Daniel Wyatt, Radio Host, Husband, Girl Dad

00:00
I felt like the Susan Lucci of the CMAs.

00:10
Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I'm your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in, downloading the podcast. I certainly do appreciate it. It's the place where we tell beautiful, messy human stories and give you some tips to help keep the darkness at bay. And I would not be here without my amazing guests. I've had a lot of people that have been friends throughout my lifetime, as we all do. We collect friends and new family members really, especially when we work places.

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where it's just a small scrappy crew of folks that are trying to accomplish a task, and that's happened a lot with me in the radio industry, so I'm so happy to connect again with one of my best radio friends. Please welcome me from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Daniel Wyatt. Daniel! Buddy, it's great to be on. I mean, we have known each other for how many years now? Well, it's been 20-something years. It's been about 20 years now, yeah.

01:06
Yeah, you know, first started out, I met you in Birmingham and I remember the day I met you and we became Fast friends and in this business you talked about family, but it's a dysfunctional Yeah, it's a dysfunctional family, but we're all got the same dysfunction It is we all relate very well to each other very fragile egos and at the same time uh, and a weird sense of humor and You know, it's one thing when you have a certain like you said certain family and certain businesses and this is really a

01:34
Radio is really a small group to me, and you get to know people and keep up with them, and always enjoy seeing what they're doing. It's a very creative group, and I remember that about you, is your creativeness is being around you and your sense of humor. And it always rubs off on everybody when you're around you. So I don't know if that's in a good way or not. It could be a bad influence, I suppose. I tried to rub it off with Clorox. It won't come off, man. You just stay around.

01:59
Well, Daniel, you're up in Chattanooga now. You're still in radio. You're up at US 101, right? Yes, sir. Doing the morning show there. Daniel, like I said, we met in Birmingham working at the 1025, the bull on the Patty and Dollar Bill show. I tell you, that was one of the honors of my life to get to work with Bill Lawson and Patty Wheeler doing that show. I swear. That was one of those things where you won't see

02:28
that type of show, I don't think ever come around again because radio is such a different animal than it is now. And that type of personality with Bill who just retired last May, which is, uh, crazy. You like to see that in this business because you know, there's, there's hope that you can make it through this and keep a job, but I don't know if that's possible anymore because of the way the industry is. And it was a beautiful thing to see him be able to live his life, become that radio legend. And then be a part of that small journey, I mean, you were with him, you know, I grew up listening to him as a kid.

02:57
And then I got to work with him, which was, then he was in my wedding, which was even crazier. Right. So, to get that experience as a young person starting out in this, just watch those two work, was I think something that you, that college or anything couldn't buy you. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I always talk about that was kind of one of them lightning in a bottle moments, you know, where I was. Yeah, it was. I learned more about not necessarily the function of radio, but how to, how to...

03:25
do radio as a personality from Bill than probably anybody I'd, you know, and I'd already been in the industry for 10, 15 years at that point. And to have the chance to work with him and to just learn, kind of at his knee and how he approaches relationships with your listeners, you know what I mean? And not talking down to him, not dumbing things down, but just being as

03:52
as genuine as you can with the people that you're part of their lives every day, you know? Yeah, that's a perfect thing what you just said. I mean, technically, I didn't learn what the right mic volume was and the right bed, but I learned something more valuable, like you said, how you could walk into a room full of doctors and captivate every one of those doctors or walk into the room of the polar ops full of NASCAR fans and captivate that audience. He knew how to do that with each person and each one of them within a two minute interaction with him.

04:20
he could absolutely become their best friend and mean it. And he would give it a cell phone number all the time to listen, like, what are you doing? They're gonna call you all the time. He goes, oh, they're listeners. He'd just do it. Now I find myself doing the same thing because I learned how you are a connection to people's lives in this business. You might not think so because you might, you'll agree with this, Robb, is when you're on that microphone and people come at you, maybe see you out in public and go, oh, I love that. I laugh every time I hear this. And you go, it's nice to hear because we always talk one way.

04:48
We talk out into the airwaves and we can't hear feedback coming back. As a stand-up comedian, you can instantly know if something's going good or bad because of the reaction. We don't know that. So you sit there and wonder, and to be able to know how much people listen to that and ask you about these things, it's a huge difference in the world. So when you hear somebody talk and watch Bill like the master at it, go in and be able to become part of people's lives or they tell him everything, I just kind of soaked it in. I just listened and went, okay.

05:16
Let me see how this guy does it and how he's been successful. I've kind of modeled my career here in Chattanooga as if you're willing to take the time to listen to me and listen to the goofy things I have to say and still stay around that you know what, you are family, you pay my mortgage, you help raise my kids and you deserve as much attention as I possibly can give you. Absolutely. Daniel, you're not from Chattanooga. You weren't from Birmingham either. Where'd you grow up? Where were you from?

05:47
the great God's country, Coleman, Alabama. Coleman, Alabama, that's right. About an hour of north of Birmingham. If you're driving to Huntsville, it's the stop place where you stop and take a pee. And that's why we still people from Birmingham, Huntsville. Yeah, so that's where it's at. So when you were growing up in Coleman was, I mean, you said you listened to Bill and radio and stuff growing up. Was that something that you thought, man like, hey, I wanna do that. Do you remember there was a time like, I wanna get into radio.

06:15
You know, my mother was a big fan of music. Her dad worked for a company called RCA Matt and David. They sold washing machines, they sold TVs, they sold everything. He was a salesman and they sold records. So she got free records as a kid and kept those around. So I remember every, we wouldn't watch TV in my house. We'd either listen to the radio, which we would either listen to country or the big station when I was a kid was Magic 96, which is also in the place where we worked at in Birmingham, was one of the sister stations.

