The Man Behind the Mic | Episode 265

Hey everybody, welcome to Vince on a Friday. It's a very special episode of Vince. Good to have you with us as always. If you're watching on Rumble, hello there. Good to see you at rumble.com slash Vince. Always eight o'clock in the morning, Eastern time each day. Great to have you with us. And while I'm on the subject, please make sure to like and subscribe and comment and leave all of your adoring comments in the bottom there. I really appreciate that. It just lifts me up each week. I just can't get enough of it. Thank you as always. The best audience that anywhere. Glad to have you with us today. I had a big and very special episode for you today. You guys are familiar with producer Jim? Yeah, producer Jim Verdi is with me today. We're gonna talk to producer Jim, get his world, view of the world. I constantly am, you know, jealously guarding it for myself, but I figured today maybe I can share it with you. So producer Jim will join the show. We've got that coming up. 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The great producer Jim Verdi, the producer of the Vince show and the producer of Dan Bongino's radio show when he was doing that with so much success over the years. Jim, thanks for doing this today, man. I am happy to do this with you. Always glad to be on with you. Nobody knows when we do the radio show. So this is the view that you get to see every day, unfortunately. Yes, this is. If you're watching on rumble right now, this is precisely the view I get except Jim is less courteous. He doesn't look into the camera. He's looking away from the camera. So you're getting an even better view of Jim than I normally get. Right. Jim, you're off to the side. So Jim, just to give people a perspective, they might not know this. We bring this up from time to time about our locations. The reason I do have to stare at you through a camera is we're not in the same place. I think people think of a radio show that two people are going to be the producer and everybody else were all together. We're all separated, actually. And thanks to the power of the internet and just the ability to transmit all this very quickly, I'm based out of Northern Virginia, the Washington, DC area. You're in the Dallas, Texas area. And how long have you been there? I have been in Texas for, let's see, since 1981. I don't want to do the math in my head. It's too early for math. But I've been here since 1981. I've worked in radio here for my entire career, be it locally or on the national level, I've gotten to stay here. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love it. So you were working in local radio in Texas for the beginning of your career, at least? Yes. I moved here from Brooklyn, New York, and my first real job was at a country station in Dallas, Texas. Think about how that went over. You want to talk about training yourself to talk differently? I really had to do that. And the other thing about... Did you get a lot of crap for your accent? Did people like... Was that a problem for you? Surprisingly, no. I mean, locally, in the neighborhood, yes. People... This was back in the days when if you came from New York, they had bumper stickers on cars that said, love New York, take I-30 East. So, I mean, you weren't really welcomed here if you were from New York. So that was a bit of a challenge. But actually on the radio, great response. I think if you just... If you do what you do, and people like what you do, then they're going to respond positively to it. And I think that's what happened. So were you into country music when you were doing that? Not at all. And when I took the job, I said, okay, I need a job. So I'm just going to do this temporarily until I find something else. Wound up being the best job I ever had in my life. It was absolutely fantastic. The experience was wonderful. And then I grew to love the music. And not only what we were playing, which was basically the hits at the time in the 90s, I grew to love country music like all forms of it. Sure. Going throughout history, the old stuff, the new stuff. I really liked it a lot. And I was glad that I could experience that. Yeah, I think that the people who say they don't like country music, it's just because they're not familiar with it. I think they kind of hear it and they're like, oh, that's different than what I'm used to. So they kind of rejected out of hand. But you spend a little bit of time with it. And then you really start to vibe with it. It's pretty good. And it's a great genre of music. People have a misconception about it, that it's this hick stuff, that it's not really well thought out, that it's easy to do. And it's not. These people actually are telling stories and telling life experiences. And that's why it connects with so many people in this country is because it tells their story. And it's something that they can always carry with them regardless. And use those songs. Those songs will always be put them in a place in their lives that they'll remember forever. So how do you get to a, how do you go from country radio to national talk? When do you start getting connected to national radio? And start doing this as a job? So strange. I never entertained talk radio at all. I didn't think we could do it. But right after the country station, the country station flipped formats and they went to this