Today's guest gobbled up every airshift he could, and now makes his living directing commercials, after learning under Ridley Scott.
Scott Bergstein came to Syracuse, like many, chasing the sportscaster dream. When he saw what a soon-to-be-famous sportscaster floormate was doing, he decided to go in another direction. Leaning into his passion for storytelling, he joined Happy Dave Dwyer's bunch at WJPZ. The timing couldn't be better. The station moved to FM in the spring of Scott's freshman year.
Like many of us, Scott didn't really find his voice until he was given a nickname. He balked at first when Julie Bruno dubbed him "Hot Shot Scott," but eventually he leaned into it. So much so, in fact, that students would address him that way on campus, and later, colleagues would in Los Angeles.
Hot Shot shares lessons learned at Z that he has applied to the rest of his life, including:
While we've extensively covered the station's move to FM in this podcast, one incident we haven't spent enough time on is the night the Student African American Society staged a sit-in at the station. Scott shares the details of that night, and why the SAAS was protesting more than just a format change. We also hear how the protest ended - peacefully.
After graduation, Scott moved to Los Angeles, where he worked under Ridley Scott on everything from Thelma and Louise to commercial sets. He discovered his passion for telling short stories over song intros on WJPZ translated beautifully to directing television commericals. He began working with a partner in more ways than one - a producer became his wife and they still work together.
Throughout today's pod, you'll hear Scott's infectious passion for his career and for WJPZ. It's also why Hollywood Hal Rood believes it was Scott that convinced his son to go to SU.
The WJPZ at 50 Podcast Series is produced by Jon Gay, Class of 2002, and his podcast production agency, JAG in Detroit Podcasts.
Sign up for email alerts whenever we release a new episode here: jagindetroit.com/WJPZat50
Want to be a guest on the pod or know someone else who would? Email Jag: jag@jagindetroit.com.
Want to stay in the loop with WJPZ Alumni events? Subscribe to our newsletter on the right hand side of the page at http://wjpzalumni.org/
JAG: Welcome to WJPZ at 50. I am Jon Jag Gay. You may recognize the voice you're about to hear on today's podcast from the induction video of Happy Dave. Father Dave Dwyer into our Hall of Fame this year. And full disclosure, we're recording this the Thursday after banquet. So if I still have a frog in my throat a week later, that's why. Hotshot Scott, Scotty Bergstein. Syracuse, class of 89. Welcome to the podcast.
Scott: Jag. It's good to be here. And first of all, most importantly, thanks to you for everything that you've done. I've listened to a bunch of 'em to reintroduce ourselves to a lot of people who we only ever met at Banquets. And honestly, what you're doing is spectacular.
And thank you. I know they thanked you at the Banquet this weekend and well deserved, but great work, my friend is really fantastic.
JAG: That's what I'm gonna do for the rest of the podcast. I'm gonna have people come on and tell me how great I am. This will be tremendous. So thank you.
Scott: Well deserved.
JAG: And I say that of course, tongue in cheek, because today's episode is about you, Hot Shot Scott! Where'd you grow up? How'd you end up at Syracuse, and how'd you end up at the radio station?
Scott: I grew up at Allentown, Pennsylvania. I moved to Florida in high school and ended up at Syracuse because like most people, I wanted to be a sports broadcaster.
JAG: Hang on. One more mark on the tote board in here. Tick that off and, okay.
Scott: Yeah, and I got to Syracuse and on my floor freshman year was Mike Tirico. And I saw what Mike was doing with his little tape recorder and going to the Dome and I saw how passionate he was and I realized very quickly that I was not gonna be a sportscaster.
JAG: I feel like the same thing happened to me 10, 15 years after that where I'm like, okay, I love this, but I cannot compete with these guys who just have it in their blood, and girls too.
Scott: Yeah. Not a chance. Passion was there and what's amazing about that is that's one of the first things I learned when I was at school is do something that you're passionate about.
And I clearly. Was more passionate about telling stories than I was about being a sportscaster. I went to an information session my freshman year when the station was still on local cable tv and I know a lot of people have told this story. I went to the session, I met a lot of people. Happy Dave was up and he was telling everybody what to do, and I was given a 4:00AM to 7:00 AM shift.
And I went the first time and the first time I went for a four to 7:00 AM shift. I was horrible. I was truly. I listen in my air check and I still have it and I go back to it every once in a while. It's a blessing and a curse. Yeah, it was horrible. But the great thing about being on 4:00AM to 7:00 AM and nobody being able to hear you is that I stayed and I would listen to, I have a philosophy, Jag. You know that thing about everything you ever needed to know, you learned in kindergarten. You know that book? Have you heard that?
