It is the John Phillips Show at Johnny's on vacation. He'll be back on Monday. It's Randy Wang here and the phone number to join us is eight hundred two two two five two two two one eight hundred two two two five two two two. You can email us at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com, or my personal email is Randy Wang radio dot substack dot com. Excuse me, Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com. The
substack is Randywangradio dot substack dot com. That's where I have all of the show prep for today, all twenty two stories that I picked out that are important things that you need to know going on in the state of California. We've only got a three hour show and then I have the other one hour show. We can't cover everything, but I put everything up there at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. All the stories going on in Southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, in the
Central Valley that you need to know about. And I do a full recap of all of those stories every day at five o'clock on the KABC News Blitz. You can hear it in Southern California on seven ninety KABC, and if you're in the Bay Area, you can stream it at KABC dot com. Our next guest, and I don't use this term lightly, is a true hero in the city of Los Angeles because he is on a mission to clean up La one trash bag at a time.
You can go to his website and find out everything that he's doing at Cleanla with Me dot org Wan Nala of Cleanla with Me. Welcome to the show.
Thank you so much. Yeah, it's it's a pleasure to be here, and thanks for having me at your show.
So Wand for people that don't know you, don't know your story, tell us about your background and how you got into the world of deciding to pick up all the trash yourself in La.
So.
I moved to Los Angeles sixteen months ago from Virginia looking for an investment for my tech company. When I got here, I started driving all around, you know, going like north to east, east west, and I see trash everywhere. So it kind of shocked me because when I was in Virginia and I'm Ecuadorian. Backing home, you don't see this type of trash on the street parks at this everywhere, you know, so that kind of shocked me. And because I used to see every year street and sidewalk clean.
And I was five weeks here in Los Angeles and I decided to start cleaning, you know, because it's It was a lot of things, you know, because I moved to Los Angeles with a dream to try to build this tech company. And then I had my wife also I was praying it, but there are back back then they would live be backing in Ecuador. And then my son, you know, born in February, and it was a lot of things. I got to calm with money in when I was three weeks in Los Angeles, so you know,
start start cleaning and then could keep going cleaning. For me, it was like a trap and I was really enjoying. So that's how I get involved in trying to make a cleaner straits of Los Angeles, you know.
And uh, you know, we definitely need it. Even though this is such an expensive city to live in and everyone who lives here pays exormitant sales taxes and property taxes, business taxes, what have you. The city of La does not pick up the trash that is illegally dumped all over and this city is filthy.
Yes. When I when I started, you know, doing the cleanups, I didn't know have to. I was, you know, I post on social media and I was asking people because I was leaving. I started with parts. You know, I start cleaning up with the park. That was easy because I would clean the park and I would just leave the trash bus rid there by the trash can and
they would come up and pick it up. But then I going into the streets and then you know, part mean Hollis, and then I was like, I need to know how I can dispose of this trash because I didn't know, I'm new, and then people started giving the information. I got to call three one one up and you know and put the request there. But it was a mess, to be honest, because I had a lot of problems
with three one one up. I was putting the requests, they were not coming to pick it up the trash, and then the homeless come and open the bags and the trush was all over again. So many times I got to go back and re clean it out sput you know, and and you know, it was kind of a little bit, you know, I was like, Okay, I'm doing the world, just come and pick it up the trash.
You know, I mean you were doing the hard part. You were picking up the garbage, you were sort of it, you were putting into bags and just having the City of La respond to the app that they tell everyone to use three one one and they don't do a damn thing, I know.
And it was like that. So then I used to, you know, go back and I will used to another video, said hey, I put a request, why you do not you know, why you're at the La city l sentitation, why three one one is not come and pick it up the trash? And then they will come and you know, and I will talk to them, all the officials, all the websites, all the social media page, and they will start doing it. And then, you know, more and more and more I went on news. I was complaining between
one one up. I was like, why don't you come, just pick it up? And eventually now when I put a request to live it or not, it used to take about a week, two weeks to come and pick it up my trash. In these days they do next day.
