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Pat Walsh
Pat's Peeps Podcast
Ep. 310 Today's Peep Takes a Cosmic Trip to Golden Gate Park to witness Dead & Co. A Profound Respect for John Mayer, Also, We Love You Loni Anderson, How a Fictional Receptionist and an Evening DJ Helped Shape My Radio Career
Music and memories intertwine in this deeply personal episode that takes us from the polo fields of Golden Gate Park to the fictional radio station that sparked a lifelong career.
Pat shares his transformative experience attending Dead & Company's 60th anniversary concert, where among 60,000 fans, he discovered a profound new respect for John Mayer's musical abilities. Watching Mayer channel Jerry Garcia's distinctive guitar style with such authenticity created one of those rare moments where past influences and present experiences collide in unexpected ways.
As the musical journey unfolds, news of Loni Anderson's passing creates another bridge between past and present. Pat reflects on how the beloved sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati" fundamentally shaped his path into radio broadcasting. Anderson's portrayal of receptionist Jennifer Marlowe represented part of a fictional world that made radio seem like the most exciting profession imaginable.
Most revealing is Pat's connection to Tim Reid's character Venus Flytrap, whose nighttime DJ persona directly influenced Pat's approach to his evening radio show. The special intimacy of nighttime broadcasting, the privilege of musical freedom, and the loyal audience that comes with the evening slot all trace back to those early WKRP inspirations.
The episode weaves together concert highlights, childhood television memories, and professional insights about radio broadcasting that reveal how deeply our passions are shaped by the cultural touchstones we encounter. Through these reflections, Pat invites us to consider our own inspirations and how they continue to ripple through our lives decades later.
Don't forget to visit patspeepscom to check out Pat's businesses and look for the upcoming Pat's Peeps Mall with merchandise launching soon!
Well, hello there, my friends, Welcome. How are you? Hey, it's the Pat's where we are 310 peeps podcasts. Thank you for listening to even one of them. I appreciate that. Hope you're doing well as we begin another week.
Speaker 1:It is a Monday. It is the fourth day now of August 2025. Looking out the studio windows into the beautiful foothills of Northern California, it's a hot one. I do see some leaves rustling in the breeze out there Not much of a breeze. It's hot, all right, it's hot. It's not extremely hot, but it's warm, all right. I did do a little bit outside, not much, but anyhow, wherever you're listening, thank you so much much.
Speaker 1:A couple of things here today to talk about on, uh, pat's peeps 310. Number one is I will always continue to say uh, please keep looking at patspeepscom for our businesses. Now, I get it. If there's nothing there quite yet that you need, if you keep, if you just keep listening, pretty soon you're gonna go oh, oh, now. Now that's something. I think that's my impersonation of you going, oh, realizing there's something up there that you actually need, and hopefully the businesses up there are going to be businesses that you will need at some time and we just like to point you in that direction. Anyhow, patspeepscom, check out the Pats Peeps Mall which we're building and merchandise. Coming this week I'll announce that. I can't believe it in terms. We have a little store that I can't wait to share with you. A lot of people have been asking me about shirts and hats and, you know, mugs and that kind of stuff. So, yep, I'm excited and I'll let you know about that as soon as we have, uh, the exact day that we're going to be doing that From the weekend.
Speaker 1:Let me just start by saying this so Friday at 2,. By the way, I'm the host of the Pat Wall Show, kfpk Newsradio 93.1 FM, 1530 AM in Sacramento. The Pat Wall Show 7 to 10 PM, the nighttime slot. More on that. Momentarily, I want to talk a little bit about the nighttime position on a radio station. I'm going to tie it into something that I'm going to be talking about, but I want to say thank you to robin, thank you to her goddaughter, madison, thank you to kurt for letting robin go what a nice guy. And to Robin's friend, joe, for getting us the tickets and getting us down to San Francisco where, on Friday night, as I say, I took the night off.
Speaker 1:Thanking to Sky Robinson for filling in, we went down to Golden Gate Park and saw Dead Company, the 60th anniversary. I talked about this on a previous podcast and on my show. So we get down there and I tell you, thanks to Madison, who was apparently I didn't even know it at the time she was our designated driver. I mean, to be completely honest, I didn't really need a designated driver. I think I had one beer. I don't know if I'm living up to the standards of the deadheads there, I don't know. Oh my God, but I'll get to that in a second. But yeah, thank you for the ride. It was awesome because I'm usually the one driving places. So the opportunity to actually and I apologize to my friends there to nod off on the way home was actually quite pleasant. I have to say I took advantage of that. I don't remember how long I nodded off, but it seemed like quite a ways. But the dead were so good.
