Behind the Mic with Larry Mullins: The Future of Radio & Moments that Shaped a Career

FMC Fast Chat takes you inside the news so you can be in the know in 30 minutes. Hosted by Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement, Fast Chat features notables in news, media, and business.

Today we are sitting here with the man with the golden voice, Larry Mullins, and we are thrilled to have him with us because there's just a ton of things we can chat with him about. And I wanna make it very clear to our audience, this is very much a chat. Questions are not rehearsed. Larry doesn't know what we're going to talk to him about. So to begin, Larry, thanks so much for dropping in and joining us today.

You're very welcome. Thank you for having me, Jaci. And I appreciate you saying that I have a wonderful, wonderful voice.

Well, you know, it occurred to me late last night, Larry's a horrible person to ask on your podcast because people will hear his voice. And then they'll hear my voice and say, you know, I sound like a real person and you sound like a radio god, basically.

I tell you what, when your voice starts sounding like mine, we need to run like hell.

Let me ask you though, were you, were you born with this voice?

Actually, I think I was. I didn't recognize this voice until about 11 years old or 12 years old, and I recognized it because The kids at my school were saying, ooh, here comes Larry Mullins with that Creature from the Murky Lagoon voice, you know? And I was embarrassed by it, actually. My voice has always been this low. It's always been a bass baritone voice, even when I was a kid. And it drove me nuts. I would ask my mom and dad, what did I do? You know, what did you guys eat when I was, you know, whatever, being conceived that my voice is like this? It's this low. And it's always been like this. I never ever understood it. I considered it a curse at first because I couldn't explain it to anybody. You know, now I see it as a blessing. It has been quite the blessing and I've been able to use that instrument for quite some time now.

For those of you who are out of the New York area, you may not know Larry is the afternoon news anchor at 1010 WINS, the number one news radio station in what, the world these days?

Um, no, not in the world, um, Jaci, the universe.

Oh, just set off the metaverse. And it's been that way for a long time now.

Yeah, WINS is, WINS is, uh, WINS is a giant. I didn't even know what WINS was when I came here. 7— I've been here 17 years now, and I didn't even know what WINS was. I know I would watch movies, you know, just any old movie, and there was this station that was always played in the background. Particularly for movies that were cast in New York. And I would hear these voices, and this is 10-10 wins. I thought nothing of it because all of my background, most of my background until now, had been in television. I was Larry Mullins, NBC News, you know, New York, blah, blah, blah. I was a television correspondent and did local news in Dallas and in Orlando and different places like that. And so when I left television 17 years ago, I showed up here. And long and short, you know, I popped into WINS and I didn't think anything of it until I realized this place is a giant.

Would you describe, or how would you describe the success of the station and how it maintains being a success, especially today?

I think because the station, I like to say, keeps it real. And with the talent that's on the radio station now, when you speak in terms of a Susan Richard and Scott in the Morning and Linda Lopez and You know, Kevin Rincon and my partner, Lori Madden, we keep it real. You know, I once even heard, speaking of me, a couple of men talking on a, on a train one day and saying, oh, I love the way that Larry, that Larry Mullins reads the news. And, you know, and whatever. Unbeknownst to them, I'm sitting right there next to them because, you know, faceless or whatever, unless you remember me from television. Mm-hmm. Says, I love the way he reads the news. And the guy goes, that brother doesn't read the news. He tells you what happened up there on the corner near your house. There's a difference. And I think that's what WINS does. We tell it like it is. We keep it real. We tell the truth. And we'll go to those places where nobody else will go, you know, to get the—

Yeah.

Get the interview or whatever. Our producers are fabulous. You know, they go beyond the call. And these are kids that sit around in the newsroom where you hear a corner of the room erupts into cheer, Jaci. That's these young kids that they brought in that are clapping and cheering that they got the get. They got the interview. You know, they got the mayor, they got, you know, whomever. Or Barry Manilow called in yesterday to speak with one of the producers. You know, those types of relationships. So I think all in all, WINS does a really good job of telling the big story. We're great at, um, at telling the big story. In fact, segue, segue, Jaci, see that right there?

That award behind you?

That's the Edward R. Murrow Award for spot news coverage, the Union Square Riots that my show won. That our show won, I should say. But again, that's because we tell the big story when it happens. If it's a big story, you turn to WINS. You know, you tune into WINS more so than anybody else.

Yeah. And now that you've expanded into FM, how is that impacting the station?

Oh my goodness. We were doing well on AM for 100 years. Yeah. And they switched us about a year or so ago and turned us into an FM station. It turned us into a juggernaut. I mean, the ratings went through the roof. Mine just about doubled.

