EARL CAMPBELL TAKES SR610 AM (KILT) BY STORM

Written By: Lamont Mann
08-06-2010

BEST RADIO INTERVIEW IN A LONG TIME (SHAUN AND BARRY w/EARL CAMPBELL)

In layman’s terms, Barry Warner “KILLED IT”. This was four hours of "Class" radio. Earl was supposed to have called at 7:30 (Tuesday - August 3), but he called a bit earlier and from then “it was on”. It was obvious that Barry set up the interview as he would jump in and out with various stories while allowing a stunned Shaun to chime in from time to time.

Shaun and Barry’s Niche

In the past, I have written about Shaun and Barry having two trademarks about their show.

1. “Oh By the Way”

2. Asking guests to hold for another segment (something that isn’t standard operating procedures)

Of course, I am thinking to myself, only one freaking segment with Earl and that’s when Shaun hit the greatest running back in Houston’s History with an “Earl would you mind holding over through the break” and Earl replied “Yes”, as he proceeded into the break with yet another freaking story. Back from the break, some kind of strange way Earl dropped some Beyonce “Put a Ring on it”.
Now this is quite ironic for me because both Beyonce and Earl are known from their “THIGHS” with Houston ties. As the segment was coming to an end, Shaun did the unthinkable and hit Earl with a “Can you hang over one more time?”. Three freaking segments of Earl. That’s Awesome!

Barry Personalized the Interview

I have heard a million interviews on the radio and they are just that - “interviews”. Ask a question and the guest answers. Tuesday evening, it was “story telling”. Barry would initiate a story and get to a certain point and Earl would grab the baton and run with it. It was like two friends talking at the bar. It was not your traditional interview.

Both Ways

I think radio is at it's best when ole Monty Mont learns something he was not aware of.  During the interview, to my surprise, I learned that for a period of time Earl played on defense.  Barry led a story of how Earl scored on a play (UT) as Earl corrected him and said he caused the fumble and his friend recovered the ball in the end zone.  In fact, Earl actually made it known he wanted to play linebacker for the University of Texas.  Craig and I talked about the interview and I was telling him that I did not know Earl wanted to play defense; Craig responded how you didn't want to be the player that caught an interception against the Oilers. 

Advertising

If there was a knock on the interview, it appeared that Earl was plugging some kind of product.  He constantly referred to what I believe was an exercise product.  I'm not tripping, but I did notice it.

 Callers

When you get a caller from RIVER OAKS, it means only one thing, you have hit the big time.  Some lady from River Oaks called and reminisced about her days at Texas with Earl.  She described the atmosphere at as pure electric, but you know OLE MONTY MONT; I know one thing, if I am ever rolling through River Oaks and I see a white kid with big thighs eating sausages and chewing Skoal then my theory will be validated.  Seriously, I was really surprised by the amount of callers who brushed up with Earl in their life time.  All of them had nothing, but wonderful things to say about him.  Freddie in Richmond said as he was listening to the interview, he was wiping away tears.  Earl is the "MAN".

 

Readers of the blog know how I feel about SR610 and all of their changes, but I must say, this week the boys on the 19th floor of Greenway Plaza went "ALL OUT".  I can't do nothing, but respect an organization that will throw in all of the cards and say "We are coming out with a bang" and that's exactly what they did this week.  Outside of the "plugging" by Earl the one other thing I noticed was Barry talking too much.  It was explained to me in film and music production, feeds are coming in through multiple mechanisms but in radio every thing is piping through one stream.  Barry commonly over talks the callers and I can only imagine it's hell on the person that's editing the audio.  Can you imagine what Gavin and crew could have done with all of that natural Earl promo?  I think Barry is a victim of his own success, the dude is on point with his material and he wants to let you know he knows his "stuff".   It's plain as this, the Night Shift has been busting ass this week.  I didn't even get to Kenny Houston and Mike Leach.

If you would like to listen to the interview, please click here

 
Grade 99.2
Grading Scale:
90-100 Excellent
80-89 Very Good
70-79 Average
60-69 Below Average

 

 

 

Lamont Mann
HMW
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