Married to Radio
One married the radio.
One married the radio girl. 💜
🎙️ Double-L & Jeremiah
📻 Behind-the-scenes stories of country music, marriage & more.
Married to Radio
"THE NAME"
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Welcome to Episode One of Married to Radio ... "THE NAME".
We're Lois and Jeremiah, and if you're here... welcome to the family.
We met because of radio, fell in love because of life, and now we're inviting you into the conversations that happen after the ON AIR light turns off.
In this first episode, we're introducing ourselves, sharing how this podcast came to life, talking about why every episode is (close to?!) 27 minutes long (there's a story there!), and giving you a taste of what's to come.
We also have a very special GUEST - Lauren Thomas "LT" from Big Loud Records. Relive the night we GOT MARRIED with her Maid of Honor speech. Woo-hoo!
The goal of our podcast is to bring you behind the scenes of our Marriage, Radio. Faith. Family. Dogs. Laughing way too hard at ourselves. And whatever else happens when two people who love to talk decide to hit "record."
We're so glad you're here. Thanks for spending your next 27 minutes with us.
Hey y'all, it's LT, SVP promotion at Big Loud Records, and you're listening to the Married to Radio podcast with your hosts, Double L and Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_02Hello, gorgeous.
SPEAKER_01Hello, handsome. Woo! Episode numero uno! We're here. Uh, we're gonna get a little bit more with LT later in the episode, but SVP, senior vice president of promotion, that's my girl. That's my best friend. She was in our wedding, and we're gonna feature a little highlight from our wedding because this podcast is called Married to Radio. But big loud records would be Morgan Wallen, Hardy, Ernest, Steven Wilson Jr., Lorna Lena, Dylan Gossett.
SPEAKER_02Ashley Cook.
SPEAKER_01Oh, our girl Ashley Cook will definitely have an episode with Ashley Cook.
SPEAKER_02Love her.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, love her. Love the connections we've been able to make through radio and records. And it really all comes together. And we've been wanting to do this podcast forever.
SPEAKER_02Forever.
SPEAKER_01But I just kept getting hung up on the perfect name, the perfect time, the perfect this. And perfect is just the pursuit of perfection. That's just a killer. You just can't ever get there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It actually worked out for the right timing, right? Yeah. Now is the right time. We're in the right place. Have some time. You have some time. We can get it done. And here we are. Yeah. To get it done.
SPEAKER_01Last Monday I went to K NIX and packed up my office. Three, three boxes and a fridge. That's 10 years.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And you know what? I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be, maybe because I had some time to process.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then I went and had a spicy marg with
Spicy Margs with Drew from KMLE
SPEAKER_01my guy Drew from Camel Country. 108. I've known Drew for forever. Yeah. When I was a record rep for seven years, I called on Camel. They were one of my stations, just like KIX was. And it was my job to get songs played on the radio there. And so Drew and I have been friends for a long time, even as competitors. Um, that's the goal in radio. Everybody's relationship. You want to be, you want the synergy to be there. And so it was cool. He reached out and we had spicy margs up at Mission at Keerland.
SPEAKER_03Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_01Have you ever been there? We I had never been there. Great spicy margs. And he uh told me in that conversation something that stuck with me in such a way. He said, This is my era to be creatively fearless. And uh that just lit a fire under me.
SPEAKER_02Here we are. Yeah. I mean, if we don't look fearless, what do we look?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so good. So that night we went to Backyard. We watched the World Cup, USA, Belgium. Yeah. Yeah, bummer. And so, you know, the only thing to cure a bummer is an espresso martini.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, we had a couple beers with friends while we saw that loss. And then uh we went and had another espresso martini. Juices were flowing. Yeah. And Married to Radio. Was born.
"Married to Radio" was BORN!
SPEAKER_02Was born.
SPEAKER_01I mean, right there at the bar. And we were like the last ones in that was at Thirsty Lion. Yep. And we were the last ones there. And this lady's like, what are they doing? I'm out there on Spotify. I'm trying to get the handle. I'm on YouTube getting the handle. I'm like, we found it. We found our handle. And why married to radio? Right?
