The Josh Innes Show - Fun and Energetic Radio

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

First off, as I near the end of my time in St. Louis, I would like to reflect on what brought me here. Second, my former program director at KSHE was interview by Barrett Media and he said somethings that I find comical. Notably, he believes his radio station currently has a fun and energetic afternoon show...riiiiiigggghhhtttt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Dazone. For the first time ever, the 32 best soccer clubs from across the world are coming together to decide who the undisputed champions of the world are in the FIFA Club World Cup. The world's best players, Messi, Holland, Kane and more are all taking part. And you can watch every match for free on Dazone, starting on June 14th and running until July 13th. Sign up now at Dazone.com slash fifa. That's d-a-z-n dot com slash fifa. I tell you shit that bothers me today. Something that I find annoying as I sit here on Wednesday July 2nd. I'm six days away from relocating from St. Louis to somewhere else. This is a place that I moved, I guess almost two and

a half years ago, right? Because I moved here in March of 2023. So March of 2023, we are now in July of 2025. So what is that? Two full years is 24 months, about 28 months, I guess would be about how many months ago I moved here, right? Because two full years is 24 months, and about four other months, give or take three and a half months. So somewhere in the neighborhood of 28 months, I moved to St. Louis. And I've lived here for 28 months. And what's wild to think about is I only worked here for 15 of those months. So about, actually, am I doing the math wrong on this?

Well, I guess it makes sense because I moved here in March, I didn't start the job until April. I got fired actually. So technically, I wasn't on the air for 15 months. I think I was really on the air for 16 months or something like that. Either way, it doesn't matter. I started in April, I got whacked in in August on the first of August. And it is what it is. Nothing's going to change about that. But it's just interesting because as we sit here, I start thinking to myself that of all the places I live the longest I've was actually just over four years. I got there in November of 2009. I left in late December of 2013. So I was there for a little over four years. Philadelphia, I got there basically and started in January of 2014 and left in late August of 2016. So if you want to give me all of August, that's fine. So basically, I was about nine months. So about about 3033 months, is that how many months

I was there about 33 months, I was in Philadelphia, came back and had the Houston gig, the second Houston gig for, let's see, I got there in November. I started in October, middle of October of 2016 and I was out in March of 2019. So I went October 2017, October 2018, and then so that's about three. So that's about seven plus about 31 months. I was on the air there then I lived there for a couple more years. That was the really the longest stretch of time that I've lived somewhere actually was the second time I was in Houston. That's why combined I lived in Houston for about a decade then in Nashville. We were there for actually under two years or right around two years and now we've been here for about two

years and four months give or take. It's crazy to think that I've lived here almost as long as I lived in Philadelphia for instance, right? I feel no connection to hear from a radio standpoint, but Philadelphia still feel a big connection and maybe it's because there was more success there and it was a bigger deal there. I don't know, but it's just fascinating how that works out how even though I only worked here for about 15 months, I've lived here for shit two years and five months or whatever it is. So, or four months. Anywho, let me play a couple commercials and I'll tell you some other stuff.

So here I sit, I'm in my bed in my underwear six days away from moving. I'm still packing some shit. My dog is at the daycare after an hour long walk this morning of chasing bunnies on the leash. The guy o'clock to the sound of that that beep from a smoke detector, right? Just the singular beep like 30, 40 seconds, another beep. And that's what woke me up today at about 5 and it woke me up at about 430 yesterday. I go out. It's on the smoke detector that's at the highest point of the ceiling. I cannot get to it. It is on like a point at the very tippy top of an of like a raised ceiling, right? So I have no ladder. So basically I go I get the broom, I tap the button and it stops it for a day. I'm just trying to ride this thing out. I know

it's going to be my alarm tomorrow around five o'clock. I'm going to get another beep and it's going to wake me up. I'll call the landlord see if he can change it. But I woke up today at about five-ish, five-thirty because of that. Couldn't go back to sleep. I start scrolling the internet. I see a story from Barrett Sports Media or Barrett Media as it is called. It is a website that is only read by media people about media people. The average person does not give a shit about this. The only time the average person hears about it is when some list comes out of the top 20 major market morning shows and some

show is like number 16. No one knows how it was determined that they were number 16. There's no information about how people voted or who voted on it. It's just oh wow, we're the number 16 morning show in the country and people will suck their own dicks about it and they'll post the link to it will go yay and that'll get some traffic for Barrett Media right well Barrett Media is has written a story about my old program director at KC 95 his name is Marty link and I'll

never know if Marty actually like me or not like to give you the details of like the full details on the st Louis story, which is like partially why I sort of blame myself for a lot of stuff is Back in I guess it would have been February February of 2023. I was about to sign a new deal To stay in Nashville, but the way these contracts work out is the last six months of your current deal, there is an exclusive negotiating window just with iHeart. So you have really, if they want you, you don't have much of an opportunity to see what else is out there. And at the time we were doing really well on the Rock Station. But in the back of my mind, I'm thinking maybe I still want to do

talk and I maybe want to get back into sports. I don't know if talking in these short little spurts in a rock station is really what I meant to do what I want to do. Although if you do that long enough and get popular enough eventually keep shaving off songs and before you know it, you're only playing two or three songs an hour. But at the moment I'm like, all right, I'm back in the game. I kind of want to get back into sports. What can I do?

