In the Weeds: Handwritten Note Made Bobby Cry, A Band is Mad at Him, & Giving Away Over $50,000!

0:07 All right, let's talk about my syndication and when cities leave or come on to the show. And when I very first started doing the radio show, to me, the more cities I could be on, the more successful the show was. I very much assigned my success to how big we were getting and how much we were growing and how much we were growing. with just more radio stations.

0:30 In the past three, four, five years, I don't do that anymore. That's a part of it for sure. But man, I'm watching podcast downloads like crazy. But I did in the past week and a half or so begin to get two kinds of messages that are never that pleasant to get. The first kind are, what the heck is this?

0:49 We hate you. And that's when we joined a new station. So we're very different than any other show. And if you're watching this, you know about our show by now. But we've never been a show that was like any single show that we followed. Even when I moved to town, the first couple years were brutal for me here. And revisionist history by most folks. I moved here. It was easy.

1:11 Next thing you know, we're rocking. Not at all. Miserable couple of years because whenever I moved to Nashville, we weren't even replacing the big country show that was here. We were replacing the show that replaced the big country show that was here forever. But also we were replacing through syndication, a bunch of other morning shows that the company had decided, Hey, we're either going to move them out or we're going to flip a station. And so everywhere that got us that first year or two, we were completely different sounding than anything that existed in country music.

1:47 Now there's a lot of shows that model themselves after us and we weren't, you know, breaking standards. You know, any new molds, really? You know, we were just being ourselves. I should say we weren't purposefully doing that. We were doing the show a lot different than other folks because we had decided, and I had decided a long time ago, that when we were doing the show, we weren't just going to be, okay, the only music we listened to was country. I wasn't going to wear a cowboy hat.

2:14 I wasn't going to wear a belt buckle. But I would get all these messages all the time on Facebook and Instagram, just being like, this show sucks. We hate it. And I get it because when you're new and You have a habit of listening to one thing and then something new comes in. One, you're mad because your old thing's gone. But two, if the new thing is way different than the old thing, I can see where people would get irritated at that. So what's been happening the last couple of months has reintroduced me to some of those feelings. Luckily, I've been through it before, but we've been put on a bunch of stations. And sometimes I don't know what stations we're going on. I don't get an email going, you're going to be new in this city,

2:54 this city, and this city, and you're going to be off this city. And so we've launched in a few places, and the only reason I know that is because I'll get DMs going, hey, you suck. What happened to my old show? And to me, I'm going, I've never been to your town before. I didn't even know I was on your town. And hopefully I'm in a decent mood, or I only check comments or DMs on Tuesday, and I'll reply back to some of them going, hey, just give us a chance if you don't mind. The other thing is sometimes we get pulled off of stations. And we got pulled off in Richmond, Virginia, a few weeks ago.

3:25 I didn't know this. I was flipping through on Tik TOK and I saw a media minute, like blog from this place called Barrett media that does a lot of covering radio and podcasts. And it said, Hey, and often Richmond, Virginia, the Bobby bone show, there's a picture of me. I was like, Oh dang. And I like Richmond a lot.

3:44 I've been there a lot. I would tour through there a lot. And They said in replacing the Bobby Bones show, it was a single female host. Now, there's a couple of reasons that our show would get pulled from a city. And the first reason could just simply be bad ratings. And this wasn't that case this time. It's been that before, but it wasn't this time. Another reason can be, so the stations that are not owned by my company, iHeartRadio, they have to pay a licensing fee. So this was a station that was not owned by iHeartRadio. And we're on a bunch of those. Now, if you're owned by iHeartRadio, you don't have to pay a licensing fee because, well, the company already owns it. Why would you pay the same company a license fee for the... So if they

4:31 put us on any of those stations, it's just free to you, have at it, the company owns it, so now you have it. In a situation like a Richmond, where it wasn't iHeartRadio, they were paying, let's say, $ 10 for the show. It was significantly more than that, but let's say they're paying $ 10 and the contract ran out with that market, with that radio station. And let's say they can hire another host for $ 6 and 50 cents, especially a solo host. That's not going to do a lot of talking. It's going to play a lot of music.

5:05 So first of all, you're going to be saving $ 3 and 50 cents right off the bat there, which in this age, money is very hard to come by, especially in media across the board in, So many different kinds of media, just constant cuts in television, radio, digital media. You're seeing constant layoffs and it sucks for everybody involved.

5:26 So it's not like the 90s where money's just growing and let's just keep throwing money at it to fix it. So by not paying us and hiring somebody for cheaper, you're saving hypothetically $ 3. 50. Now, if that same person you're hiring can also do a second job, let's say as a promotions director, and you would pay a promotions director $ 1. 50.

5:50 Now they're doing the morning show for $ 6. 50. And now the promotions director fee of $ 1. 50 is also added. You're not having to pay. So basically now you're paying $ 5 for a show instead of 10 because you're covering her, the morning show, and she's also doing a promotion job. So in the end, many times it just comes down to money. And look, if we were making a ton of money on that station, they probably wouldn't have cut us.

6:19 I never see the financials for non I heart stations. We are not on enrichment anymore, which stinks because we've been on there for a long time. But also I don't get upset about that because it is totally a money decision and it is very hard to consistently make money now. And if you can hire somebody for cheaper than you were paying the show and also have them do another job. So you're saving money with that job.

6:39 It makes all the sense in the world. So I'm never going to be bitter about that because It's a business. It ain't show friends, it's show business. So in the same way that it's a business, I'm sure we've been put on in places for the same reason. But yeah, I got a lot of messages going, hey, you're new and you suck. And then I go, oh, we must be on somewhere new. Or where did you go? And I was seeing a lot of that, where did you go?

