INDUSTRY FEATURE
On The Line with Big D & Bubba The Boys In Baton Rouge
<June, 2001>

Clear Channel’s Country morning team of Big D & Bubba is heard in nine markets throughout Louisiana and Texas. We got their take on why they’re different and why they’re winning.

By Jamie Matteson, Country Editor

In the face of impending competition with satellite radio, the debate has raged in terrestrial circles about the affects of consolidation such as Clear Channel’s Prophet System—which, among other features, includes voice-tracking and an emphasis on syndication.

Many industry observers fear that syndicated shows (especially for morning drive) and voice-tracking take away from terrestrial’s one true advantage over satellite service: the ability to be live and local with the audience.

No matter what side of the argument you’re on, the fact is this is the way many stations are being operated today—and some are tremendously successful, including Clear Channel’s Baton Rouge Country morning team of Big D & Bubba, which is heard in nine markets throughout Louisiana and Texas. We checked in with the pair to get their take on why they’re different and why they’re winning.

Jamie Matteson: How did you two come to work together?

Big D: We were both working across the street at the Country competitor (WXCT). I was doing mornings with another guy and Bubba was doing afternoons. When they blew out my partner, Bubba and I got together to do mornings. We ended up beating the heritage station WYNK’s morning show, which had been #1 for 15 years! We were the first show to finally beat ‘em in morning drive, and we kept going strong for two years there. Finally WYNK ended up hiring us. You know, it’s the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” kinda thing!

What makes your morning show special?

Bubba: We pretty much keep the listener guessing by infusing as much content as possible. We bombard listeners with information and entertainment—whether it’s prank phone calls or heartwarming moments. The bottom line is anybody can make a listener laugh, but the first time you make ‘em cry, they’re yours forever. I know that sounds schmaltzy, but we like to give it a good mix—you don’t have to make them laugh all the time. Everyone talks about how radio is in a decline now, but the bottom line is, it’s all entertainment.

How do you guys play off each other? Do you do funny man-straight man?

Bubba: We’re just two guys who hang out together, and we talk about our lives, and if our lives don’t have good content, we don’t talk about ourselves just to talk. We consider ourselves Country P1s. We live the lifestyle so we understand how to relate to our listeners. We understand what they find funny because we find the same things funny. We hunt, we fish, we shop at Wal-Mart, etc. We are our listeners.

Big D: We do a lot of interviews with country artists and we do interviews with a lot of strange people, like the guy who can stick a kernel of corn behind his eyeball! You know, suck it up through his nose into the back of his eyeball and spit it back out.

Seriously?

"We consider ourselves Country P1s. We live the lifestyle, so we understand how to relate to our listeners. We understand what they find funny because we find the same things funny. We hunt, we fish, we shop at Wal-Mart, etc. We are our listeners.” —Bubba

Big D: Yeah, we really had him on the show and it was hilarious! We do a lot of prank phone calls, stunts, contests. We talk about what’s going on in our personal lives. We did a show one time called “Bring Your Wives To Work Day.” We had our wives do the whole show! Of course, we scripted it for them, but they did the entire show for us. People called in, telling them they were better than us.

Bubba: They were better than us.

Big D: There’s really not one shtick we do; our show changes constantly and we’re always looking to evolve. When a new station hires us, we go into the market and listen to the competitors. More times than not, we’re replacing the exact same show in each market and we’re competing against the exact same show all over the country.

Bubba: If you go up and down the dial, it’s the same crap everywhere. You know, trivia, celebrity birthdays, guess the movie star, battle of the sexes…

What makes your show so different from other syndicated morning shows?

Bubba: Because we’re doing it different that anybody in the country—by being local. Let’s say a listener from Shreveport calls in. All the local listeners in every one of our markets call their local radio stations’ phone number and the call comes right to us here the studio. We answer with the call letters from Shreveport. They’ll call in and say, “There’s an 18-wheeler turned over on the Interstate.” We say, “Great, we’ll send a plane to go look at it. This is Big D and Bubba on KISS Country 93.7,” which is the Shreveport slogan. We then hang up the phone and, immediately following the song that’s playing, we air that phone call only in Shreveport.

So you have the ability to cut to local at any time?

Bubba: We do—at any time, in any of our cities. Another example would be if our affiliate in Biloxi is running a contest for Vince Gill tickets—every time you hear a Vince Gill song, be caller #9. Meanwhile, all the stations are playing different music, local music, and local contests, etc.

