Unknown: I'll tell you a story, and I can name a name, okay,
when I was at KDF, and y'all know how, like when there's a
concert, what they would do is assign us to take the winners
backstage, to meet the artists. Oh, yeah. And I was, I was
assigned to Skid Row, and they were brand new, probably what
around 18 in life that hit right about that time, which, I think
what? They had two or three hits at the time, but they were
pretty massive. And so I was assigned to the listeners take
them backstage, and the listeners are all excited, as
they would be, and I'm excited for them I'd never met Skid Row,
so we're back there. And so as I go to introduce them, Sebastian
Bach, the lead singer, I introduce him to the artist, I
mean, to the to the winners, they're like, standing there,
you know, all excited. And he goes, Who the f are you? And
like, just screamed it at them and at me, and and again, it's
like, I get my feelings hurt, and so I'm trying to cover for
him and make sure that they still meet him, but they're
like, crushed, but yeah, that Sebastian Bach, I never, never
played another show.
In fact, we like seeing go to Skid Row after that, after that
reaction.
What a jerk in front of in front of listeners. I mean, come on,
yeah, well, he was. He would have never remembered it. Let's
put it that way.
Welcome to a podcast about music and entertainment before it all
goes down the disposal. This is circling the drain, and
welcome back into circling the drain. And of course, you have
the 3j me. Johnny Bozeman, better known as Johnny B, to
some people, right next to me. Jay Harper, I
know it feels weird being right next to you. Johnny B, I know,
yeah, I'm always just gazing lovingly into your eyes from
across the table. But for this one, get to be right next to me?
Yes, we do, and right over there brother Jim McCarthy, yes. Well,
you know, I decided we've had too many you're just we needed
to seriously dilute the ugly in this room, right? So we invited
somebody that has been big in Nashville, number one
consistently with the rock station I love wkdf. She was a
big fixture of that, but she's not only done that. I can't even
go over everything this young lady has done over the years,
because her resume would take up the entire show. But joining us.
She's not in studio, and I don't blame her. I don't know if I'd
hang out with us either, but Shannon McCombs is with us.
Shannon, how are you doing?
Hey, I love that introduction. Can you say that
one more time? I will anytime you want.
No. Thank you. That was very nice. Thank you. I'm doing well.
How are you guys doing?
Well, you know, any better, we'd have to take medicine. We're
doing, I'm enjoying. We're rated PG for pretty good.
You know, Shannon, you have, you've made history. Here. You
are actually our first female guest on circling podcast. So
yes, we,
I'm glad to be circling, yes.
Well, and the thing is, Shannon, you know, a lot of people don't.
We always talk about our heroes in radio. Shannon was definitely
one of my heroes, because when I first moved to Nashville, I fell
in love with wkdf. It was a great rock station. Had a great
morning man, Carl P Mayfield. And then eventually this young
lady came into the picture. Was that 90 was it 1985 when you
came on?
I did, actually, I believe it was the very end of 85 is when I
moved to Nashville, because I moved, I moved here on New
Year's Eve. Oh, wow, yeah, New Year's Eve, I was my boyfriend
at the time. Helped me pack a truck, and we borrowed a truck
from someone and and made two two halls to move my stuff in to
Nashville. And you came from Kentucky, right? I came from
Kentucky. Yeah, Kentucky. From Kentucky. Blue, Kentucky girl,
bluegrass, yeah, but yeah. When you came on KDF, I was telling
these guys, man, you were, I mean, you were so good, and you
were, you know, you were number one consistently with the radio
station as far as ratings go. And the thing I loved about you,
you weren't, you know, a lot of, a lot of female rock DJs were
kind of rough, but you, you, I mean, you just had a sweet voice
and a sweet disposition, but you also had this rock edge to you,
which made you unique to me, and that's why I loved listening to
you. You just, and I know I germed you. To death at a party.
But thank you. Thank you for saying all that. I think, you
know, when I came to Nashville, it was maybe a lot of that was
just me being green, you know, I moved, moved to Nashville, to
the big city, so to speak, and I was around a lot of things and a
lot of substances that I had never seen or known of and but,
you know, that was such a it was a learning curve for me, you
know, yeah, to just, to just live in the big city, really, I
was Mary Tyler Moore,
even through the year. Yeah.
So Shannon, did you come to Nashville with a radio job in
hand? Or did you come here and hope to find one?
I found one. Bill Pugh, did y'all ever know Bill? Mr. Bill?
No other name. He did the show the wax museum. He was the
program director at KDF at the time, and there was a, there was
an opening. The overnight lady that was working, Aaron, was
putting in her resignation. She was or she was leaving the
station. And a friend of mine, Steve Kraft, you may have known
him. He worked in radio in city for a long time, he called me
and he said, there's gonna be an opening at KDF. He said, If you
put your resume in, you could probably get an get an interview
pretty quick. And I did, reluctantly, because I was
trying to get into country music. And so I did, and I got
it drove down here. I remember the I remember the day I drove
down here all the construction, and I was thinking, oh my gosh,
you know, I've wanted to live in Nashville, but I was getting the
first hand experience of traffic on the way down, you know,
coming from southern Kentucky. But I got the job, I actually
took a cut in pay and took a worse shift to move to Nashville
because I was programming a station in Kentucky and making
very little money, so I moved to Nashville and made less money,
and then worked overnights. I didn't get all my weight
literally for the bottom.
Well, I think we all did that. Yeah, yeah. In fact, I was told
regrets. I was told Yeah, same here, because I was told by a
program director here, he said, Yeah, you won't make very much
money here, because everybody wants to live here, and most
people want to be artists. They want to, you know, try to try to
get a record deal. So they'll do any, any kind of work for any
kind of money. And I, yeah, I got the same I got the same
spiel. But how long? How long did you stay with because you
were with KDF until, like, what 90 I wanted? I'm trying to say
94 ish, yeah,
something like that. That was the first time I got fired.
Fired from KDF twice. I believe they did it. They did a staff
change and format change, and they went started playing the
that's when the newer rock from, I'm trying to think of like
Nirvana, that whole wave was coming through, and they changed
formats. So we all kind of got fired.
