10 Questions with ... Jim Yelton

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

My first broadcasting gig was at WDXI/WMXX in Jackson, TN. Then, I did sports play by play for JCTV in Hillsboro, MO. I eventually had the opportunity to jump into talk radio at KOPN in Columbia, MO… first as a co-host of "Evening Edition" and then taking over the PM drive slot with my own show, "The Rush Hour with Jim Yelton." After leaving KOPN, I moved into more audio production roles, including as Creative Services Director for KXEO/KWWR in Mexico, MO. Now, I’m focused on growing my weekly show "Geek Universe" as we try to reach all parts of the country with our nerdy awesomeness.

1. First, what made you decide to do radio? Why radio?

Well, there are really two answers to this. First, I grew up in St. Louis and was one of those strange kids who listened to talk radio on KMOX just as much as I listened to music stations. I loved Jack Carney and Anne Keefe, and then hearing Jack Buck and Mike Shannon call Cardinals games at night. I also had an affinity for old-time radio theater and stuff like Abbott and Costello or Jack Benny. Radio has always had this ability to draw an audience in and make them feel a part of what they are listening to. It’s something that’s hard to describe to someone, but I’ve always loved being able to close my eyes and have radio set the stage and tell me a story.

The other answer is that my dad had been in radio before I was born and then got back into it during my early teens. He taught me so much about connecting with an audience, being entertaining on the air, and crafting a persona. It also helped that he could help open the door for my first job. Everything I’ve done in broadcasting has been in part to try and live up to all of those lessons and make him proud of what I can do. Plus, he’s the one who took me to Star Wars 27 times during the summer of 1977 and introduced me to so many things I’m passionate about that grew into my creating "Geek Universe." He passed away last year just as the show was starting to snowball towards syndication, and I wish he were still around to see where we go from here.

2. "Nerd culture" has experienced a renaissance of sorts in the last decade, and it seems now that it's dominating -- the top box office has been going to genre movies, there's more genre TV than ever, and Hollywood has gone all-in on comic-book-based franchise attempts. Why do you think that's happened? How did geek culture manage to triumph?

It’s kind of like this cosmic convergence of a number of things happening. Special effects had been good ever since "Star Wars" changed filmmaking forever. However, they still weren’t good enough to believably replicate all of these comic book heroes and villains and their amazing powers. "Superman" with Christopher Reeve was amazing for its time, but the effects are kind of clunky. "Batman" in ’89 worked because it’s a more grounded character. But, it wasn’t until the turn of the century that effects could handle things like the X-Men or Spider-Man. Now, anything is possible, and my mind is constantly reeling at seeing things now that 12-year old Me could only dream about.

The other thing is that most of the current generation of writers, directors, and producers in Hollywood are like me. We are the children of Spielberg and Lucas. We grew up on storytellers like Stan Lee, Jim Henson, and Stephen King. "Star Trek" wasn’t just on TV once a week for us. It was on every day. We soaked it all up like a sponge and, when we grew up, we wanted to make movies and TV that brought all of the things we love to life… or, in my case, sit around and talk about of those things we love.

3. There are a lot of nerd/geek podcasts out there, but very few have attempted to make it on broadcast radio. What's your sales pitch to stations- why should they give a show about superheroes, sci-fi, etc. a shot?

Like you said, Geek Culture is EVERYWHERE, and I think stations are leaving money on the table by not trying to tap into that with a weekly show that is laser focused on that audience. Some morning shows talk about the big movies or TV shows for five minutes here or there. This is an hour talk show with great guests, fan interaction, and a host who can cover a wide range of topics that, in my opinion, is more entertaining than a rehash of the hard news and politics that a lot of talk stations use to fill their weekend schedule.

The elevator pitch is that "Geek Universe" can help a station in more ways than most other weekend options out there. You can access a segment of the audience you might not be reaching and bring them to your station. You can access advertisers who might not consider radio in general but are very willing to sponsor a show like "Geek Universe." Whether it’s a comic book shop, movie theater, laser tag arena, or even all of these new escape room centers that are popping up, this is potential revenue that want to reach our specific audience but might not consider talk radio as an option without our show. Plus, we want to work with our affiliates on a more personal basis to look at possible cross promotion opportunities or ways we can incorporate elements of "Geek Universe" to enhance their local programming. That might mean having me as a regular Monday morning guest to chat about the weekend box office or perhaps looking at using a live "Geek Universe" appearance as part of a larger station promotion or event.

I’ll use our newest affiliate as an example. KMAJ AM 1440 in Topeka, KS just picked up the show. Topeka has several Comic Con-type conventions, including a fairly big one in the fall. It would be great to partner with them on some sort of cross promotion between us, KMAJ, and the convention where we would appear at the convention, the convention gets exposure through promos on the radio and our show (including our website and other live appearance advertising), and the station gets recognized the entire weekend of the convention through signage, program book ads, and our live show. Everyone involved has incentive for the others to get the most out of the collaboration and really becomes an annual win-win for all of us.

4. You do live events as well as the radio/podcast show. What goes into doing a live show, and how important do you think live appearances will be to the development of the radio show?

Live shows are a HUGE part of our business plan. The live shows grew out of appearances I would make at various Sci-Fi conventions to promote my first book, "The Swindlers of Doom." Not only would I try to push book sales, but I would end up on panels and roundtable discussions about all of the things I loved talking about with friends and family. When I started "Geek Universe," I immediately wanted to create a way to replicate the energy of that fan interaction through our radio show. But, that is hard to do when you are pre-recording everything in a studio. I also wanted to incorporate a trivia game show element to the show which again kind of needed a live audience vibe to make it work.