We'd even tried out the idea of doing like a sports show for their talk station in Nashville on top of doing the rock show that never came to fruition. They couldn't find a sponsor for it. And in reality, I really didn't want to sit there and break down the Tennessee Titans and the Nashville Predators sports talk can be difficult in towns like that that are minimal on on on the teams to discuss. But anyway, so that never came to fruition. I did a couple of demo shows and it was kind of like,

we got to find a sponsor maybe of DraftKings or FanDuel will sponsor it. We'll put it on. Never came to fruition. So I've been given a new deal. I knew what the terms of the deal were going to be, and I knew what the terms were going to be for a while, but my agent kept sending, my agent at the time, I don't have an agent anymore, but my agent at the time kept sending it back with little tiny details to change, right? Cool. Well, it's coming up on the weekend before my six-month period

is up and they're really wanting me to sign that. And I'm about to sign it. It is a Friday morning and I look at my Facebook, I'm on the air, it's like 8 o'clock in the morning, something like that 830. I'm on the air. I look at Facebook. I have a message. It's from Jason Barrett, the gentleman that runs this website who also happens to be a former program director who also happens to be a consultant for Hubbard Hubbard Broadcasting who owns Casey 95 in Saint Louis. I'm sure I've told you this, but I'm telling you this again to kind of get to this other story. So it's a Friday.

And I get a message from Jason Barrett and it says, Hey man, I hear about something that's open. If you're happy doing what you're doing, no need to reach out. But if you're curious, let me know. So I tell my agent I'm like, Hey, can you find out what this is? My agent knows Jason and all that she finds out. She calls me later in the day and she says it turns out that this is Casey 95 and I Jason and all that. She finds out. She calls me later in the day and she says, it turns out that this is Casey 95.

And I said, holy shit, you've got to get me there. Okay. So she's like, well, let me see first, blah, blah, blah. She calls me back. Basically what had happened is some guy was on the big rock morning show that's on the alt station. That's a huge behemoth of a show. And all the people on that show are good folks.

I have nothing bad to say about them. They were very nice to me. So, and they're successful. I'm not going to shit on them alt station. That's a huge behemoth of a show. And all the people on that show are good folks. I have nothing bad to say about them. They were very nice to me. So and they're successful. I'm not gonna shit on them or anything. They're good people. And one of the dudes on the show apparently was like allegedly was like sending text messages or something via the station Twitter via the station text line to chicks making jokes about sending titty pictures or something and inevitably had to be fired so they needed someone

to replace him and they felt that since it was kind of too much of a boys club after that situation they needed at a chick so they're going to take the girl that's been doing the afternoons on KC 95 move her over and that thus creating some sort of an opening at KC possibly and would you do it and I'm like I'd love to but then they're like we kind of see you as a morning guy. We also see you as someone who if our big rock morning show guy leaves could be a nice replacement if he were to leave so like it'd be

nice to kind of have you on board. So I'm talking with them and they're like here's the reason why we don't think this thing can work. We've got a morning guy, the morning guys not doing particularly well. And we would like you to do mornings. And here's the thing, man. How about this? We like you if the thing still not working out in two years after you sign a two year deal there and our show still not working out here. Hey, we'll just give you a call again. And we'll see where it goes two

years from now. But we're going to keep you in mind." And I'm like, no, that's not good enough for me. How about I do afternoons? And they're like, well, I mean, I guess you could give it a shot. And then the concept is to do kind of a mornings in the afternoon thing. And I said, listen, let me fly there to meet you guys. I want to fly to meet you, at least see where this can go. This is a dream situation for me.

I got a good job here in Nashville, but this is a dream scenario for me. Station, my dad always wanted to work for I love St. Louis. I have to at least talk with you guys. So on Monday, I get up I do my show. There was also some other stuff on the weekend where it looked like it wasn't gonna happen. I said, dude, I'm flying there. Like this is where I blame myself. I didn't have to fly here. They didn't really want. I don't even know that they wanted to hire me. It's almost like I bullied them into hiring

me by well really I just impressed the hell out of them. I guess when I met them and they wanted to find something for me and they were feeling good about the station because the cluster had a shitload of money. It was billing well, so they had some money to spend and I think ultimately they viewed me as someone who would inevitably do their morning show because they view me as a morning guy. They were even telling me that kind of shit. They're like, yeah, eventually we'll get you there

or whatever. And so I flew there on that Monday, drink some alcohol with them for like eight hours in this restaurant got on a plane. Next day, I get a text afternoon drive is yours. Casey 95. If you want it, boom, I do that. I have to tell my boss about all this. They fucking hate me after that. And I really burned some bridges in that situation with I heart. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to string them along. It was just a perfect scenario for me to go

