Mr. Media Interviews By Bob Andelman

Today's Guest: Jeffrey J. Fox, author, How to Be a Fierce Competitor: What Winning Companies and Great Managers Do in Tough Times Order from Amazon.com by clicking the book cover above I can honestly and modestly say that I know a thing or two about fierce competitors in business. If you know anything about my background as a journalist, you probably think I'm referring to the CEOs with whom I've worked on books-"Chainsaw" Al Dunlap from Scott Paper and Sunbeam, Home Depot founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, or Commerce Bank founder Vernon Hill. But I'm actually thinking of one of my first bosses, George Tenenbaum. Jeffrey J. Fox, author, The Transformative CEO George was a huge S.O.B., a world-class sonuvabitch. And I think he'd take pride in that description. And it's not that I didn't like and respect him, either. JEFFREY J. FOX audio excerpt: "Fierce is not an animalistic beast growling in the jungle. Fierce is a relentless, tireless competitor who wants every customer he can get."  I worked for hi

Today's Guest: Jeffrey J. Fox, author, The Transformative CEO: Impact Lessons From Game Changers Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience who will make one-hundred times as much money in the next 30 minutes as you will in the next 30 days… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!   Order from Amazon.com by clicking on the book above! What do the founders of The Home Depot, 1-800-Flowers.com and Paul Mitchell Systems and the CEOs of Black Entertainment Television, Marvel Entertainment and Campbell Soup have in common? According to consultant Jeff Fox, author of The Transformative CEO, they all have the key traits and characteristics of great and successful business leaders. JEFFREY J. FOX audio excerpt: "When Douglas Conant went to Campbell Soup, they had lost 50 percent of their market share value, morale was plummeting, sales were down, profits were going away. The current management was taking chicken out of chicken soup to save money!"  Fox, who previously appeared h

Today's Guest: Brian Walker, daily comics writer, "Beetle Bailey," "Hi & Lois," comics historian, The Comics   Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of small-bodied talking animals with giant heads and more wisecracks than Don Rickles… in the new new media capitol of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! The Comics by Brian Walker. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!   Comics are Brian Walker’s life. It’s the family business, after all: his dad, Mort, created or co-created "Beetle Bailey," "Hi & Lois," and the legendary but short-lived strip and strips, "Sam’s Strip." Brian and his brother Greg have written and inked "Beetle Bailey" and "Hi & Lois" alongside their dad now for years. (Another second generation comics creator, Chance Browne – son of "Hi & Lois" co-creator and "Hagar the Horrible" creator Dik Browne – draws "Hi & Lois.") But starting back in college in the early 1970s, Brian carved out a corner of the industry for himself. It started when h

Today's Guest: Lillian Glass, author, Toxic Men Order 'Toxic Men: 10 Ways to Identify, Deal with, and Heal from the Men Who Make Your Life Miserable by Lillian Glass,' available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! All through this interview, I will quietly repeat the following mantra: She’s not talking about me… She’s not talking about me… And in my imagination, I will have a finger in each ear, singing La-la-la-la-la-la… DR. LILLIAN GLASS audio excerpt: "Charlie Sheen is the biggest success in the world in show business but in his personal life, he's not... A woman who falls for him doesn't have a lot of self-esteem." I don’t what I was thinking when I booked Dr. Lillian Glass, author of Toxic Men, as a guest. Isn’t she likely to come on the show and reveal what a jerk and a fraud I am as a husband and lead my wife to leave me? Hmm, maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea, after all. Welcome to 30 minutes of female empowerment, ladies! Lillian Glass Website •  Twitter • Facebook • Order Toxic Men

Today's Guest: Brandi Chastain, Kerri Strug, Olympic athletes Kerri Strug, U.S. Olympics gold medal winner, gymnastics This is a very special Mr. Media podcast. As a member of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, Brandi Chastain participated in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and helped the Americans win the gold medal by playing every minute of every U.S. game. She is best known for her game-winning penalty kick against China in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup final – perhaps the greatest goal in U.S women’s soccer history. Kerri Strug was a member of the “Magnificent Seven,” the gymnastics team that also represented the U.S. at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Despite a serious ankle injury, she overcame adversity and performed a stunning vault to help clinch a gold medal for the women’s team competition – one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history. Between these two athletes, they have won five Olympic medals -- three gold, one silver and one bronze-- and two World Cup championships. Brandi Chas

