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The Tim Barron
Interview
This is from 1994, when I first met
Tim. Originally this interview was for a computer bulletin board I was running
called the Metal Cloud BBS. Here it is, just as it appeared back then. This
interview also marks the birth of Chip - Photoguy, the image documenter of Tim
and Deb, now in my tenth year (2004) with them!
The Tim Barron Interview - 5-18-94 By G.H. Lorimer, Jr.
Copyright (c) 1994 G.H. Lorimer, Jr. All Rights Reserved.
Items in brackets [xxx] are editors notes.
======================================================================
Tim met me in the lounge where I'd shared a cool chat with Rosalie, the
receptionist. He apologized for running behind, and showed me into his
dimly lit office (which I enjoyed - my wife often states that I live
in a cave). He asked if I had a Babylon 5/Q106 T-Shirt, and I replied
that I didn't even know they existed. He gave me one and threw in a
Barron on Babylon coffee mug also. And, even before we started, he
asked what I knew about DSS (the Digital Satellite System of Video
Delivery), and handed me a photocopied magazine article about it. Very
interesting, but for another discussion. Then he apologized again for
running behind, and had to make a phone call before we got started.
======================================================================
Talking about THE BREAKFAST CLUB
======================================================================
GH-> Okay, here we go! What are some of your career histories, your
background?
TB-> I spent a lot of time listening to the radio as a kid, and so my
first radio job was as a listener. That was, sort of interesting. The
first job I had was for no money at all working at a record store, 'in
the business', and then I graduated slowly to farting around at WFBR
in Baltimore. I was born in Ann Arbor but I was raised in Baltimore.
And WFBR in Baltimore back in the 60's had guys like Mike Vickers,
Johnny Walker, Commander Jim Morton and all these old fashioned boss
radio 60's reverb guys guys guys [Hand motions]. That was radio,
that's what I listened to on AM, it was an AM station, and that was
the first radio station that I ever saw, and I fell in love with it
and worked there for free as well. I guess you'd call that an intern
now, internships weren't really developed then.
GH-> Foot in the door type thing.
TB-> Yea, it was, and it moved into some part time messing around so
that was where it all started. I've been all over the United States.
I've farted around in Chicago, I've screwed around in Indianapolis,
I've been down in Virginia, Lafayette Indiana, when I was going to
Purdue, um, where else have I been, most of the Midwest, then back to
Baltimore for a stint, and so, just been around.
GH-> The origins of the Breakfast Club: Where and how was that born?
TB-> I came to the market eight years ago from Indianapolis, I was
never going to stay here but more than six or eight months, [but] I
really like the market a lot. I got involved in an advertising agency
here, and as a advertising agency owner I just started getting more
and more involved, and I liked radio. I was a news man on WFMK, a
morning man at 94 Gold, a morning guy and newsman at Q106 the first
time, back when it was top 40 in '85 (That's when I first got here, I
was hired out of Indianapolis); and the Breakfast Club origins all
pulled from that experience, you know being many different hats in one
town. I got enough of a base that I started running into the same
people everywhere at events, and I found myself being given
certificates for a 4th and 5th and 6th year of doing things, you know,
3rd anniversaries and 4th anniversaries of [this and] that charity,
and it sort of slowly grew on me...
GH-> Kind of evolved...
TB-> It did, evolved, and that got me based, and it really took off in
the evolutionary process when Jazz Mckay and I hooked up at WMMQ. That
was less than a year, The show didn't even make it a whole year (the
Jazz and Tim show), and yet it's regarded as one of the biggest shows
ever in Lansing, second only to this one. Jazz and I taught a lot of
things to each other. I taught Jazz about business, and about
reliability, (as best I could,) and Jazz taught me about stardom, and
how to do it, and I will always acknowledge that. He understood some
basics, and I learned them, improved on them myself, and then applied
business sense to them, and that's when the success started to occur.
The morning show here was fired, I was hired (after a brief stint in
the afternoons,) and it was amazing. I can't believe how it's taken
off actually. But I owe a certain debt to Jazz because of that, but
only a limited debt, because Jazz could never do business. Jazz could
only create, and it takes both in one head to succeed.
GH-> Q106 is heard over a great range it seems. What's generally
considered your listening area?
TB-> Our listening area technically is the city of Lansing and the
surrounding counties. That is a technical area, in other words as
defined by the FCC. Then we have a total survey area which goes way
down to Jackson and Hillsdale and around there, that's as defined by
the FCC. But you can get us on 28th in Grand Rapids, you can get us in
downtown Maumee Ohio, we've popped up in Toledo, parts of Detroit,
Novi, up towards Clare, and north, the Bluewater bridge over there in
Port Huron, going into Canada, easily up to Clare and around to
Muskegon we get calls from - we get calls from across the lake every
once in a while, and then down into Indiana, well into Angola Indiana,
then down into the Ohio area too, so we're a three state radio
station. No doubt about it. I've been spotted in Angola Indiana for
Christ sakes.
GH-> [during his Babylon 5 stint] Were you spotted in California?