SPEAKER_02Well, you talking about that makes me think of the shrimp that I had in that moment. It was really good. She's getting everything lined up for the podcast. Um chowing down. That sounds right. It was a good time. What was your question?
SPEAKER_01Why the title?
SPEAKER_02Why the title Married to Radio? Well, because it fits both of us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Why are you married to radio?
SPEAKER_01I've been married to radio for a really long time. I started working at KIX
How is Double-L "Married to Radio"?
SPEAKER_01in 1999. I answered an ad in the state press when I was going to Arizona State University. I started in 97, graduated in 01. And 99, I was sitting in the MU. I was looking for part-time work, and they had an ad for what was called media research. And it's like not something radio stations even have the budget for anymore, because, well, budgets. And my job at that time, it was so cool. It was to cold call people and ask them what their favorite radio station was, and then play them songs from that genre of music and then ask if they liked it a little, liked it a lot, hated it, whatever. And then I would like take that data, and then that's how we would get researched. So if we've ever taken a research test, maybe now they do it more online. There's some call out now. But that was my first job while I was still going to school. And as I was walking in those hallways, the on-air light, I would see the on-air light. And it was Tim. It was Tim Hattrick. Tim and Willie were doing mornings at K and I X. And you know, Tim, he's just so tall and his stature is like, ah. And so I would see the on-air light and then I would do my work. And then eventually I transitioned upstairs and I was stapling, collating, filing. And Tim asked if I could fill in on the morning show. And at the time I was going to school for broadcast journalism, I wanted to go be a sportscaster. I wanted to be on ESPN. I wanted to take over for Linda Cohn. Shout out. She's still rocking ESPN all these years later. She's the best. And either that or news talk, like the news. And then the minute I sat down, I was like, wait, I can talk about music. I can be on the radio talking about my favorite songs. It was that was it. It was over. It was over. Yeah. So I stayed on KIX until 2006. And then I went three years to my hometown station, Kim FM, 99.5 in Tucson. What's up, Buzz Jackson? Um, I love doing that because Kim FM is just a huge radio station. Everybody listens to it in Tucson. And I felt like so connected to home. My parents live just south of their Green Valley, where I'm from. So I did that for three years, and then I got the call to work in records. Seven years in records, but still married to radio because my job while I was there was to get artist songs played on the radio. So it's still this underlying current and tie of radio all along. Got the chance in 2016 to come back to radio, moved to Vegas, spent 17 months there, was on 95.5 the Bull. What's up, Vegas? And then I had a chance to move home to KIX in 2017 and until just June 21st. I've been working there ever since. But all tied to radio. And that is my married to radio story. I am absolutely married to it. I love radio. I'm obsessed with radio. I know it's alive. People want to say, oh, people listen to radio. Yeah, it's free and it's in our cars and it's so accessible and it's so amazing. And we make big connections in radio and the community aspect in radio and the localization in radio when it's done right. It's just so exciting. So that's my married to radio story. How are you married to radio?
SPEAKER_02Well, I was married to radio as a listener in Colorado. Uh listened to the country stations there, would call in to win tickets, uh, to win pizza parties, uh, to win all kinds of things, and uh, and then be connected to the local concert scene that way. So um did that anywhere I was, uh, and then when I got here to Arizona, your voice was the first voice I heard on the radio.
SPEAKER_01And uh, are you emotional? Why does that make me emotional? Um I'm I'm married to a Pisces.
SPEAKER_02So hearing your
How is Jeremiah "Married to Radio"?
