25 Years Together
They’re still an odd couple, but after 25 years doing Hawaii’s most popular radio show, KSSK’s Michael W. Perry & Larry Price have grown into Island legends. Mention “great teams” and several well-known duos come to mind. Martin and Lewis. Batman and Robin. Sonny and Cher. Perry and Price. That’s right. Michael W. Perry and Larry Price
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radio. Rock ‘n’ roll was supposed to kill radio. AM was dead until Rush Limbaugh reinvented it. The demise of radio has been over-reported. Radio’s going to have to adapt and realize what it does best and where it can’t compete. The power of radio is live broadcasting ... the immediacy. You can be on radio in an emergency. You can’t be on TV in an emergency if the power’s out.
Price: Radio is infotainment. My partner’s an expert at it. He knows more about show business than most people know on purpose. It is instinctive, and he’s got it down pat. Today’s audiences are very fragmented. When we started, there were 17 radio stations; now there are 37. To understand all the different audiences is one thing, and to play music to the different types of people is a challenge. You’ve got to adapt in this business. We had a saying when we started out, “We’re only one telephone call away from greatness.”
You gotta listen to the audience. To not listen to the audience, in my humble opinion, is the kiss of death. The audience is right 85-90 percent of the time.
Perry: That’s the Posse right there. The power of the caller. We owe that to Aku, who was really the pioneer of talk radio. He put the phone on the air. And he did it way before the Internet.
How about advertising and Arbitron ratings? Are you concerned about them?
Perry: We don’t follow them, but they matter. We realize we have to be No. 1 to two audiences - the listening audience and the advertisers. We have two bosses. Sometimes you have to balance those. Sometimes you have to tell an advertiser they’re wrong, and we have. We end up being an advertising agency, and (as such) we’re probably one of the biggest advertising agencies. We have eight to 10 live-read clients (ads that are announced by Perry & Price; not prerecorded). We know what they want to sell, and we sell it our way. If we read a spot on the air, it dies. If we treat it as a program element, like a news report, and put some creativity into it, it becomes worth more. And forget reach. Frequency is the key.
Price: I try to follow ratings,but I don’t understand it. It’s a useless pursuit. It means whatever you want it to mean. I let someone else worry about it.
What makes a great communicator?
Perry: Price is a great communicator because he knows how to say stuff and instantly understands it.
Price: I’m not going to argue with that.
What’s the most memorable show or moment?
Perry: It’s unfortunate, but our memorable moments are disasters. I’ll never forget the power outrages, tidal waves, hurricanes. We were the voices of disaster. It’s hard, but it’s the most appreciated, I think.
Price: I won’t forget my buddy Ellison Onizuka and the day we were supposed to hook up with him for a live feed from the space shuttle. We were tracking it, and it blew up.
Got some questions from local celebrity Jimmy Borges. OK if I ask them?
Price: He’s my third cousin and the best-looking Borges in our family. Go ahead.
Jimmy asks, “Who has the better vocabulary?”
Price (pointing to Perry): He’s one of the 10 percent most gifted in the U.S. when it comes to vocabulary and pronouncing words. He can pronounce words and he doesn’t even know what they mean. You know how hard that is to do?
Perry: Larry does, but he makes up much of it! (Like “katoosh.”)
Which one is most responsible for your success?
Both: He is!
Price: People don’t like to recognize us as a team. When we got together, people would ask, “How can you work with that haole? Or, how can you work with that local yocal?” People, to this day, try to break us up.
Perry: We have a sign on the back of the studio door that’s still there after 25 years. It says “Together.” It’s very simple. United we stand, divided we fall.
Which one of you would be considered AARP’s 2008 Sex Symbol of the Airwaves?
Both: (laugh and point at each other).
Perry: We’ve both done the Senior Fair, and I spend a lot of money dyeing my hair this color.
Price: He’s the sex symbol. He knows how to look sexy.
Perry: I am a star at Pohai Nani.
Listen to Perry & Price on KSSK AM 590 and FM 92.3 Monday-Friday, 5-10 a.m. and Saturday, 8-11 a.m. For information and tickets for the 25th anniversary show on Saturday, Aug. 9, 7-11 a.m., call 262-6300.
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