Speaker 1: You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: I think at the core what I get excited about,
Speaker 2: what gets me up in the morning is connecting with
Speaker 2: people in an unscripted, unvarnished way. Is getting to say
Speaker 2: something to them, here back from them. Know that I'm
Speaker 2: part of the routine, and I look forward to getting
Speaker 2: on the air.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing.
Speaker 3: I'm Bob Pittman, and on this episode, we're going to
Speaker 3: chat with one of the world's most famous workaholics. Often
Speaker 3: called the hardest working person in showbiz, he covers the spectrum, host, producer, promoter,
Speaker 3: owner of radio and TV shows, events and products, entrepreneur, investor,
Speaker 3: and a generous philanthropist. He's best known for his long
Speaker 3: running stint as the host of American Idol. He's on
Speaker 3: season twenty two and twenty years with us at iHeart
Speaker 3: the iconic morning personality on LA's Kiss, and on air
Speaker 3: with Ryan Seacrest on over one hundred radio stations nationwide.
Speaker 3: Ryan is an almost Christmas baby from Atlanta, Georgia, but
Speaker 3: is probably best known as part of the Hollywood establishment
Speaker 3: for decades. Most people we talked to a math at
Speaker 3: Magic had a childhood ambition that got disrupted for the
Speaker 3: path they eventually took. Not Ryan, he has done what
Speaker 3: he originally dreamed of doing and then some. He has
Speaker 3: impeccable instincts, plus do organizational skills and discipline to bring
Speaker 3: them to life. The Kardashians New Year's Eve on ABC,
Speaker 3: six years of Live with Kelly and Ryan, American Top forty,
Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio Music Festival, and coming soon he takes over
Speaker 3: as the host of the legendary Wheel of Fortune place.
Speaker 3: He's on the radio every morning, no matter what, How
Speaker 3: does he do it all?
Speaker 4: And why?
Speaker 3: We'll dig into that in a few minutes. He's also,
Speaker 3: by the way, a great guy and a good friend. Ryan. Welcome,
Speaker 3: congrats on thanks for twenty years at iHeart.
Speaker 4: Thank you. I'm thrilled to be Bob, my fellow Capricorn friend.
Speaker 3: Before we jump into the media topics, I want to
Speaker 3: do you in sixty seconds.
Speaker 4: You ready? Okay? Great? Do you prefer cats or dogs? Dogs?
Speaker 3: Early Riser Night Out Early Riser New York or Los
Speaker 3: Angeles by Coastal Coca Pepsi Coca Cola, Atlanta boy Here,
Speaker 3: Rock and Roller, country, country, coffee or tea so much
Speaker 3: black coffee. Reality TV or TV dramas, Reality TV cook
Speaker 3: or eat out?
Speaker 4: Cook and eat out, but I cook? Radio or TV? Well,
Speaker 4: are you the chairman of iHeart radio? And I like TV?
Speaker 4: Comedy or drama? Drama? Selfie or autograph? Autograph? This is
Speaker 4: going to get really hard.
Speaker 2: All time favorite music artists Frank Sinatra, first job, Radio,
Speaker 2: Favorite TV show from your childhood, Growing Pains, The Love Boat,
Speaker 2: Beverly Hills, nine oh two, one Ohero. I can't choose
Speaker 2: smartest person you know? My father, childhood hero. I'm my
Speaker 2: father as well. Favorite sport to watch football, Favorite city
Speaker 2: Atlants in New York, Los Angeles, I mean all of
Speaker 2: my affiliates.
Speaker 4: A favorite place to visit Italy. And secret talent is
Speaker 4: still searching. Okay, let's jump in.
Speaker 3: Anytime I talk with anyone about you, the first words
Speaker 3: out of their mouth are, he's a great guy. No
Speaker 3: one ever calls you temperamental talent. How did you navigate
Speaker 3: all you've done and not turn into the Hollywood prima Donna?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm flattered to hear that people say that when
Speaker 2: I'm not around, I think for me, it's just honesty
Speaker 2: and simple this is what I always wanted to do.
Speaker 2: I dreamt of doing what I get to do every
Speaker 2: single day, and I remind myself of how it felt
Speaker 2: when I didn't do it, and that drive, that how
Speaker 2: that fire I had in my belly beforehand, and so
Speaker 2: to have the privilege of doing it every day, I
Speaker 2: remind myself to be grateful and treat it in such
Speaker 2: a way.
Speaker 3: So, how has been a good reasonable guy helped your career?
Speaker 2: Well? I think people appreciate relationships in any business, especially
Speaker 2: in our business. I think people appreciate kindness and authenticity.
Speaker 2: And I hope to think that people who I've met
Speaker 2: and didn't have an opportunity to do something with right
Speaker 2: away later we came back and we were eventually able
Speaker 2: to collaborate because we maintained a good, friendly, kind relationship.