7:06 And if for some reason we're not on in your city, we're on in every city because you can download the podcast. And we do two shows a day on the podcast, the whole show you hear on the radio. And then we do a whole second show as well. That's basically anywhere from 50 minutes to over an hour and just that second podcast feed. And then also we do a half hour of tell me something good. So all of this to say, I just kind of wanted to talk about it because I would never talk about it on the actual radio, but I feel like in this, this is in the weeds. I just kind of wanted to share the reasoning behind us leaving an affiliate. Three reasons. One, we are not getting good ratings. Two, they need to save money. Or three, the station flips. That happens too,

7:49 where it's not even, they're changing out the morning show. Sometimes they change out the entire format. We were on in Portland. They actually changed ownership there. And so this is, now it's been a while, but when we left the station in Portland, well, when we were cut from Portland, the contract had expired. And not only that, a new ownership group had come in and their whole thing was, we're just going to hire everybody local. And you got to respect that for sure. Like, again, it's not show friends, it's show business. And I can admire a company that goes, we're going to dedicate to whatever strategy it is. I just like people that dedicate themselves to one strategy and they stick by it because it's so easy then for

8:32 the company and for the people in it to know the vision. And so when that happened in Portland and they said, yeah, they're not going to pull any syndicated shows at all from anywhere. They're just going to hire locally. I was like, got it. Show business, not show friends, but that's why. And that's so in the weeds. I would never talk about that anywhere else, but right here.

8:53 I'm also dealing pretty heavily with allergies. I don't know wherever you guys live. I'm not sure if you get allergies real bad, but the last two places that I've lived have been the two allergy capitals of America. And I have pretty terrible allergies. I did the test probably 10 years ago where they take a little razor and they dig little holes in your back and they drop the different allergens in your back, and they are going to see what color you turn. And I was the Kool-Aid man color, my whole back, basically. This was just full red. And every part of me was just itching, and I was allergic to everything. So whenever this happens, in case you think my voice is a little raspy, that's what's up. I'm dying of allergies here.

9:29 Hang tight. The Bobbycast will be right back. And we're back on the Bobbycast.

9:46 I had an issue that kind of popped up on Instagram a couple days ago. So I made a clip talking about the band Jefferson Airplane. And that turned into the lead singer of the band Perry sending me a message upset with a joke that I made so I'm just going to share it all with you because for me nothing malicious was meant it was just a joke rewind Jefferson Airplane was a band 70s late 70s early 80s Jefferson Airplane turned into Jefferson Starship. Jefferson Starship turned into just Starship. And we were talking about like the worst number one songs of all time. And I was talking about how they were just switching members out and changing the band's name. And I made a throwaway joke. Like, man,

10:36 they're just switching members out like crazy. It's like the band Perry, just kicking brothers out, eating them, putting in husbands. I promise you that was not written. I didn't even think about it until I was just talking freely. Like now I don't have any jokes written. If I could just show you my page, there's no jokes written on my screen. It's literally just headers of don't forget to talk about this. And that was exactly what was happening there.

11:03 And sometimes I riff and sometimes I say stuff. I never thought anyone would get offended by that, especially not Kimberly Perry, who I do like a lot, but that was such a news story. It was out in every blog. We talked about it on my show. The brother that was supposedly kicked out of the band had used a clip of me telling her, this is the greatest coup ever.

11:24 Because in my heart, I did not mean anything mean by it. And I've had to do this a couple of times in the past couple of years because I do just say things and don't think much about it. I don't have tremendous guilt. I don't like it that she didn't like it, obviously, because I like her. And she messaged me and she, I'll paraphrase her message. It was like, we just kick out our brothers, really? And I paraphrased back, sent a message saying, oh, I did not realize that that could be a hurtful joke. Now, I'm a believer and you don't say, I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings, because that's not a real I'm sorry.

12:08 But I did say, I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings, because I'm not really sorry. And I don't mean that in a bad way. if I knew it was going to hurt her feelings, I don't think I would put the joke up, but there was no intention at all of hurting anybody's feelings. That was just me joking. Even whenever I was putting it up, I thought it was just a kind of funny joke, soft and nobody's going to get offended by this. And also my heart wasn't in a place that I was being hurtful. So I was sorry that hurt her feelings or that it made her angry or irritated at me is kind of a funny joke. It was kind of a funny joke. Not saying it's my best work ever, but it was kind of a funny joke, but I definitely don't want her

12:51 to have her feelings hurt, but that's the name of the game. There have been times where I've told jokes with intention of being a little mean. I've done it a couple times. I don't like how it makes me feel way after. Once, the guy from Florida Georgia Line that doesn't sing, BK, I was doing right after the CMAs.

13:18 And they kind of flirted with me like, oh, we may make you the host. So I'd written a bunch of jokes. And then they didn't make me the host. And I said, well, I'm going to read these jokes. I was doing standup. I was kind of getting ready for my tour. I was doing the standup. And I said, well, I wrote all these jokes if I were to get to host the CMAs. And so I told a bunch of jokes and it was a medium roast. And it didn't feel like it was a mean roast, but mean roasts are funny too. And I was, playfully going after people. Now, this has been years ago, but Lainey Wilson, I made fun of her being from Louisiana and said, I could do that because that was hillbilly on hillbilly crime, being from Arkansas, right? So I like Lainey a lot. A

13:57 little roasty roast, move on. I think Dan and Shay, Dan's hair was really long, longer than mine, but it was really long at the time. And I said, Dan looks like somebody who would sell you CBD from his basement or something like that, right? Again, there was no anger or ill intent on my part. I was just telling jokes. He wasn't upset. The one joke that I told because I was so irritated that BK had said, hey, I'm coming over to do a podcast. It's when him and Tyler were fighting with each other, the other guy from FGL. And we got the studio ready. I stayed back an extra day. Then he just bailed basically day of.

14:34 I was like, oh, I'll come back at a different time. And I was like, do you not have any awareness that... I told you I'm staying back from traveling a day to do this because I knew you wanted to do it. I set up my studio. I got my crew here. And then you just, I was irritated. It just so happened to be right when I was doing these jokes.

