The Bryan Blue Show
http://bryanblueshow.com/
Proving that political opposites can get along, Bryan Blue and Jamie Knight are working well together as they broadcast over the Fort Worth-Dallas airwaves on the Bryan Blue Show.
Blue is a conservative and Knight is the liberal voice. Their show can be heard at 9 pm. Saturdays on KSKY 660 AM, one of 30-plus stations around the country. KSKY is owned by Salem Communications and has a talk show format. Among the shows on the station is the longtime local talk show host Mark Davis and the nationally-syndicated Sean Hannity. However, soon listeners will be able to hear their friendly arguments five mornings a week and through a special app to download shows immediately.
“Generation X is the first generation that wants to control what we’re listening to and when we listen to it. We’re giving our audience the ability to do just that,” Blue said.
Knight said the hope is to get the expanded broadcast going in May.
“We have some goals for our digital branding firm, Bryan Blue Marketing, that we’d really like to hit before we make the huge time commitment of the morning show, so it may be a little later in the summer,” Knight said. “We’re really excited about it though. We’re doing it digitally as well as syndicating it on AM and FM radio stations, so there will be a Bryan Blue app you can download to stream the morning show and also call or text into the show as well.
“It’s gonna be really exciting to incorporate more entertainment elements that we’d been able to previously do with an additional 19 hours a week from what we’ve done previously. We’re going to have comedians and a motley crew of characters, and also have our correspondents back so we’ll have more from everyday folks on the street and also Paul Salfen’s celeb interviews.”
Through Salfan’s connections, the show has featured such big names as director/screenwriter Quentin Tarantino and actor Morgan Freeman. Other celebrities who have visited include Jack Black, John Schneider of Dukes of Hazzard, Jason London of Dazed and Confused, former baseball star David Justice, Dallas Cowboys legend Drew Pearson and Vaden Todd Lewis of The Toadies.
“Jamie and I have a lot of connections but we’ve been holding back on booking with our max reach until we had a bigger audience,” Blue said. “So the morning show will have lots of prominent guests, so be on the lookout for that.”
The Bryan Blue Show has been on the air since October 2015. Blue, from Crowley, has been in the oil business for about 15 years and has owned and partnered in a variety of bars, clubs and startups. Knight, a Lubbock native and 2006 graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, has “always been in show biz,” as he says, with a background in theater and rock-n-roll. She spent the past five years running the Dallas-Fort Worth talent buying agency Blackbox Concerts with her husband, Aaron.
Blue said the idea for a radio show came to him after he invested in a music label/artist booking and management company about seven years ago.
“Me and my partner in that venture hired Jamie. We did not get along from Day One,” he said with a smile. “We’re so different in lifestyles and opinions that we butted heads a lot, but I was always cognizant of the fact that she was a hard worker, so fast-forward about five years and we’ve established an unlikely friendship out of mutual respect.
“I have always had aspirations to get out of oil and do something more fun, and had this crazy idea for a talk show, so I just hired a studio and walked in and started talking – no experience on TV or in radio at all. It’s been a really wild process of throwing a bunch of stuff up against the wall and seeing what works.”
When Blue started the show he had two other co-hosts and hadn’t spoken to Knight about coming onboard. Then he found out she was indeed interested.
“A moment came when she was wanting to get out of the music business and I was needing some help producing and booking the radio show, so the timing was mutually beneficial to bring her in,” Blue said. “And today I wouldn’t want to be partners in this endeavor with anyone else.”
Turned out, they did agree on this, though not immediately.
“When Bryan and I met, I totally quick-judged him as a square and crazy conservative and uh, a bit of an a-hole,” she said, laughing.
The two worked on a few events together at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin and at Hyenas Comedy Club and Queen City Music Hall in Fort Worth. She said Blue ended up being a mentor to her in business.
“I’ll never forget him teaching me to negotiate a lower price on a PA system by telling me exactly what to say to the seller over the phone. I was so nervous,” she said. “Then I got it for a few thousand less and that was pretty cool. Five years later and we’re really good friends, our families are close, we’ve spent holiday vacations and Thanksgivings together – arguing about politics the whole time.
“From the first Bryan Blue Show meeting I was a part of, it was obvious that Bryan and I debating, while being respectful, was really interesting. It was a short while before it became obvious that I needed to be on air with him, and, boy, was I awkward my first five or 10 shows. I’ve always been behind the scenes in show biz from being a theater set designer and techie to being a concert promoter, so being the one actually in front of the cameras and microphones was a challenge.”
Knight said one of the show’s major drawing points is that “this is totally us. This is all very real. This is exactly how we talk around the office, arguing about politics and religion and making jokes.”
Looking ahead, the show will continue to be a combination of social, political and entertainment commentary. And, as Blue said, look for even more fun.
“We’re going to keep the things that are great about the show with presenting opposing views on trending topics with expert guests, but with more time we’ll be able to do a lot more as far as humor segments and really connecting with our listeners,” Blue said. “Were really excited about the app and growing our show in a different way than most terrestrial shows do. We’re doing 21st century radio for sure, and hope you listen and laugh with us.”