JAG: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott: I actually believe that everything I needed to know in life I learned at WJPZ.
JAG: I love that.
Scott: I truly believe that.
And I'll give you some examples of that. And the first example is this. I stuck around for the morning show to listen to people who actually knew what they were doing and. They were great. And they taught me, and they told me that they had listened to part of my show when they were coming in. And I was like, oh my God, it was so horrible. I'm so sorry.
And they were like no, there's some potential. And I remember one of the people on that morning show was Julie Bruno. And she said to me, she said, you need a name, you need a character. And I went I'm myself. I'm Scott Bergstein. And she said, no, you need a name. And I came in the next week, remember we got to do one shift a week and Julie says, I have it. You're Hotshot Scott.
JAG: Wow. It was Julie Bruno who gave you the name.
Scott: Yeah. And it wasn't me. And I went I don't want to be Hotshot Scott. That sounds so boastful. And that's not who I am. But I try it. So now my third week and I remember, and I go with Hotshot Scott, and I try it and immediately, I find my character, it's still me. It's still real, but it's that extra me. It's that extroverted me, who frankly I wasn't at the time. And I became this character who was still a lot of me, but Hotshot Scott became my character and it opened up a world to me.
JAG: It's so funny you say that because as you heard your boy Dave Dwyer, when he became Happy Dave Dwyer, he gained that confidence on the air.
Also, the same thing for myself. Jon Gay as an 18 year old kid, had no self-confidence whatsoever but hiding behind the veneer of Jag, and that extension of the character, it gave this confidence and this like sense of identity and belonging. So same stories that go through the generations.
Scott: Yeah, no question about it. So I find my character and immediately, and I know, and immediately I'm obsessed and I've found something. I've found something that I really, truly love. I'm not good at it. I'm not good at it at all. But I love it and I'm really enjoying it. And I'm really enjoying it. It's a drug and we're telling these little, tiny 30 second stories, which leads to the rest of my life, which I'll get to.
And we're quick and we're concise and we're hitting posts. And I am a master at hitting the post, and I am so excited about it every time. And I'm prepping in between songs. I'm not even listening to the songs; I'm just prepping what I'm gonna say. And, I go onto the Zub list and I take every shift that comes my way, any shift that I can when I don't have a class.
I take it that first semester freshman year. Now, there's all kinds of stuff going on at that time because they're preparing to go on the air, and here's a second part of that. Everything I learned in life I learned at WJPZ. Surround yourself with people that are so much smarter than you are that you could learn from them at all times.
And I was so lucky, honestly, to be surrounded by these guys who were so much smarter than I was that were able to put this radio station on the air January of my freshman year of college. Happy Dave, who's the chief announcer at that time, comes to me and I'm taking every shift that I can.
It's still all overnight stuff. I think I got one 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM shift that entire time. And I'm developing this character and I'm finding out where that character is and how much of that character is really me, and where that melding becomes. And Happy Dave comes to me and he says, okay, we're gone on FM, I'm changing up the, the air shifts. What shift do you want?
I said, drive time. And he laughed. He laughed that Happy Dave laugh. He's I can't put you on drive time. You're a first semester freshman. I said you asked me what I want. So I said what I want. Here's another lesson, right? Go for what you want. Don't ever shy away from what you want.
Don't believe that you can't do what you think you can do. Even if you can't do it, is a little, look it's a little bit of that fake until you're making kind mentality, but if you don't have that, you're never gonna get anywhere. So we go on air. I have vivid memories of that night of Chris Mossman and Larry Barron again, people who are so much smarter than I am.
Larry, rest in peace, who went on to become one of my best friends and roommates with me in California. But we'll get into that. I get afternoons. I get 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. I am stoked that Happy Dave gives me 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM but more importantly, he puts me on the Zub list for everything up until nighttime, meaning I can do drive time if it's available.
Okay. And again, I take every single shit that comes my way. I'm skipping classes. I'm skipping practices. I was on the crew team. I'm taking every shift that comes my way because I am obsessed with the radio station. Then it was sophomore year. I get drive time. And I stayed on drive time sophomore year, all the way through the end of senior year. I loved it.
