The Josh Innes Show - Radio Row Week

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

It's Super Bowl Radio Row Week! For the most part, I find this event to be a waste. We never saw any piece of data that showed we got any real bump from going. But, I do miss the bonding experience. It was always cool to hang out with the rest of the dudes from the station. I have a few stories. I've told the Seth Payne story 100 times. I won't bother with that. But, I've got some other Radio Row stories I may not have shared as often. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's going on, Jmokes? How are you on this Monday? It's about 1040-ish. Again, had to take my dog to daycare, so I'm a little bit behind, but fuck it, here we are. Let's rock, let's talk, let's go. Lots going on. Super Bowl week, of course. You know, I was tweeting about this earlier. I used to go to the Super Bowl radio row. I'm trying to think of how many radio rows I did for the Super Bowl. Let's see. I was there. My first one, my first radio row was in 2009, the 2009 season, 2010 game. And at the last minute, they decided to send me there. It was in Miami. And that was the first year, I believe, that 610 in Houston was going to go. So they

were going to send, it was Mark and John in the morning, and I was their third guy, but they weren't going to send me. And then we didn't have a midday show at the time, I don't think. I think what we were doing at that time was I was doing the 10 to 11 window. So when I got the job there, here's how I got the job. Here was my setup. So I was in Baton Rouge, get a call, whatever. And they offered me the job. I've told the story a hundred times. I'm not going to get

into that again, but I get the job and my job is to be the producer and third guy on the morning show. So by producer, I'm not the guy running the board. That was Chris Jones, but I was a guy that was supposed to help them do sports updates, find content for them, do wacky shit. You know, be kind of like the offbeat kind of wacko guy, the stunt boy, whatever, right? Making 35 Gs a year to do that shit, baby. So here we are. And I wasn't going to go to the Super Bowl. They decided to send everybody to Radio Row in Miami.

The station had never done it before, I don't believe. So it was a big deal. And I wasn't going to go. They weren't going to send me. It was going to be Mark and John. And as I told you, I was with them from 6 to 10. Then from 10 to 11, I did my own solo thing leading into Jim Rome. They had Rome on from 11 to 2, and I was to do the 10 to 11 spot. That was me. I forgot who did it before me. Maybe Clanton did it. I forgot who was doing the 10 to 11 before I did it. But that was me. So I wasn't going to go.

The afternoon show at the time was Rich Lord and Robert Hensley. Here's what's funny about that. I don't know if I've ever told this. Maybe I have. But I had been there for not very long. I got there in November of 2009. So I got there November of 2009, 16 years ago. And I'm just doing the third guy stuff on the morning show. I'm the wacky third guy. And they used me to fill in. So if they needed to fill in in the afternoon, whatever, I would do it. Well, almost the second I got there, the guy who was

doing afternoons with Rich Lord, a guy by the name of Matt Jackson, he was doing afternoons, and I believe that Adam Wexler was doing nights on 610. I think it's how it was set up. I think. I don't recall, because I don't even recall speaking to these guys. I never really met them, at least then. So I get there, and I'm doing the morning stuff, and I'm also doing fill-in shit, I think.

I remember one of the first things I did was I had to do Thanksgiving by myself. They needed someone to fill airtime on Thanksgiving. I think it was Thanksgiving afternoon, maybe, for like six hours. So I had to sit there for six hours. Anytime you hear these people bitch about what radio people have to do now, or you hear some pussy little fucking 20-something-year-old guy that thinks they're being overworked in radio now, just remember that my ass, when I got to 610", I would do anything they needed me to do, including a six-hour talk show on Thanksgiving when literally not a human was listening.