I describe the live shows as the cosmic love child of "A Prairie Home Companion," "Win Ben Stein’s Money," and Chris Hardwick’s “Talking” post-shows. We just started putting feelers out to find venues, and every time out is a new evolution as we tinker and fine tune what we present to the crowd. Sometimes it’s more stand-up comedy heavy and others it’s nothing but our Trivia Thunderdome game show. Audience members compete in standard trivia rounds, plus some of our own original creations like “Trump or Ferengi” where they have to guess if a quote is from President Trump or "Star Trek"’s Ferengi Rules of Acquisition or “Only One Right Answer” where contestants have to answer questions such as “In Star Wars, who shot first: Han Solo or Greedo?” or “Who is the best Captain: Kirk or Picard?” (the answer is actually Mal Reynolds from "Firefly"). Sometimes we have a themed show such as when we appear at the St. Louis Science Center’s First Friday events. Other times we have a guest and do a Q and A with the audience. We’ve even had a band open a show for us with their sci-fi influenced music. We try to make each live show different.

The live appearances are VERY important to the development of the show for a number of reasons. It helps with brand building and finding our audience. Since we are recording all of the live shows, it’s a great source of material for the broadcast. I would also like to think that live appearances would be a selling point for attracting affiliates as well. When we appear at a convention, we have a potential audience of several thousand fans who we can then promote a local station to. It would be great to eventually integrate local affiliate on-air personalities into our live appearances and cross promote with them. We have even done live shows from comic book retailers during Free Comic Book Day and I could see working with an affiliate for that sort of appearance as well. I think the live shows are a great tool for a station to help attract new listeners as well as new advertisers.

5. Gotta ask: Of the genre movies coming out in 2016, which are exciting you most? Which ones can you not wait to see?

That’s hard to narrow down. So, let me try to just give you three…the first has got to be "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." We finally get to find out what Luke has been up to and the “Last Jedi” subtitle is just soooooo intriguing. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???? Ugh, December can’t come soon enough.

Next is the new adaptation of Stephen King’s "IT." That is the first King novel I ever bought. It’s huge… something like 1100 pages and I finished it, cover to cover, in two days. It sucked me in and, as much as the TV mini-series tried its best, this version has the ability to be darker and scarier. Plus, Pennywise the Clown!!! Everything I’ve seen looks great so far!

Lastly, let me go off the beaten path because there is a low budget, indie flick coming out this summer that I think might steal the box office. It hasn’t gotten a lot of publicity, but it’s called "Spider-Man: Homecoming." The cast looks good and I’m hearing amazing things about this one. Can’t wait to see what all the hype is about.

6. And in the same vein, since it seems like there's always a favorite for every fan, who or what is your favorite geek culture franchise/superhero/series? Which one's your top obsession?

There are soooo many. I don’t know that I have just one top obsession which I think is one of my strengths as the host of "Geek Universe." I deeply love so many parts of Pop Culture. I love Spielberg and think he’s the greatest director of my lifetime, but am very sentimental about the films of John Carpenter. Stephen King belongs on a list of all-time great American writers…however, it’s hard to pick him over Ray Bradbury or Rod Serling as my favorite writer. While I am most definitely on the Marvel Comics side of things, Batman is my favorite superhero. "Star Wars" has been in my heart since 1977, but I have a feeling I know more "Star Trek" trivia than "Star Wars." I will say definitively that I am obsessive about film scores and soundtracks. I love me a good James Horner or Jerry Goldsmith, or John Williams score.

7. Who have been your inspirations, influences, and mentors, in radio and in life?

As I said earlier, my dad was such a big influence on me both in radio and in life. In radio, I have unfortunately not had any mentors, but have had plenty of personalities who inspired and influenced me. I joke that I am the less successful Chris Hardwick and everything he has done with Nerdist podcast and the “Talking” shows on AMC kind of sets a high bar for me to shoot for. If he would just stop hosting EVERYTHING and leave some crumbs for the rest of us geeky hosts.

There are also a number of talk radio hosts who don’t do “traditional” shows who have been an influence. Dave Glover from KFTK in St. Louis has no idea who I am, but he has been the biggest influence on the kind of show I want to do. He is very conversational and very funny on air. The Trivia Thunderdome on "Geek Universe" was inspired by the Glover Show’s weekly Battle of the Halfwits. If I ever experience major success, it will be in some part because of Dave and his show.

8. Of what are you most proud?

Beyond my wife and two daughters, the easy answer is the last show or last live appearance or last interview. However, my proudest moment was 7 years ago while I was directing a community theater production of "Arsenic and Old Lace." It is one of my favorite stage plays and about 6 weeks before the show opened, our theater burned down. I stood watching the fire department put out the flames and knew we were still going to do the show. The next day, I met with the theater group and we decided to do whatever was needed to put on the show. Our cast and crew pulled together like nothing I have ever seen and we did it at the same location with a temp stage, trailers for dressing rooms, and borrowed set pieces and costumes…with only a one week delay in opening. The show was a hit, had huge crowds, and I had the most memorable theater experience of my life. It was the best show I have ever been a part of.

9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ____________.

...Coca-Cola and the Internet.

10. What's the most valuable lesson you've learned in the business so far?

Never give up. To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum in "Jurassic Park," “Talent finds a way.” To stay in radio, I’ve worked weekends where I was just babysitting the automation system or had one on-air shift a week just so I could keep my skills up. When others wouldn’t give me an opportunity, I’ve created my own. During one hiatus, I wrote a book. During another, I started a podcast and did stand-up comedy. Have faith in yourself and don’t give up. I’ve seen fellow broadcasters make their own opportunities and achieve success even when other s held them back. It’s all about being ready when it’s your turn to hit a home run or solid double down the line.