Speaker 1:Now, 60,000 people can you imagine that's the biggest crowd that I've ever been in in my life in terms of a concert. I mean, I was at the Edward James Dome when the Rams played Tampa Bay in the NFC Championship game in 99, the greatest show on turf in St Louis. I don't know what the crowd was. I don't know, maybe that was 60,000. I don't really know. It was a lot of people. That was the only time. That was the only crowd, by the way, where I could not hear myself. I remember screaming into my hands just to see if I could hear myself. I couldn't hear it. It was like it was deafening. Of course, the Rams won the Super Bowl I'll just throw that in the mix as I divert but it's the most people that I've ever been to a concert with, for sure, and I've been to a lot of concerts, but 60,000,. I was watching it on YouTube. Anyone see the coverage on YouTube Unbelievable it was just, but we pegged out a good spot we were able to see. It was a blast and I am so glad that I went.
Speaker 1:To be honest, I'm not really a guy that loves all the time going down to San Francisco. Like I mentioned that before there's a few times I do like going, though, and on this particular day it was overcast. It was when we got out of the car, when we got dropped off. How nice is that. People say, well, where did you park? Oh, my God, 60,000 people, where'd you park. We got dropped off and Madison went off and had lunch, went to the beach how nice is that? Perfect Came back, picked us up, let her know hey, and picked us right up at the same spot. It was beautiful. So there was no issue whatsoever.
Speaker 1:And I come away with a couple of things here. I've never seen dead in company, although I've seen the dead many times. I've never seen dead in company. I'd seen Mickey Hart's band and I'd seen some variations of the dead over the years. But I came away.
Speaker 1:I'm not a big fan of Not Fade Away and I'm gonna tell you it's gonna be. You're gonna give your love to that guy. It was a Bo Diddley sound. I like Bo Diddley, that song, it doesn't matter who does it. But guess what? They even did that? One good, not Fade Away, not Fade Away. One good, not fade away. And I'm not fade away. Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. The whole crowd, 60,000 people head bopping. Then they break in and I told the friends that I was there with. I said here's what I hope they do I hope they play Terrapin Station. I'm big on the song Terrapin Station but, moreover, estimated Profit, which Bob Weir sings on there.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to go too deep down this rabbit hole. I know I already talked about the debt. I'm just going to give you an overview, though, of what I experienced there. And sure enough, they got the bolt of those songs and I'm here to tell you wow, estimated profit, it was so good. They did Tennessee, jed. Let's Get Back. I'm sorry I'm not going to keep singing, but everyone in the crowd knew the lyrics, the trees around the polo field, which, as I understand it, I could be wrong, but I think, as I read it, it's the first time they played the polo field at Golden Gate Park, the first time since 91. And to hear people singing all the words Althea and bopping up and down and being cool for the most part, by the way, I'm just going to say, just for the record, 99.9% of people of 60,000 that I witnessed were cool. For those who were there in my little area for a split second, you'll know that there was a moment, but then it went away Anyhow, literally went away. So beyond that, it was beautiful.
Speaker 1:And now here's the other takeaway, and then I'll get off this topic. I have a profound new respect for John Mayer. To be perfectly blunt, I have seen John Mayer in concert and thought he was really good, and this was a few years ago at the Golden One Center. And during the show he brought out Bob Weir and I thought, well, that's interesting. And at the time I think this was probably 10 years ago, so this was probably 2015, something like that, somewhere in that area which I found out today is when John Mayer it was that year, apparently, when he joined up with the dead Well, with dead and company, and he's been doing Jerry Garcia's guitar work and a lot of his vocals since then I didn't even know he was in the band and on the way down, someone mentioned I said what I said John Mayer is in the band Dead and company. Huh, really. I said, yeah, well, I'm here to tell you.
Speaker 1:One of the first bumpers that I played on my show, I remember, was a John Mayer song that I'd heard on satellite radio or something. I was unaware of it. It's called oh yeah and home. Oh geez, what is it? I got to look it up. Oh gosh, I forget the name of it. Anyhow, it was so good. Oh gosh, what is it? Anyhow, it doesn't matter, just for the sake of arguments. Space is off because I'm talking about the dead, but I was fully unaware of how great this guy is. Again, profound new respect for John Mayer Playing the Garcia parts. I'm just going to play a little bit of it for you, all right. So you get what I'm saying here, and this is right, as we walked in to the concert. Here we go.
