The Josh Innes Show - More Radio Thoughts

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

I got a few messages from people who think I'm bitter about the St. Louis job. I have a response to that. Also, I dig a little bit deeper into what fell apart here and share some more stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Dazon. 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 Dazon, starting on June 14th and running until July 13th. Sign up now at dazon.com slash fifa. That's D-A-Z-N dot com slash fifa. Something that's annoying is when you're critical of things. And when I mean critical, I mean you're critical of things

that you have experience with. There will always be a section of the people who listen or of the consumers that think you're just saying things because you're bitter right that is their kind of default reaction to you being critical of something that you have history with they'll say well can we really believe you because you're just bitter and you need to get over it and blah blah blah and I got a couple of those when I was talking about the radio station in St. Louis yesterday and this one I guess you could say I'm a

little I'm I wouldn't say I'm bitter right about the one now I want you to put yourself in my shoes for a second though and see if you yourself would also be bitter about a situation right if you listen to this and you say, you know what, I kinda get it, I think you will once, you know, like if you think about the situation. Like I get it mostly from Philadelphia people, and it usually happens when I'm being critical

of either something radio related or just saying something they don't like, it becomes, oh, that's cause you couldn't hack it here, you lasted like no time here. Well, like Houston people will do it as well But it usually happens when they just disagree with you on something or whatever. Let me play a couple commercials Let's talk about that So

Like yesterday I was talking about how my old boss at KG who I still like like this You know bothers me about me if we can have a full Discussion here about this like even people who do shitty things to me for the most part like I still Like a lot of them and I wish I didn't if that makes sense Like I don't know that I'd say that what these people did to me here was in the shitty category, right? Because I can understand, as we talked about yesterday, what things were my fault. Particularly, I really pushed for this gig thinking that this was something different

than it was. Like, that's on me, right? Part of that is my fault. But it's my fault for assuming that this radio station was a fun radio station, that this radio station was the radio station my dad used to listen to in the 80s, which again maybe that's where I'm an idiot like Josh, the radio station's not going to be what it was in 1986, but I thought it was like a fun type of radio station. If I'm being completely honest with you, when I first started talking with them, I didn't realize that they were a full-on classic rock station. I thought

they were still playing current music as well. Once I got here and I realized, like that's when I realized this was gonna be a bad spot, is when I got the gig and their slogan forever, their their positioners you might call it in in radio, is real rock radio. That's what it's kind of always been and right before I got here they had changed that to St. Louis's classic rock and to me when you put classic rock on your radio station You have told everybody that it's basically an oldies radio station that it is not a current radio station

That it is for an older group of people. That is what you tell people. In my mind, when you put classic rock on something, you're telling people that you are not current. And then you listen to the content that you get on this radio station, and it confirms that it's not. The music is certainly not current, and I get that. But there are ways to do things,

even on a classic rock radio station, that don't make it sound old, right? Like we're not going to play new music. We didn't play new music in Nashville. We were Nashville's classic rock, right? 1059 the rock, Nashville's classic rock. That's what we were. But we did a lot of shit that made us sound younger. Like the ambition was for the radio station to be a younger sounding radio station to appeal. Because let's not act like 30 year old people don't like Guns N' Roses and Metallica. They do. 35 year old people, 40 year old people. It's not just 80 year old people that listen to classic rock, but the way we brand it to me when you put classic rock

on something and you carry yourself like an older station. Like my biggest issue is when you program and you do shit just for that older audience. And I got here Like they said their ambition was to get younger, but they never wanted to do anything That was younger. They never wanted to do anything that sounded younger. Like this was my biggest complaint to them all the time This radio station is the oldest rock station in the country. Okay, it's been around since 1967 and up until a handful of years ago, they still played current music like it was a lot of older shit, but you'd still get like the new shine down new Nickelback, whatever, like that would play then a couple years ago, they decided to drop all currents and just become a full on classic rock station. Fine, whatever your sandbox do what you want.

The part that bothered me is that if you go back and look at the shit this radio station did back in its heyday when it was you know one of the original prog rock stations in the country is they did do a lot of cool shit like back in the 60s like now these are things you can't really replicate because it was a time-and-place thing but Kiss before Kiss was anything, Kiss was playing at Forest Park, put on by Kashi95. Kashi95 did all these big concerts before these acts were really a big deal. Janis Joplin, they brought Janis Joplin in for shows. And I get that you can't recreate that, but every story we hear about Kashi is all the cool shit that used to happen.