So please, when I hear these people bitch about how difficult it is and it's so hard and blah, blah, blah, and I'm overworked and I'm underpaid. Bitch, I sat there for six hours by myself doing a talk show talking to nobody on Thanksgiving. So up your nose with a twirling lawnmower. But anyway, I digress. So the afternoon show was Rich Lord and Matt Jackson, and it had been the afternoon show there for a while. And I think Adam Wexler was doing nights. Well, right around that time, 790, because 790 is not a very creative place as it relates to creating radio shows, 790 decided to hire Adam Wexler and Matt Jackson, I believe to be their morning show. It had to be because Charlie was the afternoons. They didn't have a midday at the time, but that's right when they hired Matt Thomas to come in and do that. And then they also

hired this Dylan Gwynn, who was arguably one of the worst radio shows I've ever heard, to do 10 to noon, I think is how it's set up. So they hired Matt Jackson and Adam Wexler, I believe, to be their morning show. I forgot what the hell they called that show. It might have just been Matt Jackson and Adam Wexler. I don't even know that i've ever met matt jackson but anyway so he was their morning guy they were doing a morning show together they just hired uh matt thomas to do noon to three they hired this dylan gwynn guy the mighty gwynn to do 10 to noon and charlie was doing i think three to seven was his so that was their. And at the time they needed someone to fill afternoons at six 10 with rich. Cause like basically Matt Jackson left within a month of

when I got there, I believe is how it set up. And I was sitting in the studio one day. It was after I got off the air. I was on from 10 to 11 and Rome was on. I'm just sitting there screwing around and Gavin walks in and he goes, Hey, how would you like to be the afternoon guy with rich? And I'm like, fuck yeah, I'd love to do that, man. That'd be the fucking coolest shit ever. Let's fucking go. And he's like, well, it's something that might happen. I'll have you do some fill-ins, I think is how it went. All right, cool. This is in like November of 2009. And I'm like, shit, I'm calling my dad. Mind you, I'm like 23 years old. I'm thinking I'm the biggest shit on the planet. Barely just turned 23, just got to Houston. Within a like, I'm thinking I'm the biggest shit on the planet. Like barely just turned 23, just got to Houston within a month. I'm going from being wacky third guy on the

fucking morning show to afternoons. This is going to be the tits. Well, then they decide to take Robert Hensley and put him on with rich. I maybe they just thought that was a safer bet. Maybe that's what rich wanted. I don't know how it all worked out, but they decided to put Robert who by the way is a wonderfully nice guy. Uh, but the show was not good. But fast forward back to Super Bowl week, it's January, Rich and Robert are the show, they're on in the afternoon, and Mark and John are on in the morning, and they decide to send me to the Super Bowl, and I'm like, fuck, yes, this is the shit, I cannot wait, fuck right. So we fly into Miami uh Fort Lauderdale we're there because that's where the radio row was it was a Broward County Convention Center

and we fly in we're there I think we get there Sunday we rented a house that's Gavin's whole thing is he wanted to rent houses because it led to like wacky hijinks and stories and this was way before videos were prevalent like now you get a thousand things. 2009, they sent us with like these flip cams and like, go film videos of you guys fucking around at the house and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, fuck right. This is cool. So we'd all kind of sit around and, uh, you know, we went to the store. I remember going to like a Publix with John Lopez and we're buying all sorts of shit. And John's the coolest guy to hang with in the world. There's nobody cooler. He and Mark, Mark's fucking smooth as shit. Like these are just like, I was so lucky that when I'm 23 years old, I get to hang out

with dudes like this who I just kind of like, I wouldn't say idolize cause that's not fair, but I admired like in a great way cause they were just cool. They were like dad figures to me cause I have daddy issues. Right? So instead of daddy issues, even though my dad loves me, I still have daddy issues and I look for like acceptance and I want guidance from people and I kind of bonded with those guys. But anyway, we go to Miami and we all hang out. We're watching shows together. I remember, I think it was at that one that we watched the Blues Brothers and at one time I'm just rambling on about something and Rich just goes, Josh, shut the fuck up. I'm like right Rich you got like it was just good times right first day we get to Radio Row we're in the elevator at the Broward County Convention Center now mind you you know

our show would have aired at what would have been six o'clock I guess it would have been seven o'clock east so six o'clock central so we're getting there at like six something in the morning eastern time to get set up and we're in an elevator and boom there's fucking joe theismann like joe do you want to come talk on our fucking show he's like sure basically they sent me there to find guests hold on let me let me i'll continue this let me play a couple commercials all right if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you've got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition,

