The Josh Innes Show - Potential Houston Radio Job Opening?!?

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

I've heard through the grapevine that there is a rock radio morning show opening in Houston. I've told you before that I'm leery of classic rock radio as it is currently constructed. However, I have some ideas that could fix this format and make it very, very viable. Would a station be willing to try these ideas? Well, there is on station in a smaller market doing the right things...I'd urge you to check them out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When planning for life's most important moments, sometimes the hardest part is simply knowing where to start. That's why we're here to help. When you pre-plan and pre-pay a celebration of life with us, every detail will be handled with simplicity and professionalism, giving you the peace of mind that you've done all you can today to remove any burden from your loved ones tomorrow. We are your local Dignity Memorial provider. Find us at DignityMemorial.ca. The Dignity Memorial brand name is used to identify a network of licensed funeral cremation and cemetery providers owned and operated by affiliates of Service Corporation International. Hello, friends. What's going on? It's Josh. Hello. Glad you're listening.

Glad you're telling your friends about it. Continue to tell your friends about the podcast, by the way. It would be very helpful to me as we're trying to build this thing. As I've told you, I'm not going all in full bore on this at this point. It's very rudimentary. This is very much like Doc Brown's model of Hill Valley when he was demonstrating to Marty how they were going to send him back to 1985. It's not built to scale, nor is it painted, but we're working on it. And again, this is just my way of continuing to talk with you guys and let you know that I love you and I appreciate you. So hopefully you'll continue to do so. And that would be great.

You know, I saw something or I heard through the grapevine yesterday that there is going to be a radio job that is going to be open in Houston. I mean, technically this radio job is open because somebody has gotten fired and or a radio show has gotten fired. Now, it's not in sports. From what I gather, there's no sports openings in Houston. However, there is a morning show opening in Houston right now. And that morning show is on the classic rock station, 106, nine, 107, five. It's two signals, but not like in a dinky way. Like sometimes when you get a radio station, that's got two signals, it's because both signals are really fucking terrible and there's nothing you can really do with it. This is a situation where they've got two signals. They're both very large. Basically the one of them covers almost all of the Houston metro

area. And then one kind of shoots up north and kind of covers the woodlands. You get it more in the woodlands. Either way, the morning show opening is going to be on 106.9 and 107.5, The Eagle, which has been occupied by Dean and Raj for like a hundred years and now I think they got whacked and their whole show got whacked and from what I've heard through the grapevine for people like this isn't even in the news like the fact that I know this is pretty remarkable because it hasn't hit any of the trades it's not in any of the papers and I don't want to speak out of school I have no information about the details of it and what happened to these dudes all I know is they've been around a hundred years there and I guess they were probably making a lot of money and the stations

are like, listen, we were probably not getting the return on the investment anymore. A lot of these rock stations around the country, particularly classic rock type of dudes have been getting blown out a lot lately because in my opinion, classic rock is a tired, stale format. That's why I think I did well in classic rock because it was something new. My issue with classic rock is and will continue to be that they don't move the goalpost as it relates to the music that should be played on classic rock stations. That is my biggest criticism of the classic rock format. They all want to compete with young and get young audiences, and they want to compete with the alt rock stations and the sports stations for the 2554 audience. Well, how do you expect to compete for the 2554 audience if the music you are playing pretty much ends in

the early 90s? So basically, if you're like me and you're 38 years old and I'm in that core group of people you're trying to reach, right? You're trying to get the core 25, 54 people, but really you want audience that can grow with you. Like you don't want 53 year old dudes. You'll take them. You don't want to turn them down, but a 53 year old dude ages out of your demo in a year and then you lose that person. Now we can argue if the demos should matter or not, but they do. People sell 2554. Persons, 2554. That's what they sell.

So if that's the case, and you hire young dudes like me, I'm relatively young. I won't be, you know, I'm no longer the youngest dude on the block, but in classic rock, I'm among them. I'm 38. If you're going to hire somebody like me to try to get audience that's my age, why the hell do you completely ignore rock music that was playing when they were in their youth, right? When they were in their prime radio music listening youth, the music that helped shape them, right? So if you stop classic rock and you consider classic rock to end in grunge, if you consider that like classic rock ends in 1993 and 94. So like Nirvana is the end of the road for you. If that's the case, hi Ross. If that's the case for you and you are of the belief that classic rock stops right there, then you're basically telling people

that are 30 and younger that the music they grew up with and the music they care about is obsolete. That's why as a person who considers myself to be pretty smart about this stuff, I believe that this is a format that should progress forward and start adding more music from the early 2000s. Particularly music that doesn't get a lot of run on your alt stations, right? Like alt will always play the shit out of Green Day and alt will always lot of run on your alt stations, right? Like alt will always play the shit out of Green Day and alts will always play the shit out of certain bands, right? But some of these bands they ignore now, although some of it's making a comeback, are what you would call butt rock, right? Dad rock, butt rock, which is a derogatory term, but a term really I view as a term of endearment. It's butt rock. It's dad rock. I believe that classic rock radio stations should be playing Creed. They should be playing

