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The Fifth Hour: Where have you gone Verbal Octagon™ · The Ben Maller Show

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  Speaker 1: Kaboom if you thought four hours a day 1200 minutes
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  Speaker 1: a week was enough think again he's the last remnants
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  Speaker 1: of the old republic a sole bastion of fairness he
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  Speaker 1: treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
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  Speaker 1: rich pill poppers in the penthouse wow the clearinghouse of
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  Speaker 1: hot takes break free for something special the fifth hour
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  Speaker 1: with ben maller starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: In the air everywhere. The Fifth Hour with me, Ben Maller,
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  Speaker 2: and you. And a happy Friday to you. It is
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  Speaker 2: the second day of October to the overnight show. This
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  Speaker 2: is the double dip day. The double dip day. Well, actually,
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  Speaker 2: a couple of double dip days here.
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  Speaker 3: Friday.
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  Speaker 2: And on Sunday, we double dip on the Fifth Hour Podcast,
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  Speaker 2: the 275th day of the year, I am told. It's
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  Speaker 2: our dirty little secret.
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  Speaker 3: There are just 90 days left. That's it.
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  Speaker 2: That's all she wrote in 2026, the final couple of
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  Speaker 2: days of the 40th week of the year. I saw
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  Speaker 2: last night while consuming the thrilling Thursday night NFL game,
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  Speaker 2: that we are in a stretch now of 61 days
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  Speaker 2: of football jumbled together. That starting yesterday, for the next,
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  Speaker 2: I guess, 60 days, including today, there's either a college
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  Speaker 2: football game of note, possibly not, and an NFL game
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  Speaker 2: or an NFL game for the next couple of months. Now,
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  Speaker 2: you really have to dig deep, because some of the
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  Speaker 2: college games are absolutely dog crap. So you really got
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  Speaker 2: to go deep there if you're trying to find something
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  Speaker 2: to watch football-wise and you're willing to watch some of
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  Speaker 2: these very small schools. But we have that to look
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  Speaker 2: forward to. We also have the baseball playoffs continuing. The
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  Speaker 2: wild card round, mostly a dud. I know the Phillies
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  Speaker 2: and the Braves did their thing. But other than that, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep,
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  Speaker 2: sweep in the air everywhere. On this edition of the
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  Speaker 2: 5th Hour Podcast, we've got Wendy's Marketing, like Sinatra at
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  Speaker 2: the Sands, and who knows what else, as we try
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  Speaker 2: yet again to call a spade a spade.
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  Speaker 3: But we begin with this.
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  Speaker 2: So I like to save most of your messages till
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  Speaker 2: the Sunday Mailbag.
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  Speaker 3: It's very popular.
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  Speaker 2: People seem to like the Sunday Mailbag. However, I did
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  Speaker 2: want to bring this one up. This is Jim from
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State. And it's a big state, Jim. He did
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  Speaker 2: not say where he's from. So most likely it's either Cincinnati, Cleveland,
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  Speaker 2: possibly Columbus, possibly Columbus. It could be some small town
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  Speaker 2: I don't even know about. He just said Jim from Ohio.
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  Speaker 2: So he sent this, and I was like, well, I
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  Speaker 2: was going to use this in the mailbag. And I
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  Speaker 2: was thinking, well, this would be perfect to expand upon
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  Speaker 2: because in the mailbag we go rapid fire.
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  Speaker 3: We give you a couple minutes on each thing that
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  Speaker 3: gets sent in.
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  Speaker 2: It's more of a pocket-sized look at everything that is sent.
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  Speaker 3: But this is like we have more time. It's long form.
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  Speaker 3: And other people have.
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  Speaker 2: Brought this up to me. So I wanted to address
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  Speaker 2: Jim from Ohio. And again, I was going to save
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  Speaker 2: this for the mailbag. But what the hell? Let's put
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  Speaker 2: this one on a pedestal. We'll put a lamp on it.
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  Speaker 2: And we'll have it dance and do a pirouette on
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  Speaker 2: the catwalk. So Jim from the Buckeye State. again, did
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  Speaker 2: not say the city he's from, says that the show,
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  Speaker 2: the overnight show, needs to bring back the verbal octagon.
