Corey Dylan: Big on Radio, Food, Drink and Travel

Tara Sands (Voiceover) 00:00:00
The sound off podcast. The podcast about broadcast with Matt Cundill starts now.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:00:10
This week, I'm bringing back my good friend Corey Dylan. In the seven years that we've been doing this show, corey's episode remains one of the top ten most downloaded. We talked a lot in that episode about her resilience in finding work. She spent two and a half years out of work before landing a job in Atlanta. She's since moved on to 100.7 Big FM in San Diego, where she's doing mornings. Today, though, we're going to discuss being restructured and what to do in the in between time. Corey's going to look back on her period being out of work and talk about where the radio business is going. Now, I recently got back from two months in Spain, where Corey was commenting on a lot of my Instagram food posts, and she and I just love talking about food, drink, and travel, so we're going to talk about that too. And now Corey Dylan joins me from her awesome kitchen in San Diego. How are you? And when was the last time we saw each other?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:01:03
Well, like this, I think it was four years ago because I had just started a new job in Atlanta, and I've already been living in San Diego, California for over two years, which it blows my mind. Time goes fast when you're having fun.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:01:18
I think we got together very briefly on the Internet, specifically YouTube. I don't think I put it into the podcast stream, but we just had a chat just to catch up.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:01:27
Okay. Like I said, it's been a blur the last several years of my life for everybody, I think, actually, yeah, you.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:01:35
Were talking to me right when you were starting in Atlanta, and you spoke from you had to find refuge somewhere in the new condo.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:01:43
Well, apartment. Apartment. And there is a big difference. It was interesting, to say the least. I don't even remember why I couldn't find an Internet connection, but I had to go down to the common space, and I think there was some guy down there, and I was like, Hi, just super exhausted, sleeping on an air mattress. How are you doing?

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:02:02
So the Atlanta experience, if I recall correctly, went for a little bit. You were doing Mornings, and then you got moved to middays, and then the station, I think, disappeared altogether and came back as something different.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:02:12
Well, they rebranded. Yeah, they rebranded. I mean, after 30 some years as Kicks 101 on 1.5, they rebranded to New Country 115. So it was still country music. It was just new country.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:02:27
And then you left Atlanta?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:02:28
I did. Was invited to leave Atlanta. I was invited to come to San Diego. I got a call the day after the presidential election in the midst of a global pandemic from somebody that I used to work in the same building with in Seattle for CBS Radio, which, as we know, after 100 years doesn't exist anymore. And he said, well, listen, we've got four radio stations in San Diego, and we also have a digital media company. And we flipped this station and acquired this station, actually, right before the Pandemic. And then, of course, when the Pandemic hit, they decided now is probably not a great time to hire, as most people came to that same conclusion. And so they invited me out for Thanksgiving, the American Thanksgiving, which was at the end of November, and my sisters lived here for, at the time, like, 25 years. I said, well, you know, I bet she'd love to see me for Thanksgiving. And he said, I bet you're right. And they flew me out. And the day after Thanksgiving, they offered me the gig. And less than a month later, I had packed up all my stuff on a one way ticket out of Atlanta, Georgia and landed in San Diego, California. And I've been here ever since. Happily.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:03:41
You were the first hire at the station.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:03:44
I was the first hire at the station. I mean, my program director, Garrett Michaels, is also doing afternoons, and he is also the program director of the legendary 40 year run 91 X and does a Sunday show called Resurrection Sundays on 91 X, an alt station. And it's just presumably going to be me and him from here on out. They don't have any intention on putting a midday jock on. And by the way, middays is our number one day part, and then we have our production director, who also does a Sunday yacht rock show, and that's immensely popular, too. And it's just kind of the three of us on this little boat and streaming right along.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:04:31
Full disclosure, you just got up from a nap. I only know that actually because you told me that. How does the morning routine wear and tear on you?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:04:41
It's hard. And, I mean, the last month was just a little different. I had two four day work weeks because I took a couple of Gimme days to just go check out Arizona. I hadn't been to Arizona in a very long time, so I went for spring training for the San Diego Padres and did a little bit of hiking. And then when I got back, I found out an uncle had passed away. So I traveled to Ohio for the funeral, and then on the way back from the funeral, the day afterwards, one day back on the job, and I found out I had COVID for the first time, and it was also daylight saving time. So I suppose I'm recovering sort of a lot from much of that, but other than that, I'm fine.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:05:27
I thought they didn't have daylight saving in Arizona. I thought that was the one place where everybody was.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:05:32
