Hungry2Live
Hungry2Live
H2L E.7 - News Radio, Pop Culture and Climbing the Corporate Ladder as a POC - Mo’Kelly, KFI News, Political Analyst and Podcaster
On today's episode, Rachel speaks with Morris Kelly; Mo'Kelly. Mo can be heard on KFI. However, today Mo talks with Rachel, on Hungry2Live. Mo talks about getting started in radio, navigating his political analyst career, and speaking his truth. Mo is a man who continues to walk his talk!
@mrmokelly
No, I don't
Speaker 2:Care,
Speaker 1:But they say I came here to stay
Speaker 2:Through the days. The must wasn't easy. Again. He never gave up cuz I, God God had Through the darkness, through the tears during the lights off the fear, never give a
Speaker 3:Hi and welcome to another episode of hungry to live. My name is Rachel and today I am joined by the marvelous Mo Kelly. This show talks about taboos and having conversations to just kind of break the norms of society and what better person to have on the show today than Mo Kelly Mo is someone who has been around for a very long time. He, you can see him on CNN. You can see him on BBC international. He's on, KFI literally this man talks about politics and he is a political analyst in many arenas. But without further ado, I want to say hello to Mr. Mokel
Speaker 4:Rachel. It is a pleasure. It is an honor. And I'm so pleased to be able to dialogue with you in a different venue. We've hung out and, and chopped it up as they say, but it's nice to actually talk to you at a different arena.
Speaker 3:It is so true. So Mo and I go back a little bit. Um, I took a little hiatus from teaching for a little while. Action was during my recovery. When I met Mo he probably didn't know at the time I was in my recovery because I hid everything so well, as most people who are in recovery do, um, it was a secret of mine, but part of that whole experience in my life was getting to know people and interviewing people. So I was on a show at that time, but while I was producing that show Mo happened to always be in the studio. So at that point, um, my younger self met him and I was always like, oh my gosh, I love what he does. And here I am doing what you're doing. It's pretty amazing. I know that you have been in radio and in the industry for a very long time. I want to hear your story of how you came to be who you are as a person of color in this industry and how that has kind of set the tone for your career.
Speaker 4:Sure. When I was growing up, both my parents, they were music teachers. So music was always in my household, my father and instrumental music teacher, my mother of a music teacher. And I thought when I went to college, I learned to play all these instruments and saying I was either going to be in the music industry as a performer or somehow connected to it. So I went to school for business and minored in music, put it together, the business of music you can go to, to college now and, and take music business classes, but back then, way back when you couldn't. So when I came outta school, I did my internship and my first job was with capital records. And I thought I was going to be in the music business long term. But what I didn't know, and what I had to find out along the way is the music business is, is very unforgiving. And they will always be able to find someone who's half your age. Who's twice as hungry. Who's willing to work for one 10th, the amount of money, but I didn't know that at the time, but I was making my way through the different record. Labels worked at capital Virgin, uh, Warner brothers, InnerScope, uh, classical music, even a Los Angeles chamber orchestra, but I was staying in entertainment. And then one day there was this guy, I was listening to a sports radio show. Uh, and there was this guy by the name of Jim Rome sports analyst, who I'd listened to every single day. And I would send him bits, uh, back then we had fax machines and I would fax him material that he would use on the a year. And one day, this was around maybe 2000 around the year 2000. And he called me and said, Mo, can you like maybe write in my voice and maybe book some guests? And I said, yeah, sure. I can do that. And at the time the music industry was consolidating. There was the digital explosion. You had Napster yet Kaza. And, uh, it turned iTunes eventually came out of that where people were no longer buying physical albums songs, you know, they're buying them individually. So therefore, you know, the music industry was collapsed. I to find my way out, but I maintained my, my relationships and a close cousin of the music industry is radio. And so I made my way into radio. I first started working with Jim Rome and then I went to Ryan C Chris producing for his American top 40. And then I went tots smiley, uh, which was politics and, and cultural affairs. And then from there, I'd said, if I ever get my own chance to do my own show, I put'em all together. Would I have, uh, maybe sports, put politics and, and music and entertainment. And so, you know, here I am so many years later,
Speaker 3:I was actually gonna ask you, so I've spent a lot of this weekend listening to your shows. I, I have been a fan for years, but I was just like, I need to catch up. And there were so many different things that I had heard and I was so just drawn and floored by this massive expansive knowledge you have not just in the political arena, but all over. I mean, you have shows about things that are happening, um, in the educational system, in the music industry. Um, just like everyday life stories, and then you have politic, but I wanted to ask you, so you talked about writing for Jim Rome and Seacrest and working with them, part of working with the majority, um, of those on the radio. Did that help carve out a career for you and make a name for yourself?
