Meet the Personalities Podcast Tom Smith - LA Radio Specialist

Meet the Personalities Podcast 006 Wayne Resnick

Wayne "Rockin" Resnick



Wayne Resnick’s unlikely path to the radio business falls under the category of “you just can’t make this stuff up.” During grade school Wayne spotted one of his teacher’s making out with her boyfriend while smoking a joint at a concert. Later in life, Wayne’s work at a methadone clinic turned into job in Federal Law Enforcement which led to a part-time gig on KFI-AM 640 in Los Angeles. Hear how all that ties together; and find out whether or not this talk-radio utility man is still rocking the totally awesome mullet in the picture accompanying this post in Meet the Personalities 006 with Wayne Resnick.

Wayne Resnick can be heard Monday through Friday on KFI-AM 640's The Bill Handel Show from 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.



***Transcript***

Recording date – March 21, 2017



Wayne Resnick: It's the most intimate form of media available, way more intimate than social media, television, even entertainment things like music and movies. And people would say, “Well, music is very intimate.” That's true. Not as intimate as radio. So the connection is much stronger.



Tom Smith: Meet the Personalities is brought to you by LA Radio Specialist. Learn more about working with the very personalities you hear from within these podcasts at LARadioSpecialist.com. LARadioSpecialist.com, impactful marketing programs driven by influential personalities and the power of sound.



Welcome to Meet the Personalities, the podcast where we sit down with radio personalities for a candid talk about their take on the business of radio. I'm your host, Tom Smith, and today I'm joined by Mr. Wayne Resnick. Now, Wayne is part of “The Bill Handel Show,” Monday through Friday on KFI AM 640 in that Los Angeles market and that's on from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. But Wayne has been a mainstay on KFI for not only years but decades kind of as a fill in host and also you've had a weekend show that's kinda bounced around, right?



Wayne: That's correct.



Tom: Well, Wayne, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it.



Wayne: You bet.



Tom: All Access said you're gonna be joining “The Bill Handel Show” and this was a few weeks before, you know, you started. And that you were retiring from a career in federal law enforcement.



Wayne: That's correct.



Tom: I did not know that.



Wayne: I just retired 28 years with the United States Probation and Parole Agency.



Tom: Wow.



Wayne: And was basically doing that side-by-side with being here at KFI.



Tom: So one of the things that we always talk about on Meet the Personalities is everybody's path to the microphone is a little bit different. How did you get into radio? How does federal probation officer make its way to radio?



Wayne: I don't know how much help this is gonna be to anybody else to copy my path to radio. But it starts with, first of all, you’d have to get a job with United States Probation and Parole because then this will cause you to move to Los Angeles. I was up in Santa Barbara and I was the program director of a methadone clinic and…



Tom: Really?



Wayne: Yes. And one of the things that we did is the drug testing for people who were on federal probation and parole. And one day they come. You know, they come to audit your contracts and the PO up there, I’ll never forget him, David Gonzalez, he says, “You know, they're hiring down in Los Angeles. It’s a good job. You should look into it.

Meet the Personalities Podcast 005 Gary Hoffmann

Gary Hoffmann(image from Twitter)

When a small market radio announcer wished Gary Hoffmann a happy ninth birthday, the future co-host of the Gary and Shannon show was greatly impacted. Fast forward to boldly covering a police standoff, for a radio station where his official job title was sales assistant, and you begin to understand Gary’s success. He wasn’t waiting for it – he made it happen. Hear those details, plus how Gary found himself in a presidential motorcade doing 100-miles-per-hour down I-405, and much more in this episode of the Meet the Personalities podcast.

Gary Hoffmann can be heard Monday through Friday on KFI-AM 640's the Gary and Shannon Show from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.



***Transcript***

Recording date – March 15, 2017



Gary Hoffmann: I would say find the storyteller who is going to put you in the best light possible. You know your product, you know your service, you know what it is that you're trying to provide. Pair up with somebody or some group that can give words to the story that you're trying to tell.



Tom Smith: Meet the Personalities is brought to you by LA Radio Specialist. Learn more about working with the very personalities you hear from within these podcasts at LARadioSpecialist.com. LARadioSpecialist.com, impactful marketing programs driven by influential personalities and the power of sound.



