The Bobby Bones Show - Media Personality Nik Carter discusses his infamous career path

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Nik is an award-winning, major market TV, Voice Over, and Radio Personality who has spent a highly successful career working in New York and Boston on FM stations and on Sirius XM.  *****Thank you so much for listening to the TAKIN’ A WALK PODCAST SHOW hosted by Buzz Knight!  Listen to more honest conversations with a compelling mix of guests ranging from musicians, authors, and insiders with their own stories. Get inspired, get motivated, and gain insights from honest conversations every week that can help you with your own journey. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and be part of this blessed family.Website: https://takinawalk.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebuzzknightLinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/buzzknightLinkfire: https://lnk.to/takinawalk Please consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing it with your friends and family!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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a story about the artist, the backstory. On this episode, I go back to the glorious radio days in Boston, which I was part of and certainly observed. We have a talent who dominated the air in Boston, also in New York, and across the country in his time on Sirius X-M. We go over to Central Park to take a walk next with Nick Carter. Well, Nick Carter, it is so great to be actually taking a walk in person with you

in Central Park, New York City. Hey, it's great to be with you, man, and as I say, I'm hoping I'm the first one to take the show title literally because I brought my youthful ward, peppermint, p. Dot Mint, the Mint. My dog, as she's known, on the mean streets of the Upper West Side. She's already blessed a place with the poop, so, you know, so far so good. I love it. I love it. You are the first person that has brought the pooch along to take a walk, although I did an episode of taking a walk with my two knucklehead dogs in Carlyle, Massachusetts.

Wow, that's beautiful. Yeah, I'm a big believer in the sight gag. It's called Take It a Walk, so. I love it. And I'm sitting on the subway, I'm going, he's going to think I'm the biggest dufist there. No way. No way.

I'm the guy that did it with my two dogs. I'm the dufus. Well, she's got six people who listen to it. She's got kind of a, it's funny because she's got kind of a tragic story. I mean, basically, my Instagram is basically pictures of me and past their prime, pass their cell by, celebrities and peppermint and peppermint you know just whatever you know running around doing her thing to videos like my favorite vet says a small dog she's like you got to be careful with these

lowriders so she's running around chasing another small dog to a war low rider and you know literally that video got more pictures more likes than a picture of me and robert plant and everybody's like Pepperman should have her own Instagram. I'm like, no, so she has more followers than me? Hard pass. But she had a really... It's interesting. Oh, what are you doing?

She had a really tough life. She was abandoned on the streets of the Bronx at two months old. Which blows my mind. I mean, I just... How much it would have taken just to drop her off at a vet or a shelter? And her mom... Well, my dog, who was a havenese, passed away two months.

Actually, this month two years. years ago, two months before she turned 16, and her human mom passed away two months after that. Oh, man. And so I kind of inherited. I mean, she was living with me. She'd been living with me for a couple of years. And Bianca, her mom, passed away at only 43.

And all her friends are like, well, you're keeping peppermint, right? I'm like, no, I thought I'd put her on eBay. I mean, really. Yeah. So, but that's the story of peppermint. The Mint is known on the mean streets of the Upper West Side. Well, I'm so honored to meet the Mint, and I'm glad to see you. I haven't seen you in a while.

I think the last time I saw you was at a big event that was involved when you were doing the national show. On Tap. Right, right, right, right, yeah. On Tap with Nick Carter, which, you know, some of the best three years of my life, you know, I got yelled out by Peter Frampton. I got called names by George Thurgood. It was great. I used to have longer hair than.

I used to joke, VH1 Classic has hired a spiky-haired black guy to play classic rock to a bunch of red stage. What could possibly go wrong? I remember my commercial, thank God, VH1 Classic had next to no ads. So it was either my promo, me or the Slapchop guy. And Slash came in. I mean, I talked to him a couple of times. And he's, well, I'm.

