The Fifth Hour: Ralph Irvin, Let Elvis Take the Wheel

Before you say, please, please, before you do that, calm down, we have a bunch of somewhat decent audio content for you. And the weekend begin ends right now and Friday. We like to talk to people who we've heard of, people on the podcast who we think you'll want to hear from. And the last week we had a great time. It was very exciting. Joey Chestnuts a man who went out and scarfed down all kinds of hot dogs and buns.

He was attacked by a protester. He put that person in a choke hold and then still one by double digits hot dog and buns for another mustard belt his fifteen title. So congratulations to my new friend Joey Chestnut. Was great to have him on the podcast and that did very well, and we thank you for listening and telling friends about that and said, hey, I got this little dumb podcast thing. I listened to the Fifth Hour. You might want to check it out. And we thank you.

We do, thank you for that. So it's upward and onward in the podcast game and this Friday show, the show you're listening to right now. We decided to do something somewhat different. We bring in one of our colleagues I can still say that from Fox Sports Radio, Ralph Irvin. Now Ralph has a big announcement that he is going to make on our podcast on the Fifth Hour podcast. Not too shabby. Um, So we're gonna welcome in a man who has worked for a number of years at

Fox Sports Radio. I've known Ralph since we were early on in our careers. We both got started in San Diego at the mighty six ninety, a legendary West Coast sports talker. We cut our teeth at that radio station. We know many of the same people. Radio is a small fraternity. Ralph has gone on. He worked in Orlando. He worked for u C l A and their video department, and he's worked at several other radio stations. He's very

active in golf. He's filled in not not in years, but he's filled in on our overnight show when Eddie has been away Corporate Garcia and I thought, let's get the man, the myth, the legend, Ralph urban On and Ralph, we welcome you and and I'm upset with you. Ralph. I tried to get you on. You you were harder to book than Joey Chestnut. I had to jump through hoops to get you on, Ralph. Can you please explain

why it was so difficult to get you? Ralph Irvin on the Fifth Hour podcast with me your buddy Big Ben. Why is that, Ralph? Because you forgot my number. That's incorrect. I did not forget your number. I ran into you at the Fox Sports Radio studios. I was trying to enjoy a nice meal and you came by. You were wearing Hawaiian shirt a few weeks ago. Possibly yes, yeah, remember the great power outage at the Fox Sports Radio studio. Yeah,

we have those occasionally. Well, they made me come in, Ralph, and there was no reason for me to be there. The power was back on right before the show start, like two hours before the show. But but I was there. And there's always a good reason to be in the studio. It's called professional radio time. I'm in a studio. I have a microphone, I have headphones, I have I have everything. I have a board over here, I have that. I have a there's a keyboard. Um, I'm looking. There's a

computer here. There's a light. There's several lights. There's like a weird fan off to the side. There's a thing of pens that that I let me show you. It's I know we're on audio, but actually you can see me so sec here I have Look how big that pen is? Ralph? Is that? Are you not impressed by the size of my pen? Come on, be honest, you're Ralph, I'm not in It's a pen. No, it's a beautiful pen. It's a large, giant, cartoon sized pen like this awesome.

See like I have big hands, but this pen makes it look like I have a little baby hands, like little Kyler Murray hands. Yeah. Sure, all right with you, Ron, I mean you're doing this, this is a podcast about you. Everything's great. Are you sure? About that. It's about me that we're talking about your pen. Well, it's just a warm up. I'm just warming up with the pen. I feel like Ralph. Once you see my pen, you know now we're we're bonding. We're gonna bond again like the

old days. Sure, sure sounds good, Yeah, exactly exactly. All right, Well, the real reason I'm having you on the podcast is you had a big Have you announced this publicly or my are we announcing this on the Fifth Hour podcast? A major story one this gets in the radio trades. Mm hmm. It's it's gonna blow up the industry, it really is. And are you prepared to make that announcement right now? It's it's it's it's known that. Yeah, I'm I'm leaving Fox Sports Radio. So Ralph Irvin is leaving

