Harmon:  Describe the show and cast here in 2008, you have had some great talent move on!

Paul: I'd describe the show as 2 funny guys, hanging out on the radio, living the South Florida Lifestyle. A couple of guys you'd wanna have a few beers with. That attitude seems to work for us.  We've been on the air for 18 years together, but have had numerous staff changes over the years.

The show is me, and Ron. I drive the show as far as topics and flow, Ron handles the straight man, news man, weirdo role. After losing Tommy Owen to the Rick Dees show and Jenners to 99X in Atlanta, I made 2 hiring mistakes. It's very hard to manufacture chemistry; the first guy was talented, but didn't fit...I think he was afraid of us. The second guy was talented but...he was a...how can I put this delicately...DICK! We now have a hell of a team:

Producers:

Scott Shapiro:  Single, comedian, Jewish we love him!

Toast: (Associate producer/guest booker/show director): Spent ten years with us as a sidekick/sports guy. He not only books the guests, but keeps me on time, keeps our production fresh and is flat out fun to be around.

OMG: Oh My God Mike: Assoc. producer, stunt guy. Not afraid to do anything, lives his life on the air our link to the 20 somethings. He gathers our daily audio and keeps our best of's up to date

 

Harmon:  How long in your market?.

Paul:  I am lucky, I grew up here and have been on the radio in Miami since 1984, I left for a few years in 86 and came back at the end of 89, when Ron and I hooked up. This is our 18th year together.



Harmon:  What time do you get to the studio?

Paul:  I make sure I am at my desk at 5 am. Ron does his news prep at home and slides in around 5:30. OMG is here at 4 am, and hits all the audio sites and sets up the logs. Toast is here early as well looking up news stories from our new market (we recently added the Palm Beach/Treasure Coast) and to get his sports cast ready. We like lots of audio to spice up news and sports, so that's a pretty big gig. I use the 5-6 hour as my "last line of defense" to make sure I haven't missed anything.

Harmon:  Do you eat during the show?

Paul: Does Rose Kennedy wear a black dress? 

 

Harmon:  Give an example of one of the many days you "owned one of your markets".

Paul:  I will give you an example where I felt like I owned our "new" market! We came on the air in West Palm midway through the fall book, we replaced Bob and Tom who moved up the dial, and the company ran a campaign telling the B & T fans where they were. So we started with NOTHING! We felt though that people were getting into the show, and during a recent citywide event called Sunfest, Ron and I threw a party on a barge...we didn't know what to expect. We were told that the most that had ever showed up on the barge were about 20 people. When we got there, it was standing room only, maybe 1000 people going nuts for us. The next day I had lunch in a restaurant nearby, I was recognized by so many people who had great things to say about the show. That day I knew the barge thing wasn't a fluke, I felt we owned the market then. We have a long way to go, but in our first full book we were #1 men 18-34 and #2 25-54 men. We hope to add women, but there are a lot of great female targeted shows in the market, it will be a struggle.

Harmon:  How do you use the internet in marketing your show?

Paul:  www.paulandyoungron.com Check it out, it's a live video stream called Paul and Young Ron TV..pretty cool technology, except sometimes you forget its on and do dumb stuff and they love to let you know!

Harmon:  What's your biggest challenge?

Paul: Covering the gray hair and keeping the show fresh even when people "rave" about it. I don't want to ever feel like the shows ok. I always want to get better. One of our guys (OMG) is really talented, but fairly green, so I am always harping on him to keep doing more. I want us to be THE show people tune into in South Florida. My other challenge is beating the 2 Urban shows persons 25-54. Tom Joyner and Steve Harvey are the only 2 games in town for the Urban listeners (in Miami) and their listeners love to "vote for them". PPM ought to take care of that crap. <we think!>

Harmon:  "The best BitBoard bit we ever tried was....."

Paul:  Been a Bitboard guy since the beginning, and we've done so many...but I would say the best Bitboard bit we stole (borrowed? Made better) was from my buddies JohnJay and Rich in Phoenix Tuscon. During the Miami Heat playoff run 2 years ago, we saw that when Phoenix played Dallas, they found an old Dallas Maverick (car) and beat the crap out of it. When Miami finally got Dallas in the finals, we took their idea and made our car the focal point of the playoff run : it toured south Fla. People beat on it in every city, Mayors signed it, we hung it from a crane and had actor Frank Vincent do play by play while we dropped it onto a dummy dressed like Mark Cuban and finally, the Heat invited the car into the Heat victory parade. Before the team even came out, all the TV stations covered for one full hour was our car!

 

Harmon:  Wish more people on Bitboard would....?

Paul: Come to the conventions  Its the best minds in the biz all in one spot...if you can't get your questions answered here...well buddy I don't think they can be answered.

Harmon:  When the room's tense how do you break the tension?

Paul: I hit Ron in the face with a rake.

Harmon:  "I wouldn't miss BFD because..." 

Paul: Ideas, Ideas, people who get you.. plus where else can a guy party with Bert, Kevin, Bob Rivers, Harmon till dawn!  :)