The Long Game with Danny G

flying solo today. It's Friday, Friday Friday. Because four hours a night are not enough. On the overnight eight days a week, eight days a week. We do this show from the Mallard Podcast studio at a secret location somewhere deep in the north Woods. And we thank you for supporting the overnight show and finding this podcast. Tell a friend, word of mouth. We have no advertising budget. You will

see no billboard, you will see no television commercial. There will be no radio commercial for the Fifth Hour with Ben Mallord podcast. The only advertising we have is word of mouth advertising. Other than moving man Matt, who's got the Mallard logo on the back of his big rig. Outside of that, uh there's no no real advertising. Maybe there's a few feud of food i'ms but nothing, nothing massive,

nothing massive. So on the podcast this week, we've talked to professional athletes, we have talked to random figures, some politically. We had a chef on the podcast. But we are going to go back, way back in the history of the Ben Mallor Show to another one of my radio friends. So far back that this guy made a surprising appearance

on our show, Danny G. Radio. He returned that Cooper Loop was away, took a couple of days off, was in Vegas and Danny G, who was my engineer slash producer for a number of years on the Overnight Show. After Jake Warner left. We had Jacon a couple of weeks back, and so we had Danny G fill in for Cooper Loop, and I thought, you know, let's we didn't give Danny enough time. We had Tinderroni tips. We brought tinder Rooni tips back, but still a little deeper dive.

And Danny has had a very interesting life in radio. He's actually been in the radio business. He started a younger age then I did. I started when I was nineteen. Danny was still in high school when he started on radio. He made the the plunge, the leap frog from music radio to sports talk radio. And I had a great time working with Dan any on the show. We had a lot of fun in those days. We hung out

together at a minor league baseball game. Some of the some of the things we did off the air, occasionally ugly sweater parties and things like that that popped up. But let's give it up now for the man, the myth, the legend, the great Danny g Radio back on with us here this week he was on the radio show. Now he's on the podcast, and so Danny, let's cut right to the chase here. How weird was it for you? How odd was it to be back on the Ben

Mallard Show after several years away? You know, frightfully, it was actually not weird to be back at all. I like, well, it felt like a time machine a little bit because some of the same regular Mallard militia members were calling the show, so in a way I felt right at home like I had never left. It was a little weird, though, because my legs were aching as I walked into the studio because of some long work days recently, so maybe I feel a little older, but uh, mentally it was

good and the show was really fun and entertaining as usual. Yeah, it was great to have you back, Danny. I I I was. I was pleasantly surprised. I knew Coop was going to take a couple of days off to go to Vegas and then to have you back back in the saddle again. How many I'm very bad at dates, Danny, I'm very bad at days. How many years ago? You were with Clay for a while. When when was your last time on our show, Because it's been at least

two or three years, right, it's been maybe longer than that. Yeah, there's there was a little bit of overlap between the two shows, so I think that's why the math is confusing for myself as well. But I started with you at the end of and obviously back then the Date Break guys were still on, so I would produce your

show and then co produce the Daybreak fellas. And then obviously when Clay came aboard, which I guess was that's when I was working on your show and his, and then I moved to his time slot to be the executive producer. I guess it was when that happened. Alright, So but that's three years ago. Now that's it's time. It's time flying by for you, as it is me as I I don't think I'm that old, but then

I realized, my god, I'm becoming old. What happened? Time flies when you're not part of a union and you're getting screwed left and right. Yeah, you ain't kid moment. You ain't kid moment. It's uh. It is an interesting, wacky, wacky world, man, And I especially just the radio life in general, you know, just like the daily radio thing. But I think that's true probably for any job. I don't know that it's any different in a different, different

gig than radio. But you've been in radio your whole life too, so you know, you know the daily grind and what that's like, and it's a it's a weird thing. But I wanted to ask you about going from the Overnight show. We do things a little goofy on the Overnight, as you know, Danny, because you were part of the show for so many years, and then you work with Clay and Clay's a sports guy, but he's also a