Speaker 4:Oh, absolutely. Uh, I had the benefit and, and I was blessed enough to work with three masters when it came to radio. Specifically, if you think of Ryan Seacrest, when he was working, when he does his work with SFM and Los Angeles, he's a master interviewer. If you think about Jim Roman, if you know anything about his history, he's a master interviewer, Ts smiley a master interviewer. And so what did I take from that? I learned to be what Tavis called a generous listener. It's not just asking a question and then going to the next question, you ask a question and you listened and maybe you can extract something from that answer, which will inform your next question. And it makes for great conversations. We're having a conversation right now. This is not an interview. It's two people talking. And if I'm doing my job as a quote, unquote host, if I'm doing it well, then I've developed a rapport with the person I'm talking to. And we're just having a conversation as if we're two friends. And if, if I learned anything from the people who came before me to answer your question, I learned that if you are a really good listener, then you can pull something out of your would be guest that someone else could. In other words, um, I can talk to the same person at a thousand. Other people have talked to, but if I'm doing my job, if I'm on my game, I will be able to pull out something that no one else has.
Speaker 3:Well, I just feel like I've been coached by you so I, I can fire my producer.
Speaker 4:Um, don't do that.
Speaker 3:So going back since I was listening, we call this active listening in the classroom as a teacher, we and your parents were teachers. So we call it active listening. And we talk a lot about this in social, remote, emotional learning for the children, because if you're not listening to what somebody is saying, how can you empathize or sympathize with them? And that also is something you can take into podcasting and being a radio host. So, as I was listening, you were talking about how you moved into radio and radio is very similar, like to the music industry, but they I've heard over and over again, that radio is a dying entertainment form. What do you say about that?
Speaker 4:I would say broadcast radio with a transmitter, the am band, maybe the FM band is a dying, um, way of getting in content, but content will always be king content will always have a place. What has, um, slowed down the death of am radio and even FM radio is the fact that we can't get the internet as readily accessible in the way in the, in our cars, as we could, anywhere else we can get the internet anywhere, the moment, get the internet in our car in the way that we can with the ease that we can get the am or FM bands. Then you will see the, the end of what we call local broadcast stations. You'll be able to get in your car and turn on any type of content anywhere you want. And right now it's relegated to those who are internet savvy, who know to hook up their phone with Bluetooth capabilities to the car. But when you get into, when you, when you can get to the point where you can buy any car and it'll have full internet capability, you can get any station. You can listen to, to Rachel, any time you want, then you will see the end of what, what I, what I call what is broadcast radio. As we know it, where you're relegated to listening to a local station with a broadcast antenna in a certain area, and hopefully you'll have a good signal. Um, those days are coming to an end very soon, but the idea of content going way is never going away,
Speaker 3:Which is probably why this idea and this podcast movement is becoming so incredibly invaluable because there's so much content being produced. There's so many stories to be told you can, you can have the whole music show. You can have a politics show, you can talk about entertainment, anything, and it could be broadcast in quotes in your car or on your iPhone, wherever you are. You can have access to this content. That's what I'm hearing from you, correct?
Speaker 4:Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. The, the content delivery system will ever forever change. It will always evolve, but in the sense of someone getting in their car or one getting on public transit and being able to listen to whatever they want, be it, uh, a spoken word, um, an audio book or something like that, that will never change just the content delivery system in which we would use or utilize that will change. And I think the only reason that it hasn't changed as quickly as we've seen, um, let's say in, in the, in the internet space, how we're all consuming podcasts is because we can't get the internet just anywhere and everywhere yet, but we're almost there
Speaker 3:To do podcasts and just create content. How do you see this evolving and how do you see your career evolving in this space?
