The Josh Innes Show - JIS Classic: J&R Reunion Hour 1

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Hello Friends! Rich and I reunited for one glorious day on ESPN 97.5. Here is the first hour. It was quite the time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Josh Innes Show on ESPN 97.5 and on ESPN 97.5.com live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Here's Josh Innes. Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire. Howdy! 203 and welcome in to the Josh Ennis Show. It's the Josh Ennis Show normally, but today, today is a special day because today it is the JNR Show. Get you some of that. Give me a little bit of that, Nick. Go ahead. It's the JNR Show today.

I'm Redskins owner Dan Snyder. You found it. This is Archie Manning. You found it. Coach Dick Tramiel. You found it. You're listening to Josh and Snyder. You found it. This is Archie Manning. You found it. Coach Dick Ramil. You found it. You're listening to Josh and Rich, and you found it. Hello, I'm Ines Saenz, and you found it.

Hi, this is Nolan Ryan, and you found it. I am Adam Sandler, and great news, guys. You found it. What you have found is Houston's number one sports radio show. It is the Josh and Rich Show. Rich, how are you, man? Nick, can you tell Josh I'm not talking to him? I'm still pissed off about seven years ago.

And that was tense at that time, too. It was. It was tense. We're better now. Oh, absolutely we are better now. We are 100% better now. To answer your question, well, as far as I know, COVID-19 negative. Yep.

And very happy to be here. Thank you for the invite. No, I am glad you're here. And if you guys want to get in, 713-780-3776. That's 713-780-ESPN. Rich, is this your first time on the radio since last June, July? When was it? About 11 months since the last time I did terrestrial radio. Well, you were on my podcast. And were you on another podcast?

No, that's just mine. All I've done since July of last year is your podcast and your radio show. That's it. Nobody wants to hear from me. I don't think that's true. And I think you'll learn that today is that people were excited about this. You know, whether people like you on the radio or not I think that there's like a calming sense when someone that's been on for a long time is on again because like Gavin told me this once he said it was after I forgot who had gotten let go and people were mad about something and he said Josh if you put a mouse on the radio and you take the mouse off the radio there will be certain people that wonder what happened to the mouse like you know what I'm saying? People want to know.

And yeah, I think that so 11 months ago is when you got laid off, got let go. Do you consider it a layoff or do you just go, I got fired? Which way do you look at it? That's a good question. I don't know what the difference is. I'm pretty sure I got fired. Yeah. Like me, each time I've been let go, I've been fired.

But if you say laid off it kind of go it kind of softens it and they go it's because i made too much money and you sound baller but ultimately you view it as just like hey i got i got whacked i definitely got whacked and i was coming up on my 24th anniversary of uh hosting that afternoon show that's amazing by the way that somebody has had the same job for 24 years. I'd say that I don't know other than Francesa. He'd be one of the guys that's had the same job and no longer has that job. But he had it from 89 till about 19. So he had about 30 years, you know, solid.

I'm trying to think of other people. You know, Angelo Cataldi in Philadelphia is one of the guys I think of. Not many people had a job for 24 years, and that in and of itself is a skill. I've had four jobs in 11 years. You had one job in 24 years. The greatest skill was keeping my head down. That was pretty much about it. Just stay out of people's way. Every year that goes by is another year. Honestly, the last 11 months have not been easy. Because before that 24 years, I did seven on the radio at other places. Sure.

Well, not more than seven. My goodness. 14. I'm sorry. Whether it be El Campo or KTRH. How long were you at KTRH? Almost nine years. Nine years.

I see. I would have never thought that. So you and Charlie did a show on ktrh as well we did we did a show called sports beat saturday and then we were both part of a rotation on their weeknight show sports beat but yes we were together uh on 740 and then also for five years on 610 and honestly josh the last 11 months have not been easy because suddenly for the first time in my adult life, I don't have a radio job to go to every day. But what you were talking about right now is such

solace to me. And I really mean that sincerely. I cannot believe how blessed I was over 38 years to go to work every day and be paid to talk sports on the radio. I got over. Oh, and and big time. And you think about this. You came here from New York. How old were you? 23. So 23.

You came here for a job in El Campo, right? No, I came here because a buddy of mine, George Barber, who got out of school a year before me because I was on the five-year plan. I was on the two-year plan, but I got kicked out. That's why I was on the five-year plan. I was on the two-year plan, but I got kicked out. That's why I was on the two-year plan. Long story short, my buddy George got a job with Texas Instruments in Houston. So calculators and stuff. And worked on me for a year to move to Houston.

To work at Texas Instruments? No. He said the unemployment rate in 81 was like 2% in Texas that even I could probably get a job. Fair enough. So I came down here on a Sunday night, and on Monday I looked for bartending jobs up and down Westheimer, got offered three.

Really? Any of those bars still around? No. Westheimer Pub, I think, might still be there. Nick, is that around? No. No, I don't think so. Anyway, the next day on Tuesday I drove out to Rosenberg

and met the general manager at KFRD in Rosenberg. They offered me a job on the spot. Think about that, though, that a guy from New York and you're from what? You're Brooklyn, right? You're from Brooklyn. So a guy from Brooklyn, New York drives down here hoping to be in. Were you hoping to be in broadcasting or was it just any kind of work out? No, no.