our dysfunctional radio. This is big news, Ralph. I don't think you realize how big this is. I I guess I don't. I guess I don't. I'm just I'm just a cog in the machine. I'm just a guy who comes to work and does his thing. Yeah, so I have questions. Are you prepared? I'm gonna grill you. I'm gonna give you. This is Ralph to the third degree. Sure, all right, So the obvious question is how how did you come to this decision? Ralph? I mean to leave Fox Sports Radio. It's a big deal, Like how long

has this been going on? Where you you had, you know, the idea that you're gonna leave, and how long did this come about? Well, this is more a case of as you know, you're in this industry, uh, that you can move around, you go from job to job. Now you haven't gone too far. You've stayed in southern California. I think you your entire career, I've moved. I've gone from San Diego to Orlando back to l A, different places around l A. And one thing that's been consistent

is my wife has followed me everywhere I've gone. And she received an opportunity, uh to get a better job in a new city, and I told her you go for it. I fully supported. And you've followed me around all these years. It's my turn to do the same, and I will follow you. So it uh affords a new opportunity, totally new lifestyle and probably one that doesn't involve broadcasting ever again, which is all right. It's something that will be absolutely new and funics writing. So you're

leaving broadcasting, this is this is it? This is your last weekend as a broadcaster. You say, is that true? Really that as as far as I can tell, that's that's it. Yeah, I'm gonna try to go and sit behind a desk and do work and contribute to other ways. But well that's no fun Ralph for radio guys. Were a couple of radio guys here. This is all we know, Ralph is microphones and nonsense and goofing around. And oh I've known a little bit more than radio because I've

been doing video work for the last fifteen years. So it's it's it's a case of building something that's not

just day to day. It's building something bigger. Products and things of that nature is you know, I've done a lot of work with golf and talking about golf products, and you get to know the people that design and build these products, and they put a lot of themselves into each one, and you think, wow, that would be kind of cool to be able to do something where I have a lasting legacy within whatever it is that I've built, and that's kind of an interest of mine

going forward. Well, that's cool, and you're a romantic ralph. You're you're following your your your wife, she followed you, and now you're following. That's a tremendous thing that you're doing here. Well, she's a lot more successful than I am. That helps me, makes it, It makes a lot easier. Yeah, that's good. Do you want to reveal where you're going or you want to be a big mysteries the FBI out to get you? That are the authorities going to run you down or something like that? Are you worried

about that? Because you know I'm going to to America's playground that is Las Vegas. Oh is that right? Lost, Lost Wages, Nevada, Yes, standing where I have a number of friends that are living there that are excited that I will be coming out and joining them. So more importantly, route this is a place I visit Vegas. So we'll

we'll still get to hang out again. We'll probably hang out more with you when you get set up in Vegas than we do now, because you know geography wise where you live and I don't ever say where I live other than the north Woods. And I've moved a lot over the years. I've lived in the l are. I've lived all over l A. But we're pretty far apart right now, like where we live. I think I get to Vegas more than I get to where you live in the l A area. Well, no, because yeah

you don't. We don't allow you into where I live. That's we We kind of have signs up keep this man away. And rightfully so I did try. There's a famous lake not that far away from where you live where they filmed robin Hood the original and uh, and I saw it. I was I was going out of your way. I think it was for Jonas is uh wedding thing, the receptions. I went out of your way and we were at Jonas's wedding, and so I said, I'm out here. I'm never really out this way anymore,

so let me go see. They have this lake, famous lake. What's it called. What's the name of the Lakewood Lake? Sherwood. Yeah, that's so they filmed a bunch of movies and stuff. So I thought I'd go, it's a lake. I'll go check out the lake. And I tried to get I could not get anywhere close to like you're only if you live there. There's like this exclusive neighbor where Wayne Gretzky and some other big celebrities living used to live there. Well, Lenny has been on the podcast, you know Lenny's Lenny

has been on his foy. He won't return my calls anymore. Though. I don't know what happened to Lenny Len He used to get He always wanted to come on the podcast, and then I tried to reach out to him a couple of weeks ago and he didn't get back to It's a bad job by Lenny that Did you talk to him? Is that what happened right now? I did not talk to Lenny. I have not talked to Lenny, but he did live but in Lake Sherwood. Yeah, it's a beautiful lake. Nice. I could actually go check it,