But going back to this idea of surrounding yourselves with people who are smarter than you. I just want, honestly, when you think about that era, when you think about these guys who put us on the air, first of all, Eric Fitch who was doing things with the transmitter, which I don't even understand, but Happy Dave, Rich Usher, Mossman. Merry Mary Mancini, who was a musical genius.
Ben Green, Bokoff, Dave Levin. Just amazing people, but also Chris Bungo and Rocco Maci, who obviously worked together. What these guys did to make us sound professional. Now I know Chris with this whole thing about loving Z100 and by the way, that's a lot of where Hotshot Scott came from, was Hollywood Hamilton.
We were all friends, acquaintances with Hollywood Hamilton, through Chris Godsick. So everybody had to have a name, whatever that name was. Dancing Dave, Happy Dave. Merry Mary, Hotshot, Scott. Everybody had their name, which continued on and had their character, right? So we go on air.
I'm doing drive time, I'm doing Friday's Zappy Hour with E Double R in which E double R is on air. And I am at the bars for happy hour, having a blast on the payphone, calling into the station every half hour with Friday zappy hour.
JAG: That's amazing. Live remotes via payphone. And if you're too young to know what a payphone is, Google it.
Scott: On a payphone in the hallway calling 443-HITS.
JAG: That's amazing.
Scott: Yeah, it was wild.
JAG: You're talking about this, Scotty and Hal talked, we'll probably get to this later. Hal talked about how you talked to his son about going to Syracuse and basically sold him on Syracuse. I texted Hal earlier and I said, what should I ask Scott about? And he said he really was a key member of that crew that really ushered in the flame thrower years.
And you're describing all these people around you, and you were certainly a key part of that too.
Scott: What that did was, Rocco was a marketing genius. He probably didn't know it at the time, but he was again, that idea of you fall into what you really might do for the rest of your life. By working at the station, Rocco was this marketing genius and we learned how to counter program and that's when we started making this shift to CHR and battling 93Q.
And how do you counter program, not just in the music that we were playing. But in the promotions that we were doing in, at one point, giving away a car at the state fair, but it started with Burger King and the local bars and whatever the club was, that was Carousel or some disco where we all used to go and DJ at the disco.
And then my generation, you talk about working. Again, generations are so quick in college, right? It's, generations happening in years as opposed to life where it's every 10 years. But my generation, these unbelievably smart guys, Carl Weinstein is still one of my closest friends to this day.
Who obviously became the program director and really facilitated that switch to being a pure CHR classroom, now leaning, party, leaning dance, leaning at the time, what was called urban. But being a pure classroom to prepare people to work in, not just radio, but the entertainment business as a whole because of everything that was going on.
Because you could learn how to be a general manager. You could learn how to be a chief engineer. You could learn promotions, you could learn music. You could learn just how to be a great DJ and the people that were in " my generation," Kevin Tippy Martinez, E Double R, who was an amazing character who went on to continue to be a character.
He does sports in Texas right now. Cousin Danny who did the morning show, one of my roommates with Larry Barron, these amazing sports guys. Charlie Pavillo, Deneroff, Heller Diamond, Jim Ryan, Jim Mahoney, and Andy Reninger, amazing DJs. I even did a morning show with a guy named Chris Renaud. Who had nothing to do with radio, but he's developing these characters.
And Chris has gone on to direct Despicable Me and Secret Life of Pets, and he's one of the world's top animators. Wow. And he's developing characters with me on the Crazy Morning Crew. And I was an afternoon radio guy. Why am I doing the Crazy Morning Crew? Because that door opened a little tiny bit.
I was like let's go check it out and see what it is. I wasn't the best guy for morning radio. I wasn't a great straight man, like Happy Dave, but we had a good time. And then that next generation of T-Bone and Scott Meach and Hal Rood and Gigi Katz, amazing DJ's, amazing characters. It became my home and I'm, I'm so proud of it. I'm so proud of the time that I spent there.
JAG: It really does come across just in your voice and as I'm watching your body language right now too. And to put a bow in the flame thrower piece of it. I'm looking at my text now from Hal. He said, this is how the flame thrower name came into be, was that he was sleeping on your couch in LA his senior year spring break.
He meets Joel Denver of All Access, the big radio publication. And Joel publishes an article calling Z 89, the 100 watt flame thrower. That's how the nickname from that era came about. So you have a key role in that as well.
Scott: Yeah, I mean I was outta school by that point, but you know around for it.
And that idea of continuing the promotion of the radio station. Oh wait, think about that. We were a hundred watt radio station. Now I know that some of the chief engineers screwed with that a little bit and sometimes we are a little bit more and a little bit less.
