The Josh Innes Show - More Random Radio Stories

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

Somehow I end up discussing the worst demo tape I ever made. Plus, the story of how my dad claims he saved my job at one point. Also, as I'm getting closer to moving from St. Louis, I'm developing a sort of sadness about how it all went down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Talk about this a lot, but as I'm a couple of weeks away from moving from St. Louis, I'm starting to get out of melancholy is the word like melancholy and the infinite sadness. I don't know if I would call it melancholy or sadness or any of that. I don't know what I would call it, but there's just this kind of empty feeling that I'm feeling at this moment. Just not about where I'm going or anything like that. Just about what this was here because by the time we move, we would have lived here. Dude, shockingly we've lived in St. Louis longer than we lived in Nashville by a pretty decent amount of time too by by the time

It's all said and done I think it's gonna be about four more months or five more months that we lived in st Louis than we lived in Nashville and Nashville felt like it flew by right because I'm in there. We're doing good things We're getting good ratings hitting some bonuses, you know as we talked about when I took that job there. That was the lowest pay Base pay I had since I was at 610. So you know, we've talked about this, but when I moved to Houston, I was making so basically when I was in Baton Rouge, and I got my first full time job, I think that job paid like 18, five or 19,000 maybe it was nothing. Even for you know, 2006 standards standards it wasn't a lot and

then eventually they laid me off in 2009 and then they had to bring me back a couple of months later because you basically they still needed someone to fill that position and you can't lay someone off and put somebody else in in the exact same position. So they brought me back and like I got I think I got whack there laid off in April of 2009. And it was interesting because I went in that day and and my email wasn't working and I asked my boss like what's up with the email? And he lied to me. He's like, Yeah, I'm having some issues too, Bubba. And then like five minutes later, the big boss, they call for me over the intercom and I go to the big boss's office and they laid me off, you know. And from what I understand, my dad was trying to fight for me too. Well, he fought for me the first time.

So the first time they were going to fire me was in 2007. And it was right before LSU played Florida, I think. And we were on the air and we were doing a bit about this football game like somebody wanted to come up with like a SWAC football game. It's called the black college football experience. And, and we were making jokes about it, you know, and, and I'm 21. I don't even know that I was 21 at the time, maybe 21 at the time, because I think this was 2007. So I'm 21 at the time, I'm doing full, you know, doing a one hour radio show, we're doing some funny shit. And

it's shit that if I would have said it differently, like with a laugh like I would now, I think it would have been taken a lot differently. But as it was, it sounded like some guy trying to do sports rush limbo and it just came out poorly. And you want to talk about an idiot. So this is 2007. There was no audio of it like the computer like usually there's a logger that records every single thing that goes over the air. For whatever reason that didn't exist for this. So we're on this sports station.

I'm making fun of the idea of this black college football game. People are calling and I'm just kind of going with it. And I said some things that were probably offensive, no slurs or anything like that. Nothing like shit that if you heard me say it today and we laughed about it, you'd go, that's just, you know, we're just making fun. But I guess it sounded angry at the time. And so that was a Thursday, I believe. Then on a Friday, our news talk station, WJBO, was doing their free speech Friday segment that's

where I stole the idea of doing free speech Friday I stole that segment from them and that's when I use that in Houston some and some other places but somebody calls free speech Friday and they say something about hey you need to listen to your guy on the sports station being racist. And I get a call from my boss because my boss was the host of the morning show. And he calls me he's like, man, I heard you did some good bits, because I didn't hear this. So I heard you did a great show the other day, man, do you have that on tape or anything that I can

listen to? And I recorded every show that I'm going to keep every show, but I recorded every show. So I had it, you know, and I go, absolutely, I have it, you know? And I go, absolutely I have it. You want to hear how good my shit was? Great. And then they listened to it and then they were going to fire me. So according to my dad, they were going to fire me. And my dad's like, the fuck you are?

