The Drew and Mike Show was a top rated morning program on Greater Media’s WRIF/Detroit for 14 years before Drew Lane exited in September 2007. Mike maintained his stronghold in the Motor City with Mike In the Morning, which was still on top of the ratings. But on July 13 after a two-year absence, his old co-host Drew rejoined him to rekindle the chemistry that Detroit radio listeners have come to know and love.
Drew & Mike
The dynamic duo of Drew Lane and Mike Clark anchored mornings on WRIF/Detroit for 14 years. The Drew and Mike Showconsistently scored #1 in the ratings for more than a decade, at times doubling the share of its closest competitor. But in September 2007, Drew left the airwaves to tend to a family matter. It seemed as though Drew’s departure could deliver a blow to the powerhouse program, which pulled in a whopping 12.3 share for the 25-54 demo in their final three months together. However, Mike remained at the helm with the Mike In The Morning Show, teaming with long-time show contributors Trudi Daniels and Marc Fellhauer, and maintained his top morning rank. In the most recent quarterly ratings, Mike In the Morning was #1 with a 7.6 share. But on July 13, his old friend Drew returned to the show to reignite their Motor City mojo and cheer on his beloved Tigers as they make a run for the MLB playoffs. After their first week back on the air together, Drew & Mike spoke to FMQB about how things have changed in the past two years, as well as their plans to move forward.
How did it feel to be back on the air together? Was it old and familiar or did it seem new?
Drew: Definitely old and familiar. It seemed like I never left. Nothing has changed since I left. The same five people are still working on the show and they’re all extremely competent. The show is not #1 just because Mike and I are so great! Everybody on the show is an all-pro at what they do. It’s not hard to plug back in.
Mike, you have been doing your own show for almost two years. Did you have to make some adjustments with Drew
returning?
There were adjustments because Drew was gone for so long, and the show had been kind of re-created and re-cast. Naturally everybody is in different roles and you get accustomed to that. Then seemingly with the flick of a switch, it was back to how it used to be. We had a couple of stumbles, like “Hey, I used to do that!” or “I want to do that!” But once again, the transition was so simple that it was easy to fall back into how we used to do things.
Do you plan to do anything differently with the show this time, or do you feel like, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?”
Drew: I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but at the same time, that’s the hard thing about radio. Even if we had worked straight through and I had been here the whole time, sometimes it’s really hard to affect change on a show that’s been doing something for so long. There is a style and feel to the show, so it’s hard to introduce wholesale changes. We’re not a real benchmark show, like “every Monday we do this in the 9 o’clock hour.” We tend to just roll, but not in a totally haphazard way.
Mike: It’s controlled freeform. He and I have both had different life experiences over the two years he was gone, so that can make you a little different inside, but not a whole lot because two years goes by pretty quickly. I would only hope that for part two (the sequel) we can be every bit as entertaining or more so than the first time around, and have a renewed sense of energy and excitement. Drew has that after being off. He brings a lot of extra energy into it, so we can utilize that to reach a little higher this time around.
Things have changed a lot in radio over the past two years, as far as technology, competition from other mediums and also the economy’s effect on advertising. As someone who stepped away from radio for a few years, do you feel like it’s a whole new ballgame now?
Drew: The time that I was gone – a year and 10 months – doesn’t seem that long, but I can’t ever remember radio changing so much. Since last November, I had been hunting for what to do and talking to a lot of different people, so I was very aware of how bad it was, probably more so than people who were in it because I heard it from different people at different companies. It was stunning. It has changed a lot, but I was pretty hip to what was going on so I don’t think it’s anything we can’t overcome. We have a group of people that are very complementary. We have some that are real tech heads. I’m very much a prep head. We have people that are really into sports. We have a lot of different skills and interests. I always feel like we’re covered.
Also after being off the air for a few years, do you feel like the FCC has tightened content restrictions even more now? Do you have to alter your style?
Drew: We’ve been down that road before with Janet Jackson in the Super Bowl. When that happened, it was so radical. I was like one day you could say anything in the world and then all of a sudden, because of this one stupid incident, if you even mentioned an excretory function or a sexual act or anything surrounding that – it was ridiculous – it was like back to 1950 overnight. It got more realistic as time went on, but we did really pull the show back. I remember so many people saying about us, “Oh, those guys are sunk.” I never agreed with that because as much as we had a reputation for being on the rowdy side, it’s just an attitude and a general feel that pervades the show. But in terms of talking about sex, we don’t even talk about it that much. It was a small part of the show, and when it got pulled back, I didn’t think it changed things that much. Since September 2007 when I left, there are a few words that are maybe more borderline than they were then, but I’m not sure.
Mike: Like everybody, we still don’t have that line defined. It’s as gray now as it’s ever been, even with this new administration. Naturally you have managers and consultants that will give you a list of things that are absolutely not to be used, but it’s easy to just go along with that, unless it becomes in the way of things. But if it’s a word or two, we can certainly live without it. To this day it irks me that when the Janet Jackson thing happened, it occurred on television, and the response was, “Let’s go after morning radio!” We didn’t have anything to do with it! Prior to the Janet Jackson thing, our show was a little more graphic and edgy when we did get into sexual topics, but we did recover nicely through it. I think we, and the audience, have forgotten about that era. It’s not really an issue anymore.
How is the spirit of competition in Detroit morning radio these days?
