The Josh Innes Show - Dumb Radio People

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

The Worst People in the world are idiot radio people... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can I share with you my version of the worst person in the world today? Like I'm Keith Olberman here. The worst person in the world. Well, the worst person in the world at this point is the person, first of all, most radio people are the worst people in the world because many of them are self-absorbed, uninteresting people, mostly not talented people who've been raised in this era where they think they're some sort of special person because they can go get some likes on social media because their titties bounce a little bit or because they do something stupid. But back in the day, radio used to be a great skill. And I truly believe that. I believe the radio was at one time a skill. Even the kind that involved being a disc jockey was a skill.

You had to do it live. You had to fire this element. Like I hear my dad would tell me stories about how he used to do shit. And to make something that right now would be simple, 35 years ago was a very difficult thing. Like if you wanted to do, like if I wanted to have a conversation right now with, you know, me doing a voice. You go in, you put something in the computer, it spits it back out at you, and it sounds

perfect and sounds great, you edit it all down and it's flawless. Well, there was a time that if you wanted to do something like that, you had to use reel-to-reel tapes, you had to use different things. And that was a talent. You had to fire all this shit off, and you had to do it live. There wasn't voice tracking. You did this shit live. The number of people I see who choose, who sit at a radio station and still,

voice track. And that means just record everything beforehand and not go without a net. Dude, when I got to Detroit, when I got there, we couldn't figure out why every time I tried to go live, nothing would happen. It's because the studio wasn't even equipped to go live on the radio. That's how little people do live shit anymore, unless you're doing like a morning show. And even most, a lot of those are recorded. But even those type of shows, like people would sit in the building and not go live. And it blew me away that people weren't going. going live. Like, that's the rush of radio. That's the fun of radio, you know, and it's just different. It's not a skill on the level that it used to be. And maybe I'm an old curmudgeon. I just don't

believe that making radio now is the great skill that it once was. Like, congrats. If you can get a bunch of likes on social media, that's all these radio people really care about now anymore. Say, hey, do you have a big social media following great? And hey, if that's what they're into, that's what they're into. But I bring this up because radio people really need to be sat down and taught something. And nobody will tell them this. And I've talked to program directors and other people who agree with me. But these people who, during these mass layoffs at these companies, like IHeart had a big layoff a couple months ago, right?

And Cumulus just did it where they're firing entire air staffs in certain cities. Like, oh, whole rock station in Atlanta, you're all fired. Urban station in San Francisco, you're all fired or wherever. Like, I mean, they took a blow torch to it. Like, the number of people you see getting fired from these radio stations, you wonder how anybody's even left, right? And somehow I've survived the Reaper in some of these cases, and who knows how long that'll last, but, I mean, I've survived the Reaper.

My dad has survived the Reaper at Cumulus. That's where he works down in Bad Roos. So, hey, rock on. But the worst person is the person who the second all these firings go down, and they end up being saved, right? So they still have a job. They're the person who, you know, was the one person that the company decided to keep,

like your Cumulus Media, the one person they decided to keep in Birmingham or something. And you're in Birmingham, but they also decide to have you voice track, a bunch of radio shows, you know, some air shifts in in Huntsville, Alabama, and Memphis and Tulsa and some other places, right? So you're doing like 10 jobs.

now. All your buddies have been fired, which, what, first of all, you can't feel bad about that because you're still on the island. That's one thing I would tell people is stop feeling bad when other people get fired because eventually it's going to be you anyway. So just ride with it until it bucks you, you know, you're still on the boat. And as long as you're still on the boat, shut the fuck up and just go do your job. But the worst person, and we've all seen them, right, is the person on Twitter or the person on Instagram who's still around at the radio station. that kept their job and is now doing like the 10 other jobs of people that got fired in other cities. And they go to social media and they post a long thing about how sad they are that these people got fired and that the radio business is tough and it's so sad that all these people got fired.

And then they follow that up with a post with them saying, but now I'm syndicated or whatever. You're not syndicated. But they say things like that because they have no idea what anything means. They say, I am syndicated now. and this is amazing and whatever. So my lesson would be this. If you are someone who was at a radio station and you're still around after all your buddies and Paudna's got fired

and hundreds of people got fired in these companies, don't go to social media and post about it at all. Just shut the fuck up. It shouldn't be that difficult. Just shut the fuck up. You don't need to go to social media to let people know that your heart is broken, that your friends got fired. You don't need to go to social media to let people know that you were just in Birmingham,

but now you're in Memphis on this station and Tulsa on this station. Just shut the fuck up. Not everything has to be on social media and not everything has to be about you. There's not a more narcissistic group of people than radio people, particularly current aged radio people who are in the era of social media who believe that every single thing from everything has to be online. You don't have to say anything. You don't have to tweet all the time.