I was looking for a sports radio job. So you're looking for a sports radio job. You go from Brooklyn, Bayonne? Bay Ridge. Bay Ridge. My bad. Okay. So Bayonne's in New Jersey uh

so you're in Bay Ridge right you're like I go down to Texas you drive to El Campo well I stopped in Cincinnati on the way for Bruce Springsteen show well and you and you went to a school at Dayton so you know Ohio so you just so that's solid though you go to you stop how much did it cost to go see Bruce Springsteen in 81, 82? Maybe 25 bucks. Maybe. I would argue probably 10 if you got the cheap seats there. So you go there, you come down here. Spent the night in Memphis where Doc lived at the time.

You know Doc, my buddy. Yes, yes. Memphis. Memphis is a great town. I like Memphis a lot. So you go to Cincinnati. How do you find like you had to read a map, obviously. Now you got ways like you were asking me how to get here today.

I was pumping into ways and it takes you all these different ways. When I moved here initially from Baton Rouge, I had a MapQuest printout. You just had a map. I had Rand McNally in my corner. Did you take out the marker and highlight the route? How did you do it? You just open it up and say? Actually, at the time, the thing to do was I had a AAA membership.

That was the extent of my responsible nature and you would go to triple a's office and they would map out a trip for you so they would do all of it for you highlight the map and give it to you and you could take it with you so they made it easy but i got here on a sunday night and by tuesday afternoon i had a radio job they offered me a sales job selling advertising that doesn't seem like your thing well but they said a new high school was opening up in rosenberg called bf terry and they were going to need someone to call their baseball and basketball and football games on the radio i looked at him and said don't call anybody else i'll do it i'm in but you'll sell for the opportunity to do the play-by-play job right i lasted nine months and on that job i got canned

yeah um how did you get canned from what from you didn't sell enough no i was nine months and on that job i got canned yeah how did you get canned from what from you didn't sell enough no i was nine months out of college and still acting like a moron oh so you're kind of like me when i was at 6 10 i was partying i was coming in late i was an idiot i really was so if you get fired in el campo oh no that was rosenberg so then you so then you move to el campo on unemployment for three months right. And then somebody I had worked with in Rosenberg calls me one day and says, hey, they're looking for someone in El Campo. Which one's the bigger market? Well, you know what?

I'm moving up to El Campo now, so I think I'm sitting pretty. But this will interest you. Okay. They were launching a 50,000-watt adult contemporary station in El Campo, and they were looking for someone to cover sports over like a five or six-county area. I was the guy. Look at you. So you owned all those counties.

Yeah, yeah. We talked about the industrial Cobras, the Tidehaven Tide, the Van Vleck Leopards. Then how the hell do you get to KTRH? I could keep going if you'd like. How do you get to KTRH from that? Because you go from El Campo to a 50,000-watt station that at night covers half the country. All right. If we are going to play this, this is your life thing, I'll tell you, and I'll keep it as brief as possible.

What I did when I was in El Campo was I spent as much time as possible in Houston. I was at every Rocket game, every Astro game, every Oiler game. Because you're credentialed to do that, right? Because you're in the media. I got my credential through El Campo, and I meet as many people as possible. Back then, though, credential could get you so much more, too. Like now, my dad used to tell me that he worked at some dinky station in a small town in Missouri.

He'd take a credential, go to Bush Stadium, before you know it, he's taking pictures with Vin Scully, and he's on the field drinking beer up in the press box. I've told you this before. At the Astrodome in the 80s, the press lounge had an open bar. That is badass. I'm talking beer, liquor, anything you wanted. Bartender on duty through the entire game.

And you could walk from your perch in the press box to the bar, get a drink. And it wasn't just after the game. It was during the game. During the game. You could grab alcohol during the game and drink while you were on duty. That's awesome. Long story short, I covered a lot of Astros games, and I wound up stringing for the Texas State Network,

which I think still exists. I think it does. Up in Dallas, maybe. I think it does. And I wound up getting credentialed through them for the 86 Nlcs astros mets which was a good one a great epic one and that led to some contacts that led to a part-time gig at ktr and then that became full-time gig how two years later in 89 uh jerry trupiano yep was the sports director at ktrh when i got hired. Phil Boudreau was his right-hand man. They gave me the break I needed. Two years into working, 4 a.m. to noon, Saturday and Sunday. That was my shift.

4 a.m. to noon, every Saturday and Sunday, after working Monday through Friday. And what were you doing? Just news, like sports on the news? Yeah, two sportscasts an hour. They did what they called news wheels. You know what that is. Yeah, did they not have talk shows? It was all just news wheel? From 4 a.m. to noon, it was all news. Gotcha. So I did that for two years, and then Truppiano left to become the play-by-play voice of the Montreal Expos. I recall, yeah. And when he left, everybody on staff got bumped up a notch, and I got bumped up from part-time to full-time. And then you started doing the show with Charlie, and that goes for eight years, nine years, you said?