JAG: Statute of limitations. Statute of limitations.
Scott: But we were a hundred watt radio station battling really 93Q, but also battling Y94 and some of the other stations in town to the point where, we started looking at our ratings. And it was fun to look at our ratings because we're growing in the area. Yeah. And we're not supposed to reach much more than the campus.
But that idea, again, I'm gonna bring it back to promotions, that idea of promoting the radio station, of promoting ourselves and figuring out what our place was and counter programming was a fascinating thing to do as a 19 year old, and it was fascinating not only to do it, But to see the results of it and to see those results in our case, obviously the ratings, because that's what we were following is the book came out.
A word in the book was. Amazing. Again, that idea of what I learned at JPZ I used for the rest of my life. No question about it.
JAG: Scott, you've talked about the transition over to FM. We've had a lot of your classmates on talking about what a big deal that was. I know something you wanted to bring up that hasn't come up a lot in the podcast yet, is the student association sit-in at the radio station.
Scott: Yeah, so I think the story has been told about, obviously going on FM, the story has been told, Carl with, I think Rocco's help wrote this manifesto about it all came from, are we gonna continue taking student government money or are we gonna go on our own? We made a decision to go on our own, and part of that was the radio station going to a fully CHR, at the time, format with a clock. And all of that stuff that Carl as the program director did at the time I was the music director. Which was about as far as I would ever go in the senior staff because I didn't have the mental acuity to move any further. So music was as far as I would go, and Carl wanted to take it to the CHR place.
And we talked about taking it to more of a dance slant. And I remember having big arguments with the senior staff about playing a song called Boom Boom, Boom, let's go back to my room. And it was something that became a thing on campus when we did play it and we pushed hard for the CHR format with a dance slant, and we found our place.
But at the time, and I think this story has been told as well, there was a lot of push back from not only the school, but student groups, a lot of people who wanted us to be Block Format Radio, which I totally understand. And again, this idea of going away from that future hits and something that Mary Mancini had put into place with amazing music, with the Cure and Depeche Mode and these bands that I used to listen to.
All the time. And I loved that music. But we went away from college music. We went away from alternative and we went to what we did and we embraced it. That said, there were groups that did not, and there were groups that wanted their say. So we go away from SGA financing, we take it on our own, we have to go find our own money, our own promotions, all of that stuff.
And one of the biggest moments that I remember was the student African American Society, the SAAS, staged a sit-in at the radio station. This was fascinating. So I don't remember who was on air, but there was a guy on air late at night. He opened the doors, which typically were locked. The SAAs came in and they staged an extremely peaceful, respectful, sit-in on the idea of getting even, basically it was block format.
They weren't just sitting in to get "black music" on the stations, or urban slanted music. They were sitting in to have it become more block formatted again. So it wasn't just about them, so to speak. And it wasn't necessarily a them versus us thing, but this was fascinating because Bokoff was the general manager, if I remember correctly.
Brian Debkowski was on the senior staff, who, Brian Debkowski was an amazing production guy, by the way, Carl was on the senior staff. He might have been the consultant at that point. So we are in the senior staff office. This is the old station in Watson, which is next to the news station, right?
We're in the senior staff office. We have the door barricaded to where the on air Booth is, and the production booth is because the s SAAS is doing a sit-in. The cops are there, the local TV news stations are there. And everybody's treating this as if it's a massive war. I and a bunch of other people had a bunch of friends who were part of the SAAS and the SAAS had a bunch of friends at the radio station and I was there and I realized, that this is a little bit ridiculous.
There's not gonna be any violence. I was convinced of that. So I opened the door. Much to the cops' dismay.
JAG: Yeah. Okay. I can see that.
Scott: I'm getting screamed at Don't open the door! I was like, no, I'm gonna open the door. And I went and I sat with the SAAS, not as a part of their sit-in but to talk.
I was like, somebody's gotta talk cuz the police are talking about negotiations and the SAAS isn't speaking. And I was like, this is ridiculous. We're a bunch of college students. So I opened the door. I went in and I sat and went, what are you guys doing? This is my home. I live here. I'm here all the time at the radio station.
I literally probably spend six hours a day here because I love being here. Some of you guys love being here as much as I do. And then there was a back and forth about the music and about all this, and we had, I'm telling you, JAG, one of the most fascinating conversations about music that I've ever had.
