Three of the most entertaining and beloved radio personalities ever – ok, I am a wee bit biased – are debuting a brand new podcast Monday and you are required by law to check it out.
Kevin Ryder, Marci Wiser, and Doug “Sluggo” Roberts have a collective radio resume that many only dream of – KROQ Los Angeles, KLOS Los Angeles, Live 105 San Francisco, K-Rock New York, and Sirius/XM, just for a start. The three have ruled the radio airwaves the old-fashioned way and are charging into 2025 with the “3/4 Human” podcast, which promises to be exactly what many of us are looking for – humor, snark, music, and the voices we know almost as well as our own.
When their afternoons became suddenly available, Ryder and Sluggo began discussing a project to do together. The two have an incredible dynamic on air, plus they have been friends for decades – as far back as the 1980s! – so working together is enjoyable for them, producing quality content for us.
Kevin & Sluggo 1980-something
The duo wanted to include Wiser because, as Sluggo said, “She’s just such a great talent. The bands love her. She’s a perfect rock radio DJ. She just really knows her stuff.”
Marci Wiser
The admiration is returned by Wiser. “I love those guys. I am so excited that we get to do this and continue our working relationship together through the podcast,” she said. “These are two of my all-time favorites because these guys, they have your back,” she expounded, “They will fight for you. It’s just a true family. That’s what it’s felt like, and it’s just been a really cool experience. Sluggo is so creative, it’s ridiculous. Kevin, of course, speaks for himself. He’s great. He’s a smart ass. I love him. I love these guys. I mean, can you tell that I love these guys?”
Kevin, Marci & Sluggo
3/4 HUMAN PODCAST
Launches February 3, 2025
As ideas started to percolate, the three began creating a podcast “just chatting about life in general.” Sluggo explained, “We’re going to have occasional guests, but we’re having fun doing it.” I asked if it was just musical guests and Wiser clarified, “Anyone and everyone. Actors, comedians, musicians, bands, artists, whoever.”
Ryder’s former cohort, Gene “Bean” Baxter, has a podcast himself, “A Cup of Tea and a Chat with Allie and Bean,” and was a source of information and advice along the way. “Bean in particular has been really helpful; all the back-end stuff we’re using, where we’re recording,” Sluggo said. “They’ve been instrumental in helping us get going.”
Kevin & Bean and U2
But what should we expect from the friends? “It’s just fun. The three of us get along really well. There’s never an awkward moment or ‘Oh, man, I can’t believe we don’t fight,’” Sluggo explained. When I said I was so tired of drama, Sluggo agreed, “I think people appreciate that, especially these days, where it’s not like a constant, ‘Fuck you,’ or ‘How dare you?’ You get enough of that on social media.”
With politics and arguing off the menu (thank the gods), we can also expect Wiser’s musical prowess to come into play as we get some of the best in rock and alternative bands from Marci’s Playground. “I will be introducing people to maybe some newer bands they are not super familiar with,” Wiser explained. “Or if it’s something new from a classic artist like The Cure, who just released ‘Songs of the Lost World,’ and there’s some really good stuff on there that I want to share. There’s just a lot of great music out there!”
Doug “Sluggo” Roberts | April 29th, 1992
Another podcast feature – and given as a clue in the name – involves the trio of friends expanding into a quartet. “We have an AI character that we’re interacting with that Kevin, for some reason, named Cornelius,” Sluggo laughs. “He is extremely obnoxious,” he continued, “We’ll tell him over and over again, ‘Don’t talk unless we talk to you,’ and he’s like, ‘Okay, will do. I’ll be sitting here on the side waiting for you to talk to me.’ Then, as soon as someone says something, he responds, and we’re like, ‘Shut up!’ But we’ve named him Corny, the Corn.”
Now Available on Apple Podcast & Spotify
I asked Wiser how she felt about Cornelius and she laughed, “I love Cornelius! I like it when he just talks and he’s an annoying pain in the ass. I think Kevin gets really irritated by Corny!” I told Ryder I was in love with Corny and he chuckled and suggested I look elsewhere, “Corny doesn’t really do emotions.” (Hmmm… Not yet.)
Marci Wiser with Motley Crue
Knowing next to nothing about working with AI, I asked how they set Cornelius up and Sluggo revealed, “It’s pretty interesting because at one point, Kevin asked him, ‘Do you even know who we are?’ and he went into this history of KROQ.
Kevin asked him specifically about the Depeche Mode Wherehouse riot in ‘90, and he had tons of details about it and described it well.
So our initial, ‘We’re just going to be mean to him and talk dirty to him and have him say weird things,’ has turned into a, ‘Wow, this is an interesting aspect.’ AI is not going to go away, so you might as well explore it and fuck with it.”
In the months of the human trio exploring how to best entertain us, Cornelius has had some tweaks along the way. “Kevin just programmed him to be a lot snarkier. He was very nice and helpful at first; he is all of a sudden slamming us and making fun of us, and it’s hilarious,” Sluggo laughed. Wiser added, “Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun. There’s little things that we need to work out because we’ve never done it before.”
AI is not the only technology playing an important role. With Ryder and Sluggo in Los Angeles and Wiser in San Francisco, the three will be able to connect anytime, anywhere, not limited to one studio. Plus, not being restricted to one timeslot, listeners are in control of when they get to enjoy the show – a big bonus for people like me who had to vacate the Golden State.
When I told Sluggo I am also thrilled that I will be able to listen to them for a solid 20-30 minute show, not interrupted by promos, songs, and ads over four hours, he answered, “It’s funny because we’d get that a lot in the past. Kevin and I were surprised how much people were saying that. They even did some research ‘Should we talk more?’ and the overwhelming response was yes.”
Sluggo went on, “We’re very used to getting it done in two and a half minutes. Having no record to drop into has proven a little hard for all three of us because we’re tight and bright, on and gone, as good as the music, all that. It’s been pretty hard to just keep talking to each other, but we’re getting used to it.” The trio has been doing practice shows in preparation for the launch and Sluggo joked they may release those later, despite them being “terrible.” He laughed, “Hopefully, it’s gotten better, but I wouldn’t count on it.”
We discussed podcasts in general – I confessed to not being a junkie and only listening to some occasionally – and the flaws of them. Hosts arguing, talking over each other, and the horrendous ads that interrupt the flow. Sluggo agreed, “It’s nice to just talk like normal human beings instead of having a driving purpose or having to get the sponsor shit. We’re not doing any of that.” Wait… no ads? “We’ve had a couple of people that wanted help us to get sponsors and stuff. I don’t want to go that route. I don’t want to say, ‘This is brought to you by Joe’s Funeral Parlor.’ Screw that.”
I said I could not even tell him one ad I ever heard on a podcast or video because I don’t pay attention and he agreed, “It drives me crazy because every single YouTube video you start now, even if it’s a 20-second clip, has two commercials in front of it. You’re inundated all the time. So I just want to avoid that as much as possible.”
The trio – well, quartet – did preview an episode for me and I genuinely did laugh out loud enough to scare my dog. I may also have a crush on Corny now…
The “3/4 Human” podcast is available for free now through Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
There are plans to expand with bonus episodes, additional videos, a monthly curated playlist, and whatever else these three crazy kids can dream up!