Speaker 4:Oh, that is a fantastic question. There, there are a lot of people who have a lot of things to say, they are people who feel they have something to express and that's great. And that's a part of it, but there's the other side of it, of finding your own voice. And it took me to, to talk about me specifically a long time to find my voice. I had great teachers who were teaching me explicitly at explicitly, explicitly in a sense of, Hey, Mo, this is what you should do. This is what you shouldn't do, implicitly, where you're just watching and through osmosis, you are learning. It's like, wow, that was great. What so? And so did, how can I do that? Or at least tweak it for me. So when you take your explicitly and implicit learning, then you start developing your voice. There are plenty of things that I had to, but I had to learn how I could express it. I had to be a, a student of my craft. It's one thing. Uh, it's so funny because I, I talk to people all the time to say, Hey, I can be on the radio. I like to talk. I said, no, you can't be on the radio. And just liking to talk is not a prerequisite to being a student of your craft. It's not just having something to say. It's about being able to say it in a way, which is engaging, which is interesting. It's, it's one thing to have a, a voluminous amount of information in your head, but it's another thing to be able to say it in a way that people actually care about. And, and are you, are you seeing it in a way, which makes sense? Is it coherent? Are you coherent in my business, eight minutes at a time? And then will they come back for another eight minutes and then another eight minutes? And then if you are a really good professional radio professional, can't you be consistent enough to do it every single day? I, when I have to get on the radio, people who are listening, don't get, if I've had a bad day, they don't care. If my dog doesn't like me, they don't care. If my wife is mad at me, they only care that I can entertain them eight minutes at a time. And that's what it, what, what it requires to be a consummate professional in this business. And a lot of people don't understand the dedication to the craft. So to answer your question, what we have now, we have a lot of people who now have access to providing content to the masses. What I think we have is a dearth, a lack of people who are willing to commit to the craft to be better, not necessarily broadcasters, but providers of that content. It's not enough to just have something to say, you have to learn. And I mean, this learn how to connect with an audience.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, I hear you because this is my first go round with my own kind of show where I'm doing everything. I'm, I'm booking the guests, I'm doing the research. Um, I'm writing the questions and doing all. That is one thing. But as you just said, early later on in this interview or conversation as we're having is that you have to listen. You really have to listen. And I've learned that day in and day out of being behind this mic, it is so much harder than one would think like it's so awkward. I think of this. I'm supposed to think of this as like having a conversation on the telephone with somebody. And I'm looking into a camera while trying to talk to you while trying to think of what I'm gonna say while listening to you, and you are balancing all these things. And most of the time, every thing that I had done prior to sitting here talking to you, leading up to this moment to have this conversation is out the door. When I spoke my mouth,
Speaker 4:You're not giving yourself enough credit and I to make sure everyone knows that you spend enough time as a producer in radio, to understand learning your craft, what it takes to put on a show. It wasn't like you just said, you know what? It's Tuesday, I think I'm gonna start a podcast. I'm gonna start a show. It doesn't work that way. And unfortunately, and I mean this, unfortunately too many people think that that's what it takes. Hey, let me just buy some equipment. I have some strong opinions. Let me talk to some cool friends and then they start putting it out there. There's nothing wrong with that. Don't get me wrong. But what separates content from good content is the forethought in the intentionality, in how you provided.
Speaker 3:And it's, it's staying with that intentionality. And I just wanna say it was actually, I think a Thursday when I decided I wanna do a podcast,
Speaker 4:There we go. But, but there were a lot of steps behind the scenes that people did not see.
Speaker 3:Oh, for sure. And it's like, I have a full-time job and this is a second full-time job. And anyway, enough about me. I just wanna hear more about you. So in terms of, um, where you got to where you are, we've talked about at the beginning of your career, how you helped out, um, other professionals to get to where they, and then helped kind of boost you up to where you are. And now you are, I mean, award winning. I'm just gonna leave it at that. Um, speaking of award winning and leaving it at that, let's, let's just give the listener your socials so they can look you up.