Well, I was at KTRH a total of nine years. The first two part-time, and probably the last three or four doing the Saturday show with Charlie. Because I think a lot of people view that show, for a certain era of people, that was the sports radio show because there was no Sports Radio 610 at the time. You guys launched Sports Radio 610. It sounds silly to say now because it's so long ago,

but we kind of broke the mold a little bit in the late 80s, early 90s. And that's when this thing became a big boom because that's when FAN started doing everything. And then every town had to have either their sports talk station or they were doing sports at night on a news station like you guys were. Right. It was Jerry Truppiano and a guy who used to be the general manager of the Oilers named John Breen were hosting the sports show on KTRH. Their main competition was Martini and Edmonds on 790, I believe it was. Anita Martini, who was the first female member of the media

to ever enter a major league locker room. Yep. And Mike Edmonds. You knew Mike Edmonds. Do I? Well, maybe not. I don't think I do. Mike was, like I said, down the dial, U of H guy,

did U of H play-by-play for many years, was a good guy, no longer with us, God rest his soul. Anita as well. She was wonderful. God rest her soul. So that's Rich Lord. He's hanging out with us today. It is anita as well she was wonderful god rest her soul so that's rich lord he's hanging out with us today it is the j and r show it's we're reunited today for one day only and we're not going to do two hours of rich's life story i don't think so i just wanted to let

everybody who didn't know who you are which i don't know who that would be i do have a lot of philadelphia people that listen and watch this on twitch and stuff so now you guys know you know who rich is if you want to talk 713-780-3776 713-780-espn is how you get involved you can text to that same number i do though want to talk because one of the reasons i wanted to have you in here is i felt that you got a raw shake at the end with uh with 610 i don't know that you're not a guy that wants to bury people i get that you've never been that guy i feel like you got done dirty at the end. And we'll talk about it. We can talk about that.

Let's talk about it. I do, because I do think that what happened to you and that's coming from me who hated you and you hated me at stretches for a while. Pretty much. We hated each other for a long stretch. But when you see wrong, wrong is wrong. So we'll do that and I'd love to hear from you guys. 713-780-ESPN. Lots to do today. Stay there.

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See terms at picksix.draftkings.com slash promos. This is the Josh Innes Show on ESPN 97.5. And on ESPN 97.5.com. Live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, here's Josh Innes. Josh and Rich today, JNR show here on 97.5. I don't hate you yet. No, it's easy for us to like each other now because we talk like once every couple of months. I'll tell you what I thought was cool, though. When I got back to Houston, right, and I was doing afternoon, so I was still taking shots at you and Sean at the time because that's my shtick is, you know, taking shots at people.

I understand. So we were at the Super bowl at radio row here in houston and i'm walking around with jim i'm walking around with jim and i see you and i'm thinking oh damn it's probably gonna go well because i said a lot of bad things on the way out i'm an a-hole i can acknowledge i'm an a-hole i mean i got in trouble i don't know if i ever and i might have told you this on the podcast but the last show we did together yeah on december 19th of 2013 it was a very awkward day because there was a listener that won a contest so this listener was in with us oh that's right and we weren't talking

to each other at all so like we'd go to break and i remember before the show started you said something along the lines i'm paraphrasing this isn't going to be some we're going to miss you josh show today and i'm like fine with me i'm ready to get the hell out of here anyway. So, like, we had, like, we, like, it's funny. It was ugly. But the thing is, it wasn't always ugly. Sometimes it was ugly. Sometimes it was, like, the most fun ever. Like, we'd go to your house and eat meatballs and sausage with your mom,

and it was awesome. When we were in Chicago, Ben sent me a video of me, you, and Jenny drunkenly singing the Eagles at a bar in Chicago. Like sent me a video of me, you, and Jenny drunkenly singing the Eagles at a bar in Chicago. I remember that. There were moments. And I think when the show was great. There were moments before your glass mug fell off the jukebox and shattered on the floor.

But we had so much. And we went to the pizza joint, Vito and Nick's. It was great. Our show wasn't always like we hated each other. No, we made up songs about Manti Teo. We did all sorts of stuff. And that's the funny thing. Or we would play these songs that people made up about about Manti Teo. We did all sorts of stuff. And that's the funny thing. Or we would play these calls, these songs that people made up about me being terrible.

There were moments when we actually genuinely liked each other. That's true. But I think there's like an image, at least on my part, I can tell you what it was for me. A lot of immaturity. A lot of, you know, I'm 20 at the time when I got that gig. 23? 24, I think, maybe? You were young, yes.

And so a lot of it was just kind of like, well, I'm going to do this for a while. Then I'm going to LA, then I'm going here and then I'm going to be national and whatever. Like, I don't know what, like what, what it was that you hated or disliked, but I can tell or if you thought anything was on your end, but I just know that on my end, I was very immature. And I'll tell you who, who was, it wasn't all on you though, Josh, I'm not going to say it was a hundred percent because there were times where I was kind of an a-hole as well. Sure. Like, there were times that really set me off.

Like, I don't know if you'll remember this. So, I used to wear jerseys of all sorts of different teams. But one day, I had that Cardinals jersey on. You mean the day you wore it in the Astros press box? I did. I did wear the Cardinals jersey in the Astros press box. But you'll be proud to know that when I went down to celebrate when the Cardinals clenched a playoff spot in 2011 at the Minute Maid, I took the jersey off before I went into the clubhouse to get champagne poured on me.

But anyway. Very big of you. So on the air, you were ripping me for wearing this jersey. And I remember Gavin's like, can you stop talking about the jerseys he wears? Because we have to make people think that he hates everything that's not Houston. So Gavin has this big talk with us about this this and we were doing a show at Hooters and I'm wearing a jersey I'm wearing like a Cardinals jersey and I swear the show opens and you go see you got your Cardinals jersey on again today nothing like fueling the fire and I think

that was the day the Hooters over on 290 caught on fire, and we had to leave the remote because the Hooters caught on fire. But here's the thing. I routinely wore my Yankees cap. And that's what would hurt me because people would go, Rich loves Houston, and you hate it. And I'm like, he works for the Texans, and he's wearing a Yankees hat. And somehow in my mind, I thought, well, they're not in the Astros division, so you can't wear Cardinals gear

because you're supposed to hate the Cardinals in Houston and the Yankees are in the other league. There was always ways to justify everything. And then we wouldn't talk during breaks. You would have thought we had done a show together for 15 years and just hated each other. We're doing a show for two years, but we're acting like people who had done a show for 30.

