All Guts with Jonas Knox

of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallard. That would be me flying solo today, but not flying solo because this is a Friday podcast, and that means an opportunity to catch up with one of our friends, one of our our buddies in radio, and a morning drive sensation of the Fox Sports Radio Nation. And this just get right into it here. No small talk. I'm not a small talk guy. Jonas Knox. Now, Jonas used to work on my show. He said just about every job you could

have at Fox Sports Radio over the years. But he is the newest edition the company. A couple of weeks ago hired a Jonas full time. He had been filling in once Clay Travis left to replace the Great Rush Limbaugh and Jonas is our new morning guy. I mean you probably know that now if you're listening to me, you know who Jonas is. And Jonas has done some overnights on the weekends, and as I said, he worked

on my show. He's worked all over the clock. He's been the fill in guy, you name it, and Jonas has done it is he has certainly paid his dues. And now he is the lead host on Two Pros and a Cup of Joe in the Morning with the aforementioned uh Jonas Knox and LaVar Arrington and Brady quinn As they all work together on the morning Drive on Fox Sports Radio, and I'm the leading to those guys. But I'm excited to have Jonas on here and welcome Jonas,

and it's good to have you here. Congratulations on the gig. And how has your life changed in amazing and magical ways now that you are a morning drive host, morning drive syndicated host, that's a big deal. How have things changed, Jonas?

I mean, to be honest with you, the first producing shift that I ever did at Fox Sports Radio was as an assistant producer for Zack and Jack in this exact time slot and I can remember the great Annie's that they're VI's telling me when she called me up to say, hey, we want to we want to make you the assistant producer so you can be there for that show, uh and be there in studio, And I remember her telling me, you know it is gonna be a lifestyle change, and that it's not going to be

that much of a lifestyle change. And then you start waking up at one am and you realize, oh no, no, no, it's over. Whatever life you thought you knew before. You can go ahead and you put a bowl on it. You can close the cop and on that. That is a wrap the old Let's go to happy hour and if you're feeling frisky, let's go to late night bowling. Those days are dead. If you don't get to bet at a certain amount of time, you walk around like

a zombie the rest of the day. But what it did teach me is getting as used to the time slot as you possibly could, and then to go from that to then working with Andy Furman and ar Charles Hawkins and then Andy Ferman and Mike North and getting to actually fill in on this show at other times before the time the time slot would throw a lot of people off. But you know this because we've worked in weird time slots all over the network. Once you start doing it a few times, it becomes your normal

routine and it's not that crazy. You just can't partake in some of the other things that people with normal nine to five jobs can partake in. Yeah, exactly. I mean people say I have bad hours, but you know, compared to you know you, I mean, you're doing a morning drive show, but you're on the West Coast and it's an East Coast morning drive show, so it's it's

a little backwards. And I think that in the history of Fox Sports Radio, I'm a bit of a historian when it comes to not with the Lakers, but when it comes to Fox Sports Radio, Jonas and Night, I'm pretty sure that you're the first morning show that's mostly based on in l a in the studio because he usually it's been I mean, I go way back to like Steve Zaban when he did it from d C and some of the you mentioned many of the other guys that have done the morning show, but it's usually

been somebody either in the Midwest or on the East Coast. And so what is a day in the life, like because you just mentioned you can't live the life that you once live. You're married now though, of course you can't do that Jonas. But uh, of course weak weak not but uh but like I, I have a weird schedule. Well, well you have. I mean, when you sleep, what's what's

a day in the life. So what I do is I learned just from working in this time slot that if I try and wake up it's say two AM for a three am show on the West Coast, it just ain't happening. So I figured out, when I was producing it years and years and years ago, I would wake up at midnight or about twelve fifteen, twelve thirty, and I would get a workout in. So I would

work out. I would do a workout, and I would do cardio and that would usually go for an hour or so and anywhere between an hour to an hour fifteen. And once I got my body moving like that, then all of a sudden, you start getting your head right.