And it actually, we went even more dance slanted and then added some shows, which Carl did. There was a Saturday night dance party, which was a fantastic show, and we did add some specialty shows, but it was really interesting because it wasn't about, it was the SAAS was representing all the students.
And not just representing themselves, although that was the outward appearance of it, if that makes sense. But it was our house that we spent a lot of time building, so to speak. And we came to an agreement and it all ended very peacefully and it ended rather somewhat uneventfully, but it taught me that it doesn't work all the time.
And look, life has become much more combative, polarized with this country being so split right now. But it taught me that if people just talk to each other, You can work a lot of things out and it doesn't seem to me like that happens nearly enough. There's a lot of yelling and there's not enough talking.
JAG: A lot of lessons to be learned in today's podcast, and that might be one of the most significant ones. Those of you who aren't familiar with your story, let's start when you graduated Syracuse,
Scott: JPZ has instilled this love of telling stories. It wasn't just being a DJ, but in my case it was the love of telling quick stories.
I didn't know what that was gonna lead to. But it's this love of story. So I came to LA and I futzed around as a PA wherever I could get a job. And I did a lot of fun things. I ran security and volunteered for the Emmy Awards and the ACE Awards, in which case I had a lot of friends come out and they could be seat fillers and escorts.
JAG: Okay. Yep.
Scott: For the Emmy Awards, which was a lot of fun because, is every star in that was there. As my buddies were arm in arm walking them up saying, please come this way. And it was a lot of fun. But within about six months, I landed a job for one of my idols as a filmmaker, which was Ridley Scott.
I went to LA with these two completely disparate idols. There was John Hughes who was. 16 candles and the Breakfast Club and there was Ridley Scott. I learned because there was no internet, and I didn't know this once I came out to LA, is that John Hughes operated outta Chicago. I had come all the way to LA so I wasn't gonna be able to find a job with John Hughes.
I was able to get a job with Ridley Scott as his assistant on Thelma and Louise.
JAG: Wow.
Scott: I was on Thelma and Louise from the very, very beginning when Thelma and Louise was at one point. Kirsty Alley and Cher.
JAG: No kidding. I didn't know that. Okay.
Scott: There was lots and they were, as they were going through casting and I was on all the way through production all the way through the end.
The great thing about that was I spent my time basically driving Ridley around and keeping my mouth shut and learning everything that I could. And he was able to, through the grace of God, stick me into the art department by the end of the movie. And I got to work with an art director named Nora Spencer, who had designed Blade Runner and Alien and a bunch of other films.
And what I learned, and I honestly did not know this, Jag, is there was this entire world of commercials, and I was an idiot at the time and did not know that Ridley had directed. The Apple 1984 commercial, but I learned. And he stuck me into his commercial production company, RSA. I worked my way up from being an assistant to a set PA, to within the art department, and thanks to a couple of our directors, one named Nora Spencer, another guy named Arthur Max, who has a couple of Academy awards.
I was their assistant and then an art director, and eventually a production designer at a very young age because there was a certain amount of comfort with me. So I got to do, I got to be an art director on a lot of smaller commercials and eventually bigger commercials.
And by the time I was 25 or 26, I was a production designer working with Ridley Scott and Tony Scott and David Fincher, and Mike Beloff, and Jake Scott, and a lot of other people. I learned pretty quickly on that, this idea of telling stories I really loved. I didn't love being a production designer and I wanted to be a director.
So let's go all the way back to, I want to be on drive time, right? I wanna be a director. Everybody in LA says I want to direct. I decided to go ahead and do it. I did a spec reel. My art department coordinator at the time was a woman named Lee Trask, who is down my wife. She said, all right, you wanna direct, right?
And I said yeah. I wanna direct. How are we gonna do that? She said, great. I want to produce, I'll produce your spec reel, but you have to promise me. You have to promise me a couple of things- that you'll always be kind on set. I was like, oh, be kind. Something I learned at WJPZ, there were three things I learned at WJ pz.
I swear it was talk less. Listen more and be kind. Wow. Follow those other things. All those other things. Talk less. That was a whole thing about being a dj, right? Get in, get out. One thought in, out, hit, post, gone.
JAG: I've always said good DJs know what to say. Great DJs know what not to say.
Scott: Yeah. Listen more, talk less. Listen more. Listening to me was, the hugest thing I learned at the station was, listen to all these people that are smarter than I am. Listen and learn. I didn't go to film school, I went to Newhouse. I was a TRF production major. I had a minor in production design and. I was able to build that into a career, but I really wasn't a filmmaker.
