Rick Emerson

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Rick in the studio during a broadcast

Rick Emerson is a radio personality most famous for "The Rick Emerson Show", which was broadcast on a number of radio stations in Portland, Oregon and was nationally syndicated for a period from 1998-2001. The show began a new run on KCMD-AM 970 "Solid State Radio," formerly branded as Johnson 970, on March 13th, 2006. Emerson is also program director for AM 970.

1 Personal History
2 The Rick Emerson Show (1080 KOTK and MAX 910)
3 The Coffee Cup Crusade
4 Bigger Than Jesus
5 Remote Control
6 The Rick Emerson Show (AM 970)
7 External links

[edit] Personal History

Rick Emerson was born March 7, 1973 in Kennewick, Washington.

At age 14 he began working voluntarily for a local radio station. After graduating fourth-to-last in his high school class, he moved to Spokane, Washington, where he eventually landed his first talk-show, broadcasting from a bomb shelter in the basement of the station's building and managed to earn a small, but loyal following. For many years listeners knew him as Rick Taylor, a last name that he picked out of a phone-book at the beginning of his career.

He was promoted to a position broadcasting during the afternoon drive in Salt Lake City where he co-hosted a show with Clyde Lewis. He became Program Director of KCNR in Salt Lake and helped create one of the most popular radio stations in Utah. In the process, he was arrested twice, banned from the State Capitol for life, married another man, and was the voice of the "little pig" in Green Jelly's famous song Three Little Pigs. A change in the station's format in 1997 left Emerson without a microphone.

[edit] The Rick Emerson Show (1080 KOTK and MAX 910)

In the fall of 1998 he accepted a job at Hot Talk 1080 KOTK in Portland, OR. Taking the midday slot, he formed a uniquely strong bond with the Portland audience. The following year, national syndication of his show was offered, and he accepted, instantly beaming his show into 40 cities. In early 2001 "creative differences" had become very apparent in the show, and the show left the air. In mid-2001, he was lured back to Hot Talk 1080 KOTK in Portland to remain a local host.

Emerson's program focused on pop-culture, news of the day, music and media commentary. Though Emerson was not shy about taking a moderate-left opinion on the show, politics was most often discussed in sarcastic (but pointed) criticisms of the powerful elite, regardless of party affiliation.

Emerson's broadcasts were characterized by a number of features including:

News with Tim Riley
The Bush Watch
The Clergy Watch
The Penis Watch - Featuring many stories of the general injury of male genitalia.
The Hick Watch - Featuring stories starring America's hardworking rural folk.
The (Michael) Jackson Watch
The Britney (Spears) Watch
The Whitney (Houston) Watch
The (Al) Gore Watch
The Geek Watch - Stories about the many facets of Geek culture.
The Week in Geek - short segment produced by Aaron Duran
The Top Five (usually in the context of songs, films or artists in those genres)
How Chicks Think (with Jolie from the front desk, and substitutes)
The Cannibal Watch - Just what it sounds like. Stories about man-flesh. Often take place in Germany and/or Florida
The Grave Watch - Great stories involving grave robbing, grave defiling, and sometimes, just sometimes - grave buggery. Often combined with a Penis, Cannibal and/or Hick Watch.
The Snuff Watch - Rick Emerson's anti-euphamism to counter terms such as "transition" or "in passing" to convey the news of a celebrity's death. One of the most memoriable "snuff watches" was the death of Mr. Rogers, perhaps the only time Rick Emerson cried on air.

The show would also often feature guests, including a number of CNN correspondents and a number of local notables, including weatherman Richard Nunn, Fairly Honest Don (owner of Fairly Honest Don's Machine Gun Parlor), musician Richard Cheese and Oregonian television critic Peter Ames Carlin. Emerson's show, as a rare non-political local talk show on the air daily in Portland for a number of years, also occasionally interviewed local politicians like Portland mayor Vera Katz, who appeared on the program soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The Rick Emerson Show also accepted listener phone calls and participation. Callers might identify themselves as "first time callers, long time listeners", which was rewarded with a sound cue of Phil Hartman playing Ed McMahon on Saturday Night Live shouting "yes!". Callers would also often finish their calls by saying "F-Matt with a (insert object or scenario)". This was a reference to staffer Matt Peterson's revelation that at the age of 16 he received a BMW as his first car that snowballed into an essential part of the listener lexicon. Listener emails were often read or referred to on-air and there were regularly scheduled listener parties that were highly attended by people throughout the region.

The show also spawned the band "The Tim Riley Factor" which performed at listener parties and the occasional Portland music venue, and recorded a number of songs used on the show.

KOTK became MAX 910 after being purchased by Entercom Broadcasting, where his show ran until early 2005 when the station's format switched to music.

[edit] The Coffee Cup Crusade

The abrupt cancellation of MAX 910's lineup caused consternation amongst Emerson's listeners. They began a campaign organized by local bloggers to encourage Entercom to return Emerson to the airwaves, dropping coffee cups off at the company's studios with messages saying "I need my morning fix, bring back Rick Emerson". These efforts were unsuccessful in bringing Emerson back to Entercom, but was integral in bringing them to CBS radio. According to internal Entercom emails, the number of coffee cups that were sent to the radio studios numbered in the thousands.

[edit] Bigger Than Jesus

With the demise of The Rick Emerson Show, Emerson turned his attention to a project he had begun during the show's seven year run, a one man play entitled "Bigger Than Jesus: The Diary of a Rock & Roll Fan". The show follows fifteen years of Emerson's rock fandom and "pays tribute to that time in everyone's life when music was all that mattered."

Rick Emerson in "Bigger Than Jesus" DVD

Emerson and creative partner Joni DeRouchie chose to release the previously successful stage show on DVD. The production, written and performed by Emerson and directed by DeRouchie, had been performed twice before, once in a one-night performance at Portland's Clinton Street Theatre, and during a two-week run at Portland's Imago theatre. The DVD performance was filmed before a live audience on June 26th, 2005 at Portland State University's Lincoln Performance Hall, backed by a live band. The DVD was released at a party at the Mount Tabor Theatre on December 3rd, 2005.

[edit] Remote Control

Filmed in the timegap between the Clinton Street and Imago runs of "Bigger than Jesus", "Remote Control" was the second collaboration between Emerson and DeRouchie (but the first to be released as a commercial film.) The 25-minute "Remote Control" is a distinct departure from the style of "Bigger than Jesus", and is considerably more disturbing, centering on a serial killer who demands the return of his favorite television show. In early 2006, fan demand prompted a re-release of "Remote Control", and the film was re-issued in a so-called "Ghetto Edition", featuring low-budget artwork and packaging.

[edit] The Rick Emerson Show (AM 970)

On March 4th, 2006, Emerson's website no longer displayed its old format, and instead displayed the cover photo from the band Europe's Final Countdown album. On March 6th, Emerson released a "promotional video" using YouTube to announce a return to the airwaves via AM 970, a 5000 watt station in Portland with a stand-up comedy format as well as several of the programs that had been carried on KOTK and MAX, including Don and Mike and Tom Leykis.

The show began its run on March 13th, 2006. Broadcasting from "high atop the bottom of the KOIN tower" in "plushly appointed but not overly ostentatious studios" in downtown, the show retains Riley as newsman and Sarah X. Dylan as producer. The show retains many of its hallmarks, including the various "watches" and interviews with CNN radio reporters.