For those of you who haven't heard Larry on the air, um, he has been described as someone who listeners want to get stuck in New York traffic just so that they can spend more time listening to the radio. So that does make his show quite different than the others right there. Well, let's speak to that point because it's something about being authentic to you. Like, I wouldn't be able to do what you do. So how did you hone this talent, or how did you say, okay, this is me, I'm not going to read the typical news script?

I think years of being both in television and radio helped me to hone that craft. And as a programmer, I was once upon a time the, the director of Dallas news operations for the NBC station in Dallas. So I know how people watch television. Because I put myself in their shoes as a consumer, and I know how they listen to the radio. I know what catches the ear. And while I don't try to, to make myself appear younger, people know I'm a cool old dude. Hell, I'm 63 years old. But I'm in touch with the community. I have, uh, I have sons and I have grandchildren and all, and they keep me plugged into what's happening now. And so having those relationships As everybody does, I'm sure. I can, I have the luxury of taking that and putting it into or infusing it into the broadcast. And so many years ago when I first started at WINS, you know, I was doing an overnight shift and I would test little things out, Jaci. I would say this and I would say that, something I heard on the street, and I would then listen to see, you know, if the studios would push back and go, oh, what did he say? We can't do that. And every now and then they'd push back and say, oh, we don't do that. We're 1010 Wednesdays and we're so on, so on, so on, so on, so on. But the audience said, oh, hell no. That's what we want. This is what we need. So it's funny, and I'll, and I'll let this segue into, to this for any of those who are interested in getting in television, radio. Always take that job that nobody else will take because you get to try things, you know, overnight, you know, you try some things. And in New York, it's kind of different because you figure, well, nobody's really listening in the middle of the night. Like, hell, you know, some of the bigger audiences we've had is in the night. You know, the taxi drivers and the Uber and—

Yeah.

The people who work the night shift doing the do, you know, out on the street. You know, so we have all of that. But with that said, there are some things you can try in those positions, and then there's no way to go but where?

Up.

You know, so I'm doing these things and I'm saying these things, and the bosses would push back. And then they'd come back and then they'd push again. And all of a sudden it's like, oh hell, just let him go on and do what he needs to do. Because meantime, the ratings in the overnight are starting to creep up, which is something they hadn't seen before. You know, and as it were, positions would open, you know, the night show and then, and then the evening show and then the afternoon drive and voilà, here I am. And I've taken that with me everywhere I've gone. And each time I moved to a higher position or a higher, higher spot on the dial, you know, PM Drive being primetime location, it just, it just stuck. And people have come to know me as that. There are some things, you know, that I might do in the news that I won't make my little under-breath, underhanded comments about. And people will go, oh, what the hell is his problem? Is he sick or what? You know, how could he miss that? Because that's, that's my thing.

Mm-hmm.

I say this though, I'm not a cut-up on the radio. News is a serious business, so you have to know when to, to turn it on and when to turn it off. What you see here is what you hear on the radio. I don't change. I have that luxury, you know. I've been like that, you know. I don't change. But what I mean by that is if it's a sad story, you're probably going to hear it in me, and that's not fake. I got babies. I got young'uns. I got friends. You know, I have friends who have cancer too. You know, I just, I just buried my sister last week. You know?

Oh my God, I'm so sorry.

Yeah, you know, but it's like, I, I go through it too. So I'm not immune to anything. So whatever you hear coming out of my mouth, be it sad, be it happy or whatever, it's, it's real. You know, it's real. Heaven forbid Kyle McMorrow, I call him Lil Mac. He's the executive show producer for my show. He puts in these little stupid stories every now and then that are kind of crazy. And Kyle knows— I hope he's watching this so I can tell him— you know I can't make it through those stories without cracking up. So every now and then you'll hear me play some elevator music. I'll say, excuse me, we'll play elevator music because I'm on the floor rolling laughing, right? And then we'll come back, you know, and it's like, okay, as we were saying, you know. But that's That's the story of the afternoon drive at 1010 WINS. We need to make a sitcom out of it.

There is a public perception out there that if you're in the news, you can say whatever you want to say whenever you want to say it. Can you give our viewers and listeners a little bit of a tutorial on what can and can't be said?