It didn't happen two years ago, it happened years ago and we would get into these meetings and I would say listen I respect all of this shit and I get that all of you at some point in the journey were part of it whether it was in the 80s when Kashi was bought by a big radio company and it went from being kind of an underground thing to a very mainstream Rock station and you did cool shit then like you guys have done cool shit for a long time my issue is all we hear about is the cool shit you used to do where is the cool shit and the memories that we're making now what are we gonna do to keep relevant and stay relevant so 20 years from now 30 years from now we're all sitting around having a big reunion

when I'm 67 years old or whatever I'll be. And we all get together and have a big reunion and we talk about the time that we had the big this or the big that. They don't exist because we don't do shit like that anymore. We are not active. When I was there, it was, here's a classic car show. Here we're giving away tickets to this tribute band.

Like nothing about it was excited. Nothing about it tickets to this tribute band. Nothing about it was exciting. Nothing about it would make your dick hard. Nothing about it was memorable. There's nothing that happened in the 15, 16 months I was on the radio here that was memorable. Not an event, nothing that someone 20 years from now would remember. Hell, even in Nashville, when we did the party bus parade, the Don't Lose the Boo the party bus parade the don't lose the booze party bus parade People will still talk with me about that people will all get DMS from people like when you guys did the party buses to try to save the the the party buses on on On Broad Street, I'm like, yeah, I'm not broad street Broadway and I'm like, yeah

Like people remember that shit people remember shit. We did it in Philadelphia. People remember shit we did in Houston. No one's going to remember any of the shit that happened in St. Louis because we didn't do anything. We weren't active and that was my complaint and I complained a lot about that kind of shit. Like why don't we do something that is in the moment and now that people will remember and and we never did. And I still look at the shit

they're doing and it's like, like look, they're successful. They don't need me. I'm not like, that's what I'm trying to convey here. Like that's what I kind of told them and this is probably why I don't have the job anymore. That and I made way too much money for the job I was doing. And if we're being honest, everybody that's a disc jockey on that stage is making way too much money for what they're doing because they don't do anything. They're disc jockeys. This isn't 1970. You're not picking your own music and spinning platters. It's just people hitting a button on a board that fires off a fucking thing and

they're playing a bunch of music. Not trying to talk people out of their jobs, but let's be fucking real. What are they doing? But anyway, so I would tell them this when I was employed there. I'd be like, if we're not going to do any of these things and do any memorable stuff, then why do you need me? I would tell them, just play fucking music. That's why I'm not as bitter. I think Jilly is a little bit more bitter than I am, and hers is because we had to relocate

and she's tired of moving and I get that and I respect that. This will be the fourth time I guess we've put together a move in like four years or something since we left Houston. So like I get it, I don't like doing it either. But there's a big part of me that's not bitter because I know that it wasn't the right fit. And I just told them, go play more music.

I would tell them this. Now my hope was they were gonna put me on a different station there where they needed me to be more Outlandish or be more of myself Which wasn't really the case like I thought they were gonna put me on sports then it it turned out that I like I look I think I would have hated doing sports radio here because these people are goobers So it's just not my type of sports radio here. So look, I get why I'm not on the radio here. I think if I would have been the morning guy, it probably would have worked out,

at least had a better chance of working out. But I can understand why I'm not on the radio here. That's why I'm not as bitter about it. That's why I'm not as hostile about it. That's why I'm not as venomous about it. Because I would tell them, my dad thinks I'm the biggest dipshit on the planet. He'll go wait a second. You would tell them all the reasons why you shouldn't be employed. Why the fuck would

you do that Josh? Like that's the only time my dad listens to what I say when I tell him well, you know dad, I kind of told him they didn't really need me. He's like what the fuck are you talking about? Why would you tell them that you dummy and I'm like it's like I wasn't happy doing it and I knew and part of it is you know like like if you have any sort of self-awareness which a lot of radio people don't and I've

learned this by looking at the internet and these radio groups where people have no awareness. Like like so like you'll see people who have very few accomplishments that bitch about the amount of money they make and I'm like There's people that have a ton of accomplishments that aren't making a ton of money It's not a very lucrative business for a lot of people. So if you have a problem with it get the fuck out, you know, but like I have like I'm blessed with the gift of self-awareness and it's also a curse because sometimes being self-aware can cost you things. And I would literally tell them all the time, like you realize that if you just played music

in the afternoon, like that's what these people want. They don't want wacky, zany, Josh Ennis in the afternoon. Some of them did, like it's not like it was a total flop of a show and I built a strong audience of people. But if you guys don't want to sit around and wait for this thing to grow and everything like that, like you guys are an old folks home, you're playing music for old folks, your audience is all these old people that have been around a hundred fucking years

listening, just give them what they want. When I got there, they literally told me like, we don't give a fuck about these old people, just run them off. Like let's, we don't care about them, we need a younger audience. Okay, cool. By the time I left the management people were like, you know, you really need to kind of cater to these old people. They call them the Kishi crazies, the people that are like they're diehard. Basically, they have a

core of like 30 to 40 people that show up at every remote. They're all old. And they show up to every remote. And that's kind of their deal. And they're there at one of them, doesn't matter where it is. It could be at a car dealership, it could be at a bar, at Blood Drive, it doesn't matter, these people will show up. That's their MO. And it makes it look good for the station because, wow, all these people come out when in reality, it's like the same fucking weirdo group of people

that show up for all these things. But so they bring all these people out and at first it was like we don't give a shit about those people like we're trying to get new audience. Then at one point a couple months left in my time there it was you know we really think you need to try to befriend all these K-She crazies and get them on your side and I'm like this is where we are and then that's when the email started coming around that guys everybody needs to talk less and this is the emails like and I'm like, this is where we are. And then that's when the email started coming around that, guys, everybody needs to talk less.