Well, you're not radio until you do get fired.
That's right, I'm proud of it, own it.
Well, you worked with a lot of like Carl, P What was he like to
work with?
You know, loaded question.
You just catch him on a good day, I guess, you know, and you
could have a good day with him, yeah?
So I've heard I, I know a guy that used to produce his show,
and because I used to love to listen to Carl P It was a fun
show. But he said, Oh yeah. He said he was he could be rough.
He could be rough, yeah.
They, oh, there's all kinds of stories that people that worked
in that room with him, you know, when I, when I went back to KDF
for country, yeah, it was Carl that initially called me and
asked me to come back and, you know, he and to do the midday
show. But you know, that all kind of fell apart, you know, I
think Carl was going through a lot of health issues at the gym,
and yeah, and it, it made it hard on everybody around him,
yeah?
And you also worked with slats too, did you not? Oh, man, yeah,
I love that. His show was great too.
I just saw, I believe he retired from radio just recently. Lucky
guy, I'm in touch with him. Yeah, yeah. You know, I don't
know i Good. Good for him. If he wants to retire exactly, I will
stay in it until I get pushed out of it.
So well I got pushed out. So that's why I'm doing this, and I
appreciate you coming on here now you did go with with it.
With country but was that what kind of pushed you to go into
what you're doing now? You're doing more with country music
than you ever have really,
I am, and for a long time, up until about a year ago, I was, I
was writing a lot of rock stories that were going out for
morning show prep. And so I love that. Yes, I, you know, love my
rock and roll, but now what I'm doing is that I've been doing a
syndicated radio show for about 910, years now that goes out
weekly, and we're syndicated through CDX. It was Dana
Williams, right? Well, Dana does air the show. Yeah, for a while,
Dana and I were doing a live show together, and then it got
to be where it was just hard to get to him the time of day he
needed to record it, because, you know, Diamond Rio had a, you
know, they're on the road a lot, and I was always flying in there
at the by the seat of my pants to do that. And then so I
started recording my my part, and then got that syndicated.
But Dana still, he airs it. He airs it in his show. It's a news
show
that I do, yeah, Shannon's country news, yeah, yeah, that's
it.
And then I'm, I'm working on a project I'm really excited
about. It's a Bill Anderson documentary, Oh, yeah. And
they've hired me to do the interviews for it. So and Bill,
everybody knows and loves bill, so it's really Yes, yes. You
know he's been, he's been writing songs for Wait, I added
this up since the 50s. Wow. He's been, been on the been on the
radio since the 50s, and he is still, like, we got a recording
session the other day of him, not a recording session, but a
writing session. We shot a writing session with him the
other day, and it's, he's just constantly working. We
interviewed Billy Bob Thornton back a couple of weeks ago for
it. I know I've never interviewed him before, but he,
he is an interesting guy. Yes, he is Bill Anderson.
Yes, he is also Billy Bob. A lot of people don't know this, but
Billy Bob likes to sing and has a band, yeah. And in fact, we
had, we had him on the Phil Valentine show one time, and
they had this song that all it said was, there's no whiskey
drinkers, something like that. There's no whiskey drinkers in
heaven. I'm paraphrasing, because I don't remember the
song, but that's all it said. That was the only one that was
it. And we played and we played it, and I was kind of doing it
as a joke, and they were really turned on. We played that, they
said, Oh, man, that's our favorite tune. I'm glad you guys
picked that. And I'm thinking, Yeah, but I didn't pick it,
because
you never know what's gonna happen when you bring somebody
in the studio.
Do you Well, that's the truth. That's the truth, and Phil was
not supposed to ask him any Phil was notorious for this. I don't
think you're notorious for this, but Phil would always ask people
things that he was told not to ask them.
I know you don't do that. Do you
well only because I want to work with them again? Yeah, exactly,
because that will put you on that list, and you never, you
never work with those people again or nor the publicist.
That's right. That's right. In fact, he did that to Linda
Ronstadt. He did, oh yes, Linda Ronstadt put out this with me
before she came on. This was on music radio. We were doing music
radio, but Phil was not supposed to ask Linda Ronstadt about
Jerry Brown. And of course, midway through the interview,
Phil goes, well, so how's Jerry Brown?
Yeah, we got nicey,
but the last time you interviewed her, right? Yeah, it
was, it was last time she came on the show. But you also co
hosted. I thought this was really cool that you co hosted
the red carpet Buddy Holly birthday bash. And what year was
that?
Oh my gosh. Let me think
turn of the century, right around there. Wow.
And, and somebody told me that Paul McCarthy asked you to host.
This was that correct?
Yep, his. His people had asked me to do it. They they told me
it was per his request. And I don't know how that happened. I
was never told how that happened, how he had seen me,
but, you know, I was doing a lot of internet stuff early, early
on, yeah, and this was early this was so early on for
Internet that we did a live it was a live stream, or live on
the net. Was the company that had approached me to do it, and
it was so early on that, I mean, you had to have the best of the
best equipment to even see the show. Oh, wow. You know, you
remember those days? Yes, I do, yeah, when internet was great.
But it was really. Be a cool event. I went to New York, and
it was in the the rose ballroom, I believe. Is it what it was
called, and that's, I don't know if Paul McCarthy still owns the
Buddy Holly publishing deal. That's back when I think he
still does, does he? I think so. He used to, he used to do a
Buddy Holly birthday bash every year somewhere in the world, and
this one happened to be in New York, and so my job was to
interview everybody coming in on the red carpet. And then Paul
McCarthy was hosting, stage hosting. And I never believe it
or not, I hosted with him like they'd shoot me, and then they'd
shoot him, and then I would pitch to him on stage, and he
would pitch to me back out in the audience. But I never met
him, never officially was introduced.
Bummer. Yeah, that's
makes you like John Lennon more.
We co hosted a show together. I'd be like, at the I'd be in
the audience, and, you know, it was real small room, real small
stage, and I'd, you know, I'd toss it back to him, or he toss
it back to me. And, but we never actually physically met,
although I was, I will tell you this was strange. I'm sorry. Go
ahead.
No, no, I'm sorry. Please continue.