guy talk thing, like a Howard Stern type deal. The only show the country station kept was our show because we were number one in our time slot in the afternoon drive. So they kept us. And me and the partner I was working with at the time, a guy named A.W. Pantosia, one of the funniest people, one of the most talented creative people I've ever worked with, they wanted us to do talk. Neither one of us had ever done talk before. So we were flailing. I mean, just trying to make it up on the fly. I had no idea how to do it. And just think this is really, this is how long ago this was. This is pre-internet. So show prep was like you had these services and then you had news and you're going through newspapers. And you're trying to really put a show together. You couldn't, there was no AI, there was no Grock you could consult with. Hey, Grock, tell me this, I need this answer. And then do that. There was nothing you really had to create it. So it was hard. So we only lasted in that show for a year when we were finally starting to hit our groove, mainly because the station was able to get Howard Stern and replaced us with Howard Stern. So that was what it was. So I don't think that is it. In radio, you get fired a lot. I mean, I lost my job three, four times, something like that. Yes. And then I was at Radio Disney for a while. I worked at Radio Disney for 10 years. Oh, as one of the characters? No, I was not one of the characters. But I think I could create my own characters. I was writing commercials and imaging and promos and things like that. So I was able to create and voice some of my own characters, which was funny, fun to do, excuse me. I forgot to tell you, and I don't even know if I've discussed this with you. But before that little venture, I was working at ESPN Radio. So once we lost the job, I was at ESPN Radio. Sure. I was working locally. And then the management from the country station decided that they were going to be putting together a woman's talk radio network. Have I ever told you this story? I don't think so. So they put together this woman's talk radio network. They make me the assistant program director. Of course. Because when I think women's programming, I think Jim Verdi, he'd be perfect for this. Yes, exactly. Well, it's funny you say that because the target audience, the main target audience for the country station was like a 35 year old woman. So that was our focus when we were doing the country station. We're able to get men as well, because wherever the women are, the men will follow. You know that? True. So I'm working at this, we're getting this whole woman's talk radio network set up. Finally go on the air. We get great news coverage, great press coverage, TV stations come out, everything's positive. We get to Friday. We're only on the air three days. It's a payday and the manager comes in, tells us we don't have any money in the account to pay you guys. Yeah. So we were dead, dead in the water right then. And I just quit my job at ESPN. And thankfully to the old boss at ESPN, I called him, I said, have you filled my position? He's like, yeah, I did. But he brought me back on, gave me as many hours as I could. I'm forever indebted to him for that. That's great. Yeah, no, you have told me this story. I remember this part and I was like, man, what a leap. And they're not even paying you. It's insane. And so thankfully that great guy brings you back at ESPN. But at some point you end up doing the national radio stuff. So how does that happen? So I worked at Radio Disney for 10 years. They decided to move the operation to Burbank. So I was again on the beach looking for something. And I'm in the hall. And as I'm in the hall, somebody that I worked with said, hey, I know it's closing down and everything, but I need somebody to do vacation filling for this national talk show. Somebody I refer to as he who shall not be named. I will not name. You're not going to name him? You can put it together yourself. It's in my book. You can put it together. Oh, come on, Jim. You can tell people. It's a, can I say the name? He's going to sigh. He doesn't want me to say the name, but this was for this was fill and work as a producer, right? Yes. Not not as a guest host, but rather as his producer. So he do fill and work for one Michael Savage. Yes. OK. And I get in three weeks, I think I'm on the job and the executive producer gets fired. So I'm there every day. And then they ask me if I want the job. And I'm like, I don't know what. What are you going to pay? And they tell me what they want to pay. And I literally laughed at the guy. He has a bag of pop tarts or something. Right. Yeah. And I'm like, what would you what would you like? And I said, you you'd have to double that. And they did. I'm like, oh, my. What did I leave on the table? I know that. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. So it was the most challenging seven years of my life. I put it put it that way. But not if not for that. I mean, there were several times where I called my wife. I'm like, I'm done. Can't do it anymore. Yeah, I can't. And she's like, no, we have a mortgage. We have kids. We, you know, you really really kind of need the income. Sure. So I stuck it out. Those kinds of working conditions, though, do you feel like you derive something from it, though? Because, you know, I, I, you know, I have not. I work with Dan and kind of a. How would I say this? Like a distant way. Like Dan and I work together in so far as we've got this Silverlock operation together and I'm doing my own show separate from him. But for the most part, we just we just have a cordial relationship. We don't have a like a quote unquote working relationship where. So I don't I don't really know what it's like to work with him directly. But my impression is that he's kind of a joy to work with. And that. And so you go from working in an environment where you're just being battered and miserable, but it forms you into who you are today. And then you're like working in these environments with Dan and then with me, hopefully, is a good environment where it's just a different experience, but you bring all of these skills that you've developed in a much more trying environment. Yes. And I will say that it did make me a much, much better producer because we were constantly having to come up with content for this show. Most of the time it wasn't used even, but we still had to produce something. And it helped me do it quickly. It helped me find all kinds of different ways to come up with this content. Yes, it helped me to become a better writer, because sometimes I would have to write monologues. So it made me a lot better. So when it thickened your skin too, I bet. Oh, yeah. I like to think that I had a thick skin to begin with, but this was like beyond anything I'd ever dealt with in my life before. And you would have had to have had an incredibly thick skin to do that job. But because of that, that's why Westwood called and offered me to job to work with Dan and working with Dan. We clicked right off the initial Zoom call. When we had it, when we were introduced to each other. And it was great. But and another funny story is I really thought I was in trouble because I knew he was a Yankees fan. And our mutual friend, Teresa, told me, well, the first time she was talking to Dan about or yeah, she was talking to Dan about me. We could hear the lovely she could hear the lovely Miss Paula in the background, who's apparently going down my social media. And she goes, he's a Mets fan. I'm like, I'm going to be in real real trouble right now. Yeah. So that's funny. Well, she didn't say Red Sox, she said Mets. It's manageable. You can figure it out. Right. So we hit it off. And honestly, that four years was just an incredible ride. I like to describe it as being on the back of a bull, which I actually have not a bull, but I've been on the back of a steer before. And it's a it's a hell of a ride. And it was a hell of a ride. It was always something. And one of my favorite things to do with Dan is because he he had everything lined up as to exactly where he wanted to go. Right. Same with the podcast. He's got it all written down in his notebooks. You can see it. And he knows where he's going to go when he plans the whole show show. And he does a rundown. One of my favorite things to do was seconds before we were going on the radio, I would just say something and boom, it takes it off into a completely different direction, totally derails what he wanted to do. And I think it made for some really entertaining stuff because it's not just about the politics and everything. I mean, you know, this we we have to entertain people. We have to keep people's interests. So while you're delivering news, you also want to give them a reason, a compelling reason to go to you for that news, you know, besides just the new. Well, I get it. I mean, I definitely I definitely get it. And like, I think about I know why Dan would find that so valuable. Like, I think a lot of professions, people might hear you describing this and go, throw you that that would throw me off my game. Somebody just interjected something before I was getting to what I was planning on doing. And I guarantee you, without even talking to Dan about this, that he loved it. And the reason for that is because he's doing a podcast these days, doing an hour of content. And then he would go right into the radio show because he was doing it 11 to noon, then noon to three, he's right into his radio show. And a lot of the radio show was figuring out new ways to tell the stories that he had already kind of recited on the podcast, but new ways to freshen it up for the radio audience. And for you to inject a new handhold, like almost like he's a mountain climber that he can grab on to something new and start talking about that. That's a huge advantage. It's this is why I don't think people really they should appreciate. Maybe they do the value of having good production is not merely somebody who can make sure that the audio clips are there for you or something like that, or make sure you get out of the breaks at the right time. It's somebody which is why you have this great skillset, Jim, somebody who can help be kind of an extra limb for you. You just like to be thinking in the ways that you think and injecting concepts at the exact moments that you need them in order to improve the quality of the show. And it's not only that, you know, he encouraged drops. He really enjoyed doing having drops. And, you know, if you just find right at just the right time to put something in there, like, you know, we do, we we've got Leslie Stahl with her. No, yes, we've got and grandma said it with Dan. It was like, I think