14:51 And as I was thinking back about jokes that I possibly did with intention to kind of poke, this is really the only one that I did that with. And I don't love that. I did it. The joke is funny, but I don't love that. I did it for that reason. And the whole joke was that band had split up and they, Tyler Hubbard had had some success as a solo artist. And I do a whole setup about the band and they're split up. And I was acting like I was talking to the audience at the CMAs. And I said, oh, look over there. There's Florida Georgia Lime.

15:21 I said, well, one's over there and one's over there. I said, you know, they don't really talk anymore. I said, but if you want to see them performing, you can. Tyler Hubbard has got a number one song and he's opening for Keith Urban all summer because that was the case. And then I looked over and I said, and there's BK if you're looking for him. He'll be at Fuddruckers from noon to three. The word Fuddruckers was funny to me.

15:47 That to me was the joke. But as I look back at that joke, I was irritated. That joke was done out of an irritated place. I don't love that I did that. Although the joke was funny. Just getting Fuddruckers into a joke is funny. Just a funny word. But I haven't done that since. And I definitely didn't do that with the band Perry. So from me to anybody that I offend accidentally in the future, I'm sorry that hurt your feelings. I really didn't mean to, I like them a lot. So I am sorry. And I, and she didn't respond after that and she doesn't have to, but I did respond and say, I'm sorry about that.

16:34 I'm actually, as I, do this episode. I'm going to fly to Chicago and I am hosting the radio hall of fame. And with that, I wrote a bunch of jokes and I don't know these people for the most part. So, and when I first wrote the jokes and Mike D and I write everything together, when I'm doing an event, it's all Mike D and I, we batten down the hatch and just write, write, write, write, write. And we write so much and repair each other's jokes that we kind of forget who started what joke. It's almost like some of the I don't know if that was my idea or not that started it, but it might've been, but everybody was in on it together. And sometimes I'll be like, Oh, come on, you know, if it was your idea or not. But sometimes when Mike and I

17:17 are writing these jokes, that's exactly what happens, but I'm going and I'm hosting the event for the most part, because my CEO, Bob Pittman is being inducted into the radio hall of fame. And he's the guy that has bet on me and believed in me and loves on me and also gets mad at me sometimes. Like he's the guy, But I think in my career, I've wanted to change my perspective of, I don't want to prove people wrong anymore. I want to prove people right. And he's one of the people that made me feel that way, if not the most. The person that made me want to prove people right for believing in me at a point.

17:50 And so he's going in. They said, he's going in. Will you host? They've asked me to host before. I've not been able to work it out. It's also a hard trip because I do the show in the morning. I get on a plane, go right to Chicago, go right into rehearsal. do the award. And as soon as the show is over, I get back on a plane and come back home, get home around 1230 or one, because I got to do this show the next morning.

18:11 So it's a hard trip. There's no pay. That's okay. I don't need to pay for everything. I'm just saying that's the reasons that I've said no in the past. Bob's going in. It was an absolute yes from the second they asked. So these are some of the jokes that I've written. And I think I've pretty much cut all the roasties. Again, I know Bob. I've met one of the other people and a third person I watched on television playing sports. And the rest of them, I had to look up like their history. And these are really accomplished radio people. So just know that if you don't know who they are going into this, it's okay.

18:51 Because these are people that have a really storied radio career, super successful, but sometimes it's in a part of the country that maybe you don't live in. So I'm just going to read you my jokes. And this is going to be weird because there's no laughter here. And Also, whenever you perform jokes that you've never, ever, ever worked on the first time, you don't know if they're funny or not. Like you feel in your heart they're funny, but until you actually get a crowd that laughs or not, you don't know. And if it's a 75% success rate, that's successful. All right, so I come out. There's no prompter, by the way. I have to go from paper. I was just told a minute ago there's no prompter, which is fine. I won't memorize them, but I'll go from paper.

19:29 And they say, hey, here's Bobby Bones. And I go out and I say, hey, thank you guys. Congratulations. I'd like to say a few things about each one of the inductees tonight. Bob Pittman, CEO of iHeartRadio. Bob is my hero. It is really cool to stand here and induct a man who gives me health insurance. I expect a mild laugh. And that's just the setup of the second one here. But I do expect a little mild laugh there. And then I say, it was so cool the first time I ever got Bob's number. I mean, this is the guy that started MTV. This is the guy that made this company the massive success it is now.

20:05 And when Bob gave me his number, I put it in my phone as head honcho. And then I gave him my number and I saw him put it into his phone as budget-friendly Ryan Seacrest. I do expect that to get a pretty good laugh. Anytime I make fun of myself, especially comparing myself to a cheaper version of Ryan Seacrest, that always gets a good laugh. So I'll move from there. Ricky Smiley. Ricky Smiley's done some of the best prank calls in radio history. He's been in the game so long. His first prank call was to Alexander Graham Bell. And I feel like that room, being a bunch of radio nerds and being older, They're going to like a little historical reference and a joke. And then I say, Ricky Smiley is a master of prank calls. Ricky,

20:47 later I need you to call Bob Pittman and pretend like you're another company that wants to hire me. A pretty good little industry laugh. I expect like a five and a half laugh out of that one. Congratulations to Boomer Esiason. Boomer has spent nearly two decades helping lead mornings on WFAN. Boomer was my favorite NFL player growing up.

21:07 I once geeked out on Boomer when he guessed it on my podcast, and it's weird because I'm an adult man, and I'm telling another adult man how much I loved him. I feel like I may have gone a little too hard. That's why I've been court-ordered to stand at least 100 feet away tonight. Boomer, how are you? Get to the distance thing. That should do okay. The great Shotgun Tom Kelly is here. Big fan of you. Big fan of your son, Machine Gun Kelly. So Shotgun Tom Kelly is probably in his 70s or 80s at this point, like legendary guy. I think some people will get the Machine Gun Kelly reference, right? But I'll say. The great Shotgun Tom Kelly is here. Big fan of you. Big fan of your son, Machine Gun Kelly. Seriously, though, everybody, Tom matters.