Speaker 3: Although I read a long list of things you do,
Speaker 3: the truth is that that's just a sampling of all
Speaker 3: you do. Did you intend to do all those things
Speaker 3: or did it just sneak up on you. I never
Speaker 3: intended to do all of those things. I wanted to
Speaker 3: move to Los Angeles when I was growing up in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I had a dream to do that. When I was
Speaker 2: a teenager. I made that dream come true. When I
Speaker 2: was nineteen, still a teenage, I studied the work of
Speaker 2: Merv Griffin Dick Clark, both guys who had a radio
Speaker 2: and TV career and both entrepreneurs and both asset owners,
Speaker 2: and both very very smart but also very good presenters
Speaker 2: on air. And I watched how they maneuvered the skills
Speaker 2: of business and the skills of performance and what that
Speaker 2: intersection was for them, And in my head I felt, Okay,
Speaker 2: if I could take baby steps towards those paths, maybe
Speaker 2: it would be the career that I'm looking for and
Speaker 2: be fulfilling to me. But I didn't know how it
Speaker 2: would all come together. I didn't know what the pieces
Speaker 2: of the puzzle necessarily would be.
Speaker 3: Simple question here on your personality. Do you love complexity
Speaker 3: and what happens to you if you don't have enough
Speaker 3: to do?
Speaker 2: Maybe I love complexity, but I also love simplicity in
Speaker 2: the form of efficiency. When I was growing up, was
Speaker 2: always very very busy and hustling and rushing to the
Speaker 2: next thing, and at the time that was you know,
Speaker 2: I played football, believe it or not, as a kid,
Speaker 2: and so we get up early, we go to the
Speaker 2: weight room before class, we go to class, we go
Speaker 2: to practice afterwards, then after that there'd be a four
Speaker 2: h meeting or some sort of clug we'd have to
Speaker 2: go to. Now remember my days being filled and loving
Speaker 2: that sort of velocity in the day, And I think
Speaker 2: I conditioned myself to thrive on motion and movement and
Speaker 2: create emotion from that kind of motion. And so as
Speaker 2: an adult, and as I put my professional life together,
Speaker 2: I thought, how can I, if given the opportunity, do
Speaker 2: multiple things, probably because I also have the fear of
Speaker 2: all of it going away at some point, but do
Speaker 2: multiple things in the most efficient way so that it
Speaker 2: can be stacked into a morning, an afternoon, an evening,
Speaker 2: a day a week, and create a formula that allows
Speaker 2: me to jump into different roles, which I find very exciting.
Speaker 3: So do you think of your schedule as hectic or stimulating?
Speaker 2: Well, when I read it, it's hectic, But then when
Speaker 2: I get into it, I do find it exhilarating and stimulating.
Speaker 2: And I prefer and I like the momentum the schedule
Speaker 2: that I keep.
Speaker 4: Does it propel you through the day, It does propel
Speaker 4: me through the day.
Speaker 2: I've also gotten better, you know, as the years go by,
Speaker 2: you know, you start to chip off a little wisdom.
Speaker 2: And I have gotten better understanding balance. I used to
Speaker 2: carry a lot of guilt Bob when I wasn't working.
Speaker 2: So for example, if I had a Saturday and I
Speaker 2: was going to the beach with some friends, I felt
Speaker 2: a little guilt like why am I not trying to
Speaker 2: get that big break, or why am I not trying
Speaker 2: to leverage what I'm doing into something else. And I
Speaker 2: remember going on vacations with my family, with my parents,
Speaker 2: with my sister when I was in my early twenties,
Speaker 2: and I always have my phone with me, and my
Speaker 2: mom and dad said, why you why do you have
Speaker 2: that phone with you? Well, well, in case the program
Speaker 2: director of the radio station needs me or calls me
Speaker 2: or wants me to come back to do a shift
Speaker 2: because somebody is sick, I want to be able to
Speaker 2: do that. And so I carried that with me for
Speaker 2: a long time. But now I've gotten to the place
Speaker 2: where I do believe in full focus and work and
Speaker 2: preparation in the hours and blocks that I'm in production.
Speaker 2: But I also believe in really expanding my horizon when
Speaker 2: it comes to things that I love to do with wellness, food,
Speaker 2: the hobbies that I'm into.
Speaker 3: Almost every career is enabled by one unlikely or improbable
Speaker 3: stroke of luck somewhere in the process. For me, it
Speaker 3: was to jump from minimum wage part time radio announce
Speaker 3: from Brookhaven, Mississippi, to programming this station and being on
Speaker 3: the air at the big NBC owned radio station in
Speaker 3: Chicago just five years later. What was yours and how
Speaker 3: did it happen?
Speaker 2: One that I think about now and hone in on
Speaker 2: is the big break of being the host of American Idol.
Speaker 2: This came at a time when I was twenty six
Speaker 2: seven years years old. I was on the radio in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles doing afternoon drive. It had been on television
Speaker 2: a little bit and gotten some good experience, but nothing
Speaker 2: at the level with the impact of what was about
Speaker 2: to come. And initially I met with the producers and
Speaker 2: I was considered as a judge for American Idol. And
Speaker 2: during the meeting with those executive producers, I started asking
Speaker 2: about the host and they said, well, you could audition
Speaker 2: for the host if you want, so I auditioned to
Speaker 2: be the host of American Idol. After the audition that night,
Speaker 2: they told me that I got the job and we
Speaker 2: started shooting the next day. Literally the next morning we
Speaker 2: started shooting.
Speaker 4: We were doing.
Speaker 2: Audition Simon, Randy Paula. We were meeting in Hollywood to
Speaker 2: do the auditions for the first season of the show
Speaker 2: that had never been on the air.
Speaker 4: This was at the time Bup.