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  Speaker 2: And he said how much he fell in love with
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  Speaker 2: the show. Jim wrote years ago when we used to
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  Speaker 2: do the verbal octagon on a regular basis. He says
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  Speaker 2: he still remembers Pete versus the world. He said it
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  Speaker 2: was one of the craziest radio things he's ever heard.
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  Speaker 3: He says, please bring it back.
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  Speaker 2: So my response, my rebuttal, first of all, Jim, thank
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  Speaker 2: you for listening, because that Pete versus the world thing
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  Speaker 2: was close to 20 years ago now.
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  Speaker 3: It might have been 20. I don't have the date.
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  Speaker 3: I have no idea. I look at some of these dates.
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  Speaker 3: I get the heebie-jeebies.
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, my God, that's a long time ago.
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  Speaker 2: So it was a way back situation on the show.
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  Speaker 2: So I thank you for listening, Jim, first of all,
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  Speaker 2: all these years. And then I say, what the F
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  Speaker 2: are you talking about? We never got rid of the
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  Speaker 2: verbal octagon. And if you're really a P1, which you
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  Speaker 2: clearly are, you're listening to the Fifth Hour Podcast, and
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  Speaker 2: you sent messages in, you say on social media, you
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  Speaker 2: even say that you, in this email, and I'm not
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  Speaker 2: going to read the whole thing, but you claim that
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  Speaker 2: you sent stuff in on the text thing that we
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  Speaker 2: used to have, the text line says, back in the day,
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  Speaker 2: then you should know all this. The verbal lockdown is
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  Speaker 2: still sitting right there. The lights work. The canvas has
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  Speaker 2: been swept. The imaginary bloodstains are still on the mat.
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  Speaker 2: The problem is finding two people willing to climb in
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  Speaker 2: to the thing. And that's the crisis. If there is
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  Speaker 2: such a thing as a crisis on a bit on
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  Speaker 2: a radio show, we've got a generation of callers who
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  Speaker 2: apparently believe confrontation is ordering the wrong dipping sauce at Chick-fil-A.
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  Speaker 2: I'm talking about guys like Anthony in Louisiana. Hey, cuz,
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  Speaker 2: where's the hostility? Where's the irrational anger? Where's the guy
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  Speaker 2: calling in from a laundromat at 2.47 in the morning
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  Speaker 2: because somebody three states away insulted his favorite football team,
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  Speaker 2: and now he's demanding a pound of flesh for satisfaction?
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  Speaker 2: Now that makes for a wonderful battle royale.
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  Speaker 3: That's great radio.
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  Speaker 2: And people forget the verbal octagon was never, ever supposed
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  Speaker 2: to be something that was scheduled like a corporate segment.
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  Speaker 3: They call them anchors and radio. No, it was always
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  Speaker 3: going to be some.
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  Speaker 2: Hot-button issue that created organically the situation.
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  Speaker 4: We're not supposed to say, okay, coming up at 3.35 Eastern,
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  Speaker 4: two middle-aged men who are divorced and live with their
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  Speaker 4: dogs will yell at each other.
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  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, no. You can't manufacture that.
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  Speaker 3: This stuff, the verbal octagon is reserved for the rare and.
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  Speaker 2: Appropriate acts of audio pugilism. It is supposed to be
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  Speaker 2: spontaneous combustion. Somebody says something. Somebody else is listening. They
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  Speaker 2: get their panties in a wad. They get all offended.
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  Speaker 2: And then somebody calls in and says, put that moron
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  Speaker 2: back on right now.
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  Speaker 3: That's when the bat phone comes. starts flashing, and it
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  Speaker 3: even makes a little noise. It's only in my headphones.
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  Speaker 2: And at that moment, hand to God, at that moment,
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  Speaker 2: that is when you open the octagon. That is when
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  Speaker 2: civilization briefly breaks down and radio becomes beautiful, magical, mystical,
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  Speaker 2: all of those things again. Now, we back in the day,
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  Speaker 2: and Jim, you know this because you've been with the
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  Speaker 2: show a long time, we used to have real firebrands, troublemakers,
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  Speaker 2: people that incited violence, real talk from New York.
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  Speaker 3: Pete in Pittsburgh, the goat of that kind of activity.