21:48 He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That's great. I have my name on a parking space at work. A little make fun of me. Good. Charlie Van Dyke has a legendary radio voice. Charlie's here tonight. Charlie has the voice I dreamed of having when I first got into radio. Heck, I still dream of having that kind of voice. One day, these testicles will drop.

22:09 And if you do the finger cross, I think it's like one day, you gotta really sell that. Just got a few more here. Dennis Green, congratulations. Wow, Dennis spent 22 years at Westwood One. He spent his career helping radio people reach. He spent his career helping great radio reach more people. Dennis, it's wonderful to see you get your own moment in the spotlight. Dennis, it's wonderful to see you get your own moment in the spotlight tonight.

22:37 Dennis is also a co-chair of the Radio Hall of Fame. Dennis, I hope tonight's going well because I'm still not entirely sure. You can't kick me out. So I'm in the Hall of Fame. They'll probably say that at the beginning. I had another one that was a joke because I don't know Dennis. The joke was, did you really get in or do you just know the right people because he's on the selection? I didn't do that. That's probably a little funnier, but I don't know him enough to like, I don't want to ban Perry him. You know what I mean? Because it wouldn't be.

23:11 Helen Little has become one of the most listened to radio personalities in the country through her work on New York's 106.7 Light FM. Helen Little interviews authors on her podcast, The Public Library, and she actually reads their books beforehand. Helen, on behalf of the rest of us in radio, stop doing that. Because we don't read crap. We just interview people and act like we do. That's not the joke there, but yeah, stop doing that. It's the end of the joke.

23:34 Fred Winston has been a beloved voice on Chicago radio for decades. Fred, you've spent your career getting people all through their morning commute. I've spent mine making people say, well, let's see what else is on here. I got another one here. Cause I feel like that one's one of my weaker ones. Fred Winston has had, I got to put all the stations thing. I'm just going to make up some stations, but I haven't finished this joke. Fred Winston has been successful at so many Chicago radio stations, WABC, WBLB, WBGJ, WGGG.

24:07 His resume is just to go to Chicago and hit the scan button. Radio nerds will like that one. Because also if you're young, you don't know what the scan button is, but you would go and just hit it and it would go through all the stations. That's a pretty good radio nerd joke. I do like that one. But it's the first time I've read these back. And then I say this. It's an honor to host a room full of radio legends. Normally when this many radio people gather at a hotel or I'm going to take off hotel. You're hearing me edit a joke here. It's an honor to host a room full of radio legends.

24:43 Normally when this many radio people gather together, someone's explaining why there won't be raises. Get a good little laugh. Then it gets a little more serious. So I do have to find a place in this for my band Perry joke though. I want to use that one again. It was so good. So those are my jokes. We spent the last few days writing those. And I think I get a 75% there. I think that would be pretty good. This guy named Grizzled Pokey commented on the video of Miss Rachel and I, you know, where we're doing the Migos, the microphone's down, the orange background, and we're rapping. Now, I love Miss Rachel as a kid's content creator. And so I had Miss Rachel dressed in the overalls in the pink shirt. I think it's pink

25:31 and we're doing the deal. And a lot of people got upset because they're like, Oh, how are you being political? No, literally I have a baby. And that's why I made the video. I also didn't take it down once people started to go, Oh, you're being political because again, I don't care that much. And I didn't put it up for any reason to be political. What if that's how I like shot my shot, like, like blew my load in that I don't get political when, Do I love reading and learning about politics and learning about government and how it works? And have I considered running for office?

26:02 All of that, very much so. But it's just not my thing. You don't come to me for that, so I don't do it there. But that's how I would do it is by posting a video of me and Miss Rachel. That's what I decided to do. That's how I'm gonna blow it right there. No, of course not. I just like watching Miss Rachel do the Miss Rachel videos.

26:19 But I posted that and Grizzled Pokey wrote, hey, this came up only as suggested. I stopped listening to you years ago when you sold out. How did I sell out? I'm doing the same lame crap. I've done it forever. Like no part of me has given up anything that's been fundamentally a part of what I've done to make more money. I have not sold out at all. I'm still doing the stuff that got me in trouble. It's weird to be told that I sold out because I'm not anti-selling out. I just haven't modified anything I'm doing for the mighty dollar. As a matter of fact, I turned down so much money because I don't want to sell out. If it's sponsorships that I don't really believe in, if it's putting political guests on shows, there's a lot

27:15 of things I do to not sell out. but to be told they stopped listening when I sold out, I wanted to reply and go, hey, could you be more descriptive of how I sold out? I would like to know because I've never done anything to change who I am in order to get ahead financially or otherwise. Like it's really been the one thing that I'm proud of that I've never sold out. Some would say I was born sold out, that I came out of the womb already sold. You can't sell out if you're already sold.

27:49 The one thing that I've been loyal to is me. And I don't mean that in a way of like, I'm only going to do me and I care about no one else. But when I say me, I mean me and all my people. I'm never going to be loyal to a format. Did I grow up in a small town in Arkansas listening to country music? Absolutely. Did I grow up listening to alternative music? A lot of it in the 90s? Absolutely. Did I grow up in a high school where there was a lot of hip hop?

28:17 Because I mean, hip hop was really burgeoning and blown up in the 90s and 2000s for sure. But am I from a rural town that I definitely have, like what I'm made of is from country music? Yeah. But I'm never going to act like that's all I do. And I think a lot of people do that. They're told they have to be assigned to one thing and not many. But it's also why I didn't have a home, like a true home for so long. Because I was told, regardless of where I went, I didn't fit in and belong.

28:49 So when I was doing pop music, it was like, no, you sound like a hillbilly. You have an accent. You don't belong in pop music. When I was doing a bit of hip hop music, heck, I had signed a record deal as a hip hop artist for a while. It was a bit of the same. No, you're the pop guy. You can't do hip hop. When I came to country, it was, no, no, no, you can't do country because you're talking about things other than country music and you like alternative music and you're on a pop station.