Speaker 2: You probably remember this when people were saying music does
Speaker 2: not work on TV, right, Remember that, Well, I remember
Speaker 2: those stories. I know those people, we know those people. Well,
Speaker 2: it did work on TV. It started to become this massive,
Speaker 2: massive event on television. And that was a moment that
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, Wow, I'm lucky here right like
Speaker 2: I got into this, I'm lucky.
Speaker 4: This is going to be a ride.
Speaker 2: How do I take this momentum and turn it into
Speaker 2: something bigger at the same time, And that's when we
Speaker 2: started having conversations with the management for American Top forty
Speaker 2: and Kiss FM and the other things that you mentioned
Speaker 2: at E where I went and hosted E News and
Speaker 2: the red carpet shows and produced series for them. So
Speaker 2: I would say being the host of that singing competition
Speaker 2: show opened the door for all the things that they
Speaker 2: came to fruition.
Speaker 4: How did you even get the audition?
Speaker 2: That was one that you know, in Hollywood, you have
Speaker 2: representation and the agents call and say they're looking for
Speaker 2: a host for this show. The audition was pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: The audition was at the Fox lot in front of
Speaker 2: the executives in a meeting room, and all they did
Speaker 2: was say, Okay, here's a scenario. A contestant just lost
Speaker 2: a family member. They sang an emotional song, they're crying.
Speaker 2: You need to talk to them and turn to the
Speaker 2: camera and get us a commercial break in thirty seconds
Speaker 2: with Finn go.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, you can't leave us hanging. What did
Speaker 3: you say? How did you handle that?
Speaker 2: I can't remember exactly how are what I said, but
Speaker 2: I do remember thinking, Okay, this is a moment to
Speaker 2: slow down and not say too much. That's the other
Speaker 2: thing that I've learned. And of course this is an
Speaker 2: audio format, so we're talking a lot. But another thing
Speaker 2: that I learned hosting was just listening is the best
Speaker 2: thing you can do when being a host.
Speaker 4: It's just to listen. So I just I think I
Speaker 4: listened and maybe that's what they saw.
Speaker 3: So you started as your foundation as an on air
Speaker 3: radio personality. You still do it today mornings on the
Speaker 3: legendary KISSFM in Los Angeles, America Top forty. You're syndicated
Speaker 3: on Aaron Ryan Seacrest on over one hundred stations nationwide,
Speaker 3: plus one of the top shows on the iHeartRadio digital app.
Speaker 3: Why the love of radio and after all your success
Speaker 3: across all media, why is radio still so important to you?
Speaker 4: Love the connection to people.
Speaker 2: I think at the core what I get excited about,
Speaker 2: what gets me up in the morning is connecting with
Speaker 2: people in an unscripted, unvarnished way. Is getting to say
Speaker 2: something to them, hear back from them, know that I'm
Speaker 2: part of the routine, and I look forward to getting
Speaker 2: on the air. I look forward to it. Just last night,
Speaker 2: I went to dinner. I eat very early. I went
Speaker 2: to dinner very early. I was trying to get into
Speaker 2: a restaurant. It was five point thirty the first reservation.
Speaker 2: I was there at five twelve. I was sitting outside.
Speaker 2: It wasn't open, and I was standing on the curb,
Speaker 2: and I'm texting the co hosts of my morning show,
Speaker 2: you know, just sort of saying, hey, this is kind
Speaker 2: of funny, let's talk about this tomorrow. That I'm always
Speaker 2: the one standing outside waiting for a place to open,
Speaker 2: and I can't wait to get in there and get
Speaker 2: out in forty two minutes, And so in my mind
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about the next day's show because I just
Speaker 2: love to get up and connect and have that conversation
Speaker 2: on a regular basis. That same thing about the radio shows,
Speaker 2: and I've done it almost every day since i was
Speaker 2: fourteen years old.
Speaker 4: I'm now not fourteen.
Speaker 2: But there's just something about the fluidity, about the autonomy
Speaker 2: of conversation, of content, of topics that we get to
Speaker 2: have in the radio show that's just real and hopefully relatable.
Speaker 2: I love that, and I love you mentioned Wheel of Fortune.
Speaker 2: I haven't done it yet, but I think I'm going
Speaker 2: to love the opportunity to connect with three people every night,
Speaker 2: meet three people from across the country, get to know
Speaker 2: them for a half hour, and give away some money
Speaker 2: and maybe a car, you know, cash and prizes.
Speaker 4: That's what drives me.
Speaker 3: Advertisers love being on your show, and they really love
Speaker 3: your endorsements. Talk about how you think about that and
Speaker 3: how you interact with sponsors.
Speaker 2: Well, we have done this together for a long time,
Speaker 2: you and I and I truly believe and I realize
Speaker 2: this that the sales department and the partnership with our
Speaker 2: advertisers and clients. That's what fuels the platform. That's what
Speaker 2: allows us as personalities influencers to get up every day
Speaker 2: and have a place to talk and have a beacon.
Speaker 2: Right Without the advertisers, we wouldn't be able to do
Speaker 2: what we do. So there's a lot of value in
Speaker 2: our relationship with them. And what's most important to me
Speaker 2: is when an advertiser wants to be on one of
Speaker 2: our programs, is to understand what they're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2: And we've asked them before meetings that you and I
Speaker 2: have been in together, what will move the needle for you?