That That is definitely an improvement, But like so many things with the City of La, the way that you get an improvement is you have to unfortunately embarrass the city into doing their job.
I see, that's the only way to do it. And I don't want to do this, you know, in bars officials. I'm used to something else. You know, do the officials do the job. We don't even have to do this. And East Coast, you know, I was twenty years living in DNB area and then back home, same thing. But here you have to go on social media tell them and then eventually they start doing it. But they don't like me at this time.
Now, one, when you're doing these cleanups all throughout the city of Los Angeles, I'm sure people are curious to know, like what are the things that are being illegally dumped?
Is it food?
Is it stuff that with people where people are living at? Is it stuff from contractors? What are you finding at all these dump sites?
So the most of illegal dumpiness contractors, food venders, fruit venders. And eventually people want to leave in the you know, they're moving from one apartment to another, partment buildings, I mean one building to another building. They are living, you know, all the furniture. They don't want to say they just live it outside I'm not really sure if those people doesn't know they can put a request in three one one one three one one or the three one one
doesn't come and pick it up. So what happened is, you know, when they leave all the furniture outside, the homeless come and pick it up and just take it with them. That's right. You see mattresses, chairs, tables everywhere because the homeless are taking all these choices being sitting outside. But you know it's also the people. When people see a trash, other people coming just put in their normal people I'm talking about normal people. Just they see trash,
they just come and put it right there. Like, come on, everybody has to do their part, you know, everybody to have a better city, everybody has to do the part. But the most illegal illegal dumping is contraction foot vendors and fruit vendors, and it's disgusting.
I gotta imagine. I know in the produce district there are just pallettes and pallettes and palettes of fruit and vegetables that are dumped on a street corner every single day, and we obviously know where it's coming from. But it seems that there just really isn't any enforcement going on for people doing this.
It should be like it should be many like you know, I'm right now, I was going to dump the trash that I picked it up. You know, I gotta I gotta one truck donate, but one one guy from Lawn Beach. He don't pickup truck. So now I can put the truck, put all the garbage and back on my truck and go dumped. So I've been emailing back and forth with the city, city Hall, the mayor offices, and public workers over I don't know every forty fifty emails, I think.
And I asked them for grant. I asked them for funding. I asked them some help so I can stop paying the fees, you know, because one hundred and fifty doors every time when I go dump this trush. Uh. And then also I'll find out you know that right now, I I can go dump at the city fills eighty seven dollars. But it should be, you know, it should be.
I don't know a program where people said, Okay, you know you're gonna go damp over there, We're gonna give you fifty percent, So that will they will eliminate all the illegal dumping with the contractors. You know what's the problem because they're not making enough money, so they don't get enough money to go and dump the trush because of one hundred and fifteen dollars.
Uh.
But if they said, okay, you're just gonna pay fifty percent, I think all the contractors they're gonna go and dump br You know, there should be more programs, or it should be cameras, because one time I wasn't I was not looking for parking lot by city hall, and by accident I was standing by by the you know, bus line, so they took they took a photo, se me a bill for three hundred dollars, I have to say. And now I was like, why don't you have these cameras
for people who are doing illegal dumping? You know why they don't do that? Why did not you know? I was, I know I was in the wrong place, but I was like for two minutes and I got to take a three hundred dollars secret. But they don't do any any other enforcement for the people who is illegal dumping. There's many hottest spots, many had spots that have cleaned it two weeks. It's even worse.
Sometimes you're totally right about that, and we have the technology to do this. We know where the spots are because the same spots seem to pop up over and over and over and over again. But it seems that two things can be true at the same time. Enforcement is very, very very seldom. And what you see in cities where the cost of dumping trash is so prohibitively expensive is some people just say screw it, I'm dumping
on the street. The same exact situation is going on in the city of Oakland, and Oakland has some of the most expensive trash fees in the entire state of California.