And you're getting your head right for the show. But you start getting your head right, you've had your fully hydrated, because you know, I'm a water junkie, so I drink a bunch of water, you've got a good sweat in, you've got a bunch of energy, you drink some coffee,

and you're ready to rock. And then and then and then all is well, and then you know, at about I would say probably six fifteen to six thirty Pacific time is usually about the time that I'm dozing off as I passed to Soto on the one on one, and then I realized, all right, you know, why don't I go ahead and steer back into traffic so I don't go over the side here. But no, it's it's you know, it's rough at times, but I try and get my naps in the whole, you know, seven eight

hours sleep, I don't know. Listen, if anybody out there is getting seven and eight hours sleep, I don't know. Man. If I sleep longer than five or six hours, I wake up and my back is killing me, I don't. I mean, it just doesn't feel right. So I'm used to being pretty on the go. Um, Naps help, Coffee helps, uh, staying hydrated helps, and you know, not you know, not licking the lid or bending the elbow or sucking them back, you know, during the week I think probably helps out

as well too. But yeah, it's just it's it's anything, man. You just try and get used to it as best you can, and you know you're trying to screw up or but you know, I remember it years ago when I was I briefly worked in morning radio for a very short time, and it I'm not a morning person. I wish I was, because usually that's where the money is in radio in the mornings and all that, but

I'm not. And so I tried. I tried to make it like an overnight thing where I just stay up all night and then I'd go to bed at like ten thirty in the morning. And that did not go well that. There's several just like as you were joking around, I mean I got almost every day. It was almost an accident on the way home. I was like, no, I'll be fine, you know, a little problem. I mean, I'll just make it like an overnight show. And it was it was, oh, listen, you turn into Tony Larusa.

You fall asleep and stop like you know, but you don't. You don't have an eight team back everything exact. You like, look your your honor, I promise you if you want to look at my you know, check my blood alcohol level. At that point, I could I could assure you I did not need to roll through the red light with full traffic there. It was just, uh, you know, that's that's part of the job. But but now it's and and here's here's the other thing with me. And I'm

a sick, sick bastard. I always I cannot do anything unless I the first thing I have to do every single day is get a workout in. I have to like it. Literally, if if I don't do that, then I feel like I'm behind, and so my my mentality and I'm a psychopath like this is. I love the feeling of working out first thing in the morning, in the pitch black, even if I didn't need to get up. I used to listen. I would listen to Clay Travis's

show because I would be going to the gym. Back before you know, Warden K. Newsome shut of Staticus in the wreck Yard for our entire life. But back when gyms were open, I I remember listening to to Clay Travis and going back and forth, and I loved the feeling of knowing that every person I passed by after I left the gym was lazier than me for whatever reason. That's just how like I'm a sick bastard and in my mind psychology wise, so getting getting a head start

like that, Like I've always been a big fan. I've always loved morning, so I feel it's a great way to get things going. And then you start doing the math and you realize, you know, just because you wake up four hours earlier than a normal human being, but you end up sleeping at a better four hour window later on of the day. You guys are pretty much even like you. You're just you're trying to trick yourself. Like if you're not, you don't really have any sort

of competitive edge. Yeah, but as far as the working out, I mean, you actually do work out. My idea of a workout is going on the treadmill and and walking. But I I used to love before King Newsom shut down the state of California and the gyms and all that. Now and I haven't I haven't been back. I used to love going to the gym because you know, it was it was great in the gym was open. I went to twenty four hour Fitness and they were open. They're not even open twenty four hours anymore. And I

would go. I would do the overnight show, and then I would stop on my way way home, either at the one across the street from the station, or i'd go to one where I was living. And you know, it was great because i'd hang, i'd work out. By the time I got there was like, you know, four am or whatever, and I work out and all these the old folks would come in right the wearing their sneakers and all that, the gray hairs. They had no idea who I was. And it was great. I loved it.