Like if you fire him, I quit. And at the time my dad still had some cache and everything. I don't know if that's what happened. My dad may have done that. He may not have done that. I don't know. It's what he says may have done that he may not have done that. I don't know it's what he says I said I stood up for you. And so they suspended me for like a week or something like that I think and that was that. But that was my dad having my back on that and

my dad wouldn't have fucking quit anyway. I think my dad's gonna walk away from a job he's probably making six figures. So his dipshit son who said something stupid on the radio could keep his $18,000 a year job. Probably not. But that's what my dad claims. But in that hierarchy, I mean, when I when they brought me back, so then I came back from the suspension, I had that job for about two years more than I got laid off in late April, basically May of 2009. And they brought me back in

August, because they had to bring me back because Matt was doing the job, my buddy Matt was doing the job, but they couldn't give him that job because it was my job. And if you're going to lay somebody off, you can't just give somebody the exact same job. So they brought me back and I ended up and it was awkward. I felt terrible because they brought me back. They didn't tell Matt I was coming back just one day I show up at work again

Like when when like bobby ewing shows up in the shower in dallas and it was all a dream, you know Like that's what this thing was like And I was there for a couple more months then I got the houston gig But uh, let me there's one thing I will never play for you And maybe I have when I was drunk and and we've made fun of it First of all, let me play a couple commercials and we will continue. The new BMO VI Porter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks. More points. More flights. More of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO VI Porter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in

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and see why it's never ordinary at bet three six five must be 19 or older Ontario only please play responsibly if you or someone you know has concerns about gambling visit connexontario.ca t's and z's apply. So there's one thing that I don't intend to ever play for you because I think it's terrible. Invert I've played almost every piece of audio I have for you. Old audio of mine, current audio of mine. We post some old shows and, uh, and you know, we post some stuff that people are really enjoying some old bits and stuff And I appreciate that people enjoy those old bits But I did a demo

so when I was Laid off my dad was like you need to go to this other radio company guarantee broadcasting and at the time Now guarantee has the sports station that Matt runs and it's a great sports station. But at the time they had the they use 104.5 and 104.9 for ESPN radio in Baton Rouge. They're two smaller signals and they are both used for sports. At the time those were two different radio stations. One, I believe at the time was still a classic country station I I think, called Country Legends. Actually, I take that back. It was never. Here's what it was. It was two signals being used for I believe an alt rock

station called 1045 1049 the X, I think is what the station was called. And they were looking for someone to just do some morning shit, play some music. And I needed a job. And my dad was like, Josh, you need to go meet with them and get them a demo like all right and they agreed to have lunch with me I'm 21 22 years old just making you know 18 grand a year so I'm cheap you know and I go to one of these fancy restaurants for a lunch with Gordy Rush who is still he's like the big boss there now and I forgot what the other guy's name even was but he he was his boss at the time. I don't remember this guy's name for the life of me. I don't remember.

But they take me to one of these kind of fancy spots for lunch. And I was wearing like slacks and a button down. Remember, I'm trying to like get a job as an alt rock disc jockey. And here I am wearing like slacks and a tucked in shirt at this fancy restaurant. And I'm trying to convince them that I could do and here I am wearing like slacks and a tucked in shirt at this fancy restaurant and I'm trying to convince them that I could do this I'm telling them all my ideas and I they allow me to use the studio at my dad's station to record a demo they're like well we feel bad that you got laid off so you can go in there

and do whatever you need to do and I use some of their imaging so like I use the imaging from 102.5 wfmf so everything I did was like I was doing a show on WFMF for this demo. And when I tell you that this demo, not even just the way I sound like I can handle knowing that 18 years ago, my voice was different. Like, Jilly will hear certain things I've done and go, wow, your voice sounds a lot different. I'm like, well, yeah, that's what you know, I don't know, 18 years will do. You know, when you're 21 versus 39,

you know, things sound different. Your voice isn't as high, your voice lowers. I don't think I have a great voice by any means, but at that time it was very kind of high, you know? And also some of those tapes are sort of like sped up a little bit. Doesn't matter. So when I tell you that this demo is the most embarrassing