actually get close to the water. Other than the up top, I have to look over a fence like a peeping lake guy or something like that. Well, that's that's sometimes what you have to be. Is that true? Well for you, yes, not not so much for me. I I know people and have access. You're you're a cool person, You're much cooler than me. But you're leaving all that behind Vegas. Are you a gambler? It's yeah, a little bit I like to play craps, but it's not something that I

need or want to do a lot. So it's not a big deal. I mean, yeah, you know, we were in southern California. If we want to gamble, we could gamble places closer than Las Vegas. We don't want to. It's about going to Las Vegas and you do things there. But I've traveled there so much over the years that i have my spots away from the Strip, away from all the touristy areas, and so that's not a big change. It's not like I'm going there and thinking I'm gonna

be hanging out in Las Vegas Boulevard. That's not it at all. Yeah. My my aunt used to live in Vegas, and you know, she was around but and and the locals always there's like weird, strange casinos away from the Strip where like the local people go, they don't bother with the there are some Yeah, so you already have your place set up in Vegas for the big you relocation, You're already ready to go. You're looking for a new place. There's a temporary set up right now, but it'll be

looking for a for a house in the future. Yeah, what if somebody says, hey, Ralph, we want you to work on the radio in Vegas with you. I will ask them how much they have in their bank account and then they will tell you the amount, and then you'll start laughing and I will say, that's why I'm

no longer in broadcasting. Yes, let's just say that we have a mutual acquaintance that is in Las Vegas that has talked to me for years about coming out and saying, oh, you could be on the air, no problem right away, but they wouldn't really be able to pay you. And I'm like, okay, well, yeah, Vegas is a weird market because it's become a very large city. I have some friends that do radio in Vegas and I've done I've done the show remotely from Vegas and it's it's like

a big city. But they don't treat the radio stuff like it's a big city. Well, it's a big city that still hasn't taken understanding of how big they are. For instance, uh, Tim Laiwicky is building a new arena reportedly there in Las Vegas, and they want to put an NBA team in and where he has chosen the arena location is not in the middle of the strip, and people are like, why would you do this, why

would you make tourists drive away? And the thinking is because it's not for the tourists, Like, like, if you live in Las Vegas, you actually do deserve the right to have a team that's your own, that's not built for tourists. You can have your own, your own arena, and your own city. And I don't think they've quite grasped that aspect yet, that they deserve the fruits that come with being a big city. I think they still think that they are there to serve all the visitors

from around the world, and it's an evolution for sure. Yeah, well that is true. But I'm still upset when the Hockey Arena was built behind New York, New York, and then they started charging for parking around the You have to get a credit card to get free parking and not don't even know if that's still a thing, but oh, it's a thing. It's a thing. I hate, Ralph, You've known me a long time. I hate paying for parking.

You hate paying for anything. Well, that is true. That's why I am the frugal the frugal man, the tight wad whatever you want to say there. No, it's it's it's it's a case where again the locals that I know are like, no, we we don't even bother trying to park there. We we take our uber and yeah, understandable, understandable. I often talk when I talked about Ralph, I I when I talk about you, Ralph, I always talk about

the fact that we started out. We look products of the mighty six ninety one of the great sports radio station, the first West Coast, one of the great I mean, let's be real, let's let's just let's cut the crap. It's the greatest sports station that ever existed, damn right. And look at the legends that you Ralph of a legend, uh, you know, and uh Steve Hartman, Homer Hartman and uh

and all them. Uh. It's been been wonderful. And a lot of the people, although we're getting older, Ralph, a lot of the people still working in the business who were there. Almost all of them, yeah, I mean almost all of them are still active in in in major radio. I mean a morning show that's still on in Los Angeles, some guy named Jim Rome. I think he's done, okay, hanging in there. I think he's got enough money. I

think maybe not. Hartman's around still, and you know, if you if you follow online, you can still find the old mentor has has has been on this podcast has as I am. The thing about Hacks and we I worked, I was an intern with him. You were there at the same around the same time. But Hacks of the work ethic and people say I work hard, But like hacksall was in there all day. We're recording stuff and

