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'Kidd Kraddick In The Morning' KHKS-KISS 106.1 & Beyond
October 11, 2005
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Monday, October 10, 2005
Texas has had some interesting events lately, between taking in the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and the rush out of Houston (and into Dallas?), to flee Rita? Has this impacted your show in terms of how you all covered it?
Kidd: Dallas truly became "Refugee Headquarters". By the time Rita blew in, we already had half of the Katrina victims living here. So it was a really big deal, especially for us since our show is on in virtually every city affected by both hurricanes.
On Sunday the 28th of August, we had a fall book planning meeting at my house. It was then we learned that Katrina had grown to a CAT-5 and was headed straight for New Orleans. We got on the phone with our affiliate B-97 to get some direction on how to handle it. We were told that most of the city had evacuated but that a select few at the station would ride it out. GM Phil Hoover, PD Mike Kaplan, and our morning show producer there, Charlie.
We had them on the phone Monday morning while they were being whipped with 120 mph winds. Somehow they kept us on the air...over a phone line. We could hear the windows smashing in their building. Later that day, I talked to them and I remember them saying they really dodged a bullet; that the bulk of the storm had hit Gulfport/Biloxi. We have an affiliate there too so we were shifting over to them for updates. Little did we know that the levees would break and New Orleans would flood like that. The B-97 people eventually were evacuated by helicopter.
On Wednesday, we were scheduled to do our annual Kidd's Kids on air fundraiser. Rich Shertenlieb came to me after the show and said I should really think about shifting it from my charity to hurricane relief. I said I didn't think we could do that...all the people were in place to raise money for our annual trip to Disneyworld.
By that night, it became clear that this was an enormous disaster. To go on and ask for money for anything other than hurricane victims seemed irrelevant and even insensitive...despite all the planning that went into it. We made the decision at 10pm to turn our whole collection infrastructure across the country into a Katrina fundraiser. Listeners seemed to be inspired that we would give up our charity's biggest day to help Katrina victims. In our four hour show, we raised 330 thousand dollars. Not "pledges"... actual cash and checks.
The next day, I put a lock box with 25 thousand dollars in cash in my car and drove to the nearest shelter. We asked what they needed and then ran off to Walmart and bought thousands of dollars in water, clothes, etc. Later that week, we bought bus tickets for people to reunite with family members. That weekend, Kellie Rasberry and I went to another shelter and just started taking people to apartments and paying their rent for 4 months. Every motel in the city was full so we just drove through parking lots and handed out money to people with Louisiana and Mississippi plates. Not very organized or scientific, but I didn't want us to hold on to the money when the people needed it most. Later, we wrote big checks to several grass roots charities along the gulf coast to get people out of shelters and into some kind of temporary housing.
It was an incredible experience...catastrophic, heartbreaking, but so unlike 9/11. After 9/11, most people were just scared and had no idea what they could to help. With Katrina there was an obvious course of action and listeners responded like I've never seen before. It was an amazing week to be on the radio.
I have a blog that tells some of the stories we encountered. It's http://www.kiddlive.com/blog/readblog.html?who=Kidd.
THE SHOW:'Kidd Kraddick In The Morning'THE STATION:KHKS- KISS 106.1 & BeyondTHE CITY:Dallas, TX & NationwideTHE FORMAT:Top 40THE CAST:Kidd Kraddick, Kellie Rasberry, Big Al Mack, Rich Shertenlieb, and Gen Y!What If
On a personal level: you've got a lot of great radio left in you, but after all these years, all your much-deserved success... what do you say to those who wonder what motivates you to keep going to work every day, keep doing radio and not pack up and travel the world? And what WILL you be doing, when that day comes and you decide to leave radio behind?
Kidd: I remember John Cullen telling me once..."You don't need this job, you NEEEEEEED this job." I laughed because I knew exactly what he meant. I get such a high off of being on the air. I'm not good at ANY of the other stuff... office politics, appearances, etc. The only thing I feel like I'm good at in radio is talking on the radio. I truly love it. I've loved it since I was a teenager.
I saved my money when I was 14 and bought two Technics SL2000 turntables, a Shure microphone and a Radio Shack mixer and hooked them up to a cassette deck in my bedroom. I did a four hour shift nearly every day and recorded every minute of it. The station was WJAN (named after my big sister Jan) and I sat there like a complete geek (while all my friends played sports and had sex), wearing headphones and intro'ing songs. I'm really embarassed to admit that.
I did contests just like the big station in town (Q105 Tampa) but in my contests, my sister Jan won every time. I made literally hundreds of tapes. I'd give them to Jan to play in her car and I'm sure she just threw them away but I didn't care. About three years later I actually got hired at Q105 and I had to pinch myself. Radio is in my blood...I've found nothing to match the euphoria I feel after a great bit or a good show.
I did contests just like the big station in town (Q105 Tampa) but in my contests, my sister Jan won every time. I made literally hundreds of tapes. I'd give them to Jan to play in her car and I'm sure she just threw them away but I didn't care. About three years later I actually got hired at Q105 and I had to pinch myself. Radio is in my blood...I've found nothing to match the euphoria I feel after a great bit or a good show.
As for traveling the world, when you have children, you can't just pull 'em out of school and say, "Let's go to Amsterdam!" We pretty much just hang out here and will probably do that after I retire. I will quit eventually (probably sooner rather than later) and I'm just beginning to make plans for that. I love to write so maybe I'll get more serious about that.
