Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristian Random. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kristian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
When I was a kid, I became enthralled with music and how it made people feel better, which led me to radio. I used to listen to the DJs and how they would have fun with people and deliver information and play music to make the listener happy and make their day more bearable. I became intrigued by a morning DJ named Dr Donald D Rose on 610 am KFRC. He was a typical old school morning jock with bells and whistles and telling jokes and having fun with people and helping them where he could. At this point I was already enjoying comedy and particularly impersonationists like Rich Little, but stand up like Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby and comedic actors with dry wit like Paul Lynne. I’ll never forget the first time I made my Pops laugh at my impersonation of Lynne, and that he was actually impressed by it. Moving ahead , I was always dabbling in music but never achieved much and liked being involved in it either way but still carried a huge passion for radio and comedy. As I grew older and was working in the family trade of transportation, I got an opportunity to be a DJ on a college radio station KSJS in San Jose and jumped on it and was immediately told that it was the stupidest thing I could do and that I was a moron.
I started out doing jazz overnights but after a few months of doing what I was to,d to do and how to do it, I decided that I had to do something to get noticed so I just put my energy and humor into the show and soon after I was offered a morning drive shift once a week, which led to a couple more days a week and I actually started pulling noticeable ratings against other major radio stations. I moved to a small top 40 station on the central coast of California where I did well but was really restrained in what I could do and was introduced to another younger jock from KSJS that was getting a shot on the classic rock station near me and I reached out and decided to team up with him. I had to work with him for free as the station could not afford to hire us both, even after we took the show to top ratings, and after we got kicked off the air a few times, we went our separate ways.
I kept on in radio after moving to Colorado and not too long after I had married and all but given up on radio and gone back to transportation, my old partner reaches out to me and was telling me about this new form or broadcasting where we could do the show we wanted and not have to worry about the FCC shutting us down or hurting anybodys feelings, as our show did push some buttons being a bit racy, and it’s all on computers. He said they called it “podcasting” and that I’d need to get some money to get a bunch of software and equipment and I told him that I just couldn’t and that I had a family to take care of.
He then went on to do well in podcasting. Moving forward about 17 hrs, I have divorced and remarried and was literally removing myself from social media when I caught an ad for doing voice over work from a home studio. I talked it over with my wife and thought it would be fun to do on the side as a hobby, Then a guy at work heard me talking about it and suggested I do a podcast and I told him about my past and my old partner and that I just couldn’t afford it, when he says he has a less talented buddy that is doing it from his phone and I just kind of went, “hmmmmmm” and then I started the show.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
As I covered the basis of this in the last question, I’ll move forward from there. I started the show by just having me rant about something for a little bit and then the show tended to develop back towards what I wanted my old radio show to be like. I grew up on Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and various others that followed but, Carson was the king. I decided to go into an interview style show and that brought to “who do I want to interview that people will want to listen to?”. So I tried different avenues but just found that the best interviews were people that were just doing things they loved and made the world a little better for us all. I found that writers of self help books, photographers, actors that played supporting roles, doctors or trainers that gave free helpful hints on the web, or people trying to stop human and sex trafficking, pastors and politicians, even other podcasters that I thought were entertaining, made great guests and needed the exposure as to why they were so great and the relevance of what they did and why. My show, The Random Kristian Show, developed into a comedy interview style show that has comedy bits and allows people that seem unrelatable, be relatable by getting them out of their personas and just being real. I’ve been tol d that I have a great ability to make my guests at ease and that their true self shows and have, on 3 separate occasions by 3 different people, make reference to my style as being very much like Johnny Carson and how they had no idea they could have that much fun talking with total strangers and open up the way they do.
I also realized the potential of live-streaming in its early range and tapped into that which makes the show available to have anyone watching to be able to chat with me and my guests. This has proven to be a blessing and a curse but , again, it keeps the show real and I think that’s a HUGE appeal of the show. It’s real, it’s honest, it’s fun and people need that. I keep the show PG13 at the most so you can listen with kids around. Podcasts aren’t about just about a guy telling you his theories on the world or a couple people seeing how nasty they can be because they dislike this or that. There are some great shows out there that put in the effort to entertain and inform and they need to be reached by everyone without all the foul language and nastiness and sometimes, straight out hate.
We’re all in this ride together so, let’s help each other out and be cool.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
There’s no money in this. Just doing a show to be shocking or grab a piece of whatever “wave” of agenda is being pushed is always fleeting. If you do something that is true to you and do it honestly, without the idea that you’re quitting your job tomorrow and becoming an overnight sensation, that’s where your success lies. When you reach that one person that says you really helped them or informed them on something, or got them to think about something and made them do some research to actually understand something instead of relying on opinions from celebrities, that’s when you win. Lots of the podcasts you hear, besides all these celebrity and already famous for 15 minutes or fleeting careers trying to grab a piece of their status , are by hardworking real people that don’t make, and even lose a lot of, money. I personally work 60 hrs a week easy, write ideas, and promote the hellout of the show in my free time. It becomes tricky trying to balance my family life and job and time put into the show and has caused some tense moments, but with Gods grace and an amazing wife and family, I have been able to create an Indie Top 20 show that people enjoy and after only doing this for a couple years. Maybe someday I’ll get some money for it though!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
When someone tells me how much I made their Day or how they enjoyed a certain part of a show or that they learned something, that’s one of the most rewarding things EVER, for me. To hear that someone got pulled through a dark time because the show made them laugh a little, or like when I had Russ Tuttle on from Stop Trafficking and someone learned how easily accessible it is to get tricked into a ring of sex and human trafficking from your phone. My goal was just to have fun and be me, talking to people who interest me and do good in one form or another. And when someone enjoys that, then that’s a win. No matter what.
Contact Info:
- Website: Therandomkristianshow.com
- Instagram: therandomkristianshow
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRandomKristianshow/
- Twitter: @KristianRandom
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCLqkFVmXlgIlQmdawtuE_QQ
- Yelp: https://linktr.ee/therandomkristianshow