political guy. And how weird was that when you know, you know, Clay's ending up as a topic of conversation on CNN or something like that, and you're working with him and you know, some polarizing story and Clay's right in the middle of it and you're in that world. What was that like for you? It definitely was a little bit of an adjustment period, although I kind of went in knowing, uh, some of the ramifications, if you will, of being um, you know, so well tied to a

program like that. In fact, when I interviewed too officially get that, executive production gig our boss Scott Shapiro told me he was like, hey, you know, whatever Clay's big opinion is on something, especially if it means political, you're gonna kind of be dragged into that and people are gonna assume you feel the same exact way. Are you okay with that? And you know, really I didn't have a problem with that because I did get to speak, uh, you know, somewhat as a co host on that show.

So if I disagreed with Clay the same way when I was on your show, if I disagreed, I got to say something about it, and I got to tell him that I disagreed. So you know, I was fine if some average casual listener would just assume something then you know whatever, that's on them. But are regular listeners, which we have a lot of, they kind of know all the different personalities and they don't think we're all

the same robot. Yeah. Well, but there's also those you know, as you you know, there's those vultures out there that are just looking for anything they can you know, they can blow up on that, you know, social media, anything you say, especially on a show like that, they just they just run with it and and make it much bigger than it is. And that's one thing that the difference between like sports for me and political and the last couple of years we've had to dabble in that world,

even on on the Overnight Show. But the difference is the amount of victriol. Like we have a lot of sports hate and people get upset because you have a bad sports opinion. But political, I mean that is a personal assault, Danny g Right, I mean, that's a that is just they want to rip your guts out because you had an opinion that does not fit with their ideology or their dogma or whatever. And it's pretty pretty crazy.

What was the coolest thing that happened? Was it the Trump thing where you got to talk to a sitting president as a producer of of Clay show and is

working on that show. Yeah, I would say that the two most memorable guests were the India most famous tiger hunter, which Clay gave us a challenge on the air because there was a big story that went viral about this guy in India who was hired by their government to kill the you know, the biggest threats there in their country as far as the man eating lions, tigers, lions, jaguars, whatever they were dealing with there that were, you know,

the animals terrorizing villages there, and this guy, uh there. There were some magazine outlets and websites to his stories on this guy because he was so interesting, and Clay read a story about him on one of our animal thunderdomes and he gave us a challenge. He's like, any of you in l a back in Nashville and anyone producing this show, if any of you can track this guy down and actually get him on my show, you know you're gonna get a major reward. And he kind

of laughed, and you think in a way. He was joking because he didn't think we could actually track this guy down in India. But one thing about me, and you know us, because we've worked together a long time, I'm pretty competitive. Uh. If somebody gives me a challenge, I'm gonna go all out to try to meet that challenge. So I immediately started researching, you know, the Internet, finding out who this guy was, who his management was, what kind of phone numbers there was. I I tracked it

down within an hour. I found a website that this guy was attached to. Within the second hour of the show, I found his uh, his field manager in India, and by the end of that day's show, I was talking to his manager through email. By the next day on the program, I was able to get him on us. Uh, they're one of their SAT phones out there in India. And he got on the air with Clay that day. And as if that wasn't cool enough, this guy was an amazing interview of his His accent kind of sealed

the deal. But he was just super entertaining and all the information he was giving us about the guns he carried, what kind of AMMO, his kills in the past, and what he was doing out there was just so amazing it it literally rocks Twitter to the point where I could not keep up with the mentions. And you know

that's for you. You have so many hundreds of thousands of listeners and followers that you've probably done this in the past in your career where you did something kind of controversial or you had to take that really exploded. But being a producer, it's not every day where you get so many notifications about something you did that you can't keep up with all the mentions. Yeah, that's cool, I actually remember that. And uh, I did I love the animal Thunderdome that that they did on you guys