They don't, so everybody catches up with them for a little while, even though a lot of these I don't even know if the laws have passed. Every year there's like somebody's putting up another law saying we're going to get rid of it. It's bad for people, but we still have it, at least San Diego and most other states, I think there are only, I don't know, maybe two or three states that don't celebrate daylight saving time. But I don't know. I've done mornings off and on, mostly on, for over 2025 years now, and it's different everywhere. And every time I've done it, I think I don't know if it's getting older because unlike most people that get older, I just want more sleep. But I think it's also that it's just me on this job. And I think when you have other people that are expecting to see you in the morning and that are waiting on you and that, you know, are counting on you, it's a little bit different. I don't know, it's somehow easier than I guess I'm not very good at self motivating or something like that, because I roll out of bed these days and roll down the five, as we call it here, and show up to work, and by the time I'm there, I'm great and showered and everything like that. But it is just a challenge to get up before dawn. I think it always will be.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:06:51
You know, you're one of the most downloaded in this podcast series that we've been doing since 2015.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:06:57
And I kept my clothes on and everything, so that's exciting.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:07:02
Yeah. I mean, you went most of 2017, you didn't have any work. You just mentioned Arizona, so all this is coming back to me. I know you did a little bit of work with the Arizona Coyotes at some point. Some of that was obviously done remotely and some of it but you had a great relationship with them, so you're not foreign to Arizona at all. But I think a lot of people listened to the episode because they were like, Well, I'm out of work, but here's Corey Dylan, who spent a long time out of work but found things to do.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:07:30
Two years. Two years and seven months out of work. And I worked for the Red Sox in the meantime. And I did some work for the Home Shopping Network, which was based in Tampa Bay. St. Pete, actually. I still am sort of sharing those lessons about unemployment because the landscape continues to change. I mean, I was out and thought, man, have I been blacklisted? Is it my age? What is it? I've got this successful track record and my agents at the time were telling me that they were looking for somebody that could get attention. And I'm like, well, what are you talking about? I'm working for the Red Sox and I'm working for HSN, which is a national channel. I mean, both of those combined have a bigger footprint than any radio station I've ever worked for. But again, the landscape has changed and fewer and fewer jobs are now available. But in this long, seemingly never ending search for another gig in radio I remember seeing a George Clooney quote, and I remember saying something very similar to my agent. I had an interview in Seattle, my hometown, with a guy, and I asked him, what are you looking for? And he said, Well, I want to hire a man. I was like, okay. And I don't know if it was because it was a rock station, which I had a history with one of the rock stations in Seattle, KZ okay, who knows? But I came out of that interview and talked to my agent, and I said, well, I thought my track record would speak for itself. I thought they just had to like me. And the George Clooney quote is, I had to stop going to auditions thinking, oh, gosh, I hope they like me. And I had to go in thinking I was a solution to their problem. And that sort of reframed the way I thought about what I was there to do. And then the other interview, it was kind of like a behind the Actors Studio with Brian Cranston from Breaking Bad, among other shows and movies. And he said he was talking about interviews and either getting the job or not getting the job. And if you don't get the job, it wasn't meant to be your job. He said, it's very subtle, but there is a difference. He said, you're not there to get a job. You're there to do a job. So that interview is essentially an audition. No matter what industry I think that you're in, you have to demonstrate that you can do the job if you're an on air talent or whatever it is that you do. You have to demonstrate your knowledge and your skill. So I don't know. Those two things really clicked for me. And then my niece had also shared an article with me that's behind a paywall from the Wall Street Journal, but it was called The Secrets of Resilience. And it talked about everyone from Henry Ford to Oprah Winfrey and how many times they were fired and how many failures they had. And I'm always happy to share that article with anybody that asks me for it because my niece sent it to me. And so I have the PDF of it. I can send it to you, too, but everybody kind of goes through it. And with a changing landscape, you really have to be the solution to their problem. And it just so happened I got lucky that somebody that I worked with over 20 years ago remembered me and knew that I was coming to the end of my contract. And Cumulus was good enough to let me out of my contract just a wee bit early so that I could take this opportunity to be closer to family and something I'm very grateful for because I'm very happy here.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:11:00
So we had a very large episode before the pandemic. We had a quick little YouTube discussion during the pandemic, and here we are on the other side of the pandemic. And congratulations. I think you're one of the very last to get COVID. What was that experience like?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:11:15