I would just get up and I'd walk out during a break. We wouldn't talk. Here's what made me. Very Mike and the Mad Dog-ish. Well, yeah, but when they were 10 years into it, we were 10 months into it and not talking. That's true. But what was funny about some of this. So like even though we never really talked about anything involving the show.

Like I knew that you had things you wanted to talk about. I had things. And basically it was kind of like I most of the time directed where it was going, but if you had something like, Hey, I want to do this, I'd go go. And that was the only sort of talk we did about the show. Yeah. It wasn't mapped out at all. At all. And that's how I like it. Like I'm kind of, my mind is all over the place. Now, of course they wanted us to map everything out. So there was a big board and this is where I was an a-hole, right? I'd get so mad that you would come in at like 15 till because i'm the jerk that's there like 10 in the morning i'm like gavin

i've been here since 10 where is rich and now that i'm like more into i'm like it doesn't matter none of this matters you know he he was on my case constantly about not coming in earlier and then he just gave up so i don't know what that means. But real quick about Gavin Spittel. Yes. Because he came in in 2009. Yeah.

And I had been there for 14 years. And for 14 years, I had been told by everyone who was in charge at that station that just do whatever you want. Just come in, do your best, and let the chips fall where they may. Inmates run the asylum. Right. And Gavin came in in 2009, and for the first time in my broadcast career, I had someone that was there to give me direction. Sure.

To tell me how I can be better, how we can improve our ratings, and how we can put out a better on-air product. And I embraced it. I think you know that the people who didn't embrace it weren't around very long. You know who didn't at first? A fella by the name of Mark Vandermeer. And I'll tell you this about Mark.

At first, I think you're right. Because I was on the show with him, and I love Mark. Mark's like another dad to me. He's a wonderful guy. But Mark, I remember, we talk about this dude in Philadelphia who threw his headphones, and it was big news. Mark would throw pens and everything a lot. And I remember one day vividly, Gavin comes in and he's like, you're not having David Bailiff on the show.

Coach at Rice at the time. You are not having David Bailiff on. Oh, he killed the golf hour, too. He killed it all. What was the golf doctor? Yes, and he killed that. He's on this station now, right? Is the golf doctor on this station?

Charlie Epps? Charlie Epps is on this station. Okay, so that's what that was? The Charlie Epps show. Okay, so he killed that. And he's on this station now, right? Is the golf doctor on this? Charlie Epps. Charlie Epps is on this station. Yeah, that's what I thought. So that's what that was? The Charlie Epps show. Okay, so. Great guy. So here's what happened, though, is Mark got so furious because I guess he, like, basically, I think they interviewed everybody.

Like, I don't know that for a fact, but like, hey, here's the U of H coach. Here's the Rice coach. Here's this person. And Gavin was like, you are not interviewing David Bailiff. And Mark lost his mind if i recall correctly the other time i saw mark really lose his mind was during the texans tailgate issue with the cowboys and there were fights and they said this he and lopez were arguing about this and mark that was one of those days where mark threw his his pen and it's okay now because

it was 10 years ago and we can talk about these things. Mark is the best dude in the world. But like when Gavin, you're right, when he came in there, people were like, I don't really need this. He turned the place upside down. And just to finish the thought on Gavin, he's been one. And I think you probably can say the same thing. He's been one of the most impactful people in my career. I agree. He did great things at 6'10", and changed the formula at 6'10",

and it worked, and we did well. And, you know, I'll always be grateful to him. The only thing that irked me, and it still does to this day. That he left? No. Well, that certainly was one thing. But a big component of his overall philosophy is you don't take calls. Well, it was and it wasn't.

And I didn't like that. I like the interaction with callers. I always like the interaction with callers. And I might send this to you, Nick, but I've got some audio of you and I fighting over callers at one point. Because that's another thing that would irk me is I'd be in the middle of making a point and you'd go, why don't we see what the callers think? And I would just lose my mind. But see, initially that was the first thought was take

more callers to show that people are listening. Then as we started kind of fading the callers out as the numbers started to go up. But no, I'm with you on that. By the time I left last year, we weren't taking calls. And I think that's changed over there since, but we would go four hours and not take a single phone call. And that's one of those problems that you run into sometimes too, is I think that sometimes it became too insular or insulated over there, and it became just kind of everybody talking to themselves. But, you know, I mean, I'm a believer in talking to people on the phone, too. Some days you talk to more, some days you talk to less.

Like, let me do this. Before we get to anything, let me talk to Ruben, who's been waiting. I mean, we control the phone line. If the person calling turns out to be a moron, we hang up. Correct. And a lot of times some of our best stuff came from people who hated me. Heard from Old Man Sam recently? I don't know if he's still alive. I haven't heard

from Old Man Sam. But he came up for the wedding when we did the wedding bit. He did. I think I still have his phone number. We might have to check in with Old Man Sam. Hello, Ruben. What's up? What's going on, J&R? Hey, man. How y'all doing? Doing well. How about you? IR? Hey, man. How y'all doing? Doing well. How about you?