Mike: There’s always a rivalry because there are a lot of morning shows in Detroit. But when it comes to the listeners, I think everybody has established their favorites and that’s pretty much it. They are locked into what they like, and I don’t think it’s going to change much. It is different as far as the market because Detroit is shrinking wildly in terms of its market size. In particular with the economy, and especially with our state, all the college students are now leaving Michigan traditionally right after college. With the auto industry down, we have a lot of workers that are pursuing employment in other states. That is all reducing the available audience. And that affects the numbers, plus you have PPM in there now. So over the years, the audience available to you is ever-changing, and there’s starting to be a turnover in the shows here. But as far as rivalry, it’s always there. Everybody wants to be #1, if nothing else because they want to keep their jobs!
Drew: I have a slightly different answer. When I was on the outside and trying to figure out what I was going to do, I noticed a lot of stations are not making the changes they normally would because it costs money to change a morning show. There are some morning shows here that really have not been performing, and they’re still on. Fifteen years ago, if somebody like me or Mike or anyone from this show were not working, I would expect some of those not-so-winning stations to say, “Hey, that guy is available. Maybe he could help us.” But now it is looked it as, “That guy costs too much money. We couldn’t afford him.” Or, “If we low-balled him, he would be leaving in a year.” It’s just not the same in terms of that. I don’t think the management is as competitive on a programming level. Now they tend to be competitive about sales, which is a bummer, but we understand it. I will say that having listened a lot while I was off, there are more shows like ours that are talking all morning. That has changed. To me it doesn’t mean we should give any quarter, and in terms of competition, we have always had very hard working people who spend a lot of hours on this show. The show tends to compete with itself. We’re all energized by the fact that the competition is good, and there are some people that are trying to creep into the picture. Adding me was kind of an unusual thing only because of the economy. How many stations are adding people to a morning show?
What is it about the show that continues to connect with listeners so intensely?
Mike: It’s the chemistry we have. It’s very rare to take two people from different backgrounds and locales and put them together and have it work, but that is exactly what happened with us. It has come naturally. We didn’t need to develop it much, we just explored each other’s interests. Over a short amount of time, we were generally on the same page with things. We each know what makes the other one laugh. We can look at a newspaper and know the other one is going to like a certain story. We know what will work if we bring it up on the air. We know what each other is thinking before we say it. While we show prep like crazy, we still have the ability to sit down, turn on the mic and just talk and be absolutely fine. That stands out right away. People love the pace, the feeling and the content of the conversation. They pick up on that chemistry right away. People like the mix we have of entertainment, Pop culture, sports and news, and we’re very topical and very community-based. We have a nice mix of production pieces, on-air chatter and interviews. The whole thing comes together to be a package that people instantly recognize like the first notes of a Keith Richards riff!
The show has already been #1 for so many years. What do you still hope to achieve?
Drew: Right now we’re re-trenching and digging in and shooting a little higher. When I left, everyone had to change positions, and that’s a lot to ask. Everyone did a good job of doing that. But now everybody is going back to their natural position, so we’re trying to do our jobs as well or better than we ever have. I hate the idea of people thinking we’re just phoning it in. I think a lot of showsdo just phone it in after a certain amount a time, and I don’t want anyone to do that on this show. So if anything, the goal is just to make people know we really care about putting on a good show everyday.
Mike: Everybody is so good at what they do, that it enabled us when Drew left to regroup in new roles. We were very happy we were able to maintain #1 in our target 25-54. That was a great feeling and we’re all very proud of that, but when you put the two of us together with the abilities we have, plus a great team of producers, when it all comes together it can only be two or three or four times better.
Do you set goals for yourselves? Where do you want the show to be six months from now or a year from now?
Drew: I tend to think of it more in terms of the show competing with itself, because if the show is doing its best, it should do very well and hopefully be #1. They want us to be #1 by three or four share points, which we used to be very consistently. Whether that’s realistic now is hard to say, because there are more shows that are talking all morning. But if the show is clicking the way it can and should, the rest will take care of itself. I’m not one of those people that can say, “Have someone monitor 97.1 all morning! I have to know exactly what they’re doing every second!” I feel like if we’re really doing our thing, I don’t know what somebody else could be doing that could be that much better.
Mike: Once you start monitoring others, you’re just distracting yourself and following the bouncing ball. We would hope that if anybody was going to follow anybody, it would be someone wanting to follow us. That is a rut to get into. You distract yourself from the mission. We know what we do, and we just keep our eye on the ball and let it happen from there.
Are the Tigers the real deal this year? Are they going to make the playoffs?
Drew: The Tigers are really interesting. They have all these really flawed aspects of the team. For example, Jeremy Bondermanis virtually out for the season. His arm is screwed up. Dontrelle Willis is on the DL, Magglio Ordonez is hitting .260 and has lost his power. Carlos Guillen, our leftfielder, has been out almost all year. We have a lot of things going wrong, but for some reason, the guys that are playing are having career years. Somehow it’s working! I think it’s because our top two starting pitchers – Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson – are two of the top 5 starters in the league. I think we have a damn good shot to make the postseason because we have those two starters who are so good, and then this rookie, Rick Porcello, who is 20-years-old and has won eight games and looks to win 15 or 16. Three-fifths of our starting rotation is outstanding and we hopefully have enough offense to win the close games. I believe we’re going to be in the postseason, and that’s one of the reasons I was most excited to come back on the air! The Tigers are in a pennant race and I want to be a part of it!
***QB Content By Mandy Feingold***