Nickelback. They should be playing Stained. They should be playing a lot of like the kid rocks and stuff like that. They should be playing that. It doesn't have to be your whole category. It doesn't mean you get rid of the Aerosmiths and the Led Zeppelins and the Floyds that built the format. That's what you should be doing. But if it's a format that wants to progress and a format that wants to move forward, you have to start thinking of new ways to get people in. And if you're like me and you're 38 years old and you were in high school in 2001 to

2005 or 1999 to 03 or whatever, you were listening to Kid Rock. You were listening to Shinedown. You were listening to Puddle of Mud. You were listening to Hinder. You were listening to Three Doors Down. That's what you were listening to. Yet these bands are completely ignored. And what you get is Bon Jovi shoved down your throat. And you get Aerosmith shoved down your throat. All fine. And I'm not telling you to stop playing those bands. What I'm telling you is they have to move the line of demarcation forward if the format wants to survive.

So I saw that there is a job opening potentially in Houston for that and I would do it in a look it's something I find interesting because I love Houston I'd love to go back to Houston I think I could kick out look we could talk about how things ended in St. Louis for me I wasn't doing a bad show here the show was fucking great we can talk about Nashville I didn't get fired in Nashville I was kicking ass in Nashville right so like I know how to do the format. It's just a matter of whether or not I like, I have no idea what they want to do. I haven't spoken to anybody. Their story's not like, like it's out there. Like people in radio circles know about it, but like they haven't even broken this news. I assume that today, uh, they have a different show on there. I look, I'd go back to Houston.

You know how I feel about Houston. I love you sons of bitches. You're my people. So if somebody called from this radio company and was like, Hey, would you be interested in, uh, in doing this? Fuck. Yeah, I would. You know, I don't have a job, but like, um, I don't know. I like, I think, but to me, the most important thing for that format is moving forward and progressing. And you have to do that. And if you don't do that, you're going to find yourself continuing to kind of stagnate and you're not going to be able to compete. Like if you're in Houston and you're trying to compete with, you know, Rod Ryan, who is the biggest morning show there. Actually, let me play a couple commercials here and then we'll get into that a little bit more.

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Houston's great the bar scene in Houston's great if you go to the right places some of them are far too like ritzy and expensive now like Houston is a far more Dallas-y type place now than it wants to admit but we ran into Rod and I was sitting there with Jilly and PK and I'm like, do you guys think I should go say hi? And they're like, yeah, go say hi. I'm like, I don't want to be a fucking dope. Who knows if this guy even fucking remembers me? You know, we worked on the same, but we ran into each other every morning because he'd be in there doing his show that has a billion listeners. And I would be doing my show that had tens of listeners. And I would run into him in the in um, in the, uh, the, the cafeteria.

We'd say hello. Like he knew who I was. So I'm like, all right, I'll go. I'll go. Like, so I went up and tapped him and I go, Hey, it's Josh. He goes, Josh fucking Ennis. What's going on, bro? And we start shooting the shit about radio and stuff. And look, I have an admiration for the guy. I have admiration for anybody who's successful at what they do and can, and can do it for a long period of time. Because me, I've had a lot of success. I don't maintain it because I get in my own way or a boss fucks with me. Like, whatever. Like, this guy's been able to do this job and do it well and do it at a high level for a long time.

So I respect that. But when you think of a guy like that who is highly successful and the number one morning show in Houston. I don't know if that ratings wise, it bears that out, but there is not a bigger morning show in Houston than Rod Ryan. When I was at 610, my boss was like, if you guys are going to try to be successful, we got to get kind of a Rod Ryan vibe going here. Like that was the thing. Like we have to try to appeal to that audience. Well, if you want to be in the classic rock world, to me, there are two ways you can go. You can either go the way of oldies and everybody remembers oldies radio stations, right? Like if you're in Philly back when WOGL was playing oldies, or if you're in Houston,

whatever station it was that was playing oldies and they would call them oldies. So you knew that the second you tuned into that station, you were hearing some old fucking shit. You were going to hear some Frankie Valley, some temptations. As it went on, you're going to get into the 70s. It was oldies. There was no way you were ever going to compete in the important demos and radio if you were oldies, right? So eventually they moved the bar on what was considered the music for that group of people. They moved it from theemptations into the 70s and into the 80s. And now, instead of having stations called oldie stations, you have classic hit stations. And those classic hit stations will play, or adult hit stations, that will play songs from some from the 70s, not a ton, a lot of 80s, and early to mid-90s shit.

