
on a park bench and just let it soak in. All right, I
just got fired, And what happens? There's somebody filling in for me,
at least a Fox. I remember she went down to work with That's all
famili with Ryan Seacrest. She was down in l a Ryan Seacrest and Lisa
Fox. She was at that time though, in San Jose. So she
came to fill in at ten, to fill in for the guy that just
got fired. So who calls the hotline but my wife, right highest Trevor
there. You know that's a hard place to put her in, right,
I don't even remember if she said, well he got fired or something,
but yeah, that's that was the toughest because even the guy that fired me
said, it's not right, it's not you know, as they always say,
it's it's not you, it's odd. Yeah, the budget, it's
all. Yeah. So yeah, that was a but that's what eventually let
me go to the going doing some record stuff. So how long have you
been in Fresno Powers Hog? How long? Nine years now? And hey,
the longest I'd ever lived anywhere my entire life was four Oh wow,
so more than double, more than doubled. I just sometimes got to take
a different street to work because I get tired of the same, the routine.
But that sense of being rooted, I well, now I can understand
it a little bit more. You know somebody that's been there their whole life,
that's really deep rooted. Yeah, for sure, definitely is you've seen
the you know, the rise of radio, you know all these years.
Something that I'm interested in your thoughts is where do you see it going with?
You know, you've seen as us, we've seen so many people get
let go. This building used to have hundreds of employees. Now you can
count them with two hands. Where do you think the future of radio is
going the way you just said? I think that there's a lot of mistakes
made. When you walk into a crowded party and you look around a room
filled with people and you see somebody that you recognize or not, you're drawn
there. You know them. There are people in Fresno that no Jozone,
no Trevor. We live here, We drive on this streets, we talk
about the same potholes, we experience the same kind of weather. We know
what presno State's record is. We know what the issues and problems are,
what's good, what's bad, So that I mean people are drawn to that.
So the more local, local, local that you can be, I
think is the direction that it should go. Because if everything becomes national and
generic. You think about it, when you sit down to watch TV anymore,
they got thousands of choices, you feel overwhelmed, right, And I
think a lot of people they don't recognize anything. I hear all these podcasts
on my show that are being advertised. How does a podcast you know,
you got your Joe Rogan's you got your This is going to get me fired?
You know I'm putting you up there? Yeah, right next to But
I guess my question now is how does content stick out? Right? Because
people always say, well radio I've had people say well radio is going away
man with technology and on I go, well maybe it will, but whatever,
there's going to need content. So I'm content whether and a lot of
people my mom and dad listen on the app in Tennessee. I'm always thinking
how can I spread that online? You know, to get people listen to
the app online, the iHeartRadio app or go to power Talk ninety six seven
dot com and click listen life you almost how do you market that in the
sea of tens of thousands of choices? Right? Yeah, I know they
have our rankings. Did you get to see your iHeart ranking? No,
I haven't seen it. With podcasts, no, No, I just know
I looked at it and thought, all right, I got to catch c
K on there. But yeah, they have those check that out. Yeah
yeah, all right, Well I mean that's all I got. Yeah,
man, anything you want to add or let people know when they could listen
to you to the show, Oh yeah, three to six Monday through Friday
and all the podcasts I got five two and forty two hours up. Wow,
And you can get all these podcasts PowerTalk ninety six to seven dot com.
But you know what I don't like about the art podcasting is online when
you go down and you have to hit so many to get it, like
a month or two back, and if you click on one, it takes
you right back to the top again. Noticed. Yeah, so all right,
can you guys send an email and get that fix. Yeah, we'll
get that fixed. Hi, Trevor Kerrey. Until next time, John Magic
Gizzo. This could give me for our podcasts.