Speaker 4:Sure. You can always find me at Mr. Mokel on Twitter and Instagram. Let's M R M O K E L L Y by personal website is Mr. mokel.com. I don't do TikTok. I don't have enough time for that, but I love engaging with people. In fact, before social media became the phenomenon that it is now, I used to write a column for ER, web.com called the mokel report. And people found it odd that in the comments I was actually there talking to people who were accommodating on the article and they said, what are you like, uh, insecure or something? No, I like engaging with people. So I encourage people engaging me now in this social media ecosystem where we can not only have an idea, but we can have an exchange of ideas. And so, and, and honestly, Rachel for people don't know me. I'm just a guy. Uh, I mean, I've had some good moments. I've had some not good, so not so good moments. I, I do stuff on radio and TV and in print, but I'm not any different from the guy who was going through foreclosure, who did not have enough money for internet, but had to do a BBC inter view via the internet. So he had to take his car at one in the morning because it was in, uh, Scotland time and then drive up as close to, uh, Starbucks as possible. So he could siphon off the internet and do the interview. I'm still that same guy. It's just that I'm just having a lot more fun now.
Speaker 3:And you can hear that fun and that passion in your voice and how you come across, you articulate everything you do. And every single experience that you've talked about, I just, I could put myself in your position. I just feel that energy, that you're exuding. So that leads me to this next question I have for you. What is one of obstacle besides not having internet and having to go to Starbucks at one in the morning that has helped propel you to where you are in your career?
Speaker 4:Um, here, I wouldn't say it's an obstacle, but it's something that I am conscious of in talk radio. There are very few African American males. There are very few African American males who are not far to the right. I would say I'm, I'm a registered independent. And depending on the subject, I'm more conservative or more progressive depending on the subject, but I'm not far to the right, but within the talk radio medium, I would be a unicorn in the sense that I'm not hard left and I'm not hard, right? Therein lies the obstacle. So not only is it difficult for programmers to schedule me, it makes it difficult to out me or to find places where I quote unquote fit. Because because people more times than not want to pigeon and hold you or describe you or determine who you are, what your politics, what do you believe? Who you support? You know, if they see me on TV, oh, you must be a hard lefty because you are not, um, heavily criticizing bited on this, that or the other. That is an obstacle because unfortunately, people, uh, programmers and producers want people who are polarizing and I'm not in the business of performative political art. I'm just not, my brand is about being intellectually honest and sincere and giving thoughtful, um, accurate commentary. And there's not always a place for that. So there's a definite obstacle in the sense of if I want to be inflammatory, if I want to do what I call stunt radio, I could do that, but that's just not who I am. And so that's so limits the types of opportunities which may be available to me.
Speaker 3:I mean, I, 100% like love everything you just said, which is one of the reasons why I have you on my show. Um, and yes, I I'm, you've left me tongue tied. Number one. And no, I was just having this I an email correspondence with you about how I was so afraid of having this open conversation about race, about politics, being a white woman and not feeling like I have this place to have this conversation with a black man because of the culture we're living in. And when we're thinking about it, we're just having a conversation. So it shouldn't matter what either of us look like, but because of this polarization that we're living in, that you talked about, it's either black or white, red, or blue, like we have these labels and these labels are really, all that they're doing is create this separation of people and not ideas.