06:43
So she'd listen to that and there was two guys in the morning named Burt and Kurt we'd listen to. And I would call on the weekends at a request show and I would call in and request songs. And on the weekends I was 7, 8, 9. And I always loved the music. I never had a musical ear or talent to play it. I couldn't sing. But I loved it. My mother listened to it all the time. And I got interested in it. But I never thought I'd be doing this. If you'd have bet me when I was 12 or 13 that I'd be doing this, I'd be like, no way. Ain't gonna happen.

07:10
And I kind of like, we all do in radio, we find a way in. And that's the way I was. I was working at a machine shop my uncle owned in Birmingham, Alabama when I was 22 or 23. I can't actually remember. It's been a long time ago. And a guy worked there and his wife was the marketing director at 102.5 The Bull, it was Clear Channel Stations, which is now iHeart at the time. And I said, you got anything? I just want to get free concert tickets and meet girls. That's all I wanted to do.

07:40
That's it. Right. And she goes, yeah, you can set up tents and speakers on the weekend. And I started doing that and I loved it. I loved every bit of it. And they said, you want to go full time doing it. So I quit my job, the machine shop and did it and really worked my way up from the very bottom. It took me eight years to get an air shift. And that wasn't even my goal either, Robb. I didn't never want to be on the air. I liked doing it, but I didn't think it was a career path for me. And somebody took a chance on me and brought me here to Chattanooga. And I've been here 15 years now.

08:09
and doing the morning show. So I always tell people in radio, I said, the best thing you can do is radio is all about talking, but when you need to start out, listen. Listen to what people are telling you, listen and be somebody that can, especially now in today's industry, you know this more than anybody, is be able to do more than just one job. Learn the internet, learn social media, learn how to edit, learn how to do some form of problem solving when it comes to engineering. Learn a little bit of everything and you're more valuable to them because I don't think it's just our industry.

08:38
I think every industry is looking for somebody that's jack of all trades because they're trying to cut costs quite honestly. It's just the way it is. I think I've survived so long because I'm willing to clean the toilet bowl still. I think that makes sense. I mean, yeah, because like you said, that's what you got to do. The thing is, when I first started in radio and there was a station full of people, there was somebody in every...

09:05
you know, stations, a studio, there was somebody in production, there was, you know, all the salespeople and the managers and stuff like that. And just as time goes on, it dwindles down and there's fewer people and there's fewer people and there's fewer people and you realize, well, this piece of equipment went out, I've got a remote coming up, I've gotta be able to do this. And if I don't do it, I don't know if it's gonna happen. And then that's gonna impact me because one, I enjoy what I do, but I also care about what I do. And also, if this doesn't go down, I might not get that talent fee.

09:35
which means that's gonna impact my family. So you just go like, yep, I'm gonna figure it out, we're gonna get it up and going. You know, yeah, I mean, when we first started, I think in Birmingham, they were just saying there was 45 people there. I think by the time I left Birmingham, it was down to maybe 20, half. Here in Chattanooga, when I first started in this building, there was a good 35 to 40 salespeople, managers, everyone there, staff. Now there are probably, this is included to everybody now, probably maybe 13 of us. Yeah.

10:04
13 for five stations, that includes sales and management and an engineer. Yeah, it's kind of like walking around in Ghost Town. I mean, it really is. I mean, me and my morning show partner are the only people here until 10 o'clock. In this entire building, there's five radio stations. Yeah, that's why. But you survive in this business by being able to adapt, by being able, and that's not guaranteed, you can, because you can be the best employee in the world. I've seen it happen, you've seen it happen. And you're just a budget cut, unfortunately. Yeah.

10:33
I always tell people I'm like, I make low enough where I, that my salary don't count and I don't make kind enough where I'm just right in that really sweet spot where I'm barely living. And that's where it's at. But you're also just under the radar. So they don't like, like, well, we need to cut something. Well, you know, Daniel, not really. Well, Daniel, we can't, what's he going to impact? Right. Yeah. I mean, the toilets if we get rid of Daniel. Exactly. He was going to wash the cars. Right. So yeah, I mean, it's.

11:01
It's all about making an industry is making yourself valuable to somebody and even then you're not guaranteed safe I don't think that I'm saying like oh I could be It's is you know Robb in this industry they can kill me tomorrow like it's done and there's nothing my ratings are fine I've done everything and that's just the way it is because it's become that way Yeah, I mean and that's that's what happened to me here after I'd left Birmingham. I came back To Augusta and as the marketing director

11:27
Also, doing air shifts on a couple of our stations, we had a bull station here, because that's what Clear Channel liked to do, is name all those stations the same thing. But we had a bull station here, and I was doing shifts on that. I was doing marketing for three of the five stations. So getting prizes, setting up remotes, I was doing all this stuff. And then one day, I think it was in 2009, Clear Channel decided to let 3,500

11:56
people go all in one day. And I was unfortunately one of those people. And that prior weekend, I had been out all weekend long at, we had an event called PowerFest. I was out in the sun at the fairgrounds, making sure stuff was going on. And then I thought we were gonna do a recap and they were like, all right, thanks, you're done. You know, it just- You know what? And that's terrible. I've seen it happen to most of my friends, you know? And I know that, and I personally know that me, Daniel, has a shelf life.

12:25
I don't look any, and I hope I don't, but I feel like, you know, as I'm 48 right now, and I know that I'll be very fortunate to retire from this business, but I don't have any, and this sounds so morbid and so hopeless, but I'm making plans that I probably won't. Because it's just the way technology works, the way things work, and you know, you hang on as long, you swim the deep end as long as you can.

12:49
until you need the life preserver. And I'm getting somebody on the, I'm already looking for like, okay, let me make sure I have a life preserver over ready for me. And I think stuff to do in any walk of life is have that backup plan sometimes. And unfortunately, when you go under, it comes out of the blue, right? And that's the thing you gotta prepare yourself for mentally is to go what happens. And I think another thing, Robb, that's helped me out is because in this business, and you will agree with this too, that sometimes that us in this business becomes our entire life.

