Q & A With Sarah From 97.3 Alice Radio

Over 18 years ago, Sarah made her first morning show appearance on 97.3 Alice Radio and her success has remained ever since. In addition to co-hosting the wildly popular radio show, The Sarah & Vinnie Show, every weekday morning from 5:30-10am, she has now started a new creative adventure with SlappyStuff which she will be selling at the Holiday Craft Fair at the Mill Valley Community Center on December 6th. I caught up with Sarah to talk about her life, being the Bay Area’s #1 radio DJ and a busy mom.

Tell me about growing up on the east coast.

I was born in Rhode Island then moved to Massachusetts. I’ve been horse crazy from the get-go and spent the first 12 years of my life trying to convince my parents that I had to have a horse. The area we lived in was more rural when I was young. In my freshman year in high school my parents got me a horse. I love it and that inspired me to go to horse college. I attended Johnson & Wales in Providence, Rhode Island and studied Equine Business Management…..and I also discovered partying. I was awesome at partying! During that year I met a rock-guy friend from high school and he invited me to a studio rehearsal space in Brockton Massachusetts. That one night in 1989 changed my life. I met, John, my husband of 20 years.

I played piano and guitar and discovered my passion in music and I thought, “This is it. I’m quitting school and I’m going to be a rock star.” The next two years I spent with a good cover band – we worked all the time. The first band I joined was called Geneva. Then I joined my husband’s band Joe Rockhead and then we later formed a band called Slappy. I got into a bit of trouble in the band because with bands comes a lot of partying which I was really good at. So I left the band and decided I needed to get my life together. I moved back in with my parents.

Now John and I are in a band with No Name called Friday Night Living Room Jam Sessions.

What kind of kid were you?

I was a ham at home but at school I was a bit obnoxious. In 3rd grade I started having behavior problems. There was one teacher who just did not like me. I was loud, not a great student, and a bit of an underachiever. I always tell my kids, if only I can go back and apply myself I’d get a better education. I was not an outcast at school but not popular either. I always tell my kids don’t “peek” or feel the need to overdo it in high school because for those kids that do, that’s it for them and they miss being a kid. You’re a kid for such a short time, it feels like forever because that is all you’ve ever know but that gets away from you fast.

How did you become a DJ?

When I was working at my dad’s factory I would listen to Charles Laquidara on The Big Mattress Morning Show on WBCN. They use to run ads for the Connecticut School of Broadcasting and I said “That’s what I’m gonna do!” I started attending night school and then it was a series of one “right place, right time” after another. I had my demo tape, sent it to Charles and he called me to be an intern on his show. For over a year I worked for free and paid millions of dollars in parking tickets. The station was an hour south of Boston and I had to be there at 5am. It’s funny that I ended up in morning radio because man I hated it. You have to be really disciplined. That was my first step into radio. I continued to send out tapes and there was an AM station closer to my house where I got my first on-air gig.

Is there someone you admired?

There was Kathryn Lauren who was funny and great. She left and Tami Heide replaced her. I met her when I worked at WBCN. I also liked Charles Laquidara; he was the person who gave me my first shot. However, I learned from him how not to treat people. I always felt I spent a lot of money on gas, getting there as an intern, and I don’t want to get yelled at. I can’t say I’ve never yelled at anyone but I certainly appreciate interns especially since I was one for a long time. They’re the next generation of what I’m doing and I want them to remember me fondly. I do remember Charles fondly and I did learn a lot from him but I remember him making me cry in front of the staff and I thought I’m never going to do that to anyone; that’s humiliating. That said, he got what he wanted out of everyone and there is something to be said for that too.

How did the Sarah & Vinnie Show come together?

I was working on a morning show in Philadelphia and looking for a partner. Vinnie’s tape showed up and I just knew he was the right partner for me. We had him out, toured around Philly together and it clicked right from the beginning. He came to join me in August and then in November the owner of that station announced he sold the station and in February 1997 we’re going dark. So we had only a few months to figure out what to do next.