Yes, so it should. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know, some people and on the contraction there's a lot of you know, a lot of competition. Because I've been twenty years doing contraction, but I don't do anymore, so I know it should be a program where, you know, the
contractor look at discount. And also for the food vendors, because the food vendors get when they get the license, they should be like, you know what, this is the place where you can go and dump all the waste and it's fifty percent discount, and there's many things to do it. They just don't want to do it. I think I'm thinking, like they don't want to do it these things because they can do it so many they go you know, the office, the city the Leela City Hall.
They can do it these things very easy, you know, and they just they see me as like a tread like I'm the guy. I'm the bad guy. You know, No, like you guys, you have to do it. There's many other programs. I've been at city hall. I talked two three times. I went there, like you have to do this. You have to fix the three one one up. It's easy for me to use it, but many people doesn't
know how to use it and they haven't. It's still people han problems with the request because at this time right now, I have one hundred addresses that I have to go and clean and the people are sending me on my social media. But because they had to put a request on three one one up and they never show up, three four, five months, they never show up. So people now I'm the three one one up for LA like they're sending me all their requests. You know. It's kind of crazy.
Well, and it is just wild what has been going on at here you know, you make a really good point about the street vendors and that you know, these are supposed to be permitted and regulated businesses, and we have so many of them that if they're using any kind of oil or grease, they're sometimes just dumping that on the side of the road and then that's going into our sewer system, that's going into the ocean.
Exactly. And I'm a Latina. I'm not against anybody that. You know, everybody needs to make money, but it should be some regulations for everybody, you know, the small businesses or they are paying so many taxes, rent and all that, and you know, it should be on other regulations for everybody that's selling stuff in the streets. And I'm not against that, but it should be regulations with trash fees, taxes, you know, all this kind of stuff, because they are
they are making the cities. It's so sad to say this, you know, because sometimes it's my people in my community, in a community. But I'm not again, I'm not against them, but it should it should be education. It should be like when they get the permit, when they're getting you know, the permits to do a vendor, we can get really I mean, it's like I think one hundred and twenty dollars. Then you can get a permit to sell the stuff
on the street. At that time, when they get in the permit, it should be some regulations like you know what, if you do this, we're going to cancel your your license or your permit, things like that. That is going to help to educate to the people, you know who with illegal dumping everything on the streets, and it's and
it's really really bad. Actually it's really bad because everywhere I haven't picked it up, meat, chickens, and there's stinks, been there for weeks, fruits, been there for weeks and really stinks. And you know, it's not just illegal dumping. We got to understand that it's not just illegal dumping. When we have all that trush right there, it brings rats, it's not healthy, it may look bad the city. It's everything. It's not just a try. It brings many other problems
for the city, the health. It just makes looks really ugly to the city. So people, we have to understand those things, you know. And I'm trying to see if I can educate my community, my Latino community, you know, everybody, because I even't seen people driving cars, really expensing cars, just putting the window down and then just allway the trash on on the on the highways, you know, on the freeways. I was like, what's going on with the
people in California. This is this is like I don't even like you know, the Goblin says we are the four economy in the world, but it doesn't look like the people. The officials is like a mess. Everything is a mess. I'm sorry, but it is it truly, you.
Know, it really is. We're speaking with one Nala. His website is clean la with me dot org. Now, there was a really strange moment a few months ago where as Mayor Karen Bess is looking to seek re election, she held a state of the City address and she actually gave you a huge shout out and says how she wants to partner with you and talked about what a great job you're doing. But ultimately, if the city was doing its job, you wouldn't have to be doing this.
Yes, that's what at the first place, right, I won't have to do this if they were doing you know the word. But after the uh, you know, when I went, you know, the mayor current bass and buy me to the sale of the city. They give me a big shot out. They said they're gonna help me, they're gonna support me, they're gonna partnership with me. But after that, we've been backing for like thirt emails. I'm not sure.