I'm doing good, Rich. I remember meeting you at me and my brother. We won some sweet tickets to the Texas game. You couldn't have been a nicer guy. I mean, I loved you. I still listen to 16 every now and then, and it's weird not hearing your voice on the commercials. I appreciate you saying that.

Just on the commercials, huh? Well, you know, everything is awesome. But one thing I do want to agree with Josh is on how 610 let you go. Because I remember that day, and they said, well, Rich Lord is no longer here. And I text in that station to me, and I was like, why did Rich Lord not give us a chance to take a bite of this man? Then you find out like five hours later, like, you know, they just let you go. And I never did agree with that at all. I still miss you on the

radio. And Josh, I am a jester. Twitch every night. I'll talk to y'all guys later. Y'all have a good one. Appreciate it, Ruben. Thank you, Ruben. Very nice of you to say. Now, Jim Mudd's gonna call here in about 15 minutes or so, so we'll talk with him. He's excited, too. You know who I feel bad for?

Jim, because he was so excited to join our show he's like boy i'm in the big time and it lasted like five months after jim got there the show was over uh but jim ben who was there initially uh and before he moved to chicago ben will call in a little bit and if you guys want to get in let's talk 713-780-3776 we still haven't actually talked about the way things ended at 6 10 and we'll get into other stuff obviously today today too, because there's stuff going on in the world, lots of stuff going on. So we'll get into that. But I do want people to hear the story about how things ended over at 610 and why I just, I didn't like it. I disagreed with it. You don't have to like someone to feel bad about the way something went, even though I do like you, I want to be clear. But like,

really like people say, oh, you hated Rich. Well, I did for a while. You hated me, but the way things ended was really... I guess it's because I'm in the same business as you, and I wouldn't want that to happen to me after what I'd given to, well, I guess three different, four different companies, but one radio station. So we'll talk about that. We'll look at some of your texts as well. It's the Josh Innes Show

on a JNR day. Stay there. Well, hello. To call into the HR&P listener line, dial 713-780-ESPN. Dial the phone. Looking to outsource your company's HR and payroll? Get the top initiative and smart solutions with HRP.5.com live from the

veritex community bank studios here's j Innes. All right, 2.32. That's the other thing that got eliminated. Was time checks? Time checks. Here's where the time checks came back to me. My boss in Philadelphia, he's like, if you're ever going to move to mornings, you're going to have to start doing time checks. I'm like, Andy, I don't want to do that.

But then he started having me do it, and then it became this habit. He's like, people go to the radio for the time. I'm like, no, they don't everybody everybody knows what time it is right uh but then it became habit and now i just sound like old radio hacky guy giving the time but it's become like a a habit that i try to break i get it so 11 months ago you were let go i was well fired however you want to put it canned bleepown the door. Given your pink slip. Yes.

But the way it happened really annoyed me. And you can tell the story, but you told it on my podcast. Basically, I'll start it here. So you leave work one day and get a text, correct, from Armin, who's the new boss. I had one of my trademark two-week vacations. How many vacation weeks did you have at the end? Like how many on your contract did you have? This is, I know, a conversation we've had many times.

I wound up getting five weeks of vacation. That's baller. Which in this business is unheard of, I understand. But in most businesses, that's not that big a deal when you've been with a company for 20 plus years. True. deal when you've been with a company for 20 plus years true basically what would happen was well what happened at one point was i was negotiating my contract we couldn't agree on the number i said well if you want to throw in an extra vacation week we're done here boom they did it five weeks gavin comes in and looks at my contract and goes you have five weeks vacation? I said, yeah. He goes, no one in this company gets five weeks vacation. Well, here's what, like, did you ever consider just taking a month off?

Like, just July one time? I did a two-week thing a few times, but never more than two weeks. Did you go out of the country one year when we were doing the show? I went to Barcelona when Katie was studying abroad. Yeah. And you made up some Spanish boyfriend. We did dumb things. Well, it was funny, though.

So I was coming off two weeks and I'd come back from a two-week vacation last July, did the show with Sean on Monday, did the show with Sean on Tuesday. On my drive home on Tuesday after the show, Armin calls. He calls. And I missed his call.

I called him back. Turned out, I believe he was in Galveston with his family for a couple of days on a short vacation. Is this one of those things, like, it's probably not normal to get a call from the boss. So, like, you're thinking this is maybe a little weird? Not necessarily. You know, at that point, my radar wasn't on just yet.

But when he uttered the words, I need to see you in my office tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., I knew what was up. Is that a heart sink moment? You're like, oh, here it is. It's fine. Was there ever a point, and we'll finish the story, but was there ever a point when you get to year 16, 17, when you're almost just kind of waiting for that moment? Because nobody lasts 10 years at a radio station. 15, that's amazing. What I will say, Josh, is yes, I was crushed.

No, I was not surprised. Because I've known for a long, long time that, like everybody else in this business, at some point I was going to get that tap on the shoulder. Sure. It's inevitable. It's going to happen. For very, very few people. Dave Ward.

Yeah. But most people, you get that tap on the shoulder at some point. Sure. So, yes, my heart sunk. And I said, well, can we talk about this? What is it we need to talk about? So, well, I need to talk to you about, you know, the lineup in the fall and what we're going to do going into football season.

I said, okay. What are we doing? Yeah, what are we doing? He said, well, I'd really rather talk about it with you in the morning, which I get where he was coming from completely. Although, but if you're going to be part of it, you assume he won't have a problem saying, hey, we're going to talk about who your partner is going to be or something.