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  Speaker 3: Even Blind Scott, who's recently retired as a caller.
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  Speaker 2: Blind Scott was like that in his heyday. Jeannie in Medford,
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  Speaker 2: representing the ladies. Total troublemaker. Lance the bus driver. And
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  Speaker 2: there's many others.
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  Speaker 3: And all the other, you know, the lunatics.
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  Speaker 2: The malcontents, the agitators, the assorted cast of cartoon characters
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  Speaker 2: who understood their assignment.
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  Speaker 3: On the Ben Maller show over the years. And it
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  Speaker 3: wasn't said. It was, you just knew.
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  Speaker 2: You just knew it wasn't said. So those guys didn't
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  Speaker 2: need an engraved invitation, save the date. They heard something
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  Speaker 2: they didn't like and immediately became a human bottle rocket.
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  Speaker 3: And occasionally.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't even something that they didn't like. They created
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  Speaker 2: the fire. They started the fire.
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  Speaker 3: They wanted combat. They wanted audio combat, not hand-to-hand, not hand-to-hand.
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  Speaker 3: They wanted audio combat. Now, now it's.
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  Speaker 2: The 1980s Wendy's marketing slogan we have, where's the beef?
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  Speaker 3: Where is the beef? Where's the beef? The only legitimate...
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  Speaker 3: I was thinking about this when I walked into the
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  Speaker 3: pod studio, the remote studio. The only legitimate radio feud...
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  Speaker 3: that we've got.
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  Speaker 2: Going is Marcel in Brooklyn versus Mike the Leprechaun.
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  Speaker 3: That's it. That's all.
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  Speaker 2: So get on the bandwagon. That's our Hatfields and McCoys.
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  Speaker 2: That's a little side hustle. Marcel in Brooklyn and the
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  Speaker 2: Idiot Con, as he calls Mike the Leprechaun. Now, how
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  Speaker 2: happy is Mike the Leprechaun? He did not make the bet.
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  Speaker 2: His phone died. He was going to make a bet
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  Speaker 2: with Marcel. for the Red Sox and Yankees back in
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  Speaker 2: the wildcard round where the Yankees outscored the Red Sox.
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  Speaker 3: What was it?
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  Speaker 1: 18-2.
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  Speaker 3: 18-2. Jeez. In the two games.
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  Speaker 2: Anyway, Mike had mentioned he was going to do this
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  Speaker 2: whole bet, except because of the Nor'easter. He lives out
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  Speaker 2: in Styx, and his phone went down, and the internet
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  Speaker 2: went down, and all that stuff. So he couldn't call
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  Speaker 2: in on Monday to make the bet. So I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: he's happy about that. But that's all we've got. Like
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  Speaker 2: Marcel versus Mike the Leprechaun, two guys carrying the entire
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  Speaker 2: radio conflict industry on their backs.
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  Speaker 3: There are donkeys carrying that on their back. It is embarrassing.
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  Speaker 2: They're doing the work for 20... 30 callers who should
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  Speaker 2: be fighting with each other now i will point out
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  Speaker 2: that ferg dog and my co-host unpaid and underappreciated for
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  Speaker 2: many of the mailbags robbie the mariner fan have had
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  Speaker 2: bad blood they have had bad blood however That's mostly
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  Speaker 2: played out from Ferg Dogg's account on X. And I
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  Speaker 2: don't get the sense that Robbie the Mariner fan is
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  Speaker 2: on the bandwagon.
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  Speaker 3: I don't get that sense. He's pushed back a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: They're definitely not on the same wavelength when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to getting into the verbal octagon. And as much trash
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  Speaker 2: as Ferg Dogg throws out, and he lobs hand grenades
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  Speaker 2: from that winter wonderland of Fullerton, trying to set off
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  Speaker 2: a tripwire in sight.
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  Speaker 3: It's mostly done in the cyber world. It's mostly done
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  Speaker 3: in the cyber world. And Furtdog is a man of mystery.
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  Speaker 3: He is. Remember when he was roommates with Brian Finley,
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  Speaker 3: who used to work at our shop and then left
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  Speaker 3: to go make crowbars, I think? I think so. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: something like that. And he was roommates.
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  Speaker 2: He used to do the dishes and the laundry for Brian.
