Oscar Ramirez of “The Daily Dive”

parents house? The thirty ye old Michael Rotondo, The time had come and went, so much so that his parents took legal action to evict him from their house. His parents sent him a number of eviction notices and finally took him to court, but Michael was still fighting to stay. Oscar Amirez, friend, good to have you on the show.

Thanks for having me, Maddie. I'm pretty excited about about the new podcast, The Daily Dive, And I'm really excited for you, Oscar, because you're somebody who has worked a lot as a producer and this is this is the first show where you're the star. How do you feel about that? I'm pretty excited you're right. I mean, I've been producing for such a long time, and I had, like, I had a podcast way back in the day, you know when we all start out and we have you know,

our little pet projects. I had one with a buddy of mine, Mondo Hernandez, and you know, it was just about music. It was about a couple of other random stuff, news news items. But yeah, this is the first thing that I've kind of been able to call my own now, so I'm very excited. Well, I'm a I'm a fan of a good radio story because I never have met anybody who has like a boring radio story of how they got into radio. So don't don't don't be the first. Um,

how did you end up in this wacky career. Well, like I said, I I had my friend Mondo, who I was working with at another station. We were doing live and local show. I was just, you know, kind of an intern. I would work on some web stuff, but we're doing a live in local show with the host. We were in l a. But we were doing our show for Denver, Colorado, and we did that for a few years. We doubled up. We had another show that was for El Paso, Texas, but it was the same thing.

It was this live and local thing that we were trying to accomplish, and out of live in local in El Paso, based out of l A. That was the deal that our host had and and then two thou eight hit and everything crashed. So I got laid off for a little bit. And then I was I kept emailing people here at KFI, which where I where I started the rest of my radio career, and I said, hey, I'm available, let me help. I have some board up experience, and they brought me on board. I started as a

board up UM. I moved into producing a food show called The Fork Report with Neil Savedro. We would do you know, have restaurants come in, bring us some food, We taste of food, We talked about food and news items. There was a lot of fun. I moved on into producing associate producing for the John and Ken Show on KFI UM. Then I got my own chance to host the Gary and Shannon Show. I was the main producer for that and I was just doing all that stuff for over the course of like seven years, I believe.

And now I moved on into another role at the station, and then the Daily Dive podcast came along, so I was able to go through there. But it was just you know, constant different shows, learning a bunch of different stuff, you know, from board op to producing, hosting. It's I've just kind of run the whole gamut. I I'm a fan of the starting at board up and working your way up, but I think most of us started, uh in radio. I don't think a lot of people understand.

You know, I'm a I'm a producer by by trade, um, but I don't think a lot of people understand, like what all a producer is responsive before. I know it's different from every show, but you know, what are some of the things both glamorous and unglamorous that you have found yourself doing as as the producer of a of a radio show. You don't have to be specific if it's something bad, no, I mean, well, you know, the most unglamorous parts I think are when you're hounding down guests.

You know, it's it's tough to always, you know, be calling somebody over and over and hey, I need somebody, can you come on? And you know that can get a little tiresome sometimes. But on the other flip side, you know, when you really get a great segment together and the host knocks it out and everybody's really happy, and the listeners chime in on social media and they say, we really enjoyed that. I mean, that really makes it

feel really good. You can't you can't really replace that feeling because you know, it's touching people and people are enjoying it and having fun. And that's really what makes me feel pretty proud about, you know, producing some good segments. I would say with radio that the highs are very high and the lows can be pretty low. It it can be emotionally straining, especially in this business where, um, you know, things get changed oftentimes when you have no

say in it. You know, when it comes to hosts and shows and they're here and they're gone. Um. Have you found that to be true as well as far as the emotional taxings of this career, totally? Uh. You know, it's not terribly difficult what we do. It's not physically taxing a lot of times, but it's stressful. It's mentally taxing. Um. And you know, when you're on live radio, hitting that clock is really important. You have to make sure a segment times out. You gotta hit your breaks. So the

commercials can play. You've got to conceptualize a segment in your head so that it all times out. And you know, depending on on the station, sometimes you have you know, seven eight minutes up to ten minutes for a segment. You gotta make sure it fits, and you gotta make sure it lasts the whole the whole segment to you don't want to run short. Um. So yeah, it's totally

stressful a lot of times. And and like I said, you know when you're especially when you're trying to track down guests that are part of an emotional story, you know, maybe part of a tragedy, those are really tough to handle because you want to be sensitive to the guests. But the same time, you know it's very newsworthy and you you got to get it for your listeners. Did you find that you fall into the category of news

junkie or is it something you do at work? Uh? No, I have become a news junkie when I first started. You know, obviously pay attention to the news what's going on, But once you get into producer mode, you're kind of always working. Even you know, you go I would go home, sit down in the couch, pull my phone out and look at my news apps, and I'd start saving stories for tomorrow for the next day. Uh, start making notes. Oh,

this would be a great guest to get. So you kind of just become the news junkie just because it's part of your job. So no, I would do it all all the time, at work, at home, anytime. The good part about being a news junkie and being your job is that you can write anything off for taxes. According to my accountant in New York, he he thinks any meal, anytime I talk about anything, hey, that's a write off, Matt said, talk about this, that's a write off.

