The Josh Innes Show - Radio Hypocrisy

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

My former employer in St. Louis continues to use the same tactics as every other radio company in America. Yet, they never get any criticism for it. How is this the case? I feel like going off today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And another thing, while I'm just ran, I just ended the kiff in one, and now I'm like, shit. I got other thoughts that are kind of similar to this, that are kind of radio-related thoughts. But, um, okay, let's do this. Let's just get the commercials out of the way. Let's just get this shit out of the shoot. Because like, now I'm, now I'm all up about things. Now I'm all like, ah, I'm firing brimstone about shit today. But, like, I was thinking about the St. Louis thing again.

And I saw some story about St. Louis and the way they're handling these radio stations. and it really enrages me about something. There's just like, I'm in, I'm not even enraged. I'm just like, I stew over this. So if stewing is being enraged, then I guess I'm enraged. But I'm stewing. I stew over this shit, especially, you know, like when my show's not doing particularly well right now, and I want it to do better and I'm trying to get it to do better.

But anyway, let's do this. Let's play a couple commercials, get that out of the way, and then we will continue. So I told you that I went to St. Louis because it was kind of a job. dream opportunity and I'd get to watch the Cardinals and like there were so many factors the station my dad always wanted to work for everybody said it was the best company to work for and as it turns out all their little local employees they had they just gradually started blowing people out blowing people out blowing people out and now you look and like they're running a bunch of syndicated stuff and guys are working in multiple markets it was no different than any other company but like at the time it was

like oh my god these are the best so I was reading yesterday that the guy that I guess technically became my replacement, I guess, right? A guy named Tim Virgin, who was doing music radio in Chicago. He's a guy that's been around for a long time. He came to St. Louis to replace, technically replace the guy that moved into my spot, who was Favaz, who had been there for 30 years. When they fired me, they moved Favaz to afternoons. I'm imagining he had about six years left on his contract because about six years after,

or about six months, rather, six months left. Because almost to the day, six months after I got whacked, they whacked his ass. too, and then they brought this guy in, so it had to have been some contractual thing. They bring in this Tim Virgin, he moves to St. Louis, he gets into the company for Hubbard, and now they're putting him on the radio in Chicago and St. Louis. So, again, I'm not against that, in theory, because that's the way of the radio world. That's the way these things work. Jilly lives in Detroit, but is on the radio daily in Salt Lake City, Nashville, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, right?

Like, that's how it works. I'm not judging them. What I'm judging them for is they sold me on a crock of bullshit about how much they cared about being local and how like, oh my God, this is the biggest thing and we're better than I heart because we're local, local, local, you're full of shit. You got a bunch of people doing multiple jobs. You are no different than Odyssey. You are no different than Iheart. You are no different than Cumulus. You are the same shit except nobody writes about you.

People treat you like you're this incredible mecca that everybody should strive to get to. like, go work for Hubbard Broadcasting. They're great and they're live and they're local and everything. Are they now? So, Kishi 95, one of the most legendary rock stations in the country, has a local morning show and who knows how the fuck long that's going to go on because you're not going to keep paying people forever. Your midday person is actually the morning person on the alt rock station who voice tracks.

Your afternoon person is now the afternoon person in Chicago who's now going to be voice tracking for you or vice versa, whichever way it works. So I find it hard to believe that Chicago Market 3 is not going to have the local person, but maybe they won't. Maybe the dude will just stay in St. Louis, which would seem ridiculous. I would imagine he's going to move back to Chicago. You have to, right? There's no way they hire you to do afternoons in Chicago and are like, but stay at our St. Louis fucking station and do it there. I find that hard to believe, but who knows?

The night person is Alice Cooper. So when I got there, I think they were using one of the old jocks to voice. track nights, I was doing afternoons, the midday person was Favaz, and the morning show was local. That was four day parts that were all local. Two and a half years later, live and local, quote unquote, some of it's local, not live, not a person in there, not someone answering the fucking phones, not anybody working the phones. It is now one in two and a half years. Oh, but they sell you on this shit. Now again, I blame myself for a lot of this because I pursued it harder when I found that it was real and they told me multiple times that they just didn't have

anything. I told him I would do afternoons. They said, let's see what we can do. I fucked up. That was a mistake on my part. I should not have done that. I should have seen the writing on the wall because they told me, hey, in two years we'll revisit this. We'll have a morning opening probably in two years. We'll revisit. I should not have pursued it as hard as I did and said I'd do something that I thought would. By the way, I think that show was good. I thought it was a very good show. It just didn't make sense on there. Because I'd be there and I'm like, why aren't we just playing fucking music? These people don't want me on the station. that it's not what you do, be a jukebox, I would told them.