TB-> Yea, two people that live there listened to the show and moved to
L.A., and saw me in traffic 'Timba Timba!' [waving his hand] 'Hello'
GH-> In our first meeting when I approached you at the [Q106] van, I
made mention of the fact that the Breakfast Club seems basically alone
as far as other stations in the area not having morning shows of your
caliber. That invited a passionate response from you - "I don't see
why we have to be the only ones..." and so on, but we really couldn't
continue on that. Could you continue on that thought?
TB-> Well I don't see why we have to be the only ones. I have to be
very careful because I don't want to sound like an ego-maniac. But I'm
very good at what I do. Deb Hart is really good at what she does. The
guys that run this operation are extraordinarily good at what they do.
We are all here in Lansing by choice, not because we have to be. That
destroys the competition because they have to hire people to come up
against people who have all worked in larger markets, who all have a
world of experience, more than your average Lansing radio person. And
yet [for] many different reasons all of us came together here in
Lansing. Mark Stevens has run in top 10 markets, radio stations that
make tens of millions of dollars a year. Dennis Mockler has done the
same thing as a General Manager. I've been into large markets like
Chicago, [and] Indianapolis. In Indianapolis I was in one of the top
10 stations; their commercials are $400 for a 30 second spot. 400
bucks for a 30 or a 60. You'll find rates in Lansing to be around $75
or $80 for the same thing, which gives you and Idea of the caliber of
the markets. And we all came here because we didn't like the bigger
markets and what they brought on. The large markets we did well in,
but it's tougher to get as far as you want to go. So we all dropped
back and are here by choice, while some of our competition are here by
necessity, and they can't go any higher. But what I was saying to you
was there's no reason why they can't just make the investment and let
Lansing be the top - it's still in the top 100 markets in the U.S.,
and there's no reason why they can't let it sound like a top 100
station. There are stations in Lansing that sound like maybe they are
High School stations, and that's insulting to me. I want to do well in
a town with really good competition.
GH-> You've mentioned before, I remember hearing on one of your shows
about maybe packaging up the breakfast club to be distributed on other
stations [for syndication]. Has there been any progress on that?
TB-> It's in the works.
GH-> Have you ever had trouble with the FCC?
TB-> Yes. Fined once - $25,000. The cassette tape was sent by the
competition, the 'concerned citizen' involved used his real name, not
air name, and he had every right to do it legally. I think it's
amusing though that the only complaint that was ever resulting in a
fine against this radio station came from someone who had a tape made
in another competing radio station, but that's the way stations slug
it out. There are many ways of slugging it out in radio and that's one
of them, complain about the other guy to the FCC. There was a
legitimate mistake made by my engineer, (who is no longer my
engineer,) he played mother fucker on the air. It was something that I
had made as a side comment in a humorous context on tape, without
being aware that I was being taped. Then I went on and took a winner
call, he rewound past the winner call, and my off hand comment, which
was on just before, did air. They don't care what the reason is, it
happened, and they don't want that word on the air. So, yea, once
fined 25 grand.
GH-> Some morning shows don't play any music at all. Have you ever
considered not playing music at all during your show, or do you use
that as a welcome break?
TB-> I need the break, there's so much going on, if you watch me do my
show, I'm like Arthur Fuckin' Fielder man, I'm like Leonard Bernstein
[conductors], I've got two people right in front of me who rely
completely on me and do what I tell them to do, I have another one
through the glass that's working, and another two or three running
around. I have to compose in my head what I'm going to do and then
express it to them. While a lot of it occurs non verbally, while I'm
talking [on the air] even, there has to be some breaks for my brain.
Plus, frankly, I still believe in a music oriented format, and it was
sort of the way I was trained, and I don't think anybody's good enough
to just [talk], (unless it's talk radio when you're supposed to talk).
A music oriented AOR morning show, (which is what this is, what it's
supposed to be,) - that's the chassis, that's the framework of what
this is. I think it's impossible to think that everything I'm going to
say is more important than a great Led Zeppelin song. I mean I think
there's room for music and me. I should never think that I'm going to
be better than a Led Zeppelin song, at least not all the time.
GH-> I've had a few people ask me to get your feelings about Howard
Stern's morning show. [in New York and syndicated markets]
TB-> I'm very familiar with Howard, I met Howard many years ago.
Howard Stern is very talented, very smart, I think relies heavily on
the more base natures of humans, and is not very intellectual. He's
intelligent, but not intellectual. Although I suspect he goes home,
dons a smoking jacket, and reads Niches. But when he's on the radio,
he knows what the American public wants unfortunately, and what the
American public wants is his brand of humor. I've got nothing against
Howard, I think he's pretty funny, then he was among the first,
although the first were guys like Dick Biante, Larry Lujack, and Don
Imas, then the Grease man and Moby, men like that were the first.
Howard was the second generation, and guys like me would be the third
generation of 'against the grain' kind of jocks. So Howard has done
well for other jocks and has really raised the standard of obscenity
in America on the radio making it easier for me to do what I do.