And you know, why would they, I mean, radio guy, But but it was awesome and I'm friends and all that. Wait, you know, I knew all the old people at the gym and then it all ended one day. Yeah it's and listen, uh. And and there are windows, there's pockets of people because I've gone to the gym at all hours of the day, and I can tell you starting at about minutes so you'll get your people in there,

and around eleven forty five midnight. From from about midnight to one am, it's people that like to work out late for whatever reason. They work, you know, jobs, and they're working a night shift. And then there's this sweet spot from about one thirty to three thirty, and you get gothic people, and you and you, and you get and you get strippers. And I'm not kidding you. And I've always said this, I'm not good at a lot, but but I can spot a couple of things right away.

I can spot a closet degenerate gambler, and I can spot an off duty stripper from a mile away. I have a cent. It is a god given ability. It's one of my only god given abilities. When when you're on when you're on a treadmill, okay, when you're on the elliptical, it's and it's two fifteen in the morning, and you've got eyeliner on, come on, come on, come on, you you a me home? What the Andy Furman's favorite quote. You can Yeah, I was born. I was born to night,

but not last night. Not last night. Yeah. Well the other thing too. I would I usually would go, like, you know, four in the morning, and i'd leave by the time the morning rush kind of came into people that had real nine to five jobs that we work out. But occasionally I would go in the evening and it was like the club. It was like, you know, there were a bunch of women like I don't know, I

don't think they were strippers, but they were. They were wearing makeup trying to, you know, get get the eye of a guy or and vice versa man. It was like it was like a club in the evening time after work. I've never understood going to a gym to try and pick up on somebody, like I've never like, when I go to the gym, the last thing I want to do is talk to anybody. I don't want to talk to anybody like That's people don't understand this.

They look at what we do and they go and look, we are very we're blessed and lucky to get to do what we do, like we're really really lucky. But like, the one thing people understand it is if you work three hours or four hours, like the weekend overnight show is four hours, all right, So you do four hours five days a week, which is crazy, and people don't understand that. You know, they go, oh, well, you're just

working four hours. I work eight to night hours of my job, okay, but you're not having to talk the entire time, okay. And you and I are cut from the same cloths where we actually care about doing good radio, which is why we don't just want to fill up our entire show with a bunch of guests, because because we want to kick our feet up and and so when you when I leave the show on Friday nights, the last thing I want to do is talk to anybody.

Like my my wife could be in the middle of telling me we just won the lotto, and I would tell her leave me alone for the next eight hours. Like I don't want to talk to anybody. I just want to be left. So just the idea of going to the gym and sparking up a conversation with somebody, I just is not not appealing to me. I'm sick of my voice at that point. I'm sick of hearing myself. I'm tired, and I just I've never understood people that can can roll up on somebody and start trying to,

you know, pick up a date. I never got. Well, you're absolutely appreciating the choir Jonas, and we are very similar in that respect. And uh, you know, I don't know your wife that much. I obviously met her at the wedding. I know she's a big talker. My wife is great because when I on the weekend. She loves to talk, and so I'm like people in the family, they're like, you don't really work in radio, you don't you don't know. I just sit there and you know, look at my phone or the TV. I don't want

to and and the other thing. It's funny. We were at an event last week and the guy we were, you know, small talk, and I hate doing small talk. I don't like that either, but you know, I was. I was trying to be polite. I think I was a nice guy. And so then it got to the point of what you do for a living. And so at this point I pivoted and uh, and I said, I'm in sales. Because we really are in sales. Jonas were the most important in part, as John Sterling said

on this podcast, is to sell the soup. So I'm like, I'm a sales guy. And the guy looks at me. It's like, you don't talk, you can't be in sales. I'm like, no, I I am. Because you know what, it nevibly, inevitably will happen if I could talk. Is when you when you say you're in radio, and then you say you're in sports radio, what's the next question you get Jonas, it's what are your thoughts on this? Yeah, who's gonna win the Super Bowl? Who's gonna win the

