10 Questions with ... Paul 'Lobster' Wells

1. What led you to a career in radio? Was there a defining moment?

Attended the City University of New York to become a veterinarian. Went in for a DVM degree, and became a DJ. As a Freshman, I started doing shows at the campus station (WCCR). By my Senior year, I had changed majors and in the winter, visited my brother who was a grad student at Stanford. There were five FM Rock stations around the SF Bay and the weather was warm. I knew then what I wanted to do and where I wanted to live. By summer, I moved west, to the Redwoods between SF and SJ. My dog was really happy. So was I.

2. Can you give us a brief history of your radio career up to now (stations and positions)?

I'm well-traveled, been on over a dozen signals, all in California. Let's avoid a laundry list of calls, start at the beginning and speed read through the rest. Knocked on all five of those SF Bay Area FM Rock radio station doors. One PD gave me encouragement, Doug Droese at KSJO, but no work. I volunteered at KZSU/Stanford where I became MD. The following October, Doug hired me for weekends and fill-ins. When KSJO changed owners and flipped to Top 40, I went over to KOME. While at KOME, with friends from Stanford's KZSU, we started Flow Communications as an ad agency. In 1976, I returned to KSJO as MD/APD and 6-10p DJ. Next was San Francisco and the legendary KSAN/SF at the end of the Jive 95 era where I was 10p-2a. I bounced between stations, ownership and format changes in SJ and SF, including KLIV/SJ afternoons and APD and the entire run of Rock of the '80s 98.9 The Quake SF, 1982-1985. 1986, I landed at KMET/L.A., then became the first heavy metal morning man at KNAC/L.A. Returned to KSJO for mornings there, and replaced by a shock jock, which I am not. Then The Lobster Breakfast moved to CBS' 97.3 The Rocker, KRQR/SF from 1988-1992. We had a great team and great ratings until management changes. KFOX/San Jose was the next stop. After that, simultaneous to a return to KRQR, I got into syndicated radio, producing a series of 25th Anniversary of Woodstock features for CBS Radio Network, which connected me with the company that produces The House of Blues radio programs. I became their Dir./Production and Marketing 1994-1997. Next, Creative Dir./Business Radio 1220, Dir./Programming for Information Network Radio, creating five Talk channels for Sirius. When that blew up as collateral damage in the "Dot Com Bomb" of 2000, I moved my company, Flow Communications, to 69 Green Street, producing numerous multi-media projects and advertising campaigns. Two of the projects brought me back to on-air radio, Lobster's Rock Box, a one-hour syndicated weekend Classic Rock radio program that grew to 25 markets, coast-to-coast. 97.7 The River in Santa Rosa was one of them. Also created a talk show teaming political comedian Will Durst and former SF Mayor Willie Brown. In 2005, Flow signed with Clear Channel to provide a local morning show for their Air America Affiliate, KQKE. That was the second time I worked at a San Francisco station called The Quake. I am the producer and moderator. We are currently in a series of mid-term election specials and since 2008 have done the program as a podcast radio/TV Talk program from Pop-up locations around iconic and scenic San Francisco locations. We've been broadcasting on Facebook Live and KSCO, streaming from their website as well.

3. You've worked for some iconic SF Bay Area Rock stations. What are some of your most memorable moments on the radio in the Bay Area up to now?