Speaker 2: Not just getting on the air and talking about something,
Speaker 2: but what really will make change or what really is
Speaker 2: a success for you for this product, for this campaign,
Speaker 2: for this season.
Speaker 4: And that's helpful.
Speaker 2: You get really clear answers and have a very clear
Speaker 2: path to success with an advertiser when you understand what
Speaker 2: a win is for them.
Speaker 3: And I love to have that dialogue. Most people on
Speaker 3: the radio would love to have your success. You're the
Speaker 3: top of the heap. What do you think makes great
Speaker 3: on air talent and what advice would you give to
Speaker 3: anyone who wants to be you.
Speaker 2: It's difficult for me to give advice because everybody is
Speaker 2: so different and everybody's got their own skill set.
Speaker 4: For me, I don't have a talent.
Speaker 2: I don't have a skill set per se except I
Speaker 2: love to go. I love to prepare. I do take
Speaker 2: it seriously while having fun. But preparation is a big
Speaker 2: thing for me that I can control. When I was
Speaker 2: a baby DJ, people who were wiser than I said,
Speaker 2: you know, you got to have a point of view,
Speaker 2: and you've got to be a good communicator with that
Speaker 2: point of view and be your genuine self. And when
Speaker 2: I was young and starting out, that was impossible to
Speaker 2: do because I had imposter syndrome because I was eighteen
Speaker 2: trying to play thirty five and always wanting to sound
Speaker 2: like I fit in. But I do think that the
Speaker 2: preparation is key. Having fun while taking it seriously and
Speaker 2: being kind is a good formula.
Speaker 3: I remember when you first told us about the opportunity
Speaker 3: to do the live TV show each day with Kelly
Speaker 3: and explaining how you could get off the air in
Speaker 3: New York and then do your daily radio show in
Speaker 3: Los Angeles, and I ad met you and I've talked
Speaker 3: about it before.
Speaker 4: I was skeptical.
Speaker 3: I couldn't imagine that anyone can handle that schedule. And oh,
Speaker 3: by the way, he squeezed in American Idol. But you did,
Speaker 3: and ratings actually went up. On your radio show, Live
Speaker 3: with Kelly and Ryan was a top daytime show on TV.
Speaker 3: An Idol was also a smash and you're not stopping.
Speaker 3: So after six seasons, you've moved on from the daily
Speaker 3: TV show to step into one of the most legendary
Speaker 3: roles on TV, replacing Pat Sajack as the host of
Speaker 3: Wheel of Fortune. Tell us why and how that happened.
Speaker 2: Well, to think about that meeting with you, I don't
Speaker 2: get nervous too much. I was a little nervous about
Speaker 2: that meeting, right because I had to come in sounding
Speaker 2: pretty confident that could pull it all off, even if
Speaker 2: I wasn't quite sure if I could. And thank goodness,
Speaker 2: it did work. And you know, those six years with
Speaker 2: Kelly Rippa were amazing six years. She is such a
Speaker 2: brilliant talent. She made me better. Sitting next to her
Speaker 2: raised my game. You kind of have to. She's just
Speaker 2: that good. And she can carry any conversation anywhere, at
Speaker 2: any time, at any second it's thrown at her on
Speaker 2: live television, and that's a show that has no script.
Speaker 2: And I will tell you one of the things I
Speaker 2: loved about that show having no script was because I
Speaker 2: had so many years of radio experience where we don't
Speaker 2: have a script, and that made it fun. It's a
Speaker 2: little bit like doing a morning show Bob on TV, right,
Speaker 2: the two of us sitting there talking about what we
Speaker 2: did last night, And after traveling back and forth from
Speaker 2: Los Angeles to New York a lot over the years,
Speaker 2: it felt like a good time to try something else.
Speaker 2: The opportunity for Wheel of Fortune came up. Fortunately we
Speaker 2: made that deal. And no one will ever do what
Speaker 2: Pat Sajack has done. He's a legend who had hosted
Speaker 2: that show for so many years, I mean the episode's
Speaker 2: record breaking episodes, and he became a companion and a
Speaker 2: good friend to a lot of people in their living
Speaker 2: rooms every single night with Vanna and me too. So
Speaker 2: for me, it's a show that I know this country loves.
Speaker 2: I know it's got a special place in a lot
Speaker 2: of people's hearts because it's generational. They grew up with it,
Speaker 2: maybe they learned something from it, maybe they got together
Speaker 2: with their kids to watch it.
Speaker 4: I like that in the show.
Speaker 2: I like that it's fun, it's lighthearted, and at the
Speaker 2: end of it, you make people really happy. At this
Speaker 2: stage in my career, that's exciting. To do it in
Speaker 2: the seven to eight time period is exciting, and I
Speaker 2: kind of can't wait to get on the air that
Speaker 2: starts in September Moral Math.
Speaker 3: And Magic right after this quick break. Welcome back to
Speaker 3: Math and Magic. Let's hear more from my conversation with
Speaker 3: Ryan Seacrest. So let's go back in time. I want
Speaker 3: to put you in context. You were born in Atlanta, Georgia,
Speaker 3: a very tight and supportive family, still have it. Can
Speaker 3: you paint the picture of that time and place when
Speaker 3: you were growing up?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is when I found in love with radio.