Speaker 1:All right the dead are getting ready to play. Look it, he's got a Celtics jacket Getting ready to start. Look's got a Celtics jacket Getting ready to start.
Speaker 2:Look at that Celtics jacket.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, nice Celtics jacket up there. So here we go, getting ready to jam. I mean, talk about timing, literally we walk in there. 20 seconds later they start jamming. Listen to John Mayer on Doing Jerry. So the thing about it to me is that jerry garcia's guitar. You know how everyone says one of the signs of a great guitarist is that they're unique. They have their own style, whether it's Santana or Jeff Beck or Jimmy Page, whoever it might be, but Jerry Garcia definitely has his own style. It's very unorthodox, I don't know how to describe it. Those of you who know Jerry know what I'm talking about, but it's very unorthodox, I don't know how to describe it. Those of you who know Jerry know what I'm talking about, but it's very different.
Speaker 2:That's not.
Speaker 1:And John Mayer just has it down. I'm like I can't believe this dude man, this guy. Now Billy Strings opened up for Dead Company. Anyone know Billy Strings? He's very bluegrassy, which was really nice, very nice. There was just a little bit of the opening of the show right there. I'm going to play a little bit more, but Billy Strings opened. There was just a little bit of the opening of the show right there. I'm going to play a little bit more, but Billy String's opened and I'm accustomed to bluegrass, so I know good bluegrass from bad bluegrass.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to comment on his bluegrass stylings because of this, because of the fact and I say that in a snobbish way, as if I really know what I'm talking about Well, here's the fact about and I say that in a snobbish way, as if I really know what I'm talking about. Well, here's the fact about it. I do. Not only did I grow up with bluegrass and know a ton of bluegrass artists and all that, not to get away from the topic here but I just know it okay, and I've seen more bluegrass in my lifetime so far than most people will ever see, and so I'm not going to judge him on that, because here's what the thing. Here's what I think he's trying to do.
Speaker 1:He's trying to cross over and he did a great job of this from going to like bluegrass into kind of a rock, bringing the rock people into bluegrass, which is beautiful because I love that crossover and dead fans are very accepting of that. They may not be accepting of other kind of music. It was very pop or whatever. I doubt they'd be really into Rick Astley, for instance. Maybe I'm wrong, but bluegrass there's a. You know, jerry Garcia started with bluegrass, old in the way you know. I mean, just go back and study some of the stuff that he did and that's kind of where he comes from. So they're accepting of it. But Billy Strings, I think, is trying to kind of transcend bluegrass and go into rock in a way and attract this audience, this crossover audience. So I really appreciate it. All right, a little bit more of John Mayer here.
Speaker 2:I don't want to be a hero. I feel like I'm a champion.
Speaker 1:Althea, oh well.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean it just sounds so good. I'm very, very impressed by John Mayer. I really enjoyed it. Now he's not the only one, though. Phil Lesh's son came out and played Box of Rain, a Phil Lesh song from American Beauty Dead members Bob Weir, mickey Hart, bill Krutzman, joined by John Mayer, jeff Cimenti who was great on the keyboards, and Otele Burbridge who was on bass. Fantastic doing Phil Lesh I'm a Phil Lesh fan. And Billy Strings came out towards the end and did Warfrat Great version Awesome. Graham Lesh is his name, Son to Phil Lesh. Boxer Rain with Graham playing his dad's big brown bass. They also did Playing in the Band Great song. Wow. Sturgill Simpson Trey Anastasio Band played the Next Days Okay, well, that's awesome. I didn't know that. Anyhow, they were very good. I was very impressed. Just a little bit more, and then I'll get off of this pressed. Just a little bit more and then I'll get off of this.
Speaker 2:I just kind of want you to hear john mayer's guitar for a moment with the lighted trees surrounding the polo field.
Speaker 1:It was just really, really, really trippy, glad I went. Very sad news today as lonnie and Anderson passed away. Lonnie Anderson, the wonderful Lonnie Anderson Boy guys had a crush on her back in the 70s Farrah Fawcett, lonnie Anderson was one of those that we Valerie Bertinelli, but we all loved Lonnie Anderson WKRP in Cincinnati One of the great shows that really inspired me to do radio. Quite frankly, saw this on TV watching with the family. I thought, man, I can work in radio. Where they have rock posters, I can play music on the radio.