I'll limit myself to two, because I've been lucky to have enough to fill a book, which I'm writing one blog at a time. A Rock & Roll road trip on July 4th Weekend, 1977, flying to Tulsa and back between two days on The Green in Oakland with Lynyrd Skynyrd. They played for Bill Graham on July 2nd and 4th, and Willie Nelson's Picnic on July 3rd. Three of the finest performances ever. The blog of that story is under Lobster Tales at LobstersSundayBrunch.com. The other I'll mention here was broadcasting the day after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake from CBS studios on the 32nd Floor of One Embarcadero Center. Had to drive around rubble in the streets, as the later to be demolished double-decker waterfront freeway was "red-tagged." At one point, I had to pass firemen digging out a car, crushed by a brick wall fell that fell into the street. The 7.0 quake struck a bit past 5p, and inside that car was a couple. One had just picked the other up after work. When I got in, we were simulcasting our all-News sister station, KCBS. Our GM, Carl Dickens, called to tell me New York had just OK'd our going back to regular KRQR programming at 6a. He told me to just toss the playlist, avoid playing anything like Eddie Money's "Shakin'" and pick songs I knew would be uplifting and soothing. We covered the news with Liz St. John through the aftershocks and Kevin "The Rat" Radich was our sports guy. He was at Candlestick Park for the "Bay Bridge" World Series when the earthquake struck right before game time. It was like holding hands with our listeners. Radio has an obligation to the local communities they serve, and we're at our finest in a disaster. As a footnote, the Marconi Awards just honored KSRO, part of the Amaturo Sonoma Media Group, for the stations roll in last October's fires in the North Bay. Very proud of everything the staff of all our stations did, 24/7, during that week.

Bay Area Rock Legends James Hetfield (Metallica), Paul "Lobster" Wells, Sammy Hagar.

4. You also did a stint at the legendary KNAC/Long Beach in mornings. How was that experience for you?

Fantastic! In January of 1986, between my first and second weekends at KMET, the PD, their 4th in not even as many years, Rich Piombino, was fired. I was put aside. My radio partner-in-crime from KSJO, Tawn Mastrey, was at KNAC part-time. They had just dropped Alternative for Heavy Metal, and their morning man quit. She got me in the door. That was February. She became middays. Wild Bill Scott, who Tawn worked with at KMEL, was afternoons. Sam Freeze nights. It was a great team. We had 3,000 watts from 300 feet on Signal Hill in Long Beach. KMET had 50,000 watts from 5,000 ft on Mount Wilson. Yet, that summer we beat them for Men 18-24. We ruled! Guys from the valley would drive up to Mullholland in the Hollywood Hills to listen to "Pure Rock" KNAC. One of our big voice slogans was "If it's too loud, you're too old!" At KSJO, we broke AC/DC as an import, and Sammy Hagar was our guy, so I was no stranger to Heavy Metal. To this day, it's never too loud for me.

5. Congrats on your 10 years doing Lobster's Sunday Bruch on 97.7 The River. How did this show originally come together?

Thank you. It's the longest running continuous gig I've ever had, and it's a unique, entrepreneurial, situation. 97.7 The River was one of the affiliates of my weekly syndicated show, Lobster's Rock Box. I had to pull it for financial reasons in 2007. In 2008, Mike Watermann, who was PD/afternoos, called me to say he missed the show. Asked me if he could re-run the CDs of the programs. I declined, but had a new concept for a syndicated show. I wanted to cover a full daypart, Sundays 10a-3p. I saw that as financially more feasible than one hour. I could produce it at their studio, keep a digital copy and strip out the IDs when I planned to get it on other stations. We sat down with then GM, Jeff Clark. The show concept is not eclectic. It was to serve up the "meat and potatoes" of the songs in rotation, and spice it up with traditional, old school FM Rock DJ recipes. Since I know what songs have worked over the years, and programmed before computers took over the job, many tracks that are winners are not lost in my memory chips. Flow Communications signed to produce the show, in the syndicated program method, and split the inventory. We agreed that I'd need to land a sponsor to start. I had known Bruce Cohn since the early days of the Doobie Bros. when they were the house band at The Chateau Liberte, a biker bar in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and I was the kid on the air staff at KSJO in 1972. I looked like a burly biker in my 20s, so I fit right in. Bruce was still managing them, and had also made a success with the BR Cohn Winery at his Glen Ellen property. We sat down with him at his office, laid out the cost, and BR Cohn was in as the presenting sponsor for the first four years. My job on the air was to send people from Santa Rosa down Highway 12 to his tasting room and Doobie Brothers Museum. Bruce has since sold the winery, but still lives in the Valley of the Moon. His interest in viticulture remains, so I'd expect news soon. Flow still offers first-in-break live endorsement 60-second spots for sponsor positions.

