Carlota G: Radio Ressurxtion

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  0:02  
The sound off podcast. The Show About Podcast and Broadcast

Matt Cundill  0:13  
There's a group of Gen X radio talent out there that if you ask them to audibly describe what the first few years of their career sounded like, it might sound like this Karlova G story is gonna sound a little bit like that today. Having started on air in California back when hairbands were in their crescendo and alternative was inching towards the mainstream. Carlota G does middays at the newly revitalized incarnation of x 1075 in Las Vegas, extreme radio coming up

Carlota G  0:45  
after David Mahoney

how much money you got?

Unknown Speaker  0:51  
Not very much.

Carlota G  0:53  
I'm perfect. I'm good. I like being poor and struggling. Let's do it.

imaging ID  0:57  
Don't worry. She's on her meds last week, Jags days on extremely

Matt Cundill  1:01  
low X 1075 Which came back to life a year ago and is a great radio story unto itself. She knows Vegas having spent 18 years at Crosstown comp and as a result can help you find the best tequila in town. And now Carlota G joins me from Las Vegas. When did you first know that you wanted to be in radio.

Carlota G  1:25  
I was eight years old in the back of my dad's car. We were leaving the LAX airport. I know this very vividly. Andy Gibbs I just want to be your everything was on the radio and the radio disc jockey came on after that song and said there's gonna be good with I just want to be your underwear. And I just thought that was the funniest thing I've ever heard. And I knew at that moment that I wanted to be the voice that came out of the box in the car.

Matt Cundill  1:52  
Who's the DJ and what was the station?

Carlota G  1:54  
I don't know. It was magic. I know that it was magic. 106 which became power 106 in LA. So I know it was the big top 40 At the time, but I don't know. I wish I did believe me. I wish I did. I Oh that guy drink. Were you raised on power? 106 No, I was raised on Kiss FM K HJ the mighty 692 FM obviously, power 106. And then when I became my own person, as we do when we're like 1213 We've become our own people musically. I grew up on K rock KR que without

Matt Cundill  2:30  
Dating Yourself. Can you tell me what years those were? I don't

Carlota G  2:35  
mind dating myself. I take myself out for a great steak. The 80s was K rod. It was all like Jed the fish. And I mean, my idol was dusty St. Blade and rimando was in the mornings. They did all that stuff back in the 80s. And then Doug the slug was one that when I figured out I couldn't do radio. It wasn't something unobtainable. He was the guy that I just loved. And that was the late 80s. Not

Matt Cundill  3:01  
everybody gets such a privileged upbringing to get a station like KR o que on their radio. It was just a handful markets, especially in the 80s that would be able to kick that out.

Carlota G  3:13  
Yep, yep. Yep. And I grew up on Kayla last two and the mighty Matt que me t because you know I bounced from parent to parent. My mom's side was the rock, you know, going to Bob Seger and Van Halen, and you know, all that AC DC and then my dad's side was the Puerto Rican side that was into more of the pop music, dance music and of things. So I got both hands and then I went into alternative as my own self in high school.

Matt Cundill  3:41  
Not a bad place to be for rock Los Angeles in the late 80s.

Carlota G  3:46  
For sure, and I mean, Van Halen, and we have guns and roses and all that. So being a misfit in high school, I hung out with the Iron Maidens and the scorpion kids and all that with the Duran Duran and the Depeche Mode's and the punks and you know the clash and all that type of very diverse background as far as the group I hung out with and the music we listened to.

Matt Cundill  4:07  
What about your record purchasing history was a cassettes than CDs

Carlota G  4:13  
vinyl? I started in vinyl I used to go to vinyl shows in LA. We would go to like the LA sports arena and we would just search and the big search was teenage gentleman nurses in bondage by killer pussy. That was the number one we weren't because it was the 45 wrapped in the sanitary was the hard to find. So we were always looking like for the coolest vinyl we can find. But yeah, cuz that's an obviously CD and all that too. But I was big vinyl head back in high school.