did on that show. And animals one thing I've noticed from years in radio. People love stories about animals. They love that, right, It's especially when death is involved. Yeah, when you make death and wild animals. And it is crazy when you go to you know here in the in the South, when you go to Florida or South Carolina or somewhere like that, and you know, these these massive dinosaurs, these alligators walking around, you know, amongst us

and things like that. But and then you know, outside of America, as you guys on that show with all the wild animal stories with tigers and hippos and you name it. It's it's pretty pretty crazy, man. What was the crazy was that? That was the greatest. Guess what was the craziest animal story that you dug up? Did you remember off the top of your It? Is there one that stands out? There is? Yeah, one a couple

of years ago. If it happened in Alaska, and it was actually a guy who was known for composing albums with nature sounds, and he had an assistant too that would go out to the field with him and they would camp and he would set up his audio gear and he would record nature sounds and he unfortunately was

was dragged out of his tent or there. There was controversy surrounding what exactly happened to this guy and how a bear was able to get them and um, and so there were different stories that were At first it was two assistants with them, and then it was only one. Nothing happened to the assistance only he died. So we were like, well, how did they not hear him being dragged out of his tent? You know what I mean?

And and so I actually contacted their their version of CNN out out and so that, you know what, not Alaska, my bad, this was Canada. So I I actually got ahold of their version of CNN out there and was was able to talk to a reporter that was covering the story, and you know what, she was tight lipped about it too. She it was kind of like you

pesky Americans, you don't believe what we're reporting. And Clay had lots of questions about the story because it didn't add up, It didn't make a lot of sense the way it was being reported. So we spent a good week or two kind of keeping track of that story and the moves surrounding it. And um, that one really stands out because to this day, I still have not gotten a straight answer from that reporter the TV station.

I talked to all the people we got in contact with, and I think that that was one of the intriguing things about the animal Thunderdome and still is is you you want more details? Uh? You know, nowadays reporting is not what it used to be, so you'll, you know, you'll sometimes see stories where you still have a lot of questions after you read the article. Yeah, yeah, well exactly,

because it's not about detail. The attention span they've determined years ago, and and when I was doing Ben Mallard dot com in those old days, and and just putting little blurbs up. And it's even worse now because of social media. Like you just you don't read anything more than at the most two paragraphs on any story. There's really no point in if you're in that business of publishing stuff, why are you gonna why are you going to publish a long story when it's not gonna be

read other than the first couple of paragraphs. People just want bullet points. But you but you are obviously right, I mean you want yeah, occasionally want more information. They copy and paste then, Like there were times where a news outlet would get something wrong. Later we'd find out what really happened, or we see a better written article. But so many of the outlets ran with the first thing that was reported that they just copy and pasted, and they never even um, you know, they never even

went back and corrected what they reported. And you see a lot of that nowadays. Yeah. Absolutely, And but part of the deal also is it's the echo chamber, right, It's not. There's only here's the way I look at it. Social media. There's only a few people creating original content, and then there's just a lot of people repeating, you know, the echo chamber, repeating the same stuff off, repackaging it

and putting it all over the place. And so that's it seems like there's a lot more possibilities to get content, but a lot of it's just the same stuff regurgitated and all that. I got an email from Yo Yo mob Benny. He said the headline, this is Barry. Barry's in Nashville. He's a huge fan of yours. Then he wanted you on this podcast and he wanted he had some questions that he wanted and I'm Barry has been a big fan of the Overnight Show for a while, and so he wanted it all like like a little

behind the scenes inside radio stuff. So you're working for Clay Rush. Limbaugh is sick. Rushi had been sick for several years. He had been in poor health, diagnosed with cancer. And then Russ Rush ends up passing away. And so Clay, Clay's in the running to get the gig, and you're working on Clay show. He's doing a sports show. So