GH-> You are good expressing your view on any subject, and are quick
to point out that everyone's view is important, whether you agree with
it or not. And you and Paul Sutherland has been known to use your
shows to speak you minds on various subjects. Do you two ever "fence"
with each other off the air?
TB-> Very rarely, maybe three or four times we've gotten really mad at
each other and just sort of left the room. But, I have a basic respect
for Paul and his views. I know that Paul, just like I am, is a
creation of his environment. He was brought up in a way that would not
surprise me that he'd be very liberal, [from] a very liberal
household. And so understanding how he was raised helps, and
understanding the intelligence that Paul has helps, and the fact that
I'm a recovering liberal also helps. I was raised in a very liberal
household as well. My family was very academic, very ivory towerish,
very campusy. You would be more likely to find my family at the Art
Fair in East Lansing than you would at Art's Bar in Lansing.
[Chuckles] But that's where I am. I relate to Paul, when Paul grows up
he'll be just like me.
GH-> You guys play a lot of mock commercials and skits on your show.
Do you create some of these yourselves, or do you subscribe?
TB-> The vast majority of them are subscribed national services, I
don't have time to do it. I mean my humor comes out of my brain, and
the rest of the time I'm doing things like an interview, or I'm
running around taking care of clients, and taking care of the business
end of this operation because there's an enormous amount of
information that has to be brought in here that I have to read, make
an opinion on, send back out, communications, correspondence, it's a
tremendous machine that gets fired up at 10:01 every morning, and
settles down around 3:00 in the afternoon. It's a tremendous machine.
GH-> And I'm sure your off doing other things after that.
TB-> And I'm doing something else, and as a morning man always
listening, always looking, always reading, always absorbing.
GH-> How do you feel about the local music scene, and would you or
have you supported local artists such as for air play and things like
that?
TB-> Yes I have. Honestly again, I'm awfully busy, and I don't have
time to go out. I have a morning show. I don't go out much during the
night time. If I do I go quiet. I don't want to be recognized. Three
years ago probably I would have loved to have walked into a bar and
had a big old deal made out of me, given a free drink and have a girl
sit down. Now I just want to go somewhere and be very quiet and sit in
the back and not be seen. It's an amazing thing: be careful what you
ask for because you just might get it, you know? It's been very cool,
and being a successful band member, you understand the way that works
on girls and bar owners and all that. But I've been in enough bars,
inhaled enough of other peoples cigarette smoke and booze breath for
my entire lifetime. I've paid my bar dues, so I don't go to bars much
and watch bands. I've been to enough concerts to save my life now.
Because of friends in the industry and my credentials, I'm able to
command a nice press box with air conditioning and a lot of room. And
if it's not that situation available, I don't go to show's either. I
don't go. I mean it's like 'backstage available? No? Forget it, I'm
not going.' I mean why would I? Why would you get cramped into a space
with a B'Jillion other people? It's a young man's game, the concert
scene. Local music though does interest me because if we're not going
to support local music who the hell is? It's not someone else's band,
it's not some other bands city, it's our city, and we're the leader in
rock n roll here, so we should do something. I would like to see,
although it probably won't happen, a new music show or some kind of
show on Sunday's after Scott Allman's program. It would be late and
kind of buried frankly, but it would be a time when we could take the
risk because the ratings are crucial to our survival, and shows like
that don't do well in the ratings, they just don't. The band likes to
listen to themselves, and their families, and that's about it. But it
does expose the community to local work. I like local work, I try to
support it, if they ever need anything I always get it for them. I've
had about every band in town ask me for something. They're having a
charity auction, they need something autographed, they need a shirt,
anything they need from that level, all the way up to calling a record
company in their behalf, which I have done, all the way up to trying
to work into opening acts for local deals like Michigan Festivals, and
the Whiplash Bash. You should see the bands come out of the woodwork
because of my relationship with Ted [Nugent]. They all want to be in
the Whiplash Bash, and they 'just know they can talk me into it'. And
I got nothing to do with that decision, but good luck telling them
that. So, to answer your question directly, yes. I've spent a lot of
time playing Wally Pleasance music on the show because of his
political stuff. I got a kick out of it. It was just funny, so we
played that. We really did a lot with a band that of course broke up,
Bad Oskar. They sought me out, and they let me know who they were.
They had to catch my eye, and they did real well.
GH-> What is the origin of Mega-Seus?
TB-> National Comedy Material. We don't always admit that, we'll act
like it was our own band sometimes.
GH-> Ted Nugent's been a guest more that a few times on your show, and
as you said you have a personal relationship with him. he's given you
some unique tunes like the Fred Bear tune, there was one played this
morning where it was just him and a guitar. Is that something that's
just exclusive to you guys?
TB-> The ones with his commentary are exclusive, they're pulled from
our show. There have been occasional bootleg tapes of that stuff
running around, you can probably get them. But Ted's hunting music is
available at Bow Hunter World, [517] 750-9060 in Jackson. He has quite
a large operation down there, it's his world bow hunter headquarters,
[and] it is a world headquarters, a world class operation.