Matt Cundill  4:43  
The year after you graduate. What do you do? Man, I

Carlota G  4:46  
was flailing. I was in the medical industry. I was a medical biller, which is the most boring awful job you'll ever ever know of. And it's funny because I use that today when I don't want to tell people what I do for a living I don't want to talk about who's the most famous rock star I've ever interviewed or whatever. I tell them. I'm a medical biller, and they just go Oh, and then the subject changes. But I got that because I was a medical biller for about two years, from about 1819. To right before I went into radio.

Matt Cundill  5:17  
When did you finally wind up making that decision? I'm going to get into radio on how to do it. I

Carlota G  5:23  
was medical billing. And we had a kid come in who he went into, like the mailroom of the company. And he told me one day, oh, yeah, I go to the Academy of radio broadcasting in Huntington Beach, California, which was literally 10 minutes from my house. And I was like, Are you kidding me? And it just hit. And that was a Wednesday by that Monday, I was enrolled. That did not hesitate.

Matt Cundill  5:49  
How long did it take you to get a diploma.

Carlota G  5:52  
My final was building a radio station from the ground up. Frequency format, clocks, promotions, who's your competitor? Who's your demo, I mean, everything. And I had to have recorded imaging, as well as a full layout of what the station was going to sound like. I picked a station Believe it or not, I picked a station that would go up against K Sol in San Francisco, which was a rhythmic, old school r&b. So I picked r&b type station. That's what I found the whole land, I guess, in San Francisco at the time. But I also had lectures from Well, the big one was Wolfman Jack. He came in and he lectured. He did a big lecture for us. So it was cool. What do you remember from that? Be yourself. I mean, I remember don't be fake. I think that's the biggest thing I remember is don't be fake. Because he was obviously personality radio. That was his lecture. And I'm big in personality radio. That's my thing. You know, I'm a little too honest on the air, probably. But that's what I remember from him was be real, be who you are.

Matt Cundill  7:00  
So after you graduate from there, did you do an internship or where did you get picked up? Or what station did you get to go into?

Carlota G  7:08  
I got a job. I was in Southern California in Orange County, right near Huntington Beach. And I got a job in Porterville, California, which was about two and a half hours north east. And it was just this Podunk, you know, incest is best, relatively speaking kind of town. And so what I would do every Friday after I got off work, I would drive to Fresno, California, look for a place to live. But Friday night, I'd get there, sleep, whatever, I get up in the morning and look for places to live. And then I would drive an hour and a half into Porterville from Fresno, do a six hour shift of hot AC, AC jazz, I should say. And then an hour and a half back to Fresno. At midnight, I would go back so I got to get back to Fresno about 130 or two in the morning sleep. Look for a place to live. Go back to Porterville 6pm to midnight, at midnight, drive back into Southern California. Get home about 330 in the morning, go to work and do that Monday through Friday. And then on Friday, go do it again. And I did that for about three months. And then I moved to Fresno. And then once I did that they gave me full time in Porterville. And so I did a three hour commute for about probably four or five months. And then I made a tape for the edge in Fresno which was an alternative. This is 1992. So the edge in Fresno, a classic rock station and an active rock station. And the edge picked me up right away. And what's funny is I ended up doing all three of those stations in a row before I left Fresno for Vegas.

Matt Cundill  8:43  
That's an awful lot of rock in your ears. What did you learn about California highway transportation in that era? Yeah,

Carlota G  8:55  
cows. The cows shits was terrible on that. 99 I mean, you go through one patch outside of Bakersfield. Wow. Wow. Wow. You know, it's stunk. But I mean, it was easy fog. The fog was pretty bad at one point. But, you know, back then it was it was easy. It was just really easy. And you know, when you're young and full of piss and vinegar and energy and all that. I mean, the drive was nothing. I had to do it. It's what

Matt Cundill  9:25  
it took. You tell the tale about a young woman going off to smaller market to go and do radio. That's not an easy move. No,

Carlota G  9:34  
I mean, I look back at it now to go Wow. You know, it was determination. It was passion. It was there was some support. There was a lot of support involved too. But yeah, I can't believe it. I tell that story. I go wow, that was me. Like, I mean, that was that was a lot, but I wanted it. That's what I wanted. I still can't believe they

Matt Cundill  9:55  
once left me in charge of a radio station at the age of 19 years old between the hour As of midnight, and six, why did we find this so weird? It was something we just did. But by today's standards, we look we go, I don't know that I would let my daughter do that.

