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10 Questions with ... Mattman & Nine
October 19, 2020
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. Mattman: My co-host and I are life-long best friends, and we knew each other prior to The Rise Guys. He was actually my intern when I did overnights, and unlike most morning shows, we're actually natives of Greenville, South Carolina. We might be best friends but we disagree like hell and it works and it's no showbiz.
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1. What was your first job in radio?
Mattman: My first job in radio was as an intern for WCCP, the former Clemson University sports station. I then got my own 15 minute segment per week, called "Wrestling Matt" where I would play interviews with pro wrestlers & then WCW and WWF news.
Nine: This was my first job in radio. It's also the first job I ever had, and it's the only job I've ever had. As far as anyone knows, this is the only thing I know how to do!
2. What led you to a career in radio and was there a defining moment, which made you realize “this is it”?
Mattman: I was in college for sports marketing and secretly dreamed of doing marketing for the Atlanta Braves. I tried to get an internship with our then Atlanta farm team - the Greenville Braves but couldn't get a call back, so a friend advised me to contact the Clemson radio station about an internship there. I feel in love with radio. That station was all sports talk and my background with marketing really helped. I feel in love with radio and wanted to get on air. Professional wrestling was at it's height at the time, so I started doing the "Wrestling Matt" segment. It paid very little but I was learning a lot. Through that I met another local radio personality, his name was Smack Taylor and he was Music Director and did Nights for 93.3 The Planet. I met Smack at a wrestling PPV party and we became friends. He ended up getting me a job at The Planet, the dreaded 12 Midnight to 6AM. Most overnight jocks were just playing music and airing the occasional call. I did bits, I would talk to the drunk, the stoned, the depressed and broken heart types. I would tape celeb interviews during the day and air them at 2 or 3 AM. This was 2000-2001. The Planet had a morning show at the time but they were not very good and had no chemistry. So in 2003 when the position for mornings was open, I applied. I got laughed at. But guess what? I got the job. I went from Overnights to Mornings. And I've been here for 18 years.
Nine: I simply fell into a career in radio at 17, but I stuck around once I realized I had a passion for what we were doing. It started out as something fun and cool to do. I was a bored kid who wanted to get out of the house and that ultimately led to a fairly successful career for the past couple of decades. The short answer: Dumb luck.
3. Before we talk about your morning show, can you give us some of the highlights of your radio career to this point?
Mattman: Marconi Radio national award nominee, 2014, 2018 Carolina Leader In Talk award winner, the iTunes 1 Million Download podcast award winner for 5 years running. Got to wrestle at a TNA Wrestling Pay Per View. We've raised $1M+ with our annual 28 Hour show for Toys For Tots. We also have a few local craft brew beers in restaurants, bars, grocery stores, & gas stations. It sells VERY well. (RiseGuysP1Pilsner.com)
4. What year did the Rise Guys first start rocking in mornings and what was the origin of the show?
Mattman: January 15th 2003, I became a Dad for the first time 10 days later. So I had written all these being a dad bits and had to do them all really fast. We actually just launched a new podcast show called "Afterhours w/ The Rise Guys" & Nine and I just wrapped up our 3-part series of The Rise Guys origin story, from 2003-present day. (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rise-guys-after-hours-podcast/id1527470530) We hit #1 for the first time in our demo M18-34 in I believe 2007 or 2008 and we've stayed #1 for every book except 4, every book since. We now have the F18-34 numbers, the persons numbers, and we're now regularly #1 M25-54 as well. How are we still in Greenville, South Carolina? What are the radio gods waiting on?
Nine: It was 2003. Mattman earned an opportunity to co-host the show at that point and he chose to take me with him as a producer who'd never worked in radio a day in my life.
5. Now let’s talk about the show overall. If you were to describe the show to someone who’s never listened…what would you say?
Mattman: My co-host and I are life-long best friends, and we knew each other prior to The Rise Guys. He was actually my intern when I did overnights, and unlike most morning shows, we're actually natives. We were both born here in Greenville, South Carolina. We might be best friends but we disagree like hell and it's not work like most shows. It's kind of incredible that a guy (me) who believes in God can be best friends AND co-host a morning show in The Bible Belt with an admitted agnostic, non-believer like Nine. But it works and it's no showbiz.