I'm one of those people, the people know my name and know my face, but don't put them together, I think. And so he had come in to do an interview, and he walks in the studio, and he goes, oh, it's you, I see you every time I'm on the treadmill. Power, rock and roll. And I'm just trying to imagine Slash on the treadmill with a dopy top hat on. But yeah, that was a great experience because I had sort of fancied myself, you know, like Johnny old rock guy. And, you know, I always kind of, I had a tacit respect for classic rock because that's the sort of building blocks of everything that I listen to. But my perception

at that time, this is 2011, 2012, my perception was that, you know, even though I was out of the demographic, as they like to say, I was like, oh, that's the old guy, that's the old guy format. So it was funny because when artists would come in, me A, being a person of color, and B, being, you know, we're looking with this dopey baby face. I used to say to my boss, it's hilarious. They come in and they're polite, but I think at first they're a little thrown off. Like they're not, they're figuring this guy has no idea who I am, you know. He's this guy, what if, what did this guy take a break from his rap show to talk to me? You know, and, and, and, and, and were shocked to find that not only did I know their music inside or not I knew their stories and they

just it was really weird and my boss actually said to me he's like you know we we can kind of use that and I'm like you know I get where you're coming from I'm not sure that's legal for you to say but all right cool so where did you first realize that radio was in your blood um well I grew up in Massachusetts. I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was a ham myself. I'm sorry, please don't trip anybody. I started my career, quote unquote, I don't even know how old I was. I did, I guess, seventh grade I did a show for NPR called the Spiders Web, where I was like a youth reporter. But I was always a music nerd. I can remember the first, first, 45 I bought, the first album I bought. And I just was fascinated by DJs. And I grew up listening

to everybody from the great Sonny Joe White to Jo Jo Jo Cook and Kincaid, these top 40 monsters to Mark Parento and WBCN, who I just thought was a god. And then as I got older and I got in the business, I kind of get tagged with the Howard Stern Shock Jock thing, which bothered me because my goal, and that's what I kind of, I feel like that I'll always be indebted to Sirius XM, my goal was to be like guys like Tom Snyder, Larry King, Tavis Smiley, who could literally talk to anyone. Like, I mean, I remember as a little boy watching the clash, right? The clash on the Tom Snyder show, like 1 o'clock in the morning. And the next day he's talking to like Moshe Daya, you know? And I was like, how does that happen? Yeah. You know, and, um, but I just

the idea of, I was a frustrated musician too, as are many radio personalities, and the idea that, you know, you could hear your voice over the music and, and it was sort of musical, it just, it just, I don't know, it was just something about it, it just really, really turned me on. And then, you know, the idea that you could connect and, I was going to say be funny, or at least attempt to be funny on the air, it was just, it was just a great thing for me. And I also, you know, as I said, I started in public radio. And then when I was in seventh grade, I got my first TV show on Channel 4, WBZ, in Boston. And it was just, it was, ugh.

Everybody's like, oh, I got to see tapes. No, no, no, they're in the vault with this murder film and the porno from Hitler's bunker. Because I was an overweight kid. I had a huge space of my teeth. I had big, thick Coke bottle glasses, a huge. Afro, you know, it was like that, I mean, it was like the Death Star. It rivaled everybody from Jeff Lynn and Don Henley to Angela Davis. And I look back down and I'm like, how did my parents let me go on TV like that?

So what was the name of that show? It was called Changing Places where they took a bunch of kids and dropped them into the news anchors' positions. And I changed places with Jimmy Myers and did a sports cast. Although I knew very little about sports. And then they liked me, and I got another show. It was called The City Show. Then they changed the name to Get Off Your Block, where I literally walked around in the summer and showed kids,

you know, hey, go to the Science Museum. It's open, and it's not that expensive. And I actually got an Emmy. I didn't get it, but my producer did. My first voiceover, this woman named Susan Bell borrowed me. and she wanted me to voice a couple of promos like public service announcement and the first one was they're wheeling this picture of this this really sickly looking little white kid I think he had red hair and they're wheeling him down the hall in this gurney and this kid I mean

it's like so 80s he's like you know I was really really sick and then this really cool lady came up to me and helped me and I thought she was a nurse turns out she was the doctor turns out you don't have to be a man to be a good doctor you just have to be a good doctor you know and the key was like it's being good at what you do the counts it gets like gender you know whatever and it won uh an emmy I didn't get it I mean it's at her at her house and the funny thing is the first woman who put me on TV this woman Gail Levine she came to New York and she became a giant casting director she cast the cruise movie, Jerry McGuire.

Oh, wow. And I looked her up, but I called her, and I was like, hi, it's Nick Carter. She's like, from childhood? I was like, yeah. I got to call you back, clicking. That was the last I ever heard from her. I got to call you back. Exactly.

I was like, it's so Hollywood. Come on you. So this is all before your first radio gig. Yes, sir. Essentially. Yeah. My first actual gig, quote-unquote, being a DJ, was in, school, NYU, WNYU, I studied theater there.