Computerized, interesting, etc. And the music is available there, much
like what you hear on the radio. THe customized stuff though is unique
and unavailable.
GH-> Who is Mark from downtown and how did you acquire him?
TB-> Mark Gillingertin was an old Jazz and Tim listener, and never
came forward during that time. He was one of what we called our closet
listeners. I emerged on this show and it looked like [I] was going a
little more in the direction he would like to be associated with, so
then he came forward. He works in a prominent law firm in the city, he
is a paralegal and likes to pretty much keep himself low profile if
possible, but doesn't go way out of his way to. He'll host buses [rock
and roll road trip buses], and he even has hosted QTV before. But he
still keeps the law firm out of it as best he can. He just came
forward and started just dazzling us with these [top ten] lists, and
the material spoke for itself. Hysterical! In all the years, all the
hundreds of lists, there have been two I didn't like, so how the hell
can I ever complain about that?
GH-> Fred Trost: You have a working relationship with him at all? Or
was that just a promo thing for a while?
TB-> Fred is also a personal friend just as Ted is. Fred's in some
difficulties right now, and I wish him the very best of luck. But he's
not someone we just throw away around here, he's a nice man, and we
get along very well.
======================================================================
Talking about Q106 in general
======================================================================
GH-> Q106 has been doing an awful lot lately, the Harley's, lots of
giveaways, lots of promotions for different clubs and shows and events
and so on, and of course concerts; seemingly more so than other area
stations, and I'm sure that helped put Q106 where it is today. But
there was a time, you refer to it as the old 106 I guess, when it was
about to fail as I understand it, then somebody made mention of a "big
investor" or something like that. Can you go into any more detail on
that?
TB-> No, it really wasn't a big investor. Mr. Patton has owned this
station for B'Jillions of years, more than a decade or two, and Mr.
Patton owns a large percentage of it, and there are other investors;
Dennis and Mark Stevens. What happened was is that [once] it reached
the point around here I think where Mr. Patton was paying the bills
out of his own pocket. He's got big pockets, but that isn't the point,
he could've gotten rid of the thing. But he didn't get rid of it, he
stood by it, he believed in it, then he came across Dennis and Mark,
they came across me, and we turned it around. The three of us made
this radio station, and everyone knows it.
GH-> Q106 seems to be involved a lot with area television
broadcasters. QTV for example, your Barron on Babylon special [both on
WSYM Fox 47 of Lansing], special guests or hosts from WLNS [Channel 6
in Lansing], (Hubba hubba I think is how you describe one of them),...
TB-> [Low meaningful voice] Hubba hubba.
GH-> ...and now Andy Provenzano [also from WLNS Channel 6] for
weather. Is there a design to associating the radio with television a
lot?
TB-> Cross promotion first of all, we promote them, they promote us,
we reach audiences they don't usually reach and vice-versa, also it's
legitimacy, it legitimizes the morning show. When we're as racy as we
are sometimes people go 'oh no ones going to listen to them' but it's
kind of tough to dispute that the chief meteorologist in town is on
our show. Kind of tough to dispute that the Mayor's here, Fred Trost
and Ted Nugent are here, kind of tough to dispute we have national
clients of great stature that are no where else in town. It's kind of
tough to dispute and discredit a morning show when you have things
like that on your side.
GH-> You certainly have some big chairs in your guest hall.
TB-> Very Large.
GH-> What are the origins of QTV?
TB-> John Robinson would be better prepared to answer that, but it was
one of many things that were being done in town; to address your other
question, Q106 has absorbed a few things and created a few. We've
created some of the interpersonal relationships we've got in other
media, and others were just assumptions of things that other less
experienced operators let fail. QTV is what used to be called the
Friday Night Flicks on WVIC. They botched it, they weren't interested
in it, they dropped the ball, we picked it up for them. Joe Bob
Briggs, the movie critic, was at WMMQ, we picked that up for him.
Rockline was at WMMQ, we picked that up from WMMQ as well. Um, what
else is there around here, you mentioned something else. there's
something else that we picked up. We just picked it up and made it our
own. Andy Provenzano was at Country 102. He's ours now. We have
reached out and designed, and just pulled what we think is the best of
these kind of relationships to our station by hook or by crook. We are
really good at it.
GH-> Concerning Andy Provenzano, how did you get him, and what
happened to Rock -n- Roll weather guy Al Archer?
TB-> Al Archer worked in Tampa Florida, lives in Tampa Florida, works
for about 60 radio stations, did a good job, and was very affordable,
but I've always wanted to work with Andy. Andy and I worked together
at WFMK, and I've always wanted to [continue working with him]. He was
tied up at WFMK, then on hiatus for a while, then at Country 102. He
just ended his contract at 102, and before they renewed we
renegotiated and we got him.
GH-> You guys have also recently bought another radio station. Any
plans in the future for further gains of that sort?
TB-> Absolutely.
======================================================================
Talking about Controversy and Rivals
======================================================================
GH-> I remember a time last year when Jazz McKay returned to the air
waves, I'm hazy on all that detail myself, but he and his station
[WMMQ] began waging what almost seemed like a war...