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  Speaker 2: And Fergdog has refused to attend any Malheur events. He
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  Speaker 2: does not want to get bogged down with the mailbag.
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  Speaker 2: He's been invited to the mailbag. He has said no.
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  Speaker 3: And so he's an interesting character. But in terms of
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  Speaker 3: the octagon, back to the question at hand, did.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone suddenly become emotionally well-adjusted at some point in recent years?
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  Speaker 2: Are callers now practicing conflict resolution? Because that doesn't make
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  Speaker 2: great overnight talk radio. Did somebody hand out pamphlets on
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  Speaker 2: this issue? This is the graveyard shift. We're talking balls.
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  Speaker 2: We're talking sports. I don't want conflict resolution. I want
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  Speaker 2: conflict resolution. Alas, here's the problem for Jim in Ohio,
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  Speaker 2: and you listen. You cannot force the verbal octagon.
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  Speaker 3: Can't do it.
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  Speaker 2: The minute we start manufacturing feuds, it's professional wrestling without
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  Speaker 2: the wrestling.
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  Speaker 3: Who wants that? Does anyone want that? No. It's like, hey, caller,
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  Speaker 3: could you pretend to hate that other caller that you've
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  Speaker 3: never actually talked to who lives 2000 miles away? And
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  Speaker 3: can you pretend to hate them for seven minutes?
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  Speaker 1: No.
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  Speaker 3: F-R-A-U-D, fraud.
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  Speaker 2: We don't want these things to become cookie cutter. They
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  Speaker 2: will not become cookie cutter. I'd rather not do them
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  Speaker 2: if that's going to be the case. That's processed radio
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  Speaker 2: cheese whiz. I don't want to serve you cheese whiz.
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  Speaker 2: I will not serve you cheese whiz. I will ride
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  Speaker 2: out the storm. I will not serve you cheese whiz.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: So the hatred has got to be organic. Farm to table.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Farm to table, one of the great marketing terms.
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  Speaker 3: Free-range marketing. That's also a great one. I love going
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  Speaker 3: to the store now. And I've actually done this for
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  Speaker 3: a while. It's not new. I'll check out the branding
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  Speaker 3: on items. And I love looking at the eggs. They've
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  Speaker 3: got all the terms.
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  Speaker 2: There was a documentary made by the great Morgan Spurlock,
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  Speaker 2: I believe is the guy's name. He died young recently
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  Speaker 2: or somewhat recently. And he made a documentary called Big Chicken.
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  Speaker 2: And in the documentary, they talked about some of the
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  Speaker 2: bullcrap terms that they came up with for the eggs to.
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  Speaker 3: Make people feel better. They get tricked. It's like, well,
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  Speaker 3: I'm eating these eggs, but these are free-range eggs. And
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  Speaker 3: the chickens were fed. It's just like, oh, my God.
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  Speaker 3: And you realize, well, people are easily bamboozled by this
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  Speaker 3: kind of marketing stuff, and that's why they do it. Yeah,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: another one, locally sourced. I want locally sourced resentment. We
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  Speaker 3: need authentic beef. Where's the beef?
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  Speaker 2: We need authentic beef or chicken. So what do we do?
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Player development. Player development. Except in this case, unlike the Rockies,
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  Speaker 2: it's caller development. It's show development. We've got to rebuild.
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  Speaker 3: The farm system. We've got to find the next.
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  Speaker 2: Generation of heavyweight callers and teach them the lost art
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: of mouth-to-mouth radio combat. We have to. Where are the
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: top prospects? As you know, a prospect is a suspect
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: until proven otherwise. Who's down in AA right now in Sheboygan?
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Who's doing a pod for friends and family? Give me
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: the guy out in Bakersfield that's got a little one-day-a-week
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  Speaker 2: podcast that no one listens to.
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  Speaker 3: Who's got the pipes? Who's got that irrational confidence, that
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  Speaker 3: razzle-dazzle to bring it? Who's willing to take an insignificant
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: sports opinion and and defend it like they're representing the
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: United States at the United Nations. Who is that person?
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: That's what we're looking for. So we need that. We
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: need that young buck. It doesn't have to be young.