World Series? What do you think of the Lakers? And I was like, I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to deal with it. And so I always sales. I when I had the website, when I did the Ben Mallay dot com thing, I don't I'm an internet guy. I'm a programmer on the Internet, but I don't do that anymore. So I always my default is sales say kind of in the conversation. I swear

to God, I'm not even embellishing this. I have done this before, and I've done it in front of uh family and friends who look at me like, why what a weird thing to lie about. I've had people say so, so what do you do? Like, oh, you know, work, just work, you know, hang out, just already work. And when they say where do you work, I'm like, all right, we'll good because I say, oh, Sherman Oaks. And then if if we get the stage three of the lie and they go, oh, what do you do out there?

I go, oh, I just work, you know, my bunch of office buildings. I've done that multiple times because I just, first of all, I don't think I'm interesting at all, and I think I think what other people do is so much more interesting than me. I could sit and watch the Food Network the entire day. I think it's fascinating what they do, the way they put stuff together, the way they the way I just I think, like, I love talking to people about what they do because

I just have no interest in talking about myself. I think there's nothing appealing, there's nothing interesting. I would rather it's like when people call in and they're actually working, doing security or driving across the road. I love hearing what their work day is, like, Hey, so what do you doing? If they're tossing papers, if they're like whatever, it is like, so, what's going on there right now? What do you got going on? Because I'm I'm legitimately interested.

I'm not interested in anything I got going on, so I know what I got going on. I'm a slap dick, right there's going on, but I'm interested in what they got going on. And uh and yeah, I just And people sometimes might take that for you know, awkwardness, or it's to me, it's just when you do this and you're talking as much as we do. Sometimes you just want to listen. You don't have anything to say. Yeah, no, it's weird. I I agree, and I occasionally I'll go out.

My kitchen has been all messed up this this last couple of months. I've been moved. I moved and so that I've been able to eat at home. And so, you know, I know, you eat healthy jonas, you you eat a King's diet, but I occasionally will stray and eat fast food. And I I love raising canes. And I was at raising cans. It was it was just slammed. And I'm looking at these people who are not making a lot of money putting food together, busting their ass,

and I'm thinking they're working hard. I know rich people. I've been fortunate enough to meet some really wealthy people that have high paying jobs that don't work as hard and don't have as much stress as the person at the fast food joint putting the fried chicken together and the fries and all that. It's crazy. It's it's it's look I worked. I mean, I have worked at so

many different places. T G I Friday's. Uh, you know, I you know, wash dishes at a place in Charleston while I was on the radio at night, which, let me tell you something you want to know humbling. Humbling is when you're doing the morning show in Charleston, South Carolina, and then you show up to your restaurant job later on at night, and as you walk, as you walk into the kitchen to wash dishes, you hear sporting news radio and guys like Arnie Span your Tim Remember Tim Montemyer,

I do. I worked with I worked with him at the in l A. He was an l A radio guy. Yeah, And I remember one of the guys in the kitchen as I'm getting ready to wash dishes because because it's market eighty three and no joke, every two weeks from my full time radio job, by the way, full time meaning in a small market, I'm the anchor, I'm the host, I'm the co host on the board op, I'm the imaging guy on the producer. You've got to learn how to do everything, which is great because it helped me

anywhere I got later on. But I remember I made seven hundred and forty four dollars every two weeks after taxes, right, that was my pay every after taxes seven or forty four dollars. I remember walking into the kitchen at this place, I think it was called Sesame and I've got which mall in North Charleston. And remember as I walked in, one of the guys says to be as the radio is played, Hey, what are you on here this morning? Like? You know what? Thank you? Yes, you're that is accurate? Correct?