No, I was just gonna say I it was the only time I was ever
briefed on doing an interview on how to approach an artist, and
the publicist sat me down before the show and said he is to be
called Sir Paul McCarthy. This was just right after he was
knighted, and he gave me a list of questions not to ask like
you're talking about, yeah. And then, since it was about Buddy
Holly, they didn't want to talk about the Beatles. So they, they
wanted me to stay away from the Beatles talk. Keep it all on
buddy which I understand, because that's the event, and it
would have been a, you know, a two minute interview to
celebrate Buddy Holly. And they did not want the attention taken
off of Buddy Holly. Well, I can
understand that on the red carpet, I understand
Who were some of the folks in attendance that you did, in
fact, get to speak with.
Oh, it was, this is a long time ago. I remember making a list
and keeping it somewhere the I remember the one person that
impressed me the most was Betty Holly's widow, and having a
chance to talk to her. But it was a lot of pop stars. It was
every a lot of people that were big pop stars at the time, that
were doing the carpet. I don't even recall all the names, wow.
And you've also, I mean, like I said, your career, I mean, it
just goes on and on. I mean, you, you have worked heavily
with CMT, tnn, I mean, it just goes on and on and
so you keep a job.
That's all of us. Shannon, but I was gonna ask you, like, as far
as country artists go, what some of the what were the more
interesting ones that you've talked to that have stuck with
you as far as interviews go?
Right off the bat, I think of Eddie Arnold.
Oh, what a gentleman. What a gentleman. Yeah.
Oh, exactly. That's the best way to describe him. Have you
interviewed him before?
Yeah, well, I had met the man and chatted with him briefly.
And just what a warm, genuine guy who acted like, you know, he
knew you Yeah. It was just, you know, old school Nashville, just
a gentleman
and soft spoken
Yeah, just like he's saying, yeah,
exactly you feel like, you know, he could sing effortlessly, you
know, but I thought he was he always used the word lovely, You
look lovely today. You know how that accent. But I always
appreciated him when he'd come into the studio. When I was at
XM Radio, we signed on the air before the Hall of Fame open
downtown, and our studio was inside the hall of fame. So
anytime the artists would come visit the Hall of Fame artist,
they, a lot of them would drop by the studio, and we had an
open door policy, you know, they're in the studio. And once
they stopped in and saw that nobody, you know was gonna, you
know, ask them all those questions you were talking
about, they would stop, they would continue to stop in. And
he was one of them, you know, he'd be in this, he'd be in the
Hall of Fame. And you, you'd see him outside the studio and like,
okay, Eddie Arnold's coming in. So I love that we, the older
artist at the time, trying to think who, who else would come
by. We had, well, actually, what pops to mind was he wasn't the
older artist, but John Conley would would come in and and
visit with us. I remember John coming in one day and I was
literally underneath the board fixing something toolbox.
Yeah, yeah, he could probably relate to that. I mean, he's the
next radio guy, yeah, yeah.
He is, yeah. Well, you know, XM was based out of DC, so we did
not have an engineer in town all the time. So when something went
wrong, I usually was the one that would call and say, Hey,
this is the problem we have. And it got to be, I heard you guys
talking about crazy radio stories. Oh yeah. I don't know
if it was the last episode or not, but I thought, oh gosh,
this is one of my crazy radio stories. XM bought me a tool
kit, and it was like, a huge tool kit, because they knew I
would do it, yeah, I would literally go under the board and
adjust things, or go upstairs where the main equipment was,
and get us on the air, you know, whatever you know, it wasn't
anything major, you know. And I'd have, I'd take my phone and
a flashlight and call an engineer in DC, and he would
talk me through something. And that's it was just such a mess
when XM first one on the air, because we were kind of the we
were an afterthought in Nashville.
Well, until you kind of introduced them to the Nashville
community. Did you not the country music?
Yeah, that was partially my job, yeah, to kind of convince, if
you remember back then, you know, radio was so scared of XM,
of not knowing what it was going to be, stations were turning
them down. I mean, artists were turning them down because
stations were telling them, you know,
that's competition. Yeah, you do XM, you won't be doing our
Yeah, exactly player stuff. Yeah, exactly.
I can picture Jen Jeffries doing that.
It was, it was really, it was really hard to begin with. Yeah,
it was really hard to begin with, because, you know,
normally you would go through promotions department, right,
right, to talk to the artist and on radio. But I ended up getting
there. It was such a problem that I started working with
publicist, and so going through the publicist that I knew, and
they so they started doing XM satellite radio. So I ended up
booking everybody through publicist instead of promotions
people, and therefore we got the artists that we needed.
Wow, yeah, smart way to go. And you've, you've worked with
fanfare, which I guess now is what CMA fest, but you've been
working with them for since 1990 what is some like? See, I've
never been a big fan of them, changing always, like the name
fanfare. I don't know why. I I just can't get my head around
CMA Music Fest. It just doesn't have the same I don't, I guess,
homespun feel that I thought fanfare did. And fanfare, yeah,
like, can you tell us some of the interesting stories, maybe
from some fanfare days.
By the way I'm with you. I always wish they had worked the
words fanfare into the new title. Yeah, you know, I agree.
It just it, you know, if nothing else, but for tradition, yes.
But yet, you know, over the years, over I'm trying to think
it was the first, maybe the first and second year that I was
at XM, we did shows during fanfare. Well, I think one year
was fanfare, the next year was CMA fest. That's about the time
it switched over, yeah, but we did shows in the fourth theater
and and then we also did shows Loretta Lynn let us borrow her
bucks, and we put this big sign on it said XM satellite radio.