that's the work I mean, I I am. I worked somewhat hard, but compared to Hacks on the amount of effort. And he's still got a website where he's he does his headlines. That was what he was known for back in San Diego. But he still does that every day, just does it written out. He doesn't do it on the broadcasting, but wouldn't you really like to see it written out? Like he just posted a pdf every day

of the way that he would write his headlines. He had this piece of paper with this writing that so tiny so that he could get every single little headline on there uh written out in one little sheet of paper, so he didn't have to change sheets of paper. And this little tiny writing I think that would be hilarious as if that's what he posted for his headlines, just a PDF you could zoom in on and try to make out his notes. Well, yeah, because he had the

chicken scratch going. And that was back in the archaic days though, Ralph like, we're so old. They had the high speed sports wire, they had the sports picker, Like they don't even have that, Like radio stations don't have those. They don't need them anymore because of the Internet. But that was like, that was one of the coolest things. When I started working there. I was like, oh man, this is the high speed sports wire. And because you couldn't get that information, you sit down at a computer

and there was live scores right there in front of you. Yeah. And and but we're like, we're like the I had to walk ten miles in the snow up the hill. We did radio before the Internet, and we're able to pull it off kind of Uh. I was gathering recently where we were talking about old things and talking about you know, you had these cards and you had to stack these cards up, you know, a mile high, with all your commercials and your sound bites. And this is

before everything was digitized for sure, we we went. When I was producing a show that we did called Extra Football Sunday. We did after we lost the Chargers rights in um we Well, I set up recording locations for every NFL game with giant reel to reel otari reel to reel recording machines so that we could record highlights and get them onto the air. It was, I mean, it was archaic, but it was. It sounded great you. It didn't sound any worse than it does today. It

just took a lot more effort and a lot more space. Yeah, that was one of my first one. I was an intern. I had to pull the commercials. I had the commercial log and I had to pull the spots for the for the engineer. That was my my gig. I was very good at pulling commercial And they call them spots because they little little spot on little dot. I told you what number they were color coded. We're doing We're doing old guy radio talk here. Just sure was doing

old guy radio talk. Yeah. Did you ever cut yourself with a razor blade cutting the reel, the reel, the tape and all that. No, I I wasn't clumsy, No, I I never had that issue. I was I have fat fingers. I cut myself all the time. I was terrible. I was so happy when they got rid of that stuff, but I was so piste off at the same time because I learned when I got into the business, I learned cards, editing, you know, the real, the real, all that. And within a couple of years of me starting, he

started shifting over to digital. And I was like, what, I spent all this time learning all this stuff, and the only way I'll use it is I'm at like a small radio station in Oklahoma, which probably still uses that stuff. I'm sure. I want to say it was about five years from the time I started to the time that that that the computer system was coming in. Here's the funny part. That computer system is what we still use today twenty plus years later. Oh yeah, well

that's that's a whole different conversation, Ralph. Yeah. That that I I'm gonna write a book someday. When I walked into Fox Sports Radio, we that studio which you're leaving and you're gonna leave radio and do great things. But that studio. We walked in there and it was like, oh my god, this is amazing. They had ribbons, everything was brand new, When I started at Fox Sports Radio, we were in a premier network studio upstairs on the fifth floor. It was the old Michael Reagan, the President's

adopted son. He had a radio show and we did the show from his studio. Are all the Fox Sports radio shows until they had built the studio on the ground floor and that thing opened up, and it was like they were bringing in executives from around the country. It was like the and all the newest equipment, and here we are twenty two years later and it's the same the same equipment, and uh it's uh yeah, but

the goodness. Eventually they will move to a new studio possibly The fun The fun thing though, is we talked about Extra six ninety. They built the Fox Sports Radio studios to look just like the Extra six nineties studios. I mean all the way from from from the board the where the technical director the board operator sits, that whole area, to to the studio that it was built to look just Extra Sports six nine. The one flaw on that, though, is the update booth. It's not visible.