what's going on behind the scenes. How soon did you know that Clay was getting the the Rush Limbough job, and uh, you know, also, were you in the running to go and work on that and just leave and do political stuff. Yeah, Well, to answer the first part of that question, I didn't know much about what was going on behind the scenes because at that time, there

were a lot of other things also happening simultaneously. Clay had just sold his website, OutKick dot Com to Fox Corporation, and so while all that was, that was kind of at the forefront, and we were dealing with what was going on with that, and Clay was adjusting his schedule slightly to kind of, you know, make all that happen. And as I was dealing with that, that's when I got the news about, you know, him not returning to Fox Sports Radio Network, and so it you know, it

was pretty sudden, um. But the explanation that was given to me by our bosses was that they didn't want to tell anyone, not even his producers, until his ink was dry on the contract, because the way it was explained to me is he obviously is good at talking politics, but he wanted to stay in the sports world because that's where all his stories originated and at heart, he's

a sports guy. But you know, they were able to convince him that he could do even more of what he wanted to do with a slightly larger audience if he took over um or half took over Russia limboss chair. So you know that's kind of how that all shook out. Um. The timing was crazy with all of it, because, like I said, so many different things we're already happening behind

the scenes. But once he decided, Okay, you know, I'm gonna go ahead and do it, um man, it it was like the next day, Hey, this is gonna be the final show. So I sped over to the studios and I put the best of together where I dug back years and years to some of the highlights of the show, and I worked an all night or uh leading into his program um so that I had something to play at the end of his show to say goodbye.

It was super quick, such a quick turnaround, and then you know, I was told by the bosses, Hey, we're gonna have you in place right now. Uh we either way, you were a rock star for Clay. We need you to do that again for the next show that's going to try out and in my conversations with Clay, you know he he obviously um, him and Buck Sexton took over Russia's show. But the Rush Limbough show was already in place as far as the producers and the phone screener and the the guys back at their New York

studio and then what they set up in Nashville. It wasn't like it was a brand new show from scratch that Clay was, you know, the only person in charge of so AY. I would have had to live in New York or Nashville and be I do sports radio. I I I gotta tell you. I mean, I don't mind when politics get gets mixed in the sports a little bit, especially if you open it up for everybody

to give their opinions about it. But as far as doing political radio every day, um and and maybe you'd agree with me on this, I don't know if I could do that. I I love sports stories. I love sports. I don't wake up every morning and check out what's going on with Democrats and Republicans and party stuff on either side. That's that's just not me. I I wake up every morning and I checked sports scores and stats and stories. So I'm a sports guy. Number one, it

would be really hard for me to do politics every day. Yeah, you know it's always if the check was big enough, right, if the check was big enough, you would you would do it. But yeah, I love not for me, not for me. But then, honestly, I've made good money in radio.

And I know that's kind of funny to say that because we've we've both done this a long time, and we hear horror stories about radio guys who died broke uh and we've also you and I have met Steve Harvey and other guys who have gotten rich from radio. Uh And, and you and I met Rush Limbaugh that morning because he used to work right across the hall from us whenever he was in l A. Well, actually I did not. I was. I have run of Russia's pens because I got one of his pens, but I

I missed Russia. And and we for those that haven't heard past podcast, we've told the story working Fox Sports Radio is that the premier networks studios in l A. And and I've been lucky enough to work there for a long time, with the exception of six months in twenty six days, and when Rush would come in it was unreal. They'd roll out literally the red carpet he has. He had his own studio right across from the Fox

Sports radio studios. He you know, they and he'd only be in l A maybe once or twice a year, and his whole professional better studio than we have, and uh, you know, we're there, you know, three five days a year, pre COVID and uh yeah, and it was it was crazy, and it's just everyone was on their best behavior and it was like everything was planned out when Rush would get there. But yeah, it's been pretty cool. We've met some really need people over the years. I remember the

old days. I had a chance at one of the Christmas parties back when we had Christmas parties to meet Art Bell was there, Matt Drudge did a show for Premier, met him and Dr Laura And these are some big radio stars. If you're a radio nerd like us, Danny, these are big names and radio right to be able to schmooze with these radio people. And Jim Rome was working for the company at the time and and all that, and so uh A lot of people have also asked, Danny,

