The reason most people fail is because change is hard. Nobody likes change. It’s difficult and uncomfortable. The comfort zone has earned its nickname for a reason. We all like to stay there.
In a few weeks people will turn from looking backward at the twists and turns of 2025 to making resolutions to start the new year. Except the resolutions that most people make don’t last. Statistics show that nearly 80% of people abandon their resolutions by the second Friday in February, also known as “Quitter’s Day.”
Enter the hero of our story, Lamont Hollywood.
For 35 years, Lamont partnered with Paul Tonelli on the phenomenally successful morning show ‘Lamont & Tonelli’ in the Bay Area. The show first ran on KSJO then, starting in 2003 on KSAN. In November 2024, the industry wide cutbacks that have cost the medium so many talented shows caught up with them. Cumulus Media ended the show, but a few months later, Hollywood returned, this time without Tonelli. ‘The Lamont Show‘ was born.
After 35 years together, that’s a big change. Unlike so many people who make resolutions but give up, going back to the comfort zone wasn’t an option. “We adapted, but we had to adapt. We were forced to make changes, so we tried to turn a negative into a positive,” Hollywood says.
The first hurdle the new show faced was not disappointing the audience who loved the old show. “If you work with someone for 35 frigging years, you get entrenched and the audience gets entrenched. They have expectations about what the show is,” says Hollywood. “I looked at this as a chance to adapt and change things which I had to do because without (Tonelli) the show would never sound the same.”
His first goal was to keep as much of what made the show successful as he could. It helped that not everything had changed. Chasta, who also hosts middays and is the station’s Program Director, had been a part of the original show but now she had to step up. “I didn’t want to overwhelm her because she still had so much other stuff to do but she naturally had to take on a bigger role.”
Behind the scenes, Executive Producer Eric Smeltzer also came back. That helped keep the overall sound of the show relatable to the existing audience. “I think he’s the best in the business. He gives us the consistent comedy sound that we had when (Tonelli) was there.”
By keeping so many components in place, Hollywood was able to have the best of both worlds, consistency, and change. Ideas for the new show were born from a brainstorming session with himself, Smeltzer and others working on the show.
“We came up with over three hundred pages of new ideas for the show. We thought of everything, promotions, production, stunts, contests, streaming and non-traditional revenue for us and for the radio station. Nothing was off the table.”
That doesn’t mean everything went on the table either. Hollywood says over the last year the team has taken a measured approach to implementing ideas from the big brainstorm. “You don’t want to make wholesale changes to everything. You don’t want to overwhelm people.”
He says out of everything they came up with the team set out to select 12 to 15 things to work on in their first year. If half of them were implemented and worked effectively, that would be considered a huge success.
And it took a while to get everything to sound the way Hollywood wanted it. He says it took almost nine months before he finally felt like the show sounded right. At that point, from the three hundred pages of ideas the show had about four new benchmark features.
“When you start establishing new stuff and you see it’s working, that’s when you know, we may be on to something here. Now it’s time to let that get consistent. Some of these new features have worked out better than the stuff I was doing before.”
One part of the show that has remained is a willingness to take on political topics. “We have impersonators on the show. A lot of people stay away from doing Donald Trump. We have the greatest Donald Trump impersonator ever.”
But it’s not as simple as just making fun of the President. “If you’re going to do something like that, you have to be able to make fun of both sides and not make it that you’re going after one person. You’ve got to have reasons to do it, and you have to remember you are making a parody of the person, you’re not doing it with malice.”
Hollywood feels it’s important because the show must be topical. Whatever is in the news will make it onto the show, just not in a predictable manner. “It may be a ridiculous take on it but we’re still talking about it. I think that’s what’s lost on a lot of good radio shows.”
He also sees a lack of effort that concerns him with some younger shows. “The creative process to really deliver on a show like this is constantly ongoing. And you can see who’s not working at their show. It’s like watching a hockey game. You can tell the guy who goes in, plays for an hour, and then goes home and drinks beer and doesn’t work out. As opposed to the guys who are really dedicated and put in the work.”
But maybe that’s OK because it leaves more opportunity for Hollywood. “Something I never would have even imagined is because we’re in Silicon Valley, we have some venture capitalists that listen to us. I got a call from these guys who want to start a project and among other things I’m talking with them about syndicating. We’re getting close to making things happen.”
Seeing how that new opportunity grew from almost a year’s worth of turmoil is a lesson for all of us. “When you make changes, you’re forced to adapt but sometimes it’s the best thing.”
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Mike Stern is a Classic Rock columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. He has been with Jacobs Media consulting stations in the Classic Rock, Rock, Alternative and AAA world for more than a decade. Prior to that he programmed stations in Chicago, Detroit, Denver Las Vegas and other markets. He also worked as News/Talk Editor for Radio and Records, wrote about Top 40 Radio for Billboard Magazine and had his own radio talent coaching business called Talent Mechanic.
