The Josh Innes Show - I work in a Bad Ass Building..

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

Look, I fully intended to talk about the ESPN/NFL deal... But, I've gotten sidetracked again. I think it's the coffee. It's made me super alert and hyper. Anywho, this building is amazing and has a cool story. Plus, I break down some of the other buildings I've worked in.. Exciting, I know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, everybody. What's shaken? One of the stories that's been annoying me, or not even annoying me, because the story itself is interesting. But it's been annoying me the way it's been covered and the way media people cover it is the ESPN acquisition from the NFL, the NFL acquiring 10% of ESPN and the NFL network and Red Zone and all this stuff. And I get fans being concerned about what it's going to mean for their favorite content, right? Like, I understand if you're someone that loves the Red Zone and you're like, oh, my God, are they going to kill the Red Zone? Is it going to be Pat McAfee or whatever? I get that.

I respect that. The part that I don't get is when I hear media people talking about how they think this is going to be bad and it's basically state-run media. And are they going to be really honest on there now that the NFL has so much power and blah, blah, blah, blah. Actually, I heard a guy here in Detroit. A guy I have some respect for, again, we were talking about this a little earlier before I went off track. A guy named Mike Valenti, super successful guy, giant ratings. I'm not particularly a huge fan of his show because it's not the kind of shit I like to do, but he's clearly good at what he does and he's clearly successful, and I respect that.

Anybody who spends 20 years somewhere and has big ratings in a city, I respect that, right? So, my Meltzer actually sends me a piece of audio from this show where Mike Valenti starts breaking down how people should be worried about this because now essentially, you've got state-run media at ESPN and the NFL's going to silence any sort of big stories and there's not there's not going to be any honesty in the reporting. And Meltzer sends me that and goes, this is intriguing. This is fascinating. And I was like, Mike, here's the thing, man.

Media is bought and paid for everywhere. This is not a new development. Actually, let me play a couple commercials and let's get into this. Media is bought and paid for, right? Mike Valenti works on a radio station that carries all of the major sports teams in Detroit, okay? And I believe it was Valenti, who a couple years ago, maybe five, six, seven years ago, when the lions were really terrible, Valenti mercilessly shit on them, which is fine. The lions allegedly went to the radio station and threatened to leave if they didn't fire Valenti,

and the radio station stuck with him. That's cool. That's admirable. That's cool. but for the most part actually let me go back here I'm kind of all over the place because I tried drinking a coffee today I went over to one of these little cute coffee shops in this area by the way this area in which we broadcast from in Detroit down here in eastern market phenomenal I'm in an old building all right I'm in this old building that apparently used to be like some sort of beer distribution building back in the 1800s right so it's my kind of thing it's like brick and it's written And it's freaking amazing. And I met the guy who owns the building today. And he says, do you want to see what my next thing I got going is?

And I'm like, sure, what's the plan? Opens this big door by the entrance. And there's a flight of stairs, like a cold, dank flight of stairs that leads down to this basement, basically. I'm talking some Buffalo Bill type shit. I'm talking it puts the lotion in the basket. It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. Like, this is the kind of area this was. And it's cold and the floor's got, it's like a concrete floor with water all over it and big stone archways and the bottom.

Like it almost looks like a train station, like an old subway, you know. Like when you would look at like the train station and Ninja Turtles to the Secret of the Oos, right? And he walks me down there and he goes, and I go, what is this? What was this before? Says this is where they stored beer. Up until the 1950s, they used this area down here to store beer. There was like a loading dock to an elevator that would bring the beer up. It was an area where beer was stored in this building in the 1800s to 1950.

I'm like, well, what are you going to do with it? I'm turning this into a club. Now, when you look at it, this is the reason I admire people like this. They can see something. You know, innovators and entrepreneurs can see things that not everybody can see. I'm looking at this huge area of concrete and stone and, and, and, you know, water and like rats. There's not really rats, but you get the point.

Like, it feels like that. It feels like where fucking shredder lives, or sorry, Master Splinter. It's like where Splinter lives in the Ninja Turtles. Everything is going back to the Ninja Turtles now, but they live under the damn city. Like, it looked like splinter down there, right? And I'm like, I'm fascinated by people that have a vision. It's like when people buy a fixer-upper and, like, you're like, I don't see how this thing's ever going to look good.