People ask me if I will miss being recognized around town and stuff and I can honestly say no. I never really embraced that part of it, in fact, I've always been more than a little embarassed about that aspect. (I'd prefer the WORST table in the restaurant.) But I would like to stay creative and try to do something meaningful in another creative field.
Resume Time
For those not in the know, fill us in on the Kidd Kraddick rap sheet, err...resume? Where did your radio career begin and how did it take you to mornings.
Kidd: Of course, it all started at WJAN. From there I went to Sarasota, Miami, back to Tampa, and then to Los Angeles, Fresno, Salt Lake City, and Dallas. That's seven radio-stops but they all happened in the first five years. I've been in Dallas since 1984.
After getting fired from a fabulous job in L.A., I went to Fresno for nights. My salary went from 84K to 14K. That's a dramatic adjustment. I moved to mornings in Fresno and Salt Lake and my friend Jerry Clifton said to me, "You were the best night guy I ever heard.. .why don't you forget mornings and go do nights in a major market?" So I put together an old tape of me on at night in Tampa and LA and sent it out.
Scott Shannon called me a few days later from Z100. I turned down the job. We're good friends now and he'll never let me live that down.I wound up in Dallas at KEGL.
How 'bout the dream team around you: Their names, background, and how the cast came together?
Kidd: It's a four-person ensemble show and has been since 1995, even though the fourth person keeps changing. Right now, that fourth is Rich Shertenlieb from 99X in Atlanta. He's best known for parading around the Martha Burke Masters Golf protest with a sign that said "Iron My Shirt". He's a creative dynamo and has done great produced stuff on the show.
Kellie Rasberry has been with me since 1994. She's one of the most talented women I've ever heard on the radio. Our show is completely about character definition and she NEVER forgets who she is. She plays a great foil to the guys on the show.
Big Al Mack owned a small limo company and was buying ads on my show in the early nineties. Everytime we put him on listeners loved him, so we hired him fulltime in 1996. He's the "playah" and represents the complete opposite of me.
What's It All About?
How would you describe your daily show, what do listeners wake up to every morning?
Kidd: I have this theory that diversity breeds conflict, and conflict is compelling. That pretty much describes the entire reality TV phenomena, right? I wanted to put together a group of people who would NEVER hang out together and force them to find a way to communicate. They also all have to be funny because funny people use humor as a weapon when in conflict.
Kellie grew up a strict Southern Baptist in South Carolina. Big Al grew up in the hood, fathered a son at age 16, he's divorced, and is in a different bar every night. Rich is a music fanatic who digs heavy metal and everything guy-oriented. Nascar, wrestling, etc. I'm a married guy from the suburbs who was in touch with his female side long before it was cool. Tommorow night, I'm going to see Wicked and I'm so excited I can't stand it. That should give you a clue.
Take away this radio show and you couldn't INVENT a reason for these four people to spend an evening together. That's what I love about it. Listeners seem to each have their favorite member of the show; the one they can relate to.
So to answer your question, we talk about our lives and our opinions collide and somebody says something funny and we hit the bumper.
Celebs 'N' Stuff
If you had to rank the BEST and WORST celebrity interviews over the years, which 2 - 3 would make each list?
Kidd: As much as I hate to admit it, when Gary Busey stormed around the console to my side of the mic and declared, "Kidd, we're going to play 'TICKLE AND PEE' and then picked me up and tickled me until I urinated, that was probably pretty memorable.
The interviews I'd call the best are the ones where I became friends with the person afterwards and hung out with them. That sounds shallow I know; but it's paid off in casual conversations on the show with big stars that we can just call whenever we want. There's something so cool about a celeb's name coming up and just picking up the phone and calling them.
Prep 101
Do you SHOW PREP any differently today, than say, in 1995?
Kidd: Completely different than 1995. There are 100 times more websites now and that alone makes us more information-sifters than content creators. I try to guard against that trap. You can spend 3 hours "prepping the show" when all you're really doing is reading stuff on the internet. The truly good material on our show comes from examining how each of us reacts emotionally to a topic or situation.
I plan less than I used to. I've got more than ten years of history with two of the three people that are on the show with me. I can throw something out that's provocative and they know where to go.
Stunts
Think back to the most powerful stunts or on-air bits you've executed in your stellar career. Which 1 or 2 still to this day, stand out as some of the most "proudest" moments?
Kidd: Okay, it's not a stunt, but our annual trip to WDW with 45 families who each have a dying child is a highlight every year. I feel like I'm re-born every November. No matter what's happened that year, good or bad, I know the Kidd's Kids trip will provide us (and the listeners) with perspective. It's what I'm most proud of.
Quick Word Association
Mark Cuban?
Kidd: Friend. Passionate. "Do-er"
George "Dubya" Bush?
Kidd: Vacation!
Hurricanes?
Kidd: Tragic, but great TSL.
Gas Prices?
Kidd: Find a way to put radios on bicycles, or we're screwed.
Terrorism
Kidd: Crutch.
X-tra Pointers
Throw us a freakin' bone, name one thing about yourself that most people don't know.
Kidd: One negative email can send me into a downward spiral for hours.
One piece of advice for up-n-coming am talent?
Kidd: Take chances; big ones and small ones. The greatest risk is not risking and being ordinary.
Finally...looking back after all this time, is there any one thing you would have done differently.
Kidd: Probably should've kissed Randy Michaels ass a little more. Just kidding; kind of.
LOL! A BIG BitXChange THANKS to Kidd Kraddick for his time!
You can find our more about Kidd and his crew, HERE. -
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