I literally almost got thrown out of the theater department because I would blow off class so much to go hang out at the radio station. And I did a couple of shows, again it was the 80s, so I did a club show called Club 89, where we broke records, like underground records that were being played, that are now like Club Classics. I did a show, I inherited the disco show,

show, Disco 89, which was literally a classic disco show for my friend Don Milano, who's now a big sales guy. I know him. Yeah. Well, he was like, he created it. And the funny thing is, you know, WNYU, since, you know, I lived on campus in the village, the, the transmitters in the Bronx. So people on campus couldn't get the station. You know, so basically you were broadcasting to people who were just listening, you know, in, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, you know, Westchester County, and a lot in Brooklyn.

And this disco show was unbelievably popular. The phones would start ringing at like 8.30 on Wednesday. The show was on from 9 to 11, and they wouldn't stop ringing until like midnight. So I played disco. And I channeled my inner Sonny Joe White and screamed over, you know, Dan Hartman, instant replay or whatever. And I eventually got fired from my college radio station. and I moved back to Boston because I was broke and NYU, excuse me, New York was so expensive then,

I mean, not like now, but, and I started working part-time at WFNX in Boston. I'd been turned down by, I think, two different program directors and the consultant. And then Max Tolkopf, who was the first guy to put me on the air, he brought me. me and I remember he said, you know, the rest of these DJs need some of what you have and you need to have some of what they have because they were, I had to throw this poop away, they were all really, really mellow and laid back and I was all hyper and I was so excited to hear my voiceover, DeBash mood in the middle of the night. And it was just, all my calls were hilarious. I remember my first night. I was like, you know, 1017 F and X, Boston's alterie, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah. I picked up the phone. Hi Fid X. what do you want kiss? Oh boy. Which was the big top 40. Yeah. Or, you know, I remember this one woman was just like, dude, what are you doing? So I kind of mellow it out. And then WBCN had offered me part-time a couple of times,

where I literally would have made more money two days a week on WBCN than I was making six nights a week on WFNX in the middle of the night. And I said no. And the legendary Oedipus, who was the program director, walked around for years, because it kept on getting back to me. Nick Carter said, no to me, my part-timers were born there full-timers. No, no, no, no. What the hell's wrong with that guy?

Like, he sought out anybody he knew who knew me. That's a good invitation. He was like a second father to me. So then, so then I left, finally, and I went to do mornings and Providence, Rhode Island, and I was there for six months, and he called me, Nick, I think you're ready. He's like, oh, this ought to be fascinating. Okay. You're ready to be on WBCN and Boston. And I was like, all right.

But, you know, I told these guys I'd be here a year. He's like, Nick, think about your future. Click. And thank God my program director, Brent Peterson, said to me, he was like, listen, you can go in there and you can change that station. Because I didn't have a contract. I just gave me my word. I'd be there six months. And he said to me, I do the me test on this.

He's from Chicago. And he said, if Q101 or whatever the big station at the time called me, he said, I'd be so out of here. It's like, you got to go. And I said, well, I appreciate that. But, you know, I gave me my word. I'm going to stay. And he said, okay, well, you can stay. But if you stay, I'm going to fire you.

Oh, wow. Yeah. It was so selfless. So I went back to Boston in 1996, and therapy and antidepressants were soon to fall. Yeah, that was quite a run, right? You know, it was eight years, it felt like twice that, because it was just, it was insane. I mean, I look back now and we look back now,

we were in the middle of this unbelievably nasty rock battle. And it's hilarious to me because, I mean, not to be political, but I see a correlation between a lot of the maggoth stuff because it was almost cult-like. You know, this one radio station we competed with, WAAF, I mean, they tapped into something of vain where literally these kids who, they thought it was a crew. to kind of go out and represent for this radio station that played 80% of the same stuff we did.

You know, I mean, and that other 20% was the secret sauce. They were very heavy, and we were, you know, by comparison, kind of dorky, you know, in corporate. But they, you know, it was insane. I mean, I remember my dad was in the hospital. He had cancer. When I was hired to do nights 7 p.m. to live. 11 p.m. at WBCN for three years and I figured that was it. Not no, I mean I was so naive. I didn't know that I was being groomed for afternoon drive that. Everybody else knew it but me. I was just like, well, you know, I could afford to move out of mom's house now. I could also get a car.