Nine: It is a character-driven show. It's a comedy show about our lives. Friendship, relationships, conflicts.
6. Who else is on the show with you guys and what are their roles?
Mattman: Alongside Nine and I, is Fat Boy our producer. And believe it or not, HE picked that nickname. We wanted to call him "Dauber" because he sounds like the character from the TV show "Coach" but he didn't like that. FB not only produces the show, he runs the board, answers the phones, gets guests on hold, uploads and edits our hugely popular daily podcast. The Rise Guys was actually the first podcast in the region, as we've had a podcast since 2007. Fat Boy is the king of one-liners, he picks his spots perfectly. He edits all our videos, puts together the majority of all our audio elements, he does really good impressions, he truly busts his ass and I enjoy his odd point of view. We do not have any interns right now because of Co-Vid, but truly going into Year 18 of The Rise Guys, we've only had 6 or 7 total the entire time. Each morning, Nine and I will pull various news stories that each of us would like to discuss or comment on and give them to Paige. She then presents those stories to the room and we of course comment as Fat Boy works in the various audio & SFX.
The Rise Guys left to right- Fatboy, Nine, Mattman and Paige.Nine: Fat Boy is our producer and one of the funniest men in the entire world. He manages to be a hardworking guy while keeping up the appearance of being lazy and apathetic. He'll take that as a compliment. He's also been running the board since I took three months off for back surgery at the end of 2015. Paige does news on our show and she brings more radio experience than just about anyone else in the building.
7. Describe a typical morning show 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?
Mattman: We prep way less than we used to. We would get to the radio station at 3:30 every morning. We would over prep and it didn't sound authentic. Or we would tape a lot of stuff. Now, we live life and talk about it. Nine and I will come in with various agendas to discuss and throughout the morning we let the conversation flow. We have definite topics and ideas but we let the phones go and the listeners pick the flow. But by doing less prep, we have better shows and so much content just waiting to be discussed.
Nine: I imagine the process for us is pretty similar to most people who go in and do a morning show. The major exception with us is I'm the only one who drinks coffee. We really try to understand our audience and that has helped us develop a strong sense for what will resonate with them. We over prepped for many years, but the fluidity of broadcasting live every day during a pandemic really helped us out with that. Content should never be a problem because the material is infinite.
8. Tell us some of the best and most memorable moments to date on The Rise Guys Show?
Mattman: Every other Friday
Nine: Some of my favorite memories have been in-studio guests over the years. It's hard to top a good in-studio guest. A good comedian or anyone with an interesting story to tell. It's the best. We told Rob Schneider to leave when he became impatient because we were running late. We're always running late. Nobody else ever had a problem with it. A personal highlight was my tour de force performance on the dump button when the guys from VH1's Tool Academy showed up drunk on moonshine. They'd never been to the south before and they didn't know what the shine does to a person.
9. How has the Rise Guys Show dealt with COVID-19 this past year? Have you been working from home or the studio and how has the pandemic changed the nature of your show?
Mattman: We have been in studio every morning since this began. We were offered the opportunity to broadcast from home, but I had heard those shows. It was clunky. So, thankfully the 4four of us have been fine.
Nine: We talk about it, but we also try to be a place to get a break from it. It really is a tricky thing to deal with. About half our audience thinks it's fake because they saw a meme so they can get really, really, really angry when it comes up. I think we've doubled down on things like the studio text line and social media to stay connected to the listeners while public appearances/remotes/etc are out of play.
10. Finally, who is funniest person on the show and why?
Mattman: Me and the only reason I say that is because it's true.
Nine: I told Matt I was going to say me, but I'm going to say Fat Boy.
Bonus Questions
What do you like to do for fun and excitement when you’re not in radio mode?
Mattman: I'm never not in radio mode. And that's not some BS corporate line. If you're a real radio show host, everything in your life goes through that "Oh man, this might be good for the show" filter. Other than that, I'm a proud Dad, I'm getting married next year, and in 2019 I launched my own beard care product line (GahlayBeard.com) I'm known for my huge, beautiful beard and I enjoy the handcrafting process.
Nine: I wish we did this last year when life was a rock & roll party, but in 2020 all I do is watch movies and play with my German Shepherds.
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