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RADIO WARS: Josh Innes and Tony Bruno Sign Peace Treaty on Radio Row
By Kyle Scott
Published:
Tony Bruno joined Josh Innes – live on the radio and multiple Facebook Live streams – on Radio Row in Houston last night.
When I had Innes on the podcast last month he explained that though there may have been differences in style there was no ill will between him and Bruno. Their 20-minute or so conversation last night during which they touched on a wide range of topics proved it. You can watch the whole interview here, but the most notable part is the discussion of how their WIP show ended:
Innes: I didn’t dislike you at all. It’s a weird situation the way it ended. Which was fair. All of a sudden there just was no show, and it was an odd situation. When did the idea come to your mind like ‘I just don’t wanna do this show anymore’ was there anything that kinda set it or were you like ‘you know what, I don’t wanna do it anymore’? What exactly happened? Because that part of it I think people thought was a little weird.
Bruno: I dunno, I would go home at night and even thought we were number one, you know how it was, people were like ‘Well I don’t like that Josh guy how can you work with him?’ And then your friend would say Tony is alright but I wanna hear you, so it was one of those things like, is this what I wanna do? We’re winning. But I didn’t feel like we were number one because of the pressure and the outside drama. Not stuff that came from within the building, but it was stuff in the atmosphere…
Innes: And I bring a lot of that on, because when I got there I said I’m gonna go after this guy and this guy and this guy, kind of an old-school appraoch to it, the Stern ripoff thing basically, and I acknowledge that’s what that was. But there was that pressure…I don’ view you as a guy who likes that kind of stuff coming down on him. You’re a happy guy. You want people to laugh. I’m a bit more abrasive…
Bruno: I used to want to do that in my early days of radio. You got the competition and you bring them down and you have fun and then you would know the other person and you say ‘It’s just business, man.’ My job is to knock you off and get ratings and be successful. So I felt that I was successful and had ratings and I’d have people saying ‘How can you work with that guy’ so I got tired of dealing with that.
The topic of course turned to ratings, which was all the rage in RADIO WARS long before our president was tweeting about them. Innes admitted to essentially only using them when it suited him and calling them bullshit when they didn’t:
Bruno: The good thing about the Facebook Live stuff is we can see how many people are actually viewing this live, and then people go back and watch it. And then all the streaming sources – the Audio Boom, Sticher, iTunes, Facebook, Periscope – there’s actual raw numbers that they can actually gauge, rather than radio ratings which is based on a couple of diaries, the PPM meters.
Innes: That’s what I tell people. When you have the ratings you like to brag about it, like ‘Oh look at us’ and when you don’t you’re like ‘oh well it’s only four people,’ but it’s true. Then you go look at your streaming numbers aqnd they’re through the roof. You compare it to your actual ratings where your 28th and you look at these streaming numbers like ‘Oh, so people are listening.’ That’s the frustrating part about radio that I don’t think people understand. What you see in ratings isn’t real. Whether it’s good or bad, it’s not really real.
This was typically the source of my sparring with Innes– he was more than happy to trumpet the ratings when he and Bruno beat Mike, but then called them bullshit – specifically the streaming portion – when he was losing. He’s right– it’s an archaic system that is mostly bullshit. But there’s a certain hypocriscy to use them only when it suits you.
Anyway, this was a good conversation. Most interesting part? When Bruno explained that he didn’t actually interview players for Madden 2005 but that the interviews were done separately by a producer and then later edited to sound like Tony was interviewing them himself. I’m genuinely shocked. Those things sounded real, man.
Watch the full thing here.
Kyle Scott is the founder and editor of CrossingBroad.com. He has written for CBS Philly and Philly Voice, and been a panelist or contributor on NBC Sports Philly, FOX 29 and SNY TV, as well as a recurring guest on 97.5 The Fanatic, 94 WIP, 106.7 The Fan and other stations. He has more than 10 years experience running digital media properties and in online advertising and marketing.