I know I was very lucky. I mean, I was vaccinated and boosted and even among my family members, a cousin got it at the funeral. One of my sisters got it at the funeral. My parents both got it and they're elderly. And my uncle also got it, and he's going to be 90 in a couple of months. I got the least of the symptoms. I just felt a little rundown and just kind of had a head cold, which I'm still kind of getting over a little bit, but for me it wasn't bad. So, like I said, I'm very lucky and happy to be here.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:11:51
I got eliminated from the Never Club over Christmas with so many people around the Christmas table. I lost, I think, the first couple weeks of January altogether in a fog and then never really got my breath back. And, yeah, the next thing you know, it's February. But I'm back. No, I'm feeling good now. Feeling good now. But January was not a happy time.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:12:18
But it's so true. It hits everybody differently and you don't know until you know. Right? And all the different strains.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:12:27
Actually, I want to touch on something that we didn't talk about in the first episode, and you brought it up here and that's Home Shopping Network and your ability to get behind the camera and really solve a problem. And here was a company that had some piece of technology and you came out in $42,000 of it, just began to move, and you solved their problem. So is that the moment when you knew you were adept in front of a camera, or had you always known?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:12:59
I've always been sort of I mean, I think a lot of us that get into radio are like this. It's kind of acting, right? I mean, voiceover. I've done a lot of voiceover over the years. You mentioned the Arizona Coyotes. My friend that worked there, bless his heart, for inviting me to audition and give me some voiceover work for the Coyotes. But he's now moved on to the Ottawa Senators. I did a little bit for them. I think it was just for one season, not this season. I'm like, I haven't heard from him in a while. Part of it is desperation, to be honest with you. I mean, throwing everything against the wall to see what would stick. And with the Home Shopping Network, I had another friend that worked there. I mean, you really need to learn. Lean on your friends and learn from them too. I mean, I did learn from my friend Carrie. She's great. She still does stuff for the Home Shopping Network and she would just kind of give me some pointers about how to sell. And that is one good thing that I think I brought back with me to Radio when we do endorsements, how to sell something for them, it's all about the benefits and the features. What does that mean to the person watching? Doesn't mean anything. And what I was selling was smart locks. When they asked me, are you really good with technology? I was like, yes, totally. And as you and I both know, just even trying to set up this video thing, it's a little off, but here we go.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:14:22
During the pandemic, another thing that was really great was you did stuff and here you were, you're brave and sticking your face in front of the YouTube and, well, it's 05:00 where I am, and I'm going to mix a drink and you're all going to watch me.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:14:38
Yeah, well, I mean, we were all doing happy hours, right? And everybody was just kind of drinking and shooting the shit, just talking. And for me, what I started to do because I was bored, I was home alone in my apartment. I was working out of my apartment. I was tracking everything because we did not have the ability to go live without somebody back in the studio. And the morning show at the time was the only one that was doing anything live. And I was bored. I was worried about that connection with the audience. And I thought, well, I mean, social media, we can go live now. So I started doing Facebook lives. I started reaching out to all the celebs or comedians or TV reality show hosts and characters that I had come across in my years in Tampa Bay and asking them, hey, you want to do this happy hour thing with me? And most of them said yes. So I just started having guests on. And then when that really honestly got to be too big of a pain in the butt because some people were on board and some people just kind of dragged me along and it took a lot of preparation to do that. I sort of morphed into making cocktails that I'd never had before, like pre prohibition, prohibition cocktails. And thank God prohibition hit right after the last global pandemic. Thank God there wasn't prohibition. But yeah, it just kind of took off. And so I started doing it again. I stopped doing it about six months after I moved to San Diego because I thought, oh, the pandemic is totally over. But then we saw another wave and it didn't let up. So I thought, well, let me do this again. And now I'm in the process of trying to monetize it very slowly. But honestly, it was part that connection that I wanted to maintain with the audience, but it was also trying to maintain being on my feet, being able to do live radio and live TV, because I think I did one maybe a few lives with HSN because with the Pandemic, they couldn't have anybody come to their studio. And my function with them is as an on air guest and it's pretty sporadic that I'm ever on. But I did have the opportunity after I'd moved away, they said, well, it's not going to work out anymore, even though I was only in Atlanta. But with the Pandemic, they started skyping people in doing live skype. So that presented an opportunity for me to continue to work with them. But now they've brought everybody back finally to the studio as of a few months ago. So maybe it'll happen again, maybe it won't, but you just kind of roll with the punches, right, and just do what you have to do in just a second.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:17:25
More with Corey as we discuss the pandemic making cocktails, how AI will affect voiceover and radio. There's more, including additional advice on looking for work, Spanish food recipes, and a few drink recipes from Corey.