Carlota G  10:10  
Nobody does it though. That's the thing. It's like, there's no money in a radio station past, you know, four o'clock or five o'clock anymore, which is unfortunate. But yeah, that's how we broke in, though, right? I mean, I started two to six. That was my first real air shift. When the edge hired me. I was two to six. And then immediately I went tended to remember that tended to shift that night, you know, from nights to overnights, there was a four hour shift, tended to, and then I went six to 10. And it was all within six months that I moved up that quickly to doing nights. And boy, did I have a good time doing nights. 22 year old punk kid doing Nights is a blast, nothing like it.

Matt Cundill  10:52  
If you explain that to a 22 year old today, they'd be like, there was no such job. You're making this up? Why couldn't you do that from your bedroom?

Carlota G  11:01  
Your Closet, which is how it's done now, right? But it was a good time.

Matt Cundill  11:05  
Give me your thoughts back to 9293. With so much that was going on in music at the time. If I recall, the LA hairbands were disappearing, the Seattle grunge music was appearing. Give me your memories of the time and maybe talk about some of the stories in the music meetings and discussions about what we should be playing on the air.

Carlota G  11:27  
You know, it was great back then, because there was this. I mean, we're kind of in that stage a little bit now with the genre bending. But at the time, alternative radio, in particular, because rock radio was really hurting, because those bands were getting their asses handed to him. And they didn't want to pick up Nirvana at the time, right or at least go deeper than nirvana. But for me, when I started at the edge, we have this really rich mix of music where it was Nirvana and Pearl Jam and rage against machine and Siouxsie and the Banshees and Depeche Mode and the cure, as to camera Information Society, pet shop, boys, we have this mix that was just incredible. So it was really rich and truly alternative. And I love that. And that's kind of what I'm trying to do now with the station I'm at now. But I'll digress back to 92. It was just a wonderful time in music. And I think a lot is it because the radio station and the people in charge are more open to diversity that they're not open to anymore. Like back then man, we were like it was just like this thing and breathe. You know, just a lot of oxygen in the room. Very colorful. It was wonderful. I feel so lucky that I was a part of of that, you know, that time.

Matt Cundill  12:47  
It was good. And I think it was good up until Napster when things began to change. So in your career throughout the 90s, where did it carry you?

Carlota G  12:59  
Well, so I went I was at the edge. And then I ended up a classic rock which was great for my on air presentation. Because on the edge, I was just like wild, Young and wild and I went to a classic rock station where I got more formed and understood more of the structures of being an on air talent. And then I went back to alternative and then I went to active rock. And when I went to active rock, which was KR ZR in Fresno, my program director there he was amazing because he was just like, you have a blank canvas be go was very much like what Wolfman Jack told me, you know, was what my program director was telling me it was like, be you don't hold back on me go. And I let loose. And because of that, I was able to get the job at extreme radio in Las Vegas, because I was a well structured crazy talent. And it worked. And so I was there for four years. And then I went to comp 92.3, where not only did I hone my on air, but my interview skills, and my programming skills, some program as well now, and now I'm back at extreme radio, because COVID was mean, and so forth. So I ended up back here, and it's a wonderful, full circle. It really is fulfilling and I'm grateful.

