I’ve always loved, er, at least really liked Ben & Skin. The dudes are fast, funny, fresh, friendly, finicky and, best of all, freaky fans of friggin’ alliteration.
But in the ramp-up to them taking over middays 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Live 105.3 Aug. 25, I, too, share some concerns:
*Can a sports show survive/thrive going up against The Ticket’s BaD Radio and ESPN’s Michael Irvin?
*In a daily climate, will their quick-witted, rapid-fire, head-spinning exchanges blossom into a unique and refreshing alternative, or deteriorate into one giant failed bit?
Beats me. So I asked them.
Meet Ben "Ben" Rogers, the long-time TV sales guy who just last December left KTVT Channel 11 for Univision only to pull the plug and bet it all on radio.
“I’d say by the end of the week our shows will be only 25 percent sports,” Rogers told me this morning.
Meet Jeff "Skin" Wade, the funky of the duo with a film degree and a side project producing instrumental music riffs used on American Idol and ESPN.
“We’re movie nerds and music fans and we’re not going to do back-to-back-to-back segments about sports,” he told me right after Rogers told me that other stuff. “You’ll hear a lot of topics, not including a dissection of why that suicide squeeze didn’t work.”
I know Ben & Skin can produce an alluring potpourri of comedic radio. But what’s the one thing that will separate their new show from the sportsy stuff we’re hearing now?
“We’ll do ours totally in Spanish,” says Rogers.
He's joking. I think. -- Richie Whitt