And they're like, don't worry, we're going to make it look good. and then before you know it they've built this you know this this house that's immaculate and modern and clean and you're like how did you build that from this piece of shit and like I'm fascinated by people who can do that I'm like my dad's like that he can do that my dad for a little stretch tried to flip houses right I don't know if he made any money doing it but my dad was so good at taking shitty things and making them look good like I admire people who can do that so when I'm down there talking to this guy he's like well we're downstairs here and we're going to turn this into a club and we're going to have

like it's going to be like a tequila slash bourbon type club and there's going to be a restaurant and I'm like holy shit I can't see it but you can and that's why we need people like this people who can see the shit that common people like us can't I wish I had the ability to like see like it's kind of like this as I'm sitting here right now I'm looking at what I want my radio show to be and I have sort of a vision right but it hasn't clicked with me totally yet like It's kind of like a force for the trees type of deal. Like, I like people who can sit there and be very calm about shit and can say, this is what this is going to look like in two years, three years, whatever.

I don't have that ability. Like, all I can see is right now and all I see is no one calls this radio station. I don't know if anybody's actually listening to this radio station, and I'm going to get fucking fired. That's all I can see. Like, that's just how I am. And I wish I wasn't that way, but I am that way. This guy, like I had my, I talked to this guy for two minutes. Met him, shook his hand, sharp guy, like good looking dude, long wavy hair, like a badass looking dude.

I'm down here in flip flops and gym shorts, basically, right? They're telling me about the steakhouses this guy owns all the shit. And he's like, what this is going to be is a badass club down here. And I couldn't see it. But as he explained it to me, I'm like, I believe it. And that's pretty fucking badass. You know, I don't know how I got down this path. I don't know how I ended up here.

When I drink coffee, let me tell you a story about me. I never drink coffee. The caffeine I get is mostly from tea and soda pops. So that's kind of like, I don't do that very often. I hate, but like this lady prepared me a coffee. And the coffee is she, like, it's not actual coffee. She said it's kind of a lighter type of coffee that has less of a coffee taste. And it's oat milk and some vanilla.

It's lovely. It tastes amazing. And now I'm all sorts of jacked up. I'm like that level of like caffeine high where I start to sweat a little. little bit now because I got so much energy and I'm constantly moving oh boy and tonight I'm going to go get drunk I'm going to go get drunk in our local bar we have found a bar that we love it's called cozy lounge and it's a great little bar it's been around for a hundred years basically it's in this our little dumpy neighborhood good burgers good food haven't tried the wings yet

lions preseason football tigers on TV and we're just going to sit around and drink and have a good time I'm in a good mood fuck it I'm in a real good mood about this but like this building is so cool. Because most of the radio stations I've worked in haven't been super cool, but they've all kind of had a charm. The first big one I worked in was in Houston. And that building at 20, was it 19, 18, 21, 22, 22, 23 Greenway Plaza, whatever it was, 19 Greenway Plaza. I forgot the exact address. But we were on the 19th. That's where the 19th comes in. It was the 19th floor. And when I, I'll tell you, when I got that job, I didn't go up there initially for the interview. So the first time I set foot in the radio station was my first day on the job.

And this is after I had driven to town Sunday leading into Monday, I had a suit on. I had like slacks and like a light blue button-up shirt with a blazer. And I roll up to the radio station and I'm ready to go. And I look out the window. And when I tell you, it's the most incredible view you're going to get. Like it looked over University City. So you'd look over and you would just see all these trees. and neighborhoods. You're 19 stories, essentially, 19 floors above the earth.

Off in the distance, there's NRG, often the distance there's the Astrodome, and you're sitting there every day getting to broadcast from that studio, and that was cool. Then you go to Philadelphia, and Philadelphia is in Old City. So you're in this cool building down there, but there was nothing special about it. It was just an old building, nothing charming about it. But it was cool because you're right next to, like, the Jewish Museum, and then you're right next to the Independence Mall. and that's cool because you're an old city and you're a block away from like Max Tavern and all these old bars so it was charming

the neighborhood was charming the building wasn't in Houston initially it was the building was cool as shit not charming but cool like you were above the earth man it was awesome and it still is and the neighborhood was fine

because you were just down there in Greenway Plaza there was nothing special about it come back to Houston that was a dull building and we were looking at a parking garage when we were on the air so there was nothing special there go to Nashville. Nashville was intriguing because we were on, we were in Music Row. Now, nothing really happens on Music Row anymore.