I mean, where are you at right now? Obviously you're you filled in for our show. I know you're doing some stuff on the weekend, so you're kinda you're kind of bouncing all over the places. They try to, you know, figure out what's next for you. Is that Would that be an accurate portrayal of what's happening right now? Yeah? It kind of ties into what we were talking about there with you know, some people in radio not doing

great with money and others thinking a ton of it. Um. You know, in my past, I was fortunate enough to have a couple of hip hop stations that I built or helped build, and they did really well and I made a lot of good money. Of course I blew most of that money in my twenties. But but then to cross over to sports was a really cool experience. You know. I went from hip hop to sports, and from NBC Sports Radio, I went to your show, uh, and then to Clay show and and so sports has

worked out. Uh. And so that's kind of the lane I'm in now. And you know, when you say if the check is big enough, you know to a certain point, because if it's something you don't like, man, money is good, you know, and I've had it and and I grew up without it, but I was able to get it

at an early age. Um, you know, there's something to be said on both side sides of it because you know, obviously everyone always references Biggiemore money more problems, but it's so true because when you find yourself in the middle of something that's huge, uh, and everyone's making a ton of dough off of it, it's great while it lasts, but it's also it also takes years off your life.

You know, there's a price to be paid for it, whether that's stress or ulcers or you know, like athletes where they take some years off their life because of what they do physically. Uh, there's something to be said for having a peaceful life where you make enough money to be comfortable, but you're not stressed out of your mind and you you actually have good balance in a life away from your job. So that that's what I've

been trying to figure out right now. After Clay Show left and the new show took over, they brought in their producer that they had on Sundays for Jonas and Brady Quinn. Their longtime producer lead To Lap was able to come along for the ride with them so that they could start a brand new show fresh, and you know, I have feelings about that where I'm like, well, I did the hard work and I didn't do anything wrong, So personally, I don't think I should have been moved.

But at the same time, it's radio. That kind of stuff happens. So for me now, the challenges to find the next Ben Mallar show or the next OutKick the coverage, those shows don't come along every day, and that's the hard part is, as you know, radio, a lot of times it's a waiting game and you have to wait it out and then things fall into place and then

the next the next journey begins. So right now, I have just been hustling as much as I can to pay the bills, and thank god I had a little bit of money in the bank, and of course Clay gave me of his Fox Corporation sale. I'm sure, I'm sure he's still that was awesome. I mean I could live off that money for years. I gave you some of the limball money that he got, right and you know, want of Russ one of the old gold microphones that Rush left behind, you know, and all all that stuff.

But uh yeah, I just want to be you know, we're at the point you're around my age day. We're similar, and I'm like, I want to get to the point where I don't have to worry about this payment and that payment. You know, I want to be and I'm still I'm still chasing a lot of stuff, you know, I'm still chasing a lot of stuff financially. So I just want to get to that point. I don't have to be Steve Harvey Rich you know where I have the you know, the houses here there and everywhere. Not

that I wouldn't mind that, but I'm I'm good. I just you know, I'm wanna be okay. But as it, what's the old saying, what's the yeah, comfortable? Comfortable without TMZ chasing you around? Yeah, exactly. I don't want someone like you know, It's just like Jim Rome. When Jim Rome or Colin Cowherd sell their house, it ends up in the l A Times real estate section. When I I just move, nobody knows where I live, Nobody cares where I live. You know. It's that, it's so the end.