Yeah yeah, so I always I point this out when you were filling for Eddie or when Eddie's there, whenever, and if I'm in studio, I can't see the the guy that's doing the news, and so it's like this will be at home, I can see the same thing. So well. I mean, you also then would complain to management if if you saw too much of me, if if I come in and say hello you up. There goes another email to to the boss's Ralte. Ralph's in

being social again. No, no, not not all. And here's the thing, Ralph, Okay, after some of the other people I will not name names you, but some of the other people that have stepped into that chair when Eddie's away, I have gone to bed praying that you will come back. I'm very bumped out, Ralph, that you shouldn't have sent the request to never have me on your showing. That's

a lie. Now, there was an incident I don't know if we want to get into it here on the pod Kiss, but justin and Cincinnati triggered what I call rhino Ralph and uh and you came storming in from the update studio. You went out the door, you made a right turn, you came in the main studio, and you proceeded to just hit all kinds of buttons and started hanging up on everybody to get back at Justin and Cincinnati. And I don't even remember what he had done.

I'm sure it was something going to say. You say offensive things, you get hung up on. Unfortunately, you have producers that don't exactly know what they're doing, even though they've been there for like a million years, that don't know how to hang up on people, and so you had to bring in a veteran who actually knows how to work at tels machine. For those that don't know that, that's a machine that lines up the phone calls and the computer program that tells Ben who's on the line.

Is it I still know how to do that? Is it tell us? I thought it was telling I don't know whatever. He doesn't matter. It matters to me, Ralph. You know what it is a way to hang up on phone calls. Yeah, and that thing you talk about glue and tape the Tellos machine, because that's a very expensive piece of equipment and it has not been upgraded. People have hit it like you hit it. Other people have hit it and button. Literally, that literally is technology

that predates our radio career. Oh yeah, I think about that like that program. You think about when you intern for for Lee Hacksaw Hamilton's and you had the screen phone calls. It didn't look the same, but it was the exact same program that you're that is in use today. Yeah, it's not. It's not a good program. When I worked in, when I worked in for w e I, they use a different program, and there's so much better. It's it's it's a little different and it's got more features, more

bells and whistles. But you know, I could log in anywhere like that thing. You gotta be in studio to log in. It's a big pain in the behind. So not to be to be fair, not a lot of the hosts at Fox Sports Radio use phone calls, so there isn't necessarily a big need to upgrade it. When when what maybe three shows a day take phone calls live on the Earth, Yeah, I don't even know who does. I obviously our show overnight we take a lot of calls,

I guess compared to the other guys. Jason doesn't take calls. I don't think no. I I mean I really, I can only think of one other show that's out of our studios that that takes live calls. Does God leave do it? No, he does not take calls. No, I don't think so. This would be the odd couple. Yeah calls, one segment an hour. H Parker. So yeah, Okay, are you saying that I'm doing outdated radio? Is that what

you're trying to tell me? Rout, that I shouldn't take any calls because all these other guys that get paid a lot more money than me don't don't take calls. Is that what you're telling me? I don't want to say that, and I'll tell you why. It's like saying that a cobbler is doing outdated work, when in reality, the cobbler is doing better work. And a lot of the things that are out there. I think it's late. I think it's lazy radio to not involve your your listeners.

It's what made sports radio the medium it was is that you served an audience. You entertained an audience, but you are accountable to your audience. Your audience could call in and call you out for the nonsense that you spoke. And nowadays there are plenty of hosts out there that will just stay a bunch of garbage, most of it's written for them by their producers. They will just spew a bit and just walk away like it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I said, Clay, Clay Thompson, Steph Curry.

Their time is done in the NBA. They'll never be successful again. Here they win a title. Oh well, you know what, they're still done and they're not gonna do it again. I mean you just double and triple down on that. Yeah. Yeah, I like taking the call to me. They're characters on this show and they're get different voices,

and I think it's good, but I do. And and sometimes the caller is going to bring up a subject that you know about but you didn't think was very important, and you find out that, no, there are a lot of people that really do think that that's an important subject. And so now you're going to talk about it. Yeah. Well, I follow the KFC model of radio, the eleven herbs and spices. You gotta mix it up, you gotta mix and match and all that. But you're an old program director, Ralph.