You know, because when I was at F&X, literally I had friends that were working at fast food who were making more than I was. I was making $6 an hour. You know, I paid my dues. But My dad had had colon cancer, he had surgery, and when I moved to afternoons, I remember he was in the hospital, and he was trying to recover. And stuff between this other radio station and I had spilled into the newspapers. And, you know, they were finding coded language to make reference to me being black, so it was just, it got very, very nasty. I mean, I'm not a sponge. I mean, I'm pretty tough, but, you know, my parents were, like, freaked out, and I'll never forget going to the hospital to see my dad,

and my dad was like, because, you know, I was going out doing appearances, and my dad was like, do they have it of security for you? And I'm like, Dad, these, you know, these knuckleheads are just going to get in my face and say something. Nobody's going to, like, put hands on me. But, you know, that really bothered me because, you know, if you have any dealings with cancer, stress is everything. Right.

You know, and so it really got to him. And I was like that, you know, I'm a, I mean, I was 50 pounds heavier then. I was like, I'm a big guy, you know. I mean, nobody knew that I was a complete, you know, marshmallow inside. I'm louder, I can talk a good game. What? Side, we'll talk about it. Right.

And the second they go outside and I'm inside like, huh. Yeah. But, you know, it was, um... See, I had, you know, I was there. and I knew the battle, but now that you're telling the story, from your view, though, I had forgotten how kind of evil and nasty the whole thing had gone. I got called the N-word so much, and I couldn't even get angry at these kids, because I knew they didn't ever really know what they were saying.

They would just call up the station, you know, say it and like hang up. And really, you know, it was opium anthony, who I think are incredibly talented, but they were their own worst enemy. You know, I've never seen anybody with a bigger self-destruct mechanism than those guys. You know, they really were just, it was weird because they believed they're on legend, but at the end of the day, I think they don't have any idea how good they actually were. And I, you know, when we finally sort of squash the beef one day, I we went out one day and we were drinking all day and we just sort of like yelled at each other

we kind of ended it all and I just said to them I was like you guys don't get it I mean you're being groomed for everything you know you're being groomed to take over the mantle from Howard Stern all you have to do is you know not not be overshadowed by a leafblower right you know they I don't know, they just didn't get it. And then I was at BCN about eight years, and during that time I was up, the reason I got to New York was I was up for afternoons of K.Rock against, I believe it was Chris Booker,

who had been on the station for quite some time. And he also had a national profile. He'd been on MTV, and then he looked at MTV, and he was the, a reporter for entertainment tonight, and he was dating Linda Lopez, J-Lo's sister. This is during the whole Benefer thing. So whenever there was a J-Lo or a Ben Affleck story, and Ben Affleck, who I went to high school with, he had the exclusive.

So he was everywhere. And so afternoons came down to he and I, and I'm the program director. I mean, he had also been on Howard's show a lot. and I was told Howard went to the program director, said, who, you got to give Booker the job. And he called me, and he was like, yeah, man, I got to go with Booker. And I was like, of course, I'd go with Booker over me. That's a no-brainer.

And so, I want to say, the end of 2004, December 31st, 2004, my contract was up, and I was on my way to work. And we'd had a new program director, who I'd kind of helped usher in, because when Oedipus was leaving, I knew a bunch of the, the candidates and the general manager said to me,

what do you think of this guy? What do you think of this guy? I said, well, Dave Wellington, you know, he's killing in Vegas. He's the guy. You know, I didn't realize he was going to come in and be like, okay, let's see. What can we lose? You. And so my contract was up December 31st, 2004, and I was on my way to work, and my agent called me.

I said, yeah, we got problems. And I said, okay. said, yeah, they want to go in another direction. I was like, all right, well, I have a compass. You know, I'd never heard that term before. Right. And so I said, well, get me a meeting. And I had a meeting with him that day and the general manager.

And I basically said, well, you know, I can go wherever you want to go. And they're like, well, we're going to go in another direction. I was like, oh, I get another direction without me. Okay, I got it. And so, again, and that was another thing. He ended up hiring a guy who I'm friends with for, from his station in Vegas to do... I was only doing Afterton Drive.

He was hired to do Afterton Drive and be the imaging director, basically like, you know, produce all the interstitials that sort of made the image of the radio station for probably half of what I was making, so I can't argue that. And then I don't know if you remember this, but Howard Stern and his cast of Oddballs, Stuttering John and Crazy Cabie,

Crazy Cabby, who was a Gulf War veteran, who was shell-shocked, complete character. But he was on Howard's show all the time, but he was also doing overnights at the station. He and Stuttering John despised each other. They got into a fight, and Howard being the master of marketing, decided to settle this beef in a boxing match. Sponsored by, I think it was golden palace.com. purse was $25,000. Cabby wins the purse.