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of these things are pre-set up and they go via email. And like, you know who you're going to have many times. Like, uh, you're going to know well in advance who's going to be there. Now it's different back then. It was the wild fucking West. You had to be a lunatic that would follow fucking people around. And you'd be like, hey, give me like, let's see, who's Emmett Smith? Joe Namath. It didn't matter. You'd follow them and they'd have a handler and you'd have to walk up to their handler, hand them a business card and be like, hey, we're right over here.

You got to come see us. Got to come see us. Come on. And it was hard to get people. You know, somehow Houston was tough to get people. I would try to book someone and I'd be like, hey, we're in Houston. Come see us. Come on. And it was hard to get people. Somehow Houston was tough to get people. I would try to book someone. And I'd be like, hey, we're in Houston.

Then I'd see the person on in fucking Albuquerque. I'm like, why the fuck is this person doing Albuquerque? We're fucking Houston. We're market six. What are we fucking doing? But anyway, that was the first week. It was fucking awesome. We went to the media party. It was on the fucking beach.

And it was awesome. And Lopez took me to Tootsieies, which is this gigantic strip club. And we went to Coyote show together. Like it was an epic time. It was really cool. One of the fallouts in that trip, though, is I got a call from Gavin in the middle of the week. And mind you, I was also supposed to find guests for the whole station. Right.

So the morning and the afternoon. That's why they sent me. And to do wacky bits, like I walked around with a wireless microphone and fucked around and stuff. But I get a call from Gavin. He's like, what the fuck are you doing there? Why did I send you?

You're letting me down. I'm like, what the fuck did I do? It's like, Rich and Robert called and said, you're not getting them any guests. Where are the guests? Go get some fucking guests for Rich and Robert. They're dying out here. I'm like, okay, fuck.

So at that point, I really hated both of them for diming me out. It's not like I wasn't trying. We all did end up getting Adam Sandler that year. It was Adam Sandler and Kevin James, which I was really excited about. Because the chick that I had broken up with was a huge King of Queens fan. So I got a picture with Kevin James, and I'm sending it to her. And of course, back in 2009, that's probably like a grainy, pixelated picture. But I'm like, ha, just met Kevin James. Bet you wish you wouldn't have fucked that other guy, didn't you?

Ha! I bet that guy you're now married to didn't get to meet Kevin James at the Super Bowl, did he, you dumb bitch? Ha ha ha ha! Take that! She didn't give a fuck, by the way. But still, it was kind of cool. Like, that was the first time I got to do that. Then by the time we went the next year, I was doing afternoons, right? So I was doing afternoons. It was in Dallas. We show up Sunday night, just get bombed. Like the house we rented had a hot tub. It's Dallas. It's fucking awesome. We're cock of the walk. I had just lost a bunch of weight on this quick weight loss. I'm looking svelte, looking good. This one, I tried. Like I straightened my hair every day. This is the level of try that I had in 2010. This is right before Jillian and I started dating and I tried to look good. So I had

lost a good amount of weight. I was down to like 260 on this quick weight loss, which was probably just crack if I had to guess. But I was doing this quick weight loss through the station, had lost some fucking weight. I was wearing pearl snap button up shirts. Cause my buddy Ben wore pearl snap button up shirts. So basically I was like a Ben clone. So he's like, this is how you need to dress. So I would wear like pearl snap button up shirts, like fucking like true religion looking jeans, black dress shoes. And I would straighten my hair. Cause I went to, I think this around the time that we started to see Gabriel hair Jesus and um and we would start going seeing it to see him and he you know does the the styling for a lot

like he was J.J. Watt's stylist he was I think Connor Barwin's stylist he was um I want to say uh what's his name um fucking roided out linebacker I'm a blank, but he like saw a lot of guys and us. So we would go see him. And at the time he was at Visible Changes in the Galleria. Still in Houston, still legendary, still fucking awesome. Love the guy.