13:18
Our whole being is being that person on the air and that person that's Daniel or whatever your name might be. And you become, and I've done my best to go, that's not all me. Yeah, yeah. You know, I always tell people, I'm like, when I die on my tombstone, if it says Daniel Wyatt, 2018 CMA Award winner, I've done something wrong because that's not what I wanna be. Right. That's a great accomplishment. I'm very proud of that, but that's not who Daniel is. And I've-

13:48
I've seen people that go, oh God, what am I gonna do? Because I don't have this and I'm not this person. I'm like, I am fine being Daniel. And it took a while, honestly, to get there, to be able to process that. Well, you know, that's the thing about this industry is like you get, sometimes you just get wrapped up in the, you know, the quote unquote fame of it. It's like, you know, it's famous in a small town, you know, it's that type of stuff where it's like,

14:18
who I am because my face is on the billboard or they do listen to the show and oh, they recognize my voice at the grocery store, that type of stuff. And it's intoxicating, but you have to realize that that's not 100% reality. And if you wrap yourself all up in that persona, it's not healthy because at some point, you're not the one unfortunately in control of that persona.

14:43
you know, and somebody could rip that out from underneath you and you're either going to have to then move to a different town, try and find a job somewhere else. Because if you want to keep pursuing that, that's what you got to do in radio. You got to keep moving to keep that going. Or you realize that, hey, you know what, I'm not just, you know, Big Robb, the on air guy. I'm also a dad. I'm also a husband. I'm also someone who has these other passions that define who I am.

15:12
Exactly. Other than just being on the air. You know, I think that's a lot, a lot of, it's not just ours. I mean, that happens in a lot of industries where you become wrapped up, so wrapped up in a job that that becomes your being. I think you just explained it perfectly. Like we have, there's so much more to everybody out there that's, that they think that they're not because I've learned one thing is, is being in this business and then not being in this business that I still have friends, still have family. And I generally.

15:40
You know, like I said, it's tough. It's tough to be anywhere right now in the world. And cause you have everything is so different. So I mean, you have to be really prepared to be happy with yourself. Yeah. That's the big thing. I love that. Now you mentioned a few moments ago about being a CMA award winner. That's, that's pretty freaking cool, man. Uh, how did, how did that come about? How did, how long had you been at the station before y'all got that? That you got that CMA award.

16:10
I felt like the Susan Lucci of CMAs. Remember her from the soap operas? Couldn't win a daytime Emmy for 40 years. It wasn't that long, but the two guys I was with before I got here had been nominated like six or seven times for CMA, never won. Everybody on the air staff had a CMA at the station. Oh, wow. So they were the only ones without one. So the first year I was here, we got nominated. And I went, oh, this is it, we're going to get it. Didn't get it. Which was cool because I got nominated and I never thought I'd do that. Yeah.

16:39
nominated, I think we were nominated four or five times before we won. So every year it was like, oh man, oh man. And it's just disappointing. And I remember the year we won, it was 2018, and we were up for CMA station of the year and CMA personality of the year for the morning show. So we get, what they do is they call, they get an artist to call in the morning and say, hey, you won, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you, oh, thanks. So we knew at what time they're going to call between nine thirty and ten o'clock in the morning. So here it is, they're

17:09
looking at the hotline, it rings. I know exactly what's going on. So it's Jason Aldean. He goes, hey, it's Jason Aldean. Is this Ken, Daniel, and Kelly? I'm like, yeah, it's us. He goes, I want to let y'all know y'all won CMA station of the year. And we're like, hey, because we thought, well, we didn't win. The station did, but we didn't. Right, right. And we're happy. Well, yeah. But we're down a little bit. Then we're about to let him go. And we go, well, thanks, man. It's great you're here for me. He's like, wait, wait, wait, wait. And also y'all won CMA. And

17:37
boom, my world was just blown away because here's this thing I've been working for a goal and no matter what you're doing in life, no matter what the goal is, and when you finally can accomplish that goal after hard work and being let down so many times, it was one of those things. It was like a memory that I will never forget. And actually, we won one and to be honest with you, that's, I have not entered to win again. Because, well, the thing is, I'm like,

18:06
I mean, the afternoon show, I feel like wins one every other year. They're there and they love it. And I had nothing wrong with somebody wanting to win every year. Yeah. My goal was to get one. Yeah. And then by that point, I'm like, this is a nice trophy. I'll put it in my house, but I didn't need five of them. I just want to see, I just want to win that one. So, um, it's hard work and it's, you know, you compete with a lot of people and, but it's cool to every day and look at that. But my wife just says it's something else to dust around. Don't get another one. So.

18:34
Maybe that's it. I don't want to get in trouble. I love that. I love that though, man. And I love that for you. I remember seeing your posts and stuff and keeping up with the industry news when I saw that you had the JOLD won. I think that's amazing. And yeah, US 101 wins all the time for station of the year, which is great. Which is great, you know. It's great to be working around, again, another station of excellence.

18:59
Yeah, the really wild one that Robb is CMAs once you become win one you become a lifelong member of the CMAs You have to pay dues again. Oh wow But the real reason is if you get canned they have insurance you can get Look I can get insurance now if I ever get lose my job, so you're part of a group But yeah, it's it's a funny thing that it happens But you know it really is you're part of a heritage station like this like you were talking about and there's a lot of live up to every day of keeping that going there's a lot of pressure it's it's

19:28
I'm from Alabama, so I'm an Alabama fan. So it's like you have to go for that national championship every year and you have to play that game every single day and win. And it's a high pressure job that, that, that you have to learn to manage the pressure. And when I first got here, that was tough for me to do. It was God, I didn't think I was going to make it, man. It was just taxing on me. Just terribly taxing on me.

