JOSH INNES: WHAT'S THE DAMN DEAL? - NIGHT HAWK - NOVEMBER 17, 2010

JOSH INNES: WHAT'S THE DAMN DEAL?

Written by: Night Hawk

Date posted: 11/17/2010

SELF-DEPRECATING HUMOR!

Josh Innes, shut up already and be a professional, as we know you can be.  Josh has been in Houston a little over a year.  Josh's "radio" reputation has become the silly-fat-feminine from Louisiana or Missouri.  This is not a title the audience initiated, this is a title he created himself.  There is nothing wrong with the way Josh presents himself, but why get upset when someone does not like it?

Last Friday, Josh talked about a complaint sent to Gavin Spittle (Program Director).  Approximately thirty minutes of his broadcast last Friday morning was a "pitty party" for Josh.   Basically, the audience called in and let him know he's doing a good job and his delivery is solid.  I am not going to debate if Josh's delivery is solid or not, but it reeks of a person not secure in his profession.

MOVE OVER SHEILA JACKSON LEE, THERES A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN!

During the "9/11" era, the country was on high alert with very sensitive issues on the table.  Everyone was patriotic and worried at the same time. What stood out to me was Sheila Jackson Lee's big gripe at the time, HURRICANES.  Congresswoman Lee wanted more ebonic-named hurricanes.  I won't even mention the "Red Dress" at the annual State of the Union Address.  Some kind of way she was at the Michael Jackson memorial.  In my opinion, I perceive her as a "ME" person, but she has some local competition because Josh is a ME, MUAH, I, MYSELF person.

Josh Innes is the only host in town that I know of that goes on and on about "himself".  Usually, when he's talking about himself it's in the self-deprecating context.  We already know you are a thick white dude that lives alone with a chair and a TV and your girl quit you because she had a breast job.   Not only will he tell you how much his life sucks, but he backdoors it by soliciting your input on his show. 

What's wrong with that?  Well it's one thing if he would say "what do you think about my show today". It's another thing when he says "I think my show was good today, would you agree".  Josh, with leading questions like that, man you need to work for a polling service like Gallup or Real Clear.

Josh is also the only host I hear that boasts about his ratings.  I am not talking in the sports talk format, I am talking in the City of Houston.  Not to mention, the audience is not ignorant and we realize there is a gradual increase in numbers during the football season.  Are your ratings blowing out the ratings of Marc Vandermeer, J Fizz, or Adam Clanton (personalities that previously held that slot) or are you benchmarking your numbers based upon your production.

POSITIVE POINTS

I believe in pointing out the good in a person.  Next to Adam Wexler, Josh interacts with his fanbase via email, Twitter, Facebook.  I believe this is good to a degree when a person is not fishing for a compliment.  In addition to communicating with his fan base, he will not RUN from a disagreement.  There are others in this town like Dylan Gwinn that will tuck tail and run, but Josh will debate you which is key to my later analysis.  Josh is also one of the most honest personalities at 610 in regards to the Texans.  He is not sugar coating the reality of what we see as do his cowrker Marc Vandermeer.  He is calling it like he see it and it may get him fired as he jokingly say but it take balls to speak the truth at 610.  I do not like his sports delivery but I do respect the fact that he's honest. He is one of the few personalities in Houston that give you insight of the radio business.  For example: he told the audience out right that the Texans losing is not good for radio business, he constantly remind his audience that radio is all script, and of course he talks about his "no game" with the ladies.

Earlier this year, HMW was alerted that Josh was taking shots at HMW (bloggers) therefore HMW dealt with him.  All of that is "water under the bridge", but during that time period Josh continued to communicate and we were like "wtf is wrong with dude still talking to us, don't he know what the business is?"  Also Josh is one of the few that will talk "real" about the Texans and Rockets, but it gets lost in the clutter of entertainment (what he fines entertaining) and frankly his analysis is taken as a joke.

MY TAKE ON JOSH

FEMININE WAYS

I am not fooled by this at all.  I don't know what Josh Innes' sexuality is, but you would believe it's weird.  Is this brilliant or what?  How many times can you hear Josh say Ben Nance  or some male entertainer is handsome and you are like "wtf".  By his own admission, during the Super Bowl he was in his underwear in front of Rich Lord and Robert Henslee.  He skating on thin ice with the "almost" nudity around Rich. Any chance he gets, he will drop a "girlfriend" on air.  You have to be one "THICK" skin cat to play this role while knowing people will take shots at your sexuality. 

Here is the deal, I believe Josh is trying to secure an untapped base in terms of Sports Talk.  Josh is going after the female audience.  I am not saying, he only wants a female audience, but it's a pool of people normally washed off in sports talk.  I could be wrong, as he could be trying to garner the homosexual audience and nothing is wrong with that either, but he goes out of his way to give  a feminine persona.  With that being said, I think Josh knows exactly what he is doing and he will continue to do so.  I hope his strategy does not work because the last thing I need is a bunch of men playing up to the feminine audience.

THE GAVIN SPITTLE CONVERSATIONS

I don't buy the Spittle arguments.  I will go as far to say this is nothing more than SR 610's many bits.  I don't think Gavin is calling Josh into his office ripping him because of a fan complaint.  What's more likely is Gavin calling Josh into his  office, both of them reading the e-mail and Gavin instructing Josh to use it as a bit in his show.  I could be wrong, but let's use some common sense here. Your boss rips into your ass and you go and make fun of it.  When you and your boss are constantly at odds, you don't go to Venton, Lousiana Delta Downs Casino together

Last I looked, Josh is no Howard Stern or IS HE?  Howard Stern was known for going against management while innoculating himself by the fans.  It was Howard Stern's way of job security.  If you are this beloved by the fans, management will be less likely to get rid of you.  Could this be the case of Josh soliciting compliments all the time or could this be the case of Josh telling Gavin, my style can work in this town?

STOP PLAYING!

At the end of the day, when your team is losing, the last thing you want to hear is "Back to the Future" references.  I actually believe Josh would actually do well in sports because he clearly knows history.  I am not saying he's and an X and O or stats guy, but his historical knowledge of sports clearly stands out.  If you are going to use Self-Deprecating Humor as your niche, then you have to welcome the criticisms.  It's truly odd to write this article because if what I am saying is true about Josh Innes then I just fell for the phantom punch in giving him MORE ATTENTION.

Night Hawk

HMW
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