Matt Cundill  14:17  
So tell me a little bit about those interviewing skills. And so give me an idea of where you started interviewing because there's always a few uncomfortable ones when we do it, and then how

Carlota G  14:28  
it evolved? Well, when you first interview, you're just it's just you know, that's actually one of the most difficult things for honor talent to do. Because you are dealing with so many different personalities and sometimes they don't want to be there. I guess my first interview was actually at the edge with x with John Doe and Exene from the punk band, but they were so good to me that I can't really remember how much I've loved. But what I've learned over the years, especially when I was at calm was to dive deeper into To them, look at old interviews, read more interviews, watch the videos, whatever, and dive deeper into previous answers, and go deeper than that maybe that Interviewer Did or could. And so I kind of figured out a deeper way to instead of, Hey, how's the tour going? Like, of course, they're gonna, again, the tour sucks, what I want to go home, you know, you know, that's how we all start, you know, Hey, how's the tour going? You know, how was it recording the new album, fucking suck, man, we hated it. And finding the human element of them besides the music element of them, right, just the human being in them as my focus kind of like a rock and roll Barbara Walters almost, you know, like really kind of trying to dig into their personalities beyond, you know, how great of a guitar player they are singer or whatever. Why is calm, special. I was there for 18 years, man and I, you know, it fit my personality to a tee. I learned the interview. I mean, the interviewing thing was, is big. For me, that's a big deal. And so is the programming, understanding how to put it all together, not just musically, but imaging wise and promotional Lee and, and all those things. And I had all that comp, I was the assistant. So it was it was just a wonderful time to I mean, I was, what 30 or whatever, you know, and it just was a really, really rich time in my career. And I've worked for great people, and I work with great people. And so I have a lot of love and gratitude for that time period. It is over now, though. And I am now in a position where I can take all those things and even make it even stronger. And I'm rebuilding a station right now that was on the ventilator a year ago. And we're no longer on the ventilator. We're in the in the hunt every week of this race, you know, every month or every quarter, whatever. And I work with an incredible programmer, operations manager who is insanely intelligent, and he's shares his wealth of knowledge for the good. And I love working under him and learning from him. So I'm growing after a 30 year career, I'm still growing because of where I'm at. And it's amazing.

Matt Cundill  17:18  
And that's why you're here because you caught my attention as somebody who's very forward thinking and is not dining out on what they know what they've learned and what they've seen in the past. I'm looking at, oh, that's new. Okay, I'm stealing that bit. I'm not telling you what I've stolen, by the way.

Carlota G  17:33  
That's okay. I don't mind I think it's great. You know, somebody's stealing from you. It's worth having right.

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  17:39  
transcription of the sound off podcast is powered by the you may also like podcast, the show about people, places and things. Follow the show on your favorite podcast app, or at You may also like dotnet.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  17:55  
This podcast supports podcasting. 2.0. So feel free to send us a boost. If you're listening on a new podcast app, find your new app now at podcasting, two point org slash apps. That's podcasting. Two point org slash apps.

Matt Cundill  18:10  
Tell me about the shittiness of COVID. Dude,

Carlota G  18:13  
I was one of those people who, you know, when it first came out, I was sharing the funny memes and videos laughing and joking. And then Ronan was like, Oh, really, you think this is funny? Hold my beer bitch. And I like lost my job. I fought with unemployment for ever lost everything except for my house, and almost lost my life. Before the vaccine came out, I got COVID. And it didn't seem bad. But then I got the long haul of it. And it put me in the hospital with pneumonia, sepsis, and a blood clot in my lungs. And any of those three will kill you. And I had all three at one time. And then I was bedridden for months after that, because of how difficult to recover that was from that. And then it was still, you know, a lot of struggle, and not knowing if my career was over, you know, because of all of it. And that part was really scary. Because it's all I've ever wanted to be ever since Andy Gibb you know, so it was really hard. And I'm so grateful. You know, my career is over. And that was at one point when I took over extreme thinking, you always think maybe the highlight of your careers past you, especially after 30 years. It's got to be past you, right? Or behind you, I should say, and all of a sudden during the takeover of extreme I remember at one point, I just thought, oh, wow, I'm in the middle of my highlight right now. 30 years later, I'm in the middle of the highlight of my career, and it was awesome, but COVID sucked.

