Good bye, Mark and Brian

Cafe Society
21

I was a big fan until Stern came to LA in 1991. Howard rather quickly buried them (remember the funeral?) in the ratings. And even after Stern left terrestrial radio and went to Sirius, they never returned to their pre-Stern number 1 status.

I read that at the end Mark and Brian were number 10 in the ratings.

My experience was listening to Stern on his very first minute in LA. When he went to commercial, I turned back to M & B. When they went to commercial, I turned back to Stern and never listened to M & B again. What I found strange about M & B’s show about a week before Stern was to arrive, was how “racy” they suddenly became. They were discussing things that I had never heard them discuss before. It was such a dramatic change that one could hardly miss it. When Howard arrived, it all made perfect sense.

I’m still with Howard on Sirius. And he’s as funny as ever.

BA BA BOEY!

22

M&B are still listed on the KLOS website as on-air staff this morning, and they are airing re-runs.

23

Just announced: They are being replaced(on KLOS at least) by Heidi and Frank.

24

On the one hand, wacky morning show duos are a dime a dozen, but on the other hand they do kind of feel like family if you’ve been listening for a long time.

25

It didn’t go out on the air on Friday, but a few hours after the show ended, Cumulus laid off the rest of the M&B family.

Fuck Cumulus. :mad:

26

As an on-again off-again listener, I’ve been curious as to why they changed the format of 10 questions - didn’t listeners used to get to play all 10 and have levels of prizes? Anyone know why the difference more recently?

27

Heidi and Frank? Good lord whatever pinhead is running KLOS has for sure lost that final brain cell.

28

I just heard about that. They even laid off Skylord.

29

It was called “I Want a Crack at That.” Two listeners would go head-to-head on ten questions. If neither person got the right answer on the first try, they would read the answer out and nobody got the point. The winner would face another challenger the next day, up to five days worth of prizes. Winning the fifth day meant your prize was to spend an hour with the boys in the “Room of Brilliance.”

I went into the Room of Brilliance one morning in 2002 when David Lee Roth came in to pitch a tour he was going to do with Sammy Haggar. They didn’t put me on the air, just sat me and kaylasmom down in the syndication booth with Tito, and told us not to touch anything. DLR was in “stuck-up little rockstar mode,” and never even acknowledged our presence, even in the lobby while we were waiting to be brought back to the studio. And of course, with a big star like DLR, Mark and Brian didn’t really have any time for us, either.

The second time I was a Day Five winner, I told them I’d rather they just give me a Return of the King DVD (I was unemployed and without a car at the time; arranging transportation seemed like a huge PITA for a somewhat underwhelming result). They gave me the DVD, but they also invented the “Michael” Rule, that disqualified you from playing the Game after being a Day Five winner (I suspect I may have hurt their feelings).

In Fall of 2002 I had to stop being in the house during the mornings, and I lost track of what they were doing with trivia. In Spring of 2008, I started working the midnight shift for the Post Office, so my mornings were free again. By this time, they were playing a trivia contest among themselves for No Apparent Reason. When they started to invite listeners to call in, I felt no compunction about joining in, as I figured it was a different game (besides playing only five questions, and against the “Pros,” the question would stay alive until SOMEbody answered it). And I did pretty well, winning tix to see Chicago, Hall and Oates, Chicago and Earth, Wind and Fire (on the same bill), James Taylor, Steely Dan, Larry the Cable Guy, Pat Benatar, and the Trans Siberian Orchestra. Also a lot of movies and CDs.

Of course my BIGGEST one-time jackpot from M&B wasn’t from playing trivia at all… :slight_smile:

30

Are they supposed to keep paying staff for a show that no longer exists?

31

They still do news and traffic, and they’re running reruns up through Labor Day (which had been the responsibility of Danny, who ran the syndication board).

And mostly, they really should have let Brian write his own ticket, wrt replacing Mark with Jill Whelan.

32

This is awesome news! I was really sad when Heidi, Frosty and Frank lost their gig.

33

Or Brian could have come to terms with the station if he was so concerned about the staff. It’s a business, not a charity.

If Brian and Jill are such a hot commodity, why haven’t other radio networks been beating down the doors for them?