Animity is a a good thing, for sure, but it's you know, and I made some good money too, I mean, I mean when we got into radio before the salary structure went to hell in a handbasket back in the nineties went you know, it's really a late nineties started to change and then it just continually got worse and worse as the years went on. But you know, I don't know. You started radio younger than I did, though, did he didn't you start? How old are you? How

old were you? I was fifteen, So I just celebrated my thirtieth year in broadcasting. Wow. Yeah, So it's been a wild ride. I mean, I I was. We had a high school radio station where I was at and I started there when I was in junior high. I would I would walk after school to the high school and the the electronics teacher was the dude leading that little radio station. But it wasn't a little radio station, which was the cool part. It had a lot of wattage for a you know, a station like that. It

covered the entire city. So if you had a show on that high school radio station, you actually had listeners. It didn't just cover the parking lot of the campus. Um. So my older brother and I we took advantage of that. We played some good hip hop and R and B. Music and read everybody's dedications and requests a couple of times a week when we did the afternoon radio shows there. Uh. And then I parlayed that into the college radio station uh there in northern California where I was at and

did this really popular Friday night rap show. And then at sixteen years old, I got my first commercial radio job, working weekends at a big station in our city. Um. And it was my first paycheck from radio. It was awesome, uh, you know. And from there that I was already doing it all through high school. So as soon as I graduated, packed up my bags, moved to Ventura and built helped build a big pop station that still stands with big ratings there today. Uh So, now what a wild fun ride, um,

you know. And and that's the part, that's the part I love about it, is just connecting with the listeners and making an impact in the community that you're in. In our case, it's a network, so we're all over the world the country, and you know, we have listeners everywhere,

which is even more amazing. Um. So, if the paycheck is good enough to just cover your bills and for you to be comfortable, then the bottom line and from what I found out in thirty years of doing this, when you have unscripted moments on live radio and all of us are trying to not laugh like the other night, but we can't help it, and we just are interrupting Eddie's update because uh, you know, we're all just laughing and we can't stop. When the show is over, you're

on like a natural high. I guess that's the best best way I can describe it. It's like you smoked some good bud, but none of us are smoking. You know, we're all sober. But when you do really good radio, you are buzzing afterwards. It is like a natural high because we know that we have listeners out there that might be having a hard day, a hard morning, a hard life, a hard month. But you are that moment, that bright spot in their day where you actually make

them smile and laugh. And that is the best part of radio. I completely agree with. I could not say it better than you, Danny. And you know I started. I was nineteen years old, so you have four more years on me. Um. But that's the I get email from people and being on the overnight show, and you know this, when you worked on the show, we have a lot of people that are sick, a lot of people that have bad health, that are going through some

really dark times in their lives. And it is when you're alone late at night and there's no one around, it is so bad. I mean, he just wants someone to talk to. You can't call anybody, you can't, I mean, just by yourself. And I always love when I get an email or something from somebody who said so and so listen and every night they were sick, they had this, that and the other thing going on with them and

they love the show, and um, it's great. And I you know, not that you don't get that during the day per se, but I think it's more of a nighttime thing. I think during the day it's more of the hustle and bustle, and there's people in the car on the way to work or on the way home from work or whatever. And we have people that listen overnight that are working. But I think there's a lot of people that are by themselves, whether it's in a hospital or at home or just dealing with the crap

that life throws at you. And it is it's one of the great powers of radio. And I think, yeah, well, I'm biased. I'm sure you're biased to Danny is a lifetime radio guy. But I don't think you get that same sense from any form any other form of media. It's just different. There's something about radio and just having somebody talk to you, or listening to music. When you worked in music radio, you know, I have somebody. It's just a different animal than television, and even like the Internet.

I mean, the Internet is great and wonderful, and I can spend hours on YouTube, which is basically just television when you choose what you want to watch and all that stuff. But it's something about radio to me that and and I guess I'm archaic because I believe that. But you were doing a podcast right now. I think it's a similar thing with a podcast, it's not quite the same. One of the magic things about radio is

you're actually like, we're there, we're live. There's another human being alive that's on in the middle of the night, you know. I think that was always the big selling point I thought was that we're actually there, We're not recorded, we're doing it live. Do it live right? Do it

like like phil O'Reilly said back back in the day. No, you're you're you're you know, you're spot on with that, because as a kid, uh, you know, there was some some pretty can I curse on that show or yeah it's a podcast, say whatever the funk you want there.