Matt Cundill  19:49  
Yeah, no, I'm glad you mentioned long COVID Because I know a lot of people are skeptical but myself I know what happens when and I knew this before I even got COVID the first time it's like a bye comes into you and starts pulling it all the fuse boxes and the wires inside your body. And you don't know what goes out next. Congratulations, here's tinnitus. It starts to serve you up all these things that you never knew existed. Brutal.

Carlota G  20:15  
Yeah, I never had asthma. I have asthma now. It's terrible. And when you get a cold, it's scary, right? You know, oh, shit, you know, is this gonna put me in the hospital. Tell me about working for Beasley. I work for CAP Thomas. And he is an amazing man. Like I said, he is forward thinking. He's radio he has, you know, he's one of us. And he's also very intelligent in the respect of he knows what he knows. And he will tell you what he knows. And he will share with you what he knows. But he also knows he doesn't know what he doesn't know. And he's okay with that. He's secure with that. And he listens, and he takes in whatever I have to say about something that from my world that, you know, he's never really been a part of, you know, he respects it, and he listens. And he lets it you know, lets me be and I have a lot of freedom. And he gives me that, and I can't tell you how much I respect that man. And how much I respect, you know, what he's given me and where he's been and where and where he's going. And I'm like, Dude, do I need to learn how they see to stick around with this dude, because all or whatever I need to learn to keep working for him. Because it's magical. I'm very happy here at Beasley you know, Corporation wise. I mean, they're corporate like anybody else. And so there's good and bad, but I focus on the good. And that has kept Thomas.

Matt Cundill  21:45  
Yeah, I've had a chance to meet Kat a couple times at Radio conferences. And yeah, I perk up every single time, pull out the pen and start taking some notes.

Carlota G  21:55  
Yeah, he's great. My office is right next to us now. And it makes me happy. This is just like I right next to the wealth of knowledge, you know. So help me out.

Matt Cundill  22:05  
Because I don't see a lot of new rock stations. And by that, I mean, I don't see a lot of, you know, mainstream rock stations firing up across Canada, not as many in the US as well. But if you're gonna put one on the air, what do I need to know? Because I've been out of rock radio now for 10 years?

Carlota G  22:23  
Well, I'm at a hybrid alternative station right now. It's what we are. We take the best of both. And that might be the answer. Yeah. I think that is the answer. Because alternative itself all by itself, is basically how they see. And it doesn't match the library of alternative, right, it doesn't really know a con doesn't really match up with Pearl Jam, I'm sorry, it just doesn't for me, it's a mess. So for me, I take the Pearl Jam and the Green Day and the gold's of alternative to the killers in the Imagine Dragons and all that, and kind of hybrid it in with the Papa roaches and Linkin Park, obviously, and those things. And with the newer music, I go to the falling in reverse to we're playing Hardy right now. I think the point in St. Louis, I think they're a fantastic radio station, doing it correctly. And I love that model that they're doing. That reminds me of the alternative model that I had back in the day when I first started, but putting the rock to it, because you know, listeners are not like I only listened to you know, they they liked that mix up. So with a rock station, if you were to give me a rock station right now. I mean, I wouldn't be playing cage the elephant necessarily. But I would be playing a lot of really cool stuff. And I would be looking at the alternative charts. And I would do what I'm doing now, I would just put some Ozzy and stuff in there. I hate to say this, but Nickelback and creed, you know, they gave up on their pots of gold over there. And sorry, but creed and Nickelback are making a huge comeback. And I would put that in the mix.

Matt Cundill  24:07  
Did you see the Netflix documentary on Nickelback?