Welcome to Meet the Personalities - the podcast where we sit down with radio personalities for a candid talk about their take on the business of radio. I'm your host, Tom Smith, LA Radio Specialist. And today, I'm joined by Gary Hoffmann of the Gary and Shannon Show heard on KFI-AM 640, Monday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Gary, thank you so much for joining me today.



Gary: You're welcome.



Tom: Let's start from the beginning. How did you make your way into the crazy business of radio?



Gary: I grew up in Northern California and there was a single radio station in the town, Petaluma. And we could get all the San Francisco radio stations, but for some reason, this one held a special allure to me. The, you know, old hometown guy who used to do the morning show would play records maybe twice an hour but would always be involved with everything that was going on in the town, whether it was the city council meetings that happened the night before, the parade that was gonna happen that weekend, the high school football team and their championship run…



I mean, he just seemed to be involved with everything in that town. And I remembered distinctly my ninth birthday when he wished me happy birthday. Not that I was the only kid in town or even the only kid that day they had wished happy birthday to, but it was significant to me that this disembodied authoritative voice knew who I was. It made me feel so , and there was something magical about that.



Later on in high school, I got to know the host of the show, his name was Ron Walters, I got to know him a little bit. And he ended up moving on from the morning show but was still involved with radio station for special events, and he invited me to come down and watch the morning show with the host at the time. And it just struck me how authoritative, how powerful a single voice could be in everyone else, you know, in 50,000 people's lives at one time. It's one guy, one microphone, maybe one script of a commercial he's reading, one weather report that he's reading, one song that he's introducing, but he's impacting that many people all at once, it was just poetic to me.

Meet the Personalities Podcast 004 Shannon Farren

Tom Smith and Shannon Farren



As a small market radio newscaster, Shannon Farren gets the plum assignment to cover the World Series… the only problem is she has no press credentials or ticket to get into the game. So how does she wind up reporting from the Giants owner’s luxury box? Find out in this episode of Meet the Personalities Podcast. That plus more about the co-host of the Gary and Shannon Show heard on KFI-AM 640 Monday through Friday from 10AM to 2PM.

Shannon Farren can be heard Monday through Friday on KFI-AM 640‘s the Gary and Shannon Show from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.



***Transcript***

Recording date - March 7, 2017



Shannon Farren: The difference is with radio, and I can't stress this enough, the relationship between radio and the people on the radio and the listeners is so intimate. It is not a blog. It's not something that you sit down and waste time at work reading or whatever.



Tom Smith: Meet the Personalities is brought to you by LA Radio Specialist. Learn more about working with the very personalities you hear from within these podcasts at LARadioSpecialist.com. LARadioSpecialist.com, impactful marketing programs driven by influential personalities and the power of sound.



Tom: Welcome to “Meet the Personalities,” the podcast where we sit down with radio personalities for a candid talk about their take on the business of radio. Today, my guest is the lovely Ms. Shannon Farren. Shannon is on the “Gary and Shannon Show” on KFI AM 640, right here in the Los Angeles market, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. till 2p.m. And Shannon, thank you so much for joining me.



Shannon: Thank you for the lovely adjective.



Tom: How have you made your way to KFI, and what was your career path from the beginning to now?



Shannon: Well, I started out in Market 198. And if you're keeping score, that’s the…



Tom: Wow.



Shannon: … Chico-Oroville market. I was a student at Chico State…



Tom: One ninety-eight is barely, barely immediate [SP] market. I think they gotten like 250-something or so.



Shannon: I think we had 5,000 watt station; which was pretty damn good for that market. And I started interning there. During high school I worked in a deli up in the Bay Area, and I went to Chico State. And I'd come back on the weekends and some long vacations to work at the deli again. And one of the family friends of the family that owned the deli said, “Hey, do you need work up there at Chico?” I said, “Sure.” He said, “Well, one of my friends still works at a radio station. I’ll give her your number,” or “Here's her number,” I forget and I got in touch with her.



I started interning at “KPAY Newstalk1290.” And within a couple weeks, I was on the air doing overnight weather and I loved it. I mean, I would stay up…well, I was…who are we kidding? It was Chico State. I was up at 2:00 in the morning. But at 2:06, I would turn on the radio, and I’d be like, “It's my weather report.”It was just such a kick, you know? And then I started working at the country station that was in the same building, 103.5 Hot Country KHSL.



I did some evenings there, some overnight work, loved it. But the only thing I didn't like about that was you, kind of, had to be this sugary, FM personality, which isn't always me, you know. I like to tell it like it is. And FM, you've always gotta upbeat and into it, and everything's gotta be positive. And that's great and I love FM personalities.