Dan's favorite. Where is it? I got this up in front of me right here. Come on. Where is it? I know. I know one that he loved. I know he loved that lady who kept yelling at the back of the plane. That M.F.R. is not real. Yeah, back there is not real. Yes, exactly. That's that one I knew. He goes, and there she is. Oh, my gosh. There she is. I didn't know she was here. And the way he played it up, you know, too, was great. It was great. And the other thing that I really liked that. He drew a lot out of me, too. Yeah. As well. I mean, as you do as well, because when I hear something and I want to do something with it and sometimes he'll like ask for it. But I remember being in the studio one time and he's he and the guy and I think it was just guy at the time. Yeah, I think it was just guy and they were talking about remember when Jen Socky had the media was going on and oh, man, that was a socky bomb. That was a socky bomb. And it was just really stupid. It was stupid name for that. And I'm thinking and I'm thinking I'm like, it should be a socky bomb because you have to be high to hear to believe whatever she says. Yeah. And he's like, that's funny. So the next day I had come in and I had produced a bit. The socky bomb and he loved it. He's like, he didn't even know I could do that. And then it just developed into a bunch of stuff. And since he encouraged it, I just did it more and I enjoyed it. I love it. No, it's good. It's it's an older tradition in radio that I think had died an unnecessary death. I know I'm glad to see you reviving it because I think I think parody work has its value. I've talked to radio people before who poo poo it. They're like, oh, that's that nobody does that anymore. That's like an old thing. No, it's that you don't want to spend the money on it. That's actually what that what the what the complaint is. You don't want to spend cash on people who know what they're doing and producing great content like that. And it's great and people like it and it has it. So it has its uses and man, you're good at it. And I'm glad Dan tapped into that. It does have its uses and it goes back to the Alinsky rule where, you know, mockery. Well, it was a rule number five. It mockery really discredits the people that you're mocking. It's a potent weapon. Yeah. Yes, it's a very it's a lethal weapon. You know, it really can do a lot of damage to people. I want to I want to continue this here in a moment. I want to do more of this because I want to I want, you know, this this episode really has turned into and I'm perfectly happy with this. I knew as soon as we bring Jim and I was like, we'll just get to talking the way we always do. I wanted to turn this into something where people could get to know you a little bit better because as you as an engine for content for both what Dan and I are producing through the years and in a moment, you want to talk to Jim a little bit more about how we got connected, how this all started and how we now produce the big national event show that's ahead. On this edition of Vince, thank you for indulging both of us as we chat about all this. I want to thank our great sponsors, Includes Beams Dream Powder. Beam helps me rest very well at night after the routine you just heard me describing each day. Beam is a locked in part of my nightly routine and honestly, it's the reason I'm able to show up fresh and ready to talk about all this stuff every single day. And I used to have some trouble sleeping and it just a little difficulty with that and in trying to figure out how would I get a good night's sleep. So I'm just energized the next day. Dream. Dream is perfect. Dream is made of a powerful blend of all natural ingredients, Rashi, magnesium, alfionine, apigenin, melatonin. So if you've been waiting for the right time to try Dream, I'm telling you this is it. Go to shopbeam.com slash Vince show. Use the code VINCHOW and get my exclusive offer up for up to 40% off of Beam's Dream Powder. 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The first night we lay down on this thing and then wake up the next morning, I look at her, I go, was that as good for you as it was for me? And she said, oh yes, it was. It was an amazing night's sleep and we've just slept so well ever since. Helix mattress is great. It is great. It's supportive enough to help my back. It's very comfortable and it's just changed my life. And that's why I talk about it so highly here. I feel it every morning. Helix has over 20 mattress models. You're not stuck guessing. Our old mattress sucked. It didn't stand a chance. The new one was great. Delivery was free and easy. It showed up right at the door and you get a 120 night sleep trial. Limited lifetime warranty. The happy with Helix guarantee. Totally risk-free. Go to helixsleep.com slash Vince, 20% off site-wide. Helixsleep.com slash Vince, 20% off. Be sure to enter our show's name at checkout so they know we sent you. Helixsleep.com slash Vince. Thank you to Helix for being great. So it was, let's see, how many years ago was it? Now it was about two years ago, I would guess, that the Dan Bongino show was in full swing. So remember, I just want to remind people about how the Dan Show gets started in the first place. Rush Limbaugh passes away. There is pandemonium nationwide among the radio stations about what to do. For many months there were just re-airings