Carlota G  24:11  
I did. Yeah, and those guys are great. Chad is I remember I interviewed Chad one time and I told him I said you know these dudes are trying to like raise money in England and keep you guys out there raising money the band Nickelback and he was like, oh shit, let me give them some money. You know, he like had such a great humor about it. And he's such a good dude. And they really are great guys. And they do make hits. I think that period of the hate is over and we've all kind of grown out of it. And creed to you go back to listening to it on. Yeah, that was a great song. We were just oversaturated with all of it at one point, but Limp biskit Even for us let Miss get you know they had a lot of hate there for a while. Now. You see their shows and it's like, why wouldn't you play Limp Bizkit? Look at all these people yeah Well, I wanted

Matt Cundill  25:00  
to bring you back to that period, you know, 1999 when you would put a record like that on the radio, and then you get the phone calls and the push back and why are you playing this? And what's this rap doing with my rock music and you know the chocolate in the peanut butter and Reese's Pieces of all that? That's because

Carlota G  25:17  
Reese's Pieces is a popular candy. That's why I mean, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the best chocolate candy in the world. Right? So

Matt Cundill  25:27  
you don't have those calls or discussions today. Just play the song.

Carlota G  25:32  
I mean, look, we're playing Eminem, we're playing Limp biskit And back in the day 99. That wasn't a question about when biscuit they were popular on extreme radio. And we played Eminem, back then to outside of Detroit. We were one of the first radio stations to play Eminem. Because extreme radio wasn't necessarily a format, especially then. But as much as it was an attitude. Right and we still kind of fly by that. You know, but when people say to me today, why are you playing Limp Bizkit? I say because we grew up we're over being mad at them about something. Look at the shows they sell out. Look at how many people love Limp Bizkit. It's no longer hip to just be anti Limp Bizkit. Let's grow up. You know, the song and

Matt Cundill  26:18  
the bands have heritage in the market and on the radio station. So we're past it now. Thank you.com

Carlota G  26:22  
It's great songs, man. From

Matt Cundill  26:25  
the social media side of things. Like one of the things I just love that you do on Instagram, and that's you take mail and, and you deal with the mail on Instagram.

Carlota G  26:35  
I loved your Carlota I started it because I was always given advice to people in my life, just in my personal life. People call me up on the phone, my friends. And I'm over there giving them the real advice or whatever. And somebody finally said, you know, you really should just do something with this. And so I tested it when I was at comp and it went over really well. And I thought you know, I'm gonna make this something because it's funny. It's real. It's really kind of anti Delilah, obviously. But it's not politically correct. And I'm having fun with it. So yeah, I love taking the mail. I love the questions. I don't care what kind of questions they are all answer.

Matt Cundill  27:17  
Is radio and Vegas different because it's Vegas.

Carlota G  27:19  
Yeah, I mean, it used to be really different. Now. It's like, we have this incredibly busy city with so much going on that a lot of locals can't go do. We can't go do it. It's too expensive. Even if I gave you free tickets to blink 182 You're still gonna pay $150 and dinner and food and $100 to park. So we are have, you know, the mindset that locals can't really go do any of the things on the strip, like we just were kind of asked out on that. Now we didn't used to be, but we are now it's too much. It's great for the city. It's great for the growth of the city. And if you have a house here, that's really great. Which I do, so that's good. But the Las Vegas has become an animal, and we're really not involved in it anymore. Unless you work in unless you're on the strip, you know, like a casino worker or something of that nature.

Matt Cundill  28:16  
What about the arrival of the sports teams?

Carlota G  28:19  
Wonderful, wonderful. Your hockey fan yet? I am. I wasn't before obviously, I never really understood hockey. But I went. I had season tickets the first year. And I enjoy the game. I think it's actually the best sport as far as what they're actually doing. It's an amazing sport. They're amazing athletes. So I'm a big, obviously big VgK fan. Because I've never I never had a hockey team before that. I am a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan and I have the raiders in my backyard now. So I am now the enemy when it comes to all that but Oh, well. I have fun with it. But yeah, I love that the sports is here. I'm looking forward to the A's. I'm an Angels fan, but they suck really bad and they disappoint the way they run their clubs. So I don't know if I'm going to switch allegiances there. It's hard for me to think that I would but I mean, I'm excited for the A's excited for the aces. You know, I'm not a big basketball fan. So I'm not gonna I don't run around with ASA stuff. But I think sports for this city has been incredible. And especially since we were told for so long that there's no way we would ever be able to support teams, and that it would never fly in Las Vegas. And now we're just like the sports capital, especially with f1 which we hate. What was going on there.