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  Speaker 3: It could be an old dude. I don't care. Old
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: dudes fight really good. Old man strength. Old man strength.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: Don't underestimate old man strength. When do you get old
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: man strength? Where does it come from? Do you always
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: get it? Are there old dudes that don't have old
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: man strength?
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  Speaker 1: No.
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  Speaker 2: Anyway, we need somebody who understands that when another caller
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: challenges your honor, your good name, you don't send a
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: strongly worded email.
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  Speaker 3: You call back. You demand airtime. You say, give me
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: a time and a place. And that's it.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: The last octagon we were supposed to have was Blind Seabass.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: And he showed up against Swamp Billy, who did not
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: show up. And that happens often. That's how Jed Who
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Fled got his nickname, Jed Who Fled. He had a
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: different nickname. And he was supposed to fight Real Talk
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  Speaker 2: in the Octagon, and he skipped out on it. And
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  Speaker 2: so we gave a default judgment to the aforementioned Real Talk.
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  Speaker 3: He's got a real— that' s what happened.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Real Talk's flaked. So is Blind Scott. It's hard
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  Speaker 2: to get these guys to show up because it's very difficult.
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  Speaker 2: It's very stressful when you.
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  Speaker 3: Enter the audio jungle for the Radio Rumble. And then
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: we ring the imaginary bell. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
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  Speaker 3: Let's fight.
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  Speaker 2: Then we look at the CompuBox stats. We go to
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: the judges' scorecards, all of that stuff. Because the verbal octagon, again,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: is not.
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  Speaker 3: Dead, Jim. It's dormant. It's just waiting.
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  Speaker 2: Waiting for two callers with enough personality, enough disagreement, and
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  Speaker 2: just enough screws loose.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: To make that magic happen, that audio gold, solid gold
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: of audio.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: And we will provide the arena. We will provide the marketing.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: I've got the bully pulpit. I've got the microphone. We've
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: got the judges. We've got everything lined up there. We
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: will provide absolutely no adult supervision whatsoever. But the callers
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: have to provide the beef. You've got to bring the beef.
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  Speaker 3: Where's the beef? You've got to bring that.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: So consider this an open casting call here on the
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: fifth hour for the real P1s. It's always an exposure.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Every week I do this podcast. It's all syrupy for
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: the P1s. And guaranteed someone will point out something that
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: I said on this podcast that they didn't know I said.
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  Speaker 3: It's very odd what happens with the people that don't
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: listen to the Fifth Hour. And then we'll bring something
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: up saying, you should talk about this. And then they
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: get into trouble because I've already talked about it here.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: on the podcast.
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  Speaker 2: But again, open casting call, next radio generation, audio gladiators.
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  Speaker 2: I know you're there somewhere on the wild blue yonder.
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  Speaker 2: Develop your takes, work on your insults, try to build
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: up the cardio. And when the moment arrives, step into the.
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  Speaker 3: Octagon because we desperately need some fresh meat. We need that.
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  Speaker 3: It's not some kind of trade secret here. It's an
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  Speaker 3: open secret. We need that.
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  Speaker 2: Meanwhile, turning the page with this wicked tongue here, we
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: move on. One of my favorite quotes comes from, of
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: all people, Dr.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Seuss.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: This tells you something about my intellectual development growing up.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: There are people that are wise beyond their years that
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: will talk about Shakespeare, Churchill, Hemingway. Now, I quote a
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: guy who gave us green eggs and ham, Sam I.M.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And now I do mention Shakespeare and others. I've mentioned Hemingway. However,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: my meat and potatoes, my fastball down the middle is
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: the good doctor. And I blame my dearly departed mother,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Mama Maller. And may she rest in peace. My mother
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: loved Dr.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Seuss.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: I grew up with Sam I.M. the cat in the hat,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: all the places you'll go. There were things in my
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: life that I've forgotten about. I have not forgotten about Dr.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Seuss.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: These were important literary works in our house in my childhood.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: We were not discussing Herman Melville's Moby Dick over dinner.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: We were trying to determine why nobody had called Child
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Protective Services on the cat in the hat.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Now, there's one Dr. Seuss quote I think about more
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: than the others. And I use this.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Occasionally on The Overnight Show as a transitional piece. And
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: the quote is, you're off to great places. Today is
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: your day.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way. And
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: it goes into how you're going to meet these people
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: and all that. It's a great quote, very inspirational. Although
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: at my age, if somebody tells me there's a mountain waiting....