of Rush as the big radio companies were just trying to figure out, what do we do with this time slot? How do we handle the post-Rush world? And then we saw some split in the market, essentially. Fundamentally, there were two gigantic cleaves. One goes in the direction of Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. The other half of the market goes in the direction of Dan Bongino. As CUMULUS, Westwood One decides, okay, Dan is going to take these hundreds of radio stations across the country. And that's really, those are the big dogs on the block for that time slot nationwide. And then of course, Dan's doing the show. He's doing a great job. And at some point, he decides, I'm trying to remember how this all started, Jim, but he decided that he wanted me to come in to be a guest host for him when he was on vacation. And I think, I think, I'm trying to think what this was, I think I was tweeting things at him because I was listening to his show and I'd be like tweeting random commentary to him, just reacting to something that he had said. And he just got the talking on the air as he, as he's want to do. And he's like, Jim, Jim, put Vince's name down on the list. We got to have him as a guest host. And I'm pretty sure that's how it all started. Pretty much that's how it all started because he would just say who we wanted and I'd reach out and of course, you know, people were thrilled to be able to be on in that time slot. Yes. I was able to do that with you. You graciously agreed. And you were really amazing because people don't realize this. You would do the three hours noon to three and then do three more hours right after that, doing a six hour day. And you'd have to do all that content. And I'm like, I don't know how he does it. I don't, I don't know how you can do that for six hours. It was, it was crazy, but you did it. You pulled it off. I'm sure whatever was on the WMAL side was fantastic. I didn't get to hear that part, but you were great with us. And that's how we first got to know each other. Yeah. And I gelled with you guys pretty quickly. I, I, one of the, so there were two big nice elements. And one of the reasons why this has been so successful, I think for us now is one, I immediately connected with Dan's audience. So I think, I think it's just because Dan and I consume a lot of the same things and were of, were of like mind on a lot of the big topics in the news. And so the connection was pretty quick. And, and I know Dan personally got a lot of very good feedback on the time that I spent with him on his program. The other piece just does on a personal level, I gelled immediately with you and Mike, Mike, who works with you there in Texas. I just felt really good working with you guys. And I was like, man, these guys are legit. And I was, it was funny too, because I'm like, I'm thinking, man, this is, this is what it's like to work with a national production team. These guys have their stuff together. And it turns out it's just, I think it's unique to you. I think it's unique to you and Mike. You're just that good, but it was, it was cool. We, it just, it felt like it, it fit like a glove right away. Well, my seven years of beating, like I described earlier, it made, made me what I am now and made me want to do a good job. Not only that, you know, I have a responsibility to the audience to be able to give them the content that they, that they want. So it was important for me to get you information and get you content that I knew would click with our audience. But I mean, honestly, you did everything. It's like you're, you're just way ahead of me on a lot of stuff. And I feel bad about that sometimes. I don't know when you sleep, actually, or if you sleep. There's a, well, one, something I discovered, the big shift. So people don't realize about the radio industry. The, the, the smaller the market, the less likely it is that you have help to do the show. So if you're in a, if you're in a smaller market, you have to do everything, literally everything for your own show. You have to host the show. You have to operate the board. You have to answer the phones on the breaks. You have to queue up the callers then you have to cut all of your own audio. There's really, there's just nobody to help you. It's just they, they're not spending the money on it and you're on your own. And if you screw that up, you're out. They'll replace you with somebody else that they'll give a crappy paycheck to. But the nice thing about working with you is now I've got help. We've got a team. We've got, we've got some people doing this. It's not a huge team, but small team is really fundamentally the three of us who are doing this. We've got a lot of support from Westwood and other elements, but the actual act of the radio show is me, you and Mike. That's it. That was just the three of us. And I think the thing that surprised everybody, including the executives at Westwood was that I play my own audio. Yeah. I play my own audio, which is not apparently in any way typical. And I didn't know that I just was coming into this like, I'm going to play my own audio, but mostly because I like controlling it and I like interrupting it. I love interrupting it. I love we've got it's fun, which is by the way, a source of great controversy among some listeners that are like, some people do not like that. I interrupt it, but