I learned how to be a filmmaker just by listening and by watching and standing next to Ridley Scott on, I don't even know how many commercials all over the world. And then be kind, in many ways came from my wife because at the time it was fashionable to be bombastic on set and be a bombastic director, but the people that were most successful were not those.
They were the ones who were kind and thoughtful and listened and got their point across right? And I directed a spec reel. I ended up winning a decent amount of awards for a spot that I did for Special Olympics. Within my first year. I did some spots for ESPN for their college football campaign. That was 99.
And from that, I had a career directing commercials, and I am grateful every day. I directed about 1300 commercials, give or take. For every fast food you can imagine. I did a ton of work for Lay's potato chips for the World Cup for about 12 years in which I got to travel the world and work with every soccer star imaginable, which was a lot of fun.
I do a bunch of sports, was this great fun. I've worked with everyone from Shaq to Joe Paterno, to just everyone, and it's been a lot of fun. And the thing about it is this love of telling quick stories came from the radio station. There's no doubt about it in my mind, that if you go all the way back, so our first birthday banquet right is 86, I think January of 86.
JAG: Sounds right.
Scott: And we did this unbelievable. Way too long, two minute promotion in which.
JAG: I believe we played that in the Rocco and Chris episode.
Scott: Yeah. It was way too long.
JAG: Two minutes.
Scott: Yeah. It was ridiculous. And I'm convinced that I don't have a radio voice and never did have a radio voice, but I had a passion for what I was doing and I had fun and I had created this character.
I created Hotshot Scott, and it was so much fun doing that promo that I'm convinced that from that promo I had this love of advertising. I still have this love of advertising. I still get ridiculously excited when I get storyboards or I write something, or the best thing in the world is being on set.
The best thing, and I love it, and I love telling stories, anywhere from 15 seconds to 30 seconds, to 60 seconds to two minutes. I love that. Because there's a certain math to those stories. They're so quick, and I've done a few TV shows. I've never done a movie, to be honest with you and I'd still love to do that as a storyteller.
But telling a story in 30 seconds, there's this mathematics to it that is, yes, you have to and most of the time I do, is you figure out every single second of how to tell that story with a proper beginning, middle, and an end.
JAG: It's funny, you talk about being an afternoon guy that did mornings.
I can't tell you how many times in my career I would tell a morning show host that I work with, dude, I can't do what you do. And do all these crazy bits and stuff and the morning show hosts look at me and say, you can talk over a Katy Perry intro for 15 seconds and nail it every time. I could never do that and be compelling without thinking about it.
So not only did you find you're calling and doing this, but you met your wife in the process.
Scott: I did. It's funny, she interviewed at one point to work with me and evidently. I didn't give her the time of day because I was on set, I was working, and as she tells it, is she pursued me and we kept running into each other at different production companies and I finally caught on and then we were working together.
And I like to say she got the ultimate gig even though she didn't get that first gig, she got the ultimate gig.
JAG: How does she feel about that statement when you say it that way?
Scott: Yeah, she doesn't like it. She doesn't like anything about that. But truthfully, I have an amazing relationship.
I am eternally grateful. I talk about working with surrounding yourself with people smarter than you are. My wife is way smarter than I am.
JAG: Oh, we are in the same boat. I tell all my single friends do what I did. Marry somebody smarter than you.
Scott: Yeah, totally. And I am. You know what Jag, I'm grateful that I found something that suits my attention span. Commercials and directing and it's fast paced and it's exciting and I love it the way that I loved being at the station.
I found something that I love to do. I'm so grateful, I'm so lucky. Look, I worked my ass off to make that luck for myself, I guess is how you would say it. But I'm so grateful that I get to do this. I'm so grateful to be a director. It's so much fun. And I still work with my wife. She's still my producer, and she's the best in the business really.
She's amazing and like I said, I sometimes I need to shut up and listen because she knows what's going on and she helps me tremendously all the time. She helps me creatively, and certainly in the way that she produces the work that I do.
JAG: Do you have somewhat opposite personalities where you complement each other?
Scott: Very much. It's actually, it's easier to work with each other than it is to live or be married to each other because our work roles are so defined.
JAG: I see. Yeah. Okay.
Scott: You do this, I do this. We know what we do it well, and we mesh really so that when we get home it's, I'll tell you a little story.
My wife's a producer, which means she's, at least in my world, she's a line producer. She's an organizer. She makes sure everything that is not in front of the camera runs perfectly at all times. And my job is to make sure what everything in front of the camera looks pretty and acts pretty and looks the way I want it to be.
