by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
You’ve seen the ads on TV. For $3.99 a minute you can call a woman with a fake Jamaican accent and get your fortune read. She’ll advise you on love, lust, work and virtually every other facet of life. The more she talks, the more you listen. And, the more you pay.
Or, you can pick up the phone in the morning and call FM-105’s Lex and Terry and they’ll gladly advise you on love, lust, work and every other facet of life. They used to mix in a song or two every hour, but now it’s just straight advise. Be warned, though, if you call you are going to get exactly what they think however they feel like putting it. Don’t get upset, either. After all, you made the call, not them. And, it’s free.
Lex and Terry are Lex Staley and Terry James, the patriarchs of morning drive time radio in Jacksonville. They can be rude. They can be crude. They will make some cry, but they make many laugh. For the better part of the last decade they have filled the air with heartfelt advice, biting sarcasm and dark wit.
More than anything, though, almost since day one they have occupied the top spot in Jacksonville’s Arbitron ratings — and no one else is really very close. The two good friends on and off the air have seen their show go from being only in Jacksonville nine years ago to being syndicated in 20 cities with six more on the way. They have survived a relocation to Dallas where they flourished and gained a huge new audience, but also spent a precarious year and a half not even sure who was signing their checks.
The fact that they have survived and thrived in such a vacillating industry is a testament to their perseverance as much as their personalities. The fact is, rather than go the shock jock route, Staley and James opted to do what they do best — be guys.
“We’re just regular guys with a lot of different experiences,” said James. “We like to treat our listeners like friends.”
James said the advice format wasn’t written on some corporate chalk board or the product of a happy hour gathering with format ideas scribbled illegibly on a cocktail napkin.
“It just kind of happened,” said James. “We didn’t go into it and say, ‘We are going to give advice.’ It just kind of metamorphed.”
The two couldn’t be more different and perhaps that’s as much a basis for the show’s longevity as much as anything. Staley’s a local, James is from the Left Coast. Staley is short and has battled weight issues. James is tall and played college basketball. Staley, not much hair these days; James still has plenty. Staley has become a good golfer. James plays to crack jokes and check out the houses that line the fairways.
After watching several big name radio jocks come and go as competition (other stations, both in and out of Jacksonville have tried such people as Ron and Ron, the Greaseman, John and Tomboy), Staley and James are still on top.
A year ago, Bubba The Love Sponge made his morning debut on FM-93.3. Originating out of Tampa, Bubba brought his acrid sense of humor and wrestling background to the Jacksonville airwaves with the intention of dethroning Lex and Terry. He promised to cut into their ratings by 50 percent within six months. He talked about them constantly for weeks on end, calling them so many vulgar names that half the time his show was one prolonged, seven-second delay bleep.
The attack worked — for Lex and Terry, anyway. These days, Bubba rarely mentions his Jacksonville competition and Lex and Terry are the ones justifiably running the smack. According to David Moore, the program manager at FM-105, Lex and Terry are pulling an 11.8 share for September, October and November 2001. Tom Joyner’s syndicated show on FM-101.5 (an urban adult contemporary station) is second with a 9.7 share. Bubba is well down the line with a 2.3 share.
“In every city there’s a guy like that taking shots at us,” said James. “They are all a bunch of blowhards.”
“The truth be known, he hasn’t really surpassed what his station was doing before in his own town,” said Staley. “You guys [the media] bought into it. That’s an ambiguous term anyway. Fifty percent of what? The 15-18 year old boys? What that will get you is the Clearasil buy. He hasn’t lived up to what I thought he’d do. I don’t think he’d do well in his own town if he had any competition.”
Part of Bubba’s problem in Jacksonville may stem from the fact that he seldom mentions Jacksonville and seems to focus on Tampa people and Bay Area issues. Staley and James admit most of their show focuses on Jacksonville, but the sheer nature of the format lends itself to a wide geographical audience.