The other one is all the addresses that I have on my list on my data, that's all the one because they want to go and clean it so I don't have to play to clean and again, I've been emailing with seven eight people at city Hall, public workers and other members from the city Hall over to fort emails. The last email that we I had with them, it was about six months ago. Six weeks ago, they said they're gonna look into grants or funding for clean alay
with me. I haven't here since then. So if city said they want to support me, you know it will be finalist one. You know what, We're gonna help you with the fees to them. You don't have to pay any fees for dumping, you know. I'm not I'm not saying give me a couple of millions. I'm just asking for simple things, you know, and they're not. They're not helping. I don't know because to be honest, I don't understand sometimes what they want to be a part of them. They try to I said, no, I want to be
doing clean lives with me. I'm not going to be part of China. We can partnership, yes, go great, but they all they want again, they want all my addresses that I have in my phone because I think they want to go and clean it before I got And it's been happening already because about two months ago I started posting like, Okay, I need help. I'm going to
be in these addresses tomorrow. I'm going to be cleaning if anybody has some time come and helped me, and just what the city is showing up and cleaning the fire'clock in the morning, five am in the morning, they show up and clean it. Oh wild.
They're like they're trying to be in competition with you right now. At the same time, they're the ones that say they wanted to partner with you, but they obviously don't like that. You are shining a light on what is a complete failure in the city of Los Angeles. Now one if there's anybody listening that wants to help contribute to your organization or join one of your mingas where a bunch of volunteers come and clean up together. How can they do that?
So they can go on my website clean Alive with me dot org. Or they can go on my social media and all the platforms same name, clean alay with me. There is a link tree with all my links, donation links, all my other social media links, every everything they can find there and then they can go They can go from there and then I post every I was posting every Wednesday with the addresses for the mingas on Saturday
from nine to eleven. But now because the cities are doing this now, I'm not putting every Thursday every Wednesday. Sometimes on Thursdays. Sometimes I do on Friday because people know already mean that we have minasit Saturday, so they just wait for me to see the address and then just come, you know. So now I post sometimes on Thursday, sometimes on Friday morning.
The website is cleanla with me dot org, Cleanla with me dot org. Well, the city's not going to give you the proper things that you deserve, but I'll do it here. Thank you so much one for what you were doing every single day with your literal hands, trying to make La, a cleaner place, clean La with me dot Org wan Nala, thank you so much for joining us today.
No, thank you so much for having me. I was a pleasure and let's make a change. Hopefully in a couple of years we can see a different only wan Nala.
Everybody you like to comment on what you just heard, give us a call. Eight hundred two two two five two two two one. Eight hundred two to two two five two two two. It's Randy Wang here on the John Phillips Show. Let's take some calls. Eight hundred two two two five two two two one eight hundred two two two five two two two. Let's start with Anca in La Onca. Hello, Hi, Randy.
I think it's the first time I'm talking to you, but I'm a long time listener. I talked to John and I talked to a lot of different al Rantel and over the years that I've been listening, I've been in La now forty six years this year and originally from Germany. And what this man was just describing, I felt every inch and frustration that was coming from him, because it's like kind of disbelief. Its just totally disbelief. When I drive through the streets. When I see things
and I said, this is impossible. People living in a bus stop. Uh you know, but like like building a little house. And I passed by free day my grandkids on their way to kindergarten.
The guy a naked.
Guy rolling in the middle of on the way to school. A La tijara. This is a nice neighborhood. This is like single family homes. And people don't understand that's what LA was built for, single family homes. It's fairly small streets. And when they start building and developing, and this is not the infrastructure for LA at all. It just might bring in more people and more people into condos, but
it really makes life miserable for everybody else. It took me like five minutes to get out of my neighborhood. Now we're stuck from here to the ninety freeway just to go over to like it's up there to be ten minutes away. Okay, people are cutting each other off. It starts early in the morning. Just the vibe is gone, Like Ali had a vibe from the from the ocean
to sunset where you could go. I was actually just driving from there and few things that you know, so there that I remember, like the Piper Room and some of those things that I don't know, you know to anymore. But I tried to the whole city and I'm seeing all of these encampments, some of the most biggest cities for auser's sake.