And this is the emails, and I'm like, yeah, this is kind of, I can sense, I got the sense that it was over. But like back to the initial point, which was like, like I still, and I wish I could, like I don't hate these people. I had a nice relationship with them or so I thought. I thought they were nice people. And like even deep down, I can't hate some of these people. I had a nice relationship with them or so I thought. I thought they were nice people. And like even deep down, I can't hate some of these people, you know? Like I could and I should

and there's some days that I hate them, some days I don't. But it's like at the end of the day, like I know it didn't make sense. Like I know that it was a mistake and I know that a large part of it was my fucking fault, you know know for mainly me even wanting to come here I should have said no and should have said hey whenever a morning show officially opens up Let's do that instead of hey I'll make it work in the afternoon because I really want to be in st. Louis because I feel like that could be home So I get where I fuck things up, but it's just kind of like I don't know man. I just get Where I get bitter is when I'll listen and I'll hear the people

that like have replaced me and I'm like, like, you replaced me with a disc jockey, which I guess makes sense, because it's working for you. But you replace me with someone who talks for five seconds at a time. Like, who gives a shit? Why would you hire someone to do that? Like in an era where like money is kind of scarce in the radio business, why are you devoting funds after you had to fire so many people when I was there? Why are you devoting funds to someone who quite literally serves no purpose except to tell you what song is coming up next and it's a song you've heard probably

if you do the math 50,000 fucking times and the one job of that person is to tell you like hey that was Aerosmith I saw Aerosmith once now here's Pink Floyd like I'm not trying to get someone fired or anything I'm just looking at it from just a straight up standpoint of what purpose that's why like so many of these people do voice tracking shit in these markets because there's no reason to...real talk, there isn't a big reason to pay someone 70, $80,000 a year to be a disc jockey. Computers do all the work anyway and you can hire someone for a fraction of that to do work that takes five minutes. You know, so I don't know. But that's kind of how I feel about the overall thing.

Like at some point you have to get into this world where like people, where like you have to recognize that at some point radio wise it's going to be talented people, it's going to be people who are doing shows not just disc jockeys right like I think that's how you're going to separate yourself and set yourself apart from others, other outlets, the you know because everybody else can go get whatever music. that was always my biggest issue is I would tell them like Anybody can go get music anywhere. They can't get Josh Ennis just anywhere They can't get this morning show anywhere. That should be what you're selling more. So than like disc jockeys

like in whatever but it is what it is people have jobs to do and people have lives to protect and I Get all that but to the point about being bitter it's like I'm not like bitter would indicate that it that it eats at you always and that's not the case for any of these former jobs I had there will be days that certain aspects of it where I'm like shit Josh maybe you should have just you know done blank blank and blank instead of doing what you did but none of it consumes me. But anytime you're critical of certain things, there's always a group that will tell you or a

part of the the populace that will tell you that you're just a bitter piece of shit and get over it. You couldn't hack it, right? Like last week, two weeks ago, and I was making fun of WIP for whatever their little bit they were doing was. And I got text messages from people, former WIP people that are like, you are 100% right about what WIP is. And I'm like, yeah, whatever, it's fine. But like, I'm just making fun of it because it annoys me how bad it is. It annoys me that you are this big thing, this big entity, and you just do fake contrived bullshit. But then I can also sit back and go, what the fuck do I know? They all have jobs and they're doing well and I don't.

So what do I know? But it's not for me. But it's not bitter. Like I think people get caught up and it's just easy to point to someone and say, oh, of course you would think that way, you're bitter. I'm not, like I'm not bitter. Like I guess because it's a little bit more fresh,

the St. Louis thing, I'm bitter in the moment because I'm having to fucking move again and I don't have a gig and like that kind of shit does make me angry, just big picture. But like Houston situation, like I'm not bitter about it. Like you get over it at some point because you do new things and you try new things and you know what I've enjoyed still living in Houston

and you know working with Jim Mudd, sure I don't but I'm not bitter about it but that doesn't mean I can't criticize bad shit that a 790 would do or a 610 would do doesn't mean I'm bitter oh you just wish you were here well sure I guess but like I'm not shitting on these things because of that I'm just shitting on things because I think they suck anyway more to come