And pretty or funny or whatever you want it to be. Then we get home and she's I don't wanna organize our travel. You do the travel.
JAG: Okay.
Scott: I spend all day organizing, so it's fun. I get crazy about travel and I research all this stuff and then she doesn't have to do it. And she just comes into my office and she says, so what are the options?
And so yes, our roles are defined. We're very different when we're on set, but then when we're home, it blurs a little bit.
JAG: That's funny cuz my wife is the brains of the operation. I say that she's the CFO of my podcast company because she's the one where I'll say, hey, will you look at this email before I send it because I'm getting too emotional about it.
Or I'm the people pleaser and she's the business minded person and say, Nope, don't give that away for free. Don't give them a discount on that. They don't deserve the discount on that. So we balance each other out really well. Although she's the vacation planner, not me.
Scott: For sure. And in some ways, a lot of us from the station, we grew up and in, in many ways were performers in our own way.
In my case, behind the camera, in your case, producing your shows, but still a lot of times behind the camera, behind the microphone, so to speak, but still performing in our way, and then to have that person who can I think ground us and honestly, call us on our own shit.
JAG: Yes, absolutely.
Scott: Is the greatest. As hard as it is, and you fight your own ego sometimes, but to have that person who checks you at points is the greatest thing in the world.
JAG: I really feel like I'm looking in a mirror right now. My wife and I have to come out to LA and have a drink with you and your wife. I think the four of us will get along just fine.
Scott: Do you guys have any kids?
JAG: No, just the dog.
Scott: I got two amazing kids. I have two boys. I have a 17 year old and a 20 year old. My 20 year old is at school at UC Santa Barbara. And you want to talk about the most different school from Syracuse that you could possibly imagine.
So besides the weather, but everything, he lives with a view of the beach. I'm telling you the first day we went, I went to school at Syracuse for four years, a little over four years. But the first day we went for a tour and it was Covid and I saw more kids in bathing suits than I saw in four years of Syracuse.
He gets up and he surfs in the morning and he played lacrosse for the past couple of years, and they have a view of the ocean. It might be lacking some of that east coast charm and the snow, but I'm telling you, it's amazing up there. I got two amazing boys. He's having a blast. I have a 17 year old who's a junior in high school, and I can't convince him to go to Syracuse either.
I tried to convince both of 'em, and no luck.
JAG: I should have FaceTimed you while it was snowing an inch an hour while we were inside Faegan's last Friday night. That would've done the trick for sure.
Scott: No. We did that. I took my younger son on a tour of Syracuse, and it did that. It snowed the entire time and that's not the reason he didn't want to go.
He actually enjoyed that. It just, it didn't fly. My wife went to Vassar again, people that are smarter than I am.
JAG: Yes. And you being an Allentown, PA guy, my wife went to Lehigh, so there you go.
Scott: Yeah. So they don't want to go there either. But again, working together, it has its challenges, but it's it's fantastic.
I'm grateful for the Life that we've been able to develop together. I'll tell you another great story about the station. If I could, I'm going back and forth, and please, by the way, maybe this is why I direct 30 seconds, because I can't keep things straight for too long and I am going back and forth all the time.
JAG: It is easy to see with your charisma, how you convinced Hal's Brett to go to Syracuse because he told that story in the podcast that the minute he met you and saw what you were doing and saw your energy, he's yeah, my Dad can tell me one thing, but this guy, this is why I'm going to Syracuse.
Scott: Listen, Brett's a great kid. I don't know that I convinced Brett to go. I just sat and I talked to Brett, but he's a great kid and he's gonna go a long way and he's a credit to his parents for sure.
JAG: And it's funny seeing him in Syracuse cuz he looks just like his dad. But that's another story altogether.
Scott: Yeah. And he's been out here too. He interned all last spring, I think, and I got to see him a lot. So this whole thing about hotshot Scott and this character, I fought against the character when it was first given to me and you find that middle ground of where Hotshot Scott is and where Scott Bergstein is .
JAG: Right.
Scott: And you meld the two of 'em together. And I played with the character and at times I really played it up. At one point, everything I said on the station, it was Hot shot here. Aloha! There was a cadence to it. It was hot shot here! Aloha! And that became a thing.
But here's the thing that we didn't realize, I don't think even when we went on air, even when the ratings started to come in, That we realized anybody was listening to us. . Until you start walking around campus and people start going, Aloha!
JAG: Yes!