And we, we set up interviews on the bus all day, when we one
day, we'd do the bus, and one day, we do interviews inside of
the Ford theater. But what we would do is overlap the
interviews so that the artist would overlap, and so we would
coordinate it in a way that you know, artists that didn't know
each other, possibly, you know, maybe put an older artist with a
newer artist, and then they would meet and they would talk
and whatever. But I remember one of my favorites was we, we had
Charlie Lewin, which I loved. He, he was in and we scheduled
on top of him, you know, like at the end of his his time in the
beginning of it was a new artist by the name of Dirk spentley,
and they had met, but they had such a great time on the stage
and just just watching them. And you know, Dirks. I don't know if
you know him or not, but he's, he's such a he knows country
music, and he loves older country music, and he was such a
fan of the Leuven brothers and stuff. So we knew that, and
that's why we scheduled it, but we did that sort of thing, which
was just a made for an awesome fanfare,
very cool. You
have a question, well, you know, in terms of the interviews and
the folks that you've worked with over the years. I mean,
we've all had them the awkward interview, where the awkward
Yeah, like, oh my gosh, you know when you ask somebody to tell us
about so and so, when you get the uh huh, yep, you know kind
of answer. I mean, do any awkward interviews come to mind
other than this one? But this is not
awkward. I
heard you guys talk about people, people yelling at you in
the studio. I've had that happen to me before in an interview,
and I'm trying to think which one to tell you about. First I
was on the air one day at XM, and I probably shouldn't say his
name, because we've, we've made friends since then. But I was on
the air at XM, and if you were in that studio, it was a small
studio, and we the equipment half worked, you know, like I
was telling you, we had a lot of equipment problems. And this
artist, songwriters, was there really well known artist, lots
of hits, and we're doing the interview, and he brings me in a
CD of something that hadn't been played on the radio yet, not
popped it in the CD, which, by the way, you guys will get this.
The CD player was back here. Yeah, right. Did not start. Did
not start from the board. Yeah, not remotely start it. Yeah,
right. To start it, I'd have to roll back, pop it, and then roll
back in. Yes, this was XM satellite radio. But so started
it and it's it started skipping, and this artist jumped up on the
other side of the board, scared the delivering daylights out of
me, slammed his hands on the, on the on the table, and said, You
are making a fool out of me. And I was petrified, because, first
of all, I'd never seen rage from this, this person before. Wow.
And when, when he did, there were, you know, there, that was
a showcase studio, so there, there was a big window, and
people were watching, and someone told the security guard,
the security guard came in to check to make sure I was okay.
Wow, because, you know, there was a security guard always on,
on hand there at the Hall of Fame. But I immediately went
when the song ended. I ended the interview. Good luck with
everything, and
we'll have the police escort you out.
Was that actually on the air that he did that when you guys
live?
Now that, well, that was, I was live. His song was skipping
live, but, but him yelling at me was not live, so
damn it, you should have hit the mic.
Yeah, I was ready to. Here's the thing, when that happens to me,
maybe I'm just so tender hearted, but I immediately it
hurt my feelings, you know, like I didn't know, some people might
stand up and yell back, but I got my feelings hurt, plus I was
scared because he was bigger than me, and I'm looking up at
him, you know, you know, towering over me and
and he's yelling at me. So,
so was it the CD or the player? I mean, if it was the player,
did you that's not your Did you get it fixed? I mean,
you know, there were so many there. We literally had so many
problems there. I assume it was the CD player, you know. But you
know, things happen like that. Y'all know that. Oh, yeah, you
mentioned not wanting to name names, but who wasn't
I'll tell you a story, and I can name a name, okay, when I was at
KDF, and y'all know how, like when there's a concert, that
what they would do is assign us to take the winners backstage,
to meet the artists. Oh yeah. And I was, I was assigned to
Skid Row, and they were brand new, probably, what around 18 in
life that hit right about that time, which, I think what, they
had two or three hits at the time, but they were pretty
massive. And so I was assigned to the listeners take them
backstage, and the listeners are all excited, as they would be,
and I'm excited for them. I'd never met Skid Row, so we're
back there. And so as I go to introduce them, Sebastian Bach,
the lead singer, I introduce him to the artist, I mean, to the to
the winners, they're like, standing there, you know, all
excited, and he goes, Who the f are you? And like, just screamed
it at them and at me and and again, it's like, I get my
feelings hurt, and so I'm trying to cover for him and make sure
that they still meet him. But they're like, crushed, but yeah,
that Sebastian Bach, I never, never played another show.
In fact, we like seeing go to Skid Row after that, after that
reaction.
What a jerk in front of in front of listeners. I mean, come on,
yeah.
Well, he was, he would have never. Remembered it. Let's put
it that way, but, but from what I heard, he went around doing
that a lot, and I, you know, didn't take long that they were
literally on skid row so, but I think he did that to a lot of
radio stations, and people got tired of it.
You would think the record reps, you know, when I those would no
longer, yeah, would no longer agree to bring, you know, look,
you don't want to send listeners back backstage with this, with
this group. I'm surprised they continue to let them do that.
Yeah?
Well, they probably stopped it after a while. Yeah. Didn't you
ever have an experience like that? Or did you, well,
I mean, no, I mean, all of the artists that I, you know, work
with at MCA were, you know, country artists that were pretty
gracious. And, you know, I never, never really encountered
that. Now, in my radio days, going backstage, I had a couple
of artists that you could tell, you know, and I kind of got it,
you know, they're tired, and we saw them after the show. They
just wanted to pack up and get the heck out of there. I get it.
Randy Owen was that way. Just really disinterested. You know,
Mark Herndon and Jeff Cook and Teddy Gentry couldn't have been
any nicer, you know, for my, you know, bringing listeners back
when I was in radio, yeah, but, but, you know, being a record
rep, I had really good experiences with just about all
my artists, you know, aside from Lee Greenwood showing up in a
Speedo meeting, meeting artists after a show that was, you know,
talk about awkward. That was a little awkward.
That's a bad image. Yeah,
yeah, flip Yeah, flip flops and a speedo backstage at the star.
Oh, gosh, it was in Merrillville, Indiana, the star
something theater, but Star Plaza theater, Maryville,
Indiana, yeah, no, man, I talked about that on another podcast.
You know? Yeah, it was the Oak Ridge Boys and Lee Greenwood
and, yeah, I met listeners backstage, and Lee shows up in
with a towel and a speedo and flip flops. Hey, how are you?
And, you know, the women in particular, like, petrified, you
know, yeah, oh my god. So that, you know that was, but Lee
couldn't have been any nicer. He was a promotion guy's dream
other than that. But, you know, he would call, he would call
anybody and everybody, you know, hey, I could get your record on
if you would just call this. PD, another man. He was like, What's
her number? You know, he was, he was great.