that's okay. If you don't like it, just go to Twitter and watch the clips. I'm here to tell you about these clips. And but it's a, it's a, it's a huge. It's, it's, it's so fun to do. But I know that Jim, when you and I started working together, that was different. That was different because you were so accustomed to playing so much of this. Right. And I like the way you do it personally. I think it lends something because anytime you can interject in the middle of a clip, if something is just said, and you know that there's more on the other side, but you can give an analysis right at that time. I think that's much better and much more important and it serves the audience better. That's my humble opinion on it. But I think it, I think it works and I think it works well. We've gotten good feedback on it through the years. Actually, the reason I do it is because of the audience feedback. Most of it's been positive. People like it because they don't like AOC speaking like without interruption. They want somebody to jump in and be like, that was the most idiotic part of this clip. And here's why. So we, that's why we do it. We call it the, the Vincent replay to be very self-indulgent now. But it's, it's, but it's good. So, so Jim, let's end today with just, I want, I want to get some political analysis from you. One, first and foremost, we've got the March sadness tournament going on. You are, you are conducting the third annual March sadness tournament right now to establish who is the single dumbest member of Congress. As we speak right now, if you are consuming this on rumble rumble.com slash Vince, if you're consuming it live at the eight o'clock Eastern hour, this vote for the final four, what are you calling the final four? The feckless four. The feckless four. Yes. If I understand this correctly, that vote is about to close. So people are running out of time. They have to, if they want to get it in, they should get it in right now as they're listening to us. Yes. You can get, you can get it at on my X page. It's at JJ Verdi at JJ VERDI. The, I've got a pin to the top. And then if you go in the replies, there's two more, only two voting categories left. It's, we've got AOC taken on Shree Tandahar. And Shree, you know, he's a Cinderella story. He just, he just got there. He came in as a two seed and he's been banging it out one after another. And then of course the other, the other bracket is Maisie Harono versus Jasmine Crockett. Wow. Those are your feckless four. Wow. What a light weight bout is, is playing out right now. And not to be confused with a heavy weight bout as all these idiots are, are fighting against each other to become the dumbest member of Congress. I have made my bracket public already. I think Shree Tandahar does go all the way. I think he wins in the championship. But the only thing working against me is perhaps his name ID. He's not, he's not as well known, but, but man, that guy is a dummy. That's, I can tell you that, according to the previous two years, this is the biggest threat that AOC has ever had. That's, that's amazing. That is absolutely amazing. So you said, just to remind me, it's AOC versus Shree right now. Yes. Okay. All right. And then, and then crazy, mazy and Jasmine Crockett. What a, what a battle. It's Jasmine Swan song. She was last year's champion. Who do you think's going to, who do you think's going to be the champion this year based on the feedback so far? Man, I don't know. I mean, it could, there were so much, so much dumbness this year, especially by the four of those that it could, it could go any way. I really don't know. You know, people definitely have opinions for sure. I know a Brick suit, if you follow him on X, he was really all in for Hank Johnson until Hank got narrowly defeated by Rashida Tlaib, which was sad, but you know, you can only live on Guam tipping over for so long. It's, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. He's been dining on out. He's been dining out on that for years. It's not, it's not going to work for him this time in the third annual March sadness tournament. What's the plan? Are you going to keep this going forever? As much as I can, sure. Yeah. Yes. If we're here and we're doing this, you're going to get it every year for sure. Actually, even if we're not here, I think we still need to do it anyway. Yes. Yes. And in case anybody's wondering, if you haven't been following this tournament, Republicans are definitely a part of it. Jim includes a bunch of Republicans on the list. They just happened to be defeated, not quite as dumb as the four Democrats you just laid out this year. Again, all by popular vote. That's what we do here. We just respect the people and they vote on it. All right, Jim, we've got to get ready for another big national radio show. Thank you very much, man. It's always so good to chat with you in every capacity, but I'm glad we can do this together in public today. I love it. I love every single minute of it. This is the joy of my life and I appreciate you very much for wanting me to do this with you. Thank you. Yeah, producer Jim, everybody loves producer Jim. We figured we'd have him stop by. Thank you as always, everybody for being with me. I hope you have a fantastic American weekend. I'll be back with you Monday for another exciting edition of events. Great to have you with me today.