TB-> It was a war.
GH-> I remember hearing bits of it a lot. Then, there was a video of
Riverfest, something that he was doing on some [local cable TV]
channel where he had come into your trailer and 'made peace' or
something with you, and a short time later, he was off the air and
pretty much out of the scene. You've already given me some of your
history [with Jazz] earlier. Can you give me highlights to some of
this period last year at all, some of that war?
TB-> Yea, very quickly though, because I don't waste any real time or
breath on Jazz Mckay. I have a finite number of seconds that I'll be
alive and I'm not going to spend any of them on him. Jazz and I had a
beautiful relationship as friends, we worked together well, we both
got fired from WMMQ within months of each other. I recovered, and
because of my sensibilities and business abilities, I had
marketability and was hired here, he was not. I encouraged them to
hire him, I did my best as a friend to get him on here, they didn't
want to touch him. And that was his own fault, but I tried. He
eventually moved on to Guam, a colossal mistake. Because, while
someone wants to fly you out to Guam for a job, who's going to fly you
off of Guam if you get fired? He lasted six months, he still owed me
money (I provided him with money and shelter [during] the last few
weeks that he was in Lansing before Guam), and had been nothing but a
friend to him, and you ask anyone, I was nothing but a friend to Jazz
McKay. After six months on Guam he got fired and needed to come back.
Back to where? Well, the only people that would fly him off of Guam
were the people that I was taking a lot of money out of the pockets of
with my success on Q106. Jazz had left, the Q106 thing exploded on the
scene, and we didn't have a lot of competition except for Rich
Michaels (who I killed, good luck telling the State Journal that, he's
the 'King of Morning Radio' even though he's not here anymore). Jazz
came back with one purpose. He agreed to try and kill our show. He was
a good friend who was still indebted to me, who left with my blessing,
and came back with no other intention than to kick me out of my spot
that I created for myself. That's not what friends do to each other.
You just don't do it. You stay on Guam, or take another job, he had
other opportunities, but he chose this one. He also had the great
misfortune of having six outstanding warrants for his arrest. You
don't come back into a city with shoplifting warrants and expect the
local business community to embrace you. So while Jazz came back and
waged a war, including using my real name on their air [legally
considered as Slander] and doing all he could do including fabricating
extraordinarily complex lies about my personality and about my show
and about our relationship and how he invented everything about
everything, taking bits that were mine and saying they were his; it
was really quite frustrating, all trying to illicit a reaction which
he did not get from us. The only reaction he got was from the Lansing
Police Department who arrested him on the air for all of his warrants.
That made the paper, and it killed him. He lasted three more months
and the ratings didn't really go up much; they'd all heard it before.
I think the collective soul of Lansing said 'Jazz you're a nice guy
and you're funny, but you're going after the guy that is so clearly
your friend'. I've been thanking him on my show for years, had him on
the Christmas show every year, and it's just like [peoples reactions
to Jazz] 'Oh my god, what are you doing?'. And of course businesses
wouldn't buy him because of the arrest thing. Meijer is not going to
be buying a guy who got arrested for shoplifting on the radio.
Definitely not. So he left because he couldn't sell, and because he
burned me. He burned me good.
GH-> Rich Michaels was top dog in the area for a while (although
myself I couldn't really stomach him, he was too 'popcorn', too
goofy.)
TB-> That was his job.
GH-> Did you guys have a working relationship at all?
TB-> None. Rich believed in people being stupid. Rich believed in the
old radio philosophy that the listeners are complete total morons, and
deserved to be treated that way, and his humor and his show reflected
that. I believe that about half of all people are complete total
morons, and the other half deserve an intelligent morning show. And so
we mix it all up. We have the music and the commercials that you would
expect that appeal to or not appeal to everyone. We have intelligent
guests and commentary and humor, all wrapped up inside of dick jokes.
It's kind of like when you are trying to feed your dog a pill. You
hide it in the food. We hide social change and conservative thought
within dick jokes. It's not what Rich was doing. Rich believed in
stupid people, Rich was stupid about that.
GH-> In fact you're quite adamant on stupidity - 'Don't call in unless
you know what prize you're going to pick' and so on.
TB-> It's not that I dislike stupid people, I'll take all the stupid
listeners I can get. And there's something on the show for stupid
people. There's lots of music, and easy to play games. But, like with
Bullwinkle, I want a multi-level success. You can watch Bullwinkle as
a kid and go 'Cool', and as an adult and go 'Cool'. It needs to be the
same thing and that's what we work so hard to do here on the show.
GH-> I know that in music for example, (because that's my experience,)
some bands see each other as rivals, and others see each other as
comrades. Do you get that same mix with other area stations?
TB-> No. We're in everybody's pocket and they know it.
GH-> I personally missed it, but I started hearing a rumble about the
Cinco De Mayo incident. Tell me what happened there.