Today's Guest: Actor Colin Ferguson, star of Syfy's "Eureka" and "Haven" EUREKA -- Season:4 -- Pictured: (l-r) Salli Richardson-Whitfield as Allison Blake, Niall Matter as Zane Donovan, Joe Morton as Henry Deacon, Erica Cerra as Jo Lupo, Neil Grayston as Douglas Fargo, Colin Ferguson as Jack Carter, James Callis as Dr. Grant -- (Photo: Art Streiber/Syfy) As Sheriff Carter on the Syfy series “Eureka,” now in its fourth season, Colin Ferguson is the kind of guy I’d like to be: a manly man but a technological doofus who the ladies nonetheless find endearing and sexy. Seriously, Carter is the kind of doofus you wouldn’t mind owning up to if real life came with the charm and earnestness with which Ferguson embues the role. COLIN FERGUSON podcast excerpt: "Carter and Allison still have problems. It's not a done deal: 'They're dating, so the show is over.' Everybody was saying if you hook them up, it's the death of the show. But critically, and by the numbers, it was our best season ever." Order 'Eureka: The Comp

Today's Guest: Parvesh Cheena, actor, "Outsourced" Anisha Nagarajan and Parvesh Cheena, stars of NBC's 'Outsourced' Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of people who may think they can top my Whack-a-Gupta score of 725… in the new new media capitol of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! A few things I learned about “Gupta,” perhaps the nuttiest sitcom character on network TV in years: • He can’t drive. Not a bike, not a car. • He likes to watch. His boss. In bed. Sleeping. Not sleeping. • He loves the break room cookies. Sorry, Madhuri. Order from Amazon.com by clicking the DVD cover above! • He looks a lot like his glasses-wearing cousin. • He knows how to wear a giant ear and spy on his bosses. • And he can break into Bollywood-style song and dance at a moment’s notice. When “Outsourced” debuted on NBC last September, I have no doubt that Gupta – played to perfection by actor Parvesh Cheena – was one of the characters that set the tongues of TV critics wagging. He was a stereotype and not

Today's Guest: Larry Manetti, actor, "Magnum, P.I.," "Black Sheep Squadron"     Order 'Aloha Magnum: Larry Manetti's Magnum, P.I. Memories,' available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! Larry Manetti brought a tremendous amount of natural charisma and boundless cockiness to his role as a restaurateur named Rick—Tom Selleck’s Vietnam War buddy and sidekick—on the long-running CBS adventure series, “Magnum, P.I.” He brought that same strong sense of self-awareness to his role as author in his 1999 autobiography, Aloha Magnum. It’s action packed with… well, action, as Manetti recalls a life that never knew the meaning of the word dull. LARRY MANETTI podcast excerpt: "Tom Selleck was born gorgeous.When you're born ike that, you kinda know inside of you that you're special. He does have little idiosyncrasies. He's a dear friend; he's there if you need him. He's a great guy. And I don't lie. If he were a big jerk, I'd say he was a jerk."  Besides out of school tales of his friends Selleck and co

Today's Guest: Red Peters, comedian, singer, Red Peters Presents The Summer Song Sizzler, Howard Stern Show regular Order Red Peters Presents The Summer Song Sizzler, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the CD cover above!   Red Peters’ dulcet tones have undoubted lulled you into listening to music that your mother would likely not approve of. The singer-songwriter takes standard, common melodies and gives them a hysterically filthy twist that makes you go, “What the f---?” And if you’ve never heard Peters’ work, let me be the first to introduce you to a few samples, including “You Promised Me the Moon (But I Prefer Uranus)." RED PETERS audio excerpt: "I did a phoner with Howard. I was on for 40 minutes. He played a little snatch—so to speak--of each song. When he played 'The Ballad of a Dog Named Stains,' Howard just loved it. He flipped out. Within several months, I was in his studio singing it live. We became friends from that point on. He injected quite a bit of life into the Red Peters Project, tha

Today's Guest: Red Peters, comedian, singer, "It's A Red Peters Christmas! Volume 1," Howard Stern Show regular Order It's A Red Peters Christmas! Volume 1 [Explicit], available from Amazon.com by clicking on the CD cover above! Red Peters is back on Mr. Media today to celebrate Christmas his way -- which means putting in your earbuds and getting ready to laugh your ass off. We had such a good time playing Red’s salacious sounds over the summer that when he offered to spend an X-rated Christmas with Mr. Media, how could I refuse? RED PETERS audio excerpt: "I was home from college one year, up in my room wrapping Christmas presents. My mother came walking into my old room. I was smoking a joint and she said, 'Red, aren't you crazy enough without smokin' that sh!t?" In today’s show, we’ll play Red’s latest contributions to the grand canon of holiday tunes. So step aside, Little Drummer Boy. Cover your ears, Silent Night. And don’t come to town yet, Santa Claus. Here come his new instant classics “Have a Wonder

