10 Questions with ... Dale Dudley & Bob Fonseca

1) What was your first job in radio and early influences?

Dudley: I won an LP one night when I was 14 years old from a DJ named Jack Monroe at KTBB/Tyler. That planted the seed. When I was 17, I landed the overnight Sunday morning gig there. In my late teens I would stay home and watch Ron Chapman do a TV simulcast that he did once a year out of KVIL/Dallas. That's when I knew I had to do mornings. Then I heard a guy named Stern on tape and my head exploded.

Bob: Promotions Director at KLBJ, 1986-1987. Was hired in 1992 to partner with Dale on-air. I listened to a lot of AM radio when I was a kid living in New Jersey. My earliest radio memories were of Mr. Jerry Blavat (sp?) on WFIL Philadelphia ('60s). WFIL was blasting every morning before school from a little Sony transistor radio on top of our fridge. I went to high school in England ('70s) and I listened to pirate radio stations coming in on the FM each night on my Motorola stereo and Koss headphones.

2) What led you to a career in radio? Was there a defining moment that made you realize "this is it?"

Dudley: I grew up with parents that never even mentioned college. You finished high school and got a job. That idea bored me to tears. I knew I wanted to be in show business. I thought I wanted to be a stand-up comedian so in '83, I moved to Lubbock, TX and did stand-up and radio part-time. I got a lot of attention as the local hack comic, won a couple of contests, but I had horrible anxiety about it all. Then I landed the morning show at KFMX (Lubbock) and about that same time I did a week opening for Bill Hicks and T-Sean Shannon. Bill made me realize I had a long way to go in stand up. I was already way ahead behind the microphone.

Bob: Radio was not a dream at any point though radio and music got me through my early years. I got a RTF degree from University of Texas at Austin in 1978. But I only studied Film, not Radio or TV. My first gig after college was a producer gig at the local CBS affiliate. Consequently it was right next door to the old KLBJ building and I knew some of the guys. A few years later I took a job as a publicist at our local 17,000-seat arena. Through that job I found myself at KLBJ at lot setting up promotions, advertising and sometimes dropping off artists. They eventually told me to work for them in promo. After a couple of years at the station I was recruited by a national ad agency to do radio promotions for them. Which I did for a few years before getting another call from KLBJ. It was a long strange trip, but I was hanging around the station since the early '80s so it figured I would end up there.

3) When and how did you guys meet and begin working together?

Dale: Bob was actually our promotions director when I came in for mornings in '87. He was the slickest and best looking dude in the station. He had and has an incredible eye for design and creative promotions. This was in the days of unlimited promotional budgets. I had never seen anything like the promotions they did at LBJ in my career. The station even had its own hot air balloon. Bob was in high demand in the advertising world and he left about a year after I had joined and ended up at G,S,D&M, the most powerful agency in the south. I never had any idea he wanted to even be on the air. But when Clark Ryan decided to go into management he lobbied hard for the gig surprisingly. I have to be honest I didn't pick Bob. Management did. I'm glad they didn't leave it in my hands. I probably would have gone with another kind of ego.

Bob: A year in to my promo stint long-haired Dale Dudley showed up for morning show duty. I was one of the first guys to have a mac at the time I would find Dale at my desk playing. We did some promo appearances with him and we hung out a little.

4) Dale, I understand that you were recruited to KLBJ from KFMX/Lubbock to work alongside Clark Ryan as his partner. What can you take away from that experience that prepared you for doing mornings all these years later for KLBJ?

Dudley: When I was in Lubbock, I was the same age as my college buddies who were going to school there. It was a constant party. I also grew some balls. I had always followed whatever a PD told me to do. I was a time-and-temperature guy. But doing stand-up, you had to at least pretend to be rebellious onstage. I started putting on a good front and bucking up what I thought was the norm. I would hear Howard on the NBC news feed and I can remember clearly one day thinking, "If I keep playing records I'll be dead in this business." I'm sure I didn't think of myself as the product. I wasn't that confident. But looking back I can see where it began to turn that indeed to win in morning drive I would need to make the listener want to hear a show that made them laugh and want to pick that over hearing Golden Earring. No offense, Golden Earring.

5) Bob, after Clark left and you were paired with Dale, how was it working with him initially and what's it like working with the same partner for 25 years?