There was some pretty shitty things going on when I was a little kid, um, you know, between my mom and dad and divorce at a young age, and my mom was displaced and for a while we didn't have any where to it for a long while, we didn't have anywhere to stay when we were in southern California, and it it was a real ship show, to put

it lightly. But one thing I did have, and you laugh at this, it was a G I Joe transistor radio and it was hooked up to like one of those uh walkie talkies, so it had a base and then it had like the walkie talkie you could take off of it to be mobile. On the base was an a MFM radio and I listened to Vince Scully on that thing every night. And yeah, I mean, he's calling a baseball game. But I still thought that that was my dude. I thought like I knew that guy.

You know, you might as well have been my grandpa. And and I had that every night, no matter what crap was going on in life, I could count on him and I could count on that time with my radio, and it was awesome. Man. And then when I got into music, when I got a couple of years older, there was k DY Radio with the early hip hop in k Poo and San Francisco, which did a lot of live mixed shows and played unedited versions of rap songs,

which was pretty amazing at that time. And I listened to all of those live turntable mixes on that radio. I listened to Vince s Guli on that radio, Bill King calling Raider games on that radio, and it made a huge impact in my life. And you know, that's that's why radio is so important. It has played a

big part in just about everybody's life. Yeah, When when I was a kid, my mom used to listen to Coast to Coast with Art Bell and uh, you know, late at night, and he sold one of his advertisers was this radio antenna that you could get to get you know, listen to far away radio stations. And I was all in on that, you know, and I begged my mom. I said, Mom, you gotta hook me up with that thing. And finally she did. It was pretty

pricey at the time. I don't remember how much, but probably by today standards it would be dirt cheap, but it was. It was a pretty pricey thing. And I got that, and man, I was like, you know, a pig and slop. I was listening to. You know, being in the West, it's not as cool as I'm here on the East listening to far away radio stations you can get everything. But I got k O A out of Denver eight fifty. I I heard a station I used to listen to Utah jazz games on eight seventy

out of St. George. I think it was maybe ninety. It was a station out of St. George, Utah that I listened to. I got Sons games out of six twenty k T A R. I got a station out of Seattle, which was like a news station. So I like all this, like it was like awesome. I was like, you know, that was before the internet. That we're old, Danny, and that was like before the Internet. You could hear these far away stations and all that, and uh and it was radio nerd. I respect that. Yeah, I'm I

was full nerd. I was full radio geek. I had. Yeah. Uh, any any regrets, Danny, any gig that you had that you would have gotten that, you didn't get that? You said, Oh man, I wish I had taken that, or you not a look back guy. I wish I could say I'm not a look back guy. But unfortunately I passed up on a one hundred thousand dollar a year job in Honolulu. Oh yeah, so I was. I was programming k c a Q Ventura Santa Barbara in the late nineties and the station just blew up in a major way.

I I had an ulcer, I had hemorrhoids. I was bleeding out the mouth in the ass. I mean it because ben I worked ninety hours. I literally had a cot in my office there and the programming offices. I mean, to make it be a monster, I had to turn into a monster, if you know what I'm saying, And I mean you, as a program director, you have to will your station to victory. It's kind of like, you know, being a quarterback with a broken leg the field and they are limping you up and down the uh the field,

they have to carry you. But at this station, I had a bunch of talent that was screen. I had no budgets for promotions. I didn't have much to work with. But what I did have was really really good music. I had a large signal, so that was good um, and so I was able to put it all together.

And it was the toughest challenge of my life at the time and still looking back, probably the biggest challenge I've ever had, besides that early stuff my mom went through as a kid, and I drew on on those experiences, though I'm like, you know what, I'm not scared of this. I had worst crap go on in my life. So I had bad stuff going on in my personal life.