Speaker 2: I can smell the grass when I was mowing the
Speaker 2: lawn with a Toro rear propelled lawnmower, and I was
Speaker 2: listening at the time on my water resistant yellow Sony
Speaker 2: Walkman to American Top forty hosted by Casey Kaseum, and
Speaker 2: I pictured all of the artists he was playing. I
Speaker 2: pictured him being in his studio in Hollywood, the glamour
Speaker 2: of it all, and I just thought, Wow, this is
Speaker 2: super cool that I'm listening in Atlanta to something coming
Speaker 2: out of Hollywood about the biggest artists in the top forty.
Speaker 2: And that's when I started to dream about doing it.
Speaker 2: That's when I started to make tapes pretending I was
Speaker 2: Casey Caseum and I go up into my bedroom and
Speaker 2: I'd count down the hits from coast to coast, as
Speaker 2: he would say, and make audio tapes with songs for
Speaker 2: my mom and dad and my sister and I to
Speaker 2: listen to when we would drive from Atlanta to Destin,
Speaker 2: Florida for our one week summer vacation every year in
Speaker 2: a Volvo station Wagon with the luggage carrier on top.
Speaker 2: So I have vivid memories of those days dreaming about this.
Speaker 3: Did your family worry about your obsession with radio.
Speaker 2: I don't know that they were. I think they saw
Speaker 2: this is something that I am going to do. Either
Speaker 2: they get to come on board or if they don't,
Speaker 2: I'm going for it anyway. I remember telling my folks,
Speaker 2: you know, I went to the University of Georgia in
Speaker 2: about a year and a half in I wasn't sleeping.
Speaker 2: I was so focused on trying to make it in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles. I thought, I cannot get this out of
Speaker 2: my system. That's all they think about. I'm obsessed with
Speaker 2: going for it. I'm going to pack up my stuff,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get in my Honda, I'm going to go
Speaker 2: out to Los Angeles. I have to tell my parents
Speaker 2: I'm dropping out of college. This is not something that
Speaker 2: they saw coming pretty traditional families, you know, Bob. My
Speaker 2: mom and dad blessed. They've been married for fifty plus years,
Speaker 2: and my father is a retired attorney. My mother's the
Speaker 2: greatest mother in the world. So going to them to say, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm quitting school and going to LA where we didn't
Speaker 2: know anybody, I knew it was gonna be a tough one.
Speaker 2: And they said, well, look, we can tell based on
Speaker 2: what you're saying that if we're not supportive of this idea,
Speaker 2: you're going to go anyway, and said, I think I am.
Speaker 2: Now whether or not they thought it would work out,
Speaker 2: I don't know what they really believed, but I knew
Speaker 2: when I went out there, I wasn't going to come
Speaker 2: back until I made it. I didn't want to come
Speaker 2: home until I could say at least I've got a job.
Speaker 3: You went to La. Where did you live? You didn't
Speaker 3: know anybody? Who did you say hello to? How did
Speaker 3: you start? So my father was in the army.
Speaker 2: One of the guys he kept in touch with had
Speaker 2: a son who was a teacher in LA.
Speaker 4: And so my mom says, hey, why don't you.
Speaker 2: Call this guy and if you guys can connect, we
Speaker 2: feel more comfortable if you would move in with him,
Speaker 2: if he is cool with it, and you guys share
Speaker 2: an apartment together, because we just don't know anybody out there.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I went out. We stood in line to
Speaker 2: get tickets to see the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Speaker 2: We watched that. That's when we first met and we
Speaker 2: started talking. He said, yeah, we want to split a
Speaker 2: one bedroom I'll do it. So we split a one
Speaker 2: bedroom apartment in Burbank for three hundred and seventy five
Speaker 2: dollars each. And that's where I started to live.
Speaker 3: You're living in this one an apartment with a roommate
Speaker 3: and you don't know anybody in LA and you're going
Speaker 3: to make it. How do you get into the system?
Speaker 3: Who on earth did you call? What put your foot
Speaker 3: in the door.
Speaker 2: So at the time when I moved out to Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I had been on the air while I was in
Speaker 2: high school as a part time DJ at the radio station,
Speaker 2: the pop station in Atlanta, WSTR Star ninety four FM.
Speaker 2: And when I moved out to Los Angeles, there was
Speaker 2: an affiliate of the American Top forty. And somehow I
Speaker 2: got a name of somebody that was a program director
Speaker 2: at Star ninety eight point seven in LA. And his
Speaker 2: name was Randy Lane. And I called Randy Lane and
Speaker 2: I left a message, and I called it, called and called,
Speaker 2: and eventually I did get a call back from him,
Speaker 2: and I said, look, I was a part time guy.
Speaker 2: It just moved out to LA. I was on in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I'm just a kid. I'm trying to make it no problem.
Speaker 2: Come in, we'll meet. We met the first shift I did, eventually,
Speaker 2: after driving the van around and giving away tab Clear
Speaker 2: in drugstore parking line. Remember that it was a big
Speaker 2: promotion for tab Clear. I was doing, oh yeah, and
Speaker 2: he said, why don't you do overnights Friday. It was
Speaker 2: like midnight to five am, same thing Saturday.
Speaker 4: So that's what I did. I did overnights. I drove
Speaker 4: the van and I.
Speaker 2: Kept just chipping away and trying to show some ambition
Speaker 2: in what I wanted to do for a living.