Rick Deese awful shit that you have ever heard first off like I'm giving them a demo. I'm trying to confirm to them that I can just be a disc jockey that's going to play Green Day in the morning and basically shut the fuck up. I'm sending them six seven minutes segments of me talking to comedians on the phone. I'm talking back to listener IDs. It's like when you hear someone that's like hey, we're so we're we're snow Patrol and you're

listening to such and such 102.5 WFMF. Yeah like I'm playing those and I'm like hey somebody like it's so embarrassing. I went back and listened to it the other day. It's so Rick Deese and hacky my dad shit. Like at one point, like I was just going through their system to find what kind of like, like artist IDs I could find. So if you ever listened to the show in the second show in Houston with me and Jim, we used to love playing this this drop that was from Al Jarreau. And it would just said, Hi, this is Al Jarreau.

And this is the smoothest place on the planet. Like we would just play dumb shit like that. Well, they had one from the fray for this. And it's like, hey, and I'm like, hey, somebody let the fray in and then I'm playing like door opening sound effects and shit. It's like, hey, somebody let the fray in and then I'm playing like door opening sound effects and shit. It's like, hey, we're such and such from the fray and you're listening to 102.5 WFF. And I'm like, holy shit, this is god. I won't I won't let jelly listen to it. Like it is like, like it goes into the vault. And

it like there's there's a famous story. And if you've never heard of it, Jerry Lewis at one point Hey lady Jerry Lewis at one point tried to make a a Nazi World War two movie where he was like a Jewish clown I think was the story and he was captured by Nazis and They they forced him into like this jail and his job was to be a clown to help get the Jewish kids to walk into the gas chamber right and and it was like a serious

movie but apparently it was so bad only a handful of people have ever seen this movie it's called the day the clown cried look up the details of it you cannot find a ton of video of it anywhere and Jerry Lewis like renounced it forever. First he said it was great, but then he was like, this is terrible. No one's ever going to see this. It's like buried in a vault. It's in the Jerry Lewis vault somewhere, right? For me, that piece of audio out of all the dumb shit I've done, that audio goes into the vault. I don't want anyone to ever hear that. Now you might be listening to this going, you know, Josh, one night you were super hammered on Twitch and played that

and maybe I did. I will choose to just erase that from my memory, but I am so embarrassed when I go back and look at my old emails looking for some of this audio that I put in like the like when I put a just classic up like the balls I had on me at some point, like I was just a dipshit kid that had done an independent league baseball play-by-play when I was 16 years old, and I did sports updates on a radio station in Baton Rouge. I applied to be like a Cubs reporter for WGN and like a secondary play-by-play guy and actually had an email correspondence with the guy and I listened to the audio I sent them like they're not gonna hire you you dip shit like I didn't sound bad for a 16 year old but they're not gonna hire some 20 year

old dipshit to go work in Chicago to work for the fucking Cubs and WGN sounding like I sounded but I had some balls on me I'm hello, I'm the sports director of WJBO and Baton Rouge. And I've done some play by play. Let me know what you think back then, man. I'd email anyone who would listen to my shit. And I'd be like, like I actually, for my demo, I had like a cut. There's also some other shit and I'm fairly certain I did a demo that I sent out somewhere that had just awful sports bits on

it. One of them was like a fake Michael Vick commercial. I don't have the audio anywhere, I don't think and I hope I don't because it's terrible. But it's like me doing like a horrible fake voice. I'm like, Hey, it's Michael Vick. Like, like it's clearly me, you know, and it's just dumb, like turn down Michael Vick commercial endorsements. And it's obvious shit like dog products and shit and I'm like holy shit this is terrible like there are certain things I don't want the world to hear somewhere in the world there are little cds and little jewel cases floating around with my horrid fucking sports audio from 20 something years ago on it with like with like dudes who are like famous people that gave me quotes people who probably never even heard my shit But dudes from like Fox and shit. They're like sure I'll give you a kind word

I'm like, okay cool and like I'm just looking back on that. I'm like, holy shit, but all that to tell you this There is a little bit of a melancholy in the fact that we're leaving because I wanted this to work You know I blew up my situation at iHeart radio in Nashville and I blew up my situation at I heart radio in Nashville and I was on in Detroit and I was on in Memphis and I was doing some voice tracking shit in some other cities and I was going to make well, I mean I with the new deal I was going to get there. I was going to make well into six figures and living in