29:17 I've never had anywhere that I actually fit perfectly, but I don't think anybody fits perfectly anywhere. And I think that's why I perfectly fit. And that's why I've been loyal to me. The landscape of country music will change three times in five years. I'm not going to change with it. I'm going to be the same person. Whenever we're doing content, and it's resonating, it's never about what song's coming out this week or what record's coming out.

29:46 We'll add some of that occasionally, but really it's been about a focus on the people. It's me going, okay, the one thing I have control of is me. And so I'm going to talk about my likes, my interests, the people in the room that I like, that I'm interested in. We're going to talk about them. I can control that. So the one thing that I've always stayed really close to is me and us and my people.

30:11 I've never sold out. I'm not even offended by that. I just thought it was weird because I never see that. And so Grizzled Pokey, I'd like to introduce you to the band Perry.

30:22 Hang tight. The Bobbycast will be right back. And we're back on the Bobbycast.

30:39 I do get people hitting me up too at times saying that when I do Giving Tuesday, that I'm just doing it for Instagram followers. I don't know that I ever even say my Instagram handle when I do this. Which it can be a bit confusing because... People will message the Bobby Bone Show account or me on TikTok or Twitter or wherever. And I just started doing Giving Tuesday because I had such a bad relationship with going into the comments or the DMs. It was all negative.

31:11 I don't want to be there. So I thought selfishly, if I can go in and make myself feel better, I think I'll enjoy social media more. And that's what I did. I would go in and what makes me feel better a lot of the times is helping other people because without help, when I was younger, I wouldn't be here. So it would be somebody had their water bill, 180 bucks, no problem. Put your Venmo, I hit it.

31:41 Then it would be 300 bucks. Then it's 500 bucks. And it started to get pretty expensive. And I know I've told you guys before, I think over the past few months, I'm over $ 50, 000 now. just giving through my Venmo. And that's great. And I'm not saying that as anything else as I've been very consistent with it. But what I have done, as I say that number, is I've stopped giving anything over about $ 600 because I really don't want to get scammed for more than $ 600. I don't mind getting scammed for 200 bucks or 300 bucks. If I do 10 Giving Tuesdays and eight of them are real and two of them aren't, I'm okay with that.

32:23 If I happen to get scammed with two of them, I'm okay with that because then I'm not going, man, I've lost over $ 1, 000 of getting scammed. If I get scammed for 400 bucks, I'm in a good place right now. That doesn't bother me. If I can help eight people and only lose the two, great percentage for me. But I definitely have not gained Instagram followers from it because I haven't shared my Instagram, MrBobbyBones, M-R-B-O-B-B-Y-B-O-N-E-S. I really haven't shared it enough. It was never about that. I do get that. One of the things that for a while made me consider stopping is that people were getting really upset if I didn't pick them in my DMs. And I get thousands a week. I don't see all of them.

33:05 Sometimes I'll just scroll and hit one and go into it. And if their Venmo is there and the ask makes sense, boom, done. Sometimes I've had people ask me for $ 80, 000 before. That's never going to happen. I don't want to get scammed for $ 80, 000. Also, I'm not giving $ 80, 000 to anybody. That's not my, Sister or, well, I don't want to give my wife money. We just kind of have the money.

33:28 But I will see sometimes on the subject line, people go, I've tried 11 times and you still haven't picked me. Or I'll click into one and someone has sent it eight times and every time it gets a little more aggressive. Not sad, but mean. And that gets to be a bit bothersome. I decided that I was going to just not pick those anyway. If they made me feel bad, I'm doing this for me. So if it makes me feel bad, I'm just going to stay away from it.

34:00 But it's been really great. I don't know when I'll stop. It's been pretty cool to see. Sometimes I get handwritten notes sent to the studio of people going, thank you so much. That's not why I do it. It's very nice to see at times, but it's definitely not why I do it. But I'm also not doing it to get Instagram followers. I did get a note. I wonder if it's in my pocket. I'm going to tell you guys something. I have my butt bone hurts so bad.

34:26 I have my coccyx hurts. It's what your butt bone is called. It's like bruised on the tip. And so when I sit on it for a long time, it is a severe pain in my coccyx. Also coccyx is funny. And so when I sit for too long, it's hard for me to get up. You ever had a pain in your coccyx? Yeah.

34:50 Sucks.

34:51 Sucks. I did get this note. This is a handwritten note that I got today. I'll tell you a quick story about this. Bobby, years ago, you painted this self-portrait for a St. Jude charity auction. I decided at the time I was going to purchase it no matter what the price and give it back to you at a later time in your life. When I heard about your beautiful daughter, I thought now would be the perfect time to return this to you. The man in the self-portrait has accomplished a lot of things in his life. He has made his mark on earth, but now you've been given the greatest privilege that you can have. You get to be a new dad. I pray that the man in the self-portrait can sure be proud of it all. Congratulations.

35:28 It's a big deal, Gordon. And so I did not know that he did this, but this is from a president of a record label here in Nashville. And just a half step back on the painting, I was doing self-portraits. I'm a terrible artist. And I'd asked some artists to also paint self-portraits and we're going to auction them off for charity. And And Keith Urban's a really good painter.

35:53 He painted one of himself and we auctioned it off for St. Jude and I did. And I remember my painting being up and it was making some good money, like in the thousands and people didn't want it because it was me or because it was good. They wanted it because it was helping and it was just a fun thing to do. And it was at a number that I thought, wow, I cannot believe this. And then somebody swooped in and paid so much more than an already high number and it was gone. I never knew who it was. But I remember that going, whomever it was just jumped like three times the price of somebody already overpaying, except that it was for charity. And so Gordon, who I have known for a long time, came back to my studio a few days ago and he brought

36:38 an artist in. My friend George Burge is now signed with Gordon at Black River. And he just said, hey, I got you a gift. Don't open it until I'm not here. And they left and I opened it. And I was completely moved by it. One, that he would think that far ahead to go, I'm going to do this. And one day I'm going to give it back to him.