But he would like straighten the hair a little bit and put a little like styling fucking putty in it and shit. So like I was looking good, right? At least for me, I would lost a lot of weight. I wasn't having, I didn't have a full beard. I had stubble. I mean, I was like fucking McDreamy, man. It's like a fat, lesser attractive, doughy McDreamy is how I viewed myself. So every fucking morning I would get up and first thing I would do is go take a shower,

whatever, dry my hair. I had a flat iron, right? Like I'm Cher. I had a flat iron or like a chi straightener. And I bought like the best straightener too because I remember when one of my girlfriends in college said, I really want a chi straightener for Christmas. So I bought her a chi straightener for Christmas. So I knew that a chi straightener was the shit. I don't even know if you say it chi or chai or chai or chi. I don't know. But I bought it, she or chai or shy or she, I don't

know, but I bought it because I had to have it. I'm like, if I'm going to straighten my fucking hair, this is how I'm going to do it. So I'd get up in the morning, shower, dry my fucking hair off with a blow dryer. When we went to Dallas and this was a drive, not a flight, but we drove to Dallas and my ass had a suitcase with a blow dryer, a flat iron. I had multiple hair pomades and gels and clays. I think I wore cologne at the time, which gagged the shit out of me because I don't like wearing cologne, but I did it anyway. And I went in there, man, I'm talking pearl snap shirts, like true religion, like the kind of jeans that have like, like, like studs around, like the outline of the ass, you know, like those kinds of pants, you know, around the pockets.

I would do that. And I had like black shoes and I thought I looked like, I mean, as my dad would say, Josh is GQ, GQ, Josh. So that's how I dressed. And every morning I'd straighten my hair and I'd put a little bit of like styling fucking clay in it and make it spike up and shit. And I thought I was the shit. So that's how I dressed every day at the Super Bowl in Dallas. But we get to Dallas. There's a picture of me. Maybe I'll post it.

I have it in my phone. I'm in a hot tub and there's like a pyramid of Coors Light cans. Like we just got bombed, at least I did, the day before we went to day one of Radio Row. And if you know anything about that Super Bowl, the next day it snowed like a thousand inches, it seemed like, and it was almost impossible to get down to Radio Row. It was wild. Like Sunday night, nice night, hot tub night,

wake up the next morning, it looks like Alaska. Fucking wild, man. But that Radio row was good. That was one of the times we walked around with the wireless and really killed it, did some good shows. And then the next year was in Indianapolis. And by that time, we had a midday show. I think we had a midday show for the Dallas one too. I think Meltzer had started doing that, but I'm not sure. The next year, I know we did. And that was kind of like the last year of the good times. Like that was 2011. So that would have been Indianapolis. So that would have been the 11 Superbowl, the 11 season, but the 12 Superbowl in Indianapolis. And we had the

whole crew with us. Like Anna Megan was there. Uh, we had the midday show which at the time was Brad Davies and Mike we had our morning show which was still John Lopez Mark Vandermeer um Chris Jones I think came with us uh we were there in the afternoon fuck it was it was just awesome like and why do I bring all this up I don't think anything really significant happened at the Indianapolis one we got to go to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We got to kiss the bricks. The media party was awesome. It was at the Speedway.

It was fucking cool. We got to do a lot of cool shit. And then I guess the next year would have been the 12th season, 13th Super Bowl, which was in New Orleans. And for that one, I didn't stay with the people because I drove back to Baton Rouge every day to stay at my dad's house. So and that was that those were the four years that I went to the Super Bowl with 610. And I bring that up because it's Radio Row week and all that shit. But like, I do miss that camaraderie. I don't really miss like the idea of like, oh, boy, it's I get to interview Jerome Bettis. Cool. It was cool initially. And every now and then you'll get to meet someone that you're like, holy shit, that was kind of cool that I got to meet them.