SPEAKER_02voice on the radio and just what KIX was doing, it was like a revamp at the time, it was a new brand. And uh, so I started listening to K NIX over Camel, and social media was started to play a bigger part. Uh so I started to follow you, uh Barrel Boy, um, the whole crew uh there at KNIX, and you responded like right away, and so that developed a friendship um that grew and continued. We secret shows was a big one. Yes, my at the time, yeah, I had a girlfriend and we enjoyed uh the secret shows. We went to uh Dirk Spentley, Whiskey Row, in Tempe. Yeah, the one that's closed now, and uh on the day of a secret show to try and win your last pair of tickets, and uh my girlfriend at the time uh grabbed you as you walked by and uh and said, Hi, my name is Michelle. This is my uh boyfriend Jeremiah, and we have a dog named Toby Keith, and he has a crush on you.
SPEAKER_01And I said, And you said, Your boyfriend or your dog?
SPEAKER_02Both, both did. Um so that that just led to us meeting you. We got those tickets that night, and then we didn't miss a secret show from there on out. We had a friendship with you. Michelle and I had a friendship with you going to trivia nights that you were hosting. Brooke did hook us up with a pair of tickets, I think, even at Dirk's Bentley Whiskey Row for one of the shows.
SPEAKER_01And by hookup, he means one. You mean one, you won these tickets.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. We were there, we called in, we did those things to win those tickets, and we didn't miss the show.
SPEAKER_01When was that ish? 2018, 2019, 2018, 2018, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think that's probably the time, 2018. So that connection then grew a little bit more. I was no longer in that relationship, I was out living on my own, doing my own thing. Uh, and then we get into COVID. Uh, you became my plant miyagi, as we're planting plants together in separate houses, apartments, and uh sports fan, big sports fan. Yeah, same. You were a Seahawks fan at that time. I was a Broncos fan, still am a Broncos fan, and uh we bet on the game. And during that time of life, I lost, but that's all right. I brought you a bottle of wine, yeah. I just continued that friendship, that relationship. And then you invited me. Was it you invited me to Dirk's Bentley, or I invited you to church? Which one happened first?
SPEAKER_01You invited me to church. I grew up Catholic, and I had never been to a non-Catholic church, really, maybe once or twice. And you said, I've got a great church called Sun Valley Community Church. And if you'd like to come sometime. And at the time I was married, and my then husband didn't have faith, he didn't believe in God. And so I thought, well, that would be a great way. I said, Hey, um, can I go to church with my friend Jeremiah? And of course, and so I went to Sun Valley and loved it. I mean, that is our church. We have lots of stories that we will get to share with Sun Valley and about Sun Valley. I just loved how it was like life-applicable learning. Like it wasn't just I loved singing in the choir with my grandpa and my Catholic church. And but I never really felt like I had a lot of takeaways. And so that was really cool to go to a church where I felt like I had a takeaway. And then I enjoyed spending time with you as well and just seeing what a really good guy you were. I remember after you broke up with your first girlfriend, you had another girlfriend, and we our friendship was, hey Teresa, our friendship was still, you know, really, really strong. We would interact a lot on social media. I would see you at trivia nights and other events. I played a, I played Gabby Barrett's the good ones on KIX for you for like your birthday because you're one of the good ones. And she had hit me up for that request. And and then when they eventually broke up, I remember I was just trying to set you up with all my friends because I just wanted you to be a part of my life. I wanted you to be in my circle because you just have such a good energy and you just get along with everybody. And so I tried to set you with my best friend. It was really working.
SPEAKER_02Yep, tried to connect me to keep me in that circle. There was no way I was getting out of your circle back to church.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02We were standing out in front of the uh sanctuary at the Tempe campus, having some tea. And uh, I remember telling you, uh Lois, I'm
When did things "shift" for Lois & Jeremiah?
SPEAKER_02praying for your marriage. But if it doesn't work out, I date the fuck out of you.
SPEAKER_01And I can remember, I was wearing a green dress. I can remember that. Like I have a lot of amnesia things because my brain feels full all the time, like squirrel. But that moment, uh definitely I was like, you what? What? Yeah, yeah, and that brings us to August 27th. Yeah. August 27th, we I must have invited you, or were you already going? No, I couldn't afford tickets. I was going to see Dirk Spentley at uh what is now Talking Stick Resort Amphitheater. My friend Holly and her guy Jason were going. Um, it's our best friend, Big Al's birthday, on that day, August 27th.