So I don't know if I should have done this or not, but I called him back after we hung up. So you hung up initially and go, okay, that's cool. I'll be there at 10. I'll see you at 10 a.m. And then after a while, I sat on it and I called him back, which maybe I shouldn't have done. I don't know.

But I called him, and to his credit, basically I said to him, look, Armin, I'm not going to get any sleep tonight if you don't tell me what's going on. I mean, there's a pretty ominous tone to what you're talking about here. Just, you know, level with me. So he said, okay, man-to-man, we're going to let you go tomorrow. Man-to- man on the phone. Which I can't tell you how much I respect him.

Because I know he didn't want to talk about it over the phone. And it's also hard when you've had a job for like two months, three months, or however long he had been there. Five, six. About seven. And you come in and you have to fire the guy that's the longest tenured employee there. It can't be easy. Yeah. It could also be easy because you don't have the same relationship.

You don't know him, so maybe it's easier. I don't know. I've never had to fire anybody, so I don't know. Two things I didn't do when I went in that morning. Number one, ask why. I don't want to know why. They would have told you? They would have said business.

You know, I don't know if I was making too much money. It's not like I was getting millions for doing what I did. I don't know if it was a financial issue, whether he just wanted to change directions or if they felt there was something in my performance that was lacking, which I definitely didn't want to hear. Yeah. So you'd rather just not know. And I still don't know to this day. I don't want to know. And then the other thing was what you're sort of inferred as we went to the break. I did not ask for an opportunity to say goodbye. I would

have loved the opportunity to spend a show expressing my gratitude. But here's the thing. I totally understand why they did what they did. And I will tell you from practical experience, I'm not going to name any names here because the person I'm going to refer to is still a friend of mine. But I worked with a guy once who did a show, was told the show was coming to an end, and he would be shown the door, and was given an opportunity to do one more show. That show turned into,

please call my boss and tell him not to fire me. Yeah, that kind of sucks. You can't have that. But here's the thing, though. You can't have that. But you wouldn't have done that. No, of course. And I guess that comes from not knowing you, because a boss has only been there five months, whatever.

Yeah. I know you because you're not a guy that's going to try to ruffle feathers with managers. Me, I would have understood if they just, like, cuffed me and took me out because I probably would have made a giant stink of everything. In my many years in radio, I've seen many people escorted out the door by security. Well, I didn't have to be taken out by security, but they do walk. Do they walk you to the elevator and take your key card or anything or after the meeting armin walked me to the elevator and took my access card yeah so i wasn't like escorted out by security or anything like that but you wouldn't have done anything like that on the air and and again it's one thing you fire

a dope like me that was there for three four years i'm not a huge part of the history of a station when you're someone that launched the station and you're someone who was there for every year of its existence up to that point, at least it was that format, you weren't going to do anything. And people should have maybe even vouched. They should have said, listen, Rich ain't going to do anything, man.

He's not going to. Let him have this moment. Because I think your audience deserve that. I think you deserve that. I wouldn't want to be that guy that was there 24 years in a job and it becomes well here's take let's take your key card and go to the elevator it also kind of shows that we're all kind of we're

all expendable in a way no doubt about it somewhere for like you want to be humanized other than dave ward but 24 years in one job and it's just like it ends the same way as it does for some part-time board op it's take your key card pretty much get in the elevator and go i mean i'm sitting here struggling to think of anyone other than dave ward who was allowed to dictate you know when he would leave and under what circumstances well we thought that was going to be you that was always the joke i was hopeful oh and i remember oh one time we had a fight on the air and i think you said you can leave because i'm going to be here i am not going anywhere i will be here until i'll never forget that day that's fantastic i'll never forget that day. That's fantastic. I'll never forget that day.

I looked right at you and I said, I'm not going anywhere. I'll never forget that. I mean, we had some blow-ups, man. Yeah, there's no doubt. Blow-ups. What about in Indianapolis? Do you remember that? We had a fight in Indianapolis. Oh, was that where Caliendo was? In the lobby

in the morning, I run into Frank Caliendo, who I'm fortunate to call a friend. Yep. And I said, Frank, why don't you come on with Josh and I this afternoon? And Frank's a very funny guy, very talented impersonator. And we had him on. And you wanted to have your dad on. Because I thought it would be a funny bit to have them go back and forth.

Right, because your dad does voices also for people who don't know. So I was thinking, hey, this could be kind of a new way to do the bit and what and you know what my thought at the time was you don't have two impressionists on at the same time i just didn't think it was a good idea so i think i looked at you and i said your dad's not coming on and you were pissed yes you were not happy you spend every break of that show out in the lobby of the ballroom we were doing the broadcast from and wouldn't talk to me at all through the whole show i did but then that eventually culminated with caliendo coming in studio and that was the epic blow that one even worse and at one point like gavin's like get him out of here like it was but let me tell you and

just here's the i had to apologize to frank but's where it all, but this will amaze you. So I got a DM from Frank Caliendo a couple years after that when I was in Philly. And he says, I'm going to tell you something, and this is kind of odd, but what happened between you and I restarted my career because, like, in a way you were right that I needed new stuff, and that kind of led to this new avenue. And then I had him on the show in Philadelphia, and we talked about it, and he and I send each other messages on it.