“We talk a lot about Jacksonville, but we are still No. 1 in places like Savannah and Gainesville,” said James, adding that he and Staley basically refuse to acknowledge Bubba or any competition on the air. “All these guys want to do is hear their names on our show.”
Over the years there is little doubt Lex and Terry have saved a few marriages, broken a few others, convinced many people to seek help for themselves and brought smiles to many a listener’s face while stuck in traffic. They have also ticked off a few folks. That, they say, is just life and part of its many quirks.
“Sometimes we may upset our listeners,” said Staley. “All we are doing is telling them the truth.”
“We’re completely honest with our listeners, whether it’s in a mean way or a funny way,” said James, adding that both are aware that their current format will eventually run its course. “We know the day is coming when our ratings are going to suck, when you people say you’re tired of it. When that happens, we’ll move on. I honestly thought that would have happened by now, but we are just getting started.”
“All shows have a shelf life and all of them vary,” said Staley. “Some of them last 20 years.”
“They have thrown a lot of competition at us, every one from Bob and Tom, who are on in 100 cities, to the Greaseman,” said James. “We’ve just outperformed everybody by five or six times.”
In 1997, corporate decided the show needed a change of venue. Both Staley and James were up for the move for one reason: they both wanted to make it in a big market and Dallas represented a huge opportunity to prove their format could work in a new environment. The move, however, came with one stipulation.
“It was our company’s idea and we had told them we had major market aspirations,” said James. “But, we wanted to keep the show on in Jacksonville. They agreed and because all the shows originated in Dallas, it was a win-win scenario.”
Staley has a different version.
“Actually, our contract was up and we were going to be going somewhere, maybe Atlanta,” said Staley.
The guys loved Dallas and Dallas liked them. Radio-wise, things couldn’t have been better. From a corporate standpoint, the arrangement proved to be confusing.
Shortly after arriving in Dallas, their station was put up for sale. The telecommunications bill had just been passed and radio stations were changing hands quicker than a teenager can change the subject. Management decisions were coming down in a “he-said, she-said” manner and Lex and Terry were having a hard time getting a straight answer from anyone.
“For six months to a year, we weren’t sure who our employer was,” said Staley. “It was like a gaping black hole. At that point it was just a matter of time.”
“That station is now doing disco after 30 years of rock and roll,” said James. “We were doing really, really well in Dallas. We had an opportunity to stay in Dallas with another station, but we liked the comfort and safety of Jacksonville. We had fun while we were there, though.”
The return to Jacksonville has proven beneficial to both the team and the station. The fall 2001 Arbitron ratings show that FM-105 is the second-highest rated station in town with a 7.2 share; FM-93.3 is well back with a 3.4 share. Much of that difference can be attributed to Lex and Terry and their dominance of morning radio.
While they will continue to ride the wave of success and bask in the glory of adding affiliates, both know the fickleness of the industry could land them in the unemployment line tomorrow. This much they do know, it would take one hell of an offer to get them to move the show out of Jacksonville again.
“We are in an ideal situation,” said James. “The company is behind us, the promoters are behind us. Besides, who’s to say this place in three or four years won’t be a major market?”
“It would have to be the golden opportunity of golden opportunities,” said Staley.
Neither Staley nor James has any idea how much longer their format will stay popular with listeners or how much longer their act will line corporate pockets. And, neither cares. They do have one basic demand these days — don’t ask us to change.
“I’ll stay with it as long as it’s digestible,” said Staley. “There are periods of time when it’s not.”
“I’m in that period right now,” James admitted. “If it were to end today, I’d walk out to the parking lot with a smile on my face, say it was fun and not miss it.”
“I’m not going to let some idiot change what we do,” said Staley. “We’re proud of what we do and it works.”
“I let my gut feelings act upon the situation,” said James. “There’s a time to be the good guy and a time to take somebody’s head off. Nobody knows how to do that better than we do. If the show ended, I’d be so far gone. I’m not sure what I’d do. I’d be my own boss, make my own decisions and trust my own judgments.”