That's a rite off. So hey, just keep that in mind. By wife works in media also, and it's the same thing like our Hulu and Netflix, and it's like it's show prep. You know, you're you're of a younger generation of of folks working in news. Do you feel that that there's a passion for paying attention to what's going on the world? Um, now, as much as it has

been in the past. I'll just give you my two cents on I teach at a university, so um, I don't think that the students realize that their news junkies, but they spend so much time on social media that they actually do know a lot about what's going on in the world. Do you feel that, Um, you know your generation is as informed or or not. I I kind of tend to agree with with exactly what you

said about the social media stuff. I mean, it's it's different now, I feel, Um, you know, we're looking at our snapchats and our Instagrams and you're getting news items through there. You know, Snapchat in particular has a whole bunch of different you know, their stories that they tell, but they're all kind of loosely related news items, and you can even subscribe to a bunch of news items. Um. So I think people are informed. There's just a different

way they absorb the information. They'll get it through their Facebook. Um I don't think. Maybe a lot of people don't necessarily read as much like a classic newspaper, but they follow their blogs, they follow their social media. So yeah, they are informed. It's just a different way of taking in the information. Uh So, Yeah, I just feel but I think also, uh, you know, with this latest election, people went into overdrive. They wanted to know what happened,

what's going on now? They're going into overdrive trying to find more stories, trying to find out what's going on, keeping in touch with what's happening every day. That's all. We have so many crazy political stories happening constantly because everybody just wants to know more and more about it. Well,

I I tell people this all the time. Donald Trump is the best thing to have happened to an uneducated electorate where um, people who were before Trump, an uneducated electorate who didn't pay attention to what's going on in government, does not not paying attention to what bills are passed or who's secretary of whatever they do. Now this is he This, his little reality show has helped create a world where um, people are more interested in do you agree?

I totally agree? Um, you know it, whether you agree with his politics or not. When the election happened, you know, we all remember those pictures that were widely circulated where people just look dumbfounded there like how could Hillary lose? And how could Donald Trump win? I think that really caused a stern a lot of people where they said, well, now I really need to look into what the process is,

how does this all work? Because I didn't know what was going on before, and a lot of people I have friends that say, oh, I don't vote, I don't care. It doesn't make you know, it doesn't help, it doesn't impact anything. But people started realizing you have to pay attention, you have to be part of the process so that you know you can get what you want, so you can be represented the way you feel he should be represented.

So I totally agree. I think it he has been great for business, um, and and for people just getting involved, learning more about the process, knowing what's going on with your country. Yeah, but the flip side, it has caused a lot of a lot more divisiveness as far as the news that we're we're where we get um where before UM, you might have felt that CNN was more uh you know, maybe maybe not so liberally slanted, and

now they're totally cast as the anti Trump network. Uh. Fox has always been that way, so they're not surprising anybody. But we see so much more what what people were saying are partisan news, and I think that's where we can steer this into what you're trying to do with the Daily Dive, which is trying to take that out of there a little bit. Yeah, you know, in the time that I've been in radio, there was a time

where it was very left right, national type news. You know, we had the big people like Rush Limbaugh and things like that, and then it kind of changed. In my opinion, I think it changed a little. It where it was trying to be a little more straight, a little more center. Let's just give you the facts. You can determine things on your own. But with this latest election, it kind

of seemed to go back a little bit. Everybody's in their own corners again and fighting tooth and nail to you know, be proven right or to say, hey, my guys, is the right guy? Um so? I yeah, I think it's definitely been in that end. With the podcast, you know, I I try to evaluate issues on both sides all the time. You know, everybody has a valid opinion. Let's explore those things. Let's talk about this side, let's talk about that side, and the listener can make their own conclusions.