Matt Cundill  29:44  
That strange weekend you guys had?

Carlota G  29:46  
Yeah, every team that's coming to Las Vegas has had a lot of community outreach, the Raiders, obviously VgK. The A's even, you know, there's a community outreach, and they involve us and because we're all part of Have a community and that's great. f1 basically was like fu Vegas. And they cause a lot of traffic issues. They didn't care. A lot of businesses got hurt on that track area. And they just they just fu that's what we call it.

Matt Cundill  30:13  
So I'm originally from Montreal, which is an f1. Stop. And same attitude for years.

Carlota G  30:22  
I'm not down with it. We hope it goes away after it's like three year. I guess that's when they might have it. And hopefully they don't.

Matt Cundill  30:29  
I kept a little spot in my heart for it, because there was some bartenders and some restaurants that basically would say we make our year on this weekend. But you're in Vegas, you can replace that weekend with any other weekend.

Carlota G  30:39  
Yeah, that night. The race itself is cool. I mean, it is it's cool looking. But what it costs and what it does to the community is awful. How

Matt Cundill  30:54  
did you not become a hockey fan in Los Angeles with Wayne Gretzky there in the early 90s? Because

Carlota G  30:59  
I was impressed now. There we go. Thank you. And I was in the middle of 49, or Raider country, and baseball too. But I was such a huge football fan.

Matt Cundill  31:10  
Had you not become a 40 Niners fan and you want to be a chiefs fan?

Carlota G  31:13  
That's a great question. Because I wasn't, I was a football fan. But I have a team because of us from Southern California. And I wasn't going to root for the Raiders. And my family was a baseball family. My godfather pitched for the Yankees. So I grew up on baseball, and I grew up on the angels because we live right next to Anaheim stadium. So football wasn't in my world as far as you know, influence from my family. So I taught myself the game and actually became a fan of the saints because I liked their colors. I'm an eight year old girl, I don't know. And so I was a Saints fan forever. But they were horrible. And there was no passion, there was no connection. And so when I was in Fresno, and I hated John Elway I was the other thing, I just hated him. So my friend, though, was a big diehard chiefs fan. And she's this diehard cheese fan in the middle of all these 49 or Raider fans, right? And she was just chiefs. And I was like, I love this. This chick is just outside the box doesn't care what anybody thinks, which is way my style. And then I became friends with one of the receivers by the name of Stefan page. And so by way of rooting for him, and then like yeah, like you, Sister, let's party. Let's go, you know, depth to the Broncos. I became a chiefs fan.

Matt Cundill  32:32  
I'm a Bills fan, but it all happens by accident, right? Yeah,

Carlota G  32:36  
that's tough man. sit around

Matt Cundill  32:39  
and wait for our annual game against the chiefs. And then wonder what happens until next year. And

Carlota G  32:44  
you know, I love your quarterback if I didn't have mahomes I would want Josh Allen. So I mean, I love your quarterback and I I feel for you guys, because we do we beat you. And we beat you epically. Not in a way of like, we stomp you we don't it's epic, these epic games that are like, I mean, you guys are a great team. And I mean, I feel for you, baby this year. Anything's possible. I mean, we're gonna be tough this year candle. I don't know if you saw the receiving corps, but our biggest weakness has been strengthened. So I'm not saying we're gonna three pay, but that's gonna be tough to beat us.