We talk about that. But you programmed the station in Orlando. What kind of what kind of pet? Were you pig vomit from the Howard Stern movie or were you everyone loves you guys or somewhere in the middle. Well, I was. I've been at the station for a number of years and there was, you know, as happens in the radio, a shake up of the staffing, and that kind of

thrust me into the program director position. UM. And I was the type of guy that's like, Okay, we're going to do our show and we're just just do your show. Not enough of the crap. Just do your show. And if your show has issues, I'm gonna talk to you about your issues, but I'm not gonna ride you on. No, there's no wn BC, none of that. There was none of that garbage. It was it was just do your show and I'm not trying to make you look bad or sound bad. I want you to perform it. If

you succeed, then we all succeed. Um. Unfortunately, as a program director, what was my job. It's corporate radio. My job was too spend less money on employees and make more money in sales. And that's unfortunately what was the signature for what I did. UM. So it meant, you know, part timers got less hours because with our systems that have computers, you can now automate broadcasts, you can automate how you run a radio station. Was it was not exactly ideal. Um. I I used to be able to

run the radio station from my home. Believe it or not, I could. I I had the system at home in my office, and so I could automate a baseball game, World Series games saying it finishes it one or two in the morning East Coast time, and I could dial in and flip the switch sure on Fox Sports Radio when the game is over. Yeah, that's how a lot of stations are, right I I and I feel guilty because we do syndicated radio at Fox, but I love

local radio. Two. I think you should have there's gotta be like I said with the show, there's gotta be balanced. You gotta have a local voice. But the radio industry in general has gone gone away from that a long time ago, and I don't know that they'll ever get back to that point with the cost of everything and all that. What is your greatest accomplishment, Ralph and radio greatest accomplishment now that you're leaving radio behind, Ralph, what

are you most proud of? I mean, where we talked about, I did a lot of work with a lot of other stations, teaching them how to program um using our automated system which is called profit or next gent I. I worked with a lot of stations back in the in the two thou teaching them this is how you program for for games. It was easy to program for the network, it's the same commercial clock every hour. It's

easy to program for local shows, same thing. But two teach them this is how you implement the broadcast for a game so that it works with the people that plug in the commercials again, all stuff behind the seats. That that was my biggest accomplishment. I mean Otherwise on the air, I didn't get into too much trouble. Didn't do anything too crazy. Uh have you ever been suspended for something you did rough? I've been been suspended trouble a few times over the years. No I got threatened

with suspension. You know, you get upset with doing doing what I do as as a as an update guy, my job is not to step on your toes to your show. Nobody's tuning in to listen to me. They might enjoy a banter between us, but my job is to be supplementary in what I do right now. And sometimes people will say something to me and I'll snap back because I'm not going to take the crap. You know, I've done this too long. You know this. I'm just you start spewing bull I'm I'm just not gonna do it.

I don't care. And then sometimes I get in trouble for that because I I just don't care. I'm not gonna sit and and be embarrassed. You're not gonna do manufactured Uh. I'm I'm a pretty straightforward guy. Uh. And it served me well. And my years of U c l A served me well, and my years talking golf, and it's it's done me well in radio. Yeah, we don't have a lot of time. I did want to get to that because you spent years. I remember seeing you and they always had the blue U c l

A shirt on. I remember that Ralph was known for that. You did video. Didn't you kind of create that department at U c You were you were the innovator of the video content right? How did that begin? How did you get that gig at U c l A. Well, Um, a guy that I had intern for when I was a student at U c l A reached out to me and said, we need video content on the website.

And you're saying to me that I was kind of a five tool player that I knew audio, I knew video, I knew how to edit, I knew sports, and I could be a talent on on camera and all those things together meant that you could literally ben You would laugh at what I used to carry around. It looked like a giant turtle shell backpack that literally had a camera, a tripod, microphones, lights, everything in this one backpack that

I would travel around with. And you I produced five videos a year for U c l A, covering twenty four different sports teams, and it was a NonStop job that went from the beginning of August to the end of July. One National championships with them, and you just go and you try to capture the story and share it to people and try to create content to try

to get recruits. And you work with coaches, you work with fans, you work with the administration, and it's it's as an as an alum, it was a great thing. As somebody who wants to make a living, it was. It was. It was terrible, and that's why I ultimately left was U c l A. You know, as much as I love my school, they pay their coaches a lot of money, and they're able to do it because they pay a lot of the sports staff very little.