Today's Guest: Chandler Baker, novelist, This Is Not The End   This Is Not The End by Chandler Baker. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above! Watch this exclusive Mr. Media interview with Chandler Baker by clicking on the video player above!  Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience full of Shirley Maclaine fans who want to know more about Chandler Baker’s ideas on resurrection… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! It’s hard for novelists to come up with a twist we haven’t read in some way, previously. J.R.R. Tolkien managed it with Lord of the Rings; so did J.R. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series. Otherwise, we’ll read something “new” and say, “Oh, it’s just like XYZ.” CHANDLER BAKER podcast excerpt: "I originally thought I was going to be a bioethicist. My debut novel was about heart transplants and dealt with some of the ethics around that. These bioethical issues keep coming up in my (legal) work so I didn't have to do a ton of resear

Today's Guest: Louise Mandrell, country singer   (This interview with country singer Louise Mandrell was originally published in the St. Petersburg Times on November 16, 1984. -- Bob Andelman) Louise Mandrell Louise Mandrell bubbles as she talks. It comes across in her stage and television appearances, and it was even apparent in a long distance interview with her from the phone in her bus, parked somewhere in San Antonio, Texas. The middle Mandrell sister is not as well-known as Barbara, but it's not for lack of trying. Louise averages over 200 dates on the concert road each year. "I don't know how many, and I don't wanna know," she said, laughing. "Last year I got off the road for three months, but it was not by choice. The doctors took me off. This time I planned a vacation." Why does she tour so much? "I like it. It's my favorite part of the music business. I just feel like I work like everybody else. Everyone else works every day ... " NOT EVERYONE else watched by thousands of people when they work or

Today's Guest: Michael Eury, author, Hero-A-Go-Go: Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters, & Culture of the Swinging Sixties, editor, Back Issue magazine   Watch this exclusive Mr. Media interview with Michael Eury by clicking on the video player above!  Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience full of comic books fans who may deny the existence of Captain Nice, Frankenstein Jr. or Ropeman, but we know better … in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! Hero-A-Go-Go: Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters & Culture of the Swinging Sixties by Michael Eury. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above! Some of my favorite comic book memories of growing up in the 1960s are of characters I long thought I imagined because most traces of them have been erased from existence: • Diaper Man • Secret Squirrel • Forbush Man • Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse • And that guy who shouted “SPLIT” just before various body parts of his broke apart to punch out the bad guys! MICHAE

Today's Guest: Peter Golenbock, In The Country of Brooklyn, American Prince: A Memoir Order from Amazon.com by clicking the book above   Order from Amazon.com by clicking the book above You Midwesterners may disagree, but I don’t think there is any single place in this country more representative of the soul of America than Brooklyn and New Jersey. And the fact that I was born in the former and raised in the latter doesn’t color my thinking at all. Both are cultural, ethnic and racial melting pots dating back to the earliest days of the original 13 colonies. But only one is featured as a world onto itself in a new book by my guest, Peter Golenbock. In The Country of Brooklyn is a remarkable trip through the history of one of the United States’ most vital geographic regions, one that has contribute to our nation in the fields of politics, culture, society and pretty much everything else that counts. But that’s not the only new book he has hitting bookstores today. Peter also helped actor Tony Curtis produce

Today's Guest: Sportswriter Peter Golenbock, author, George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire, Growing Up NASCAR: Racing's Most Outrageous Promoter Tells All Order 'Growing Up NASCAR: Racing's Most Outrageous Promoter Tells All' by Peter Golenbock, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! Sportswriter Peter Golenbock is one of my heroes, a guy I want to be like in many ways when I grow up. For now, however, I’ll settle for just being to call him a friend. The major characteristic I admire about Peter is his ability to be working constantly. He’s always writing a new book, always engaged in an envious research project. Actually, more than one. As a guy who also makes his living writing books, it drives me nuts. Let me give you an example. PETER GOLENBOCK podcast excerpt: "It looks to me like the Rays are going to win 90 games this year. The question is whether the Yankees and Red Sox are going to win more than 90 games. And, come August and September, are some of thos