Scott: I've never even been to Hawaii. It's just something I came up with and I was like, oh, there's something going on here. Now, again, I played with characters. I wasn't sure I was ever gonna go into radio. It was certainly a path I would've gone into because I loved it. But I came out here to give LA a shot and it worked, right? So by my senior year, I think I played with, at one point I was hotshot, Scotty Burke.
At one point it was just Scotty Burke and it was me, and right after me it was Scotty Burke and Scott E Meach, and like we were after each other on the radio. But here's the thing. I played with that. Eventually I went back to hotshot. When I graduated. I was like, oh, hotshot's gone, hotshot's dead, so to speak.
JAG: Okay. Okay.
Scott: I came to LA. I was in LA pretty quickly, and here's what I never understood. As I got here and I would see people in bars and in LA is the second biggest city in the country. I constantly, I am not kidding you, JAG, from across the bar right here. Hot shot!
JAG: No kidding.
Scott: All the time and most of the time I didn't know who it was. Sometimes it would be Rich Goldner, another guy from the station. But other times, wherever I went, I'd be walking in Westwood hotshot!, I'd be walking in Santa Monica hotshot!. What it did was, it gave me a community in LA, which I didn't know existed. I swear to you, JAG, I was on a plane on my way somewhere and in the plane I got hot shot!
JAG: No kidding.
Scott: Okay, I'm gonna tell you one other story, and this is when it really hit me. Now I'm gonna go all the way back. So sophomore year, I'm given afternoon drive. I'm on the radio. I was up there a few weeks before class starts and I get into my class with Dr. Wright freshman year and I walk into the class and he walks in as the very first class.
He looks around, he looks at his class sheet, he looks around and he goes, hot shot Scott, major market sound! And I didn't, I had met him. I didn't know that he knew who I was. I had no clue. And I was equal parts embarrassed in class, but equal parts so proud. Yeah, that Rick Wright knew who I was.
JAG: It's like a celebrity cameo, like first day of class.
Like he walks in and knows who you are before class even starts?
Scott: First day of class, hot shot, major mark sound. Never forget it. And I can't do an impression of him, but thank God for Rick Wright and everything that he's done for the school and this station. We knew that we were making an impression.
I'm gonna give you one more philosophy, JAG and you can ask me your questions about whatever you, wherever you want to go.
JAG: I think you've already covered it all, but go ahead.
Scott: I have this philosophy that life is a macrocosm of college, or college is a microcosm of life, however you wanna put it.
Your twenties are your freshman year. You're not entirely sure where to go. You don't really know everybody. You might be having a little trouble finding your way, but you're having a lot of fun. Yeah, thirties is sophomore year. Now you know your way around. You're having a blast. You know where to go, where to have a blast, but you're also setting yourself up for what's gonna come.
Sophomore year, you're setting yourself up, you're choosing a major, so to speak. To me, you don't need to choose a major. Until your sophomore year, until you're in your thirties, unless you know what you want to do. In my case, I thought I was gonna be a sports broadcaster, then thought I was gonna be Geraldo Rivera, learned that I was gonna tell stories, right?
All right. Junior year is your forties, junior year. You got things set up. You should be pretty well in your career. You started to really hit your stride. Hopefully maybe had a family if that's what you wanna do, but now you're getting serious about what's coming, right?
Fifties is your senior year. A little bit of senioritis kicks in, but you've pretty much made it. And then sixties is graduate school. By the time you're a seventies, you're getting your doctorate. You should know what's going on and your philosophy should be set. I don't know if that means anything to you, but a again, I think it all came from school.
JAG: As a 42 year old, I really do enjoy that analogy. So I'm in my, I'm in the beginning of my junior year. I like that. Thank you.
Scott: Yeah, there you go. It is time to get serious.
JAG: That I think is a great place to leave it Hotshot. Scott, you're right about the names. I appreciate you calling me Jag because it's a little bit of a tell in the podcast.
If somebody calls me Jon, they've never met me before the podcast. If somebody calls me Jag, they've met me at Z89 or in my radio career. So I appreciate you calling me Jag cuz we've just recently met as well.
Scott: Jag you again. Thank you for all the stuff that you're doing. The podcast is amazing.
It's reconnected a lot of us. Congratulations. Well done.
JAG: I've said this before and I will say it again. For as much as I put into the podcast, I have gotten more out of it than I could ever imagine, and it's because of people like you. Hotshot Scott, I will say Aloha!
Scott: Thank you very much,
JAG: Jag.