Josh Innes Morning Show Review

Josh Innes Show

Usually I wouldn’t write about a new show a week in but JoshInnes  is not a newbie to the market.  Josh returned to Houston in the Afternoon Drive Time slot and worked his way to Mornings.   Upon Lance Zierlein’s announcement to take a break from Morning Radio, Sports Talk 790 reorganized their lineup and Josh landed the Morning gig.

Josh Innes Show is going head to head against his former coworkers and friends Seth Payne and Mike Meltser.  If you know Josh and how he delivers his shows, you know you are going to receive

• Bombastic, wild
• Flame Throwing
• Against popular opinion
• Energy
• Competitive (he wants to crush you)
• Impromptu, improvising
• On air disagreements (callers, guests, sometimes cohosts)
• Real as far as he can get away with on air·         

However, I have seen growth and a change in his craft.  Josh is more political.  He is not pushing a specific party or ideology on his show but he freely speaks about social issues a lot more than he has in the past.  He is very quick to blast Social Media Justice Warriors and will tell them to get a life.  He tends to approach politics and social issues with a common sense point of view and not popular opinion.

Josh was never the personality to shy away from speaking about the competition by name.  In radio, most personalities avoid speaking about their competition by name because they have some dumb ass belief that if the audience hears about the competition, they will flip the dial.  It’s 2017 and everything and everybody are interconnected.  It’s foolish to believe your audience do not know your competition.  Back to Josh, in the past, Josh identified his competition in a negative manner usually via beef and he still will dig in a few asses.   I wondered how would he master this since he is cool with the competition.  Instead of being mean spirited towards Mike and Seth, Josh reference them in a joking matter.   Gay Meltser is a running joke on the show where a caller or callers frequently call to act like a gay Mike Meltser.  The shit is hilarious.  In addition to mentioning the competition’s name, he uses audio drops of them as well.  

A shocker for me is Josh’s baseball knowledge.  When Josh was here before, the Astros were terrible and there was no incentive to talk about Astros or baseball in Houston.  I was talking to Craig Shelton and he was telling me Josh has always liked baseball and you could tell from the way he talked about the league when he could.  Josh knows baseball and truthfully speaking, I thought he was riding the Astros train because Astros GM Jeff Luhnow came from the Cardinals (Josh’s team) organization.  I was wrong, I genuinely listen to hear his takes on the Astros and the interviews.  Anyone who knows me know I hate interviews but I have found myself satisfied with his Astro’s interviews.

The Josh Innes Show still incorporates callers in the mornings but it’s not as much as the afternoon show.  Silly as it may sound mentioning a Sports Talk Show taking phone calls, but if you were to look at his competition (MAD Radio) and a few more shows on Sports Radio 610, they much rather talk to themselves instead of fans.  Josh uses little to none of Twitter for his show.  He will not bring Twitter dialogue or questions to his show unless it’s a person tweeting negativity towards him or the show.  I hate that shit to be honest.

His zeal for wanting to be the best in the market has driven him to look for the next “big thing”.   You can see with the constant trying to think of a new bit or idea for the show.  He is constantly reaching out to the fans for ideas or trying new shit on air with the assistance of Jim Mudd and Jilly.

Earlier I said I liked his Astros Interviews but I think his show has too many interviews.  Outside of the Astros interviews, I change the dial when I hear he’s about to bring someone on.   As a solo host, I understand callers and guests pseudo serve as your cohost.

I like Jim Mudd but his laugh track shit can get annoying.   Everything Josh says do not require gut busting laughter.   At times, it feels like I’m watching an 80s sitcom.  Jilly is cool but since she’s not speaking on a regular basis, her entrance feels forced as if they are making space for her to talk.  I think if she spoke more, it wouldn’t feel out of place.

Personally, I think Josh’s show will thrive in this market considering what he’s up against market-wide.  The market is flat right now.  The only shows I am feeling are Josh Innes, John Granato/Raheel Ramzaneli/ Del and The Blitz.  Mostly everyone else is a boring routine crop desperately waiting on football to kickoff to drive interest.  There is only so many times I can listen to people who are not interested in the Astros give me questions like “how do you feel about the Astros” or delivering some obscure Astros stat.

Moving forward will be interesting to see how Josh holds up.   He is doing a show in Houston and New Orleans in addition to Podcast.  From what I have seen, the Podcast tends to bring in the Philadelphia crowd.  I have seen personalities manage a local and national show but I have never heard a personality manage three shows in different markets.