Well, I think you're You're totally right, and I love what you said there. The vibe in LA is just gone. I totally agree with you. I'm born and raised here and I feel it every single day. Thank you so much for the call. Appreciate it. When I go to other cities, I feel a vibe. San Francisco has a vibe, Santa Fe has a vibe. La does not have a vibe anymore. It is a loose collection of neighborhoods and
there's a giant mountain in between all of it. And the only part of it that technically you could call the city is downtown LA. And that is some scary stuff right there. It's going to Thomas in Lakeport. Thomas, Hello, Thomas, what hey, you want to talk?
Oh?
Yeah, yeah, I'm up here in Lake County. And some time ago, the bord of superviruses. We're trying to include the garbage fees and the property taxes, and I think they're trying to do it again. I think it failed some years ago and but they're trying to do it again. But I think that would be one helpful solution to put it on your people's tax bill. So they've put the garbage out.
Well, and we've seen an increase in they do that here in Los Angeles. In fact, they just increase the trash fees. They're doing that in San Diego, although they're getting sued over it. But if you're going to charge the owners more, you got to start picking up the garbage. That's what people want to see. I think people wouldn't mind paying for it if the streets were clean. But in LA the streets are filthy. Thank you so much
for the call. Appreciate it again. I wasn't in any of the bad neighborhoods, but for the most part, San Francisco look pretty damn clean. Let's go to Henry and Whittier. Henry, Hello, Heydy, who are you doing great?
I'm a chief engineer in downtown LA at one of the high rise buildings, and that man is a saint. You know. Karen Bass and the rest of the board, they should be ashamed of themselves that this guy's got to come from Virginia and clean up our city. You know, I told him, whenever he's around my building and he's got trash, I always I let him throw it in my dumpster. But you know, we need more guys like him, or actually we need Karen Bath to do her job.
You're totally right about that. We should not need a wan Nala, but I'm so glad that we have one. And at the very least, when the city makes him a spectacle at a Karen Bass campaign event and wants to talk about it, they want to partner with him. Why wouldn't they at the very least waive the dumpster fees for the guy who's doing their job for.
Them exactly and donate trash bags to him as well.
You're totally right. Thanks so much for the call, Henry, appreciate it. Let's go to Armando in La Armando.
Hello, Randy, how you doing man? Glad to see your handling that show so perfectly like a professional.
Thank you?
Yeah yeah, onan Noelle, Yeah, gosh, man, look at these doing for the city of Los Angeles and he's emon trying to make contact on three one one, and I feel his pain because you don't know how many times we have to go through that just to get our parking provincial preferential permits honored that we pay for that. There's no parking enflorcement. Never it's a good saying, Colin, and you wait hours for you know, you're calling under
ninety nine. By the time they answer the phone, it's like midnight, you know, So no kudos to him, Cools to you, Randy, appreciate it. You're doing a great job. You need five hours show five hour.
I'm already doing four. Thanks so much for the call. Armando, appreciate it. Three one one. It's almost like by design, and it's not unique to Los Angeles. San Diego has something called the get It Done app And guess what they don't get it done. Let's go to Wes and Willetts. Wes.
Hello, how why are you Randy?
Doing great?
That's great. I'm glad to hear that. Hey, when I was when I came in this world, Uh, we did have we did have some frigid arm good transportation. Back then it was rail We had the railway and we haven't got it anymore. And I know why too, because.
Of the UH.
Because of their oil and rubber companies. They want to put buses on there, and we we launched our railway.
It's something that's wild to think about. But you know, not that long ago in human history. We're talking about, you know, less than one hundred years ago. Los Angeles was known as the city with the best public transit in the country with the red cars.
Yeah, and we had the we had the old street cars and everything else, and it just it just went to the dogs.