Bob: We were aware of each other but I wouldn't say close when I came back. I was a listener and fan of Dale and Clark and listened when I wasn't travelling for the agency. We had to find a chemistry. We knew we wanted to build something special and proprietary, but not music-based because our feeling was we wanted to have a universal appeal and not be restricted to a music format. Management reluctantly went with us and we knew our asses were on the line if it didn't work. Dale and I both had strong comedy backgrounds, him being a performer and me being a consumer of Steve Allen, Carson, Letterman and various comedians. We both had a strong desire to create "a show," not just be presenters. I've always said that I didn't want to get famous playing things that famous people had created. We both had a desire to create something original. It has morphed over the years from scripted type bits to natural conversation and chemistry. Our voices, names, fights, stories are all real. I can't think anything we've made up. On our show, if what you say is not funny ... no one laughs.

6) Describe a typical morning show meeting for you guys. a) What is the process? b) How much show prep do you do and what are some of the key benchmarks of your show?

Dale: Meeting? What is this thing you call a meeting? No, we do meet with promotions weekly and about every other quarter, we will get together with other amazing people in our building and come up with possible contests/bits etc. We don't do much in the way of the old Zoo-type stuff. We create things that are targeted towards the quirks of the show members. I have always believed in an ensemble, so my producers are almost always on mic. Matt Bearden does a great character called "Pop Cop." Since we refuse to talk about Kardashians or anything related to pop culture, this gives us a chance to snag the drive-byes. Pop cop has stuck around a while, but I burn pretty quick on benchmarks so at the most, we will only do something for a couple of months. Again, that is me rebelling against off-air experts. I do keep segments that are aimed at getting a reaction from the cast. "Fast Food Fanatics" is just stories about food because our producer Daniel Gallo is obsessed with food ... and his opinions and reactions are hilarious.

I over-prep each morning and before my drive in I print out a clock on a colorful spreadsheet. We have completely gone to using Google docs for links. But the most amazing thing about prep is we created a "That Damned Show Prep Page" on Facebook and our "Warriors" (hardcore P1s) contribute to that every single day. I can spend 45 minutes trying to find talking points at 4:30 in the morning. I go to that show prep page and often times I have a show ready in 15 minutes. Our hardcore listeners are amazing.

Bob: What's a morning show meeting? Dale comes in with a roadmap of topics/Internet memes and we go from there. Each show takes off from there with Dale as the driver and the rest of us trying to run him off the road. Most mornings it works.

L to R: Bob Fonseca (sunglasses), Dale Dudley (tall, glasses), Matt Bearden (looking to side), Carissa Jaded (lower, female), Daniel Gallo

7) Tell us some of the best morning show moments on KLBJ during your time there?

Dale: Well, at this point I have a horrific memory. I tend to forget bits but instead remember the controversies and the crazy on-air fights we have had. We try and give the listeners the most real show we can put on. I'm not good at confrontation when a mic is off, but I'll have a knock-down, drag-out when we are on the air. So for me one that stands out is the only time Bob and I got physical, if you can call it that. I lost my temper and came across the room and pushed him in the chest, while he was sitting down in a chair with rollers. So our biggest disagreement ended with me moving his chair about an inch-and-a-half.

We also did our vasectomies together live on the air (with credit given to Steve Dahl who did it in the '70s), so that was interesting. Seeing each other down there after a quarter-century together.

We've had every guest you could imagine in studio. Some of the stand-outs for me have been Edward Norton, Russell Crowe, Bill Shatner and Billy Dee Williams.

Our show has always centered on stand-up comics. Bill Hicks was a great friend and called us one morning after the Letterman debacle. A few months later he was gone. Ron White was broke and moving into my house the same week he got a call from Jeff Foxworthy. We literally know every comic in the country and for me one of the greatest compliments is when we hear that Joe Rogan or one of the other greats has given us credit on a podcast for being one of the few shows they still enjoy doing. We do not, nor would we ever "set up" a comic or make them do "jokes." If you're doing that on your show, you're doing a disservice to the comic and the listener.

And of course, back in the day we bungee-jumped, skydived, tortured interns when you still could and in the '90s, there were the strippers and porn stars. But thanks to Janet Jackson's nipple and a slew of kids we finally grew up ... a little.