That's very big of Frank, who i've maintained all along as a good frank wasn't a jerk during that too because he said he was a jerk during that so he's a good dude he always said no i agree but he said like listen i was he was in one of those places where everything was setting him off because it was in kind of a weird part of his career where he was no longer up here he was kind of over here and then it restarted and really if anybody's taking advantage of social media have you seen all the stuff he does on social i have well that's come on that's who you talk to yes oh yes josh i'm on twitter every night i do tiktok i listen i'm really glad ben's coming on with us because ben set me up with

my twitter account like eight years ago which by the way, is still Rich Lord at SR610. And so I need Ben to instruct me as to how to change that. Yes. Now, but with Caliendo, he's now taken this new route where he does all of his impressions kind of on Twitter and stuff, and he does like the Groot and all that. Millions of likes and follows. So it's kind of restarted him as well. You were right, because, and I'll give you an example when i was growing up in the 70s we laughed uproariously at rich little oh i bet you did he was awesome he impersonated people and made you laugh and hurt when when you laughed at he jumped the shark at one point at one point all of a sudden rich little's impersonations all sounded like the same person. Yes. It went like Carson started sounding like Reagan and all that. And we would look at each other and go, we used to think this guy was funny. Yeah.

And so, yeah, you do have to keep it fresh. I agree with that. And that was kind of the fight. And I wouldn't have done that if I, you know, we were both in a really bad mood. But he contacted me and said, hey, I was off about that. And I was just in a really bad place. I said, me too, man. It's all good.

And now he and I will shoot each other messages on occasion. Very nice. I'm glad to hear that. I wouldn't call him a friend. Because that's weird to use the term friend for someone you just send DMs to on Twitter. That's just funny how these things work out. We had a lot of drama and highs and lows for a show that was only around for like three years.

Figure this out. You're my longest tenured partner and it was three years. What does that say about me as a person? You've been in radio, what, about 12 years? I've been in radio since 05, yeah. You're my longest tenured partner. Wow. Yes, I'm a dope.

All right, Jim Mudd is supposed to call here in a few minutes. Stay around. My name is Stephen A. Smith, and you're listening to 98.7. Wait, what? I to 98.7. Wait, what? I said 98.7, that's my show. Let's try this one more time, okay? My name is Stephen A. Smith and you're listening to 97.5 FM.

You're listening to The Josh Innes Show on ESPN 97.5. And on ESPN 97.5.com. Live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, here's Josh Innes. So we will check in with Jim Mudd here in a few minutes. He's got a real job now. People ask me, where's Jim? And I, honest to God, don't know what his job is. He tries to explain it to me, and I have no clue what he does. But he now works

from home and he's waiting until he goes on his break. I want to hear what he's doing. And he tells me every day. He does something with assisting veterans or something. I don't know what the hell he does. He's got a daughter in college now, I think. He does. He has a daughter in college and he has another daughter who's in

high school and he lives out in Kingwood, Atascosita area and he wants to get back in radio but there aren't a ton of jobs right now not a good time to be looking for a job i was actually going to try to you know put my head down and try to find something right around the time the pandemic hit yeah so was i like i thought i had a couple of things working and then they're like no you know what we're gonna have to really pump the brakes on this because things are kind of, we've hit a snag. Yeah. But, like, it's tough. Like, you wouldn't leave Houston, right, unless it was, like, some epic job, I would imagine.

It would have to be epic, yes. And then that's a hard part to find another job in Houston because, I mean, there's only so many radio stations, radio companies, and it's not like you're going to go talk up records or anything like that. Although I think my wife, Jenny, would really enjoy me leaving Houston at this point with her staying behind. Yes. So how is that? So and I'm sure a lot of people are dealing with this. So this is healthy to talk about.

You're actually helping people. So you've basically been in the house for 11 months, but it's also it's not a situation where Jenny can leave and really go somewhere because you're all closed up and you can't really go anywhere. So really for the last three, I would assume you guys have just been in the same place, close quarters. What's that like? It's not easy. It's a real challenge to your relationship.

It really is. And I haven't met that challenge very well. I'm here to admit that. When you say you haven't met that challenge, what does that mean? Well, I know that she wants to go out more than we go out, i'm like where can we go restaurants are open now most of them i'm not really ready to do the whole social thing i've been to like three restaurants since uh they've opened them up i'm still a little hesitant to do like like me in this room talking to you is about as much of uh ignoring social distancing that I've done since this whole thing began.

And you've got the microphone condom over there, too. So your spittle will not infect anyone if you happen to have the Rona. Right. Are you in the danger zone for Rona? Like, age-wise, are you in the danger zone? I think it's 65 and up, so I'm 62. Yes, you're not quite there yet. Not quite there yet.

This is great news. Rich is not going to die today. Hopefully not. This is super. It wasn't too bad until the pandemic because, as you know, Jenny's a retired teacher. And she was doing a bunch of subbing, which for retired teachers is like deliverance because you get all the fun stuff about teaching and none of the headaches of being a full-time teacher. When you say deliverance, I don't hear fun. I know what you mean, but when I hear deliverance, I hear Ned Beatty.

I know. So that's what I hear. I'm not talking about the movie. I'm talking about the word. I was like, wow, it's like squealing like a pig. I like it. I think retired teachers really enjoy subbing because there are no lesson plans. There are no report cards.