I'm not here to tell you what to think, but I'm gonna here, gonna I'm gonna give you some I'm gonna give you some information and then, like I said, you make the determination. So do you find that that's hard to not have ah, somebody interpret something as a

spin when you report a story. Oh totally. I mean we can even with other shows that I've done, Uh what I would talk to the host after and we'd say, you know, we'd a really good right there, we kind of right in the middle, and then we'll get social media feedback that says, hey, you'r way this way or your way on the right, and we look at each

other and say, is that really what happened? You know, we don't really understand how some people hear different things, but a lot of times people hear what they want to hear. So yeah, it is kind of difficult to stay right in the middle. And but like I said, that's the effort. I'm gonna give you the information and let's have you determine what what should think after that. What have you learned? Um, the podcast has been out for a few weeks now, what what have you learned

so far in your podcasting journey? Mm hmm. It's an interesting question. Uh, it's a lot tougher than I thought that. The daily thing, Uh really comes up on you fast. You know. When we had our let's say our regular shows that I would produce before, you know, we'd always have the our clock. We knew what time we were

going on. With the podcast, it's a little more free wheelings of Sometimes we'll try to book guests, will be waiting on, you know, somebody to bite, and then we'll have to rush into the studio and and and do something really quick. So I think just kind of how quick time goes by really Uh, I'm kind of learning that,

you know, it goes by in a flash. Yeah. I think that when you do a daily podcast, there's there's a lot of things that people don't realize they go into it when they listen to um, you know shows like The Daily from the New York Times. You know that they've got a whole host of people working on them. You've got a pretty soma staff. Um, you know what what is you know, what is one thing that that happens daily that that the listener would have no idea went into a segment? Well, like I said, you just

alluded to. Uh, you know other podcasts that have this big infrastructure like The Daily, you know they have the the New York Times behind them. Uh, they're always you know, working on stories. So when a story is gonna break, they say, hey, I got this big scoop. Let's do this for the podcast, you know it have a super small staff on this side, so we're we have to

wait for a story to develop. Then we'll chase down those leads, get the right the right person to talk to somebody who's been working that story, and then we'll go ahead and we'll do the the interview, will uh will dissect the case. We'll we'll dissect the the the issue. So I think that's kind of where where we're at. You know, we're a small staff. It's we're always waiting to see what's developing and then going that way. Do you have a favorite episode that you've done so far?

We just did when that went up yesterday or today for the Lorely Anything. I just I thought it was hilarious. It was the version of the dress. And I just love those things that everybody can really relate to so easily. You know, you hear it and instantly you have an opinion about it. So I always love those, and we the angle that we took was let's find out who started who started the you know, who found the audio, who act who actually recorded the audio, and then uh,

you know, what does it all mean? And just briefly. You know, it was a high school freshman who was studying for one of her exams, went onto vocabulary dot Com and click the link for Laurel to hear what it sounded like, just so she can study her note cards. And then we go back and find out that vocabulary dot Com ten years ago hired an opera singer to read like thirty thousand words for their website. So it's

an opera singer who voiced it. And then beyond that, you know what it does, what your brain does to it, how you hear it, and and and then everybody else, you know, like I said, just has a quick opinion about it. You hear this or you hear that, and it's you're on both sides of it. So I just love those things. And and it was one of my favorite episodes that we just did recently. Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so glad you explained it too, because I didn't get to hear it yet. So are you are you

a Yanni or Laurel guy? So here's what happened. I listened to it the first time and clearest can be, it was Yanni, And to play it from my wife and I'm it was completely Laurel, and it's been Laurel ever since. So um, it's really odd. I mean, it completely switched on me, and now I can't hear Yanny at all. So yeah, I was Yanni person from the beginning. Um. For the podcast, what we did was we changed the pitch higher and lower, and then you at one point

you can hear the crossover, but even beyond that. Later, when we were editing the podcast, in my headphones, I heard Laurel and I said, what, I never heard Laurel before. I ripped my headphones off and turned the speakers on my computer up, and it went back to Yanny. So it's it's all over the place. It depends what speakers you're using, headphones, It's a lot of different factors. But the definitive answer is that it's Laurel because it's came from vocabulary dot com read by an opera singer ten

years ago. I think that one thing I loved about the whole thing is that I love it when people get nerdy about audio because in our business, we do, you know, we know what to look. We look at wave forms. Were you know, I'm looking at one right now, was and recording this, uh, and it's fun to see other people get in and get into that, and I think it's it also speaks to the to the importance of of audio and humans lives, and it's one of the things that we get to do with podcasters is

really touch that emotion that only audio can touch. I agree, and you know, just briefly touching still on this Yanni Laurel thing, I was trying to do some researchers what's going on, what's going on? Um, trying to find out some explainer videos and this one guy had totally had me.