19:54
Yeah, I mean, because that was the first time, I mean, other than moving from from Coleman to Birmingham, that was kind of your first time moving to a different state? I went to Nashville for a year. Okay. I think that's before you got, that might have been before you got to Birmingham, I believe. Okay. And I went for a year and I was, went to be promotion director to the SIX on Music Row. Oh, wow. And I went for a year and I was 30, I was around 30 at the time.

20:22
Me and my wife were dating, we weren't married. And I'm glad I went and had the experience because I'd always went, what if I didn't take the job? What would it have been like? But I got there and it was not in my mind. I'd built it to be this other animal. And that's sometimes I see the grasses greener on their side. And I say for everybody that if you have the chance and you want to set a goal and we'll do it, do it. Because you'll always look back and go, why didn't I do it?

20:48
But be prepared that it might not be exactly what you were thinking because I got up there and it was a Fast way faster pace on that was gonna be it. I was I had literally at that point in my career I thought I'm quitting. I'm quitting radio and getting out at all this anymore It was one of those things where I was completely burnt out Completely couldn't do it anymore and I went if this is the way it's gonna go I I don't want any part of this and had the fortunate opportunity to come back to Birmingham at that point and I did and And then I was scared to take the Chattanooga job because I'd already left for Nashville right to go

21:18
And I said, I don't do that again. I don't want to move off and be away from my family. And at that point, something told me, goes, if you don't take this opportunity, you'll regret it. And I did, and we've been here, it will be 16 years in November 1st this year. That's awesome. And talking about Birmingham, I want to go back to the bull days. Do you have any like favorite stories or favorite memories from some of them?

21:48
I've got some stories that I will not share, but I know there's some, we did some crazy things and we had some great times. But I've got a couple that were, that stick out in my mind. Yeah. Just radio people probably love. So we used to have to do these live broadcasts. You remember every Friday morning out on location, Patty and dollar bill. So I was the tech that would go out and set up the equipment, make sure everything was running right. You were back running the board at the station and we went out and they'd have us everywhere. It could be at a hard ease. It could be wherever.

22:17
they want us to be at. And we were doing a broadcast, I think it was Brookwood Mall. And we were doing something out there in front of the mall and we had this big enclosed trailer that would pull behind the truck. We had all the equipment in. Part of the training was on, I think it was June or July, it was hot, man. It was real hot. So I was out there at 5, 5.30 and Patty, give you a quick rundown on Patty if you don't know who she is. She is a lifelong person that was on radio in Birmingham. She talked like this, real deep voice, real deep.

22:44
And smoke, she never stopped smoking. Never stopped smoking. Never stopped. She'd be outside in the vent, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke. And we're outside and she's smoking. Then the, I guess one of the tires on the trailer had a knot in it, something was, and the heat got to it, and that tire blew up like a gunshot. Loudest thing you've ever heard. Me and Dollar Bill, Doug, because we thought somebody, what, there's my second shot, I just, she never broke stride talking, never stopped smoking, kept going, turned around and goes,

23:14
What the hell do y'all do? Just said that. Like we had shot something, like she never moved. Never moved. Like it didn't affect her anyway. And I thought that was her personality. Like she couldn't be affected. It was just hilarious to me because it was one of those moments where you saw it. The other moment was we were doing a remote, a little two hour event at a Verizon place. Do you remember this where I had to get the tire on it to help save off the guy from beating up Bill? Do you remember that one? Yes, yes. So we were doing this event at a-

23:43
Verizon store and we had all the tables set up, you know, the free t-shirts, the CDs, all the stuff you see. We had a guy that used to come to our remotes and get, he'd come to every remote and get free CDs, free t-shirts, everything and take them and just take a bunch of them. We got, you know, just one of those people. So we're sitting there and- Price Pig is what we call them. Yeah, Price Pig. So I'm inside with Patty doing whatever we're doing and Bill's inside.

24:12
As we come out, there's a guy starts laying into dollar bill, just a guy we never saw, just cussing him like a dog. You told my wife you couldn't get a CD, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She's dying of cancer. Look, it was terrible. I thought, what has happened here? We walk outside and this guy's ready to fight dollar bill. So meanwhile, I'm going like, I can't let the station lose its best talent here. So I'm in the truck trying to find a weapon of some sort to try to fend off this guy from beating up dollar bill. Dollar bill is trying to talk to this guy and figure out what's going on.

24:41
We finally unraveled the mystery that while we were inside, the prize pig was outside standing by the table guarding the stuff and he wanted a CD. So he was telling people he worked for the radio station, was not letting anybody have anything and got smart and rude with a listener, the listener's wife. And she went and told her husband, he came back in to beat us all up. And I'm going, that was one of the craziest things I've ever seen in this business. And I'm like going, what am I going to do here? I was a 25 year old kid. And my job was to make sure these people.

25:11
or at least safe and to figure out what happened. We finally got it worked out, got everybody calmed down. That's a couple of them. And one of my other favorite stories is we worked with Paul Feinbaum. It was our registration member. So I was also in charge and Paul Feinbaum, most of you know ESPN now, big star, but he worked at our registration in the afternoon. So he would go and do events and I would go out with him to set up the equipment, things like that. And I remember I had to go to Atlanta for a SEC championship game. It was Auburn against Tennessee.

25:41
And that year he had been really railing on Philip Fulmer on the air, bad. And so it's at the start of the game and we all had press passes and we're walking down the field and we're in the Georgia dome and Paul's got a raincoat on and I'm like, why does he got a raincoat on and the hood pulled up. We're inside. It doesn't make any sense. So I asked him, I said, Hey Paul, what's the deal? Why don't I got the raincoat on? He was like, you'll see. As we walked out on the field, people started Tennessee fans start to recognize who he was immediately beer and drinks went our way.