36:59 And it's going to be meaningful. Two, he'd spend that much money for charity. And then for three, for him to actually pull it off. And, you know, frankly, for us both to have jobs this far, this, this long since then, it's such a weird industry. Who knew if we'd have jobs, but I'm a bit jaded because I'm in an industry where a lot of people are fake and a lot of people say things just to get ahead.

37:20 Things are very transactional. This was not at all. And it's moments like this that draw me back in to remembering why I started doing things to begin with. Because again, you can get quite jaded. So I was very appreciative of this. I texted him. I was like, dude, I'm blown away by this. but I thought it was super cool.

37:47 The painting is terrible though. God, like I feel like I'm a creative person. I come up with a lot of creative things. Sometimes I say jokes. They just come to my head. I write jokes. I say jokes. I am not creative with a pencil or a pen or a paintbrush. It is terrible. And so I'll post a picture. I'll have them edit in a picture of the painting.

38:07 See it? It's awful. All right. Couple more things before we go. These are questions you guys put in the comments. And thank you guys for commenting on the videos. I gotta be honest, we have not done as many in the weeds in the past couple of weeks. One, we've just been a little overwhelmed. Two, and it's not his fault, but Dylan had a baby. Dude, come on. How do we keep production high if you're having a baby? How are we supposed to keep making videos at the level we're making when you're over here procreating? Send her to the hospital. Check back in later. Now Dylan's a very important part of our team and we're all super happy for him. But yeah, production has slowed a little bit because Brandon was having to do like eight people's jobs.

38:54 Hope you feel good, Dylan. Brandon's sweating away over here. I had to hire somebody new just because Dylan was having a baby. And now we got even bigger staff. So we haven't done as many of these, but I appreciate you guys when you go to the comments and write stay weedy or you write a comment I'll do four questions from the comments from the last couple of videos.

39:16 Number one, what happens during commercial breaks? We are not even planning for the next segment because I have planned everything out already for the most part. I'm recording station liners, countdown. If we have four minutes, I am taking three minutes and 45 seconds of that and getting all the busy work done. All the things I've got to record that I would probably record later, I'm using that 345 hard for it. I might go to the bathroom once every two days at work. The show, sometimes one of them will go, Can we go to the bathroom? And I go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, cool. And they'll all go, oh my God. And they all just run out real quick.

39:57 But that's what we do during commercial breaks. Usually, sometimes it's the countdown. If I haven't said that already, I'm recording like little pieces of the national countdown over the weekend. I'm getting the most out of the time that we have every single day, every single minute. Number two, how much of the show is planned before you turn on the microphones? I would say I have two and a half shows planned before we do one show. That doesn't mean we do all of the two and a half shows that I have planned, but I've got that show planned.

40:25 And then I've got basically enough material for another show and a half in case I get there that morning and go, I don't like it. I'm not in the mood for it. This wasn't that good. Amy got sick. She's not here today. So we got to pivot some of these segments. So all the show is planned, but sometimes we do things during the show that we never had planned. I also leave the ability to modify and move around or maybe a caller calls in and they're great and it puts us on something else. So I am overly prepared and I am extremely rigid with what I've prepared except for when something is so good that I'm not. And then I'm totally fine with changing on a freaking dime. Number three, what happens after a segment bombs?

41:15 Nothing bombs. Sometimes they're not good. Sometimes they are good. Nothing bombs because we're not loading it up expecting to get this massive applause at the end of it. There are just segments sometimes that don't work. But bombs is a tough word. That would mean you go up and everybody's kind of confused. No, we do enough bad that you're not confused when we do something else bad. So bombs is not a word I would use. We do segments sometimes, even shows where if I don't feel good, maybe I don't feel good after the show about the show.

41:44 And man, that was not a good show. That happens when you do a bunch of shows. But I guess I just don't use the word bomb because the expectation isn't, man, this segment is going to be awesome. It's more of, let's just see what happens. And sometimes what happens is, oh, that didn't go so well. But man, if I stick and I just think about that one segment and how it didn't go as well as I'd hoped, it will affect the next two segments. So I don't, I let it go. Dear God, made me a butt so I can fly far, far away. That's what I do. Segment's bad?

42:16 We're moving on. Also, I've done it for so long. I've done so many bad segments that I realized, just move on.

42:22 Hang tight. The Bobbycast will be right back. And we're back on The Bobbycast.

42:39 Next up, if you were starting today with no audience... No connections. Would you still go into radio? Yes. But to me, radio is not just sitting in a room with a microphone talking through a broadcast hour. Radio is what I'm doing right now. It's communicating through a microphone, through a camera. It's communicating any way that comes through your phone, through your computer. That to me is what radio is. That's what I do now. I do a radio show. I do a podcast. I do a video show like this here. Although some of you may not even be watching it. You could be listening to it with the podcast that we put on audio. So yes, I still find that the thing that I do that I am most excited about, that I love the most

43:24 is doing this long form radio. But my definition of radio, I think is so different than generally the other people that define radio. I was talking with a radio guy recently. younger. And I got a message from a friend of mine that is really high up in a different company. And he said, Hey, this guy that works for me, he's a big fan of yours. Would you mind calling him and just talking to him? No problem. Called him up, said, Hey man, how's it going? He's like, Oh, super cool.

44:01 He does mornings as well. As a matter of fact, he does mornings in one of the cities that I'm in at the same time that I'm on. So you'd say competition. I don't say competition because I think people are going to listen to you if they like you. At some point, it doesn't have to be live. It could be at any point, right? So maybe to old schools, that's called competition. To me, it's just somebody on doing their show at the same time. So there's no part of me that goes, well, I shouldn't talk to my competition.

44:24 And I call him, we talk for like an hour. And he has interests in radio, but also in doing other things as well. And I just remember telling him, you can literally do anything you want. You can be anything you want, You can decide today you want to be a broccoli influencer and dedicate yourself and in six months be a pretty well-known prominent broccoli influencer. You can be a motivational speaker. You just do it online enough.