Sorry, parents, but there are no parents. There are no, for the most part, administrators that you have to deal with. And the teachers and the kids like you because you're not there to be their everyday teacher. They really just want to kind of exploit the fact that you're not their teacher and kind of run over you she was loving it and that provided a break you know for for us and not spending 24 7 together um she wants me to be more engaged she wants if we're burying our souls here i'm gonna go ahead i want to hear she wants me to talk with her more about the george floyd situation and she by my reluctance to talk about her too much interprets that as i don't care and that couldn't be more wrong about that i care

about this well people always considered you the bleeding heart liberal, right? Probably, yeah. I care a lot about this stuff. It's just that it's on TV 24 hours a day. People are talking about it 24 hours a day. And when she wants to talk to me about it, I need to get better at meeting her need for me to engage in that conversation. But how much can you say?

That's kind of part of my point. Do you guys just plop down in front of the tv and watch you know like cuomo or something together there's a lot of cnn yeah we watch anderson cooper together and hold hands and uh and we talk about things there's a lot of cnn but just this week we had a big blow up because i didn't want to talk about george floyd and she thought that meant i didn't want to talk about George Floyd. And she thought that meant I didn't give a damn about the situation. And, yeah, I need to work on that. But how do you work on that? Like, you can't make yourself want to talk about it. By sucking it up and talking about it, even if I'm not necessarily thrilled about it.

Does that include more than nodding? Yes. So let me ask you this, because I do this with Jilly sometimes, too. It's kind of like, uh-huh, yep. And then, like, you just kind of placate and just kind of give like a, oh, yeah, yeah, that type of thing. Are you doing a lot of those? I have to engage. I have to sell it.

So how do you – like can you sell it with more than like two words or does it have to be like a sentence? It's got to be much more than two words. Now, can the sell include asking her questions after every statement? Like why do you feel that way? Well, I think a smart seller always is asking questions. That's what you should do. Because you don't want to offer it. Because you're kind of, you see it on TV all the time.

There's only so much you can say. Yes. So you say, why do you feel like, oh, yeah, why do you feel that way? Or like ask a question in another direction. Would that count as engaging? It would. Her, and she's going to kill me for saying this, but. Well, she's going to kill you anyway. You guys have been in the house me for saying this but well she's gonna kill you

anyway you guys have been in the house together for 11 months and you've been married for how long now uh third in next month it'll be 33 i'm shocked that she hasn't killed you already and she's a woman in 2020 she could get away with it the internet would hate you just because you don't you know answer every question your wife has the biggest complaint these days is quote we're not a team oh no you're getting what do you mean we're not a team we're in the same damn house 11 months it's because i'm riding my bike almost every day and she's walking the dog almost every day separately there's nothing you can't ride a bike and walk a dog at the same time if you're trying to get speed on that bike what if you run over your dog i'm

amazed by the people who ride their bike while their dog is on a leash. That doesn't seem safe. No, it isn't safe. That's not safe at all. Why not have a little separate space? She doesn't want to ride a bike because I used to do like the MS-150 and all that stuff. Yeah. And so do you put on like the Lycra shorts and get on your bike and have like the little camelback?

You do all that? No, no camelback. No, you don't do that? You have a bottle? Yeah. Bottle water on the bike and the whole nine yards. Did you watch the Lance documentary? The 30 for 30?

You know what? I already know he's an a-hole. I didn't need to see that. In a way, though, I appreciate that he's still an a-hole. Like, he's not one of these guys that's like, oh, I have sinned. He's like, whatever, I'm an a-hole. It is what it is. But he's an a-hole for sure.

But let's not forget the fact that he got caught doing something that everyone was doing. And that was one of his main points is, like, they all got busted for it. Like, to me, if you have to lose a ball from cancer, you should be able to take steroids. Or he wasn't taking steroids. His was blood doping and all that. But, like, I think you should. If you have to lose a ball from cancer, you should get to, you know, blood dope for a while. Well, I understand what you're saying.

Like, it's not fair. The guy had cancer. Like, you can't dismiss the fact that he did overcome cancer that was going to kill him, right? You can't dismiss it. It's a great point. The whole, you know, him getting stripped of the seven titles and getting caught cheating and having to give back some of the money. He still has a lot of money. He does, but he had to pay a ton, though.

He did, but he's still a wealthy man it it obscures the story of the amazing story of what he overcame to resume his career as a world-class athlete but he is an a-hole like like he's a smug that's why i didn't want a hole i already knew that i liked it but in a way i kind of dug it because i also hate when the people have this kind of over the top i'm i'm you know i'm a better person now type of thing he's like somebody asked him in the interview she said so like do you miss being relevant and he like turns to the camera like Batman and goes I am relevant yeah I'm like yeah I like that you know it just keeps it's like a wrestler even when the heel wrestler loses the heel wrestler comes out the next day and acts like the biggest thing

in the world does he still get booed I think he yeah. I think so. But his foundation still exists. They just have distanced from him. But I mean, they raised a ton of money. You can't dismiss that. It might be because I don't care about bicycle racing. It doesn't do anything for me. So if it were a different sport, maybe I'd care more. But I just don't really care about what he...

So what? He cheated at riding a bicycle. So what? So the lesson for me is walk the dog more with my wife. You should. And engage in socially relevant conversations with her more. Is it possible for you to walk the dog with Ginny and then go ride your bike? It is. I think you're kind of

lousy for not doing that already. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm with Ginny on this. You always were. And let me tell you something. I'm with Ginny on this and I'm with Ginny. I love both Cuomos. I love both of them. Can we come together and watch Rachel Maddow together maybe? She loves her some Andrew Cuomo. She can't go a day without watching his briefings.

Well, it's because she's not of the age to get thrown into an old folks home and die from the Rona. So that's why she likes Andrew Cuomo. Might be true. Hour two is next.