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: My first question is, all right, is there parking? What's
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: the altitude like there? Do I need to bring an
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: oxygen tank?
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Now, I thought about that quote, you're off to great places,
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: today's your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: your way. I thought of that quote this week after hearing.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Dennis Haskins had died at age 75. Now, you know
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Dennis Haskins better by his gangster name, Mr.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Belding.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Principal Belding, Bayside High School, Saved by the Bell, an
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: iconic show that.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: Only ran for four years. It only ran for four years.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: You see, high school is only four years. The show
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: was on NBC. It ran from 1989 to 1993 and became....
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Part of the childhood furniture for an entire generation of
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: people who are now old, right?
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: And I wasn't really part of that generation. Now, age-wise,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: I was part of that generation, and I watched some
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: of the show.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: However, I was already a meathead sports fan plotting my
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: grand empire.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: In overnight radio. If only I had planned, I don't know,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: the tech world. Let's get into tech now. Why not?
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: What the heck? Let's make video games. No, I chose
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: dying tech is what I chose. I chose radio. And
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: I love radio. And I've been very happy. I've lived
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: a great life doing radio.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: However, the radio business that I entered as a young
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: man and the radio business I'm in now.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Are much different. Much, much different. Nonetheless, I did watch
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: some of Saved by the Bell. Again, as I said.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: However, I was more into watching ball games and things
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: like that, not paying attention to that kind of stuff.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Other than I didn't have time for sitcoms. And then
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: around that time, I was starting my college career, doing
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: college radio and things like that. So there was a
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: lot going on. There was a lot of stuff going on.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: While Zach Morris was freezing time, I was freezing my
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: career prospects and long-term financial wealth. However, Dennis Haskins eventually
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: became part of my strange little world. And we paid
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: a brief tribute to Dennis this week on The Overnight Show,
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: and I immediately started getting messages from people who worked
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: with me years ago, mainly Edmund Dallas, Steamboat Willie, Judas
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: Solid Gold Garcia, the Puck Podcast guy, my pal Eddie. Now,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Eddie wanted to make sure that I mentioned Dennis because
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Dennis wasn't simply somebody he knew from television. It wasn't
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: somebody that I knew from television. We had a mutual
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: connection here. Dennis listened to the show. He called into
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: the show back in the day a couple of times. Now,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: this was many, many years ago, back when I started
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: this relationship, if you want to call it that, very casual,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: when I was doing local radio in Los Angeles. Now,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I worked local radio at AM 1150, LA Sports Radio,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Extra Sports 1150, the former Kiss AM. And our studios
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: were down the hall from the iconic Kiss FM with
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Rick Dees in the morning, the Dees Sleaze in Burr Bach,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: as our friend at the Port.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Of LA likes to say, Burbank. Now Burbank, if you've
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: never been, if you're not from, most of you are
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: not from Southern California. Many of you have never been
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: to Southern California. Burbank is an interesting place. It is
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: a studio town, And yet it's not.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: There's Warner Brothers, which is right on the border of
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Toluca Lake and Burbank right there. There's the Smokehouse, which
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: I've talked about on this podcast, home of the legendary
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: cheese bread.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: And then there's the rest of Burbank, which goes to bed.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: They roll up Burbank. It's like Mayberry. They roll it
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: up around eight in the morning. or 8 in the morning,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: 8 at night. They unroll at about 8 in the morning.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: So it's like 8 to 8, and then after, like,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: I think 8, 17, they say if you're out.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Martial law is declared at that particular point.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: So in these days, again, many years ago, in these days,
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: we had two social spots in Burbank when I was
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: a young radio guy.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: We had, think of it like the loyal order of moose,