But the radio station was doing really, really well. So suddenly they were building over a million dollars a month in advertising revenue, and they're they're in Ventura, which was market one nine at the time, and they're now building know tons of money. Just it turned into their cash cow for that company. So they were giving me a nice salary. But it caught the attention of some other radio stations and some other groups, and so I got a plane ticket sent to me from this radio group

in Honolulu. They flew me in, they interviewed me. But you know, I'm in my twenties, and here at k c a Q, I had control over everything. I get to Honolulu and they're like, oh, this is our in house you know consultant. This guy is the programmer to the programmer, this guy is the you know this to that, And so to get one song on the radio, I would have had to go through like four different people. And I was like, Ah, the money is good, it's Hawaii. But but I wasn't ready to retire. I was just

getting started. Now. If somebody came to me now and you know the equivalent of that now would be two hundred thousand dollars in Hollolulu, that obviously I would go move there tomorrow. But in my twins, with everything going on in Southern California the way it was back then, I actually turned the job off or down. I did get a raise from that group. When I got back from Honolulu. They wanted to lock me in, so they gave me a raise and locked me into a contract.

So it did help with the long term success I had there. But I still look back in fact, um my girl and I we have a little three four day trip planned to Hawaii at the end of November. Yeah, and then this is something I planned, not smartly because I didn't know the shakeup was gonna happen without Kick the coverage and all that. So, you know, I planned this a few months back, and then when my life I turned up upside down. The first thing my girl did was look at me and she's like, what about

our Hawaii trip? You know you gotta do it. You know we're gonna go to Hawaii while you're unemployed, because then you're really on the beach. Well, now you're you are you didn't ask the bigger veal. We were all shocked. We were talking about that last night actually, Danny the other night on the show that you know, Danny g I mean, we've known you forever and you know, you've always been the bachelor guy, and now you're you're engaged,

which is outstanding. Congratulations on that. Now, would if you're in Hawaii, where are you going to Honolulu? Are you going to one of the other islands? So we're gonna go to mah Yeah, yeah, we're gonna try to avoid people. Okay, Um, so we're going to Maui. Okay, that's great. I recommend I got married in Kawaii if you ever If that's that's the garden. Hardly anyone there's like forty miles of roads. That's it. It's all uh, it's all crazy. But I've

heard wonderful things about Maui. I've never been to Maui. I've heard good things. But when you're there, are you gonna, you know, knock on the doors of some radio stations, Danny and see see what's going on? Where your Hawaiian shirt and all that. Yeah, I live that dream again, be like, hey, I'm ready for you now. No, I don't. I don't think so. I think I'm in a good place,

um in southern California right now. Um. You know, I was able to come to an agreement with Fox Sports Radio Network to stay on and kind of kind of float and produce the shows that need an executive producer, which was how I got to fill in for Coop Um. And so that's okay for the time being. I'm not in a rush to rush into anything else right now. And and you know, radio, Ben, if you don't have friends inside the building, you're just really not going to

get a job at that radio station. Yeah. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Is so Yeah, unfortunate unfortunately. And the other thing that I hate about this business, Danny, is when you're unemployed or whatever, when you're nobody wants to talk to you, like it's like you got or whatever, and they like you got COVID and you're coughing exactly exactly, all right. I know you

gotta go, Danny, but listen, thanks for doing this. I appreciate this, and it was fun catching up with you, and yeah, for sure, man, I look forward to the next time I'm on your show. And you know I didn't tell I didn't tell you this when we ended the show the other day. Man, I'm not I'm not sure if Coop would give me the green light on this or if you knew I did this, but I give them. I gave away thirty seven Golden Chicks answering the phones together night, So you guys have fun answering

those calls next to Yeah, I can't wait. I'm sure you're giving all the blind Scott to that that the lunatic anyway, have fun, all right, Thanks Danny, all right, love you guys,