And they'll work in some 2000s. Explain to me why those radio stations can move the goalpost and change the music. But for some ungodly reason, classic rock has to end in 1992. So if you were in a city and you want to compete with someone like Rod Ryan, who's the biggest morning show in town and has been for 20 years and his audience is younger demoed people on an alt slash active rock station if that's what you want to do and that's who you want to be how the fuck can you expect to compete with that when you have old ass dudes on the radio playing old ass fucking music and that has nothing to do with the radio station in Houston the eagle there right but it's everywhere it's every city you go to.

The classic rock station is some old head fucking dude telling the same old head fucking stories he's always told. Like about the same songs that people have heard a billion times. There's nothing fun. There's nothing interesting. It's all fucking stuck in the past. Like really, what these companies should do is be hiring somebody like me who's got a fucking brain on how to move the fucking format forward. Cause I love all the music that's played on classic rock. I love, but we're ignoring an important part of music that could very well help

you get the younger audience. You want getting a younger audience is not as simple as taking some young guy, throwing them on a classic rock radio station, have him say doo-doo and pee-pee and booger, and expect to get big ratings. The music is important in that case. So play the Led Zeppelins and play the Pink Floyds and play all that shit. You should. Those are core artists in there.

But if you're going to start eliminating late 60s shit from that and playing less Doors and less Jimmy and less Beatles, like the Beatles barely play anymore, if you're going to gonna get rid of those then why are you not saying let's throw in ba what a ba let's throw in lips of an angel let now what you now if you're on a radio station that's playing a lot of like elton john and shit that doesn't make sense to play lips of an angel here's what josh would do j would say, get rid of all the soft ball classic rock shit. Get rid of the softer Journey shit. Get rid of the softer REO Speedwagon shit. Get rid of the softer Elton John, Billy Joel shit. Play harder shit. I'm talking Highway

to Hell. I'm talking Ozzy. I'm talking Sabbath. I'm talking harder shit that sonically makes sense and then I would incorporate the hinders and I would incorporate the the theory of a dead man's and I would incorporate the hailstorms and I would incorporate those kind of bands into it as well that's how you move that forward that's how you become the type of aggressive radio station that people would listen to. And they'd go, shit, like I'm a younger dude. I'm 38, 40, 41, 42. I spend money. Yet classic rock is kind of dated for me.

And I just don't give a fuck. And the morning guys are old stodgy white dudes doing the same boring shit they've done 100 years. This isn't for me. Why would they go listen to that? Why would they be interested in that? So to me, the idea of doing classic rock radio, I was bored at times doing it because I felt that we didn't move forward with it.

At least when I worked with Jonathan, who was my program director in Nashville, he's a young dude, we're about the same age, he's a top 40 PD, he was forced into being the pd of the classic rock station he took some chances and you have to do that try it out see what kind of fucking reaction you get man i guarantee you there are people who love acdc and love aussie like 80s aussie give me a fucking break man that. That shit's great. Shot in the fucking dark. See you on the

other side. Those are great fucking tunes, man. And the same people that would like those songs would also enjoy, uh, I don't know, stained would also enjoy shine down, would also enjoy puddle of mud and theory of a dead man and Nickel, and Creed. Now, if you're somebody who, you know, what you're into is Billy Joel, Elton John, then maybe Creed ain't for you. Well, what I would tell you is let's get out of the Billy Joel, Elton John, Piano Man tour and just get fucking aggressive. Like a radio station like Eagle, which already has ratings in Houston, could very well go in and and

take down a morning show could dominate there but the music is important the vibe is important I have honest God I have no idea what they do I just I don't listen to enough Houston radio to know what happens on that radio station but I know what classic rock radio is across the country. And 99% of the time, it's remember when bullshit. And there's a place for remember when shit. It's good radio topics for that. Like, hey, today is Phoebe Cate's birthday. What's your favorite titty scene in a movie?