And they were, they're a jukebox. And now they're a super duper jukebox. They probably play, their morning show probably plays 10 songs an hour. Like, when I got there, they were trying to make their boring morning show into something interesting. I'm going to guess they just play a shitload of music. Let me look this out. I know that maybe you don't even care about this, but I care about it. And I'm venting to you guys, because you're my guys.

And I'm going to vent about this shit. Let me look at the Kishi 95 playlist. Like, there were days that we were only playing four or five songs an hour in the afternoon, which is unheard of. That should be like 10 songs in a jukebox situation. So let's see here. Let's go to morning drive yesterday. Let's go all the way down to six in the morning. How many songs are they playing?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine songs in the six o'clock hour. They're paying somebody. I'm going to guess six figures to play nine songs an hour in the morning. Good luck. One, two, three, four, five, six. six songs in the seven o'clock hour one two three four in the eight o'clock hour then in the nine o'clock hour so i get the concept which is hey the six o'clock hour's probably not that big of a deal st louis doesn't seem like a six o'clock hour town so bury a bunch of music there

boy i'm looking at the songs they play they play moss tequila on there now oh fuck you it must be a sammy hagar thing go is it rock tober or something because there's i'll fall in love again by there must be some sort of bit they're doing it they're playing random Sammy Hagar. There ain't no way that radio station is playing. Sammy Hagar, Moss Tequila, and Sammy Hagar all fall in love again. And Sammy, okay, it must be a Sammy Hagar bit. Is it Rocktober?

What are they doing in November? Is there some sort of giveaway here for a Sammy Hagar flyaway or something? Because they're playing a shitload of random Sammy Hagar, which I was told when I got there is no one cares about Sammy Hagar anymore. We don't play Hagar and Van Hagar is dead. Yeah, because there's Eagles Fly. there's uh let's see yeah there's just a shitload of okay that makes sense then so they're doing some sort of bit for sammy hagar winner winner takes it all sammy hagar so i think the part that

frustrates me though is like you hear this and you went to a job because you thought that you know they sold you on how we're not like everybody else and then at the end of the day they're like everybody else and that's fine but then no one covers them like they're everybody else because there's people that are in bed with them and these people who are in bed with them that are on the payroll with them will not write negative things about them. But they'll gladly come out and tell you why Iheart's doing everything wrong and Odyssey's doing everything wrong and Cumulus is doing everything wrong. But you never hear about this.

And this is a radio company that owns some pretty big radio stations. And they won't say anything about them. And it's because people are in bed with them. And that's why they won't. And it's bullshit. So, you know, like, I made a mistake in my life. I shouldn't have gone there. But at the moment, how are you going to know that?

You're not going to know that. It's impossible to know that. This whole damn week is just a Sammy Hagar fest. I don't know what they're giving away, but they're playing a lot of good Sammy Hagar, though. So at least there's that. But their morning show has one dude, a dude who's not particularly interesting, and it's a solo rock morning show with a bunch of weirdo callers.

Like, there's no way that that's going to sustain. Like, if I were him, I'd be extremely concerned. My concern then would be that, oh, shit, like, am I next? because they're out of people to fire. Once the radio station is out of people to fire, that's when you have to start worrying. Now, you might say to yourself, well, they got to keep a local morning show on, do they? Why can't they just run the Chicago morning show? Why can't they just play fucking music all morning long?

Who cares? It's all it is, a jukebox. Let's see, Monday. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight songs in the six o'clock hour. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight songs in the seven o'clock hour. three in the eight o'clock hour and then seven or eight in the nine o'clock hour

that is not a morning show like most hours on our thing here we're probably trying to get in four or five songs ideally you'd want to have closer to three or four if you're still going to play music at all and not be a full on talk show that's kind of what you would aim for there I don't know like

do I harbor some sort of resentment I blame myself to a degree but like once you're in a situation and you know it's not going to work, it's a tough spot. But, like, you look at these, like, they're playing seven, eight songs an hour. Like, how do you justify pain? And I know I'm going inside baseball here, but how do you justify paying somebody to play nine songs an hour?

