The Josh Innes Show - A Little Radio Talk

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

Sorry I'm late getting a few pods out there today. I'm doing like 5-6 different jobs to make a few bucks. Actually, I want to explain to you all the gigs I'm currently doing to make extra cash. This leads to a big picture radio discussion. I know you guys enjoy those. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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All right, everybody. Welcome in, it's all a penis. Smooth the penis. Sorry for the late arrival of the podcast. I've been busy. Just to kind of let you in on how things work this time of year. Actually, I'm just going to shoot you straight. Your boy doesn't make the fucking change that he used to make, right? Like I don't, like I, we've talked about this before. I used to make some serious bank in some places, some mid-level bank in some places. And I made, you know, like when I got to Nashville, when I got to Nashville, when I got to Nashville, when I got to Nashville, but I got to Nashville. Nashville. Nashville was the lowest salary I had since I was at 6.10 and it was my, let's see, so doing the math on this one, I got to Nashville, my salary was as low as it had been, my base salary was as low as it had been since, let's see, I got to 610. I was making that. Then they moved me up to whatever. I mean, hell, this is 15 years ago. Who gives a shit? 16 years ago. So we've talked about it before. When I got to 610, I was making $35,000 a year.

Now, mind you, that seems like a very low total for November of 2016, but let us not forget that I was making 195 in Baton Rouge. So, and I'd gotten fired. So in Baton Rouge, I'd go from making... Actually, no. Actually, hold on. Let's play a couple commercials. We'll get into that, but I want to talk about just like what I do to make money now.

but because I think you guys are somewhat interested in that. Why not? Let's have a fucking conversation about it. More after this. All right. So just to kind of lay it out again for the sake of this story. When I was in Baton Rouge, first of all, I didn't have a full-time job initially. I had so few hours and was working hourly that I didn't even write down my hours because I figured it was pointless.

My initial job, before I got the full-time job in Baton Rouge, I did so few hours. hours and made so little money that I didn't even bother writing them down. So like when people talked to me about how well, you know, you were giving everything and you know, you're a nepo baby and your dad got you the jobs. Listen, like people make it sound like I was working some glamour jobs. You know, from 2005, let's see, when I started doing part time in 2005 until sometime maybe in 2006 or 2007, when I eventually got a full-time job, I was making nothing. I was making $6.50 an hour, I think is what it was. And I was probably working part-time and then like weekend stuff. I was probably working 10 hours a week or something. It was so little

that I figured after taxes, it would have been pointless to even do it. Like it was so low that like I didn't even want to have income from that. So I didn't. And then I got a full-time job there. And that job was, I think, 18, 5 or something like that. Then I got laid off after a couple of years there. So I got laid off after a couple years. And when they brought me back after about five months of not working there, they brought me back because they couldn't, if they fired you because they eliminated the position and then needed to refill the position, they have to offer it to you. So they offered it to me and I took it. And that job was 215 and I had that job for about two months before I went to Baton Rouge or to Houston. When I got to Houston, I was making

35,000. When they moved me to afternoons, I was making 53,000. When I was making 53,000. When I I got a new deal in afternoons. I think it was like a new two-year deal or something like that. I think it moved up. I think the, actually, 53 or that may have been the highest I got there, 60s, somewhere in the 60s, maybe? I don't know where it was. But then I left for Philadelphia where I was making $75,000 to do nights.

That eventually moved into like the $110,000 range, $15,000 to do afternoons. They were going to offer me a new deal eventually, but it didn't come to that. We talked about it, but nothing came to fruition. And when I went to Houston, back to Houston, I made just stupid money. It was like, you know, between me and Jillie on that show, it was like $300,000 or something stupid. That was before bonuses and everything else. Then I got whacked there, was out of work. Then I went to Nashville and I was making like $65,000.

All right. So that was the low end. I'm making less than that to do this job I'm doing right now. I told you all that to tell you this. Like, I ain't making shit, right? And I took the job because I needed a job. That's real talk. and they knew that they could lowball me because they know I needed a job.