You don't have to come out and say, I am so sad about all this happening. Radio is so tough. And my heart breaks for these people. Stop making it about you. Your fucking friends all got fired. Hey, if you really cared about your friends, hit them up in a text. If you're that close, text them and say, hey, man, this fucking sucks, man. Like, I love you and it sucks and you're super talented.

This is bullshit. And they may appreciate it or they may not. What they probably won't appreciate is you running to social media to make them getting fired about you. that's what all these radio dopes do that's what radio people love to do that they love to take other people's maladies is that the word i'm looking for all the calamities that befall other people like getting fired and all this shit they love to make it about themselves they are self-centered they are narcissistic they are and they're they're empty-headed and just so many things about what these people do.

And then I'll send screenshots to buddies of mine, like old school radio people. That's going to make us sound like old times. By the way, I don't care what people have to do now to be popular. Like I'm not some dude that says, oh, my God, all this social media. I get it. What bothers me is when you don't have a fucking clue about how to read the room because nobody does, because they don't know what it's like to read a room because they're never around fucking people. They're in this world of social media.

And when I watch these people doing this, it enrages me and makes me laugh at the same time. Because it's usually losers who are not really good at anything and they want to be the first to run to social media to let you know that they're sad as if they want to get out in front of it before anybody rips them for still being employed. Here is lesson number one about being in this industry where the workforce is shrinking. don't apologize for having a job because your day will come unless you're Bobby fucking bones or somebody everyone's day is coming the Reaper's going to come for every one of us

so don't feel guilty about being employed whenever your buddy gets fired like that sucks don't feel guilty about still having a job you're still on the fucking boat that would be my lesson to people because in two years when the next round of layoffs come you may not be on the boat

so enjoy being on the boat while you are But that's something that these young people don't seem to grasp. And I can say these young people because I'm a 40-year-old man with extra gray hair in my beard now. So I can say these sort of things. Speaking of radio stuff, I think today is the day that 610 goes to FM, which means no longer when they talk to good-looking chicks out in public and they say, I'm on the radio and the girl asks, hey, what radio station? And you say, I'm on 6.10 a.m.

And she'll go, AM, my dad listens to that. Those days are now over, friend. You've officially made it. You no longer have to be the, my dad listens to AM. Now it's just, you know, my dad listens to you on FM. But still, you've moved up in the world. And I still remain jealous. Like, I try not to be bitter about things.

Here's a lame story that I will tell you. So the other day, I'm in the car. And there's a song I like called Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw. Now, I am neither of those things if you listen to me on the podcast. You're like, Josh, you're not humble nor kind. You're more like self-loathing and angry. Self-loathing and a dick. That's my version of humble and kind. Always stay self-loathing and dickish. That's my theme. But I'm listening to this because I'm a weird dude because those kind of things I really enjoy. It kind of reminds me in my mom in a way because my mom always tells me like to always be, you know,

humble and and, you know, whatever. And my dad's just like always like, Josh, I got to run. But I'm listening to this. I never really listen to the words outside of the humbling kind part. And there's a line in the song. And the line is bitterness keeps you from flying. And that is a wonderful way to look at things because it does. Because you sit around and you're bitter and it does. It keeps you from recognizing your own true greatness or your own true success because bitterness keeps you from flying.

And I'm like, wow, that's fucking awesome. I agree with that. Problem is I can't stop being bitter. I don't even know if I'm what you'd call bitter or if I'm just curmudgety. You know, I don't know which category I'd fall into. But I am bitter. Not even bitter because I don't sit around a bitch about it. I was bitter about it for like five minutes when the news came down.

But when the 610 stuff became public and they're like, hey, we're going to FM, there was that part of me. I was just like, fuck. What if? What if we would have been on FM? What would life have been like? Because you know I love a good what if. every one of you listening to this podcast knows if you know one thing about Josh Ennis, you know that Josh Ennis is a big fan of the what if.

What if this would have happened? What if this would have happened? Well, you know, what if? What if in 2013 they say, fuck it, we're doing sports on FM? What would life have been like at that point? Would I still be there? Would Rich still be there? Would we have become this big behemoth of a radio station?

which I do believe we would have. I think we would have become a radio station that was highly successful. I mean, it was already a successful station. Like, we were doing very well. Like, the mystery of why they're doing this now is interesting to me. And I'm going to go a little bit in the weeds here, kind of get deep in the weeds on radio shit. But there are six plus ratings, is what they're called.

And the six plus ratings are not really all that important, right? They're kind of just like, that's the overall people. Nobody uses that for anything. But at the moment, 610 is even below 790 in those. So I'm just, I'm curious about why now, like why they decided, you know, to blow up a radio station that's got their best numbers for a station that's got their worst. I think it's, and I'm not ripping them for it. I'm just curious. Like, I'd like to know why they made the decision there.

If I could ever talk to somebody, be like, what was the reasoning now? And not, you know, 13 years ago when I was there and it could have changed my life. because of course I'm looking at myself here. Most importantly, how it impacted me. But anyway, more to come.