Dave Ryan's Morning Dish

For the last couple years, Dave also has worked with Randy Lane, a talent coach in California. Lane’s assessment is that the tone of the Dave Ryan in the Morning Show has always been swaggerless. “Dave Ryan is a host who’s not afraid to show his flaws. He’s charming about it.” Lane points out that this is an attitude shared by a lot of successful Top 40 morning hosts, and that, oddly, it’s based on the personality pioneered by Howard Stern. “When Howard came out he would talk about how he’s an ugly guy with a small penis,” Lane says. “This was new.” Lane says the modern morning-show character is actually a throwback—he’s straight out of Greek mythology, because Greek heroes were notable not only for their greatness, but for their vulnerability. “A vulnerable hero is more interesting,” Lane says. “Look at all the inappropriate stuff Howard [Stern] has said over the years. Then look at what happened to Don Imus. The difference is that Howard is very self-deprecating, and he’s humanized by his adult flaws. Whereas Imus’ attitude was ‘I’m the I-Man!’ so when he got in trouble people were reluctant to forgive him.” Lane coaches his clients to be more like Howard and Dave. “It’s amazing what openness and honesty and vulnerability will do,” he says.

Dave’s favorite entertainers might not be Sophocles and Aeschylus, but his taste dovetails nicely with Lane’s theory. Dave’s favorite television show is The Office,specifically Steve Carell’s bumbling-but-means-well character Michael Scott. Dave’s Hollywood hero is someone most of his listeners probably never saw: Johnny Carson. As a kid in Colorado Springs, Dave used to fall asleep in front of The Tonight Show, waking up when the screen turned to static. “He was the best interviewer,” Dave says. “He knew that he was the star and the show would’ve bombed without him, but he also knew how to make people look good. If there’s one person trying to stand out, it’s not going to work well.”

Dave explicitly encourages the rest of the players on the show to be as open and as vulnerable as he is. That’s why Crisco talks about getting fired from second jobs and having problems getting a date, and why Lena talks about her medication. According to Steve-O, the most self-assured personality in the studio, some of this is just good business sense. “I believe the more insecurities you have as a person, the better you are as a person,” he says. “Dave and I talk about that a lot. But it’s also just math: There are way more losers than there are winners. You know that automatically.”

He’s right—from a business point of view, it makes more sense to appeal to human imperfection and its accompanying neuroses, because they are universal. But it’s more than just a marketing tactic: Dave really is a 46-year-old who collects Custer memorabilia. He can’t fake being hip; he’s just the rare disc jockey who doesn’t try.

“Who wants to hear somebody my age go on and on about The Hills? Or go on and on about Bromance?” Dave asks. “I make fun of that stuff. I watch the History Channel and the Sci Fi Channel. I like old Twilight Zones. Most people out there aren’t really that hip. They’re not. And they want to know that there are other people out there who aren’t hip, either. If I don’t watch Bromance, somebody else on the show will. I think that’s one of the things that works on our show—you don’t have somebody on like me who’s been there forever pretending to like stuff that I don’t. Because that sounds insecure. And I think people appreciate the fact that I don’t try to sound hip.” He pauses for a beat. “I represent the people who don’t get it.”