Do you hear that?
Me neither.
Nothing even resembling a podcast has happened in quite some time. Not only have Marc and I been busy trying to get our mystery project up and running, I’ve actually been . . . oh what do they call that again?
Oh yes.
Working.
In the last few weeks, I’ve done a commercial for Kmart, voiced roles in the new Rob Zombie movie, worked on Phineas and Ferb, and on Thursday, I’ll be doing Penguins, which is a Disney series from the people behind Madagascar. Can you believe that? If I wasn’t so drunk, I’d think I was hallucinating.
I’m not completely sure when we’re going to get another podcast up, but from reading your comments, I can tell you have to get something to listen to pretty quickly. You’ve stopped short of actual threats, but it’s an uneasy peace.
So today I’m uploading three new highlight reels, which you can get here (or at the bottom of this post). What I think makes these worthwhile is that they’re from my first years at KFI, and they’re completely ridiculous.
I fondly recall this period as sort of the tail end of a great period in local radio. Clear Channel hadn’t yet hadn’t yet gotten to the stage where they demanded right-wing conservative blathering from every gasbag they hired, and little fish like me were largely alone to create their own formats. And since I had no sponsors and only did weekends, KFI management didn’t really give a shit what I was doing.
Obviously, not everything I tried was successful, but the failures were entertaining in their own right. It was all part of trying to create a new kind of radio that was more about amusing people than irritating them.
It was great for a while, but the burnout was inevitable. No matter how hard I worked or what I accomplished, I was just a placeholder for another clone. Talk radio would continue to be distilled down to a few personalities, and even fewer points of view.
And I think that’s really the best indicator of how very out of step Clear Channel is. Terrestrial radio is in financial freefall, and the first thing they cut from ther budgets are local hosts. As podcasting explodes, corporate radio responds by giving us fewer voices.
Yeah.
I hope you enjoy these highlight reels. I like to think we’re heading back to this kind of freedom.
I like to think we’re going to demand it.
KFI Highlight Reel: July - September 2002
KFI Highlight Reel: March - November 2002
KFI Highlight Reel: November 2001 - June 2002
(Many thanks to SoCalFKK for sitting through endless hours of marginal entertainment to put these Highlight Reels together.)
9 responses so far ↓
1 ListenerJustin // Apr 30, 2008 at 9:53 am
Unless it’s already been found and uploaded onto the site, I’m just PRAYING for April to find a tape from the beginning with Best Friend Roy and the naked Brazilian housecleaner. That was the first show I heard, and I almost drove off the freeway laughing.
2 jim // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:03 am
Thanks for this - your super-sized extra-bitter Early Years are always worth lending an ear to.
I think with the rise of podcasts, people are simply replacing radio outright - we already tried both asking nicely & demanding, neither of which was very productive.
Our reward was the sonic felching of Bill-O, Rush Limbaugh or Bob Larson, or more bad overhyped Top-40 “music” - because we’re not really people, you see, we’re a product to be pimped to sponsors.
Take a look at how newspapers are on their way to rigor mortis - that’s radio in a couple of years. The main difference?
Radio makes a lousy birdcage-liner.
3 April // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:04 am
There’s a clip in the first hour of the 2nd Anniversary Show.
4 PeekaBooRevue // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:11 am
Hey what ever happened to Mr. Porn?
5 ListenerJustin // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:23 am
I found the clip a while back, but it just doesn’t capture the full event. The dead air spoke volumes, bringing clearly to my mind the images of dropped jaws and Windex. It was some of the most awkward radio I’ve ever heard, and it was just hysterical. Sorry, I think I’ve pestered you about that full segment a hundred times by now.
6 phoebefigalilly // Apr 30, 2008 at 11:55 am
Oh that was a blast listening to these again! My early favorite always was someone mistaking you for Melinda Lee asking for a recipe for Hungarian Goulash. I made an mp3 of that moment and I still wet myself whenever I listen to it, but that is another story for another day.
7 like a gopher // Apr 30, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Glad to hear you are getting work! I just hope you can take time out of your schedule to comment on Paula Abdul’s recent AI (Artificial Idol) gaffe!
8 inerror // Apr 30, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Mister K Responds to his Critics
9 pal Jacky // Apr 30, 2008 at 2:26 pm
can i