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: if you will. One of them was Dalt's.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Now, Dalt's was a bar restaurant at the bottom floor
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: of a Medium-sized office tower, not a full skyscraper, but
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: not a small building. Probably a 14-story building or 12-story building,
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: something along those lines. And so Dalt's was this spot
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: where I consumed what I still believe were the greatest
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: chicken fingers and French fries ever created by man.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Adult heaven chicken finger meal. Oh, my God. And I
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: was there. I love that. I was there pretty much.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Every night I could get there, and this was back
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: in the 90s, this was a long time ago, when
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: apparently cholesterol had not yet been invented. I probably gained
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: about 75 pounds sitting at that bar eating those chicken figures. Now,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: the reason I sat in the bar, I wasn't a
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: big drinker. I'm still not a big drinker. However, the
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: chicken figures, for some reason, were cheaper, as I remember,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: if you sat at the bar. because you could get
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: the appetizer portion, which was the same effing portion. I
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: never understood this. It was the same portion. However, they said, well,
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: if you sit at the bar, it's a little cheaper.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: So I was like, all right, I'll sit at the bar.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: That's where I first met Pat O'Brien back when he
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: was a big drinker. P.O.B., man. He was going for
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: it at the bar. Big glass of wine the size
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: of a bowl for matzo ball soup. It was huge.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: So there I was, and I sat there and ate
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: the chicken fingers, and I guess they assumed I was
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: going to drink.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: Psych. I didn't drink. Maybe I had a beer occasionally.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: That was it.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Anyway, this was such a hotspot back in those days,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: and there was nothing else to do, that the big
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: stars of the top entertainment shows of those days would
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: show up. People from the Seinfeld show, Frasier, the Drew
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Carey show, and a bunch of other iconic programs of
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: that era.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: And they would just hang out, and that was that.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: And there I was eating chicken fingers like Joey Chestnut.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: preparing for the 4th of July, doing my thing. And
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: that was great. Now, the other place in Burbank was Dimple's.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Now, Dimple's was a dive bar karaoke joint, ironically, just
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: a couple of blocks away in Burbank. The things I
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: remember about Dimple's, terrible parking, just a little hole in
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: the wall, just crazy. And it was only a few
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: blocks the other direction from where the Tonight Show studio
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: used to be. where Jay Leno did The Tonight Show
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: and Dennis Haskins was one of the owners and all that. Now,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: keep in mind, I do not sing karaoke now. I
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: did not sing karaoke back in the day. I have
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: high standards. I'm a man of class. I'm a man
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: of class. And I've also heard myself sing in the shower.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: But I was.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: A single guy. There were cute women who would sing karaoke.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: My friends from radio were there.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: So suddenly I became a passionate supporter of the performing arts.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: And that, that is where I got to know a
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: bit Dennis Haskins.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: And he could not have been nicer.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: He was a huge sports fan. I believe he's from Chattanooga.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: I think it was Chattanooga, Tennessee, that area out in
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: the suburbs. And I remember he had, told me the
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: story about how he was a cheerleader in college. And,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: you know, like that was really back in those days, taboo,
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: a male cheerleader.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: What are you doing?
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: And we started chatting briefly and talk sports and radio
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: and all the old timers love radio.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: And Dennis, he knew who I was, which was like, oh,
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: my God.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: You know, that's he listened to the show. Now, understand,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: at this time, this was a few years after Saved
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: by the Bell had gone off the air.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: The rerun still aired. It was part of the zeitgeist
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: of the times, and a young radio blowhard. At that time,
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: I was doing the local radio thing and then became.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: The overnight guy. But to have this guy listen, this
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: is like giving a Labrador a cheeseburger. Mr. Belding... Knew
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: who I was. Mr. Belding listened to the show. Wow!