Goes on the air and says, yeah, I got $25,000. I'm not paid. I didn't pay any taxes on it. The IRS is listening. Oh, jeez. And that's it. So I'm sitting home one day again. It was like December 31st. I was trying to decide what I was going to do next.

And I want to say early January, the phone rang. It's the program director of XRK. And I swear I'll never forget this. says, hey dude, Cappy's going to jail and we could use some help. You want to come down and do some shifts? Oh, geez. And I was like, uh-uh. And that's how I got into K-Rog. That's how I got into New York. And it's funny because I had also, I just bought my first house, so I thought, you know, well, I really wanted to do voiceover. So I built this elaborate studio, home studio. And in 2004, that wasn't a thing. So I built this elaborate home studio. And I started to send my demos to agents here.

and I got the attention of three and the one I really wanted to go with her like okay well you know like call us when you get to the city and I was like well no but I built the studio yeah yeah that's nice calls when to get to the city and I was like wow so I started working I flew down to New York on a Thursday or I took the train

I did an audition 10 p.m. to 2 a. Thursday night and I had my iPhone I have my Blackberry and I basically used it as email and text because it wouldn't take calls or drop calls and you know I didn't even know people called me so I'm walking around and Friday afternoon

because I had a bunch of friends here and I get a message from the PDKRock is hey man I just listened to your demo hey that was great great give me a call we'll talk I said and I hadn't heard the message then the next message I get was his assistant Hey Nick, this is Bianca from K. Rock, I have your schedule. Nick Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 6 p.m.

And I'm like, wait, wait, what? I had no idea. So I started working part-time at K. Rock in New York, two to six every Saturday and Sunday. And I would take the Amtrak down on Friday, check into a hotel, go out Friday night with my friends, get up Saturday, go to the station, do my thing,

go out Saturday night, check out on my hotel on noon on Sunday, go up to K Rock, which was on 57th and 6th, on the air from 2 to 6 with my bag, jump on the subway, get back down to Penn Station at 7, and take the Amtrak back down to the Boston. Wow. And I did that from February to October, when I finally said, like, I'm just going to move there.

Yeah. And here I am with the Mint. And you ain't ever leaving. I don't know. You know, now that I've left Series XM, the first two jobs, job offers that got were out of town. And, you know, I mean, my goal is kind of to stick around. I mean, I feel like if I'm here until 2005, that will be 20 years here.

So I don't know if you get a set of steak knives or you're fired, like, you know, like Gary Glenn Rossi, exactly, an official pen, like an I heart New York pen. But, you know, I mean, if somebody says to me, here's, you know, $650,000, and even if you set the place of blaze, we can't fire you, you know, I Mom can't find you Nebraska here I come, you know. You love interviewing people. I'm sorry, she wants to say hi to everybody.

Min's the ambassador of Central Park. She is, she, dude, I tell you, she, it's so funny, like literally like in my building, everybody knows her name, nobody knows, nor could they care less about my name. And she has this thing where she just wants to jump up on everybody, and she always jumps up on people's, just to say hello.

And I'm like, no, no, no, no. And they're always like, it's okay, it's okay. And I'm just waiting until the day. It's like, my $9,000 Valencia pants. I'm going to have you both killed. Right. Anyway, I'm sorry. You were saying.

So you've always enjoyed interviewing people. Who were some of your favorite interviews you've done in your career? Wow. Well, that's the thing. A lot of them, you know, I will always be grateful to Sirius XM because although the concept of my concept of my... my channel that I went in for, it was called Volume. It was a talk channel about music. And I remember my boss, who was my boss at VH1, had started it. He took me a lunch one day and he says,

I got a meeting with Sirius. I was like, oh, really? He says, what would you think about a channel that talked about music but didn't play it? I was like, dumbest idea I've ever heard. But then I said, no, you know what? Actually, if you made it like sports talk for music dorks, that could work. So initially we would just play like 30 seconds differences, so to make reference. You know, I had done a lot of really interesting interviews before I got to serious because I was doing rock and alternative rock and classic rock radio. But when I got to serious, they really did allow me to live my, you know, pseudo-Larry King dream

where I talked to everybody from Ron Howard to, you know, Ozzy Osbourne, Osborne to, geez, Neil deGrasse Tyson, three or four times. And my boss was funny. He would always say when I wanted to book somebody, well, what's the musical tie-in? I said, oh, don't worry, I'll find one. So, you know, I promoted whatever Neil de Gras Tyson was talking about. Then I'd ask him about the science of music. He's like, well, reverb. And he would just sit and go off on this screed about like what makes reverb. It was crazy. One of my favorites was Ron Howard, who I was a huge fan of, of course, and he came in to talk about his Pavarotti documentary. And again, you know, my channel was basically, it was kind of rock-based, but, you know, they wouldn't actually say it, but that's really what we kind of leaned toward.