You're totally right. It is fascinating to watch. If anyone has those old videos of what La looked like back then, Thanks so much for the call. Or you can watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is a hilarious movie that is also a history lesson about the end of the Red Car. Let's go to Steven seem Valley. Steve, Hello, Hey, Randy.
First of all, I about spit my water out when you said the thing about the high speed bus. That is I mean, my god. Second thing is I hope Spencer wins. I sold my house in twenty twenty two in North Hollywood, and last October, for some reason, it burned to the ground.
Holy jow.
Oh.
Yeah, fifty years we lived in that house, my family and I did, and it's a pile of ashes now. And that's they put those little, those tiny homes in the park behind where I used to live. And my neighbor tried to tell me, Oh, it's going to help the homeless, and I said, no, it's going to draw more. And I was right.
You were totally right. You got out at the right time. Steve, Thank you so much for the call. Appreciate it all right. Doesn't look like he wants to get on these high speed bus that's going to be on the five Freeway someday. At least it'll get done before the high speed rail. But yes, would anybody feel safe on a high speed bus? We'll see. Hey, if you'd like to email us, you could do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail
dot com. Mark writes in on the street dumping that's going on, LA should really take the title of the city of Dumpy. The city should change. Every should charge every contractor a dumping fee when they go to get their demolition or construction permits. The fee is based on
the scale of the project. They would get a voucher to local dumps to get rid of the junk, and street food vendors should have to pay a two hundred dollars a month dumping fee to dump their old food at designated places the food can be used for mulch. That is the most common sense thing I have ever heard, which tells me that our politicians are never going to
go for that. But yes, based on this is the one takeaway that you should have from all the great things that we heard from wan Nala and Clean La with me. The majority of the garbage is put there by contractors and sidewalk vendors, street vendors. You have contractors that don't want to pay the dumping fees, and you have street feed dumping their old food, their spoiled food, or the food they don't sell right there on the street. We know in West Hollywood you have street vendors dumping
their grease right there on the street as well. We should have mechanisms to enforce that because we're not. These aren't the piles of trash that are caused by the homeless. That's a different thing, and that's also a disaster. But a lot of the illegal dumping that we're seeing in the city of La is being caused by people that are supposed to have licenses and permits. Mile writes in at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. So it takes an immigrant from Ecuador to clean the trash
in LA. So basically the city is paying people to do nothing. Thank God, I live in Orange County. You know what this show is sometimes Sometimes this show specifically for everybody that listens that doesn't live in the city of Los Angeles, or for our Bay Area listeners if you live near Oakland but you don't live in Oakland. You know, even if you live in San Francisco. I feel like sometimes doing news about the city of LA
and all of the dysfunction that we see. It's really painful if you happen to be people that live in the city of La, which I do. Inexplicably, I still live in the City of La. If interest rates were lower,
that might change. But it's almost like we are the the radio version of what Married with Children was when that show first got on the air in the late nineteen eighties, because when the Bundies were on TV, you knew you were gonna laugh, but also you knew that no matter how bad your day was going, no matter how bad you thought your family was, you knew that
you weren't as bad as the bundies. And if you live in Orange County, if you live in Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, even if you live in San Francisco and you're thinking, you know, San Francisco's got a lot of problems, well LA's got a lot more problems. Well this is still really cool. It's not as exciting as yesterday, but I still really like it. It is. It is a nice little thing.