Well, it seems like country skill, though, didn't you go
ahead? Oh, you'll
go ahead. No, no, I had left MCA before Vince got there, yeah,
yeah. Never got to work with Vince.
He worked with Steve Earle. Now, a lot, yeah, he worked with
Steve Earle.
That had to be interesting. Yeah, Steve and I are still
pals, but, yeah. But you know, you say you came to town in 85
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what I got, yeah, that's when I got
here. Was it sometimes? Oh, yeah, I remember tuning into,
you know, KDF, and there you were. So absolutely, so, yeah,
we got here same time
I tried to get a job over at WSM. I just didn't have the
experience for it. It was, it was a daytime job that was open.
And what that's when I was, you know, really trying to get into
Nashville. And I remember walking through the studios, and
that's the first time I ever met Kathy Martindale. I've told her
this story, but she was, she was on the air. And, of course, you
know, in 85 there weren't many women on the rate on the radio.
That's true, right, right. In fact, I was turned down
different times from different stations, saying, We don't put
women on the air during daytime hours, unless you're doing news.
And so again, a different world. I know a different world, but I
remember seeing Kathy Martindale, she was doing
afternoons and and when I walked by her studio thinking, it's
possible. Yeah, it's possible. And that, to me, was like a
really light bulb moment in it. You know, in today's 2025,
world, it might be hard for somebody to understand who
didn't live through those years, but it was my it's possible a
woman can work daytime hours on the radio,
you know, at a big station.
Yeah, that was going to be one of my questions. I mean, I'm
glad you brought it up. I mean, did you run into that glass
ceiling as as a woman trying to to make her way, especially in
male dominated Nashville, back in our biz, radio, record
labels, etc,
it, you know? I think that was, that was just the way it was at
the time, I didn't even, didn't even know that you you could
force your way in, or, you know, so to speak, I just knew that's
the way it was. And I kept, I kept trying Do y'all remember
when, back when coyote McCleod was on kicks, 104, yes, and then
Mary,
Mary Glen, yeah, yeah. In
fact, I was going to ask. Ask you. I was going to ask you a
question about Mary Glenn because, in fact, you can find
it on YouTube. But there was a there was there was a time when
you were on KDF, and you were talking about that it was so
good to be in the same building as Mary Glenn Lasseter, yes. And
then some listener calls in and said that Mary Glenn Lasseter
said, You know what the difference is between KDF and
our station and the girls on KDF? She said, teeth. And you
said, I think I'm gonna have to go down the hall and talk to
Mary Glenn about this. Yeah, I
remember that. You know Mary Glenn was, I still have her up
as a hero of, oh, she's great. Yes, she is in but when she was
working mornings with with Coyote, at the same time, Katie
Haas was doing overnights, and I used to stay up and record
Katie, because that's the only time I could hear women on the
radio out of Nashville. And so I'd, you know, I'd listen to
coyote in the morning, but stay up late night and listen to
Katie. But that's, that's another, you know, I looked up
to both of them because they were, they were in Nashville and
and able to get on the air. And, you know, again, Katie had a
full show, but it wasn't daytime,
no, and that. And I'm so glad that things have changed,
because there are so many women. You've named a lot of them that
I thought were just fantastic broadcasters, like Mary Glenn
yourself. Kathy Martindale, did
you ever work with Diana Lynn? Diana Lynn Bracey,
no, but I loved her, yeah.
And she worked with coyote at y1 Oh, yeah. Yeah. But, you know,
Diana passed here a couple of years ago. She was such a great
lady. Oh, I had a great voice, yeah, yeah, Diana and I got to
be pretty good friends and Yeah. Was just crushed when I heard
she had passed
me too. I, you know, I heard that when I was at the Tennessee
Radio Hall of Fame dinner and they announced her name, and I
was just crushed. I mean, everybody at my table just, you
know, hands went to the heart because we had no idea she I
didn't really, didn't know her, but I loved listening to her,
because she would say whatever was on her mind.
Oh yeah, trouble.
Well, she did that in real life too, because she were, I worked
with her at at at WAC and, oh yeah, she was, she, she was
saucy. Yeah, that's about the best word I can use for she was
a great person.
She she would say, she would just, she would just say,
whatever I love that about her.
Oh, me too. There's another one on KDF too, that I really like
Patty Murray and and we lost her too. What a great what a great
talent she was.
She was in a car accident not long after she had left. KDF,
yeah, her and her family moved to Florida, and I can't her
husband was in the car, but survived, but I think she was
the only one in in their car that that passed. Yeah, but
yeah, she was really something else. I you know, she was one to
give advice. I remember. I remember Patty telling me one of
the things always in our remotes. They'd always give us
those KDF shirts to wear. This is one of those things women of
today probably wouldn't understand it back then there
was only one there was only one size, and it was all for men,
right? They didn't make women T shirts, so anything you put on,
you look like you're wearing a tent. And they'd always give you
that it's large to wear out in public, and Patty would never
wear them. And she, I remember her telling me one day she goes,
don't wear them. You don't have to. And they make they make you
look awful. Just don't wear them. So it just like one of
those weird things to say. But, you know, at the time, everybody
had to wear KDF shirts to remotes, but she wasn't going to
do it.
Well, Phil wouldn't either. We used to when we took the get
well card, it was an oversized card to Amy Grant, and they
demanded that we all wear our station shirts. We look like
pizza delivery boys.
And Phil refused, and
I thought, You mean I didn't have to wear their shirt. He
said, No, man, don't. Don't wear that stuff. But I got to ask
you, we're talking about clothing. And somebody asked me
to ask you this, and I hope it doesn't get me in trouble with
you, because we have a good relationship. But somebody,
somebody asked me to ask you about an interview with Travis
tritt, and it involved underwear. Oh, I see the look on
the face, yeah, I may have run that
was a long time ago there. That's back when videos were so
big, yes, and it was something about one of his videos. And the
producers, I believe, had asked me to ask that, because they
thought I would. It. They provoked me a little bit and
asked me what he was wearing under the sheets. And he said,
nothing. In fact, I'm not wearing underwear now.
Okay. Moving right along. Too much information.