Most of these record labels and stuff have moved out of these buildings, and most of their stuff is elsewhere. Maybe not even be in Nashville. But we were in so many cool or around, so many cool old recording studios. Like one day I'm on the air there, and I'm looking at just Twitter and Instagram, and I see Sammy Hagar is in Nashville, apparently, and he's knocking on a door trying to get into a place. and the place was literally across the street from where I was. It was at the old RCA studios. I'm like, how did I miss Sammy Hagar?

That was a really cool situation. St. Louis was, honestly, the most sterile of them all might have been St. Louis. The studios were really nice. The building was really nice. It was decorated really well. But it was in this little suburb of St. Louis called Creve Corps. At least there was a window so we could see out. You could look out over the street and you can see.

and it was just like a main drive olive boulevard is what it was called nothing special not a great place but it was clean and it was nice and the studios were nice and they worked and the engineer was good at his job so it was fine but then you come here and this is in like a 150 year old building that's been like renovated and it's bricks and giant windows and now the studios are very benign and very sterile but that's what iHeart wants all of the studios in every i heart radio station across the country look exactly the same and it's so so weird because it used to be like your studio was kind of your domain. Your studio was here. The other radio station studio is there. What's wild. And maybe you don't care about this. You may not care at all. And I know I was supposed to get into the thing about the NFL. And maybe in the next episode I will. I don't know. But I'm all over the place. You walk into this studio and there are six, five. There are five screens on the wall. Two in front of you. Two to the side. One behind you. Big TV is like 50 something inch TVs. And they have your station. logo on them. But the second you roll out and somebody else comes in here, they can broadcast live from the same studio on a different radio station at the turn of a button and a knob. You turn

the knob, you hit a button. All the logos change in here. And then boom, now it's no longer WLLZ, now it's mix or now it's WLBJ, whatever. And it's wow. Like it is fascinating, but it loses some of its charm. Like part of the charm of radio was like, this is our studio. In Nashville, we had one studio for us on The Rock. Now, the studio didn't work and it was a mess, but I was allowed to basically do whatever the hell I wanted in there. So I had my liquor in there. I had all my shit.

Like yesterday, I find out that somebody thought I left this studio a little messy, which I didn't. And I'm like, that's what we deal with now. Now, like, if you want to see messy, you should have seen what I was doing in Nashville. I had a bat. And that bat was up there just for me to crush this broken table we had up there when I was pissed off. I'm actually a lot more docile than I was, but like in Nashville, I was constantly just angry about shit not working, so I would take my baseball bat. Basically, what we had was

an old folding table that battle had jumped through for a bit, like I jumped through the table like the Bills fans bit, right? So I kept that table in the studio, and when I was pissed, I would grab a baseball bat and just slug it. Had no idea it scared the shit out of battle, but whatever. But like, this is a different world because, like, I'm in here now, I will leave, and another person will come in here and do a live radio show from this very studio, and they'll turn a knob, and it will go from being wheels to being mix. Freaking crazy, man. Like, it's the technology, but it's also to its detriment. Like, for instance, my phone lines in here suck because they're all on a computer.

I have no actual line to punch up a call. It's all on a computer screen. That part sucks. Like, there are pros and there are cons to all of this stuff. But this building's fascinating. This whole area, I guess it used to be a meat. packing area. There's amazing looking butcher shops that I haven't been to yet, but once I get a new smoker, I'm going to start shopping down here. Like, I'm not lying to you guys. I fucking

love this Detroit. Like, this is a cool town. I love it, and I want this radio station to be fucking great. I want it to climb from, like, to rise and become this great station. And I'm locked in on that, and I want that to happen, and I hope it happens. All that, and that started again. This is the second time I've got about as far as I got into the talk about the NFL shit with the ESPN. So let me do that. All right, I'm going to stop this and we'll do another one.