Tara Sands (Voiceover) 00:17:40
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Matt Cundill (Host) 00:18:09
So a really cool YouTube channel came out of the pandemic for you with all these nice cocktails that I don't know how to make a good cocktail. Like a classic margarita you've got posted up there, but a Manhattan I've tried and failed many times.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:18:27
Oh, really?

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:18:28
Yeah. I don't make a great one, right? Because I have one and it's okay. And then the second one is generally a little bit better. And then the third one, you know what happens at the third cocktail? You shouldn't get involved with it and you're probably not going to dinner at that point, right? What makes a good cocktail?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:18:47
I do believe it really is the ingredients and the recipe. I mean, not all recipes are the same. And some of these prohibition or pre prohibition or post prohibition cocktails that you might find in like the Savoy Cocktail book from the Savoy Hotel in London, the book was published in 1930 and it's sort of an interesting story. And that's what I like about all these different cocktails, is the history behind them. I mean, what makes a good cocktail if they can make a good cocktail out of bathtub gin. They were making gin in their bathtubs. The reason why all these cocktails sprung up is because the gin wasn't very good. It was disguised with a sweetener or citrus, usually. But I think if you use either very good ingredients and why wouldn't you? I always say it's your house. You can go to a bar and spend twice as much for lesser ingredients, a lesser quality bourbon or whatever the case might be. Why would you why wouldn't you splurge on yourself? Gosh darn it. Find one cocktail that you really like and get really good at making it. And so when people come over to your house, they know they're going to get a really good Harvey Wallbanger or whatever the case might be. Not my favorite, by the way.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:20:00
The best Bloody Mary I've ever had was made with real tomatoes in the fall outside of Lambeau Field at 930 in the morning before a packers game.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:20:08
Really? OOH, that does sound good. I mean, as cold as it would be, I don't know that I'd be in the mood for an icy beverage. But you do you, Matt.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:20:18
It was fall.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:20:19
You do you. Oh, okay.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:20:21
Yeah, it's tomato harvesting season.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:20:24
Yeah, well, those fresh, even if you're making a tomato soup or whatever. A friend of mine brought me a basket of tomatoes one time, and I made the best tomato soup I've ever had in my life. I think it was a gazpacho or something, but there's a difference, right? So why wouldn't it be the same with cocktails?

