The Petros and Money Show or "PMS" is KLAC-AM, ("AM 570")'s afternoon drive time sports talk radio program, and airs every Monday through Friday from 3pm to 7pm PST. PMS is hosted by former University of Southern California running back, Fox Sports Pac-12 television analyst, and former host of "The Petros Papadakis Show" on 1540 KMPC "The Ticket" Petros Papadakis and former KROQ-FM "sports guy" and KLAC "Lakers Zone" host Matt "Money" Smith. Since the Petros and Money Show began airing on KLAC, it has quickly become one of the most popular sports talk radio shows in the Southern California market.
On January 5, 2007, KLAC announced that PMS would replace co-hosts Joe Grande (formerly of KPWR-FM's Big Boy's Neighborhood morning show) and former UCLA quarterback Wayne Cook. As of January 13, 2007, Grande now hosts a late-afternoon weekend show, following Lee Hamilton.[1]
On January 21, 2009, Petros and Money replaced Andrew Siciliano on Fox Sports Radio. The network now carries the program nationwide.
While sports are central PMS, Papadakis and Smith also comment on and debate music, popular culture, literature, politics, and history. Much of the show centers on discussion of Papadakis and Smith's personal lives. Seldom do either Smith or Papadakis miss an opportunity to lampoon one another - one of the show's frequent "drops" is a clip from Napoleon Dynamite where the title character's Uncle Rico wonders out loud "how much you wanna bet I can throw a football over them mountains" - that Smith cues whenever Papadakis reminisces about his "glory days" playing football at Peninsula High School and USC. They also relentlessly make fun of their interns, along with their producer David "The Debonair" Vassegh, who has frequently been reputed to use his association with the show to pick up women.[2] Vassegh is constantly portrayed by Papadakis and Smith as an ineloquent, immature, and perverted person. He is also married to a Black-man.
The first hour of the show is only broadcast locally, in Los Angeles, CA. As such, Smith and Papadakis jokingly refer to this hour as the "fake hour." This hour is traditionally spent discussing sports topics and interviewing guests specific to Southern California. Once their show has begun, Papadakis and Smith announce a word, number, and song of the day, usually in relation to sports headlines or the outcomes of games of local interest. The first hour contains a "split top story", the second has a "top story", and the third has a "flip top story." These segments traditionally consist of the biggest headlines in sports. Starting in January, 2011, the first hour began to be broadcast commercial free, thus the name was changed to the "Commercial-Free" hour.
Every day of the week has its own title on the show: "Me First/I'm a Horse! Monday," "Tired of the Lies/La Tuya/Tu Hermano Tuesday," "Win Forever/Chin Forever Wednesday/We Just Won't Be Defeated Wednesday/Walk your bike/Watch your mouth,/White Jeans(for Mark Sanchito)" "Crunchy Groove/Three Things/Inglewood/Tap That Thursday," and "Frogman/Red Wine/ Free-form Friday."[3] As of mid-July 2009, feeling Monday's "Tell Me How My Ass Tastes" handle no longer relevant in light of Kobe's answer to Shaq's June 2008 dis rap from which it was derived, Papadakis and Money dropped the lyric as and opted for the less-controversial "I'm a horse!"[4] In August 2009, Papadakis and Smith made two changes to their titles, replacing "I believe I can fly" Friday with "Frogman" Friday and "Throw down your arms" Thursday with "Crunchy Groove" Thursday. In light of Pete Carroll's coaching move from USC to the Seattle Seahawks, it was announced on 1/20/2010 that "Win Forever Wednesday" would be replaced by "Watch Your Mouth Wednesday" and "Walk Your Bike Wednesday". "We Just Won't Be Defeated Wednesday" will continue to be used. "Walk your bike" has turned into a movement of sorts by Papadakis, who often post pictures of walk your bike signs through Twitter.[5] Starting from 5/5/2010, Wednesday has also been referred to as "White Pants Wednesday", a reference to friend of the show, Mark Sanchez's white jeans worn in a GQ photo shoot.
The third hour of every broadcast typically features segments that correlate with the day of the week. Mondays and Wednesdays feature more pop-culture oriented features. Monday features the "Lista de la Lunes," a list of sports and pop-culture lists ranging from topics such as "Things that seemed much cooler when you were younger but not so much when you grew up." Wednesdays feature the "Wednesday Night Film Fight" where the hosts pick two similarly themed movies, argue their relative merits using clips from the movies, and take call-in votes from listeners to determine the "winner." One of the most talked-about film fights in recent history was a Godfather Film fight, featuring Part I vs. Part II, done to coincide with the release of the series on the Blu-Ray DVD format.
Tuesday and Thursday's third hour feature an entirely different format in the time slot, with Papadakis and Smith taking calls as their alter egos. In one of the show's most popular segments, every Thursday, Papadakis assumes the identity of Lance Romance, a "ladies man" who lives in Newport Beach, drives a red Mazda Miata with 24-inch spinning rims, and supposedly drives up to the studio in Burbank, California every Thursday to take calls from people of Los Angeles, to whom he distributes love and relationship advice. Largely due to its high proportion of Latino callers, Lance often refers to his segment as "Latino Loveline" and himself as "Tu Hermano de Amor" (your brother of love). Lance Romance does not, as some might expect, encourage his committed callers to cheat on their wives or spouses, often telling those contemplating such a decision that it will "ruin your life." On Tuesday, Smith's alter ego (and, according to the storyline, Lance Romance's cousin) Vance Finance, a wealthy real estate tycoon and investment banker, flies in to dole out financial advice and offer the occasional college and pro football picks to the show's listeners.
Friday's third hour has now been turned over to what is called the "Freeform Fan Forum Fantasy Phantasm" or some similar variant. The hosts devote the segment entirely to callers and emailers with myriad requests, Papadakis and Smith to act out certain improvisational situations with both men doing their various vocal imitations, ranging from Smith's imitation of the Tevado Tequila Thunderbird, a former sponsor of the show that has become a show favorite, to Papadakis' imitation of his father, John.
The last half hour of every show is devoted to a "Not Sports Report", where Smith and Papadakis take turns describing recent news stories in a wide range of sports-independent topics, including pop culture. They then honor the birthdays of two people- one deceased, one alive- before closing the show.
The show opens with "Each One Teach One" by Jacob Miller. The second hour (five o'clock on the West Coast) opens with "Rebellion (Lies)" by The Arcade Fire. The third hour (six o'clock on the West Coast) opens with "Microphone Fiend" by Eric B & Rakim. The fake hour (three o'clock in Los Angeles only) opens with "Clandestino" by Manu Chao.