Speaker 3: Did you ever think maybe I need to go back
Speaker 3: to Atlanta.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I knew that no matter what or how hard or
Speaker 2: you know, sleepless nights, whatever it was going to take,
Speaker 2: I was going to do something so that I never
Speaker 2: had to go back and say I didn't do it.
Speaker 4: I couldn't do it, I didn't make it.
Speaker 2: I had real fire, real drive to do something so
Speaker 2: that I didn't have to go back. Not because I
Speaker 2: didn't love Atlanta. I want to go back, but I
Speaker 2: wanted to make it. I wanted to be right right.
Speaker 2: I wanted the case that presented to my parents to
Speaker 2: actually be legitimate.
Speaker 3: So you mentioned Murf Griffin and Dick Clark. Dick Clark,
Speaker 3: I know, was someone you greatly admired, and he was
Speaker 3: mentor of yours as well. What did you learn from
Speaker 3: Dick Clark And how the hell did you meet Dick Clark?
Speaker 2: I called called Dick Clark when American Idol first started
Speaker 2: after the first season.
Speaker 4: He was a he and Marbez.
Speaker 2: You said, these guys were guys I looked up to,
Speaker 2: and I called his office and American Idol had aired,
Speaker 2: So I figured I have a shot at meeting him,
Speaker 2: and they set a meeting with him, and I went
Speaker 2: into his offices in Burbank, and you know, I asked
Speaker 2: him some questions and he was extremely focused on the
Speaker 2: business while being the most congenial guy and making it
Speaker 2: look so easy on TV.
Speaker 4: And I'll never forget what he did say to me.
Speaker 2: He did say to me, Okay, so everybody's probably gonna
Speaker 2: think they can do what you do really well. You
Speaker 2: want people to think that's easy. I could do that.
Speaker 2: Who are watching you? Because if you're making it look
Speaker 2: that easy, and we all know it's not. You're doing
Speaker 2: a good job, making it seamless and making it comfortable.
Speaker 2: If it looks difficult and hard, you're not doing a
Speaker 2: good job. So I remember him telling me that, and
Speaker 2: he also said you should try to own some things
Speaker 2: and the shows that you do, really make sure you've
Speaker 2: got some equity and the piece of them and some
Speaker 2: control of those. And so I took that and eventually
Speaker 2: we established a rapport, and eventually he invited me to
Speaker 2: come on a co host with him after his stroke
Speaker 2: on New Year's Rock and Eve. The first year immediately
Speaker 2: Regis Philbin hosted with before Dick actually, and then after
Speaker 2: Dick had me come in and co host with him,
Speaker 2: and every year afterwards he would write me the most
Speaker 2: beautiful letter about the night and the experience and just
Speaker 2: just really kind words. So it was an honor to
Speaker 2: take over for him once I did.
Speaker 3: You started your own production company two thousand and six
Speaker 3: and almost immediately had a hit. What took you there
Speaker 3: and looking back, what was the most important reason for
Speaker 3: your success as a producer. How did you make that
Speaker 3: jump from creative to business person?
Speaker 2: This is thinking of the ideas that MERV Griffin when
Speaker 2: I sat with him, and Dick Clark when I sat
Speaker 2: with him, These are the things that they said to
Speaker 2: always be on the lookout for. I remember MRV saying, look,
Speaker 2: once you're on a TV show where people are watching,
Speaker 2: you can probably get a meeting with executives at different
Speaker 2: networks to sell an idea. So I remember that and
Speaker 2: we made the production deal. The Kardashians came along pretty fast.
Speaker 2: I was watching the Osbornes at the time that was
Speaker 2: on MTV, and I thought that was brilliant the way
Speaker 2: that they were showing the family and thought, wow, there
Speaker 2: could be you know, a real genre for this and
Speaker 2: is there another interesting family with a lot of different
Speaker 2: moving parts and people and things going on that people
Speaker 2: might want to watch. And at the time, Chris Jenner
Speaker 2: was thinking about doing a show with the family and
Speaker 2: a casting director, Dina Katz. She knew that both of
Speaker 2: us were in this aligned thinking pattern about this kind
Speaker 2: of show and this genre in seat up a meeting
Speaker 2: with the two of us, and Chris Jenner and I
Speaker 2: had that meeting and afterwards we made a deal to
Speaker 2: go shoot a pilot of the Kardashians. And I, at
Speaker 2: the time at the production company didn't own I didn't
Speaker 2: own a camera. We didn't have anything, no equipment. So
Speaker 2: I remember Elliott, who worked for me at the time.
Speaker 2: He went out and he bought a camera. He went
Speaker 2: to the valley to the Kardashians house over a weekend
Speaker 2: and he just.
Speaker 4: Shot a backyard barbecue. He called me after he shot.
Speaker 2: He said, I think we've got something here, and of
Speaker 2: course we saw it. We put the tape together. I
Speaker 2: think Chris Jenner still has the pilot tape somewhere. Initially
Speaker 2: we pitched it to E and it didn't stick in
Speaker 2: The pitch was going to go somewhere else and I
Speaker 2: remember calling Ted Harbert, who was the president of E
Speaker 2: at the time, and saying, I really think we should
Speaker 2: try and do this here and and Chris, to her credit, said,
Speaker 2: they are going to let the cameras follow everything.
Speaker 4: They're going to be vulnerable. That's just the way they're
Speaker 4: going to treat this. And I made one more push
Speaker 4: and they bought it.