Nashville that would have been nice and comfortable. We probably would have moved into a different house there by now and that's probably where I'd settle in. I'm a guy like the South. I like I mean that downtown Nashville wasn't really my jam, but like I liked all the suburbs. The people are super fucking nice like it was great, but I blew it up because I was chasing the dream of working at this radio station that my dad wanted to work at when he was a kid and I thought

this was it and I wanted to go watch the Cardinals every day. I wanted to do all this shit and it felt like the right move even though I knew I would burn that bridge, it felt like the right move. Looking back on it, obviously wasn't the right move. But like there's a sadness in that it didn't work. There was no sadness when I left Philadelphia. I had the Houston gig lined up.

I knew that Philly wasn't really my vibe, although I had done well. And I wish it would have been my vibe. It just was at that time in my life, 30 years old, this is not who I wanted to be what I wanted to do. So I didn't care. This one stings a little bit because in my mind, my entire life, I was like, Hey, if you just go to St. Louis, you'd crush because you're a Cardinals guy and then I didn't crush. So like, there's a sadness kind of that it didn't work. So like there's a sadness kind of that it didn't work, you know, like this one feels like a failure. A lot of others didn't like the huge like the second Houston time didn't feel like a failure because I got so sick of being

there. With that gig and it just I didn't like the gig. And now money wise, it was a failure because I could have still been very wealthy and just been set and who knows how much I'd have in retirement and everything else. Those are the parts that suck. But the the idea of like not working here and knowing that this is kind of your hometown, not fully your hometown, but like you've got hometown vibes about it. And it's a big time legendary station. And like today, I'm taking Ross around Forest Park, which is this

gorgeous, amazing park. It's one of the nicest city parks you're ever going to find. It's gigantic. There's a golf course. There's bodies of water that's sprawling like he and I in this horrible heat today walk three miles around there. Such an amazing place. I love it. I'm going to miss it that you're not going to find too many cities that have parks like this. It is ridiculous considering that Saint Louis is pretty much a dump, but it's amazing. They

got amazing parks in certain parts of the St. Louis City proper but anywho, and they have the smallest national park which is Gateway Arch National Park. There you go. And I'm just walking around. I'm thinking about how me and you know, Luther walked around here when he when you know when we got here. I mean, like I was looking at my phone the other day and I'm not trying to bring you down or anything. But like if I look at my phone today, the date of

June 25. If I go back and look at one year ago on my phone, like, it's wild to think that a year ago, let me see June 25 of 2024. Like just it's amazing how things can change so much in a short period of time. So by that I mean like June 28. There's June 26. June 26 June 26. Like just a year ago, we took Luther to a bar. He's laying around at the bar. People are petting him. He's going for long ass walks. I have a job. Everything is cooking. Right? That's June 28. Or June 26th. He's had an amazing night out for Luther who loved going to bars.

Here we are one year later, and I'm standing in the same park that he and I would go and walk most days, and I don't have the job, and I don't have the dog. there's a melancholy quality about that. That's all like it's I'm not sitting here telling you that I'm depressed or anything like that. I'm just telling you that it's like it's a downer because I wanted it to work and I wanted it to be successful and I wanted it to be a big deal. And it never felt this way like leaving Houston the second time like I'm like I'm off to Nashville. Here we go or or it didn't feel that way leaving Philadelphia to go back to

Houston. But this one does hit different and maybe age does that. I don't know. But it's just one of those things where like I'm in that park, I'm walking and I walk my my original dog, my original dog, whatever that means, but I had Luther in there and I have Ross in there. And it's like, fuck, in two weeks, I'm out of here. And it feels like it was a giant failure. And that's unfortunate. in two weeks I'm out of here and it feels like it was a giant failure and that's unfortunate you know I thought the show was pretty good a lot of the time

but you know it just kind of sucks I don't know I'm not trying to bring you down or anything but it's just it's just kind of that weird feeling that I have as we sit here and it's like you know now what like why did this not work and it's just one of those type of deals you know you get over it but anywho more to come.