And at the end of the interview, I swear to God, he says, oh darn Nick, I should have talked about Wu-Tang. And I looked at him, I was like, Wu-Tang, you! forgetting his partner is Brian Grazier. And he said, yeah. And there was two Wu-Tang series coming out, and I was like, is that you guys? And he said, yeah, that's my partner. And I forgot.

Brian Grazier, who put the Rizza from Wu-Tang in American gangster and a bunch of other things. And he was just like, yeah. And I'm sitting there going, I'm talking to Opie Taylor about the Wu-Tang Clan. Right. That's insane. That's awesome.

My favorite part was literally when, I mean, I don't want to sound like a jerk, but when, example like Huey Lewis who I'm a huge fan of. I mean I'm basically like I grew up like kind of a hip hop punk rock kid pop music but I love

melody so I love Huey Lewis and he was a little leery about talking to us you know he he needed us to send him our questions first because he's got his hearing issue so I just made sure I sent him my questions but then I

asked a bunch and I said that there were not in the list and I said so is it my understanding so your solo on USA for Africa, we are the world you got that because Prince didn't show up and that was supposed to be Prince's line and he slams his hand

on the table and he goes Nick how do you know that? I'm like I'm a fan! You know? Wow. That was my favorite thing if somebody said how do you know that? I'm like I'm a fan! Yeah. Because I don't think they knew. So that and you know pretty much anybody banned of the moment

X to Wow. My parent, my mom died when I was, when she, when, uh, in 2000, my dad died in 2002. So I interviewed both. Come on, Pap. Engelbert Humperdink, who was hilarious. And Johnny Mathis. Wow. Who I, you know. Chances all.

As I wear the silly grin. And it was funny too because I walked in and he's like, oh, you're cute. And I was like, hey, you know, I'll take it. What I didn't know is he's like in his 80s. He had this giant, I mean, I've been around a lot of rock stars, and they usually have, like, big black bodyguards. He had the biggest, blackest bodyguard I'd ever seen. The guy had to have been, like, seven feet tall, built like this.

And he was, like, maybe 45. And his publicist pulled me aside. He goes, yeah, that's his husband. I was like, well, don't worry about it. I wasn't going to, you know, I wasn't going to act on the guy thinking I was cute. Right. You know. Did you ever go through an interview and then after you were sort of debriefing on it go,

I wish I didn't ask that question? No. I mean, you know, I could always think of things that I wish I had asked. Bad brains, respect. I always can think of things I wish I had asked. It's been a long time since an interview really went bad. And if it's gone badly, I've just, there's tons and I've just been like, okay, you know what? Thanks for coming in.

You know, and afterwards, I've just said, look, you know, I'm trying to help you sell your little project, you know. But generally speaking, no, I mean, I've insulted guests, you know, sort of lovingly. And they got it. So, like I remember Ann Wilson punched me. Like a hard punch? Well, like a sisterly punch, but it was pretty hard. Oh, wow. She's like, shut up, Nick.

You know, and that's the kind of thing I love. But, I mean, honestly, I can't think of anything I've regretted. Because, again, you know, my thing is I've been very fortunate in that I've only had to talk to a couple of people that I didn't really want to. You know, I mean, and I'm not the type that, the only reason why I might not want to talk to somebody is because I don't really feel like I can bring anything out of them that hasn't been, you know, Oh, sorry. It hasn't been, you know, recycled a quadillion times. That's a good question. I honestly know. You know, because again, you know, I'm not in it to make people feel bad. It's funny. I think when I was still in Boston and people like, oh, yeah, yeah, you think he's Howard Stern.

I think there were some people that were a little leery, you know, actors in particular, there were literally leery. I remember Anthony Michael Hall, who, you know, I grew up in the 80s, so I was a huge fan. And he was coming in to talk about this made-for-TV movie that he played Bill Gates. He did a great job. And I remember my producer saying, listen, Nick loves actors, and Nick is a huge fan, you know. And so I could tell he came in a little guarded. But by the end, you know, he's slap at five, and he went on Howard Stern the next. day and he goes yeah I just want to send a shout out to my boy Nikki the Pimp in Boston you know