This was such a weird and unique situation to get an advanced warning. Usually you’re told the day you’re out and that’s that. For the next few months we sent tapes all over the country and had a wall of rejection letters hanging up. I knew this consultant and he was working with Alice which, at the time, was less then one year old. They didn’t have DJ’s when I started talking to them. I knew they wanted a female morning show host because they tried to get Darian O’Toole but she wasn’t interested. The consultant mentioned me and that was it. Vinnie and I came to San Francisco.

Then right around our five year anniversary Vinnie stopped being able to come to work. He’s really good at partying too. Unfortunately he got drunk and fell off the show (our internal joke.) Then No Name came on for six and a half years and then Vinnie came back.

What’s your favorite part of working on the show?

The best part is the family I have there. I’ve been in some really unhealthy situations but now I’ve been at Alice for 18 years and it just gets better all the time. We have so much fun. Uzette is amazing, Hooman is one of my very best friends, Bryn has taken his position with sound effects to a whole new level, recently we added Vanessa who does our video simulcasting of the show and Jamie does our traffic, I have the same amazing boss, Michael Martin, and we have a really great relationship with our listeners. We’ve had a good solid stable family for a long time. My favorite part is, I have my family and love my family, but I also have this other family that I have four to five intense hours with five days a week. We go our separate ways and then catch up again in the morning.

What does it take to prepare for a daily morning show and how do you keep it fresh?

It can’t help but be fresh because there is always something on the news or a celebrity thing or whatever our dumb running joke is. We’re all avid readers and the internet has made our job so easy. Just a few years ago I had stacks of magazines at my door from all the tabloids. I’d rip out articles and come in with a big pile but now we use TMZ Radar Online, the gossip sites and we use a prep service which does a big round up for us. If you follow Kim Kardashian on Instagram there is always something on her. Did you see those pictures of her butt? It’s so ridiculously airbrushed but looks amazing.

I go in 40 minutes before the show starts and there’s a pile of possible things to talk about. We just start whipping through it for what looks remotely interesting and the other stuff goes away. Then you look through that pile and divide it into the different breaks. My goal is to find something to jump off on. Let’s face it, people really don’t care about Kim Kardashian or need our opinion on it. What we offer is a spin and a jumping off point into something else. To take someone like Kim (which I use as an example - she’s just so prevalent in the news) she does some dumb parenting thing and we take it and put it into our life and then the texts start lighting up. Listeners used to call in but now people have a moment to craft something really funny and text it to us. We have a few regulars and I know people get a kick when they hear it read on the air and it encourages them to text more.

It’s easy to keep fresh, there are always new stories, we find out new stuff about each other and if it’s not about us it’s about some listener, or someone gets super pissed at something we said. We are on the air talking for five hours straight so we’re bound to say something dumb or wrong, use bad grammar, and piss off somebody. By voraciously reading and living life, truly some of the funniest moments are some dumb thing that happened online at the DMV.

What was your favorite interview?

We used to interview on the phone but my favorites are face-to-face because there is no way to connect with someone on the phone. I want to sit down, look them in the eye and see how they react. You can really connect with someone.

As far as a favorite interview - that’s hard – recently Bill Bellamy. He’s been on a few times but he’s so funny and ready to go every time he comes in. All time favorite.....Jewel. She surprised me. I didn’t think she’d be an easy interview but she came in, had a great time, played songs, and was open. Pink was awesome, open and ready to perform, Matt Damon was awesome even though I was super star struck.

Some of the best guests have been random people. We do a podcast called the secret show and it’s with a random person. I think normal people are more interesting because they don’t have all the layers of insulation that a star has. Stars have done five million interviews and there is nothing you can ask them that’s gonna throw them. But a regular person sits down and you start digging at them and we’re all insane inside or have some crazy secret we’re ashamed of but turns out everyone does. My favorite guests sometimes are just people because you can really mess with someone who doesn’t interview a lot and find out some cool stuff.

...... full interview at Ronnie’s Awesome List