He says, you gotta divide the audio into stereo. And he's like, see you have the two channels here and you see the two different wave forms, and he's like, and then you press this button and then he played the rick Roll song and I'm like, oh my god, I can't believe I just felt for this whole thing. But but You's like, I'm trying to find out what

the secret is, UM. But yeah, you know, and beyond that with this whole podcast a phenomenon that's going huge now everybody is trying to do podcast it is you know, you want to you want to take in information you want to take in stories on your own time. There's a lot of compelling storytelling with um, you know, classics like Sereal and I say classics even though it's only a few years old, right, um, but just really compelling storytelling that you can take in on your own time.

And and you know, I tried to take into some good podcasts as as often as I can, just because I love long form storytelling. And uh. I obviously we do something daily here because it's we're more news focused, but I'll always take the time to go back and listen to somebody something that somebody put together over the course of weeks. Uh, you know, an episode of a week or something like that, just because you connect with the stories a lot more. Well, that's a great transition

into our final segment. It's called three killer questions. Are you ready? I'm ready? All right, oscar. If there was a podcast featuring any person living or dead, who would you want to listen to? Oh? Wow, podcast with anybody living or dead, and they could be you can combine them too. Oh man, that is that is such a hard question. Um. I should probably send this out ahead of time, but I don't feel like you get a true A response. That's that's a that's a really tough one.

Who up in your head? Yeah, let's see. I don't know. I automatically jump into music just because I'm a such a huge music fan and I I just think of some of the people that I've really been into lately. You know. I love John Legend, kind of that R and b uh and soulful sound. I love. He's a Canadian DJ k Tronada. I don't know Anderson Pack. I just feel like I would really like I'm really into their stuff. I just really feel like i'd want to have them explain their whole process. I don't know, I

just I would go that music angle. I don't know why. All right, What was the first piece of technology that you used it changed your life that you said, hey, this is this is it, this is this is going to change things that I thought change stuff. I mean, going back to a childhood, my first Nintendo. There you go. I really I was such a video game nerd, video

game kid growing up. I think I would cry and beg for my parents to buy me the latest consoles as they came out, and I still game occasionally to this date. But I that really got me into the technology front. I just you know, the seeing the little avatars move on the screen and me controlling them with a controller. That that I loved that stuff. What was the last podcast that you binged? Last possible podcast today binged m It was I was listening to with my wife.

So is some my favorite murder stuff. And I love all the true crime stuff. A lot of the Golden State killer stuff just came out recently in the news. Uh, so I had to kind of see what their take was. It was a lot of that stuff. Uh. And this is a bonus question that I only asked special guests, But if you were sandwich personified, what kind of sandwich would you be? Not your favorite sandwich, but if you were a sandwich you know this goes back from my

childhood too. It would be just the ham and cheese we do, you know, simple slice kind of Deli ham, some kessel fresco. Uh, maybe a little bit of sour cream and in one of those uh buns that you would find like in any Mexican supermarket, just like in a hot summer day, you know, some nice lemonade or some or chata or something like that, and hem and cheese. Thought that. That's that's me right there. I love that. So you're you're super Mexican, is what you're saying. Oh,

I'm totally Mexican. You know, I'm first I'm first generation Mexican. My my both my parents were born in Mexico. Most of my family is Mexico. They're all naturalized citizens now. Um. But yeah, so a lot of the old, you know, things from our culture they brought along. But you know, we've been out they've been out here for any many years now, so we're fully Americanized. But yeah, it was still the food is something you just never let go of.

That's great, Oscar Ramirez. Everybody check out Daily Dive podcast on I Heart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm sure we'll be in touch again soon. Oscar. Definitely, thank you, Maddie. We'll see. That was fun. Yeah, it was a good anywhere. I like listening to guys. You guys had a good report. I like talking to people who have been producers. Yeah, you guys have a lot of comment that way. You guys know how your minds work.

Producers are the unsung, not always unsung, but some I don't think a lot of Yeah, People don't realize how much of a show is the producer, and Oscar is a very good producer and he's turned into a very good host. I really like that podcast, listen to it every morning. So today I asked you to find us three podcasts that we can listen to daily. So if we're making our Alexa podcast playlist and we wanted to have three podcasts on it. Of course we'd started the

day off with the Daily Die. Yes, what other podcast might we want to listen to every day? My first one is another one kind of in the newsy lane. Yes, so it's called up First. It's by NPR and they not only do politics, but they also do pop culture. So it's just ten minutes a day if you want a quick like bite of something first. All right, let's check it out. Well, as you heard him say, we now call it spygate. You're calling it spygate. What he