26:11
And the raincoat was there to protect him. And meanwhile, I got stoked as I'm dodging these things coming at me. And I asked him, does that upset you? And he goes, no, for every beer thrown at me means that somebody's listening. And that's money. Yeah. So he looked at it that way, but you know, I had a lot, those stories as a young kid in radio to go experience those things and to learn from those things from people that are some of the greats in the business, uh, is really invaluable. And again, I always tell people in

26:40
really any business. Instead of talking a lot, listen a lot. Listen and hear what other people are doing and see how they made it and how they're doing it and then learn from that. It's very important. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now I know you're a twin as well. Yeah. Matthew, what was, you know, as a twin growing up and I because I mean he'd be around the station and stuff too. I mean he definitely took advantage of the free tickets his brother

27:07
Well, yeah, he took a did he was in the free tickets more than I was. And the funny thing is, people thought he worked for us. You know, he went to a concert one time in the sales. I came up and slapped him real hard thinking he was me. That wasn't me. So, you know, it's different growing up in between. And, you know, everybody asked me how that was. And I'm five minutes older. So in my mind, he was always five years younger. And then to treat him that way. And we never were the same age to me.

27:34
even though people would say we look identical, to me we never looked anything alike. So it was treated like a little brother, you know? And so, and we never, everybody asked the question, like, did you ever swap? We swapped one class, that was it in our entire life. And I knew as a class he wouldn't fail. I'm like, go to like art class for me so you won't fail it. And I went to PE class for him, because you were too scared, either one of us are too dumb to pass anything smart. So it was always the easy class we'd change out. But you know, it's interesting to have somebody that's the same age as you,

28:04
pretty polar opposite. He's an introvert, very quiet, outgoing. And my dad always goes, I don't know, two people are so different, they were raised at the same time. So yeah, it's very weird. But again, to me, it was a brother that was five years younger. I always drove to school, always did everything, and he just kind of followed along. That's funny. That's funny. Well, and being a dad now yourself, two little girls, how has that changed your life?

28:34
You know, I'm 48 and I have, my oldest will be three years old in October and my youngest is just about turned seven months and I'm 48. So it's a little different to be, it's something that me and my wife never thought would happen for us. Right. It's not like I planned on having a kid at 46 years old, 47.

29:02
45 when our first came along. We just thought it was out of the cards. Yeah, yeah. Because we tried for so long and went to doctors and they would go, we can't give you a reason why you can't. And which is weird usually, and that's disappointing because if you know the problem, you can fix it, right? Yeah. They couldn't. So that was even more disappointing, like, what do we do? So 10 years go by and we go by that 10 years and we-

29:31
I was so confident that we were not having kids that at 43 or 44 I went, okay, we're not having kids. I'm going to go out and buy the car I always want. My insurance is cheap. I went out and bought a brand new 28 Mustang GT, performance pack level two. Wow. Fastest car ever owned. Beautiful. Loved it. It was my dream car. I had it for two years. Then my wife got pregnant so it was gone. I had it for two. We get traded for many men. Trust me, I tried to fit a baby seat in that thing every way possible, bro.

30:01
What happened? So, but I would gladly trade every car I've ever owned for the privilege and the honor of being a father. It's just, it's changed my life in ways that I knew it would. And I look back on it and I go, I wouldn't have, I would have been a good dad at 34, 35. I would have been a good father, but I've been a great father. I don't know. I think I was, I think God has the perfect timing when you were off, before he got on the,

30:31
call here. We talked about it and it really does. I think if I had, I don't know, I would have been a good dad. I would have been, I love my kids, but I don't think I would have been the same dad. And I think I'm a better one now. And there was a lot of faith in God with going through it. Let me tell you a quick story how much faith it was in God. That we went one time and they went to a fertility doctor and they said,

30:58
We can give you this and try it. And something in my mind, I went, I don't know if we should do that. And it was, when I look back at God going, Hey, just wait, I got this. And it might not work out for everybody. I'm not saying everybody, this is for everybody. I'm, this is not day I'm going like pray about it. Cause sometimes we pray for things and God don't answer those prayers the way we want them to. It's for him, the way he answers them, the way he. It's fit to his will. So we go, we wait five more years. My wife gets pregnant, everything. And it's right there in COVID by the way.

31:25
I went, oh Lord, here we go. Right during COVID, my wife's pregnant. Couldn't be a more scary time of 2020 to be through this. So we're careful doing everything we do. We get to the hospital and they're going to have to induce labor in my wife. So we get in, they give her the shot to induce labor. An hour goes by, hour and a half. All of a sudden my wife starts getting sick, starts throwing up, starts just. And so the nurses come in, one comes in and then two more nurses come in.

31:54
three more, four, five nurses come in. I went, something's wrong. Something's wrong here. There shouldn't be too many nurses in here. And they're taking my wife and they're putting her in these positions that I've never seen. Like, why don't you do this to a pregnant lady that's about to give birth. This doesn't look good. Right, right. They, I hear one of the nurses call the doctor and go, the baby's in distress. We've gotta go. They wheel him out the room and I don't see him. I don't know what's going on. I don't know if Brittany's all right. I don't know if the baby's okay.

32:24
We ain't emotional about it. But I were during COVID, so I'm the only person in the hospital. I'm all by myself. There's nobody in there but me and it's 12 o'clock at night. So I can't even call anybody that's up to say, Hey, to talk me through this. So they come back in, the doctor goes, your wife had a heart contraction. It crimped the baby's umbilical cord. The baby lost oxygen. We're going to have to do an emergency C-section. We've got her in the prep room right now. You got to come with us. So I go in this hallway. I remember sitting in this hallway with all the, you know,

32:52
gear on, get ready to go in. And I'm shaking uncontrollably. And I don't know if it's because I'm nervous, if it's cold, I can't remember. I'm just shaking uncontrollably. And not knowing what's going on. And I'm sitting there and I just pray. I was like, God, just let her be all right. Just whatever you do, I'll just please. And about that time her doctor walked down the hall and goes, got the tractor in control, everything's fine. You're gonna be a dad in about 10 minutes, are you ready? And I walked in and miraculously everything. But that was the point was.