Matt Cundill  33:23  
Give me some more because you've been on the beach for one point, and you've had adversity. And a number of times where you thought the radio thing is over. give some advice to somebody who's listening to this right now, who wants to get to that position, which you're in which is energized, engaged and excited about radio? Well,

Carlota G  33:43  
that's the key right there. From one to be engaged and excited about radio, and to stop having the doomsday thought process with it. I think radios in a place where it could flip back. Because a lot of the corporate radio stations, corporate companies are losing and they're gonna have to sell off. I'm not saying I heard I think I heard is doing my heart. But everybody's trying to be I heart. Let my heart be I heart. Look at the radio companies that are winning. They're not on the NASDAQ. They're not trying to be iHeart. They are Hubbard. They are you know, small family owned, you know, Mom and Pop type radio companies that are focused on doing radio and doing radio the way radio should be done. And a lot more that I believe is gonna happen. And if you have that, and you put the right people in the right seats, doing the right things. I mean, everybody wants to play music from the 90s. Well, guess what radio needs a program like it's the 90s as well. That's people engagement with the right soundtrack, the right personalities, the right soundtrack, engagement and passion in the community. Instead of this nonsense, corporate voice track, who cares AI shit, none of that is going to work. I think radio can really truly make a big comeback. It's the only three things left, everything else is paying. Even your HBO subscription wants you to pay more to not have commercials. And you got to pay to have commercials. Even with that, so radio is free. And yeah, there's commercials, but everybody else has them to get back to the basics, get back to community, get back to engagement, get back to the personality with a killer soundtrack. And I think it's a winner, we can come back, like we are showing,

Matt Cundill  35:30  
I love that you mentioned that I had a conversation with somebody who was in finance worked at a big company called Deloitte. And I said, How do entertainment companies make a go of this? Because they want results every quarter. And it takes three years to build an audience properly. And she looked at me and just said, Don't go public. This is not for you know, because

Carlota G  35:55  
when you stop answering to the community, because you're too busy answering to the shareholders, you're done. And that's what happened with radio. And let me tell you a story about extreme radio. I was on the ventilator. In this time last year, I mean, literally to the date, because I took over July 28. This time last year, exactly. This radio station was 25th in the market. They were piping in shows from Detroit and wherever else. And it wasn't resonating, obviously with Las Vegas. But music was not, you know, together was a lot of talk from people who didn't understand the city at all. And we came on and we brought the music back. And the personality back, which for the most part was me because I've been here for 30 years, or 25 years, whatever. And within a week, we jumped into the top five, and Matt, we've never left the top five. This entire year, we have been top in the ratings bouncing around in the top five, maybe six in some things. I mean, literally, it's been dramatic. And that's because we have the right people doing the right things to the best of our ability with the tools that we have. And radio can do that. It can be a substantial being is a viable thing in our lives again, it really can't be half faith. That's my advice. Have faith.

Matt Cundill  37:21  
I'm glad you mentioned Bible we did have an executive in Canada say that radio was no longer viable. So Cloud, you use that word? Motion? It is complete ship. Yeah, absolutely. It look,

Carlota G  37:34  
you can buy radio station right now for a million dollars that was 30,000,010 years ago. So it's a viable investment. Because that's why low Well, low is now by low but the right people in we've got passion, we've got knowledge, who want to do radio the way radio should be done, and you're gonna win in your community, you're gonna win. What

Matt Cundill  37:54  
do you think the next two years of extreme radio is going to be? Like? I

Carlota G  37:58  
think it's going to be great. I think we're gonna continue to do what we're doing and strengthen and get much stronger. A lot of people still don't even know we're here. And we're the top five and they still go away extreme radio. Are you kidding me? You know, like, so we still have room to grow like a lot, actually. So we're going to be growing baby because if you're not growing, you're dying. Who ain't planning on dying?

Matt Cundill  38:19  
Going to repatriate all those people who might have veered away from radio?

Carlota G  38:23  
Oh, yeah. I've had a lot of people tell me they turned off Spotify and came back because Spotify is charging more. And you get commercial. And it's like my so just get it for free. Carlota

Matt Cundill  38:34  
thanks so much for being on the podcast taking the time and doing this and continued success. We love great radio stories.

Carlota G  38:40  
Thank you, babe. I appreciate you

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  38:42  
The Sound off podcast is written and hosted by Matt Cundill. Produced by Evan Surminski, edited by Taylor McLean, social media by Aiden Glassey, another great creation from the sound off media company, there's always more at sound off podcast.com