44:52 Get better at it. You can be doing sold-out theaters in two years. You can do your radio show, do your broccoli, do your motivation. You can do whatever you want because the land of the gatekeepers is over. If you're good enough, people are going to find your stuff. If you're good enough and consistent enough. Consistent is just as important as good enough. If you're good enough and consistent enough, people are going to find your stuff. And that's the conversation we had. And I just remember hanging up and it reminded me of that as well. Because look, I've never fancied myself a great author. I've written two and a half bestsellers. three, if you count the kid's book, but that thing's like 12 pages, man. You know, I

45:44 don't know if I can really count that, but I have written two New York times bestsellers. I'm not an author. I don't know how to write. Can I write?

45:53 Yeah.

45:55 Would I be considered traditionally a great writer of our time?

45:58 No.

45:58 Are there great writers of our time that don't have bestselling books? Yeah. Yeah. People that write way better than me, but I connected. I think that's what those books were is me kind of pouring it out and connecting. It's not that I technically am some great writer. I am the opposite of that. But if I can write books, if I can do years of standup and sell a special to a network, which I did, I'm not a good comedian. I'm a fine comedian that has his moments, but I just was grinding at it for years to the point now where some people that I know and I'm close to, I go like, yeah, I was doing stand-up.

46:35 They're like, you do stand-up? I haven't done it in two years or so. And I was like, yeah, it was a big part of my life. And even though they knew me then, maybe we weren't close, they didn't know that. I can post pictures on Instagram all day, but it's not like I'm performing here. But I was a stand-up comedian. You can do whatever you want. You just have to commit to it and not be scared that when it doesn't go well, that means you can't do it anymore. Okay, so you bombed. Your segment sucked.

47:04 Move on to the next thing. Move on. No one remembers when you messed up. They don't care. They're too busy watching themselves. You do something, you feel stupid. That didn't work. Oh, I'm embarrassed. Don't be. Move on. Nobody else is watching you because everybody else is so worried about their own selves that they're not caring if you fell down, if you said something stupid, if your tickets didn't sell. Nobody cares. So stop worrying about what people think or how they're judging you because you're worried about how they're judging you more than they're actually judging you.

47:36 So go get a big dog. That's what I said. Go get a big dog. And when he replaces me in like three years, I'm gonna be pissed because I motivated him into taking my job. But it was cool. I root for people. I root for people to do big things. This is not a zero sum career or profession because somebody else gets something done doesn't mean that I'm not worthy. Because that I get something, it doesn't mean that someone else is less than. One of my dearest friends in this business absolutely kills it. I'm never jealous because I root for him so hard. And I don't feel that because he gets something, he's doing the daily show, he's doing that I, that means I'm less than or I can't have something. There are so many options.

48:24 You just have to be consistent and And you have to figure out how to get good at it. That's it. Not even great. Just be consistently good. I don't feel like I'm great really at anything, even the job that I've done the most. I don't feel like I'm great at it. I feel like I'm always good to really good and occasionally great. I'm consistently good. I'm pretty consistently really good. I'm occasionally great. That's all you got to be.

48:48 But that main word is consistent. It doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be in a creative space or creative industry. It doesn't matter what it is that you're doing. If you're watching this or listening to this, be consistent. Be consistently good. Sometimes really good. Occasionally great. You have to be consistently great. One final thing before I go. So my hair is longer. It looks stupid. I get it.

49:09 I'm Rosie O'Donnell. I'm Rosie O'Donnell and Rachel Maddow smashed together. I understand. I know that. To me, nobody knows it more than me. I have longer hair now because my daughter, who's about seven months old, thinks it's hilarious, really, when I do this, over the top of her head. She thinks it's so funny and her hair is growing out like crazy. It's funny to me. I have no reason to cut my hair right now. I know it looks stupid.

49:35 When I go places, people will see me with longer hair and not think it's me, even with my glasses. Now I got another prescription. I had a prescription up like two different prescriptions because it's been a while since I've had my eyes checked. And so I got like five pair of these frames, which has been my frame of choice for the past 15 years. I'm such a generic average white guy that I had to do something I felt to pop out. And a whole wall of vanilla.

50:01 If you're also vanilla, you just look like a wafer, man. Nobody knows the difference. So I needed something. That's why I wear my glasses like this. My eyes are bad, so it's not fake, but I got new frames. And I spent the last few weeks with my wife and we go out, we take Billy out somewhere in town.

50:19 We walk around. She likes to be out around people. She likes the hubbub of the city. And sometimes we go to a lot of the places that a lot of tourists come to. And when my hair a little longer, I see people staring and sometimes not saying anything because they're not sure it's me. But still, most of the time they'll come up and go, hey, are you Bobby?

50:36 I'm like, yep. Because the move is to go to Instagram and see what the person looks like and then go, Is that them? And my hair's longer on Instagram, obviously. And so for a few weeks, probably getting 85% recognized at what I usually would. And I would see some people not say hi because they were like, is that really him? And so I got new frames. I didn't get them for the reason of, well, I want to look completely different. And these are only partially different. With my long hair and these frames, I'm telling you it's at about 30%. Nobody comes up and says hello because they think I look so different. I took a picture with the woman. She came up and said hi. And then she's like, I didn't know if that was you

51:14 or not. I just thought I would press my luck and come say hi. So I'm going to change these glasses out and put my other glasses on. It's not that again, it's only halfway, but with my long hair and these glasses, people will be confused and go, I don't think that's him. Does it look that different? A little, a little. If you guys are, just listening and not watching, go to the YouTube. Look it up. Again, I'm not going to wear these frames for anything professional. I just sometimes my other glasses dig into my nose. They're pretty heavy.

