Excerpts From The Morning Mouth's April 2008 Issue:

INTERVIEW - PAUL CASTRONOVO & YOUNG RON / MIAMI, WEST PALM

Before we ask another question, bring us up to speed on your mom & wife's car accident and how they are both doing? On December 23rd, on their way back from a trip to Disney World, my Mother and wife were in a head on collision. Mom broke her neck, and Gina lost her spleen, had 3 broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken sternum and other internal injuries. I'm lucky they survived, the woman who caused the accident, ended up in a coma and her Mother died at the scene. My Mother is wearing a halo, which is drilled into her skull and will have to wear it for 6 months, and my wife just had her final surgery and is on the road to recovery. My Mother yelled at somebody for staring at her at a restaurant the other day, "I was in a car accident, stare at somebody else!." So, she's obviously on the way back to being her feisty self, but It's been a nightmare.

Who taught you how to do mornings? I learned from a lot of people along the way. I wasn’t a big morning radio fan as a kid, but once I got out of school and worked at WSHE, I picked up a few things from Herman and McBean. I also learned a ton from legendary morning show guys from Pittsburgh (who I produced in Miami for a year), Jimmy and Steve. Steve Hanson is one of the funniest men I have ever met. But I really learned how to do good radio by hanging around radio people. One of my best friends in the world is Steve Harmon, he is my radio sounding board and is a bit machine. Talking to Kidd Kraddick and Jeff Elliot over the years has been unbelievable for me; they were both instrumental in my career. I also have to say that my dear friends, Ace and TJ, Dwyer and Michaels and Bert (the Bert show) who are all like brothers to me, are constantly giving me ideas and reminding me how to keep our show fresh. I owe a lot to all of those guys. As far as program directors, if I didn’t give Troy Hanson credit, I’d be making a huge mistake. We were a good morning show, but after he became a part of our station after working with Drew and Mike at WRIF, he made us a great morning show. He finally convinced management to let us give up the music and he became the architect of what the show has become today.

TIME AND TEMP:

Be Sure To Blog. I don't know why but they LOVE to read about us. Make your blogs as open and personal as you can and people will come back. Go figure. And putting up pictures and videos of your family, the people they always hear you talking about, is VERY effective.

Relate Bits To Videos. Do a bit on the air and remind listeners that it's even funnier to see the video. We had a problem with studio chairs being broken and management wouldn't replace them. So on the air, we threw a chair from the 9th level of the parking garage. Funny on the air, but we also got video and uploaded it to the website. People loved it. We got written up for it by management, so THEN we could honestly say, "Go to our website and see the bit we got written up for."

We also do "Blind Luck" every week, which is funny to hear, but 10x funnier to watch. We always tape studio artist performances, bits, etc. and remind people to see them online. WhatÕs ÒBlind LuckÓ? Steal it from kdwb.com right now!

Sex Sells. The biggest hits we have are on thumbnails that show a lot of flesh. For example, we had a party boat out last summer and two hot interns wore bikinis. We made that the lead picture for that slide show and it got 1000's of hits in just a day or two. In February, I had about 50 -60 pictures of up our Valentine's PJ party, mostly hot young women and dudes wearing next to nothing. HUGE hits before we even had a chance to plug it on the air! People love that and it's stuff that's safe for work. Kinda. They can see soft-core porn on a zillion websites, but seeing your interns and listeners half-naked is much more compelling.

Use Your Website For Contesting. Have people send in entries for Ugliest Car, Dirtiest Microwave, cutest baby, etc. It's such a natural extension for radio.

Plug, Plug, Plug. We make our website a real part of our show. We refer to it at least once an hour and it's all very natural. Remember though thatÊa lot of listeners will never go to your website, so don't talk for 5 minutes about a picture on your sight that they can't see. It's kinda like talking about American Idol or Lost. It's great to talk about, but respect the listeners who don't watch those shows.

