Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Springsteen And Bon Jovi Didn't Create The Jersey Sound Buzz Knight's Jersey Made Podcast

Transcript

Springsteen And Bon Jovi Didn't Create The Jersey Sound Buzz Knight's Jersey Made Podcast · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I really do love it when people say, your podcast
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: is all over the place. You're not focused. I know.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: That's exactly the way that we lead our lives, right?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: What are you doing today versus what you did yesterday?
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: How about five minutes from now? How about in maybe
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a quarter of an hour to three days? We're all
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: over the place. So why shouldn't your podcast? It's about
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: your taste. Arrow.net. A-R-R-O-E.net. Enjoy your exploration. There are 21
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: different podcasts to explore. Now, It's time for you to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: accept the journey and go grow forward.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Buzz.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: How are you doing today?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: I'm doing great. How are you?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Fantastic. We got to talk about that name because, I mean,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: come on, Buzz and Arrow on the same thing here.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Come on now. We both have history when it comes
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to our names.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, believe me, I've got the witness protection names that
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I could expose.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Any program directors come up to you any time in
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: your career and just say, Buzz, you've got to change
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: your name, man. It's not fitting this vision we have here.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Well, because I became a program director, no, they didn't
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: come up to me. Although, I will tell you, when
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I went to work part-time at WNEW-FM in New York,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I was using my name, Buzz Knight, in Connecticut, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: the program director, Charlie Kendall, I said, well, what name
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: am I going to use? And he said, how about
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: your real name, which is Bob Kosak? And he said,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: your mother had no problem with it. Oh, God. Oh,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: my God.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: See, I can't say that because my real name is Clarence.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I ain't getting on the air calling myself Clarence. It
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: just ain't going to happen.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Well, hey, come on. I love Arrow. Don't get me wrong.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I'm jealous of you in this project. I really am
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Jersey made. And the reason why is because I think
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Carolina is in the same, in the same boat that
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: there's so much music history here that we're totally forgetting
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: about it. And so as I dive into your podcast,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I'm so jealous that you're getting to know these people
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: that so many people know them. They're just not out here.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Top of mind.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Well, that's really why the story needs to be told
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: because it isn't top of mind. In fact, you know,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: When I thought of doing this podcast, somebody said to me, well,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: why Jersey? And I think maybe my wife said that.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: And I said, well, because it's not obvious. And when
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: you think of a story and then ultimately you tell
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: people about the story, then they go, oh, now I
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: get it. So I was driven to it by my
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: love of Jersey, by my love of that story. But
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: first and foremost, it was... It wasn't an obvious place
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: to go, and yet it was so necessary because it
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: really hasn't been told to the degree that I hope
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: we can tell this story.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: And you do it in such a way, Buzz, that
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I really have that connection with you because, I mean,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I grew up in the days of Dick Clark and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Casey Kasem. It was so materialized and so kind of
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: candy-coated plastic. But you give us, like we're talking right now,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: you give it to us in a way of, I'm
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: just having a conversation with you.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Well, that is a great compliment, and I'm grateful for
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: you mentioning that because that's what I hope for. I
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: want it to be the equivalent of we were just
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: having a cup of coffee around the corner or at
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: the local bar being able to talk about things that
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: are important to us in our life, in our culture,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: in our passions. And that's what drove me to do
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: podcasts from the beginning because I love storytelling. I love
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: it as an extension of coming out of radio, certainly,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: the longer form that it brings to audiences. And with
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Jersey Made, we're taking a little different stand here than
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: maybe we have with the other four shows, where it
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: really is the intersection of a documentary and a podcast
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: that I think we're trying to bring to the audiences
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: with Jersey Made.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Now, I would have never known about Brian Fallon. I mean,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: come on now. I mean, now I know about him.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Now I'm researching him. I've got him on chat GPT.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Of course, I'm going to learn about this guy because
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the way you bring Brian into this picture, I'm going,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: why don't I know this guy?