really means is he's calling it spy gate. He's branded its spygate. He's created a new narrative. Alright. See. I then tasked you with finding two new podcasts on I Heart Radio that we can let our folks know about. And what did you find this week? So if you are a fan of Shark Tank, Shark Tank, I love I have an idea for Shark Tank, you better get on there. I actually, uh is it? I don't really, but I do love watching, um folks go on there. I had an idea when I was a kid for

and listen. I thought this was a good idea that you put a radio transmitter in the house and then when people came by to look at the house that was for sale, they could turn the radio on and then here somebody telling them about the house. Actually, not a bad idea at all. I thought it was a great especially for being seventh grade. That was um. But I've already missed the boat on that alright, But a lot of people love Shark Tank, Yes, and a shark

is that what they're called? Right? Sharks on Shark Tank is Barbara Corkgrin and she's one of the only females on the show, and she's a real heavy hitter, And she has a podcast on I Heart Radio called Business Unusual, So it's really talking about her long and very successful career and how to achieve your goals if you're young entrepreneur, entrepreneur, especially if you're in your twenties because that's when she started. So yeah, it's really good if you're just starting out.

Let's check about. One of the best businesses I have ever invested in is Grace and Lace, that makes high fashion women's clothing and sells it online. This is a business that's phenomenal but born out of a very sad backstory. She's one of the you know it' you're in New York or you're from New York, you know who she is. She's very very New York. She's great. I'm excited about

that show and I liked it. It's for people in their twenties because that's when you should be getting into this, and I feel like a lot of people nowadays, I've seen a lot of people trying to get into entrepreneurship at my age twenty three, and it's nice to have resources like that. To go back to, what's your idea for Shark Tank if you have one? Honestly none none. I watched that show and I would be like, I feel like if I was a shark, I would just be like, here, just take my money. I'm so sorry.

I don't want to be mean to you, because it doesn't really mean and I just feel so bad for the you and I are complete opposites because I would be I like it. I would be like, no, that's stupid. I would be like, no, it's not. In general people, more people need to hear you know, that's stupid in their life than they do. Absolutely, But I just don't want to hear people come to me with podcast ideas

all the time. No, no, I do. I'm very honest with most people and say, you're in a way like sending them up for success, because if you just said yes to a bad idea, they would fail. And nine times out of ten, somebody's first idea for a podcast is way too general and it's and it's it's the same idea. Yeah, me and my friends are really funny when we talk and we're just gonna talk about everything, okay, good. Yeah, and they're not funny, yeah, exactly, and any to each other. Yeah,

and I know you and you're not funny. So don't you know he's not talking to me, you guys, he's talking to somebody else. Yeah, I'm talking to it. No, not you, you're you're you're hilarious. All right? What else we got? The last one is it's called Wine Down with Janna Kramer. People love her. This is my best friend and I's girl crushed for a really long time now for at least two three years. Tell people who she is if they don't know who she is. I first saw her in a like a commercial for car

insurance or something. We were like, oh my gosh, she's so cute. But then we found out she's a country singer and she is amazing, and in we found this podcast and it's really it's like talking to a friend at the end of the day. So she talks about her career, about the divorce she went through, about being a mom, and just a lot of other stuff that if you like, have a glass of wine, get it wind down with your girlfriends. It's a nice one to listen to. Now, let me tell you something about that.

The second episode, she had to address something because when the podcast came out, there was somebody else that had a name that was kind of similar to it but not really the same, and they went on this whole social media campaign against her and and poor She's like, I don't know who you are, I don't know why you hate me. I'm just doing a podcast, um, and I love the way she handled it in episode two, so if you get a chance to check out her show, I would Episode two is my favorite one so far.

She's very well spoken. Yeah, for those of you that didn't go on my Instagram or catch any the drama, I was so excited obviously, I'm like, yeah, my podcast wine downs out like hoo, and all of a sudden I rein comments like you stole, You're a thief, and I'm like what good chop? See. Thanks for listening. Access Podcast is produced by Ze. Thank you Zee, Thank you Casey Franco for the music, Don't run Book for the artwork, everybody, Ricardo a r who helps out with the show in

the promotion, Thank you so much. Thanks to Don Parker and Katie Wilcox here in San Francisco and I heart Radio. Chris Peterson is the godfather podcasting. My name is Mattie Stout. Follow us on Twitter at Access podcast one or on Facebook Access podcast, and you can follow me on every social media platform at Maddie Stout m A T T Y S T A U d T. Thanks for listening, Go grab a podcast, listen to it and tell some friends about it. We'll see you next time.