And it's you do it out of love. It's it's it's a love of broadcasting and a love of storytelling, and that's why you get into it. And it lasts until you realize, no, I need to I need to start being more professional and receiver paycheck. Yeah, I would say watching you do some of that stuff at u c l A events, it was like a local like Punksakani news anchor has to go out record everything, then you got to go back and edit it, and then you got to make sure it's all set to go

for the newscast and the whole thing. And you did that like seven days a week probably for how many years were I was there for five years And the best, honestly, the best one was we played at football game at Colorado, So you shoot highlights of the of the game, old game halftime, you try and collect as many of the highlights off your digital card. Then you shoot the second

ha half. Then after the game, you do your interviews, you set up your lights, you do your stand up at the field, get onto the bus with the team to go to the airport, catch your charter, editing on the bus for the forty five minute drive from Boulder to the airport there in Denver. And I actually was able to edit and upload the story to our website before the plane took off to fly home. And that was one of that you say, you talk about accomplishment.

That was pretty fun to race against the clock. And that's what would be like on the road, is you're just racing to get as much done as you could before the plane took off, because if you get it up, great, and if not, then you were editing on the point. So yeah, well now you see is moving to the Big ten in a couple of years. That's uh. I guess you're you're lucky you're not there because you have to go to I think of all the long plane

flights going back travels fun. I mean I I traveled every school in the Pack twelve travels across the country with U C. L A. Uh. For football, it's not going to make it much of a difference. As as I was talking to people, you play a nine am game at Perdue, you're gonna get home to l a earlier then if you're playing a seven thirty game in Pullman, Washington, which is when Washington State tends to play their games. So it's not gonna be that big a deal for football.

For the other sports, it's gonna stink when the basketball team goes on the road. They're gonna have to go for what two weeks or something. I mean, I would think quite possibly. But here's the funny thing, though, Ben, Here, here's where, here's where you can smell out somebody that doesn't think about their job in sports radio. They then complained, well, I guess this takes out the whole student part of

the student athlete. Last I checked, these universities told students that they didn't need to be on campus for two years, skip to a remote learning. So you have an academic advisor that travels with all these teams. They're gonna sit there on the road. They're gonna do their classes remotely, just like has happened for the last couple of years. If if it's so important that students be in school,

then students should be in school. But that's been made abundantly clear to college students that it's no longer that big a deal. Yeah, the jig is up on that. The crowd is like student athlete and all that, and I'm glad there's n I L S. Although it is annoying to see some of these guys driving around Lamborghini's, but it's good for them. Uh fine, They the universities make a lot of money and as you say, the

supports staff. They don't get a lot of the moneys at schools like U c A. But I we don't have a lot of time left, Rolf, because I know you have used to do in places to go, but I didn't want to ask you. You're a golf guy, and that is to me the most one of the most fascinating stories going on right now, the survival of the p G a versus the the Live Golf Tour. Have you picked a side yet, Ralph? Or does it really not matter because you're you can play both sides here.

Where are you at on the on the lift? Ten years from now, Ralph, let's go in the hot tub time machine. Are we still talking about this Saudi era and live So you think it's sure it's gonna be No, no, no, no, it may be around, but we're not gonna be talking about it. I mean, right now it's being talked about because for some reason, and this is insane to me, golf journalists are just deep in bed with the PGA Tour, Like I don't understand why you are just so adamant

about defending the PGA Tour. Their commissioner has handled this whole thing horribly and really exposed the entire reason why the Live Golf Tour exists is because of this. It's terrible management from the PGA Tour, just how they've handled things and trying to be a dominating force. And it's like, look, why don't you work with these folks and move forward. I mean, this whole thing about you know, well it's dirty blood money. Then then then it doesn't matter. That's