Meet the Personalities Podcast 003 Tim Conway Jr.

Tom Smith and Tim Conway Jr.

Tim Conway Jr. shares why, with access to all of Hollywood, radio attracted his talents from a very early age. An internet radio pioneer in the mid-nineties, Conway co-hosted one of the web's first live radio programs. Quickly graduating to the larger audience reach of broadcast radio, Conway has been a mainstay on the Southern California radio stage for more than two decades. The Tim Conway Jr. show is now heard on KFI-AM 640 Monday through Friday from 6PM to 10PM and on the station's iHeartRadio stream.

Tim Conway Jr. can be heard Monday through Friday on KFI-AM 640‘s Tim Conway Jr. Show from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.



***Transcript***

Recording date - February 9, 2017

Tim Conway Jr.: "If you wanna see if you have a business plan that works, advertise on radio and you'll see very quickly if it works or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, well, you've saved a lot of time, you know, where you don't have to wait four of five years to fail. You can fail right away. But if you're successful, you're gonna know right away as well."



Tom Smith: Meet the Personalities is brought to you by LA Radio Specialist. Learn more about working with the very personalities you hear from within these podcasts at LARadioSpecialist.com. LARadioSpecialist.com, impactful marketing programs driven by influential personalities and the power of sound.



Tom: Welcome to "Meet the Personalities," the podcast where we sit down with radio personalities for a candid talk about their take on the business of radio. I'm your host Tom Smith, and today I'm joined by Tim Conway Junior.



Tim: This is where I come in? Thank you, thank you very much. Appreciate that intro.



Tom: Very special guest today, Tim Conway, Junior. I'm a huge fan.



Tim: Aww, thanks, Tommy!



Tom: And Tim can be heard right here, in the Los Angeles Market on KFI-AM 640, Monday through Friday, from 6 to 10.



Tim: Six to 10, right. Six to 10 PM. Ding-dong! Four hours alone.



Tom: Ding-dong.



Tim: Let's go!



Tom: Let's do it.



Tim: All right.



Tom: So Tim, how did radio come into the equation for your career?



Tim: Well, it started way back...I don't know. Maybe it started...you wanna go back to when I was 10?



Tom: Absolutely, the very beginning.



Tim: My favorite thing to do...I bought a...I got some money for Christmas one year and I went out and bought a CB radio and put a big antenna on top of my house, and I was literally talking to truckers on the 101 Freeway. I could get them from about Thousand Oaks all the way to about Glendale, and so I would talk to them late at night. And, thinking back on it, I was wondering why maybe some of these 56-year-old truckers were talking to a 10-year-old at 11:00 at night on a CB, but everything worked out pretty good, you know? Anyway, so I was always interested in the audio. Not so much the video in television and movies because, when you do a television show, there's probably about 150 people to make a decision on everything. When you have a script, it's the writers, the producers, the directors. The makeup lady will say she's got a funny line. The hair person will say, "Hey, why don't you say it this way?" And there's about 900 people that get involved in your life. With radio, it's just one and there's no editing. It's over, it's done. You don't edit and, you know, spend nine hours trying to perfect it, it's over.

Meet the Personalities Podcast 002 Bill Handel

Tom Smith and Bill Handel

Bill Handel, local and nationally syndicated radio personality, joins Tom Smith for MtP 002. In this episode, Handel shares his incredible story of combining a building contract gone bad with a new law degree and turning that into a wildly successful broadcast career! The Bill Handel Show can be heard on KFI-AM 640 in the Los Angeles market Monday through Friday from 6AM to 10AM and Handel on the Law can be heard Saturdays in Southern California and in more than 300 markets across the United States.

Bill Handel can be heard Monday through Friday on KFI-AM 640‘s The Bill Handel Show from 6:00 - 10:00 a.m.

and Handel on the Law Saturdays from 6:00 - 11:00 a.m.



***Transcript***

Recording date - February 2, 2017

Bill Handel: With a radio program or a radio campaign, you're talking to the world and especially when you're dealing with a station like KFI. It's 50,000 watts, it's a blow torch, it's heard all over. Not only does it work but the ratings, its a million and a half people, it's a lot of people. So the market has to be crafted, the commercials have to be crafted very carefully.