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:20:41
Do you still have a food blog?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:20:42
I don't. Because I needed to have a life again, and that is the honest to God truth to make anything like Rachel Ray does in 30 minutes, because I try to keep both shows, or I did at the time, to 30 minutes. And I know some YouTube entertainment agent apparently told some other attorney that asked him to watch it. He just said my cocktail shows were too long, so I've tried to condense them down to, like, ten minutes, but the food shows were like a half hour long. And it was fun at the time and at a time where you really did have a captive audience because everybody was turning to the internet for entertainment, right? That was the only way we had to connect with one another, really, face to face. So I don't do it anymore. I've started a bunch of things, and I'm sometimes terrible at finishing them, but this cocktail show is coming around again, so I really only take like, a week off when I have to, I don't know, travel for whatever, a funeral or whatever.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:21:47
This is why I love you. Food, travel, and drink. I mean, who doesn't love somebody who loves food, travel, and drink?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:21:54
You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. I've dated some guys that don't travel at all. Like, they don't get on a plane, so they weren't worried about COVID at all. I don't know. There are people out there. I know. You just got back from Spain, right? Like, you were there for like a month, weren't you? Or two.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:22:13
Two months.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:22:14
How did you do that? See, that's the dream, right? To be able to do whatever we do from anywhere.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:22:20
The only thing I did not do is record podcast episodes, okay? I recorded them all in advance. I just feel that I'm in it. I really like recording episodes either with somebody in the room or in my studio. I did do a live show from Spain. That was fine. I hosted my other podcast, the podcast Super Friends. That was absolutely no problem. But I think when I'm interviewing, I really like to be in this particular spot or in the same room as the person to be conducting that interview. It's a creator thing. I'm in a one bedroom apartment, or I'm in a studio apartment, really, in Spain, and it's noisy outside, and Spain is a very noisy country, and somebody comes along singing every half hour and.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:23:09
Siestas and whatnot. I know if Spain is the best food I've ever had traveling in my life. And from the pictures that you posted online, I get the impression you might think the same. I mean, the food looked incredible.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:23:21
They do food very differently. There's very few ingredients that go into anything. So we ordered a goat and they just put salt on it. We ordered lamb, and it was just salt, but it tasted delicious. And you were talking about gaspacho, and it's not quite gaspacho season there, but there's something else called samarejo, and I couldn't wait to have a cold soup. They don't like it when you call those soups, by the way.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:23:47
Why? What do we call them?

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:23:48
They're not soups. If you call it a soup, they look at you funny. It's what it is. It's gaspacho. It's a little more pasty, but again, it's fantastic. And I've got a recipe that I'll share in the show notes of this episode as well, to make samarejo, which is the Southern Spanish the andalusian version of a gaspacho, which is great if you live in one of those hot states in the US. Like you do.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:24:11
Yeah, well, I mean, the weather has been a little funny lately, but I still do like to cook, but I just don't do it for the cameras anymore, at least right now. I mean, it was fun, but again, the amount of preparation to have everything sir Latab or misenplas, as they say, everything prepared and ready to go. Basically the menu or the recipe almost memorized. It was a challenge. It was a challenge I was up for every week. But I wanted to have a life again and enjoy it and not have to do hair and makeup and be on.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:24:50
Yeah. I should point out that I did do two months away. I'm actually running from winter, given where I live in Canada. You don't have that problem. But I do want to ask you still, what is better? Who has the better weather? Is it San Diego or Tampa?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:25:04
Well, it depends on the season. I mean, we've been in a three plus year drought in San Diego, something they never have a problem with in Florida. Right. Because the rainy season is from June through November or middle of November or beginning of November, and it's like white out downpours. I mean, it's hurricane season, but here, I swear to you, in the two years I first lived here, it probably rained while I was here, and I saw it maybe ten times, and I'm being generous, but now the snow pack is like over 700 inches. It's insane. We've had so much precip and rain and snow, but it's much more moderate. I don't have to take three showers a day like I do in the summertime. And the winters in Florida are incredibly beautiful, but I wouldn't like to get in the water until it was May and 80 degrees. But here the water is very cold. The Pacific Ocean? I don't know. I'm trying to think if I've ever been in the Pacific Ocean, maybe in Mexico. And I'm going to Mexico on a Disney cruise. That's the one good thing about living on each coast in Florida and Southern California, I get each Disney. So very exciting. But yeah, it's hard. Yeah, it's station related. Yeah. Even though I'm not a parent, I'm going with a couple of other gals in radio, both coming from Orlando. I put it out there to the universe. I said, Well, I'm going on this cruise. I really was fishing to see if anybody else from the West Coast was going on this Disney cruise. So I had a friend and they sort of volunteered to go with me. And I said, you know what? Yeah, they're out of work right now, essentially from full time radio. So I thought, yeah, sure, come on, let's go. It's a little girlfriend's cruise, but they have plenty of things I hear for, like, single moms and dads. And the cruises themselves are very nice. I mean, Disney does everything first class, right? So I'm excited.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:27:04
