10 Questions with ... Luke Burbank

NAME:Luke Burbank TITLE:Host, Too Beautiful To Live STATION:710KIRO MARKET:Seattle COMPANY:Bonneville BORN:Eureka, California / 5-8-76 RAISED:Seattle

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Answered an ad in my college paper, which led to working at the local NPR station (KUOW). Stints as a traffic reporter, AM talk producer, public radio producer, NPR Producer, NPR Reporter, NPR Host followed. Now I'm back in Seattle working on KIRO, the station I grew up listening to... sweet!

1. You were at NPR, but your style and sense of humor aren't necessarily what people think of when they conjure up an image of that network. Now you're at a major commercial station -- how did that come about, and what differences, if any, are there in approaching this job as opposed to what you did at NPR?

There are actually a lot of very funny people at NPR, it's just that you fall asleep while the boring ones are talking and you miss it. The way I got this gig at KIRO was that I was trying to weasel two free meals out of Rod Arquette and the next thing I know I was signing a contract. He's crafty that way. Actually, I was working for NPR in New York and realized that it was just too far from my kiddo (I have a teenager who lives in Seattle) and that creatively it was not the show I was looking to do. Rod heard that I was coming to Seattle and we had lunch. I told him that I wanted to do a show on AM radio that didn't sound like AM radio and he seemed intrigued. He told me that he's okay if the show didn't appeal to him, since it wasn't really for him. I was impressed, and literally three weeks later I was signed on.

2. A question you are undoubtedly already tired of answering: The title of your show is "Too Beautiful To Live." Why? The Hank Snow lyric, the YouTube video about a gay punk bar in Seattle, or are you and the show simply TBTL?

Jen Andrews (TBTL's Producer) and I kept talking about how we were okay with the show being Too Beautiful To Live. We are just totally uninterested in doing some talk show where people call in and yell about politics, or public breast-feeding or whatever other lame topic we've gotten them frothed up over. Most of my favorite things are kind of TBTL. For instance, "Arrested Development" was maybe the most perfect TV comedy of all time and it was always on the edge of being cancelled. It was TBTL. If we make the "Arrested Development" of AM radio and it gets cancelled, I will sleep like a baby. At some point Jen and I had thrown it around so much that I just called her and asked "what if we just call it Too Beautiful To Live?" and she liked it. And unto us a name was born.

3. This is a homecoming for you -- what and who about Seattle did you miss most while living in L.A. and Brooklyn?

Well, hands down, it's my kid. But I also missed knowing where things are, and those things not being 300 miles away (LA) and having a car to get to those things (no car in NYC which totally blew). I also like the fact that I'm not the only person for 50 square miles who follows Seattle sports (a problem in LA and NYC). I mean, as I write this I'm sitting at my kid's volleyball practice with plans to go play some poker at the local casino later. Life is good.

4. One of the signature bits on the new show is "Defend Yourself," in which you challenge writers to defend their stated positions (like the Newsweek TV critic who lauded the new "American Gladiators"). Of all the things you like in pop culture, defend yourself -- what's the one song, musician, TV show, whatever that's your guiltiest pleasure and why do you like it?

On a recent flight from NYC to LA I was choosing songs from the airline's list of mp3's. One of the songs I chose was "Your Body is a Wonderland" by John Mayer. I can't really talk about it. It's that humiliating.

5. You have an AM talk show that uses bumper and theme music from alternative and indie acts that may never have been heard on AM radio anywhere, or at least not in Seattle, and, much like at "The Bryant Park Project," you're talking about stuff that doesn't get a lot of play on traditional talk radio, pop culture and relationship and lifestyle topics that would appeal to a younger audience than one might expect to be on the AM dial. Do you think you can attract those younger listeners while not alienating the older folks to whom Arcade Fire is a mystery?

I don't think the music is that big of a deal, because to people who know Band of Horses or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah it's awesome, and to those who don't, it's just anonymous music they hear before I start talking. Now the content, that's a stickier wicket. I don't know if this show is so much an age thing as a sensibility thing. Like, there are young people who already hate us, and older folks who think we're great. If you get irony and think most things in the world are worth making fun of, then this is the show for you. Having said that, it will never be all things to all people. I actually think that's what ruins a lot of shows. They try to appeal to everyone, and it ends up tasting like Old Country Buffet. Lousy Spaghetti, Egg Rolls, Fajitas and Frozen Yogurt from the same place. Gross. I'd rather do one slightly esoteric thing really well. There's a cupcake place in NYC called Magnolia Bakery. People wait in line for two hours for those cupcakes. Hate cupcakes? Then it's not the store for you, but if you do, ho boy.

6. How different is it to work evenings as opposed to the morning show -- how does the time of day affect the content of the show?

Well, I'm not sobbing for the first two hours of the show, so that must be some kind of improvement. I hated getting up in the morning more than I've ever hated anything in my life. It was like a Sword of Damocles hanging over me all the time I wasn't at work. I made Jen swear to me that no matter how popular the show might become, and how much money they might offer us, we will NEVER do a morning show. That's how brutal it was. Conversely, I love doing nights. The listeners are relaxed and in a good mood, and so are we, and everyone is ready to have some fun. It's night and day (literally! Ha!.... okay that's terrible. I apologize).

7. What makes you laugh?

30 Rock. Some Like It Hot. Strangers With Candy. The Odd Couple (Lemmon and Matthau). My sister Sarah (I've got four sisters and two brothers), and my kid. Constantly. She just did a history project about how John Smith was waaaay too old for Pocahontas. She called the project "To Catch A Settler". That killed me.

8. If this radio thing hadn't worked out, what would you most likely be doing right now?

Um, in my fantasy alternate life I would be a film director or actor or professional poker player. The reality would probably have been more like working at Amazon or Microsoft, and watching movies occasionally, and losing my kid's college fund at the casino (okay, that is my exact life right now except I DO have a radio show).

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

...getting choked up about something or other.

10. What's the best advice you ever got? The worst?

Best: be yourself. People will go there with you.

Worst: Don't talk about yourself so much.