They knew I needed a job. But what's funny about that is, you know, the second I get this job, all of a sudden people are interested in me again. And I'm getting calls from people that are like, hey, we got like six-figure jobs. And I'm like, well, look, I'm committed to this thing now. I signed up for it, so let's go. But like, I bring all that up to tell you this. So I spend my days trying to find different radio ways and podcast ways to make a couple extra bucks.

Podcast does fine for me. Depending on the month, depending on the number of downloads, I'll have a nice little month and make enough. It's sometimes enough to cover the rent, and that's great. You know, it's almost like another paycheck, and that's cool. But I've had to find other ways within the radio job I currently have to make more money. And right now, I'm on a radio show that's like in 20th place, so it's not like I'm flushed with live endorsements or anything like that. So I have to find other avenues to make money. What are those avenues?

Well, I have the opportunity to what they call voice track, other radio stations across the country, right? Where you might make an extra X amount of dollars per shift that you do, and it takes 10, 15 minutes to do it. It's very easy. I still try to make it sound good. I don't half-ass it and go in there and say that was, this is. I try to add some personality to it. But ultimately, it's disc jockeying, which real talk, I enjoy. Like, if it were my full-time job to just sit there and be a dish jockey, I probably wouldn't enjoy it.

But I enjoy the idea of disc jockeying as like a secondary thing to make a couple extra bucks because I'm a radio guy. I like to talk up records and say wacky shit and get out on a laugh and that kind of shit. So I don't mind doing it, you know? So today, for instance, to make a couple extra bucks, well, over the course of Christmas, this is where I'm going to make some hay here. This is where I'm going to make some do re me, pal. So, well, actually, I'll fill you in on this.

So currently, I have two radio stations that I do on a full-time basis, right? I do nights on KZOK in Seattle. I do nights on Rock 106-7 in Utah, Salt Lake City. There may be another one. I'm not going to mention it because I don't know when it's going to be out there, but there's another one that I'll probably add early next year. So I will have three jobs, three of these jobs that don't take me very long to do. They're easy to do.

And it just adds on to my income. It supplements my income. And just with those three alone, it almost drives up my, like, damn near moves my salary up by half. So I do them because it's easy and I'm pretty good at it. They like the way it sound. But I also do fill-ins and part-time. And during the Christmas season, there's a lot of these because people take vacation. I don't take vacation because I have nowhere to fucking go and I don't have any money to fucking get there.

So I'm just out here, bang, bang, bang, let's see what we can do. So I said yes to every single thing I could say yes to. Jilly says yes to every single thing she can do. There are days that Jilly, like I'm looking at her list over here, there are days, like on Saturday, Jilly will be in Charlotte, Raleigh, Harrisburg, Detroit, Salt Lake City, and Sacramento. On Sunday, she'll be in Detroit, Harrisburg, Indianapolis, Sacramento, a different Detroit station, Seattle and Dallas. On Christmas, she'll be Nashville, Harrisburg, Detroit, Detroit again, Indian Salt Lake City.

Got to make a buck. got to kind of hustle it out and it's easy work it's either that what would i what would be better doing that uh which i'm pretty good at or driving door dash to make a couple extra bucks you know what i'm saying so you know anytime anybody thinks like hey this is kind of a glamorous setup you got here i'm trying to turn it into something glamorous by making myself relevant and getting into that relevance again and having people know who i am again and building something and becoming successful so they actually want to start writing me checks where i guess i left out st louis when I talked about the money.

When I went to St. Louis, I was making three times what I was making when I initially got to Nashville and the deal they offered me in Nashville, the base salary would have been, was a third higher, like 30-something percent higher, but in St. Louis.

