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Boston Herald
David Lee Roth is no Howard Stern.
Turns out he’s no Adam Corolla, either.
The most shocking thing about Roth’s debut yesterday morning as would-be East Coast successor to Stern’s syndicated radio empire was how the former Van Halen frontman chose to neither shock nor awe his new listeners.
Roth’s program, carried on seven CBS Radio affiliates including WBCN-FM (104.1) in Boston, opened with the familiar drumroll of Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” and a female voice declaring: “Welcome to David Lee Roth. Prepare to feel filthy my friend, and completely alive.”
Yet Roth offered no filth in his first four hours.
Instead, he opened his stint in what he called “the hottest seat in international radio” by revealing his typical McDonald’s order (two-cheeseburger meal, supersized with a Coke), and within four minutes asked: “What am I doing on the radio?”
He answered by describing his first experiences listening to the radio, a Ray Charles song when he was a 7-year-old in 1961 living at 21 Alton Court in Brookline.
Hub references abounded. He kidded new boss Tom Chiusano about his dislike for Roth’s “Boston Irish” friend in the studio. And Boston listeners soon learned that DJ Hutch, who previously worked shifts at WBOS-FM (92.9), WROR-FM (105.7) and most recently WZLX-FM (100.7), was Roth’s main on-air sidekick. Hutch also helped Roth during his weeklong stint last year on WZLX.
Snippets of songs and beats played in the background, with Roth prompting Hutch sometimes to play the complete song — U2’s “Vertigo,” the Faces’ “Ooh La La” and Average White Band’s “School Boy Crush.”
Actually, Roth’s show amounted to average white radio.
When a couple of callers couldn’t connect via his toll-free line, 866-313-FREE, Roth quipped: “Is Eddie Van Halen running the phones?”
Stern’s West Coast replacement, Adam Corolla, opened his show yesterday with a team that included VH1’s Rachel Perry and his longtime producing partner Jimmy Kimmel. Anyone who has heard Corolla on the radio sex-advice show “Loveline” or any variety of Comedy Central shows was familiar with the subject matter at hand yesterday. Roth was slower out of the gate.
At 9:58 a.m., he signed off from “David Lee’s Tiki Bunker, where the debris meets the sea. Join me tomorrow, it gets nothing but better from here.”
Let’s hope so.
Turns out he’s no Adam Corolla, either.
The most shocking thing about Roth’s debut yesterday morning as would-be East Coast successor to Stern’s syndicated radio empire was how the former Van Halen frontman chose to neither shock nor awe his new listeners.
Roth’s program, carried on seven CBS Radio affiliates including WBCN-FM (104.1) in Boston, opened with the familiar drumroll of Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” and a female voice declaring: “Welcome to David Lee Roth. Prepare to feel filthy my friend, and completely alive.”
Yet Roth offered no filth in his first four hours.
Instead, he opened his stint in what he called “the hottest seat in international radio” by revealing his typical McDonald’s order (two-cheeseburger meal, supersized with a Coke), and within four minutes asked: “What am I doing on the radio?”
He answered by describing his first experiences listening to the radio, a Ray Charles song when he was a 7-year-old in 1961 living at 21 Alton Court in Brookline.
Hub references abounded. He kidded new boss Tom Chiusano about his dislike for Roth’s “Boston Irish” friend in the studio. And Boston listeners soon learned that DJ Hutch, who previously worked shifts at WBOS-FM (92.9), WROR-FM (105.7) and most recently WZLX-FM (100.7), was Roth’s main on-air sidekick. Hutch also helped Roth during his weeklong stint last year on WZLX.
Snippets of songs and beats played in the background, with Roth prompting Hutch sometimes to play the complete song — U2’s “Vertigo,” the Faces’ “Ooh La La” and Average White Band’s “School Boy Crush.”
Actually, Roth’s show amounted to average white radio.
When a couple of callers couldn’t connect via his toll-free line, 866-313-FREE, Roth quipped: “Is Eddie Van Halen running the phones?”
Stern’s West Coast replacement, Adam Corolla, opened his show yesterday with a team that included VH1’s Rachel Perry and his longtime producing partner Jimmy Kimmel. Anyone who has heard Corolla on the radio sex-advice show “Loveline” or any variety of Comedy Central shows was familiar with the subject matter at hand yesterday. Roth was slower out of the gate.
At 9:58 a.m., he signed off from “David Lee’s Tiki Bunker, where the debris meets the sea. Join me tomorrow, it gets nothing but better from here.”
Let’s hope so.
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