Has anything weird ever happened in the studio that you had to cover up so your listeners wouldn't hear?
No, you know, Rich and I made a pact years ago that on the show we weren’t going to hide anything. So a lot of time we have ADD behaviors. I’m OCD and ADD, so a lot of times there’s really nothing, and if we do start to hide something one of us calls the other one out on it.We might keep something private if it’s something in somebody’s lives, but if we drop something, it’s “What’s that noise?” We get into it. We’ve done the show before. It was unbelievable, so much drama going on on the radio. This girl had sex with a guy in her sister’s house. The guy put the condom in the trash, and they left. Then the sister didn’t know she had keys to the house, she thought the husband was cheating on her, divorced the husband, they had a baby. As they’re confronting them on the radio, we’re on the fourth floor on Van Buren, and this guy is cleaning the windows and he has those suction cups... The woman is crying and you hear [makes thunk and squeegee sounds]. It’s so much drama, and we [interrupted and said] there’s a guy cleaning the windows. Now, professional radio people wouldn’t have done that. SHould have never done that. But the beauty of the show is we’re not professionals. You driving in your car is like sitting in the studio because we’re not trained in any way. I don’t even speak right.
Tell us something we don't know about Rich.
There are two things about Rich people don’t know. He shaves his arms, I don’t know why he shaves his arms. He’s a weird pee-er. If we go to the bathroom just to pee he takes forever to pee, he goes in a stall- won’t pee in a urinal. He also plays accordion. Nobody knows that. He’s totally kickass at accordion, but never plays it. He can play anything.
Tell us about your family.
My wife, born and raised in AZ. I just finished college, I just finished college at San Diego State, and she was, a lot of people in Arizona go to San Diego. She got a job at a radio station and I had a job at a radio station. That’s how we met. Two different stations, same building, same company general manager and owner. She was doing radio sales, and I just started radio sales. I [first] started in promotions as an intern and then I got a job getting paid with promotions, then I realized all the sales guys are driving the fancy cars and the morning radio guys are driving the fancy cars so I tried to get into sales and do that for a while. I was with my wife, we were dating, and I had one of those moments where I was like “this isn’t what I want to do.” and she asked and I said I wanted to have my own radio show, or I’d love to perform on Saturday Night Live. So she said “let’s backtrack from there.” I thought getting my own radio show is impossible, that’s where you have to do midnight to 6 a.m. for years, then they put you in the afternoon. You know, there’s a system. So she said “let’s go after Saturday Night Live” so I went to Los Angeles and auditioned for The Groundlings. I did Groundlings for a couple years. When I did Groundlings I was getting married, and I went to my bachelor party in New Orleans. [Later] a friend of mine, the first guy who ever hired me for my promotion job, was doing a job in Cincinnati, and he flew out with the General Manager to go to the Grammy’s. We were looking at pictures of the bachelor party, I was telling him stories and the guy said “you’re really funny” and when he went back to Cincinnati he called me and said “We’re looking for someone for a morning show, we don’t want to hire a DJ.” So I flew out there and did the show for four days, and they hired me. My first radio job on the air was in Cincinnati in 1996. I got hired away by the competitors in Houston. Houston sucks, I lived there for three years. Three worst years of my entire life. I never ever ever ever will take a job for money again. I took the job in Houston because it was a crap ton of money being thrown my way and I struggled through a pregnancy, we lost twin girls, I had a nightmare time, the weather sucks there. And I was in country music, I hated country music. That’s where I partnered up with Rich- he was in Dallas. We put together a tape and sent it out, we got offers from Chicago, Seattle. It was cool because Tucson wanted us right away. It was a legendary radio station. The bigger the city the more the management would get involved in the show. We wanted to have freedom. We worked a deal out, they’d let us do whatever we wanted, so we took the Tucson job. I have three boys, too. 8 year old, a 7 year old and 4 year old. All born in Arizona- Yuma, Tucson, Paradise Valley. All Arizona boys.
If you could come back in your next life as a popstar, who would you be?
Come on, Justin Beiber. Why would I not want to be Justin Beiber? The guys been famous for a hear and two months and he’s already worth a hundred million dollars. I love his haircut. What’s funny about his haircut is every guy, in their past, has had that haircut. I had that haircut on my junior high ID. That’s like a $700 haircut. I go to V’s. $30.
Who is one underrated musician you want to give credit to?
I like Tyo Cruise. Enrique Iglesias is pretty darn underrated. He’s a pretty good pal.
What are your favorite things about living in the Valley?
I love living here because my roots are here. I moved here when I was a month old to Phoenix. And to Tucson. My whole life has been, everywhere I go, everywhere I move, I always come back to Arizona. When I was a kid I moved to Mexico for a while, came back to Arizona. Then we moved to New Mexico, came back to Arizona. Then we moved to LA and San Diego, came back to Arizona. My wife’s family, they’re all in Arizona. I think there are so many great things connected to Arizona. Super Bowl champs, Arizona. Guy who ran for President, Arizona. The girl who won American Idol was from Arizona, the girl who won The Biggest Loser was from Arizona. Movies are filmed in Arizona, the weather is beautiful, nothing bad happens in Arizona. You go to California, there could be an earthquake, you could fall in the ocean. There are tsunamis, hurricaines, tornados, volcanos. There’s nothing in arizona. There are just good people. It’s great, everybody flocks here. I love this place. I’m into routines, I have my routine, I love it, I don’t want to change it. I love my neighborhood, I love my house, I love the restaurants, I love the places I go shopping, I love the people I know already, I don’t need to meet new people. All my buddies are here.
Anything else you'd like to share?
I want to thank the readers, if they have already, for listening to Johnjay and Rich at 104.7 KISS FM.
Read On for Reader Questions & Answers with Johnjay Van Es.