Anyway, none of that matters, okay? Where I stand right now, like I thought when I had gotten to St. Louis, I had finally kind of gotten back to prominence financially, and I was like, all right, life is good. Then, of course, I rented a place that cost me way too much fucking money. and then I got fired in a year, 15 months, whatever it was,

and that was life, you know, what the fuck are you going to do? That's life, you know? And you move on. But so like me, today, for instance, I was on in Salt Lake City. So if you ever want to hear, usually I'm on from 7 to midnight in these cities. Now, today I was on from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. mountain time in Salt Lake. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mountain time in New Mexico on a station that's pretty badass called 94 Rock. New Mexico's real rock was on there. And then tonight I'm on in Seattle on KZK in

Seattle. So there's the three I'm doing. Tomorrow I'm going to do those same three stations and from seven to midnight in the Pacific time zone. I'm going to be doing Portland, right? So Portland is in the Pacific time zone, and so is Seattle. The mountain time zone ones I was doing were New Mexico and Utah. And again, it's just talking up records, but I'm pretty good at it. You know, like I'm pretty solid. I can knock it out.

It's easy money. It's money for nothing and chicks for free, you know. And you stay on the radio on these places. It adds to your value for a company that, you know, you want to show that you have some level of value. Because if you don't have any fucking value, see you later, right? and not everybody Charlemagne the God signing a $200 million deal or Bobby Bones with a $200 million deal and not everybody has that, you know, good for those guys.

By the way, I will never be someone who begrudges those who make money and those who are successful unless I think they really suck. Like if you've got it, like if it's ill-begotten because I think your dog shit, that's another thing. But if you have an audience and you have a big following and you are worth the money they're paying you, I will never shit on people. Like there are loser radio people that are like, why are we firing people, but Charlemagne the God's making $200 million.

I don't fucking know because he's worth more than you are. He's worth more than I am. The art in life is to make yourself valuable. That's the thing I hate about people that sit around and bitch about the things that other people fucking have. If there's a piece of advice that Uncle Josh could give you is stop sitting around bitching about what other people have. Make yourself relevant. Like I might bitch, but I also know that I haven't done anything to make myself as valuable. as those people. Like I think some people, especially people of this era, live in some fantasy land

where it's like, hey, you know what, I should be making since I'm on the radio, why am I not making as much as Bobby Bones? I don't know, because you work in fucking Des Moines and he's on 200 radio stations and dancing with the stars and a giant podcast and he writes fucking books. That's why Bobby Bones makes $200 million and you make, you know, 15 bucks an hour. Because he got something done. you're making 15 bucks an hour to work in Paducah, Kentucky. I'm making the shit I'm making, you know, doing 30 radio stations to try to get by. It's because I haven't made myself valuable enough.

And that's the art of it. Like I work in the same building as a guy. It's the Mojo in the Morning Show. And Mojo is actually a very wonderful guy, old school radio guy. I admire the guy. I drunkenly sent him text messages after his hall of Fame induction,

telling them that I fucking admire him. I want to learn from him. Like, I love cool, old school radio people that fucking get it and are legends. And I respect the shit out of him. He's right next door to me in the radio station when I'm on in the morning. And that guy is making sick bank. I think he's got like a vacation house in Florida. Like he's down there visiting this kid down there now.

Like the guy's got a show like eight people on it. He's making sick bank. Shit, the 10th person on his show probably makes more money than I'm. make, right? And I could sit there and be fucking better about it. And I could sit there and yell about it and go, this is wrong. And how come this shitty person makes this? Not that any of them are shitty. I want to be very clear. I like all of them. They're fucking wonderful people. They're all nice. I've never worked around nicer people than I've worked around here. So I want to be very clear. When I say shitty people, it was a hypothetical situation there. But like,

I could sit there and go, I'm the lead of a morning show in Detroit and I'm making less money than the fourth, fifth, and six people. I got less endorsements. Well, you know why? Because I I ain't worth a shit right now. And the problem we have with people is people have the inability to acknowledge or be able to tell when they're not worth a shit. You know, it's like saying that I don't know. This random number 19 who's the quarterback for the chiefs should be making the same money as Patrick Mahomes because, hey, we're both quarterbacks in the NFL.