Why is the number 27 so significant to the two of us?
SPEAKER_01I knew he would be there. I was talking to Big Al much in the exact same way as I was talking to you. We would message, he would come to all my events. You know, if you're a listener of mine, you know that I respond on social media. I'm somebody that really cultivates those relationships. I love listener-facing relationships and your why I do my job, your why I love radio. And so having those conversations just built so many friendships that I have now. And you came to the show, it was Dirk Spentley, Riley Green, Parker McCollum. And it was uh August 27th.
SPEAKER_02It was a hell of a show. I drank a little much that night, and um, something I think it was at the end, you were going to the restroom, and I was standing out, and I pulled up my phone. Uh, and maybe we could show that video again someday. But uh in the into the camera, I go, I'm at a Dirk's Belly show with double L. What is my wife? And then I paused and I said, I'm gonna marry that girl someday. Are you ready for it? Get ready. And then we did. We did. So that's how I got married to radio. I love radio, I love the artists, I love the labels, yeah, but it's really all about the relationship, and I think that's what this podcast talks about is that when it says married to radio, direction flows through a relationship. And so the relationships you build for us, the primary source of that has been radio. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01What was really cool for me is I had been in radio for so long, and then having met Jeremiah, I had been so fortunate to have so many experiences already. And uh, my at this point now, uh, I am going through a divorce, and my ex-husband wasn't a country fan, and so I didn't really ever have uh like a partner to do things
Jeremiah - my true PARTNER
SPEAKER_01with. My friend Karina came everywhere with us and she would come and she would help me. I she's my producer, she would take pictures of everything, and I loved having her there, but I was definitely lacking that partnership in the way of like I didn't even know what I was missing until I met Jeremiah, and then we started going to these events together, and you didn't get to do a lot of events growing up. Anything you got to do was because church got you tickets, right?
SPEAKER_02Or some other family or friendship relationship had a resource and helped me out to do those things.
SPEAKER_01So it was cool because it gave me this like infusion of oh, I I could take him. I can take you. Do you want to come? Do you want to come with?
SPEAKER_02Like brand new energy, excited to be there, like so grateful to be there. Yeah. And it was a ton of fun and it gave you that new vision.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then it's cool because you started making your own friendships with the record labels that I already knew. And then they started saying, Hey, can Jeremiah come? Can you bring Jeremiah? Let's make sure Jeremiah's backstage. Let's make sure he's at the showcase. And we've got lots of showcase stories that I've really never been able to tell. That's another reason we've always wanted to do this podcast. When I was doing my show at KIX, I would do a lot of 13 to 21 seconds. That's the time I had between songs, talking up song ramps, talking out of songs. And I never really could share with you the in-depth stories of when we would go backstage with Morgan Wallen, hang out with Hardy, see Lainey Wilson at Stagecoach,
lil preview of stories to come on "Married to Radio"
SPEAKER_01go to Utah with Dylan Scott. Like we've got so many cool stories. And so that's what we're hoping that this podcast will accomplish. Just a deeper look into the fun things we get to do because we are married to radio.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. At our wedding, I talked about it a lot on the radio. We uh did Mountain Shadows. It was just such an epic place. Thank you to my parents. Thank you. Shout out, Kevin and Elaine for making that possible for us and to Jesse Thompson. Jesse is a great friend and he um at the time was the general manager of Mountain Shadows Resort, which is in Paradise Valley. And he uh uh gave us a really, really great way to be able to get married there. He he helped with that a lot. And uh again, those relationships are so key. So when we did, we did everything purple. It was so much fun picking out the dress. Uh, I had so many listeners think I was gonna wear a purple dress. Did you think I was gonna wear a purple dress? No, you knew I wouldn't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I feel like we talked about that. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I still needed to be bridal, but also myself. Yeah. So uh we'll have to show off that dress at some point. But there was some purple involved. Um, I can't wait to tell you in one episode the story about my purple ring. That's gonna be fun. We might even have time in here. I don't know. We're uh we're about nine minutes to go. Because the goal is 27-minute episodes each week, which will be really, really cool. And why is that? Did we say that yet? August 27th was the day of the Dark Splentley concert where everything changed. And when he said, I'm gonna marry that girl, and now he is. When we got married, LT,
Introducing Lauren "LT" Thomas - my Maid of Honor
SPEAKER_01who introduced this podcast, we're gonna try to have a different friend, artist, relationship, someone we've met through radio, introduce our podcast. But um, LT is my best friend, and she gave a speech that was um it's just goaded. It is like, and it's cool because she sent us this in preparation for the podcast, and I didn't remember most of like a lot of this. I remembered some of it, which was me dating a listener and the lore around that. But we want to play for you the uh speech from LT, Lauren Thomas, SVP of Big Loud
She's the SVP of Big Loud Records & here's the speech she delivered at our wedding!