33:22
to the end, God was like, you've got to trust me all the way through this process, even till the write up. And that's what I did. I went, it's out of my hands. And at some point in my life, I went, this is out of my hands. I got to let you deal with this. And you, this is whatever happens, this is what's supposed to happen. But that was all the way up to the birth. It wasn't now my second daughter, much easier. I was like, let's go in and get this over with schedule the C-section. I'm not going through that stuff again. Right. I want that. So, but it's a thing in life where we're not everything we have something

33:51
Even though I thought was going to go away a certain way, it went another certain way. So you have to be able to mentally be prepared for things that aren't going your way sometime. And that's the big thing is you've got to have a mental stronghold to go. My dad always said, have a plan B. In your mind, you got to have a plan B. What's the plan B? Where's my safety net? And for me, it's spiritual with God. That's my safety net most of all the time.

34:21
Daniel, what's bringing you joy right now, man? You know, we just talked about kids, you know, they have become my life far as how I do things, how I manage my mental health. We talk about mental health is in this business that we do. Your mental health is, can be really tough because always tell people when

34:51
You do a job that works with the public, no matter if it's radio, whether it's working with customers, whatever it is, you've got to leave your house, and you can leave your house, like this morning I left my house and the coffee machine broke, the water, everything could possibly go wrong that went wrong. But when I got to work and the microphone came on, I had to flip that switch to, hey, it's good to be here. Yep. And that can mentally tax you.

35:16
It's a roller coaster. It really is a roller coaster. You're high, you're low, you're high, you're low. And it really messes with you. It's tough to manage that sometimes. And I don't have good days, I have bad days. I have more good days than I do bad. And it's because I really try to focus on the important things in life, my kids, you know, about.

35:41
When I get home, what kind of person do I want to be for them? And the big thing I've noticed, Robb, is my daughter, my oldest, likes to watch movies, Disney movies and stuff like that, and she has a little tablet she gets on. But I've noticed it was making her more aggressive, more out of control. So we put her on this digital detox, where she only gets a certain thing. In turn, we all had to go on that because we're in the same household. Right. Right? Right. So we all have to do that. And...

36:10
I noticed over the last couple of weeks that without looking at doom and gloom, because that's what you mostly see is that's what sells doom and gloom and that can affect you. So I stayed away from it. I played with the kids. I'll put on some music. We'll play Elsa and Anna and the joy of seeing my daughter look at things and figure out things different than I never thought about and hearing that. And I know that a lot of parents out there have gotten this already and probably still do too, that your kids are, you know, they're...

36:39
grown stuff and you still get that torment out. But that brings me joy. I think little things, I'm a simple person, man. I mean, it don't take much for me to get, I go to the gym every day and that's a joy for me because it's a great mental release just to get in there and put on headphones, work out a little bit and it kind of relieves stress, feels a little better. But it's the little things in the life, like something simple, I'm from Colon, Alabama. Lord, I can look at a chicken for three hours and be like, huh, it's a chicken.

37:10
I've done that. So, you know, I think everybody has different definitions of joy and how they find that joy. The key is to find what makes you happy and then stick with it. And some things that make you happy are hard to do. And what I mean by that is working out. It's not very fun for me some days, but I know if I don't do that, then I'm gonna be down a little bit. And sometimes it's hard for me to get home and play with my kids because I'm tired. I get up at 3.30 in the morning and I don't want to. But then at the end of the night,

37:41
I'm like, I'm glad I did it. So sometimes having joy means you got to put a little work in to get the joy, right? You got to have, find those things to make you joy. Joy just don't come and fall out of a rainbow and a pot of gold on you sometimes. You've got to really look for those things in life that make you joy. And that might be something that takes a little effort to get that joy. But once you find it, then you want to keep it. And then the act of going for it is a process of also getting the joy. So I think it's a.

38:07
I think we get misconception society, like we see so many movies of, oh, there's going to be the Hallmark movie and someday there's going to be somebody walk into my life and boom, it's going to be joy. And what we've learned through life is anything that's obtained what makes us happy is a little work. Whether it be a goal, whether it be getting in shape, whether it be having kids, because you know as well as I do, being a parent is a tough business.

38:31
It's a tough one, but the reward and the joy you get out of it is way more advantage than it ever was putting the work in. So it takes work to do all things that require joy. And I think work in itself of getting that joy is joy because you're producing and seeing an outcome. And when we sit still for a long time expecting things to come at us, then we become in the space where we just sit there and dwell on why things not happening, why it's not happening for me, why it's not important.

39:00
Sometimes it takes getting out of that box. You know, we all like our comfort zone, the lazy boy at home, but nobody ever accomplish anything great sitting in a lazy boy. You have to get out of that lazy boy too and get out of your comfort zone sometimes to make things happen and really fulfill some of those things you wanna do and find your joy. And it's tough. It's tough nowadays more than it's ever been because social media, because of everything that hits that. We can be 24 seven connected. I think sometimes you just gotta be unconnected.

39:33
Daniel, this is the second segment of the show. This is where we talk more about your mental health journey. Okay. And we touched on it a little bit in the last segment there, but for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay? Uh, spiritually. Yeah. I mean, I, I have really, and I grew up as my dad was a Baptist preacher. So I was always front row kid, right? In the front, Hey, here I am. Um, but the one thing is that.

40:01
There's advantage to that, there's disadvantage to that. When I say that's because he was my dad, he wasn't a preacher, his dad, I'd tune him out. You're just like, hey, that's Gene up there preaching. I ain't gotta listen to him. I hear him all day at my home. So you get some osmosis set in, but I really, since my kids were born, I've always been at church. But when my kids were born, I started going, okay, how my going life for my kids and how I'd stave off the darkness is always been that.