Yes, does make Lee Greenwood look as bad,
exactly, sometimes producers would give me things to say
because they they would, they would know that. I would
probably go out there and say it, yeah, probably more so now
than then. But then I just got embarrassed. I'm sorry about
that. Leave it to me that was for it, yeah, an old tnn show. I
remember that now.
Yeah, somebody asked me to ask you that, so don't blame me.
Okay, okay, I appreciate No, it's out there, so own it,
right? Yeah, you do. Hey, I will be the first to tell you that I
have asked some pretty darn stupid questions, but sometimes
you get some pretty cool answers, yeah,
you do, right, and you get the truth. Sometimes,
what? Which one comes to mind off the top of your head. You
recall that stupid question, because we've all done it. Oh,
yeah,
that, that one is a topper. Man,
they've had me. I remember them suggesting I ask Aaron tip and
his measurements. And I did, and he was great with it, because
that's back when he was really working out. Yeah, the
bodybuilder, right? Yeah. And he, you know, I guess you're
proud of your measurements. And I mean, he was, he was ripped,
and I can't remember his measurements now, but I just
remember the embarrassment of those words coming out. It was
television.
So I want got to ask you this too, because you are a cat
owner, and I know of one named Cheeto. Is that right? Yeah,
they own me, yeah. And I know sometimes they come in on
interviews and stuff. They're not going to do that today,
only because the doors close. I don't know if you've heard him,
but he's been talking at the door.
Oh, has he really? He's going, Hey, man, it's my time. How many
cats only maize? How many
cats there are three? There are three. I meant to only have two,
but when my uncle passed away, his cat did not have a home and
ended up in a shelter in Nashville. And so I called the
family, and I said, Look, if you will go get that kitty cat, I
will take care of her. So she's been with me this whole time
too. So I have three.
So we got to love you for that, for rescuing a cat. I love
people.
Hey, thank you all. My cats are rescues,
yeah, so it's mine. I have 114 years now.
Yeah, really, yeah. So what's the story? Did your cat come to
your door and say, let me in?
No, nothing like that. I had a friend. This was in Columbia,
South Carolina, when I was working there, had a friend who
had rescued a cat and from the shelter and was told, Well, it's
part of a litter and they're going to euthanize these cats,
if something you know, anyway, I so once I heard that, down to
the shelter, I went and I adopted the cat, and I've had
her ever since. So, like I say, but for you 14 years now, but
I'm embarrassed. I named her a name that I'm embarrassed to
admit I named her Peeta p i t a because at the time, she was a
pain in the Yeah, yeah. And it was a joke, okay, it was just a
joke, but it kind of stuck. But she's, she's Tabby Siamese, so
she's, you know, pretty cat with the blue eyes, you know, like
Siamese eyes. And everybody thinks that she's named after
pita bread, you know, because she's kind of brown. So I don't
really have to explain where the name came from too often. But
anyway, yeah, she's a she's a sweetheart.
Cats don't cats names don't usually make sense. Cheetos name
is because he came to my house with the name Cheeto, and I
thought he needs more than that. And I thought of Willie Mays,
because I'm a baseball fan. He's became. Do you remember those
the screaming cheetah willies?
Yeah, yeah. God, I hadn't thought of
it kind of sounds like the screaming cheetah willies. Oh,
yeah, Cheeto, Willie Mae, yeah,
there you go. Well, see, I'm jealous of you guys because I
used to own cats, but I can't anymore, because I have such a
horrible allergy to pet dander, I can't have any pets. But I
used to have a black cat. I loved him. His name was Angus. I
named him Angus because he was black. So I know that's an
interesting story, and y'all can't
an interesting story about remember the restaurant Black
Angus? Yes, I do the but I worked in Vegas, it had a big
sign on the side of the side of the restaurant that would light
up at night, and people would make a. Regular thing, I know
where you're going out of like firing, firing BBs at the G.
I don't know this funny story, completely different tangent,
but why not bring it up? Only in Vegas,
that story didn't stay.
Oh, there you go. It's only in Vegas. Yeah, I want to help you
out with that cat thing. John, okay, I am, I am horribly
allergic to cats. Are you really? I take out I am, I take
allergy medication.
We'll see I do too, but it doesn't, it
wouldn't help, right? No, just had to throw that in there.
I'm a bad one. Yeah, that's what a lot of people can't
understand, because the people get so upset with me, if I you
know, because it, what it does, it sends me to the basically
emergency rooms. I can't so it's like anaphylaxis, everything,
everything closes up. I can't breathe.
It's not good. Have you tried flow days? Yeah,
nothing, really does. Some people have suggested allergy
shots, but those are too much. So I just choose to, we have a
lot of wildlife around the house, so that's what I choose
to that's our pets, the deer.
And from what I hear about you, John, there's a lot of wildlife
in your house.
Well, we won't go there, and I don't wear Speedos.
I do wear underwear
now too. You used to work with kicks Brooks, who I love. We got
to work with him when I am we worked with cumulus over there,
and he did the countdown show over there too. But I know you
worked on that show as well.
I did. I love kicks, and I have told him this over and over, the
best boss I've ever had. I produced his syndicated
countdown and they were changing producers, and he had asked me
to come in, or it was someone within his company did, because
I'd only known at that point, kicks through interviews and up
until then, but I produced it, and then we had worked together
a couple of weeks. And I said, you know, he needs to be writing
this show with me, because I was producing and writing, because
it was him. Anyway, it was his words. I know what I'd write.
But so he ended up CO writing the show. I basically would get
the ideas of what he wanted to talk about, and then I would
write it all up, and we would record it every week. That was,
that was a really good experience working with him.
Oh, I bet he's such a great guy, and I got to tell you this
story, but he is he, when he was doing it at cumulus, he was
setting up the studio, and they had to, he wanted to bring in
this couch. It was like a leopard covered. I called it the
ginger Lynn couch. That's, that's, but it is really body
couch. Yeah, you remember that? So they had to take out a
window. I know what you're gonna say, yeah, yeah. They had to
take out a window and spend all this money and bring it into his
studio. I thought that was, I thought, man, to have power like
that. I want that.
It'll happen.