So these songs probably average four minutes because these are classic rock songs. So they probably average four minutes. So you're playing nine, 18, 27, you're playing 36 to 37 minutes of music every hour. and you're playing probably 10 I mean probably more I mean when is the guy talking you want to know a true tell tell sign here they don't even post a podcast anymore because the guy doesn't talk so that has to be a situation oh they haven't even updated their thing I don't even think the one guy's on the show anymore but he's still on their website like they've given up when it comes to that just be a jukebox and acknowledge what you are look I get I get it I'm inside baseballing this thing here you guys not give a shit. You very well may not. But I don't know, man. Like, you see some, okay, so I see what it is. They're doing a Sammy Hagar trip thing. Okay, that makes sense. But, yeah, this is just, like, fascinating to me. Like, I was doing a very good radio show, not for an afternoon drive show. I get that. And it all kind of fell apart, and I get that. but like I think about the show I was doing which would have been a fantastic morning show I mean just a killer morning show especially when it was humming it was fucking great and they and they know it was good they'll never talk with me again I haven't heard from any of those people since they fired me and I never will I don't expect that I will ever hear from them it was a regrettable time in my life and I'll never hear from these people unless I bump into them somewhere out of the blue I don't expect to get a text message I don't expect to say hey what's up like I've even checked in like I'll even every now and then talk about

with the people who fired me in Houston. Like, almost everybody of every, I talked with Spike. I had to sit in Spike's office and get fired by some HR lady in Spike. I shit on that guy for years. And he and I still text and talk. We're good. You know? So, like, I don't expect to ever hear from those people.

But when I sit there and I think about this whole thing, it's just wild to me that, like, I guess that's where I get mad. And then I get mad when I hear radio shows like here in Detroit that aren't even trying, like these classic rock morning shows that are playing 10 songs an hour. And for those who don't know, to me, that's like a sign that you've given up. Like a morning show playing that many songs an hour means that you're a music morning show. You're not a morning show. And they're not going to continue to pay someone that kind of money to play that number of songs.

And that's the same thing that's going to happen in St. Louis. That is my prediction. They keep whacking people and they keep trying to find ways to finagle finances and make everything work. They are eventually going to drop their local morning show because they've got a syndicated morning show. on their country station. They've got the huge local morning show that they have to protect on the alt rock station.

They have sports, but I don't include that as part of the thing. You have to have people on the air for sports. They've got a local morning show on a big, you know, classic hit station, adult hit station. And then they got this Keishi morning show,

which really the people are only tuning in for the music and for you to every now and then play some game where they have to guess the classic rock song. That will be the next domino that will fall there. and I know that because I don't even know

they like that show because when they were reaching out to me they were basically telling me that they didn't like the show that's what's fascinating how did I trust these people how do you trust people that are like basically

they got somebody that's employed and they're telling you they don't think that person's good there was so much about them that was shady and terrible I don't know I'm just that enraged me and today I was enraged

because like I was just annoyed by something that happened here locally so I don't know but like again I'm again I know I'm going deep inside baseball. And some of you may love this. You guys might be like, fucking ain't right.

Give me more inside baseball. Josh, I need to hear you radio enraged. But when I'm looking at this and I'm seeing a morning show playing, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine songs one hour. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven songs. That ain't a morning show. That's a jukebox. Why are you paying somebody six figures to do that? it's just wild and that was always my thought when I was there like I'm out here doing a full fucking show putting in this max effort doing a show working the fucking phones that's the other thing like and I can't know I like but the phones rang all day and I answered them and I used them and I made it a bit I was I the more I think about it and I wish my mind would have been better

there it was really fucking good and when Scott was locked in it was good and we laughed and we had a good fucking time and it was a good fucking show so anyway just a random thought I wish ill that is the only place I really wish ill upon like I don't wish ill upon WIP bygones be bygones it is what it is I don't even wish ill upon 790 790's given up to me for being fair like they fired Sean and now they're just existing so I don't know what they're gonna do but like although I like Matt Thomas I think that's a good guy so I'm not trying to shit on anybody but like I don't know it's just out of sight out of mind but I don't know fuck it god damn it fuck it