Lobster and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top).

6. Are you doing any special features or benchmark music programming for the Lobster's Sunday Brunch show?

Branding 101. The Lobster's show is on Sunday's 10a-3p. Thus the name. Almost all the special features, which are positioned three-four times an hour, are benchmarks in the musical meal theme. The thematic set of three songs is the "Special Medley of the Week," a feature highlighting a concert at a venue within the greater Bay Area is "The Local Catch Of The Week" "Fresh and Frozen" - a then and now flip. There's also Great Live Moments, and features like My Favorite Guitarists, with the My Favorite Martian theme in the produced intro. "Car Tunes," a road song as I drive out and leave the listeners with a long set of classic rock that carries them into the rest of the afternoon. It's a proven formula, with a decade of ratings success.

7. How do you keep a show like this sounding fresh playing 30 and 40-year-old music?

This is a deep subject, literally. Let's dive in a bit. Luckily, The River isn't one of those Classic Rock stations that treats the format like it's Oldies. Others cut off the '60s as if they are not relevant to the younger part of the demo. For one thing, I can pull music from the entire Classic Rock era, which really has yet to end. Another element that keeps it fresh is being creative with the music. Thematic threads change weekly, and run through the entire show. They can be in sync with holidays, like the 4th of July weekend, or the change of seasons. These features can include songs not commonly in rotation, but ones we played back in the day. Then there's the bits of ephemera, movie trivia, and cultural references that I drop in. Planned spontaneity. "Say something old in a new way" was something I had taped to my show planner when I did mornings, and it still works. Be alive and fresh to the listeners. Personality is not just a smile in one's voice. It's attitude, which can include opinions that don't really alienate many, but build a stronger connection with the listeners. Risk saying something real. Also, I keep in mind that some listeners may be hearing a song for the first time. It has to have a proper set up and surrounded by their musical comfort food. "Keep moving the chains down the field." My program was the first to play Metallica on The River. They have been in rotation for years now. An R&R HOF artist or band has to have a career of 25 years. "Grunge" doesn't exist as a separate category in the minds of the listeners. For the younger part of the demo, it's just rock that happened in their youth. For example, I did a special medley with Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Green Day in the middle. It was set about the change of seasons, and it fit perfectly. The Green Day song was compatible. For Fresh and Frozen recently, I've played tracks from the new Paul McCartney, Billy F. Gibbons and the Tom Petty, An American Treasure Box Set. Paired them with a track from The Beatles, ZZ Top, or anything Tom Petty, respectively. His fans hunger for more, just like Jimi Hendrix's much shorter time in the studio produced archives that have resulted in chart-topping albums into this century. Classic Rock core artists have a signature sound that goes beyond two or three tracks that playlists have been shrunk down to the years. The listeners relish great music from these artists. It's absolutely fine that it may not be something they have heard, or remember hearing, on the radio before. My philosophy is based in the very roots of Classic Rock on the early FM Rock radio I was attracted to in the first place. I may play "Freebird," but it's fresh because Lobster's presentation goes beyond the cookie cutter, one size fits all approach. People have more choices than ever in audio. They can make their own algorithmically customized Juke Boxes. Get it from Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, etc. Curating the music with heart and soul on the radio may be an advantage.