Can you you you were on? Can you wash my dishes? That you? Yeah? Can you put away the plates? Can you get me a new spatula? It? But I got a little grind on it. Well you know, now how many years ago you've been this many years ago you were in Charleston, right. My my niece is actually going to college in Charleston, South Carolina. Saw she's she's in college college. She's she's at Charleston. So she's she's at the the old the old School. Any restaurant recommendations are okay,

well you go to Charleston. Um. Now there's the reason why I asked what school is because in Charleston it's like a closet, really fun party town. So you've got you've got college at Charleston obviously, which is in downtown.

That's where she got Charleston. You got, you got Charleston Southern, which is at North Charleston, and I lived right up the road from there, you know, and I could I started to figure out as I tried to get more and more people to come over and hang out when I would go out, nobody seemed to want to go to North Charleston. I couldn't figure out why. And then I saw a report that it was voted the eighth most dangerous city in the US. And there I was okay, well, no, no, no,

wonder one bedroom was five fifty dollars. Now makes sense. But you go, So there's that, and then there's the Citadel, which is the military school. Um and uh and so that's also in downtown Charleston. Anywhere on Market Street, King Street. Uh, those are always fun. Uh. In surrounding areas. If you can go to a mount Pleasant has got some good spots out there. Um, where's some other one. Fawley Beach is a good place to go. I can get after a little bit. But yeah, I can remember just walking

around because I didn't have any friends out there. I didn't know anybody, and so I would bar hot by myself. And the one problem with bar hoping by yourself is when you don't have conversation to break up SIPs to your drinks, you get absolutely mangled in about an hour. I can I can remember. I can were walking through Charleston, hammered and trying not to trip over my feet on the cobblestone walkways, and I'm thinking, man, this is like

seventeen century stuff. This is like historic. You know, there's people that probably fought and died for these lands. And here I am wreaking the booze and I just got here forty five minutes ago because I don't know what damn single person here, and I've only got about thirty dollars to spend, including the cab right to get back to North Charleston because I make so little money in my quote unquote dream job. But it was a great time, fun times all the way through. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know,

I hear. And when I when your name comes up, though, Jonas, the one thing that people often bring up is Chuck E. Cheese, the cartoon rodent that you famously wore the costume. Was this a right? And you've told me the story. I was this a part time thing? Was this were you filling in you said the kids were terrible. Yeah, they're they're awful. They're there, and let me tell you, Like, uh, so here's what happened. So I grew up poor, so

we always had to have jobs. So there was you know, we didn't I never got an allowance of my entire life anything we wanted, Like we had to have jobs, like you were poor. And so from the earliest, like I was a janitor at an elementary school when I probably wasn't old enough to be a janitor in an elementary school. Like I was, like, I did anything I could.

I was in high school and I needed a job, and my buddy said, hey, Chuck E Cheese just opened up and they were paying like more than minimum wage. And minimum wage was like five seventy five or whatever it was back then. Chuck E Cheese was paying like six oh five. And if you could get twenty cents more, I mean, at the time, you're thinking, man, this is fantastic.

So nobody nobody signs up to be the damn rat. Okay, nobody signs up to dress like a giant stuffed animal and get abused by a bunch of spore little brats. Nobody wants that but you get there and everybody's got to take turns doing it, and so you know, you gotta you gotta clean up birthday parties, and you gotta throw stuff away and bus tables, and you know, to work the game machine and sweep up and do all these things. And then every everybody, depending on the shift,

takes turns doing Chucky. And I think it was like twice an hour maybe or once an hour. It's it's basically the you know, the national updates at Fox Sports Radio, and that's that's when Chucky takes takes stage twice an hour. And so I remember the first time they had me do it. I wanted to make my buddy laugh. And when you dance up on the stage, it goes up on the blue screen on all the little TVs around the restaurant, and so I knew that he was watching, and nobody knew that it was me. So I was

doing remember the Jamal Anderson Dirty Birds? Oh yeah, that, Oh yeah, I did. I did that. I would like the the the Akey Shuffle, I did the shot. Did you do the river? Did you do the river danceco River Dance? Oh? Like anything I could come up. So at one point I was doing ravishing rick rude. When I started getting really really caught, like cocky about it.