That's a fun conversation that everybody can relate to. But when it's nothing but stodgy old remember when bullshit, that's where you die. There's no progress. You don't move forward. And that's where I think classic rock has struggled. Put me in, let me do a Ted talk. Let me get in front of people and they'll tell you, well, the, the, the research doesn't bear that out. Fuck the research. You know what research I need? My fucking ears. I'm the guy you're looking for. I'm exactly the guy you're looking for. I'm just the guy you're looking for. I could build a fucking kick-ass rock and roll radio station.

Except I wouldn't call it a rock and roll radio station because that makes me sound like I'm 70. But you know what I mean. I could build a fucking behemoth. Get me in front of people. Now, once I get rambling like this, I say rambling, it's pointed. It ain't rambling. This is good shit. And there are radio stations that are doing this across the country. There's a great radio station musically. If you're someone that is like me and likes this, there's a great radio station called Eagle 98.1 in Baton Rouge, my hometown, Baton Rouge, Eagle 98.1. For years and years and years, it was the classic rock station.

Then some smart people said, you know what we're going to do? Let's just start throwing in some stained and some hinder and some seether and some kid rock. And let's just see what kind of reaction we get. Still going to play the hell out of Van Halen. Still going to play the hell out of Ozzy. Still going to play the hell out of Jimmy. We're going to play all that shit, but we're also going to work in, I don't know, Theory of a Dead Man, see what happens. Going to play a new Shinedown song, see what happens. Now, granted, they're in a small town.

They can take more chances. Baton Rouge is not, you know, Houston. It's a great fucking station. Eagle 98.1, I would advise you, I would urge you, if you're into what I'm into, and I know a lot of you are, you like that same early 2000 shit as much as I do, but you still get down with ACDC and Sabbath and all that, here's what you need to do, and Motley and all that. Just go to the interwebs. They have an app too. It's Eagle 98.1. And when you hear the music on there, you'll go, wow, I'm listening to a radio station that's giving me fucking ACDC.

I just heard, you know, back in black highway to hell. If you want blood, I mean, I'm hearing good ACDC shit. And then I just turned Motley Crue, same old situation, which fucking rocks. And wow, look at that. I just heard it's been a while by a station. How about that? And you'll go, this makes fucking sense. And I like this radio station. So that's my homework assignment for the kids today. My homework assignment for you today is to listen to the radio station Eagle 98.1 in Baton Rouge. My friend Michelle runs that station. My friend Matt works for that company. You know, Matt, who used to be on the show all the time. It is a spectacular radio station musically. And when you hear it, you'll go, fuck yes, this is the tits. I would listen

to this station all day. And, you know, it's basically, you know, look, you could still play Green Day and shit like that. But essentially, it'd be like what you're getting on a lot of these rock stations now, to me, without as much of the newer alti stuff, if that makes sense. You'll get heavier rock shit. I think it's outstanding. So I would urge you to go listen to it. You can download the app. It's in the App Store. Again, I'm not making any money from this. I just like to tell you when I hear shit that I think is good, and there's not a lot of good shit out there, this radio station out of Baton Rouge, amazingly, in Baton Rouge, one of the best sports radio stations in the country is operated out of

this same company. And to me, one of the best rock stations in the country out of this little old, I think it used to be a hospital. My dad, when he moved to Baton Rouge, worked in this building initially. It's like an old bank or an old hospital or some shit, right? This little building there gives you the arguably pound for pound, you're going to go Iverson with it, pound for pound the best sports talk radio station in the country based on market size and revenue and everything. I'd put that 104.5 ESPN up against anything and I would put Eagle 98.1 up against anything. And if classic rock radio stations want to evolve and continue to grow and get younger audiences, that's the radio station they should listen to because musically that's what they need to fucking be. So Eagle 98.1. All that to tell you that there

is a job opening in Houston. And if they're interested in moving forward and being kick ass and having someone that's crushed in Houston before, knows the market, has done it for 10 years there, loves the fucking city, then they give me a call. Maybe I'll find a person and reach out to them. I don't fucking know. But all I know is I have ideas that can push them forward. What I don't want to do is be stuck in a situation, and this is where I get leery of corporate radio shit, is I don't want to be stuck in a situation where they tell you that they want to get younger, then you get to the place and it turns out they have no interest in actually getting younger because they do nothing to show you that

they want to get younger. That's not a situation I want to get in. But if there's a situation in Houston where they're like, let's fucking go, let's make some fucking magic, then J.I. is right here. And he loves himself so much that he referred to himself as J.I. like a total douche monger. Anyway, more to come.