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And then people go, oh, yeah, Gaslight Anthem. I remember
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: that moment that they had and how Bruce Springsteen kind
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: of endorsed them and what that meant. But Brian is
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  Speaker 2: a passionate fan of where he grew up and fiercely
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: loyal to Jersey, but also somebody who his music needs
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: to be heard, I believe. I think it's harder for
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: artists like Brian Fallon to get their voice out there,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: get their music out there. And we just love being
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: able to tell the story of Brian on Jersey Made.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Well, I could really relate with Brian when he caught
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Depeche Mode in concert because we did a radio station
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: promotion here in Charlotte where we packed up a bus
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: and sent him to Raleigh to go see Depeche Mode.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: The audience was so driven by their connection to that band.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I had never seen anything like that. And I thought
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: to myself, who is this Depeche Mode? And I need
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to find out more so I can fall in love
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: with them as well.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Which is, isn't that the highest compliment when something like
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: that happens, when you're turned on to something like that
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  Speaker 2: or your memory is jogged with a particular sound? You go, oh,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: I remember they had one hit, but now, boy, I
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: really love to dig deep into their catalog. So that's
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: kind of the beauty. We love radio and what radio
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: brings to us and how it highlights music and new
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: music and legacy artists. But we also love our own
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: freedom that we can explore music and go down rabbit holes, too.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I got to give you a big kudos here.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: And I am very reliable on Alexa and Gemini and everything.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And when I want artist information, I go there. But
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: what I'm doing, though, is I'm learning more from you
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: because you're not a computer and you're using actual conversation,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: or as I call it, street speak and sharing these
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: stories online. with Jersey Made. And it's like, I'm getting
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the answers without having to ask Alexa questions.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you for that. And, you know, my Alexa is
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: not here in the room, so it probably would have
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: gone off as we were speaking. But actually, I shut
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: my Alexa off for the time being. But no, thank
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: you for that. Because once again, this is storytelling. This
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: is for me going back to my roots of where
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I started And I'm having the time of my life.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Kudos to you also on your sweepers.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Come on now.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: A lot of people aren't putting sweepers and things like
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that in there. I felt like that I was listening
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: to radio and getting that vibe of, oh my God,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: this is why I love this radio station. They're giving
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: me wow here.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Thank you. I think bringing what I learned, both as
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: an on-air person, as a programmer, as a manager of stations,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: bringing some of that into a podcast. I don't know
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: if everybody thinks about it that way, but listen, we're
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: still trying to package things, create stories, make people comfortable
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: with those stories, and be willing to step out also.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, for me, what is most fun about all
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: the shows is it would be really easy for me
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: to be stuck with legacy artists and just go down
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: that road. But from the beginning, when I started my
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: podcast network, at the beginning, I really decided I was
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: going to challenge myself with new artists, independent artists, different
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: genres that I wasn't necessarily first comfortable with. I wanted
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: to create a fair amount of my own discomfort because
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I thought that was critical to my creative outlet, but
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: also to finding new audiences. So all the stories excite me.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Every one of the stories that I am able to
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: coax out of a guest excite me. But there's something
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: also extra special about a Brian Fallon type of story
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  Speaker 2: that I'm learning about myself and I'm an independent artist
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: who comes on the scene that is, you know, looking
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: in a DIY sort of way to build their own audience.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Those stories fascinate me equally.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Buzz Knight coming
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: up next. His podcast is called Jersey Made. Oh, you
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: will be blown away by Buzz Knight. You creating that network,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: is it the same kind of excuse that I use?
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: People look at me and say, you got what, how
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: many podcasts? And I go, one thought per break. That's
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: what they always taught me. Why am I putting the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: football stars with the rock stars? One thought per break.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Are you inspired by that same move? And is that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the reason why you've got four?
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I am inspired by that. Actually, when I started my
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Hallmark first show, Taking a Walk... I realized as I
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: was interviewing musicians who had their story that they were
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: telling about resilience, around creative challenges, around setbacks, maybe even
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: health setbacks or mental illness setbacks. I realized that this
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: needed to have its own podcast to tell those stories
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: because I wasn't really doing them justice on the one show.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: So that's how the Music Saved Me podcast that Lynn
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Hoffman hosts was born, because we thought we needed a
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: bigger outlet to tell those stories of resilience and passion.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: And then coincidentally, it occurred, well, wait, People say laughter
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: is the best medicine. We have another version of a
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: story to tell where comedians and Comedy Saved Me can
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: come to life and be part of the story. Each
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: show almost gives birth to another show because we want
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: to give ample time to stretch out and tell the stories.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you how great your podcast is. As I'm
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: driving in the car and I'm really getting into your storylines,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: my imagination thinks there's somebody back in the studio that
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: has those albums. You got three of them inside of
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a box and you had to make sure it was A-A-B-B-C-C.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And that's how I'm getting your storylines is that somebody's
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: playing these albums. That's the quality of your podcast.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: That's very kind of you to say. And I have
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: to tell you, I was so tripped up for the
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: longest period in the last moments of my corporate programming.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Because I was doing a podcast then because podcasting was
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: still in its early stages when we really think about it.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: But back then, I felt like if I was going
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: to ask some of the talent that I worked with
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: to be podcasting, I thought, well, I better know how
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: to do this myself. So I took on a show
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: back then. It was called Healthy Paranoia. It was more
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: about technology and innovation and, and those sort of, uh, ultimately. And, um, so, uh,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: you know, for, for me, uh, I was tripped up
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: around music podcasting back then because we really in podcast,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: unless you get the rights to music and playing music,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: you can't play the music. So it befuddled me for
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: the longest time. When I went out on my own
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: with this venture, at its core, I went, well, wait
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: a minute. Storytelling is storytelling, and it needs to be told.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: And we won't more than likely be in a period
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: of the podcast business where that gets easier to get
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: music rights. There are moments you can. But at its core,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: storytelling is the heart of it. And that's what helped
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: me jump off the curb, if you will, and start
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: the first show and not be so tripped up about
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  Speaker 2: the fact that music isn't in a podcast.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, my game changer was Jesse Ventura, the professional wrestler
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: turned governor. And his son wrote to me and said,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: it was a great conversation, but why did you have
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: to put music in it? Why do you even do
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: that with your rock stars? He says, just shut the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: music up and let me hear the story. That changed me, Buzz.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, I think that's the reality of
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: a great story. Listen, when you're with a friend or
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: somebody that you just find who's a stranger, there's no
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: music bed behind them. When you're having a conversation, you're
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: just telling the story. Wow.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Now, we've got to talk about something. Me being down
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: here in Carolina, and we know that this nation is
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: in a shifting mode right now. There's a lot of
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: people from Jersey coming to Carolina. I'm very protective of
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: our music scene down here, but I'm anxious to find
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: out how Jersey is going to fuse with Carolina. What's
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: your prediction from your research?