I started doing ravishing rick rude, which is the hip gyration, and then I would I would rub my hands against my chest and act like I was throwing sweat at

people's face like it was so I was. I started going over there because I just thought, all this is temporary, and then all of a sudden they just kept me doing it, and it would be like a month, and then a month and a half and then two and finally I'm like, man, like, I'm getting tired of this because you're walking around it's hot as balls inside the costume.

You get you get these little spoiled brats whose parents only are having a birthday party there because they don't want to have to clean up the mess and chuck e cheese serves beer. So you got Dad's walking around. They at one point, Dad's just decide, are we we're no longer gonna you know, walk around with the picture of beer and poured into a glass. They're just drinking

straight from the picture at this point. So they're they're they're getting annihilated, and you're and I can remember multiple times I remember a kid, and you can't talk. So the whole time this is happening, you can't talk through the mask. You're not allowed to see them, you know, show you just gotta be goofy and you gotta do all this. I remember this kid, and I didn't see him until the last second, but I remember seeing out

at the corner of my mask, this giant mask. This kid runs up and he hits me as hard as he can in the balls, I mean direct shot one. Yeah, he didn't get one, he got both and and And I got to give him credit for the accuracy because he was able to do that through the suit, through the fake stomach, lining, through all of it. And I remember I bent down. I was down, like I had literally hand on my knees and my buddies acting like

he's not talking to me. So he comes over and pretends like he's sweeping the floor and he's got like the little dust pan out and he's swooping in and he's like, hey man, you're all right, And I just started cursing as loud as like, and I'm like, I'm all this Sam effort and him, I'm all, I'm all, I'm literally gonna go drag his dad outside and beat his and and at the top of my leves and I'm literally looking for the kid's dad. I was pissed and so and so all this is happening. This kid,

like you know, he's like run around. He thinks it's funny. Um. And then we end up taking a picture. And while we're taking the picture together, right as they go right on the count of three, one, two, three, and right as they go on the count of three, I like squeeze the kid's neck real quick. And as they as they snapped the picture, the kid goes and he like opens his mouth and he's and he's and I go, oh know, I'm sorry about like like I'm apologized. I

didn't okay, So all of this is happening. Heather Locklear walks in. All right, so this is the Absolutely it's a Saturday. It was pure chaos. So Heather Locklear walks in and somewhere on her mantle there's a picture of her kid having their birthday party. Um with and I'm like a teenager at this time. It's her her kid's

birthday party and all this stuff. And you see Heather Locklear and her family and there's a there's a chucky he was like about five eleven, because I think I think it was like this time, maybe there's a checking who's like five eleven and it's me and Heather Lockler's photo dressed up as a giant rat, probably on a mantle somewhere in her house. So it was you know, but at a certain point, I just couldn't do it anymore. And then a bachelorette party came in. Uh and uh,

you know, cheese, a bachelorette party cheese. So this is, yeah, this is I couldn't even blue it. So my boss while all this is happening, my boss told me at one point, hey, you need to you need to slow it down with the dancing. I was like why, I'm all like, at least you do let me have some fun. I'm getting abused by these kids, like they're assaulting me. At least at least let me have some funny because none of But the problem is you're doing too many

hip gyrations. He's all that stuff's going his true story. He's all that stuff's going over the screens everywhere. He's also you know, we just you know, parents are kind of wondering what's going on. With this. Okay, well, you know I'm not trying to piss him off, so all right, yeah, I mean, I'll slow it down. So a couple of weeks later, there's a He comes up to me on a Friday night and he goes, hey, Chucky. I was like, what's up. He goes, all right, I'm gonna need you

special request. Well, what's that? There's a bachelorrette party out there on the side of booth and I'm all and others not. He goes, yeah, And I said, what loser comes here for a bachelor up? I know, he goes. He goes. He goes, I know, but hey, he's all there here, He's other four of them. They're over there in the corner. I was like, so, what do you want me to do? He goes, well, you know, do what you do. I'm okay, well, if I do what I do, do I have your permission that I can

really do what I do. He goes, just this once, while you promise I'm not going to get in trouble. He goes, yeah, just this once. So I get into costume. I walk over there. I'm not even kidding you. I propped my foot up on the table. All right, and start grinding the air as if like like I'm doing hip thrust and I and I put this on everything out.