40:29
Not to give my kids, of course I want them to have great things. Of course I do. I want them to have nice clothes. But my goal is not to have that for them. My goal is they're going to be provided with. It's not something better than I had. Is to have upbringing where they're kind, considerate people that knows about Jesus, that loves him and understands the real importance of life is love for human beings and service to one another. And that's my real goal as a parent is to try to raise them right. And it's a tough journey. But how I keep Darnage out is I...

40:59
I constantly look at, I read the Bible, I look at it and go, hey, cause it applies to your life so well that I, spiritually I go, and there's down days, and the Bible has a lot of down days in it too. I mean, Jesus had down days. So it's not like, hey, become a Christian, you're gonna be, it's an easy road for you. That's not at all what it is. It's probably gonna be a tough road. But again, it's that, if we talked about earlier, second about working and finding the joy, and I think as you work at something spiritually, I keep,

41:29
I keep in prayer, I look to God for a lot of answers. And sometimes I don't like those answers. And I gotta accept that, hey, that I'll see in the future what that's gonna come to fruition of why that didn't happen for me. And I think you've gotta keep priorities straight, wherever that might be in your life. As we talk about finding joy, then you gotta, the world is constantly coming at you to be down. Look at social media.

41:57
When we first got on Facebook, it was people posting pictures of food and pancakes, right? It was fun stuff like that and memes. Now it's people going at each other about political stuff that you don't even know the people. You don't know who they are, but they're coming at them with so much hate. And I'm like, this is not the way to solve things. And you can get wrapped up in this world of darkness really quickly and get down a rabbit hole of things are terrible. But look at the still the life that most of us live. We're in a country where...

42:26
We can have these disagreements, even though they're not healthy. We have a country where you are free to move about state to state. If you want to get up in your car today and go to the beach, you ain't got to have some kind of paperwork to get you down there. You can just drive on down there and get the water. I mean, most countries, if you go from, you don't have that opportunity and you're, you know, in Russia, you just can't leave from place to place and jump across, you know, basically different worlds. But so I think getting rid of the darkness is going to depend how you attack it.

42:55
each day because it's always trying to get in. We're built, unfortunately, we're built fragilely to want to dwell in it sometimes. But really it's human beings to go. Because there's something about it and you know it too. Sometimes it's comforting to be in a dark place and it's weird, you know what I'm saying? Like it's, hey, this is okay. And to find- It's easy. It is. It's easy to, like you said earlier, it's easy to not do nothing. Just sitting the laser boy and just be in the darkness and just stew and dwell.

43:25
Yeah, and we've all done it. I've done it. I've sat there for years before and went, you know, we're talking about with the infertility of my wife I'd look at other people like my brother had a kid and I would look at him go like he ain't fit to have be a kid. Why'd he get a kid and I didn't get a kid? I mean, he didn't have, I mean he wasn't fit to be a father. Why does he have a kid and I don't have one? You know, I'd look at that that woe is me like I'd see other people that I kind of knew and be like well I'd be a better parent than that. Why don't I have a child? I would get really mad. I get mad at God I'll be honest. I get mad at him and be like hey man, what's the deal here?

43:54
And sometimes it's okay to be mad at him because you ain't gonna hide it from him. He knows you're mad. He ain't like you hiding. Right. I mean, like he can go in your closet and hide from you. He'll be like, I'm mad at you. He knew. I would tell him, like, I'd be mad. And it, Robb, it really, there was a dark place in my probably 36, 37, 38, two or three years where I just fell into this thing. It was like, no, I drank too much. I was wasting my life away on things that I thought I should have.

44:24
And I didn't have, and I was mad at people that did have them, and I didn't know how to process that. And I kind of, for some weird reason, I just, I mean, I can't get out of this on my own. And I prayed about it and then kind of let God take over and quit worrying about it and go, this is out of my control. And then 10 years later, we have kids. Right. So, and I'm not saying it's for everybody. It's going to work everybody if you're dealing with infertility or whatever it might be that God's going to answer that prayer. But I think eventually if you trust in Him.

44:53
that he will show you why that that didn't happen. You'll go, oh, that's the reason why. You know, that's the reason why it didn't happen. So I think there's a number of ways that you have to get out of your slump. And one of them is gonna take, like we talked about, a little effort to do it on your own. But it's still hard, man. It still comes at me every day where today, when I'm going to the grocery store and I'm buying 180 dollars of groceries and it fills up two bags, you know? And you go, how am I gonna make it? How am I gonna make it? And I go, wait.

45:22
I've made it this far. It's about not giving up on yourself, not giving up on life because life is a beautiful thing and the world wants you to make, sometimes it's not. So you gotta get out of that. It's tough for anybody, it's tough. But if you have a strong will and you gotta get it and go, you know what, my dad used to have, my dad's favorite saying in my entire life was he would always say,

45:52
I ain't gonna let anything beat me. And what he meant by that was if there was a car to be fixed, he was smarter than that car. He goes, I'm smarter than this car. I can turn it off and turn it on. I can push off a cliff. It has no mind. He goes, I'm not gonna let it beat me. If it was anything my dad had a challenge from, he goes, I'm not gonna let it beat me. And I thought, as I thought it was crazy when I was a kid, as I looked back, I was like, man, it's a beautiful thing because my dad wouldn't let anything get him down. He just kept striving. And to this day, he's 81, and he still ain't gonna let it beat me.

46:19
And he's still going. So, I mean, it's one of those things you have to take that aspect in life. Don't let it beat you.

46:29
All right, Daniel, this is the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five, the Fast Five. It is time now for the Fast Five. Sorry, I'm still working on a theme song for that. I love it, I think that should be everything. I want to borrow it. The Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. If you go to chewingthefatbr.com slash poddecks, it'll take you where you can download it for your phones. It's made for podcasters, but it's great interview questions, things like that. So definitely check that out. But it's...