TB-> We played a nationally syndicated bit from Premiere Comedy
Network. It's a parody station promo. It's on disk, they are sent by
that network to about 300 stations in the U.S. It was the third year I
played it. Everyone went nuts. A lot of bad judgment in City Hall,
(which I'm happy to say Mayor Hollister fixed), over reaction by the
politically correct left, supreme over reaction. The bit was a
national bit, but the bit came and for the third year was played at
hundreds of other stations without incident, and I also wanted the
mayor mentioned because he did a good job at diffusing it. His people
started it, but then he diffused it. Quite controversial.
GH-> Yea, I remember a week ago, when I was with you at the [Q106] van
out on a remote for the Harley's, we were finalizing the date for this
interview, and an angry Mexican came up confirming that you were Tim
Barron, and then he proceeded to say that he was a Mexican and was
calling you a racist bastard, was going to kick your ass, and all that
good stuff. Do you get that stuff all the time, even before the Cinco
De Mayo incident?
TB-> [The] Cinco De Mayo incident was the worst incident we've had. I
had an armed guard, I still have an armed guard for remotes now. I
wear Kevlar to remotes, I mean it's ridiculous, it's stupid. I don't
want to do any of these things, they're not cool. When you're a kid
and growing up you go "Oh cool I'd like to have a bodyguard, you know,
it'd be cool" but guess what, you know it's real. It's horrible when
it's real. The Mexican Standoff at Q106 was the worst. But, there was
a very small group of people who listened to it all out of context.
The media blew that one up. I mean they really did. If you hear it in
context you know it's a joke. Hundreds and hundreds of Hispanic
listeners came pouring out to tell us that they were not the least bit
offended, that it was a supremely sensitive group that does nothing
basically but protest anyway. We had picketers out in front of the
radio station, and my question to them every morning was "Did y'all
take the day off work to be here?" And it was met with angry glances,
and I went "Oh I'm sorry, you're oppressed, you couldn't get a job,
right?" It's fucking ridiculous, it's just stupid.
======================================================================
Talking about Downtown Lansing
======================================================================
GH-> You live downtown, and like to support the downtown area a lot.
What are some of your thoughts of the area, and what are some of your
favorite places to frequent?
TB-> Downtown is coming back. Every city in America had the same
problem around the same time; the malls got built, urban sprawl,
bettering communities, boom, gone, out of town. Downtowns died, they
thought it would be a great place to dump all the poor people, slum
lords came in, old buildings deteriorated, got chopped up into
apartments, boom, it's a slum. It's happened everywhere in the United
States with varying degrees of intensity, and it's been reversed in
many cities. Indianapolis is a great example. Mayor Huttnut(sp) did a
marvelous job with the Simon Brothers when I was down there, and I was
very involved in their revitalization. And having learned an awful lot
from people really really good at this stuff (that we aren't going to
get near Lansing) I decided one of my missions while I was here anyway
doing Radio was to try to spearhead that effort. So I always talk
about it, I live down there by example, I take pains to walk around
down there, to be seen down there, if I have a convention I hold it
down there, I mean I really am a nut about it. I believe it can
happen, but step one is residence. You can't say "What we need
downtown are a few more restaurants, what we need downtown is a jazz
club, what we need downtown is a movie theater, what we need downtown
is a grocery store, what we need downtown is a post office, or a
stadium." Yea, we need all those things, but we need first of all
residence. If there's someone living down there, with money I will
add, if there's someone down there with dispensable, disposable
income, then those other things will follow. So, I guess what I'm
saying is is that every city in America has gone through this, yea I'm
a huge proponent of it, yes we can certainly learn from cities like
Indianapolis and I believe that the new mayor [Hollister] is really
going to help. We're an inch away from being designated an Enterprise
zone, and that will be a few million dollars. Community policing has
really cleaned up the neighborhoods, there are some aggressive
neighborhood watches, there are some great ethnic groups that live in
the downtown area that are self policing themselves. It's very
interesting to see how the Hispanic community on the north side
polices itself, they do a marvelous job. They don't want downtown to
do anything but flourish either. I think we're five to ten years away
from having a really really healthy downtown. And I invite everyone to
visit downtown Lansing. Where do I frequent? All of them. The Sports
Page, Kelly's, Bebo's, my most frequent places are the Raddison, the
Knight Cap, and Clara's. (Best steak in town's at the Knight Cap.)
GH-> You are on the board of directors of the R.E. Olds Museum. How
did you get there, and what are some of your goals for the museum?
TB-> When I was interested in cars, when I was growing up in
Baltimore, the only thing we knew about Lansing was that they made the
Lansing Rear End. I'll never forget the Lansing Transmission plant
too. I've always been interested in cars, so I went to the museum as a
patron a couple times, and then talked about sponsoring a car, and I
sponsored a car there. I worked on it, helped rebuild it, and spent a
lot of money on it. When that project was almost done, they asked me
to be a board member. Surprisingly enough folks, board members are
hard to find. You have to commit a little bit of money sometimes, but
mostly just your time and your energy and your organizational
abilities, and you ability to bring money, people, interest, and
excitement into the place. And we kept that museum from closing, that
board of '92. And now there are new board members that are really
taking over, I'm not as directly involved as I was, but I'm still
involved in fund raising and PR, but I'm no longer really a hands on
board member there - they don't need me. We have Cameron Woods, just a
marvelous young man there, the museum manager, he does a marvelous
job.