WEB WATCH

And The Internet Also Loves Their Photo Galleries Of People Doing Unusual Things. There's TRUCK SPILLS, with loads of photos of trucks without their loads. Apparently this is the real answer to the question of why the chicken crossed the road (youÕll have to see the gallery to understand). And then thereÕs the site featuring nothing but photos of people with UNDERWEAR ON THEIR HEADS.
http://www.pantsonhead.com

How Much Crap Do You Have Lying Around Your Office, Your Home, Or Is In Your Intern's Apartment That They Share With Two Roommates? Why not document it and put a new picture up onto your site every day like you'll find over at MY HUSBAND'S CRAP? The wife thinks she can shame her husband into cleaning up after himself. I don't think it's going to work.
http://Myhusbandscrap.Blogspot.Com

How Much Of An Alcoholic Are You? Can you pass THE BOOZE TEST: NAME THAT ALCOHOL? And since we've already covered another test on this site a few months back, let's run down all the goodies that they have available that are perfectly good things to steal for your own on-air purposes:
¥ Would you make a good human shield?
¥ How many colors can you name in five minutes?
¥ Who died on your birthday?
¥ How much is your dead body worth?
¥ What are your chances of surviving a zombie apocalypse?
¥ Would you eat your buddies in a blizzard?
¥ How big of a geek are you?
Éand more
http://www.Justsayhi.Com/Bb/

And since we're on the topic of websites that have lots of content that can be openly plagiarized from for your own entertainment purposes, let's start with the 9 TELLTALE SIGNS YOU'RE PROBABLY AN ASS
http://www.themishmash.
com/2007/11/8-telltale-sign.html

THOUGHT STARTERS:

Is Dad A Bit Creepy - Got an e-mail from a single mom that was wondering if it is creepy that her ex husband insists on sleeping with their seven year old son. I would say that is a BIG weirdo red flag. Isn't that like breast feeding a five year old? Is Dad being creepy?

What Did You Destroy Texting???
A guy was in his car and took out a row of mailboxes because he was texting. How did you hurt yourself or what did you destroy because you were texting???

Being In The Same Room With Her Ex
Tony Romo was at an awards event recently and Dane Cook and John Mayer were there as well. Tony is dating Jessica Simpson and John and Dane have both been inside her nether regions. As a guy I cannot STAND being in the same room with a dude that has camped inside my ladies Venus mound. Does this make me insecure or normal? Who has been in a room with the most exes? Do women feel the same?

Straight And Dancing In A Gay Club -The talk of gay strippers is hot because of American Idol. Question: If you are a straight guy can you dance for men at a gay club? Can straight guys do gay porn????com

BIT BLOG

I have some simple strategies for scoring guests...the easiest way to get someone is to see if they are connected to a charitable cause, or with some celebs they have their own foundation for some sort of charity. I have been extremely successful with getting great guests by reaching out to their foundation liason--especially with sports celebs as a lot of athletes have foundations in Seattle. Another tip would be to see if a celeb has authored a book. More often than not, you will have an easier time booking a celeb if they are pushing a book of some sorts than if they are pushing a film.Ê This one is so simple yetÊit does work: Be respectful & appreciative to your local movie reps (if your market has a local rep that helps set up phone interviews)...after you score an interview...send them a thank you note, email them a link to hear the interview, and every so often...send them flowers or candles or some sort of token of appreciation. This has gone a long way for in scoring some "A" level movie stars.
Steve Migliore
The BJ Shea Morning Experience"
9.9 KISW - Seattle

Finding everyday folks is usually pretty easy. Unless the person's name is John Smith, in which case you're likely screwed..... For anybody under 30, go to MySpace/Facebook first. Most people in that age range live solely off a cellphone, and your best bet is to email them through the social networking sites and hope they get back to you. If you're reading this and don't know about whitepages.com you are way behind the curve....but a better source that is newer is argali.com It's the Google of phone listings and downloads directly to your computer. Use it, and you can track most anybody you'll want to if you have a last name and a city.
Jake Ray www.morningproduceroncall.com New York, NY

We use our relationships with the local media to our advantage. We've had some of the reporters and anchors from local TV stations sub when the female co-host is out of townÊ Two women at the local newspaper are P1's of the show.Recently I called the local TV station looking for help, some reporters don't trust radio or are just too lazy and never call back.This reporter went above and beyond, he e-mailed AND called me back.Steve "Steve-O" LaTart
Executive Producer
Dave Ryan in the Morning
KDWB, MN

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Thanks, Don Anthony - Publisher