But really, there was nothing special about that after a while. The cool part was getting to travel with your crew, bond with your dudes, hang out in this house with a bunch of guys and just fuck around. And it was very cool. And I miss that. Like, I don't miss going to Radio Row and interviewing Jim McMahon. I do miss the camaraderie being part of a team. And really, after 610, I was never part of a team again. I went to Philadelphia, which is the opposite of a team. Like, everybody's in it for themselves. There is no team.

I got back to Houston. There was no team. It was just me, Jim, and Jilly versus fucking everybody because they fucking hated us. Then I went to Nashville, and that was fine because there was no team it was just me Jim and Jilly versus fucking everybody because they fucking hated us um then I went to Nashville and that was fine because there was only like three people in the building and then here at at at Casey it was sort of like WIP it was just kind of like everybody was kind of in it for themselves there was no real camaraderie or anything or at least not with us but I just don't think they liked us but it is what it is but I'm trying to think of some of the different shit that happened like obviously the fun shit that happened at Radio Row was like when Jim would walk around in the garbage can or Jim dressed as um as a Mike Ditka and interviewed people let me look great um that year they actually warned us because Jim would just go sit down at people's

tables while they were live on the air and just grab microphones dressed as Mike Ditka. Some went along with it. They'd go, oh, look, Mike Ditka just sat down and Jim would just go with it. Other places were fucking furious, which I get. But like Jim would go up to him and I'd say, Jim, just go fucking sit down and Jim will do anything like Jim is. I'm glad Jim's got the job he's got. He's making lots of money and he works for Michael Berry and there's stability in that. And he'll have that job for as long as he wants it and I'm happy for it because the poor bastard's gone up and down doing this shit and he rode with me and I fucking fucked you know I fucked up so like I feel I'm glad that he's got that but I feel like Jim's true strength in life is being fucking funny and having no shame like like the best thing like we'd be in elevators with jim and me

and jilly and then there'd be a rando in the elevator and jim would just start a conversation and had no shame about what it was about and he would do it just to make the person uncomfortable the best this is usually his go-to he'd be in the elevator and like it'd be kind of silent and then he'd go but yeah so then you know dusty had her innards taken out so now we can't conceive and like the person in the elevator would be like what the fuck is happening here like what is happening we'd be like god damn it jim or he'd say something that was borderline offensive that i know he's joking like he'd say something about like a broad or something he's like well then that's the reason why broad shouldn't be in the

workplace or some dumb shit like that that we we know it's just Jim fucking around. But then you see the people in the elevator and I'm like, God damn it, Jim. Like even I was like, God, fuck, Jim, what are you doing? But that's the kind of shit we would do that in in in Ubers a lot, too. Like when we were in Minneapolis with me, Jim and Jelly, that was fun because it was just like dumb shit like that with Jim. And that's what I missed. That's what Jim should be doing. Like, and like, this sounds self-serving. Look, I'm glad Jim's doing what he's doing. And I would never be like, Hey, leave that and come dick around with me again. But that's what Jim should be doing because that's Jim's gift is having no shame

and being fucking hysterical and has this dry humor. That's remarkable. But, um, but yeah, I love the guy, but that's the kind of fun shit we did. Or like the time in Houston, which by the way, when we did the wacky shit in Houston, everybody loved it. The next year we did wacky shit in Minneapolis. Everybody thought we were scumbags. It's funny how that changed. But the last person we talked to on Radio Row on Friday of the Super Bowl that was in

Houston, which I guess would have been the Falcons and Patriots Super Bowl. Joey McIntyre from the New Kids on the Block was walking around Radio Road dressed as like an old school like Revolutionary War Patriot. And we finally got him on the fucking air. I was trying to get Joey McIntyre on the air the whole fucking time because I'm like, I want to talk about the fucking New Kids on the Block and solo Joey McIntyre and I hope you always stay the same and I love you like dumb shit right so we're talking about this we do a good interview and at one point he's like now I got to find a way to get to the airport and I'm like Jim go over to Joey McIntyre and offer to drive him to the airport and see what he says and Jim just starts talking to Joey McIntyre. He's like, dude, can I, look, I'll drive you. I'm totally normal. You know, like I'm not a weirdo at all.