Speaker 2: And then what happened was we had to move quick,
Speaker 2: and we made that show very fast to air, and
Speaker 2: the rest sort of well, you know.
Speaker 4: And that was your jump the business person.
Speaker 2: That was the jump I think you know making and
Speaker 2: you're good at this making a quick decision, right. I mean,
Speaker 2: I like to digest, but I also have found this
Speaker 2: sometimes you don't get the opportunity to do that, and
Speaker 2: if you can make a quick decision, it can pay off.
Speaker 3: Philanthropy, you've always been concerned about others. It shows on
Speaker 3: the air. It's probably what makes you you. Listeners can
Speaker 3: feel it. But you've also given your time and your
Speaker 3: money directly to causes that matter to you and move
Speaker 3: you can you tell us a little bit about that,
Speaker 3: and specifically about the Ryan Seacrest Foundation of what you're
Speaker 3: doing in pediatric hospitals.
Speaker 2: Well, this is something that is my greatest work and
Speaker 2: it is something that we are fortunate enough to do.
Speaker 2: My mom, my dad, my sister, and I at the
Speaker 2: Ryan Seacrest Foundation and a great team based out of Nashville.
Speaker 2: Now we have built media centers, TV content centers, radio centers,
Speaker 2: green screen centers in fifteen pediatric hospitals across the country.
Speaker 2: We're in the lobby of pediatric hospitals everywhere from Boston
Speaker 2: to Philly to Atlanta and many more to come. And
Speaker 2: when you walk into the lobby, you'll see this cool
Speaker 2: area behind the glass that looks like a studio that
Speaker 2: we would work in, and it's a place for kids
Speaker 2: and their families to go to escape. It's the one
Speaker 2: room in the hospital where they're not giving shots, doctors
Speaker 2: aren't telling you what you have to do, there's no
Speaker 2: treatment in there. It's all about escaping and tapping into creativity.
Speaker 2: And this idea came after I had visited pediatric hospitals
Speaker 2: around the country and spoken with parents, After I met
Speaker 2: kids in their hospital beds and I just asked them questions.
Speaker 2: I said, you know, what are the kids do, what
Speaker 2: keeps them motivated, what gives them the incentive to get
Speaker 2: up and walk the hallways or get out of bed
Speaker 2: when you're going through a tough time. And I listened
Speaker 2: to what parents had to say, and I thought, Okay,
Speaker 2: what if we could create this center of energy and excitement,
Speaker 2: essentially an event space where kids and their families would
Speaker 2: have things to look forward to and they could go
Speaker 2: participate and they could be the stars. And that's how
Speaker 2: we develop these secret studios where now patients will go
Speaker 2: into the studio and artists, every artist that we have
Speaker 2: played on iHeartRadio, and movie stars and TV stars have
Speaker 2: come to these different cities inside the studios, and the
Speaker 2: patients produce the shows, the patients interview the stars, and
Speaker 2: the patients broadcast all of it into the hospital rooms,
Speaker 2: not only in the building that they're in, sometimes in
Speaker 2: campuses across the country, and that we've seen has helped
Speaker 2: in the healing process. Some patients call less for pain
Speaker 2: medication because they're happy, because they've forgotten for a moment
Speaker 2: what they're going through, and we've had doctors report that
Speaker 2: to us. So we didn't know what it was going
Speaker 2: to be and how it was going to have an
Speaker 2: impact in healing, but it has, and fortunately we continue
Speaker 2: to build them.
Speaker 3: You're up to eleven, soon to have fourteen, is that right? Yeah,
Speaker 3: we're going to have fourteen the new ones.
Speaker 2: A fifteenth is another one going into Atlanta and their
Speaker 2: new hospital there, and then we've got two more that
Speaker 2: we're going to announce real soon.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you and congratulations on that. You always wanted
Speaker 3: to be on the air since you were a kid,
Speaker 3: and I'm sure you have exceeded your own wildest expectations.
Speaker 3: But it comes at a price celebrity and not much privacy.
Speaker 4: How have you dealt with that?
Speaker 2: I have one sort of thought about that. It's everything
Speaker 2: I ever wanted. If I were doing these jobs and
Speaker 2: no one came up to me and said hi, then
Speaker 2: they're not making the shows, aren't making a real impact.
Speaker 2: So I love it when anybody walks up to me
Speaker 2: anywhere and says hello, or hey, I heard you talking
Speaker 2: about this, or you know what. I'm a big carry
Speaker 2: Underwood fan. I remember the night that she won American Idol.
Speaker 2: I was with my family, we were in the airport,
Speaker 2: we were at a bar. I love that. So the
Speaker 2: deal I made with myself was whenever I leave my home,
Speaker 2: I'm out, I'm on right, like, I'm a little bit
Speaker 2: of public property. And so if you want to take
Speaker 2: a picture, if you want to say hello, if you
Speaker 2: want to chat about something, I'm totally, absolutely fine with it.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact. When that stops, then I
Speaker 2: have a problem. And the other thing, Bob, but we
Speaker 2: talked about this too. I'm not the star of any
Speaker 2: of the shows that I do. I put people in
Speaker 2: the spotlight. I listen to people, I talk to people,
Speaker 2: I interview people, I debut people, I celebrate people that
Speaker 2: I'm not the star. You know, Live with Kelly and Ryan.
