Reader Questions
You watch a lot of shows. How do you fit in all that TV?
Easy, I love this question. OK I’m a total TV a holic. What I do is, about 15 years ago, I was able to, there was a weird way of pulling strings (you can’t do it anymore) but I get the East Coast feeds. 15 years ago, a friend of my wife’s lived in New York, and you had to somehow use an East Coast address. I was living in Houston at the time, I lied, it was really bad karma, and I got the east coast feed. It sticks with you wherever you go, and if you cancel it, you’re done, you can’t ever get it back again. So let’s say Survivor is on at 7, I watch it at 5. Isn’t that crazy?
So with American Idol, I know before anyone else. I’ll Tweet it, I’ll call my sister. My sister at the time used to live in Los Angeles, I’d find out who won and every year I’d ruin it for her. And I would go to great lengths to ruin it for her and he caught on, so my dad at the time lived in China, and I called my dad in China and I’d three-way him and say “I need you to call my sister, and all I need you to say is ‘Carrie Underwood’.” I’d be like “She knows it’s a joke, she’ll get it.” So she’d get a call from China, she’d answer it and she’d go “Hello? Hey Daddy!” and he’d go “Hey, Carrie Underwood.” “What?!” She’d go ballistic. So [another year] when Jordin Sparks won, she wasn’t taking any phone calls, nothing. So I paid the guy an extra $30 so when she asked “Who’s the pizza from?” he’d say “Jordin Sparks”. I knew. So that’s the benefit of east coast feeds.
How do you fit in your TV now?
I watch- now, the good thing is, there’s not a log of good TV. Modern Family is great, American Idol is good- it just started.
Are you liking the new judges?
They’re OK right now, it’s still so new. I think Jennifer Lopez is fantastic. Randy Jackson thinks he’s all that cause he’s been there for so long. You stack up his credentials against the other two...you know. So that’s it, there’s not a lot of good TV. Modern Family, The Bachelor was good in the beginning and now it’s silly. Jersey Shore, that kinda thing. So I can get all my TV in OK.
What kind of car do you drive?
Really? (laughs) That’s embarrassing. Do I have to tell the truth on that?
I don’t know. Probably not.
I have three. I have a BMW 650, I have a Sahara four-door jeep, and I have a 1977 Oldsmobile Convertible Delta 88. it’s embarrassing to say I drive a BMW because that’s a stupid car for a man with a little penis. I totaled my other car, I had to get another car, I was emotional when I got it. It didn’t make any sense I had three kids that didn’t fit in my car, and so...
How much weight have you lost, and have you done it by changing your habits, or the pills advertised on your station?
Both of those. I lost 110 lbs three and a half years ago. I kept most of it off, I added a lot of muscle. I did a lot of it with eating right and exercising a lot, the healthy trim. Eating right. I had a serious eating disorder. I could kill food nonstop. Literally nonstop. I go to Stingray, my favorite sushi joint here and kill it. I get the bill and I freak out. I’d be like “What are you talking about? How is this $200?”
How do you feel being on the radio even though you have no knowledge of music?
The good news is, with Kiss FM, it’s a Top 40 radio station, it’s pop music, and all I’ve ever enjoyed my entire life is pop music. I listened to Kiss when I was a little kid, living in Chandler. It’s pop music. I actually love pop music. My partner Rich loves rock and roll, he grew up on rock and roll, and actually knows a lot about music. So I’m more about pop culture and TV, he’s more about music.
What do you like and dislike about your job?
There are so many likes about my job- I have so much fun getting on the radio, trying to entertain people, make people laugh. I usually try to make my parter laugh. I love going out to a restaurant and hearing people at anther table talking about something they heard on the show in the morning. When we make people talk about what they heard, there was so much passion they talk about what they heard, if it’s sad, if it’s funny, even if they hate us. I love it all.
What I don’t like- Sometimes I look at the alarm clock in the morning and it’s 2:30 or 2:45 or 3:00 [a.m.] and I go “you gotta be kidding me” cause it’s the time when some people are just coming home.
What are you going to do about Lego, the dog that keeps escaping?
Lego is one of the most beautiful dogs, he’s a cockapoo, but he is a daily struggle in our lives. Today I went home for fifteen minutes, altogether we have 3 rescue dogs- the other two are great, they don’t escape. Yesterday, I wish you guys could see this, we have a normal fence around the backyard, he would dig through it. So we’d put chicken wire around the fence, which kind of devalued the neighborhood, then he still dug through that. Put the chicken wire underground, dug through that. Then we put cinder blocks- we had it professionally done, like a prison, then we did [more] because he figured out where it ended. Then we tried an electric fence, so he couldn’t get through the electric fence. He didn’t care, he ran through it and got out. So we had to amp up the charge on the fence. My wife and I talked about it, we live kind of close to Camelback. It’s going to be a sad story if he ever gets hit. So we thought maybe there’s someone in Chandler or Gilbert who has a farm who could take him. But we thought maybe that’s too far, maybe there’s a trainer who can help. We were also looking at sending him away to school. I started thinking he had too much energy, so I’d ride my bike for five miles with him on a leash, wearing him out. We take him to the dog park. On my bike I feel guilty cause the other dogs don’t get the exercise. I’m going to take him on a steep hike next. When he’s home, he’s lovable, beautiful, just wants to be there. When we’re with him.
Did you ever figure out who stole your tire cover?
No. The tire cover story. Well I kinda did figure it out. Kinda. My dad always said “life is good” and he died three years ago and I always honor him with different things and one of them is “life is good”. It says it on my e-mail and I have a “life is good” tire cover. Rich and I went to San Diego to do the show from there for a few days, I left my jeep at the radio station, and someone stole my tire cover. And then the person started leaving me messages at work and he was disguising his voice and we didn’t know what he wanted. He kept saying “Why won’t you call me back?” but he never gave me his number. And then I came home one day and the tire cover was on my car. But I don’t think it was the same tire cover. I’m thinking about moving because I think too many people know where I live.
Read On for Johnjay Van Es' Favorite Valley Hotspots.