46:58
Five questions. First thing, come to the top of your mind. No wrong answers. All right, you ready? Yeah. All right, here we go. Question number one.

47:09
If you could go on an adventure tomorrow, what adventure would you choose? Ooh, man, that's a good one. I would go to, uh, he West key West. Okay. I've always wanted to go. I've planned a trip five years ago. We never went and key West is one of those things that my dad went as a child and drove across the, what is that? 20 something mile bridge. And I've always told stories about it. And it's something romantic to me about key West that I would always love just to go see it.

47:39
And one of those things like the Grand Canyon, that's where I would go immediately. That's awesome. I love that. And question number two.

47:49
best Morgan Freeman movie of all time? Oh man, um, Shawshank Redemption. Yes. Oh God, I love that movie. That's like my favorite movie. I love that movie. That's a great movie. I was going to say that of Drive Miss Daisy. I love that one too. That's a top one. That is, that is, that is another great movie. That is another great movie. All right. Question number three.

48:12
You kind of alluded to this earlier in the first segment, but what did your 15 year old self imagine you'd be doing right now? Me? Yeah. Oh Lord, I believed I'd be changing. No, I didn't say be changing at all. I didn't think I was qualified for that. I just gave too much credit to myself. I really didn't. I mean, at a 15 year old self, I had the hopes of being a cartoonist. Really? I thought that was going to be as being like an...

48:39
animator and then I realized you have to have talent for that. You have to be able to draw. They just don't like stick figures there in the Disney movies. But yeah, that was my dream as a kid was all the way up until probably my 16 year old self went like, they can't do it. But that was where I thought I'd be. Yeah. That's awesome. I love that.

49:02
What embarrasses you instantly? Ooh, letting one rip in public. Like it just slipped out. You didn't realize. Oh yeah. Now I'll do this number. Like I did it with my mouth. That was me playing the horn. But I've actually added terrible. Listen to that in fourth grade in front of Carrie Gobble, who is the

49:31
cutest girl in fourth grade. I let one slide off my desk. It was a wooden desk, right? Oh no. It wasn't, it wasn't nailed down so it rattled. It sounded like an airplane taking off and it traumatized me. Oh my gosh. And then Johnny Peek was sitting beside me. Thought it was funny. He pointed that out. I was like, Johnny. So yeah. That's a little hilarious. That's probably where it stems from. All right. And question number five.

49:58
If humans came with a warning label, what would yours say?

50:04
Talks too much. My wife gets on to me all the time in the grocery store, I'll track her conversation, the person behind me, and I'm there for 25 minutes. And I'd be like, or I'd say, don't talk to me, something like that. My wife's like, you talk to anybody. And I'm like, well, it's kind of my job. And she was like, you were like that since I've been dating you. So yeah, I like to talk, but I like the experience of meeting people and talking to people and learning about them and connecting with people. So yeah, my mom talks too much. Yeah.

50:33
I'm or, or rip some in public. One of the two. Stay 100 feet back. Exactly. Loose gravel.

50:50
Oh, man. I love it. Daniel, that is our Fast Five and that's the show, man. Thank you so much for being here, buddy. Thanks, buddy. I love you so much and I'm so glad we could reconnect. If folks want to keep up with you and what you got going on or your station or your morning show and all that stuff, what's the best way they can do that? US101country.com. We have a page here, Ken and Daniel. You can find me on Instagram. It's quietwyatt101. So it's @quietwyatt101. I'm on

51:20
there. I try to do most of my stuff Instagram, I mean Facebook, kind of sort of, but you know, I'm more of an Instagram person because it's like I'm the image guy, you know, so I don't like typing stuff Robb. I have too much typing on that Facebook thing, man. I hear you. I hear you. That's awesome. Well, I will put those links in the show notes again, Daniel.

51:40
It's like we picked up where we left off. You have one of my favorite stories on radio in my entire life that you're part of. Part of the one of the best. Do you remember it? Can I tell it? I mean, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. I'll make it quick. We were doing hurricane coverage because there was a hurricane coming up. Do you remember now? You're talking about Jay and the steak? Yeah. It is the best.

52:08
So we had this long, it's been a long day during the hurricane coverage.

52:12
They'd out back and brought in some free food and Robb, poor Robb been there. I don't know how long, it was hours and hours he'd been on the air. Well yeah, because I'd been there since the morning show. So I'd been there at 3, 3, you know, 4 o'clock in the morning. And they'd brought the steak in and he had gotten a plate and put it in there. And a guy we worked named Jay came in and ate that steak, ate that steak. And Robb let loose on him. Like I have never seen somebody let loose on him. And I cracked up.

52:42
just saw it. It was like somebody in the grasp was was Robb's dream right there. He had it. It was there. So it was like winning almost gold at the Olympics and somebody comes in and cheats you and snatches you right away. And all that frustration is unloosed. And I laugh to this day. I will never forget that moment because it was just it was one of those real things I'd ever seen in my life. And generally, I was

53:07
shocked. And then I felt pain and horror and so sad as for Robb. It was not my best moment. No, but it way it was because it just shows the human emotion about Outback. Everybody wants it. That should be the sponsor of your podcast is Outback. It's worth yelling over. Exactly. Well, Daniel, again, thank you so much for being here, man. This was awesome. I love you. I wish you nothing but success.

53:37
and everything that you got going on. And I will keep up with you and hopefully we'll talk again a little bit sooner than 20 years later. Oh man, I appreciate you having me on. I love talking to you. I hope that what we talked about can help some people out there to, like I said, my dad said, don't let it beat you. Don't give up. People you might not even know about love you more than you know if you're out there. So just

54:07
keep going. Man, I appreciate you. And if you would like to help support this podcast, I'd appreciate it if you bought me a coffee at ChewingTheFatBR.com. But until next time, I look forward to the chance we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.