Tom Smith: Meet the Personalities is brought to you by LA Radio Specialist. Learn more about working with the very personalities you hear from within these podcasts at LARadioSpecialist.com. LARadioSpecialist.com, impactful marketing programs driven by influential personalities and the power of sound.



Tom: Welcome to Meet the Personalities, the Podcast where we sit down with radio personalities for a candid talk about their take on the business of radio. I'm your host Tom Smith, LA Radio Specialist, and today I'm joined by the one and only Mr. Bill Handel. Bill has been a mainstay on the radio stage both in the Los Angeles market as well as across the country. I'm absolutely flattered and honored to be speaking with him today. He can be heard...



Bill: As well you should.



Tom: Bill can be heard on his Monday through Friday on KFI AM 640 here in the Los Angeles market from 6 to 10 a.m. and then on his nationally syndicated Handel on the Law on Saturdays here in the Los Angeles the Market from 6:00 to 11:00 but then at various time periods on Saturdays across the country. Bill, thank you so very much.



Bill: You're welcome even more.



Tom: Bill you started in radio by way of, I believe Handel on the Law.



Bill: Actually that was my first Job, was Handel on the Law. That came out of my legal practice, and my legal practice was third party reproductive law. That was my entire legal practice. Surrogate parenting, I started surrogate parenting in 1980. I developed, wrote one of the very first surrogate mother contracts that existed. And I was a guest on so many shows over the course of the years that I finally was, five years later, asked to do my legal show. As a matter of fact if I remember, if memory serves, and I think this is right, program director of KBC at the time where I first started. I remember walking down the hall, and he turned to me and said, "Bill I've been listening to your interviews, you know you're better than half the people I have here." I said, "No, no, no, I'm better than all the people you have here." And I got Handel on the Law. I've been doing that ever since. So starting at KBC and then coming here...well, actually I was fired from Handel on the Law in 1987, and then in '89, KFI brought me aboard to re-live, Handel on the Law.

Meet the Personalities Podcast 001 Neil Saavedra

Neil Saavedra and Tom Smith

Neil Saavedra joins Tom Smith for the inaugural Meet the Personalities (MtP) podcast. For more than 20-years Saavedra has contributed to KFI-AM 640, the largest newstalk radio station in the United States. Although not pictured wearing one Saavedra wears many hats at KFI. He’s the host of The Fork Report, producer of, the nationally syndicated, Jesus Christ Show and KFI’s assistant program director.

Neil Saavedra can be heard on KFI-AM 640‘s The Fork Report Saturdays from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m

and The Jesus Christ Show Sundays from 6:00 - 9:00 a.m.



***Transcript***

Recording date - January 24, 2017

Neil Saavedra: The medium of radio, whether it be a podcast, whether it be terrestrial radio, whether you stream it through your mobile phone or mobile device, the truth is, that content and intimacy is what makes it so special, that connectivity.



Tom Smith: Welcome to "Meet the Personalities," the podcast where we sit down with radio personalities for a candid talk about their take on the business of radio. I'm your host, Tom Smith, LARadioSpecialist. And today I'm joined by Neil Saavedra, The Fork Reporter. Neil can be heard on his show, "The Fork Report," every Saturday on KFI AM-640 right here in the Los Angeles market, and that is on from 2 to 5 every Saturday. Neil, thanks so much for joining me. This is our inaugural voyage on "Meet the Personalities." Thanks for being my proverbial guinea pig.



Neil: I'm not really sure what a guinea pig noise is, but that's the closest I can come up with.



Tom: That works. So, Neil, candidly, so everyone knows, we've worked together for quite a number of years, with a little gap in there when I sprouted wings and went into the startup world. Some of this isn't going to be new. What was your path to your current radio position today?



Neil: I was born in LA. I was raised out in Ventura County and started radio actually, in Ventura County originally. Huge fan of KFI. And listening to KFI when I was an art director when I was designing and doing graphics and things like that, I would have KFI on. And I always loved the take of KFI, of the energy of getting the information, getting news but with a little dab of irreverence. So I was a huge fan and ended up coming to KFI as an intern for Bill Handel, as a matter of fact, our morning show host here in.



Tom: Handel?



Neil: Yeah. And so I worked with him for many a month for free, and later ended up becoming, you know, a member of the staff around here, both on-air and off. And just loved so much of it and being around it all the time that it's been...you know, I've been inseparable from it ever since.



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