Going to ask for the hot takes now. And it's about the same subject matter, and it's going to be about AI. But we'll start with voiceover, because voiceover has been so much a part of your career, especially in the last decade, and now it's evolved into this particular realm. How do you look at it? How do you cope with it? And what do you think about it?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:27:26
It is interesting sort of how polarizing it's become already with even the Elon Musk of the world saying, we need to back off a little bit. That's a little terrifying because you're kind of like, what do they know that we don't know? I mean, from what we know, that it's going to take over tasks for what did I read? More than 80% of the jobs that exist today. So it's like, what are we going to do? That's weird. Are we going to evolve ourselves out of existence? And with certain jobs like radio and voiceover, that's particularly hard because we know that they can also mimic. Somebody told me the other day, they're like, I would stop talking around Alexa and Siri, and I'm like. You can't. How can I stop talking? I mean, how you know I can't stop talking? I've kissed the blowny stone, for crying out loud. I don't know. The little people like me, we're just kind of hanging on for dear life to the industry that we know right now, right, while certain radio companies not mine, because we're small, we're local, and we're successful as a small local company. So I don't know, I hope it doesn't come from my job anytime soon. But if it's not that, it could be something else. It could be somebody younger. I mean, that's what's happened in the past and that's what happens to a lot of us, right? So, I don't know, I suppose it's sort of a wait and see and be all that you can be and try to maybe use it to your benefit if you can figure something out. Again, be the solution to whatever the problem is, even if you don't have, I don't know, the wherewithal, maybe the ignorance that we have with technology or somebody like me, I should say, we might come up with a solution to our own problem. I mean, just screaming at it with fist rays like get off my lawn isn't going to work.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:29:24
I'm not nearly as alarmed about it in radio as I am for voiceover. I'm worried that somebody will go and take my voiceover work and then compile it all into my voice and then reuse it for different commercials.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:29:37
Right.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:29:38
That's my fear.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:29:40
Well, I mean, it's already been done. I mean, the woman what is her name? I can't remember what her name is. I think it's Susan. I'd have to look it up. But the gal that voiced the original Siri, right. Was it, siri?

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:29:54
No, I think it's TikTok and it's.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:29:57
Bev standing no, I'm talking about way back.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:30:02
The woman no, you're right. The original, siri. And you're right. Susan.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:30:05
Susan something. I'd have to look on my Twitter.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:30:10
Susan Bennett.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:30:11
Yes, thank you. I interviewed her back in the day, and though she didn't say I think she has come out to say now that she voiced God knows how many words and how many hours, thousands of hours probably. And what they did with her voice was essentially what AI is doing with voices now. I mean, this technology has been around for a little while and it's been used and she was paid what, like I think rumor has it like 20 something thousand dollars.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:30:43
I think the danger of that is you get $20,000, but then that's your voice and that's what you're known for. And then McDonald's comes along and is not going to give you another job because you're already on every phone and we don't need that.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:30:56
Right. Your voice is everywhere. So I don't know. I don't even know that she understood the full scope of that job and what it meant because we didn't have smart devices at the time. She was really kind of the first one. I mean, Randy Thomas, too, with the ABCD EFG. So it is kind of terrifying, but I don't know what I can do about it other than sort of embrace it, maybe see how I can use it. Or maybe we all copyright our voices. I don't know. Maybe that's the next step. We ensure our legs, our voices, our vocal cords. I don't know.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:31:37
If another radio station in the market started to bring in radio AI versions of personalities, I'd be totally fine with it because my station still has Corey in the morning. What do you mean you're still on the radio? You're the personality. I don't care if they want to bring in people who are fake. I've got somebody who's real.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:31:57
Oh, well, yeah, I'm sure that's my company's stance. They don't even want us to broadcast outside the building from home, whether we're sick or traveling, because they were the victim of they bribe you, they hack you ransomware. And they were like, yeah, we're not paying, so they had to rebuild everything. So they won't work with any of the free systems that are available out there. I don't know. Like I said, maybe that's the short term solution for us individually. But even these AI created models and people. I'm sure there's somebody that looks like that out in the world, but supposedly it's not based on any one person. You know what I mean? So I'm sure there's somebody out there that sounds exactly like me. I hope not, but they're in all likelihood 8 billion people on planet Earth. I'm guessing maybe somebody does. I just hope they're not in radio.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:33:01
You've already given probably one of the best pieces of advice so far for anybody who is looking for work to get back into radio, and that's be the solution to a problem. Do you have one more piece of advice?