what you think, and that's that's how that ends. The reality is there's lots of that money floating around the PGA Tour, There's lots of that money floating around sports around the world. If you if you know, you know, if you care, you care, what's my side? My side is to sit and watch this to baccle and and watch these people blow each other up. I mean, it's the fact of the matter. Is this last live golf event that was in Portland, it was a heck of a lot better than what the PGA Tour put out

at the John Deere Classic. And you can go to YouTube, you can watch the watch the tour. There are no commercials and because of the shotguns start format, they start at the same time, they end at the same time. It's a four hour broadcast. Like most major sports I've covered golf, that's an eight hour day covering golf because of the staggered times and everything, and it makes it better for everybody that format. Now, I'm not saying that's

the way golf should be, but it's a change. It's different. And you can give me all this statement about well, you're paying these players guaranteed money, so they're not going to care about wins or losses. They care. There's still prize money involved and they care. And when you're talking about golfers. I read this in an article recently. I think it was done by Alan Schipnuk who talked to agents and who said, golfers or horrors. They've always been

horrors from the moment they turned professional. They're selling everything they can to sponsors. So why is this any different. This is stupid to make it a big issue. It's it's it's silly. Well, it's it isn't intriguing though, because of all these guys that we've heard of on the PGA Tour that have all left and gold but the golds. I have a theory on the golf media why they're so in bed with the p G A one thing

my experience. I've only covered a few pg events over the year, but they really take care of the media like they really My experience was they if you want, you can go out and walk the course with golfers, but you don't have to, right, I mean, you can see sitting like a sofa and they'll give you food and you can watch everything on television. It's a but they do that at the Lift Golf Tour. They do it better from what I've seen the media spread and

I know that's a big deal to you. Clearly is is is far superior that they go golourmet on the on the Live Golf Tour. They have ridiculous money round. I mean all right, that they do. It's my point is, why why are you taking aside if your media, I mean the whole point we we get into this that the so called sports journalist, which is nonsense. There's no such thing, because every single journalist that covers sports is biased, every journalists. But but you're there, if you're a Dodgers

beat writer, you're there to cover the Dodgers. Therefore, you're rooting for Dodgers stories to happen. You're you're you're you're not saying, gee, I hope the Dodgers get no hit here. You're that doesn't That doesn't do you much good. It's in this case, why are you choosing sides? If you're a sports journalist, you shouldn't. If you're following golf, you should be like, this is an intriguing story. Let's see

how long we it will play out. We can milk it. Yeah, Well, the thing you want and the reason this this live things good for golf is because, as you know, rough, you don't want apathy. You want someone to have an opinion and be passionate. And people are very passionate on this issue, and it's gonna be interesting. Listen. I gotta let you go. I know you gotta you gotta work. We're recording this right before you're about to work. But

this is your last weekend at Fox Sports Radio. Good luck, ralped My wife tells me we're gonna we're gonna harass you in Vegas, so be good luck. I'm you know I'm not gonna be on the air. I'm going into hiding. It'll be it'll be hard to find me. Well, just don't change your number and you you if you'll, you'll

be invited. The Ugly Sweater Party is supposed to be back to longer drive for you Vegas, so you'll have to make proper accommodations for the It could take you the same time though, from Vegas to my house as to where you're living in l A to my y. It once took me two hours to get there. Yeah, it's a nightmare anyway. All right, Well, thank you, bro, it's been fun working with you. How Fox Sports Radio this run? How long will this run? Almost six years?

Time flies? Yes, I say you're gonna work in radio again. I'll make a bet I say you do radio again. We never know that the bosses may call me and say, hey, Ralph, we've never had you as a host before, but suddenly, now that you've left, we want you to fill in. Who knows it could have any Thank you, Ralph, good luck with everything. We'll be in touch. I appreciate it,

Thank you Ben. That the Honda Classic Daniel Burger all alone in first place after the third round he ships he sits five shots off of the lead or five shots ahead of the field. All I can say Ralph is the real Dumah. Yeah he's He's got the hand on the button, so don't worry about that. That was your best update of the day, Row Yeah,