Today's Guest: Peter Golenbock, sportswriter, George: The Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankees Empire, Idiot , Balls, The Bronx Zoo, Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Wild, High and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience – HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! I’ve always said that as a joke! Where did you people come from?… Oh, that’s right, we're on location for the first time at the fabulous Globe Coffee Lounge in the new new media capitol of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! Mr. Media host Bob Andelman (L) and Peter Golenbock, live at the Globe Coffee Lounge, St. Petersburg, Florida Peter Golenbock is one of the most prolific writers I know or have ever heard of. His books could fill an entire shelf in your library – and maybe they already do. That’s the Golenbock name alongside Johnny Damon on Idiot, next to Sparky Lyle on The Bronx Zoo and with Graig Nettles on Balls. He went solo for Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Wild, High and

Today's Guest: Peter Golenbock, sportswriter, 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel Order '7: The Mickey Mantle Novel' by Peter Golenbock, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! Today, I am sitting in the St. Petersburg, Florida, dining room of popular sports writer, Peter Golenbock. Peter, who’s written many books about and with members of the New York Yankees, including: Dynasty; The Bronx Zoo, which he wrote with Sparky Lyle; Balls, written with Craig Nettles; Guidry, with Ron Guidry; Number One, written with Billy Martin; and Wild, High, and Tight, written about Billy Martin. He also co-wrote Idiot with then-Boston Red Sox player Johnny Damon; Bats, with former Mets manager Davey Johnson; Thunder and Lightning, with hockey all-star Phil Esposito; and several racing books, including NASCAR Confidential and American Zoom. You can see an entire list of Golenbock’s books at his Web site, www.GolenbockBooks.com. He has also started writing a blog at http://petergolenbock.blogspot.com/. Despite hi

Today's Guest: Ryan McPartlin, actor, "Chuck," "Game Time" Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of Chuck fans who would probably watch Ryan McPartlin -- "Captain Awesome" -- eat a bowl of cereal every morning (and some already have, but don’t let on you know)… in the NEW new media capitol of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! ] Ryan McPartlin steps aside from his role as "Awesome" on "Chuck" to star in the TV movie "Game Time: Tackling The Past" on NBC, Sat. Sept. 3 @ 8 p.m. As the cast of NBC’s “Chuck” prepares for its fifth and final season victory lap, it is more than fair that two of its stars are getting outside shots at the big time. Yvonne Strahovski, who plays “Sarah” on “Chuck,” has her biggest film role to date when Killer Elite opens on September 23. She’s plays opposite Jason Statham, Clive Owen and, oh yeah, Robert DeNiro, in that one. And this Saturday, September 3 at 8 p.m. on NBC, it’s Ryan McPartlin’s turn. He’s playing the lead character, pro football star Jake Walker, in the

Today's Guest: Loren Weisman, author, The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business: The 'Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of the Steps That Musicians & Bands Have to Take to Succeed in Music   Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of everyone from “American Idol” finalist Michael Lynche to rockers Johnny Zoom Cheerlead Squad and death metal pioneers Deicide… in the new new media capitol of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! Order Loren Weisman's book, The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! Early in my career, I was the pop music critic for, respectfully, the St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune. In that role, I had frequent contact with up-and-coming local bands that always believed in their heart of hearts that they would be The Next Big Thing. A few of them, such as Savatage, the Johnny G. Lyon Band, The Headlights and the Bobby Friss Band even achieved a modicum of commercial and regional suc

Today's Guest: Karen Dunlap, president, The Poynter Institute President Obama Election 2008: A Collection of Newspaper Front Pages Selected by the Poynter Institute. Order your copy now by clicking on the book cover above! What a crazy, crazy world. When I invited today’s guest, Karen Dunlap, president of the Poynter Institute, to be a guest on the show today, it was ostensibly to discuss Poynter’s upcoming collection of newspaper front pages titled President Obama: Election 2009. And we’re still going to do that. But then everything got turned upside-down. Sunday night rumors of Tribune Company—owner of everything from the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel and even the Chaicago Cubs—declaring bankruptcy became reality on Monday morning. Then the august New York Times revealed it was exploring mortgaging its new headquarters tower in Manhattan to sustain itself through one of the worst newspaper advertising slumps in history. Oh, and then this morning, Alaska residents discovered they no