And like, Joey's like, no, you can leave me alone now though. He's like, no, I'll drive you, man. I know where I'm going. I'm great. I used to deliver pizza. Uh, that was good. The time. Oh, and that was also in Houston where Jim smelled Drew Brees and Drew Brees, like get out of here, get the fuck out. like Jim chased him around I forgot how Jim was dressed at that one but he might have been in the dick outfit I forgot what it was but Jim goes but he's goes he goes you know Josh Drew Brees smell great I'm like hey go tell him he smells good so as Drew's walking out he puts the mic in his face and he goes can I smell you and he starts smelling Drew true breeze and like and what i love is when people talk about those kind of things like oh look at that immature type of shit that's why

you don't have a job anymore that's what you should be doing at shit like that you should be making a mockery of the whole fucking thing actually no the best bit we did my favorite bit was where jim would just walk up to every black guy he saw at Radio Row and asked what team they played for. Fuck, that was good. Because it makes fun of the whole fucking concept of it, the whole ridiculous concept of this event, which is, and this is how it works. You'll be walking around trying to book a guest. And if you see a black guy that's of a certain height, you don't know who he is. You don't recognize his face. Like some guys are, you know, LeBron, other guys are not, you have no idea, but you think there's a chance he could be an athlete right so you're like huh um jim go up to that guy

and there was like a giant hulking black guy i'm like he has to play jim go ask him so we're all in the area put some mic in his face he goes hey uh you an athlete what team you play for he goes no man i'm an actor and he really, what have you been in? He goes, I was Michael Orr in The Blind Side. And we're like, holy shit! But, like, it's funny shit, and people don't do that kind of shit. They take themselves too seriously, and now the event takes itself too seriously. I don't even know if you're allowed to walk around with a wireless mic anymore.

But, God, that was good shit. Like, the whole industry sucks and the the worst though than the industry are the people who are not in the industry who take anything you do that's fun and they turn it into oh you're just unprofessional that's why you don't have a job no more and blah blah blah like go fuck yourselves you boring dullards go calculate your fucking stats and yell at the radio about a regular season game and eat my fucking ass. We did good shit. It's a shame that just the world has transitioned from that from like, hey, we want fun shit and wacky and hijinks to like, no, that's not what we do.

This is sports radio. We take this very seriously. And this is not a place for people like you. But yeah, that's what I miss the most about Radio Row though, is camaraderie. Camaraderie was fun. Bonding with dudes at the station was fun, especially in those first couple of years when we were all pretty tight-knit or at least we had a good relationship and everybody was buddies and it was fucking great, man.

I'm sure I did some pretty good interviews at Radio Row row i don't remember many of them because there weren't that many that i would say were probably great because they're mostly like hey here's 10 minutes with i do remember vividly talking to rich eisen and afterwards thinking i fucking hate this guy he has the most smug condescending look on his face and i fucking hate him i do recall that um and the best is like the second the interview starts when you sit down with these guys, they're shoving papers, their handlers shoving papers in your face

to let you know what to promote and they're looking at their watches going, he's got like a minute. It's like he sat down 10 seconds. He's got a minute. We gotta go. We gotta go. Just basically they want them to sit down,

say something non-offensive and then promote their fucking degree antiperspirant. And that's it. So, anywho, I would have shared the story again about the Radio Row in Minneapolis. And who knows, maybe I will again this week. But I've told that one a billion times. So who fucking cares, right? But anyway, more to come.