Speaker 3:I can talk on the radio. I can talk on the radio Town to town, up and down the dial. Maybe you and me were never meant to be. Just maybe think of me once in a while.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I loved this show, lonnie Anderson. I mean, I already wanted to watch the show because I loved it, because it was about radio, but Lonnie Anderson was another reason to watch that show. She was so beautiful. Her name was Jennifer Marlowe. She was the receptionist. Herb Tarlick and his plaid pants and a white belt, always hitting on Lonnie, always hitting on Jennifer, and she would just rip on him. It was hilarious. What a great character she played. I know she was so much more, but she's so beloved in WKRP in Cincinnati, certainly from my childhood and many others.
Speaker 3:Morning, jennifer, morning Herb. Any calls? No Messages, Nope, mail, none. Okay, how about lunch? No lunch either. Dinner Busy, okay, how about later at my place? You're married, herb. Oh yeah, what's it going to take with you, jennifer? I mean you're talking to the sales manager here. What do you want? Watches, jewelry, a side of beef? Fully dressed, I can fix anything. You wanna meet Burt Convey in person? I mean, they'd all call me Mr Kickback for nothing. Howdy, I'm Andy Travis, the new program director, but kickbacks are wrong. Hello, got a meeting. We'll talk later if you last that long. Nice fellow, one of the best. Would you like to see the big guy, the big guy, the skipper, the chief, the head, honcho, the jerk who runs this place?
Speaker 1:yes, yes, would I love their sarcasm.
Speaker 3:And she'd get away with it because she was so beautiful. Then you have nothing to worry about.
Speaker 1:Yes, he's still here, Les Nesman, of course, oh.
Speaker 3:Les, this is Andy Travis, our new program director. Well, howdy, so you're Travis. Yeah, that's right. Oh, les is in charge of news weather sports. The last program director lasted 30 minutes before the big guy fired him. Traffic and what else, les? Award-winning farm reports. Watch your step, mister. Well, that's a great guy too. Of course, he's no bird, but he's still one of the best wkrp.
Speaker 1:I mean this show um, about this fictional radio station, this, this AM radio station in Cincinnati. This was based on Hugh Wilson's experience. He was created by him too, but his experience is observing a top 40 radio station. It was WQXI in Atlanta. Matter of fact, many of these characters that we have become to love over the years, one of them being Jennifer Marlowe, were based on people at that radio station. Hugh Wilson telling the Cincinnati Enquirer one time that he selected WKRP as the call sign for KRAP, to stand for CRAP.
Speaker 1:You had Gary Sandy, as you heard in there, as Andy Travis. You had Howard Hessman. Dr Johnny Fever loved him. Gordon Jump was Arthur Carlson.
Speaker 1:Lonnie, the beautiful Lonnie Anderson, as I said. Jennifer Marlowe Tim Reed was a Venus flytrap. More on him in a moment. Jan Smithers, bailey Quarters. A lot of people liked Bailey Quarters. A lot of guys had a crush on Bailey Quarters, let's not forget. She was more of a down-to-earth shall we say kind of. Whereas Lonnie was kind of a bombshell-looking beautiful woman, bailey Quarters was more of a oh, I don't know tomboyish. I don't want to really say tomboyish, but maybe that might be a description of her. You know, not such a bombshell but still beautiful. A lot of people liked her Richard Sanders, les Nesman Of course we remember the turkey drop at the Pinedale Shopping Mall on Thanksgiving and Herb Tarleck, played by Frank Bonner, who is the sales guy, like I said, wearing his white patent leather shoes, his white patent leather belt, his plaid slacks, always trying to hit on the beautiful Lonnie Anderson.
Speaker 1:She played the struggling radio station's empowered receptionist. She passed away after a long illness. Well, the show aired. Believe it or not, some of these shows are so iconic but they were only on the air. For instance, this one was on the air for four years, from 78 to 82. They were trying to invent itself with rock music. She was blonde, she had the high heels, she deflected the unwanted business calls for her boss, mr Carlson. She was very efficient. She kept the station running in the face of everyone else's incompetence, straight-up incompetence. It earned her two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.
Speaker 1:You know, it happens, I guess, that you do a role so well that you are remembered for that role. I mean, how many times do we see that People played the roles, especially when it came to half-hour comedies in the 60s and 70s? I mean, if you go back and think elizabeth montgomery, whether it's bewitched or what, what you know? Uh, fred gwynn as herman munster or bob denver as gilligan, whatever, whoever it might be now, but but she, but she was so much more than just Jennifer the receptionist at WKRP. We also, by the way, remember her. She was also married to Burt Reynolds. I remember that for a while there. I don't know whatever happened there, who knows, not for us to know.