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:33:19
If there's any regret that I have, it's saying no to things prematurely and really, I guess, not fully believing in my own abilities and background and talents. I don't know if you heard. I'll do a little humble brag here. I won my first award. I won a Gracie Award for best morning show host. In a large market, there's plenty of great talent. The Gracie's have many, many awards. Every year. Named after Gracie Allen. It's in its 48th year. I get to go to New York City to Chipriani's on 42nd street and pick up that award in person on June 20. Among the other categories are podcasting. I believe the Duchess Meghan Markle has also won an award this year. It's really exciting, but I wouldn't have even known to do something like that to submit myself for any of these awards if it weren't for agents and other people who were getting awards, friends in the business that were getting awards. So I would just be your own best advocate whether or not you have an agent. I don't necessarily know if you need an agent in this climate with the way most companies are paying their talents. I mean, do you really want to pay somebody 6710 percent of that salary that they get you? If they get you a huge salary, great, but you're basically locked into whatever. I mean, I do know of somebody that was paid $90,000 in a major market to do Mornings, and I'm sure she paid her agent 10%, if that's okay with you. Great. But I don't even know that that company was getting her many endorsements that she probably could keep or things like that. So I don't know. Just be your own advocate. Be open to the experience and any experience that will make you a better talent. I mean, that could be TV, that could be voiceover. I think that you do need to multitask anymore and become multi talented. You can't be a one trick pony. Nobody needs that anymore. And whatever those other talents that you have or passion that you have for something, whether it's podcasting, just do it. Do it not because somebody's paying you to do it. Do it because you want to do it. Whatever your passion is.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:35:44
Corey, thanks so much for sharing all of the stuff and catching up. It's been five years.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:35:50
I know it's been a long minute. I need to go back and look for that other conversation we have. I don't even remember it. I kind of do, but I think that was that during the pandemic, I was drunk, too. Yeah, I know. Was it for one of my happy hours? I don't know. I mean, we all gained, like, the pandemic of the Quarantine 15, which I'm still trying to lose.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:36:13
You know what, I'll find it. I'm going to post it in the show notes.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:36:16
Okay, good, thank you. Yeah, and I want to see that recipe for that soup. Seriously, because where did you get it? Did you just find one yourself or did somebody give you one from a restaurant?

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:36:24
I have been using it. It's actually a woman who moved to Spain. She married a Spaniard and then started devour tours so you can go on a food tour there with her company. And she actually has a very similar food blog to what we're used to, and it's got all the Spanish cooking up there and it's her mother in laws, and I replicated it a few times and it rocks. It is just as good as what you'll have in any andalusian restaurant.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:36:49
Okay, that sounds good. I'm game. I've got a nice Spanish red or whatever. I'll whip up a little, maybe some the food was so good. What's gambas? Gambas alejio? I'll make some of that.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:37:03
So the best gambas alejio, by the way, is in Madrid. It is at a restaurant called the Casa de Bula, and I'll put a small video of how it comes out also in the show notes. Of this episode.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:37:18
Okay, good. I know you've got your work cut out for you. I've given you a few homework assignments to attach to this episode. But, I mean, the food and the drink, it's important. Right. Did you have any particular cocktails in Spain? Because, I mean, tapas used to be put literally on top of a cocktail. Right. Or wine.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:37:36
Yeah. So vermouth is the drink. And it's not the vermouth that you think that you mix in with some of the other stuff. It's more sweet. It derives from the wine, and you put up orange and maybe a splash of gin and a little fizzy water in there.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:37:53
Okay.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:37:54
You actually just spray the glass with gin again. I'll put another video in the show notes so you can see how it is done at Taberna la Concha on the Cava Baja in Madrid.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:38:04
Sounds good.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:38:04
All this stuff for I'll put a little food section for us right down below in the blog.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:38:08
It's only right.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:38:09
Yeah.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:38:10
Okay, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Matt, for having me.

Matt Cundill (Host) 00:38:13
All right. That's good. To catch up and continued success at Big 100.7 FM.

Corey Dylan (Guest) 00:38:19
Thank you. Thank you.

Tara Sands (Voiceover) 00:38:21
The Sound Off podcast is written and hosted by Matt Cundill, produced by Evan Surminsky, social media by Courtney Krebsbach. Another great creation from the Sound Off media company. There's always more at soundoffpodcast.com.