GH-> I was down there a couple months ago, and there's never much of a
crowd there, in fact I've been scared that the place would close.
TB-> Luckily we have a couple of grants, but it's tough. There's a lot
of history in Lansing. A lot of firsts in the Mid Michigan area in
Transportation. It's just amazing. People come from out of state all
the time, and know more about Museum Drive than people that live here,
and they need to educate themselves to it. It's a responsibility as a
citizen to go and celebrate what's in your own city first.
GH-> Tell us about the Q106 block party coming up! [The Block party
took place 3 days after this interview, sadly this wasn't printed
until after the event]
TB-> Ought to be a good time. We gotta band and fun. It's the first of
several. This year '94 is the year when we work out the bugs. '95, a
year from this weekend, will be when we really get with it. We want a
year to figure out what we need to do with security and bands and
beverages, just to get a feel. Be sure to give City Hall and Q106 your
input as you people go to these things throughout the summer.
======================================================================
Talking about BABYLON 5
======================================================================
GH-> Your appearance on Babylon 5 was recently seen by everyone, and
as I understand it will be seen again this Friday on QTV.
TB-> Parts of it will be. John Robinson's chopped it up a bit.
GH-> Is there going to be anything new added to it?
TB-> Just edited to fit [the QTV format]. I'm pleased to announce that
I have arrived. I now have things happening without my control. I have
appeared on TV and in the paper without even knowing it or getting a
copy. Remember the day we all ran to the TV to tape ourselves on the
tube. It's happening so much now I don't even know when to do it! Oh
Man! (chuckles)
GH-> How did you land the Babylon 5 stint?
TB-> There were about a dozen jocks, it started with four, I was one
of the original four, it grew to a dozen by the time the project was
over, but the original four were picked by Warner Brothers and the
local affiliates. It was a Warner marketing campaign to get who they
considered to be by far the top jocks in a series of markets including
the larger and mediums like us, and get them involved in the show
somehow, get them out there to do some thing and have them talk about
it. It makes sense. Morning radio is extremely influential. Morning
radio advertising is very valuable and expensive, and if you can get
your jock in there for free talking about it... it was just a bright
idea. We worked with Fox before, they knew I was a proven and tested
product, and Warner was aware of my existence as well, they have MSU
grads out there, so off I went to Hollywood.
GH-> What was the wooden body that wasn't allowed to be filmed?
TB-> They didn't want to show it, and I don't know exactly what it was
either, I was an alien in that land as well. I walked through that
room about twenty more times that day and it was gone. There was just
something there that they didn't want shot, and it happened to be
lying around.
GH-> You seemed to have a flair for the word "Species" - any funny
stories for us from the set of B5?
TB-> The funniest stuff was on the TV show I think, there was a lot of
interesting raw footage, but the funniest stuff was on the special. It
pretty much captured it. I was scared to death.
GH-> It seems that everyone had heard of the "DJ from Lansing". What
kind of publicity did your visit get on the set and around Hollywood?
TB-> Around Hollywood it was pretty much talked about as a new way to
market a show. I was not the focus of interest, the technique was, and
I think you'll find it being repeated because it was very unique. The
whole Babylon project has been very unique. They send out their promo
kits to affiliates on CD ROM. They do the Berlin Symphony Orchestra
from Berlin with the conductor in Hollywood via satellite. It's very
interesting. No models, as your users know, it's all graphics. Just
different thinking coming out of Warner Promotion. They had heard
about me, they were instructed that I was the first, therefore they
were going to learn from my experience for the others. There were only
ten of us I think in all, I was one of the original four, I was the
first of the original four, and the only one to speak and and be in an
act. Others were in the background and walk throughs. I was the only
one that was focused upon in an act with a line.
GH-> Were these others on this episode or different episodes?
TB-> All different episodes, each episode had a different guy on it,
so it could be promoted in his or her market.
GH-> ...which were spotted around the U.S.
TB-> That's right.
GH-> Did you ever see any more of Robin Curtis other than your
dressing room encounter?
TB-> Yea I saw her briefly after words. Very very nice woman.
GH-> My first impression when I saw that was like "Oh you're the DJ,
how nice for you..."
TB-> She seemed a little condescending at first, but she's not. She
was just that nice.
GH-> You mentioned that guest star Sarah Douglas was testy at first,
but warmed up to you as time went on. Why was she testy, and how
friendly did you get?
TB-> Sarah, being a professional, was quite taken aback by my lack of
knowledge about the script when we met in the pre-show. But in the
pre-show, we meet in the makeup room, and she doesn't understand why
I'm asking her about her makeup, and because she expects that I would
have known the script thinking I was an actor, not someone brought in
for promotion. Once it was explained to her very nicely that A> I was
there for promotion, B> she better be nice (you actually here that, on
the tape you'll hear one of the floor directors go 'now we need to be
nice'). She's just a professional, who thought she was seeing
unprofessionalism and reacted I think within reason. Once it was
explained to her that I was not an actor, she was very nice, and
actually [I found out] she spends time in Michigan on Mackinaw Island.