“One of the best compliments we ever got was during an appearance for our affiliate in Amarillo when the morning guy and the general manager from the cross-town competition came up to us and said, ‘I don’t know how you guys do it, but you’re more local than us!’ And we live 900 miles from them!” —Bubba

Big D: Each station plays its own individual playlist and they give us their logs and we work around it. But when you listen to the show, it sounds like we’re sitting right there. So, if a Vince Gill song comes up in Biloxi, we’ll say “Hey, its K-99, Big D and Bubba...here’s Vince Gill, ‘Go Rest High on That Mountain.’” The song plays, then our phone lines from Biloxi are ringing off the hook. We get caller #9 on the line. We record that bit, send it back to Biloxi and it airs right after the song plays. It’s real-time contesting, as if we were sitting in Biloxi even though we’re here in Baton Rouge. We have a producer at each of our affiliate stations that we’re in constant communication with. We also have webcams where, with just a click of the mouse, we can watch the outdoor conditions in each city.

Bubba: We’re merging the best of the old with a whole new angle...So you’re getting an entertaining show that sounds like it’s right in the city with the listeners. We’re giving their cities’ call letters, their weather forecasts, etc. Every weekend we travel to one of our cities for appearances or remotes. I think one of the best compliments we ever got was during an appearance for our affiliate in Amarillo when the morning guy and the general manager from the cross-town competition came up to us and said, “I don’t know how you guys do it, but you’re more local than us!” And we live 900 miles from them!

Big D: Their local callers, their local contesting...the best part about it is, we’re saving the radio station money. They’re getting more bang for the buck. Bottom line: its good for us, its good for them. We customize every station every morning. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but we’re willing to work as hard as we have to. Something we don’t take for granted is our focus. We are much more focused than our competition for sounding local.

Big D: I know there’s a lot of controversy about what we’re doing. But the bottom line is, we want to make radio better. If we come in and we’re taking away someone’s job, they were probably losing their job anyway. It’s either get kicked or do the kicking. It sounds bad, but it’s a fact of life.

"People can say what they want about Clear Channel and the Prophet System, but you have to be accountable to your shareholders. If you can deliver a superior product for a fraction of the cost, why wouldn’t you do it?” —Bubba

Bubba: And bottom line, people can say what they want about Clear Channel and the Prophet System, but you have to be accountable to your shareholders. If you can deliver a superior product for a fraction of the cost, why wouldn’t you do it? It’s going to benefit you, the station, the listeners. Every time we add a new station, the most asked question is, “How many more can you do by putting this much work into it?” We honestly haven’t hit our stride yet. We could add four new stations by next week and it would be OK...it wouldn’t affect us.

Big D: Radio is what you make it. If the show you have on isn’t cutting it, they’re gonna hire someone else to do it, because it comes down to ratings. We’re currently #1 in seven out of our nine markets.

Do you have immediate plans for more stations?

Big D: We are currently talking to two others...

Share a standout moment from one of your shows.

Big D: When John Michael Montgomery’s ‘The Little Girl’ was on the charts, we got a call from an agnostic woman. She told us she really enjoyed our show, but that she wasn’t going to listen anymore because we kept playing the song that talked about Jesus. Of course we’re putting all this on the air and we asked her if she was a Satan-worshipper which really got her riled up. Then we told her that we would now be playing the song more because she is what’s wrong with the world today, trying to stuff things down the throats of everyone else who wants to hear a great message. Finally, we told her to go listen to another station and we’d keep playing the song. Within two hours we received almost 1800 emails from listeners who agreed with us! Our phones almost crashed with the number of incoming calls!

Bubba: Talk about things that are entertaining! And whether it’s in Amarillo or wherever—people had the same opinion. If you evoke strong emotions and get people involved, they will tune in tomorrow.

Who gave you your best advice about working in this business?

Big D & Bubba Affiliates: • WYNK-Baton Rouge • KMML-Amarillo • KMAG-Ft. Smith • KQBR-Lubbock • KNUE-Tyler • KYKR-Beaumont • WKNN-Biloxi • KRRV-Alexandria • KXKS-Shreveport

Bubba: I think I would credit Jaz Mackay. He was a major market guy who said, “Look, bottom line, you’ve got to work a hundred times harder than the next guy because the next guy wants your job. If you work hard, there’s nothing you can’t do.” That’s something that should be taught at the early levels and I don’t think that’s being done today. Back in the old days, the guys knew you had to be as good as you can, or you wouldn’t eat.

Big D: Coyote McCloud, who did mornings at then Y107 [Nashville]. I had lunch with him once and he said, “Always remember that you and the radio as a whole are always background noise. Never think that you are more than what you really are. If you think you are everything to the listener, you are kidding yourself. The listener is doing so many other things...getting the kids ready for school, driving, having an argument. They may hear 15 seconds of what you’re talking about and that’s it.” That really helped me understand that you don’t have listeners like you think you do...so every time you crack the mic, make it entertaining, make it thought-provoking, make it the best that you have.

Contact Big D & Bubba at bigdandbubba@hotmail.com.

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