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: So I'm walking around Dimples like Sinatra at the Sands,
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: like on cloud nine. And that was one of the
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: wonderful things about radio in those days. And still to
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: this point, it still happens. It doesn't happen nearly as
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: much as it did back then. You discover those quasi-celebrities.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: that are out there who occasionally will show up and
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: even legitimate celebrities who secretly love radio and what you're doing.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: And they don't often announce this. They don't promote it.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: There was no social media to.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: Do back in the day. You didn't have to worry
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: about that. Certainly Instagram was not around.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: I think we had AOL and Netscape Navigator. You didn't
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: have to go on Facebook and say, Hey, look, look
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: at me listening to terrestrial radio.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: They just listened.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: And sometimes they showed up. We would do these things
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: called remotes when I did local radio. I remember we
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: were at a shoe store.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: In the valley and a very well-known actor from NYPD Blue,
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: which was a popular show in those days. This was
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: in the early 2000s. No, is that late 90s, early 2000s? Anyway,
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: it must have been the late 90s because I started
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: at Fox Sports Radio in late 2000s, so it had
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: to be the late 90s. These guys would show up
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: to the remote broadcast that we did, and it was cool.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: They actually wanted to talk sports and ask questions about
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: the show, the Ben and Dave show. Imagine that. People
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: voluntarily showing up to see me. There were no court
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: orders involved. Dennis was one of those guys.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: And over the years, I would occasionally see him or
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: hear from him. He did call into the show a
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: couple times, the overnight show. So he had called in.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: And later, he was very active on social media. And
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: he interacted on the X machine, which used to be
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: called Twitter. And then at some point, Dennis explained to
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: me that the volatility that was going on.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: And remember, this was like.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Before President Trump took over. And that was like the
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: craziest time ever on social media. It's still wild on there.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of volatility. And he's like, listen, I
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: got to get out. A lot of these guys are
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: worried they're going to say the wrong thing. And I
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: get it. I totally get it. I understand this completely.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: I open social media every day for work mostly.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: And I immediately wonder whether society was just some kind
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: of clerical error. I just do. And I'm not on
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: there much anymore during the day.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: I'll do some drive-bys where I'll pop on real quick
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: and then I'll pop off. So anyway, eventually Dimples, the
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: place that I met the actor Dennis Haskins, disappeared too.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: The karaoke bar was sold.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Today, the property is a Whole Foods and a giant
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: condo development. Of course it is, because apparently the people
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: that run Burbank looked at Dimples, a wonderfully weird place
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: where celebrities and regular people and radio degenerates, aspiring single
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: people who were looking for dates or singers, all could
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: get together and mingle. And these people, the people that
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: ran Burbank back in the day, the city council said,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: you know what? You know what this neighborhood needs?
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: Kale. Kale.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Dimples had personality. There's not a lot of places in
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: LA that have personality.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: Not a lot. It had personality. Whole Foods has what?
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Organic turnips that cost $ 11?
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: I would much rather have dimples. Give me dimples.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Now, Dennis eventually told me that he was going to
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: move back to Tennessee.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: He was going to get away from Hollywood and all that.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: And like Everybody he had, listen, there were some chapters
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: in his life he probably wished had been written differently.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: And I can only speak about the person I casually
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: interacted with. I judge people largely by how they treat
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: me and the people around me. And Dennis, the few
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: times that I interacted with him was very kind, always friendly,
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: and always willing to talk sports. It made me feel important,
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: My fragile ego that he listened to my little radio
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: show and at least randomly when he had insomnia, he
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: would turn it on. And so that, to me, that
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: gave him VIP access to, right there with Marlins Man
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: and Fred Dreyer and the other celebrities that have listened
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: to the show over the years. There's something wonderfully circular
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: about it. Dennis Haskins played a principal who became part
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: of millions and millions of childhoods, childhood memories. And then
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: years later, through karaoke, a cheesy karaoke bar in sleepy Burbank,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: He became a small part of my radio world.
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: And Dr. Seuss was right. Sometimes your mountain is waiting.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's a radio studio. Sometimes it's a cheesy karaoke bar.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: And sometimes it's adults eating a plate of chicken fingers
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: late at night. And you absolutely do not need those
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: chicken fingers. And sometimes you meet Mr.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Belding.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: And so rest in peace, Dennis Haskins. You were one
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: of the good guys in my life and people I
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: came across.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, Mr. Belding. That is wild. Rest in peace.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: On that note, we all get out of here and
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: have another brand-new pod tomorrow.
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go to bed right now, and you
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: don't need to worry about that.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: And then we'll have a fresh episode when I wake
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: up tomorrow, Well, not today, but tomorrow for the Saturday pod.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: And then the mailbag on Sunday. Still time to get
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: your questions in. We've got a good amount now. Can't
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: guarantee it's going to get on. But if you want
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: to give it a.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: Shot, realfifthouratgmail.com.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: That's realfifthouratgmail.com. Have a wonderful first Friday here in the
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: month of October.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: And we will chat with you next time. Bye-bye. That's
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: what Dick and Dayton says. Bye-bye.