Speaker 4:What I find has been helpful for me, and I try to recommend this for anyone else. It's okay. And I'm not say saying this for you specifically, Rachel, I'm just saying in a general sense, it's okay. Not to have a definitive declarative opinion on every thing. You don't have to be an expert on everything or profess to be an expert on everything. In other words, there's certain subjects I do not discuss on the radio. I just, don't not that I'm afraid of quote, unquote, cancel culture or getting in trouble. It's just that I know my limitations. And I know that, you know what, I don't need to present myself as having an authoritative opinion on maybe, um, where the line is with antisemitism. For example, that is not a firsthand experience that I've had, where I should feel confident enough to weigh in on or even sexism. And I think if more people did that, then I think we could have more honest conversations, but you get on social media. Oh my goodness. We have these people who didn't even graduate high school, who are virologists and epidemiologists who know everything about COVID vaccines and they know everything about politics and, and why the left is this and why the right is that. And they want to tell you about racism as opposed to actually listening to someone who not only may have a different experience, but a more informed experience. I think it's really odd if I were to find myself in a conversation or debate with a woman, trying to tell her what is, or is not sexism that is glory ignorant and arrogant to think that I would have a, a, a, a frame of reference, which is more informed than her. And then I try to defer accordingly. If someone were to come to me, we would talk about race specifically. I would hope someone who's who is white and has never had, um, racial hate in the sense, you know, that I've seen, for example, would not minimize or de-legitimize my experiences, because I often say my experiences are real. I'm 52 years old. There are a lot of things that I've been through that other people have not. I've had guns put, uh, placed in my head by police when I was a, a teenager, a young teenager. You know, if you wanna talk about mistreatment by police, I can talk about that from a firsthand perspective, not abstract. And so I would think and hope that if we are to do better as the collective society, we do not disregard the experiences of those who may not look like us, who may not even agree with us, us, but they've traveled a road, which is unfamiliar to us. And that still has value.
Speaker 3:That's super powerful. Um, this is the time where I ask my guest what keeps them hungry to live. As you know, my show is called hungry to live, and you can find it on hungry to live dot or Instagram, hungry, number two.live. But Mr. Mokel what keeps you hungry to live?
Speaker 4:This is gonna sound so petty. Oh my goodness. Um, I people say you shouldn't hold grudges. Oh, I bronze them. I put them on a mantle. I frame them. Um, I'll feature them if only because I am in a race with myself. I remember the girl who turned me down in sixth grade in play in four square. And I said, will you go steady with me? As we would say, back in the 1970s? And she said, no, but we could be friends. I am still trying to prove whomever wrong. Um, I talked about how I work with Tavis smiley, for example, this is a true story, very quickly. Um, I did a mock show and I went to him and I said, Tavis, Hey, I have this great idea for a show. And I was a producer for him at the time. What do you think? And I gave it to him on a CD. He, he didn't even listen to it. He looked at me and said, you know, there's some people who are number ones, you're number two. I don't think you're good enough to ever host a radio show. And I don't think you're good enough to executive producer a radio show. I took that personally. And I take that with me, every single date, every single date, I open up that microphone and I say, Hey, if I am six 40, we're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This is the Mo Kelly show. I am consciously thinking of every single person who said, you're not good enough. You're not worthy enough. You have, don't have enough talent to be on the radio. I am forever trying to prove people wrong. That is why I'm hungry to live, because I'm always, always thinking about someone who said, I wasn't good enough. I did not have enough. I will not be enough. That keeps me going every single day.
Speaker 3:Thank you for sharing that. Um, there's so many people out there that probably hear they're not good enough, or that they could never do X, Y, or Z. And you are a living example that no matter how many times you have been put down, you've gotten yourself back up and here you are to talk about it. At the end of every show, I say a poem about my guests. So I wrote a poem for you in a society that racializes and the white man monopolizes Mo Kelly humanizes, what has been colonized, taking it behind a mic fighting for J justice. And what is right. He's not afraid to speak his mind. Well, educated, highly motivated, political commentary, anything but ordinary, he's able to hold space, talk, pop culture, sports, social issues, and race. He's not pushing the envelope. Just speaking his truth, trying to get people, the facts from his point of view, with fairness and pat, his words matches actions. Thank you for listening to hungry to live. This is Rachel. You can find me@hungarytolive.com. That's Hungary. The number two live.com and on instagram@hungarydotthenumbertwo.live. And you can find Mr. Mokel at
Speaker 4:Mr. Mokel, M R M O K E L Y or Mr. Bo kelly.com.
Speaker 3:All right. Thank you for listening
Speaker 5:In the right place, in the wrong way, down on my luck there, dog days had to switch it up, make it okay. So I gave up on the rare race learned from a pastor. May days still got town, never too late.
Speaker 1:No, I don't
Speaker 2:Care.
Speaker 1:But they say I came here to stay
Speaker 2:Through the, is the wasn't easy again. He never gave up OSA Through the darkness, through the tears during the lights off, never gave up.