SPEAKER_01Records.
SPEAKER_00Honestly, guys, I have no idea how I got here. Uh because the first time Lois met me, she hated me. I didn't know this, of course, but we worked at competing radio stations. I was grabbing a hump and hanging on at Camel across town, and she was a K and I X. I won't get into the granular, nerdy gorilla marketing between these two country radio stations, but I was a real bitch. Thankfully, our friendship was given a second chance, and while I'm honored to be here, I would not have had Maid of Honor on my bingo card back then. One fateful night in Nashville, Lois, and I spent some time together thanks to our friend Gwen and became inseparable. I was immediately drawn to her vibrancy and positivity, two traits that have proven consistent in our friendship nearly 20 years later. I've known Lois through radio records, radio again, and as a female in this industry, there's one unspoken rule of thumb, no matter what side of the fence you were on, you don't date listeners. Along with that comes a myriad of potential safety concerns if you end up with the most extreme. For example, they bring you food that is well not monitored, maybe their cat walked through it, maybe they don't believe in hand soap, maybe you didn't play their favorite song, so they've subtly included undetectable poison in the rice krispie tree. And no chance if there's ever been a listener who is in it for the tickets. Artist merch, backstage access, nope. Never ever in the history of ever. And then there are those listeners that believe they are your soulmate. They stop by your events, know your favorite color, the name of your goldfish, your birthday, your license plate number, the last four digits of your social, your address. And then they end up on a watch list from the local police department. Well, Jeremiah has entered the chat and ruin that for all of us. Because the word listener applies in the way that y'all hear each other, sometimes before the other has to speak. Safety is exemplified in the way you are both free to be who you are without inhibition or apology. The blending of these two families is something impressive. Not only have you come together as a couple, you all have come together as a greater family unit, and I am so proud of you. Although it brings me such joy to see you the happiest you've ever been. And I say that with the utmost confidence. Thank you both for loving each other so well. Your love has provided a realistic hope, and one more second chance. And for the rest of us, I am a hundred percent certain that this cake was not made by a listener. So cheers to that, and cheers to Mr. and Mrs. McMarried. Love you both.
SPEAKER_02That's so good.
SPEAKER_01Jeremiah's last name is McGuinness. So McMarried uh
McMarried <3
SPEAKER_01was a running theme, but that was just so awesome. And she actually dropped the mic. It was an actual mic drop moment. Like that was so cool.