That's when I believe that show. There you go. I believe that
show was ABC. Then, yes, they were. They really, they had a
lot of money back then. It seemed like they were throwing
it around pretty good.
Yeah, they were. They even when they moved the show out to to
the KDF studios, I guess where those are at, they built him a
basketball court. It was NBA style, and I think he only
played on it once for a photo op. Did not know that.
Yeah, hearing about that, yeah, yeah. I think we talked about
that on
the show, yeah. But even when I was working in the business, I
heard about that.
Yeah, interesting. You know what? Knowing knowing kicks, he
probably did that so that everybody would have a
basketball court at the radio station. That'd be cool. He
would do those sort of things. Yeah, that'd be cool.
Yeah, I used to work out of that same building that with you.
Did you really?
I did not know this.
That's, that's where we did the did kicks a show when I worked
with him,
and we never crossed paths.
No, you, we would be in there different times recording you
y'all were gone.
Oh yeah. Well, you're probably better off.
Well, I feel bad too, because I I really got to truly meet
Shannon at the lovely gal named Deborah Evans price, it was at
her house. She has these writer jam sessions and stuff, and
Shannon happened to be there, and I wore Shannon out. I felt
bad afterward because I just talked her ear off because, you
know, you don't get to meet one of your radio heroes.
And no, you didn't. I felt like it was like back and forth. We
were we had lots of radio stories. To share?
Yes, we did. I wish we could share them here. But you know,
we want to keep friends, don't we have
any questions for us by chance? I mean, we're right here for
you.
Actually, we'll go right ahead. It's your
chance ask us anything. If you guys have talked about this in
your shows, and I've missed it, I'm sorry. But with with all
these radio people right here, all four of us tell me you have
the radio dreams that I have. Oh, absolutely nightmares.
Absolutely yes. Everybody has those. If you've been in radio
any amount of time at all, yeah, sures well for me, different.
Well, for me, it is the panic Dream like, you know, I started
in 1978 in high school. So we're talking, you know, turntables,
cart machines, etc, reel to reels. You know, razor blades
and wax. You know, grease pencils. But the panic dream
where the record is running out, I can't find another record to
put on the cart. Machine has gone crazy, and there's tape
everywhere. And it's just, there's
put another cotton ball on a pencil.
That's right, there's dead air, and the hotline is ringing. And
it's just, it's a total panic dream, because I can't, there's
dead air, and it just, oh, it, you know, wake up in a cold
sweat. That's, that's my radio panic dream.
I guess mine was similar Mine would be.
Recently, I've had Phil Valentine in my dreams a lot
lately, and in one it was bizarre, because he was supposed
to be doing the show, and he he said, I can't do the show.
You're gonna have to do it. And I didn't have anything prepared.
And I'm thinking, What a dream. What am I gonna talk about? And
I was panicking. And on top of that, for some reason I was in
my underwear. Seriously, I know we've been talking about
underwear here, but it was like and where are my clothes? You
know,
super talk TV, man, I gotta have clothes on.
Well, thank God. Cameras make everything look bigger. Anyway,
what about you,
Jim, I think my nightmare would be being back in radio,
podcasting. This is what keeps my appetite wetted. I'm good
with this so,
so what are some of your nightmares? Shannon, as far as
radio,
they're real, really, very similar, but that the one I have
have more often and same with you like I started out in with
the the tapes and the records. And even though we've gone
digital and we went to CDs a long time ago, those are never,
in my dreams, never, there's never anything digital, and it's
always in a large room, yes. And these, the console is back in
the corner of what looks like a warehouse, and it's dark all
around me. And so when I, when I do run out of albums or records
or music, and I go out to look for it somewhere else, I can't
see to find it. Yeah, yeah. I know it's in a room. I can't I
can't find it. I know it's over there somewhere, but I'll pull
something, even if I pull something out, I can't read it
because it's dark. And if, if I drag it into the light to play
it on the on the air, what I run into there is, like, we don't
play this, you know, it'll be a different format of music. So
sometimes I find the music to play, but it's not what we play
on that station,
then you wake up and you're like, Thank God I'm away,
yeah, thank God that wasn't real, yeah. So why do you I
mean, there has to be some deep, dark psychological reason that,
you know, everybody I talked in radio has these similar types of
dreams. You know,
I wonder about that, because do other industries have the same
type of, you know, nightmares that are so similar, oh gosh,
you know, I don't think they do, because my wife never has said,
you know, about having, you know, nightmares about stuff at
work.
I don't know. Boy, oh gosh, the cash register had no money in
it, and I couldn't find any change, and the credit card
machine didn't work. Yeah, I don't hear stories like that.
You know,
we're just damaged people.
Maybe we've all had program directors yell at it.
Oh, no, not program directors. No, I've never had anyone scream
at me ever do you have any other questions you'd like to ask us?
We're kind of putting it back on you now.
You know I can sit here and ask y'all questions all day. I'd
like to know who y'all have interviewed, who you thought was
the best interview you ever did?
Wow, I'll go with you. Jay,
oh, gosh, probably the best. Radio interview I ever had was
Dan seals. Really, I love him. Oh gosh, he was, he was such a
down to earth, you know, Texas guy, and I got to interview him
on air, and he was almost, I won't you know, he was proud of
the England Dan John Ford Coley days, but in a way, he was kind
of embarrassed by because he said that was not him, you know,
raised on a Texas ranch and was always a country guy, but just
yeah, just so friendly and down to earth. And it just broke my
heart. You know, when he passed away. I think he was 60 years of
age, you know, and but, yeah, there's some really, really
great memories interviewing dan.
He had such a light about him. He was a very spiritual guy, I
would assume, just in the way he talked. I did like him, yeah,
John,
I think, I think, and it was with this podcast, I think my
favorite person to interview was actually Reggie ham, yeah, I
enjoyed, I for one thing, I and you just said, you know, like
with Dan seals, very spiritual guy. I got that from, from from
Reggie as well. Reggie is just the kind of person that I
really, you know, he's not a superstar, but he should be, and
he's a great talent.