This is absolutely true grinding twerking back. Before me, it was twerking um like you know, uh, like dipping her back like like holding her and then like dipping like it was like you doing like like a chipping Dale's dancer with Chuck. It was it was you know, Magic Mike way before Magic in a giant, disgusting costume that's

never been sanitized or clean or anything like that. So the best the best part is so they're like trying to give me dollar bills or whatever, and I think I gave him to like the cooks or one of the dishwasher because they give me a couple of bucks and other. Okay, so I leave and when you go back and you change, nobody knows it's you. So you

go back to the game room, you change. I made it a point to change, get back into my regular you know, chucky out for like I was working, and then come by there and bust their table afterwards, just so they had no idea that the person that is now cleaning up their crumby pizza trays is the same guy that just made her basically have an affair on her future husband with a giant rat that you pull out of a craw machine at some at some crumby

carnival somewhere. Well, I bet you, Jonas, I bet those those uh you know, years ago but probably stay probably still tell that story. Do you remember when Chuck e Cheese? Uh yeah, yeah, you'll never believe that. And by the way, little little they know, they're probably like, whatever happened to the guy who played Chucky and you could just go, oh, it's easy. He made it to mad Clowns, Mallard Militia. He's the guy getting run over by the Corvett by

the Cadillac that is they still have that, by the way. Yeah, now I have a somewhere I don't it's in storage, but I have a drawing. I I printed the thing up like in a poster. And you you will be when I when I get that out of storage, You'll be hanging in the in the Mallard mansion. But I gotta tell you, Jones, when you mentioned the smell of the Chucky Cheese outfit. When I was in Milwaukee years ago, I was doing some stuff with the Dodgers and we're

County Stadium. And I walked through the bowels of County Stadium, which no longer exists, and we went to one of the rooms on the side there and they had the racing sausages, the costumes. Right, we're we're out in this in this room and the smell, the stench of these things. Jonas I was like all excited. I was like, you know, I was a naive. I didn't realize that these things never get cleaned. And I remember I was walking over. I was like, wow, I can kind of you know,

I can hold the sausages, you know, the outfit. And I went over and the stench and it was just horrific, and uh, it's it's so gross man like because there's no there's nowhere for the sweat to go. Like when when they when they design those things, we're not we're not talking about like, you know, high profile athletes to where you've got like these they're they're not golfers who have these sweat resistance hats and shirts and they're just

trying to make it. They're trying to make something that looks like a kill bossa there what you're thinking about, you know, like, I mean, what are we talking about here? It's like it does it look like does it look like a brought worse or not? All right? Cool? Then then get in it and let's run like it smells man, And it's hard to clean. And back then, like people weren't worrying about sanitizing and keeping things cleanly and clean

and cleanliness wasn't a priority. So yeah, getting in that that costume, it's it's awful and you're running in the sun in the hot summer months. The humidity in the Midwest is just disgusting. It is terrible. And I gotta tell you, Josh, you were ahead of your time. You know, everyone with COVID you gotta you know, clean everything and all you were when I first met you, Jonas, you have always been Mr Clean, you really have. I give you credit. There's so many pigs that work in radio,

so many disheveled animals that work in our business. And you you're like the anti that guy. You really are. I mean you come in there and you and and way before it was cool to do what you do. You know, you're you're cleaning everything, You're wiping stuff down. I give you credit. I don't I don't do that. You do you do, it's good job by you. So so here's here's the story behind that, um my first

radio job. I end somebody was somebody showed up to work and they were sick, and of course they got the entire studio sick, and and I just remember being so piste off and thinking, man, you gotta be kidding me, like literally you should. And I just remember thinking I'm never gonna have that happen again. And so for the rest of my time. And everyone when I first started there, everyone thought I have O c D. What do you