Speaker 1:She actually, I think she was in that movie Stroke or Ace, maybe I think she was in movies like the Lonely Guy, maybe with Steve Martin. She was in some movies I'm not good with movies, honestly, so I'm not really going to try to even remember what they were. But suffice it to say, I guess, unless I'm missing the target, that her main thing she's going to be remembered for, at least in terms of entertainment for those of us who didn't know her as the person that she was, we're going to remember her in that iconic role, didn't she? I think she was also, I don't know, it seemed like she was in a movie, or not a movie, but a sitcom with Burt Reynolds. Wasn't she in some kind of a sitcom? Or Evening Shade? Maybe? I don't know if she was for sure she was born May 17th. I just saw that I didn't realize that May 17th my birthday is May 16th, oh my gosh. She married musician Bob Flick, one of the founding members of the Brothers Four. Rest in peace.
Speaker 1:I'm going to talk about Lonnie on my show tonight because I know that people will want to talk about her. This is on another note, as I'm thinking about WKRP too. You know Venus Flytrap, played by Tim Reed. As I mentioned, he was the evening and early nighttime DJ at WKRP. He also at one point became the assistant program director.
Speaker 1:But as a kid growing up I loved the inner workings of the radio station. I loved noticing the different time slots of the DJs. Even as a teenager I would really notice that. I would notice Les Nesman doing the news and doing these other reports, having his imaginary office walls, this beautiful receptionist at the face of the radio station, at that desk up in front keeping us all together like Lonnie did, us all together like Lonnie did. But as I watched that show from a personal standpoint, one of the things that I really liked was Venus Flytrap had the evening show. He was very smooth and I noticed like Dr Johnny Fever was in the daytime, maybe the mornings, but at the daytime at some point, and it was always very upbeat.
Speaker 1:Hey baby yeah, you know we're going to play this man, but I play the music. They'd actually play the actual music and they'd have the actual rock posters on the wall in the office and in the booth in the studio, which was awesome, and so they would be like that, just like it is now, even in talk radio, whereas in the evening, when it's now dark, venus would come into the building and he'd be smooth and got us like this amen and doing his thing, venus Flytrap. His DJ name, gordon Sims by the way, his real name was not revealed until late in the show's first season, but the fact is I gravitated towards that because it was like man. He was the most relaxed, like he could just kick back, and he had the studio dim. I can't remember if he had a lamp I think he did Candles or a lamp or something. Maybe someone could tell me but he made the studio really nice and cool. He made it feel at home and you know what? I was influenced by that and what I do on my show. He got to pick the music himself. So do I. You know how rare that is, but just like Dr Johnny Fever, they got to pick the music themselves. No one gets to do that in radio anymore. I do. It's amazing, it's remarkable, it's so rare. They were on the air and the time slots it didn't overlap, so it must have been. Dr Johnny Fever must have been on earlier in the day, not right before the evening, and he would play things like Earth, wind and Fire, stuff that other DJs during the day wouldn't play, and it's funny. And he went by mood. So do I on my show. So, anyhow, I guess what I'm trying to say is I was greatly influenced by him on this show.
Speaker 1:That was always the coveted spot. Sure, you could go during the day, in the morning, whatever, maybe get more listeners in terms of total, and they're living their life and doing other things as they're listening. But at nighttime you're blessed to have an audience that if they do tune in while they're driving or while they're working or if they're at home, that they're actually very loyal, not to say the other audiences aren't loyal, but they're the cumulative. You've got the cum, which is time spent listening. I mean, you've got the cum, which is the most people. Then you got the TSL, which is time spent listening, and the TSL is very important and because of you we have that, because you guys listen. Heck, you guys will call me the third hour and say, yeah, you know, in the first hour you were talking about this. Well, my gosh, that means you were listening to the whole time. That's amazing. I don't expect that, but to have that coveted time slot is an amazing thing to me.
Speaker 1:So thank you to WKRP, you know. Thank you for my family for letting us watch that. I just loved it. It really influenced me, like I said. So thank you, and thank you everyone for listening. Like I said, I think I'll go out here today with a little more dead John Mayer on the guitar. Thank you to Robin, thanks Joe. Again. Thanks to Madison. We're going to add more businesses, food and donuts and things like that coming up shortly, so that kind of stuff's coming your way at patspeepscom. Thank you for listening. We'll see you on the radio.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