but I mean I can't say that I've ever been like oh why did you ask that you idiot um there's I mean there's times that I thought I could have worded that better yeah or maybe going at a different angle or something like that but well that's my thing I mean I I one of my best friends excuse me one of my best friends reminds me of when I was still doing my when I was still working at VH1, the first time I spoke to Judas Priest, I asked them about, I asked Rob Halford about the lawsuit, you know, where the kids got high and played, I think it was stained class backwards and swore they heard, you know, do it, do it. And obviously the do it translate it to get a gun and blow your head on. And I remember a friend of mine who had been

work in a radio for a long time said, he said, you know, I was amazed at how much he talked about that because I'm sure that when people ask, they probably say, yeah, man, that trial, that sucked, huh? And I just said to him, I said, you know, if I recall, I said to him, you know, with a band like yourselves who have such a intimate relationship with your fans, especially here in America, what I said, I remember saying, did it change your perception of America at all when your music was essentially put on trial

for these kids who did something crazy and weren't taking responsibility for it? And he opened right up. That I was a little leery about, because generally speaking, every once in a while, you know, publicists is like, don't talk about this, don't talk about that, don't talk about this. And, you know, half the time I'm like,

Well, I'm not here to, like, make me feel bad anyway. Right. You know? Yeah. I do remember Peter Frampton. He was in a bad mood. And I asked his manager. I said, well, um, is anything he doesn't?

Because I always say to artists, I'm like, anything you don't really want to talk about? Or if I know I'm getting into something touchy, I'll, I often say, and this is my trick. I say, look, and stop me if I'm getting too personal. And they never do. But I remember I said to Peter Frampton's manager. So is there anything he doesn't want to talk about? And he said, his latest divorce, losing his hair, and the Sgt. Pepper movie.

And I was like, wow, I wasn't going to talk about his divorce. I wasn't going to be, you know, a jerk, be like, hey, so what happened in the air? You know? I had my friend come to live, like, vinyl. I'm like, who's this guy, you know? And I did want to talk about the Sgt. Pepper movie because I was so fascinated, but he's very touchy.

Wow. And he was in a bad mood. mood he was um because it was VH1 I'll never forget sort of the first interviews I did hey up and my uh engineer is behind the camera and I'm talking to him and you know I'm sitting there and I forget Peter Frampton yells at my engineer Ed will you stop moving you're moving around I'm trying to ask I'm trying to pay attention you ask you ask your question again and I was like uh uh I uh see that was the first year of the show had that happened in the second year that would have guy in completely differently. I would have been like, bro, can you hear yourself?

That's so great. Can you hear yourself? You can't make this up? No. Oh man. And it bumped me out because I love the guy. I love the guy and I was just like, oh, come on man. But again, I also get, you know, we all have bad days and it's funny because one thing that I've noticed that a lot of personalities or radio or TV people don't realize is this just work for them. You know, I remember when we first started, you know, my talk channel about music volume, my boss said, oh, this could be great because, you know, artists are going to really want to talk. You know, they don't really get to talk on music radio. And I'm like, yeah, but, you know, when they're doing interviews, they're promoting something. So it's work. So now you're saying, oh, they can talk for

an hour if they want. I'm like, that's like saying, you know, you can work overtime for no extra money. Right. You know, and I don't think people think about that. But, you know, hopefully, If you're doing justice by somebody, when you're told, you have 20 minutes, you know, they're not looking at their watch. I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November. And again, I grew up a huge fan of the Commodores. Lionel Richie solo, not so much, but I respect what he's done.

And when Lionel Richie got in, it was myself and two other people from the Chamber. We were doing mostly tandem interviews, but my co-workers knew that I was a huge fan, and I was literally told two minutes. And I was like, uh, uh, okay. And, you know, he was beyond amenable. I asked him one question about going solo. Then I said to him, tell me what you remember about the night Bob Marley and the Whalers open for the Commodores and Madison Square. garden. And he looked to me, he goes, how do you know about that? I'm like, I'm a fan.

That's great. And he just said, man, I don't even remember very much because Bob invited me down to his dressing room and stupidly I went down there and the smoke. I couldn't even tell you about the show after that. That's great. So, you know, that's it. I mean, and I find half the time, artists don't mind if they feel like you're being respectful and know who they are. It's just their handlers that are like, don't ask this, don't ask this, don't ask this. Avril Avivine, don't ask anything about her Lyme disease. She just released an album written entirely about her Lyme disease. You know, and she brought it up, and I was just like, all right, we'll go with it. And I look up and I see her publicist in the hall, like, you know, doing this, like doing the slash. And I'm

like, she's fine. What are you talking about? Yeah. So, weird. So let's close with Crystal Balling the future for you. It's a couple of years from now. Where do you want to be? What do you want to be doing? You know, that's my problem. I don't really know because I feel like I want to do something that's going to allow me to flex the few muscles I have. Because the thing is, you know, I'm, I had a long talk with somebody. I was actually on a panel with somebody about imposter syndrome, and I suffer from that really, really badly.

