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10 Questions with ... Tomm Looney
May 21, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. Is radio in my future? Put it this way: Radio stations will be getting an enthusiastic diamond on the beach if they hire me. In the meantime, I'm impatient. Patience is no virtue. (I yell "hurry up!" at my microwave.) I'm aiming for a reinvention that you will see when it happens
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
PROMO DEMOFor the past 20 years, Tomm Looney has been an L.A.-based radio and TV anchor and talk show host. Looney may be best known as the "voice" of the Best Damn Sports Show, Period -- during its nine season run from July 2001 until July 2009. From 2003-2018, Looney was the Looney half of the "JT The Brick Show with Tomm Looney" on FOX Sports Radio.
1) What do you do to maintain a positive mental attitude and to stay motivated?
My philosophy is, "BLESS YOUR STRESS." It means you're still alive." (That was the title of a book my friend Mimi Richardson penned. I told her, "The title is too good.") Those of us who choose risky professions thrive on this stress. It means we're out on a limb, diving into so-called "risky professions" that are very competitive.
My philosophy also is: It's not that competitive.
Without a driver's license, I drove a Ford Pinto 3,000 miles across the country to Los Angeles to pursue big goals. I invite the stress of losing cool gigs and searching for reinvention. Bring it on. I'll be fine. I've got air in my lungs.
2) How are you occupying your time, besides looking for a job?
Most talk show hosts are autodidactic people who are interested in everything. That's me. One constant in my life: I'm an exercise freak. I firmly believe in the "exercise cure" for depression, stress, anxiety, etc. I have a 900-acre park behind my house. Five days per week, I run or walk into the woods -- unplugged with no "noise"-- and it gives me a great silent creative space for wonder.
3) Some people get discouraged or enlightened with the business when they actually step out of it for a while. Tell us your observations from the outside.
No different than when I was on the inside. I'll never stop being impressed with the ability of my colleagues to perform in an improvisational format day after day.
Stand-up comics work on the same 20 minutes night after night. They edit and add and subtract until they've got a solid 20. Then they work on 40. Then, they work on their 60-minute HBO special.
Radio talk show hosts have to fly by the seat of their pants daily, and fill a blank slate with new paint day after day, and some days they have to do it with no paint available. They're amazing.
4) Do you plan on sticking with radio?
I came to L.A. to act, made a lot of money on a few commercials and then used that money to become a restaurant guy. We opened up Van Gogh's Ear in Venice, and everybody came. The '90s was an amazing decade. Then I reinvented. I spent the 2000s as a radio and TV sports anchor, talk show host and voiceover guy.
Is radio in my future? Put it this way: Radio stations will be getting an enthusiastic diamond on the beach if they hire me. In the meantime, I'm impatient. Patience is no virtue. (I yell "hurry up!" at my microwave.) I'm aiming for a reinvention that you will see when it happens.
5) What's the longest stretch you've had on the beach?
I've been on the radio beach all of 2019. I did tape a pilot for a game show. I'm writing a book, I'm doing some imaging for a radio station in Aruba, and I currently have an Ally Bank commercial running where I play a 2 Star Dentist.
Radio wise: Between KLSX, KFWB, XTRA Sports 1150, KFI, The Best Damn Sports Show, AM 570/Los Angeles and FOX Sports Radio, I had a 20-year run! So now is my turn to be on the radio beach, and that's okay. I'm not spending all my time in a Speedo on the beach.
(And FYI, that's not a bad visual. I'm a radio guy who can actually pull off wearing a Speedo. My physical fitness philosophy has always been to "be Speedo ready at all times.")
6) What's the best way to get your foot in the door?
How do you run a marathon? You start by buying running shoes. It makes it real. How do you get your foot in the door at McDonald's? You walk in! Google the address of your favorite radio station, then during normal business hours, drive to the station and walk through the front door. Start asking questions. I'm not being sarcastic, or Looney. Walk through the front door of your favorite station. You have now got your foot in the door. Now it's real. Start asking questions.
You've also got social media. E-mail or DM your favorite hosts. Ask them questions. Some of the top hosts and producers in this business started out by e-mailing their favorite hosts and asking them to come by. We had quite a number of interns at FOX Sports Radio, and a host who got their foot in the door by emailing me.
7) What has been your best resource for finding out about job openings?
Friends. Don't network. Sincerely make friends. You don't work in a toxic work environment. You are your work environment. Your behavior is real, and your kind behavior is stronger than any toxin. "Toxic work environment" is an abstract cliché. Your behavior is real. Be good to people with whom you work, and to people in your business. It's not only the right thing to do, and the right way to be. It also pays dividends in many other ways.
8) What's the craziest thing you've ever done to get a job?
I did mention earlier that I drove across the country 3,000 miles to re-invent myself, and I had no driver's license? That should at least get an honorable mention. I did once drop off flowers to the PD at KIIS-FM, and my three-minute cassette tape was inside the flowers. He never called, and that's okay. I took a right on red, and found other avenues to get where I wanted to go professionally.
9) What is the next job you'd like to obtain?
My next career involves changing the lives of others, but I don't want to jinx it. In radio, I am best suited for mornings, or imaging. However, with my enthusiasm and love of the sound of my own voice turned up really loud in Sony headphones, those aren't mandatory.
10) Are you finding salaries/benefits lower than you ever thought, about the same, or have you seen some pleasant surprises?
Remember how I began this by saying, "Bless your stress. It means you're still alive?" I'm the last guy that you should ask about money. My dad died at 31, so I was always driven by expiration date over retirement date, and therefore living life to the fullest, serving others, and doing exactly what I wanted to do for a living. Money bores me.
My goal in life was to make good money in order that I could take my friends out to dinner and pick up the check, and also use the money to help others. For 20 years, I had a good salary in media, and many times two or three salaries, where I was achieving the number one goal of being Santa Claus with my money. Don't let the coins drive your happiness.
I have always been driven by why I want to do something, rather than what I want to do.
Bonus Questions
Care to contribute a recipe for our "On The Beach" cookbook
I'm a muscle head. I eat more chicken than a fox. How's this for a recipe:
Boil a chicken in a pot.
Boil some sweet potatoes in another pot.
Eat them.
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