Speaker 2: Kelly Rippa is the star of the show We Have
Speaker 2: a Fortune, The game and the contestants are the star
Speaker 2: of the show American Idol, the judges and the singers
Speaker 2: are the star of the show. So that's my role.
Speaker 2: And by having that role, I find that people don't
Speaker 2: treat me like a star. They treat me like somebody
Speaker 2: they know, and that's what I want.
Speaker 3: Let's jump to some advice. If you could it was possible,
Speaker 3: what advice would you give your fifteen year old self,
Speaker 3: your twenty one year old self, and your thirty year
Speaker 3: old self.
Speaker 2: Oh man, so my fifteen year old self, the advice
Speaker 2: would be to actually do a few things that are
Speaker 2: fun in school, not just work all around class, right
Speaker 2: like I worked a lot around class in football my twenties.
Speaker 2: Something might be to carry a little less guilt when
Speaker 2: I wasn't working, as I was saying, even if a
Speaker 2: Sunday morning and I wasn't at the radio stations, like
Speaker 2: why wasn't they there?
Speaker 4: Why didn't they want me to be there on Sunday?
Speaker 4: I should be there, you know.
Speaker 2: So I think about those things throughout the years, and
Speaker 2: I would tell my now I'm I don't want to say,
Speaker 2: but yeah, now I'm into my forties. I would tell
Speaker 2: you know, my thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven a
Speaker 2: little more balanced, like find a hobby. I remember filling
Speaker 2: out doctors not doctorsworms, it forms, whatever form you're filling
Speaker 2: out for.
Speaker 4: They say, what are your hobbies?
Speaker 2: I was like, hm, I need to make something up
Speaker 2: because I haven't had a chance to do anything like that.
Speaker 2: So I thought that was a moment where I should
Speaker 2: try and develop some hobbies. We end each episode with
Speaker 2: a shout out to the greats of math and magic
Speaker 2: and business marketing. The math person who has an incredibly
Speaker 2: analytical mind and their success comes from that skill. And
Speaker 2: the magic person, the promoter, the visionary, the dreamer who
Speaker 2: achieved success.
Speaker 4: Through that path. Who are the two who get your
Speaker 4: shout outs?
Speaker 2: There's one that I didn't meet and one that I
Speaker 2: met for the Math. For the Math, the one I
Speaker 2: wanted to meet would have been Walt Disney. The one
Speaker 2: that I think about that I did meet is one
Speaker 2: we spoke about in Dick Clark. And when I think
Speaker 2: of the magic and we put Dick and Merv together,
Speaker 2: I would put Merv in the magic category. He was
Speaker 2: great in math, but the magic category. He had something special.
Speaker 2: He had the magic wand he could just create an atmosphere,
Speaker 2: an energy, a connection that I was in awe of.
Speaker 2: And Chris Jenner, we talked about her earlier too.
Speaker 4: She has it.
Speaker 2: She has a magic wand she can do the math.
Speaker 2: She's very smart with business, but she knows how to
Speaker 2: create the magic. And I've been blessed with the op
Speaker 2: cortinuy to be exposed to these people. Vote well, what's
Speaker 2: the one that I would have loved to have met?
Speaker 3: Brian, you are truly a unicorn. You've not only done
Speaker 3: things no one's ever done before but you've done them
Speaker 3: in parallel, not in sequence, and you show no signs
Speaker 3: of slowing down. Thanks for sharing your stories and insights.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Here are a few things I picked up from my
Speaker 3: conversation with Ryan. One, have an open line of communication
Speaker 3: with business partners. Bryan's relationships with brands are true collaborative partnerships,
Speaker 3: and as a result, advertisers love being on Ryan's show.
Speaker 4: Enter any business partnership with a clear.
Speaker 3: Understanding of their goals, find out what success means to
Speaker 3: them and what will move the needle, and work together
Speaker 3: to achieve it.
Speaker 4: Two.
Speaker 3: Foster and maintain meaningful relationships. People appreciate honesty, kindness, and
Speaker 3: authenticity in any business, and Ryan is just as genuine
Speaker 3: as he appears on tea on the radio. He was
Speaker 3: able to lean on the connections he formed early in
Speaker 3: his career, and this is one of the key elements
Speaker 3: he attributes to his success.
Speaker 4: Three.
Speaker 3: Make quick decisions time and time again. Ryan built his
Speaker 3: career by making quick decisions.
Speaker 4: He did not.
Speaker 3: Miss the moment he saw an opening in the reality
Speaker 3: TV space for the Kardashians before he even owned the camera.
Speaker 3: Don't be afraid to make a quick decision when you
Speaker 3: see the opportunity, it may pay off in more ways
Speaker 3: than you ever imagine. I'm Bob Pittman. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: That's it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening
Speaker 1: to Math and Magic, a production of iHeart Podcasts. The
Speaker 1: show is hosted by Bob Pittman. Special thanks to Sidney
Speaker 1: Rosenblat for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent, which is
Speaker 1: no small feat. Math and Magic's producers are Emily Meronoth
Speaker 1: and Jessica Crimechech. It is mixed and mastered by Baheid Fraser.
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Nikki Etoor and Ali Perry, and
Speaker 1: of course, of big thanks to Gail Raoul, Eric Angel
Speaker 1: Noel and everyone who helped bring this show to your ears.
Speaker 1: Until next time,