SPEAKER_02She was supposed to go last in the speeches, so she was prepared for that. Uh, she ended up going first, uh, but just killed it. And what a great description of great humor in that, like, never date a listener. Um, but goes to show that when you're meant to be and you have that connection, um that even the unspoken rules can't keep you from what you should have and who you should be together. So, what a great reminder for us today as we re listen to that speech of what our connection is. Being married to each other gives us the opportunity to. Be married to radio together. Where it's not just you doing it, it's us doing it together and developing so many relationships. And that's what our hope is in this podcast is that we can give people something to listen to for 27 minutes that doesn't bore them, gives them some insight to backstage, so to speak, of radio, country music specifically, individuals in country music, but more so hopefully edified in relationships of what it means to be connected. Yeah. Direction flows through relationship. It matters who you know and how you treat them. And uh hopefully our marriage and our life together will be able to encourage uh some others uh to live that same kind of life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And if you're here listening to our first podcast and you're just hanging on because you want all the deets in the dish of everything that happened and why I'm no longer with KIX, that is definitely a story for another day. What's next? Definitely this podcast in the meantime. I would love to stay in radio. My goal is to stay in radio. I am married to the idea of radio and the connection of radio. And so I hope that I get a chance to do that. And the cool thing is with technology the way that it is, wherever that may be that I end up, I hope that I can take the relationships that I've built over the past 10 years, this this time with Vegas and Phoenix listeners. That would be really special if I could keep that connection. But no matter what, we can through here. So that's really exciting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Matthew 7-7.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Why does that mean something to you?
SPEAKER_01When I was in Cabo St. Lucas, uh, I got the news on day two of my vacation. And I went on an adult vacation with my mom and dad. I thought that would be so cool. Jeremiah just started a new position at his work, which is Buena Vista Health and Recovery. Um, he treats people in recovery and and manages programs there. And so he had to, he had to hunger down and stay working because it's a brand new role. And I'm so proud of you for doing that and giving up a week in Cabo San Lucas, which I know is tough. But my parents were going. We've got timeshares there. And I thought, wow, what a gift to be able to give them. It's my natural vacation time at work. It made sense. And so I went with them, found out on day two I was no longer gonna be able to come back on the following Monday to my radio shows on the bull and K and I X. And
Double-L gets emotional
SPEAKER_01so I extended my trip. And in doing that, I got some more time with my parents, some more time to kind of breathe, settle, feel emote, accept. Um, and wow, I actually got emotional there for that one. Um, our officiant
A story about our wedding officiant - Artie! + Matthew 7:7
SPEAKER_01from our wedding naturally was going to be showing up in Cabo on the day I was leaving. I was meant to be leaving Sunday. When Artie and Becca got the news, they said, wait, are you still gonna be in Cabo when we're there? And I'm like, oh my gosh, yes, I am. So how cool that because of some really devastating news, I got such a bright piece of news that we would be able to see Artie and Becca. So we left our timeshare, which is Plague Grande, and we went down to Melano Beach, and there's a place called Sandbar. And we met up for a couple buckets of dosekis. And Artie, who officiated our wedding, you met Artie years and years ago. Um, he said that he was feeling this scripture for me. He was feeling Matthew 7, 7. And so maybe you need to be feeling that this week too. For me, it's especially appropriate right now.
SPEAKER_02It says, ask, seek, knock, basically. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be answered to you. Very true of our relationship with God, but maybe just something that you're dealing with. Maybe you need to ask for it. Maybe you need to seek it. Maybe you just need to knock on that right door for that door to open. Our hope is that you can be encouraged this week with Matthew 7-7 to ask, seek, and knock.
SPEAKER_01And that's what I'll be doing for my next chapter, too. I'm asking for clarity, I'm seeking what's best next, and then I'm gonna knock on that door. I'm gonna blow it down.
unknownOkay.
A Prayer to end the Podcast
SPEAKER_01Do you want to wrap us up with some let's pray?
SPEAKER_02God, thank you for this time. Thank you for this opportunity and what a tool a podcast can be. Lord, we pray that for the people that are listening, they'd be blessed today. They'd hear your love for them and whatever they're looking for, that Lord God, you would guide them to the right spot. We love you, we praise you, thank you for this marriage and this marriage to radio. In Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Episode one, done.
SPEAKER_02Done.
SPEAKER_01Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with something exciting and thanks to LT for the epic intro.
SPEAKER_02Good stuff. I love you. I love you.