So yesterday I told you that I got an email near the end of the show of somebody that videotaped themselves listening to us while they were driving on the Golden Gate Bridge. And in the over a year that it's been since we've been live in San Francisco, it never hit me until I saw it that people can be listening to my voice right now while they're driving on the most iconic bridge in the world. So that
was pretty darn cool and I really appreciate that. And it's always nice to know that people are actually out out there listening to the things that I am saying, because physically I am talking to myself in a small box. It looks a little crazy if you think about it. But Chris writes in at Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com, and it's not San Francisco. But he did send me a video of what it looks like when he's listening to the show in his house with his
lovely patio outside of Vegas. And yes, it looked very hot. That's cool, that's great. It's not San Francisco, it's not the Goldenigate Bridge. But you know what, if you want to videotape yourself while you're listening to the show, show us what your background is while you're listening to the show. I think that's kind of fun. I'd like to see it. You can email me at Randy Wangradio at gmail dot com. That's my personal email address, but all day long I'm
checking both email addresses. The latest email to come into Johnny Don't like show at gmail dot com. Will writes in with the subject line as if, as if the illegal alien unlicensed contractors and the illegal alien sidewalk salmonella stands would cough up a dumping fee when the whole point of LA is to make it a dumping ground. Well, there you go. Now I gotta say I'm here to criticize Gavin Newsom every chance we can, because Gavin Newsom
has been quite a disaster as governor of California. Gavin Newsom has increased the budget by over fifty percent, and nothing is really any better in the state of California. Gavin Newsom is the king of major proclamations with little follow through. But there is one little nugget in Gavin Newsom's budget may revise presentation that I think is a good idea. So whenever a politician, even it's one that you don't like, has a good idea, it's okay to say that it's a good idea. I wish it was
something that maybe they did a long time ago. But they're talking about trying to make it easier for small businesses to open and operate. And if you've ever tried to incorporate in the state of California, if you ever try to start a business an escorp in the state of California, even if you make no money, you've got to pay eight hundred dollars to file for that business license. You've got to pay eight hundred dollars for that fee to be operating as a business in the state of
California every single year. In the new budget revise, they're looking at changing a couple of tax giveaways to the bigger corporations, and they want to for small businesses in the first two years. You can get that fee for four hundred dollars instead of eight hundred dollars. That's not much, but that's something you know, A very very, very very very long time ago, I was I guess you could call me a small business owner. So when I was in between radio jobs, I started a podcast all on
my own. This is way before you know there was any money in podcasting, and believe you me, I found that one out the hard way. But you know, we had a little bit of a listenership. We had a lot of people that used to listen to ninety seven point one, the FM talk station, which now is going to be a sports station. Hey, if they flip it one more time, it'll be talk again. And we were doing live events and getting people to show up and
it was a lot of fun. And a buddy of mine told me, you know, you're really starting to become a business. I mean, most of the money we were getting was, like you know, PayPal donations, which pretty much everyone now has like a Patreon or a substack, what have you. Although my substack is one hundred percent free. And I was encouraged to incorporate, like you should become a corporation, you should become a business, and you know you're you're gonna have so many write offs and you're
gonna have so many advantages to you. And I thought, all right, this thing's only going to go one way. We're gonna move upward. It's gonna be great. So became a business, got our s Corp. Paid that eight hundred dollars, and that year we made no money. When it came to money that we could actually claim as the business, we made less than the eight hundred dollars filing fee. So it was quickly decided that this was pointless. There's
no money in podcasting. So we ended the company. Still continue to do the podcast just as a you know, sole proprietorship, because again we were only making money on listener donations. And at one point I created a website. I was like way ahead of Mark Zuckerberg. I created a website where people could buy fake real estate on the website that we would shout out at the end of the podcast that is a real thing, and we made a little bit of money doing that, but never
made enough money to incorporate. But if that annual fee was four hundred dollars instead of eight hundred dollars, maybe I would have kept it going, and maybe I would have stuck around on the podcasting game long enough to where now they're making all the money. Hey, I was a pioneer in that industry. Thank y'all so much for listening to this show. Johnny's back on Monday. But I've been having just such a blast doing these three hours, and now you know my routine. I'm getting on the freeway.
I'm gonna suffer on the four h five. I'm gonna have a little lunch, and then I'll be back on the air on KABC at five o'clock right after Frank Motech. If you're in Southern California, seven ninety k ABC, that's all you got to do. If you're in the Bay and you want to hear my five o'clock show where I do the California Report, just go to KABC dot com and you can stream it or iheartworks too. It's Randy Wang here on the John Phillips show