8. In your long and storied radio career, what were some of the most memorable interviews you can share with us?

I have gratitude for having a long, albeit bumpy, career ... and some of the stories are true! I'll limit it to two. First, Chuck Berry. The late Sheila Rene, who was the only person I ever knew with a permanent backstage pass from Bill Graham, did a weekly interview show on KSJO. We spoke to Chuck Berry in his trailer at Stanford's Frost Amphitheater. George Thorogood got a copy of the interview from Sheila. Told me a few years back it was great and he used to listen to it all the time. Wish I had a copy! But, it's what Chuck Berry said to me after, standing outside the trailer. A bit of wisdom he wanted to impart to one of "Chuck's children." He looked me in the eye and said, "You know, Rock & Roll isn't deliverance. It's absorption." Another was Grace Slick, who was promoting an art gallery appearance. She paints in multiple mediums; oil, charcoal, acrylics. Amazing self portraits, and the White Rabbit, as well as her contemporary rock stars. That's the angle I took in the interview. KGO was just around the corner, and Ron Owen gave her about five minutes. I opened with, "Grace, we don't take phone calls on this show, so I may ask you some questions as a fan, which isn't much of a stretch." She said, "Go ahead, Lobbie, ask me anything you want." We spoke for an hour. I got a ton of soundbites out of it that I still use as song intros.

Tom Petty and The Lobster!
L to R- Tom Petty, Lobster (KSJO/San Jose), Norm Winer (KSAN/SF), Unknown guy, John Bettencourt (ABC Records), Jon Scott (ABC Records), Tawn Mastrey (KMEL/SF).

9. You were also one of the first people to play the late Tom Petty on the radio. I know you became friends with Tom and the Heartbreakers. Any great Petty stories you can share with us?

Let me share the first time we talked, and the last. Between the soundcheck of The Heartbreakers' debut show in the SF Bay Area at the Keystone Palo Alto, he and bassist Ron Blair came down to the KSJO studio for an interview between their soundcheck and the show. I still have the album with the tracking sheet from that day. It was February 15th, 1977. We talked and played music from the debut album for 30 minutes between 6 and 7p. We bonded. He was one of my "born in the '50s" contemporaries, and like a brother in arms. After I got off the air at 10p, I drove up to catch the Heartbreakers set. I was convinced by the last note of "Route 66" that they did as an encore that I had just seen the American Rolling Stones. After the show, my business partner in Flow Communications and I hung out with them at the Travelodge on El Camino. Maybe 200 people caught the show, but no one else was around. Tom and I were standing outside the room on the balcony having a smoke, and he said, with a sardonic smile on his face "Where's the groupies, where's the party, where's the girls?!" I put my hand on his shoulder and said "Patience, Tom, patience." It all did come to him. I could see it like a sunrise. The last time we had a conversation was right before The Last DJ came out. When his manager Tony Dimitriades told him I was backstage, he made a point of coming upstairs from the dressing room with his angel of a wife, Dana York Petty, to say hello and tell me about it. Tom understood and looked at the world the same way a lot of us did. He sang/spoke the lyrics to me with a gleam in his eyes. "He's the Last DJ, says what he wants to say, plays what he wants to play. Hey, hey, hey!" Sorry, Jim Ladd, it's not all about you. It was a concept album. Tom Petty's commentary as it applied to DJs everywhere and the grinding wheels of the music business.

10. Finally, how did the "Lobster" name originate for you?

A cosmic accident. It started with listening to a tape of Procol Harum with some friends in my dad's car when I was 19. My best friend David was riding shotgun. Robin Trower's guitar playing put a vision of a lobster in his head that was pushing buttons and turning knobs while music was playing. David suggested we name the new blue Ford Econoline van I had just ordered, The Mighty Blue Lobster! I did. And I also gave that name to my college show at WCCR. I sold the van and moved west in a Volvo. It had a tool kit with a crescent wrench and the brand was "New Lobster." I was starting a new life at age 21. When I couldn't get a job and volunteered at Stanford, I called the show "The Lobster Box" because the studio was so small. Others at KZSU started calling me Lobster. When I got my first job at KSJO, I decided to drop Paul Wells and just be The Lobster. Took me years to realize I fulfilled the original vision.