The “Jason Lee and Kluck Show” is based at Federated Media’s 103.9 The Bear in South Bend, IN and syndicated to markets by Audio 1. The duo describes the show as a personality-driven show that is based on their lives.
“It seems like a lot of other shows try so hard to be relatable, but for us, it just seems like it comes naturally. We’re very personality-driven, which sounds like a weird word to me. A weird phrase to me. For personality, it has to be a person like Katy Perry. But we’re a personality show in the fact that the show is based around our lives. Our lives are regular and very relatable, so the relatability with our audience doesn’t seem forced,” said Lee.
“It’s not hard. It comes very easy for both of us. Sometimes I feel weird and guilty about it because I see all these shows constantly banging each other’s heads and talking about how quickly people are relatable. It’s just natural for us.”
Kluck added, “It’s been pretty easy from a show standpoint because it’s not like we have to go into work and fit some mold. We literally just come to work and be ourselves. It doesn’t get any easier and more fun than that. It’s not thinking, jeez, how are we going to relate to our audience because we are our audience?
“We got a great compliment a couple of weeks ago from somebody,’ said Lee. “I don’t know if they said something about the show and how it was funny and how it got them going in the morning. But then they also said something about, and then sometimes you’re serious, I thought was kind of a neat compliment that you can play both sides of the tracks like that. I thought that was a huge compliment.”
“This just dawned on me, but when all of us were growing up and we were listening to the radio, we loved the big, bombastic personalities because they were people in our community, and they were celebrities. So you wanted to hear about the cool celebrity shit that they did. And they would all play that up.”
“If a band was in town and they did a 30-second meet and greet, they would do four hours on that meet and greet because you wanted to hear about somebody that was doing something like that. But if that was on the radio today, I would punch out immediately. I don’t want to listen to this. I want to listen to somebody that I can relate to. I want to listen to somebody who’s living the same life as me.”
“I feel like the rock audience is particularly keen at sniffing out if you’re being even the slightest bit inauthentic. That’s also kind of cool about the relatability of this show because we’ll talk about stuff like that.
“Then you’ll hear the DJ across town. He’s like, yeah, man, I partied with Shinedown last night. And he’ll straight out say, we partied with Shinedown last night. No. We shook hands. We got an autograph. We walked away. There’s no party.”
“We take a different approach, too. It seemed like when we were coming out that you would try your hardest to make the shows seem as glitzy and glamorous and well-oiled and highfalutin as you could. But the more we pulled back the curtain on the fact that it is a low-rent show, in a building that has unsteady heating and air conditioning (we really don’t have any perks to speak of at all), that added to our relatability. It could not get any more low-budget, low-rent than what it is.”
The show has a theme that carries across all their platforms, like podcasts and social media. “Here’s your freaking podcast,” etc. And it had a funny start.
“A lot of that has kind of born out of our resistance to doing things. We’re like, ‘ Alright, fine. ‘ Here’s your freaking podcast. It has that air of extra work that we didn’t want to do, and everybody has that at their job.”
“I’m going to have you do some extra stuff this week. You know, like, fine here’s your freaking coffee that you made me go out and get for you. Here’s your freaking dry cleaning. It carries an air about that, which I think is really funny. And again, it goes back to being relatable. Everybody does stuff that they’re not really excited about doing. That’s the joke.”
“We don’t get paid for the podcast and all the little things. We don’t get a dime out of this. So if you don’t want to listen, don’t. It’s not like we’re going to make any money out of it, like our T-shirts and stuff like that. We don’t make any money off T-shirts. If you don’t want to buy one, don’t buy one.”
The show is in the early phases of syndication through Audio 1.
“We’ve talked about it for years, and we thought it would happen faster than it has. We were a show for 10 years, and then we got simulcast to the flagship station of the company in Fort Wayne. And that’s been going on for five years. We were doing pretty well, and then Audio 1 came along and offered to syndicate the show. And we’re now on in Dothan, Alabama, at a Bear station down there.”
Kluck added, “Jason’s right. We’ve been on it for a long time, maybe even before we were ready for it, we thought. But it’s a process. You’re fighting some big names and big brands out there. But we’ve had pretty great ratings success against every big dog that’s come through. We vanquished them to the ether.”
“You can take Fort Wayne, for example, our first out-of-market show. And we’ve had to go against everybody that we thought was big-time. “Bob and Tom,” “Free Beer and Hot Wings.” And they lasted not very long at all. And we thought, all right, that’s the ticket, because we’re beating all the big-name syndicated shows. That’s got to account for something, right? And it turns out that it really doesn’t.”
And how do we find the next generation of young people who are excited to be in radio?
Lee said, “Well, what we’ve found, with our company specifically, is that if you go to any college or university, there is a radio station there filled with people who are excited to be a part of the business. We’ve got one down the street, Goshen College, that has been a pipeline of people who have come through here, found jobs with the company, and have gone on to bigger radio and TV gigs.”
“Those kids are there. You just have to reach out a little bit. Our company has a fantastic relationship with that department. So, they’re out there. I mean, they might not be showing up. When I was coming up, I worked at a gas station. I just wanted to work at a radio station, so I walked in. And that’s how I got into the business. That doesn’t happen anymore. But if any company out there is looking for talent, just go to your nearest college radio station. It’s there.
Listen to “Jason Lee and Kluck on 103.9 The Bear here.
Contact Audio 1 for syndication information.
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Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