I think when I'm at my best, I might not be the best, but I think it's really not anybody else around that sounds like me, you know, whether it be in terms of just turn a phrase when talking about music or actually talking to somebody or asking somebody, you know, an interview question or whatever. Or, you know, just, as I say, like, I'm my good friend, Aaron O'Malley, who is in Boston still, she's been there like 22 years on Mix 104-1. She said to me, she's, you're the best interview I've ever seen. I was like, no, not.

She said, no, you are. And I said, why? She said, well, because people don't even realize it's an interview. I said, well, that's the thing. I just want to have conversations with people. You know, I just want to talk to people. I mean, I hate, you know, well, it says here in your bio that, you know,

I just, as cliche as it sounds, I find people fascinating. I got to tell you, the more I hang out with my dog, the less I like people. Amen to that. I don't know. I mean, you know, I'm getting a little long in the tooth for TV, but who knows? Who knows what, you know? I really don't know. As I say, I just left my job after seven years. I do a lot of voiceover. I'd like to do more of that. I just feel like there's ways to connect that I don't even know if the mainstream has really embraced them yet. I mean, again, everybody and their grandmother has a podcast now, so I don't know if I'm looking forward to that.

Are you referring to me as your grandmother? My grandmother was never so cool. My grandmother never ran a rock station. My grandma, I remember when I got my left ear pierced, my grandmother was like, what are you, some kind of sissy? And I had, like, long hair. Like, I was trying to be prints on a bad day. And, you know, it was long and straight. And I remember I came in off of the, out of the rain, and it sort of blew it around.

Just the head, did the wind of that to your hair? I'm like, yeah, pretty much. It's called punk, grandma. Yeah, you look like a punk, all right. Well, I've enjoyed this so much. I got to meet mint. I got to see you. We give this on last minute notice,

which is even more fun. And I had a glass. I needed an excuse to drag the mint out and basically like pontificate it by myself a lot. I loved it. I loved every bit of it. Because I'm sure she's sick of hearing. She's like, will you go back to work?

I'm so sick of hearing about your little stories. I'm so sick of hearing about you getting drunk and making out with Band of the Moment X or whatever. I loved every second of it. Oh, you as well, man. I love it. Thank you. Thanks for.

Taking a walk. Don't be silly. I loved it. I loved it. I don't get to see this side of Central Park usually. I'm usually further up. This is the nicer touristy rich side. You want to drink?

Shmperman. Come and get a drink. Taking a walk with Buzz Night is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a recent episode of the podcast Money and Wealth with John Hobriant, I sit down with Tiffany the Bucconista Aliche. to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money. What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here? We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth, starting with the mindset shifts.

Too many of us were never, ever taught. If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you to hear more. Listen to Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant from the Black Effect Network on the I'd Heart Radio, app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Readers, Katie's finalists, publicists. We have an incredible new episode this week for you guys. We have our girl Hillary Duff in here, and we can't wait for you to hear this episode. They put on Lizzie McGuire 2 a.m. Video on Demand.

This guy's bobo-u-bub-2-A-M-A-M-Water. And I'm like, wild, a wild batch you were with. It was like a first, like, closet moment from me where I was like, I don't feel like she's hot, like the rest of that. No, no, no. I was like, she's beautiful. but I'm appreciating her in a different way than these boys are. I'm not like, but listen to Los Coleristas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast.

Hi, I'm Iris Palmer, host of the Against All Odds podcast. Every week, I'm sitting down with exceptional people who have broken barriers even when the odds were stacked against them. Like chef Victor Villa of Vias Tacos. You know the taquero from the Bad Bunny halftime show? It was great. It was a big moment. It was special. And I felt like I was really representing.

my family, you know, my brand, my city. I was representing all taqueros, not only of like, you know, the U.S., but of Mexico and beyond. All the taqueros of the world. Listen to Against All Odds on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman,

chairman and CEO of IHeart Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this seasonal math and magic, CEO of Liquid Death Mike Sessario.

People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb moments that happen when you're in the shower. It's really like a stone sculpture. You're constantly just chipping away and refining. Take-2 interactive CEO, Strauss Selnick, and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Listen to Math and Magic on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.