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, I think Jersey's always been this place that's
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: a melting pot of styles and backgrounds and That's part
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: of the beauty of that fusion. So I think it's
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: an interesting question. And I think the fact that Charlotte
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: also is this amalgamation of people who are certainly from Carolina,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: North Carolina or the Carolinas, but also so many people
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: who are transplanted there and decide it's a better living
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: and a better life. I think that fusion... only seems
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: to be good for creativity and breeding more risk-taking, which
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: is so important for every business. It's important for music.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: It's important for podcasting. It's important for media. It's important
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: for all lines of businesses, I think. So risk-taking will
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: only breed greater loyalty i feel from audiences yeah.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Because you're a risk taker in doing this and the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: reason why i bring that up is because i i'm
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: a research whore and and i was researching where is
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the next vibe of where where podcasting is growing and
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: they said local oh my god here comes buzz night
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: with jersey made local and and what's going to happen
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: people around the world are going to be going i've
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: got to go to this place called jersey.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: And i found the same thing uh around our Take
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: It A Walk Nashville, that a singer-songwriter named Sarah Harrelson hosts,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: who she lives in Nashville. I found the same thing
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: about that storyline. Certainly, it's embedded in Nashville, and the
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: storyline is Nashville-based. But the audiences that are finding that
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: podcast are... clearly not just from nashville they're from all
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: over the country and the beauty of podcasting as you
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: know arrow is they're from all.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Over the world yep yep yeah so speaking of all
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: over the world i i've been with the sex pistols
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: who said arrow we're not playing punk music this is
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the blues how would you best describe the punk rock
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: scene in jersey is it the blues like the sex pistols.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Say I think it's a conglomeration of that, for sure.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: But just like everything else in New Jersey, it's kind
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: of a mashup if you really think about it, right?
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's so much that's mashup about New Jersey
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: that has brought these different sounds together. I mean, doo-wop
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: in its forms starting in New Jersey, jazz in its
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: early forms starting, hip-hop. So I feel like back to
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: experimentation and risk-taking and breaking rules, that's only going to
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: breed greater outlet for audiences.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: When do you make the transition from being the storyteller,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: like we've talked about, to the archaeologist? Because you know
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: these stories that you're getting, five or ten years from now,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: they're going to be what everybody's going to be looking
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: for because we lost that musician. And because you took
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: the time to get that story, it's now part of
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: somebody else's life.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Well, that's an honor for me and something I don't
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: take lightly. I've been fortunate to be able to, with
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: a few of my shows, put select episodes also into
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame library and archives.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: So it's preserved even more by that notion. So I
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: don't take that part lightly. I value the new artists
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: that I discover more. But I value the legacy of
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: those stories and what they mean, because as you so
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: well put it, eventually, you know, time marches on.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: So like when you're talking with a new artist, because
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: you and I are on the same page on that.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: And the thing is, is that they're doing the work.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: You and I have gone through the 80s, 90s and
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the 2000s where the record companies did the work. Today,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: these bands are doing their own work. They need us, Buzz.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: And yeah, look, their DIY attitude is, is kind of cool.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: And I respect that, but they value finding audiences in
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: all different places and, and, and they do, they do
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: appreciate the outlet that, you know, comes by being on,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: you know, a show like Jersey made or any of
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: the shows. So I, I take great pride in that.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: And I respect that because it is harder and harder,
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: as you know, for people to tell their stories. There's
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: so many limitations when it comes to media forums. And
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: that's the beauty of podcasting is as you can well appreciate.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Where can people get more information about you, Buzz? Because
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I want them to experience your entire career. I mean,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the day that I found Casey Kasem doing a Detroit radio,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I thought that's not Casey Kasem, but it was. I
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: want them to know your journey as to how you
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: even got here.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I think Buzz Night Media Productions is one place. I'm
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: on LinkedIn in terms of the work that I do both,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: you know, in management and coaching and consulting and in
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: terms of the creation of Buzz Night Media Productions. I'm
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: not shy in getting the word out, even though I
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: am bashful.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: That's radio. That's so radio. You got to come back
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: to this show anytime in the future, Buzz. The door
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: is always going to be open for you.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: And vice versa. I'd love to have you on as well.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Excellent, man. Well, you be brilliant today. And thank you
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: for taking the time to share your story.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I had a blast. Thank you so much for having me.