51:49 So I wear these. There's no black on the bottom. But when I wear these and I have my hair long, nobody says anything. And it's not that I like that or don't like that. I just thought it was kind of funny because when I bought them, they didn't seem that different to me. They just look like they're a little lighter and they don't have the black rims on the bottom. But that's what's up. Thank you guys for listening and watching. If you don't mind, if you are listening, or even if you are watching, go and subscribe to the YouTube page. That would help tremendously. We really locked in before Dylan decided to have a baby. And man, we were just getting up the in the weeds. We were doing the head games. We were just trying to

52:31 build the page up because my fear is, and I have another year and a half or so at Netflix in my two-year deal with them, that if They decide they don't want to renew the Bobbycast on Netflix. Or if I decide I don't want to renew the Bobbycast deal on Netflix, we can come back here and have a really strong base of subscribers. And you know what?

52:50 We have done that. And I credit Brandon Ray and a little bit Dylan until he had a baby. I credit them in just walking alongside me and building a lot of consistent content. And now we have over 300 and I think 70,000 subscribers. So thank you. I do feel comfortable now that if for some reason it did happen, We can come here. We can just hit the ground running and just keep rocking. If you don't mind, I would love for you to subscribe to the YouTube page.

53:16 And if you don't mind, write a comment, right? Stay weedy, right? Whatever you want to say. We love it. I get a lot of inspiration from what you guys write in the comments. So thank you so much. Oh, I got to do dancing with the stars. Oh my God. I almost forgot. I looked at the time. I was like, Oh, I've been going for a long time. I got to do dancing with the stars. Now, I got to take the energy back up for a second because this will be a solo clip. I got to get my hair right.

53:40 God dang it. All right, here we go. And now my power rankings for Dancing with the Stars after week number four. In first place, Ezra. Last week, he got a 24 out of 30. Another strong emotional routine. They have the consistency. He is an athlete. And she is so great at building performances. Right now, he's number one in the power rankings. Number two, Mara and Mark Ballas.

54:15 This last week, best dance of the night. Tied for the season lead. She is a mirror ball threat. Number three, Amber Glenn and Pasha. She's been my favorite or second favorite the whole time. You know... Definitely a contender. It's the first time she's not been in the top two, but it was a small step back because she only got a 23 out of 30, but I think she's still in it for the finals. And I think Amber can still win the thing. At number four, Harry Shum with Jenna Johnson. He is consistent. He is polished. He is a former professional dancer, but he's also becoming more and more likable. And he smiles a lot. His smile feels real. Never underestimate a smile while people are dancing.

55:03 Number five, Jenna. You know, she is the absolute ringer, has the most dance experience, but I do feel like this was a bit of a breakthrough for her. I think, listen, dancing, if it were just dancing, she'd probably win the show. But she's starting to give a little bit of herself to this too. And I feel like if she keeps this up for the first time, I can see her winning the thing. Next up, Julia Stiles. Great bounce back week.

55:34 She'll need more weeks like that to be a serious finalist, but she needed the week, she got the week, and also I like her. And not just because I used to watch her movies. She started to do relatable, likable things, emotion, expressions, vulnerability. I like her. It's really cool to see. At number seven, Jackson Olsen, the Savannah Banana. He's been in the bottom three a couple weeks now. He was one of the ones I thought would win this thing. I thought he would definitely, how would I say this? Be better faster.

56:19 I think he's getting a little better, but now it's time to move. He needs stronger dances. He needs votes because he's been in the bottom three over and over. Also, I would have never apologized for the Guillermo stuff. Everybody knew you were kidding. Like bros knew you were kidding. Never apologize. Next up. I believe this is number eight.

56:40 Kind of lost my place here. It is number eight. Thank God. At number eight, Tatiana Ali. Steady. She did not make a move up the board this week, but steady. Just survive. Just don't be the slowest person in a group running from the lion. And right now she's not the slowest. At number nine, Tyler Cameron. the guy from The Bachelor, sometimes the judges will just throw you a bone and give you a better score because they don't want to see you go. And his was pretty good.

57:09 He got a 21 and a 30. It was a Foxtrot. He's improving. I did not think that his score probably should have been that high. What the crap do I know? But I do think they want him to last a little bit. So I think they threw him a little Tyler bone. Everybody gets a bone at some point in the show if you last this far. And I think he got a little bone, a little savior bone this week.

57:28 At number 10, Connor Wood. Very likable. I like the guy. I want to hang out with the guy, but we're still waiting for that performance that changes people's minds, not to be blown away as he's the best dancer, but for people to go, oh, I'm hitching my wagon. That's my dude. I'm riding with him. We don't have that yet.

57:44 I think we can get that from him though, but we don't have that yet. And at number 11 in the power rankings, Guillermo. No part of Guillermo is trying to convince you he's the best dancer. All parts of Guillermo tell you that, man, You really like the guy. You really like the guy. And that's what's fun about this show. He's a vote threat. The longer he lasts, the more votes he's going to get. He's not going to be a mirror ball threat, but he is a, that's my guy kind of threat. And you're going to see in the next couple of weeks, people start to get pissed that he's still around. And that I don't think by my rankings, that means he's going to go home next. I just am ranking them in order of who I think can win the show. But that is

58:27 it one through 11. That's it. Thank you guys for watching. Now I can let the energy back down a little bit. I just had to lift it up for that clip because we put that clip out and we edited it up. Like Brandon edits the crap out of it. Dylan used to, but then he had a baby. And then people like share it and comment and that gets pretty good traction and engagement. Thank you guys for watching. We will see you guys very soon here on In the Weeds. Remember friends, stay weedy, stay in the weeds. Look around. Some of that stuff's AI. Some of the stuff's just people wanting to get you engaged and being rude to other people.

59:04 They're wanting to divide you on the internet. There's politics. You don't have to get involved in that. Stay out. Stay in the weeds. Know what's going on. We'll see you guys next week or in a couple days whenever Dylan comes back to work. All right. Bye, everybody.

59:16 Thanks for listening to The Bobbycast. Share this episode with a friend because they don't pay to advertise us.