Bob: So hard to remember. We've met some unforgettable characters from the super-famous to the not-so-famous. We've caught celebs on the way up and some on the way back down. Too many crazy mornings to include here. It's fun watching TV and movies with my kids and going "I know that guy." We have also had some amazing live events and listener interactions over the years.

8) How active are you guys with social media like Facebook and Twitter and how do you think that benefits your morning show?

Dale: I say this to management and our talent constantly: DO GREAT RADIO. We are not in the social media business. But it is a great way to communicate with the listener. For a while there, the industry was obsessed with it. I can remember being very frustrated that suddenly we were in the social media business. It has been a distraction at times for my producers,who are tasked with posting everything. But now it has settled down into a cool groove. CJ Morgan, our night guy, handles our stuff and he is a whiz. During the morning show, Carissa McAtee does the web blasting.

I'm still a big, sensitive baby. I can get 20 tweets from cancer patients or soldiers who will tell me what the show has meant to them and I'll throw back a quick "Cool! Thanks!" But I'll spend hours crafting replies to haters and trolls. Now that I'm doing a political show in the afternoon, I've just abandoned my Twitter account so I don't let it impact either show. I'm on Facebook often and I share both work-related and personal stuff.

Bob: Social media is evil, but we are contractually obligated to engage in it. It may be too early to the evolution to know how it helps us. I know we get a majority of our show prep and ideas from it, so I will say it is good. The evil ... if you are having a bad day and you go on Facebook and find that everyone else's dreams are coming true and yours aren't... it can be demoralizing! But I will say that I don't engage in Twitter wars ... I couldn't care less what anyone has to say about me or the show.

9) Congrats on celebrating 25 years of working together in mornings on KLBJ. That's quite an accomplishment. How are you guys planning to celebrate this momentous occasion?

Dale: Our partner Matt Bearden (who is a stand-up) along with my wife Amanda (and a bunch of people at the station) threw together a big show at Austin's legendary Paramount Theater. They convinced some very successful comics and musicians we have known forever to perform for us. They have kept Bob and me almost completely in the dark about what is going down. It's a huge honor that they would work so hard and that the listeners actually bought every darn ticket. I'm really and truly touched.

Emmis helped us celebrate by offering us the longest-termed contract we've ever been offered. We will be here at least through the next five to seven years, hopefully. We both still have young kids.

Bob: Big bash with family, friends and listeners at the historic Paramount Theater. Then back to near-obscurity. I do a daily intro for the show and lately I've been adding "celebrating 25 years of woulda, coulda, shouldas..." It can feel that way. For 25 years it's felt like we have been on the brink of something ... Maybe tomorrow....

10) Finally, who is funnier and why?

Dudley: Oh come on! Okay, watch me be diplomatic.

Matt Bearden is the funniest. Hands down. The only time I've ever seen a stand-up comic make the transfer to morning radio seamless. He's a genius and he completely helped us re-vamp and revitalize our show almost eight years ago.

Bob is second because he is a sniper. I will try and make everything a joke. I'll go for every bad line I possibly can, even when I know it is bad. Bob paces himself and waits until his timing is perfect. When he delivers one of his long range bullets of a line, it is usually pure genius.

Oh, and did I mention our wives are best friends? So I have to be nice and we have to stay together.

Bob: Whoever gets a laugh in that minute. I have been called a sniper and king of the one-liners, Dale has a rich history of small-town Texas stories and family experiences to draw from. Matt Bearden is a stand-up comedian by trade. It's three different ways to make each other and the audience engage and hopefully laugh. Mic time is not given but earned. Some mornings it can be tough to squeeze in with five or more people on mic. I'm glad I'm not being paid by the word!

You guys talk for a living but give us the lowdown on your favorite music ... both artists and songs?

Dudley: Bob, can I fill this in for you? He looks like and has been mistaken for Springsteen and he's the Boss' biggest fan.

When we stopped playing music in '91, I kind of stopped keeping up. But I love Tom Petty almost as much as Bob loves Bruce. Just saw him recently and sat in the second row. This is amazing because after almost 40 years in the business I do not go out. I can't say I have a favorite song but lately I've been going back and listening to World Party and David Baerwald. The latter should have been hugely famous.

Bob: Dylan, Beatles, Springsteen, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello (maybe in that order)... Wilco I guess if I need something from this century. Anything Motown ('60s). Too many great songs ... Don't hear much greatness these days.