I was, I was trying to figure out how to equate him the other
day because he asked me to put his Patreon fundraiser
Kickstarter yes and I wanted to say that he was akin to a modern
day Mark Twain, but I don't know if that was the right
comparison. Yeah, he's more of a modern day like American
philosopher, you know what I mean. And I think one of the
most, one of the most prolific songwriters we've ever had in
quite a long time. Yeah, he just doesn't. He needs, you know,
more credit for it. Yeah, he does. He does. And I guess
another that people would know was, and it really was a great
interview, but it was Tanya Roberts, you she was the last
Charlie's Angel, yeah? But we actually had a good interview,
and plus, I kind of had a crush on her at the time. How could
you know
she read Sonia?
Yes, yeah, she was, yeah, oh, I remember.
See how was, I guess, the question goes to me, what's I
mean? Shannon McCombs, of course, well, yeah,
easy answer on one of my podcasts
wasn't in the room. There you go.
One of the podcasts I produced, we interviewed one of the most
influential drummers in my life, Charlie Benante, who played with
anthrax. He's played with Pantera. He's played with all
sorts of bands throughout I was a big metal guy growing up, but
he was very influential on my playing. And of course, I made a
fool out of myself at some point, when you were talking in
the previous episode we recorded, you mentioned your
mother's very Italian last name, and I said, Oh my gosh, it's so
Irish. And I did that on the on the podcast, and it was met with
utter crickets. He's like, such a great Irish last name. He
literally, it was a zoom interview, and he literally
looked at the camera like, really, yeah, I'm Italian. I'm
going, Yeah, I'm just gonna go back into my ashtray. I'll be
about that big. But he didn't appreciate your sense of humor.
I don't think, I don't think I delivered it right, so I blame
myself the whole time.
I will tell you one that I forgot about was Penn Jillette.
Penn and Teller, yeah, I interviewed him on W, L, A, C,
and we just really hit it off. He's a cool dude. Yeah, he was
very cool. I really enjoyed him. But you had the best interview
of all the guy that killed Bin Laden.
Well, yeah, I mean the
ROB O'Neill, yeah, yep, yep. Where do you go after that?
Yeah, talking about a mic drop, a resume.
Did he tell you details what? What was, what do you ask that
guy?
Well, it was a, it was a client of mine. They interviewed him,
but, I mean, I was able to be a part of it and listen to it.
But, I mean, yeah, he tells the whole story about how they went
in. It's well documented, but a lot of insight and wisdom came
out of that, that podcast, even the way he talked about becoming
a Navy SEAL. And he says, you know, even though it's displayed
in the movies, how it's like, this really insurmountable
thing, he's like, You got to remember, people still are Navy
SEALs, even though the bell is right there, and you can ring
it. He says, if you're gonna quit, quit tomorrow. And I was
like, Oh my gosh, that is a great piece of wisdom. Yeah, you
know, my God. It's like, like, that's a that's a song, Yeah,
tomorrow, which I have actually already written on AI. So don't
even think about
this. Sit down. I was gonna write
it. Shannon,
this dangerous thing about Nashville, you have to be
careful what you say.
I've got a well documented I've already talked about I've got
claim.
How is it? We all ended up in Nashville, and we're not writing
songs that are getting big hits.
Yeah, I don't understand. And when you came to town, where did
you want to do that? Was that part of
No, no, it's just never been something I wanted to do. Wow.
So you're about the only one that's ever been in I might be,
I think you are, because I nearly everybody I've met in
radio, they've all wanted to be an artist of some kind?
No, it's like, I tell everybody, not me,
I'm completely musically untalented, but I love listening
to it so well,
that's the thing I love about you. You, you love music. It's
very obvious, because, you know, there's not many people that can
interview Motley Crue in the same day, and then a few hours
later, interview Randy Travis. But this young lady can do it,
and Plus she's in there stuff. She's in the Tennessee Radio
Hall of Fame, of course, which she should be, and that was in
2021 and I'm glad you're there, because you are one of my
heroes. You always have been.
Well, thank you. I have been told that you were one of the
people that nominated me.
Really, Yes you were. I went, Yes I was. I have
absolutely nothing to do with
if you did, I thank you.
Well, you know, meeting me, Okay, I'll go with that. Okay,
yeah, thank you, but I wanted you in there. I wanted you Thank
you. But yeah, you are, you know, there have been a lot of
women that have been my heroes in radio, but you are number
one. And I mean that because, you know, I love Kathy
Martindale. I love Mary Glenn Lassiter. There's so many others
that I love, that are great, that are women, but you were
always number one with me, because you rock and roll, but
you also country better than anybody, so you make my day.
Thank you. Now, where can people check you out? Find out more
about you?
Well, I'm on Facebook, so that's probably the best, best shot.
And you also have a, I also have a I have a website, yes, Shannon
McCombs, calm, I think Facebook and that site is probably the
best way. I also use Twitter, but Instagram very little. But I
try to post some of the interviews I do on Facebook.
Can't post them all, but every once you know, I post one, every
once in a while that I do
well, I loved your throwback picture of you and Bobby
Braddock, Halloween. That was Halloween. I love that that you
talk about one of my favorite songwriters. Oh, he was
fantastic.
Isn't he amazing? He is amazing if y'all haven't, if y'all
haven't seen it. A few years ago, we went to a Halloween
party together in the Halloween party is always it's a theme,
you know, to come dressed up as an artist, country. Artist,
country. You know, I thought, why not do a song? So I told ASK
BOB if he would do it. And he said, Yes. So we dressed up. I'm
a widow, and he's a dead man. So we went as he stopped loving her
today. Yeah.
Well, Glenna sends her love to you, and I send my love to you,
as we all do, and we really appreciate you being on with us,
on circling the drain.
Shannon, oh, thank you. Thanks for asking me, and you tell
Glenna, I said, Hello, love her to death. I sure will. Thanks
for asking me to be on here, and I still think that you need to
get that new song as your theme song, circling the drain.
Oh yeah, definitely. There's a new song out. Oh, really,
circling the drain. Yes, so we'll probably have to check
into that definitely. But thanks again. It was sweet to have you,
and I appreciate you doing this with us. Thank you. Thank you
all. I love you. We love you too. And join us again on
circling the drain. You.