to St. Louis and I did. And from the second I got there, I was like, I don't know that they ever truly wanted me there. Now, Jilly has a theory. And Jilly's theory is they they brought me there. And if it worked great, and if it didn't, they could fire me and then look like heroes to their loyal group of old people who will be happy that they went back on the straight and narrow and got rid of a guy like me. They never really gave me any kind of guidelines on what to do. They

never gave me any real kind of coaching or like, hey, don't do this, don't do that for the most part. It was just kind of fly by the seat of your pants and see what happens. And I don't I never got the vibe that they ever actually wanted me there, but they were kind of stuck with me for a while. And then they just fucking fired me. And that is what it is. But I was reading a story today on this Barrett's Barrett media here about my old boss, Marty, who I don't dislike him at all. And I think that Marty is actually a very good music program director. He's a wonderful jack FM program director, his imaging for those which is like the sweepers and the little promos that play are fucking phenomenal like I genuinely like the guy I have nothing

against him. I don't get the vibe that maybe he maybe he never actually liked me. I don't know but I genuinely liked him but I'm reading some of the **** he's saying about the station and it's like well on Kashi now we've got a plus talent major market a plus talent we're talking about things that the city cares about on the you ain't talking about shit like you talking to like these people on this radio station are talking the girl doing mid days is basically reading show prep site shit that has nothing to do with St. Louis and the guy they hired to do afternoons barely even talks.

They're like, boy, he's adding fun and energy to the afternoons. The fuck he is. I hate listening to it sometimes and I don't think he's a bad disc jockey by any means, but he's a fucking disc jockey. He talks for 10 seconds and half the time he's just teasing some music bit they're going to do like, hey, coming up at 5 o''clock the daily dose of Led Zeppelin back to back Led Zeppelin every day at five o'clock blah blah blah blah and then he'll go to traffic and the fucking traffic guy actually talks longer than the dude that's the dish jockey that they paid to leave Chicago to come to this station

I very rarely get worked up over this shit and I very rarely talk about that on this podcast because it was just a bad situation and whatever and it turns out this station is not what I thought it was. But now they're starting to implement a lot of this shit that I said would be good and now I'm not getting to reap the benefits of it. I'm like, hey, why don't we play some more modern classic rock as opposed to being so reliant on blank? Let's work in some 2000s. Oh, wow, all of a sudden, I'll hear three doors down or all of a sudden I'll hear Nickelback or

all of a sudden I'll hear Creed and I'm like, Oh, we're playing this shit now when a year ago I said we need to be playing this kind of shit and start doing more of that we need to be more aggressive. Play younger shit if we want to get younger people there's a concept. But then to basically say that now you have somebody on in the afternoon who's entertaining when this person doesn't even talk, I take that fucking personally. Perhaps I shouldn't. Perhaps I shouldn't care all that much and deep down it's like I don't like I don't think about it that often, but when I read that this morning, scrolling through that story and I see, you know, well, now we're fun and energetic in the afternoon. Bullshit. There's nothing fun or energetic about your afternoon content.

It was fun. It was energetic when I was on there. The old fucks that listen to your fuddy duddy station couldn't fucking handle it. Like no offense, like when I got there, they were like, we need to find a way to make this thing younger. What are some ideas? And they'd start with like, well, it's March bandness time and March bandness, you guessed it, is an NCAA tournament style bracket where the fans get to vote on bands who are matched up against each other. And I'm

like, you do the same fucking thing every year. Why not mix it up and make it different categories or have a bracket where each disc jockey picks their tea like something to make it more interesting. And they're like, Yeah, we'll give that some thought. And then they just trot out the same fucking shit. Like it's just like it's just the same shit. And, you know, do I think I would have been far more successful had I been on in the mornings? Sure. Like I think just my style would have fit better. That's why I blame myself is I should have never said, Hey, put me on in the afternoon. I shouldn't have done

that. I should have just stayed in Nashville. And maybe they'd be calling me right now going, Hey, our morning guy sucks. You want to come here? Like, that's very possible. But, but I don't know. I don't know. but when I read that it really pissed me off. Just kind of like, well, we're fun and energetic in the afternoon. A, you know your audience doesn't want fun and energetic. They're old depressing people. I came in with energy the first second I was on the radio on that station. I had energy. I was excited. I was glad to be there.

30 people call nonstop about how fucking terrible I am. Your audience is old and it's shitty Facebook yell at cloud people. Oh but now you got a fun and energetic afternoon guy. Oh we got fun energy, we're talking about topics that are relevant to our audience. The fuck you are! You're talking about the same shit you've always talked about. Your talent, your A plus talent as you put it, is doing nothing different than they've always fucking done but oh but now we're talking about a plus shit i have never heard that dude in the afternoon talk about anything of a current event relevance i turn on one day and he's like yeah i remember where i was when stevie rayvon died like boy that's super relevant like who gives a shit

like what are we doing? But I'm about to be back and I'm about to start kicking fucking ass and got to get back on fucking top man. Like that place fucking drove me down and now I just want to fucking beat the shit out of everybody in the world and show them that I'm still fucking doing this. Either way podcast is doing well, shit's doing well, but fucking people anyway more to come.