It ain't apples to apples chief. It ain't the same fucking thing. I'm a radio guy. I ain't Bobby Bones. In my mind, could I be? Sure. And at a time was I working towards that level? Could I have been what these dickheads at WIP are? Yes. Do I think I'm better than every single person that's on the radio in Philadelphia doing sports radio? Yes. Do I know that? Yes. I know I'm better than them. But I fucked up. And you fuck shit up sometimes and you knock yourself out of it. And then you live and you learn, right? That's the way the world works. But there are too many people that don't know. Like I think people hear me and they think that I like harbor some sort. And I do have some grudges but they're like this guy has a grudge and he blames everybody else for his own fucking issues absolutely not if you've ever listened to this podcast for any period of time yes i'll tell

you the things that other people did wrong and i will be honest with you and i will tell you where they were wrong and i was wrong but i take accountability for all of my bullshit that happens i take accountability and responsibility for why i'm sitting here not making the money i want to make i take responsibility for not being the number one fucking guy in philadelphia or houston right now because I'm a dipshit and I've made gigantic mistakes and I have fucked up and I'm a fucking I'm I'm a mental case sometimes and I blow things and anybody else's fault like 790 was a shitty situation but I would sit there and talk with Michael Barry every day and he would tell me Josh these fucking people are not on your level you could be the biggest thing in town but

you can't get out of your own way and he was right as bad as that situation was there I didn't get out of my own way you have to be able to acknowledge when shit is your fault when you fucked up and don't point the finger to other people. I see a Charlemagne the God making $200 million, getting a new deal for my heart. Good for him. Good for him. Pay him whatever he's worth and I'm happy for him. I am happy for people who are successful because it opens the door for me if I ever

figured my shit out. The problem is I don't. And the problem is I still stay in my own way. And the problem is I still stay in my own head. It's stuff. Stuff some days, man. you're up there and you don't think anybody's listening there's no interaction it used to be you'd go up to wip phones would ring all day you'd talk to people you knew that what you were doing was

having an impact because people couldn't stop talking about you i could not get fucked in a brothel in this place i couldn't pay for a blowjob here nobody knows i exist and we're going to have to fucking fix that or i have to fucking fix that or i will continue to be irrelevant and i will continue to be worthless. And I'll never get to a point where I can be making that cash that I used to make where I'm like, shit, here's $1,500 for my mom to go on a cruise. Or hey, you know what? I just feel like flying to Baton Rouge for an LSU game. I used to be able to do that kind of shit. I can't. And that's the goal I have. My goal is to get to that point where, again, I have no kids. I have very little responsibility. I got to pay off a couple fucking credit cards and a

couple loans. But other than that, my responsibilities are very small. I have a dog and a wife. I don't have kids. I don't have to make sure they're fed and clothed. in private schools and shit. I have none of that. All I have to focus on is me, my wife, and my dog. And my ambition is to get back to a fucking point where I can just say, you know what, let's put Ross in daycare for a weekend.

We're flying our asses down to Baton Rouge because LSU is playing Alabama and I got the scratch to fly us down there and buy the fucking tickets. That's my ambition. I'm never going to make $200 million. I'm never going to get one of these Charlemagne the God deals. That's never going to be me.

I'm never going to get a Bobby Bones deal. I know this. The people that I look to, go, I can be that because I am legitimately better than them. When I look at WIP or I look at the people that are on the radio in Houston and I see these people, and I'm not talking to Rod Ryans who have built behemoth careers and her legends in the city or the Michael Barry's. I'm talking about the other middling paid slap dicks that are on the radio there that

I know I'm better than. But I fuck shit up. And it's time for me to acknowledge all of my issues, which I do, and say, let's figure this shit out because I'm tired of sitting. here I'm 39 fucking years old and I am too fucking good at this shit and too good at what I do to be some asshole

that has to do 10 different fucking radio jobs to make a couple of bucks people should be beating down the fucking door and some are like I've told you people have reached out to me now that I have a job and they're like listen we got all this money we want to pay you well tough shit I got to figure it out of your first pal

is what it is I know I'm all over the place here but it's just like fuck man like I hear so many loser radio people, like especially younger radio people and have this animosity towards successful people. I will never hate successful people. I'll tell you if I think they suck, but I will never hate you for being successful because somebody views you as valuable. And there's no greater feeling than people thinking you have value. There is no greater feeling than knowing that they're afraid to fucking lose you. That is an intoxicating feeling. And I need to get back to that.

That's what I aspire to get back to. More to come.