-
10 Questions with ... Bob Lacey
October 9, 2007
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
NAME:Bob LaceyTITLE:Co-host, "Bob and Sheri Show"STATION:Bob and Sheri Network, based at WLNK (107.9 The Link)/CharlotteMARKET:Nationally syndicatedCOMPANY: Lincoln FInancial MediaBORN:New Haven, ConnecticutRAISED:New Haven, Connecticut
BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Started at WSAR, Fall River, Massachusetts -- "Ahoy there, matey, it's 1480" -- while in college.
Mornings and program director at WAAB in Worcester at 19.
WBT nights with talk, then morning drive.
Local Charlotte host of syndicated TV show "PM Magazine" in the '80's. Became national reporter on the show. I did most of their funny kicker stories. Traveled from Hartford to Hong Kong to get them.
Came back to morning radio in the 90's.
Teamed with Sheri Lynch 14 years ago. We are now carried on 53 stations throughout the USA.1. What got you into radio in the first place? Why did you return to it after several years in TV?
As a teenager I heard Joey Reynolds and Lee Baby Simms at night out of two Hartford stations. They were so much bigger than the songs they played. Funny and interesting. Also, my father couldn't sleep at night, and so he would listen to the great talk stations from New York all night long. I think the sound seeped through the wall that separated his bedroom from mine and I absorbed it.
I returned from a great TV gig because I felt my skills were better suited to radio. With TV, everything has to be cleared, edited, and involves so many people. I work best with a small group of people I like. I don't care to wait around much, and with magazine style TV, there is a lot of waiting around. Plus, many people can do a standup in front of a camera. Very, very few can do a great morning show.
2. What are you the most passionate about these days?
Getting Jennifer Connelly to leave her husband for me. But since that is not going so well, I am focused on keeping Bob and Sheri the best AC conversation show ever on the air. I am always looking for ways to move us in to new areas, and yet not lose the main reason the audience comes: to hear the funny play between Sheri and me. There is nothing else like it in radio. The audience can hear the difference between the way we relate, and the phony forced crap that passes for real entertainment in so many markets. On the road a few weeks ago, I actually heard a show do the Battle of the Sexes. "OK Roadburn, what is a scrunchie?" I thought it was 1985.
3. How do you see your role on the show, and how has it evolved since you teamed up with Sheri?
I am a funny father. I tell stories about my girls dating, learning to drive, and not locking the doors when they come home at night. I have storytelling and observational skills, but my main contribution is to set up Sheri Lynch for the one-liner that people will be talking about later at work. Sheri is the fastest and funniest one-liner artist on radio. Not the fastest and funniest woman, the fastest and funniest PERSON. Male comics walk out of our studio in love with her. Much of my show prep involves what will give her a chance to shine, so I will declare something like...
Bob: I just wish as a man, I could experience the wonder of childbirth, if only I wasn't so...
Sheri: Selfish?4. If you could go back to your younger self, what advice would you give yourself?
Don't spring for the expensive seats at the Milli Vanilli concert, and buy G.E. stock. Other than that, be careful who you marry. She will have more impact than anyone on you show and life.
5. The show, and The Link, have been quite successful, yet there's still some resistance to the idea of "Talk for Women" in the industry. To what do you ascribe the show and the station's success, and why do you think there is still hesitancy among general managers and program directors to embrace the concept?
I understand the tremendous pressures GM's and PD's are put under. A company gives them about six weeks to win with a new format and then sell it! Pretty hard to do. I feel for those guys.
That said, we all know radio is afraid of change, and Bob and Sheri are blazing new paths for the future with women targeted programming. No one else is doing it as successfully as The Link and our long time affiliate partners. When I took over morning drive in Charlotte, the Top 40 format was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Today we make MILLIONS AND MILLIONS, and the sales staffs of our long term affiliates tell us we are almost always their strongest calling card.
I think there is a lack of understanding of what women want. The business is run mostly by guys. Guys think like guys. I had a jackass tell me once, "Women don't like other women on the air." Really? Ask 'ol Phil Donahue about that, pal. His career was ended by a woman named Oprah Winfrey. Why? She thinks like a woman. She talks like a woman. That is why I pushed to hire the most talented woman I could find, Sheri Lynch. Women love the way she plays with me, tells her bosses off and worries about her kids making friends. They would love to have that power.
But here's the trick. You can't do it by just putting in the "spunky traffic gal." Women want a star they can look up to, not
someone who two years ago was setting up remotes. It's easier for men to say "I don't understand what women want, so let's just play some old Bryan Adams tunes in the morning like everyone else." Listen, if you were to replace Howard Stern, you wouldn't do it with someone with few real radio skills, would you? Uh, maybe that's a bad example.
6. Who are your heroes?
The late Jean Shepherd, who did a nightly monologue on WOR when I was a kid. He also wrote the movie "A Christmas Story." Also Rick Jackson, the best General Manager I have ever worked for.
7. What are you proudest of?
I was early predicting the "Jammin' Oldies" format wouldn't have legs. Also, I found Sheri Lynch, who had never been on the air, and pushed the previous management to hire her over their strong objections. I offered to pay the first $10,000 a year out of my own salary. Best offer I ever made.
8. If you hadn't gone into radio/TV what would you be doing today?
Either I would be a talent agent in L.A. or own a lobster shack in Maine. Probably the shack.
9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ___________.
...one of my two ex-wives calling to ask if I'll still be able to make the payments after the company is sold.
10. What's the best advice you've ever gotten? The worst?
The best was "The most important show prep you'll ever do is a good night's sleep."
The worst was "Go ahead, get drunk and celebrate now, there's no way you can lose six Marconis in a row."
-
-