She knows the state, she dates a cop in Detroit.
GH-> You had also told Sarah that it was the outfit in Superman II
that did it for you.
TB-> All that shiny stuff.
GH-> What was her reaction to that?
TB-> She loved it! She laughed. If you look closely on the behind the
scenes footage she'd be like "it was the black boots, wasn't it" [in a
British accent]. It was very cute.
GH-> Your last comments on your special "Barron on Babylon" were that
Hollywood wasn't for you, that you'd stay in radio and in Lansing. Do
you think you will do it again if another opportunity of that sort
arose?
TB-> Yes, I would do it in an instant because it was very scary and I
didn't want to do it. I was terrified, and that means I'd better do it
because if you're going to improve yourself you need to push yourself.
It's very easy to be a big DJ in Lansing and coast. Something like
that put me into a world class setting, and I did ok. I rose to the
occasion. The job made the man, and if I have the opportunity to do
that again I'll do it.
GH-> Did you regularly watch B5 before your encounter with them?
TB-> Yes I watched it a lot, and they asked me that too, it was
important to them.
GH-> Are you a science fiction fan in general?
TB-> Absolutely. Science Fiction and Horror. Big H.P. Lovecraft fan.
GH-> The Barron on Babylon special was dedicated to the memory of
Clive Livingston Beare. Who is he?
TB-> I'm glad you asked me that question because it was big question
at the party we had at Trippers [Barron on Babylon party during the
airing of the episode]. Clive was my best friend in high school, he
died when he was 20. He and I spent a lot of time together in junior
high, and sort of like discovered girls at about the same time, used
to have long talks into the night about friendship and about getting
old; he was the first really good friend I had that you talked about
everything with. Up until that point you have friends that are
segmented about different parts of your life. This was the first all
purpose, everything, 'can't wait to get home and call him' best
friend. We also were a lot alike. We both liked science fiction and
science fantasy, we were both intelligent and geeks, and therefore
nerds. Most of the guys that I hung out with were, and that was ok
because we were the brighter of them, and we have ultimately in the
90's reaped our revenge. And I may well be addressing a whole bunch of
guys that feel that way. But he was that person, and as a result
neither of us were really quite popular, but we had our own click and
we loved each other very much. He had a problem with his brain, he was
born with a lot of tumors in his brain. He would go into convulsions
every once in a while. We left Baltimore, we moved away, and I'd see
Clive about once a month, he'd drive from Baltimore to Virginia. He
passed away about a year after we moved of a massive seizure in his
sleep and so I dedicated the show to him. Although it's been since
1978 when it happened, I always hoped at that time I could do
something for Clive.
GH-> This Barron on Babylon seemed to be the perfect thing.
TB-> It was perfect because it had a foot in where I went with my
life, and I take Clive with me everywhere I go. Most everyone that
knew Clive has probably forgotten him, yet his mother and his father
and I will always remember him. I'm here doing it for both of us, my
high school friend. Everything I do is for both of us, and I'll never
forget him. If I make a movie it'll probably be dedicated to him as
well. And if it really gets big there'll be another one for him. But I
got the first big thing in my career, what I consider to be the first
really really big national thing had to go to Clive. I didn't dedicate
it to my daughter, I didn't dedicate it to my parents, I didn't
dedicate it to anyone but Clive because I was doing it for him. One of
the last conversations we had was on the telephone, and we were
talking about death because we were aware that his disorder could
possibly lead to death. A very rare disorder by the way. His brain
helped figure it out after he died. They biopsied it aggressively and
sent parts all over the world, so it's helped people with the same
problem as well. But it was about death [the phone conversation]. We
promised each other like teenaged idiots that if one of us did die, we
would do all we could to come back from the grave to try to just touch
each other. (and I mean that in the nicest way) We would get into
these big wild sci-fi kind of theories about 'what if I can't come
back and be your classic hovering ghost - what if I could only come
back as a thought - what if I could only get something out of your way
that could hurt you - what if I could only come back as a butterfly or
a nice day - that might be all I could do'. And we talked about it, it
was like 'well if so then whatever'. He hasn't come back yet. Again I
have two lives to live, mine and his, for the rest of my life. Long
explanation, that's what is going on there.
GH-> That's cool. There's a lot of people that don't know that one I'm
sure.
TB-> No, no one knows that one as a matter of fact. There are two
people I work with and two people that I date and those are the only
four people who know why and what that was. For those that care, and
since it was [one of your] questions I gave you that answer. I
wouldn't Normally give an answer. "He was my best friend in high
school and he died", that's all they'd get. But give as much of that
as you want, because everyone should know.
======================================================================
This concludes the Metal Cloud / Tim Barron interview.
Comments, Postings, Thoughts, and Discussion of any of this are welcomed
and encouraged!
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