Howie Mandel? Because Howie Mandel is just you know, like the guy's a giant germ flo I guess so people people are making fun of me, and I did for a couple of reasons. Number one, I don't want to get sick, because if we're sick on the air, like we're done, Like we can't just show up and hide behind the scenes. It doesn't work that way. So I can't get sick. I needed to work, um And also because you know, I mean, I've been you know, taking care of my mom and taking care of sick people

for a long long time. I can't get them sick, so I would always make sure I got sanitizer, I got everything else. And then the more that I thought about it, while I was doing in radio, I was like, well, I should be doing this everywhere, So I would have sanitizer on me in my blood box to where if

I go pump gas, I would use sanitizer. And it would blow my mind to see these slobs that would get in their car pump gas and then get back in their car and dig into a bag of funyans and start eating from the bag, and and and the whole time, I'm thinking to myself when they're taking a bite out of those funyans, and they're probably, man, I earned this, this is my reward. I really hustled today, and now I'm gonna go have a couple of drinks. I'm just thinking myself, do you know how much ball

sweat and get rock? Just you you just took in because because you couldn't you you couldn't wash your damn hands. It's it's just I gotta tell the best investment I ever made is the mic condom. I guess we call it like the phone because you know a lot of us are working from home these day and you're still

going in and I give your credit for that. Um, but when you go to the radio station when everyone's using the same microphones and a lot of people don't have their own mic cover, and it's you're putting your mouth as close as you possibly can to the microphone to talk properly, and everyone twenty four hours a day is using the same microphones. It's disgusting. And so it's one way to come back. Jon's I've kept you for way too long, my man. I'm I'm very happy for you.

I'm glad the company finally made a good move here putting you on the morning show and uh continued successful. Man. Well, now listen, and I mean this and all society and I've told anybody that would listen, and you are one of the one of the all time grades. I'm not saying that the ball wash you as somebody. You and I have a certain affinity for radio that I think a lot of people in our business maybe don't because they were either doing TV or you know, they played

a sport or whatever. And you and I grew up loving radio and having a true passion for it, and so I have listened to you for a long time and so to be able to get to meet guys like you and Tony Bruno and and Mike North and Andy Firman and Artie Spaniard and Steve Hartman and some of these legends, and then to be able to get to go call you guys friends. Um, it's it's been pretty awesome, man, And to get to learn from you, and you know, you're one of the best to do it.

And I think, uh, you know you you you've set a mark and sort of set a standard there that a lot of people it's really really hard to follow. But man, it's awesome to to to get to know you. And you're at my wedding whatever the hell you want to call that and my listen, great food at the wedding, Joes, You're very kind. I and everyone I've talked to when the news came down. You know, the radio community is a very tight community and people are like, good a

radio guy. I mean, that's what you're radio guy Jones. This is rare that you know, these these things, as you said, you know, normally these these jobs go to big TV people, movie stars, things like that. So I'm glad it's another radio guy and it and it was cool to uh, you know, just like I said, to be able to study and kind of learn under you and everybody else there, and um, just it's it's been awesome and a lot of people have reached out and

been very very kind. And uh, I know the Ballad militia, you know, they're they're not. They don't like it. They basically scared Artie span Your away. Artie Spanier filled in for you one time. Artie Spanner is a living legend and radio. The guys worked at every network. He's been doing it for years and years and and they scared him away. But I refused to let them scare me away.

I got three Benny Awards, yes, and one of them that I one of them that I can't claim because it may or may not have been me doing somebody's doubtful gang around the air. But I'm not gonna I'm going tonight. I've got I've got I've got four Benny Awards. One of them's got an ast and I can never tell about. But no, man, you love you. I appreciate you having me and it's a it's an honor to be on with you. Awesome thanks jowing us