Okay, this is the thing. We'll use this election year as a prime example. I can't tell you who to vote for. I can't even influence you or even drop hints as to who I think you should vote for. I can't tell you who I think is a jerk. I can't tell you who I think is wonderful. I can't tell you any of those things because guess what? I'm in a position of influence and I'm not, I'm not on a radio station, if you will, that leans left or right. Clearly, there are TV networks and radio networks Where they are clearly leaning to the left or the right, and they make no bones about it. But there are also networks, TV, radio included, that are straight down the middle. Our job is just to inform you and to give you the information, and you decide from there. Is there a lean every now and then? I try not to because I know the impact that I have on this audience, and I'm all over social media as well. But I do understand the responsibility I have to not be biased. And as such, our bosses wouldn't let me cross that line. I wouldn't even be talking to you right now. I would be out of a job. My personality though, that's my personality. And I will make fun of a Kamala Harris. I will make fun of a Donald Trump, but it won't be in a way that, that is insensitive. It won't be in a way that influences you to vote for them one way or the other. I can remember when, just as an example, a few years ago, Vice President Mike Pence. Was on the set of a debate, or he was somewhere, you know, in a discussion. Doggone fly landed on the top of his head. He did nothing. He sat there like a, like a stiff, like it was rigor mortis. And you know I went on the air and said that, you know, you know I talked about that. But that doesn't influence you on how to vote for the man or not. That's just Larry being a damn fool in the studio talking about the fly on the man's head, you know. So to answer that question, no. We are to remain unbiased. We are to remain objective in our reporting. Again, because frankly, people didn't— people don't tune in to Wednesday to hear my little sorry-ass opinion. They don't pay me for my opinion. This isn't an opinion show.

You went from TV to radio, and that's kind of a reverse commute happening there. Usually it's the other way around, but whatever got you into television to begin with?

I always dreamed of being on TV. I just never thought it would be doing TV news.

Mm-hmm.

And so with a career that started out in radio, you know, the goal back then was to get into television eventually. And I was seeing my friends do that. I was back in Orlando, Florida, 33rd market at the time. And, you know, there was an opportunity there. A TV station, CBS in Orlando, decided, ah, you know, we need to add some color to this because there weren't too many people dressed in this skin color. And they decided, okay, Larry Mullins is a local favorite on the radio. And we brought some people out of radio who worked with him at a particular station over to, you know, do television. So let's try him out. And they put me in there and a funny thing happened. Took off like a wildfire. They loved me. And Jack, check it out. I started with an Afro this big. I wish I could show you the picture right now, you know, and, and platform shoes, 'cause I was a little short brother, right? So I had to put the shoes on to lift me up. But then all of that changed. You know, the shoe height went down. The fro went down to a mini fro. And, you know, and they liked me. People enjoyed me. Plus, I was in my hometown, so that helped a lot as well. So people were calling in this, hey, hey, hey, Larry Mullins got it going on, blah, blah, blah. Oh, girl, I thought I was all that, you know. But I was a cub. I was green. I would screw up on the air from time to time. But, you know, the audience says, hey, that's Larry Mullins. We love him. And, and so doing television for so many years, I think I did everything one could ever do in television. You know, I was a reporter, I was an investigative reporter, I was an anchor, had my own talk show back in Florida, started a new talk show when I moved to Dallas. I became the head of the Dallas news division where I was orchestrating, you know, other reporters or orchestrating a newsroom and had done everything. I even stepped away from television news journalism, broadcast journalism. and started my own production company. And so I was participating and helping to produce shows like The Bachelor for ABC and Prison Break. We did some work with them. I helped to launch a show called Judge Alex with Judge Alex Ferrer out of Miami. And so did that and got bored with that after a while and tried to launch a sitcom of my own. But boy, it was expensive, like $350,000 per episode. So I'm like, okay, I'm done with this TV stuff. I'm done. I'm retiring. And that's when I actually came up to New York, like I said, and ran into Mark Mason, who was at the time the head of news programming for CBS. And he asked me, what are you, what are you doing here? I mean, I said, uh, retired. You know, he says, you're too young to retire. What's really going on? I'm like, no, I'm retired. I've had it with TV. He says, well, what about radio? And before I could open my mouth to say, ah, I've done it before, but you know, I'm willing to maybe do something. But before I could even say that, he goes, we don't have any jobs up here at 1010 WINS and CBS, but you know, if you hang around with us a little bit, I might be able to find something for you. And I'm sitting there thinking, well, why would you tell me I should join radio and you're then telling me that you don't have a job? Long and short of it is 3, 3 days later, I was working at 1010 WINS doing the overnight. And it, and it worked out well. Glad I'm here. As to the difference between the two, I used to say it's because in television, to get a story on the air, it's got to go through so many hands. You know, the reporter, there's a sound guy, there's an editor, there's a producer, there's a writer, there's an executive producer, and then the director of the show. You got to go through all of that to get that piece on. I enjoyed it for years. It was wonderful. Radio is more succinct. You get in, it's you, the reporter, put it together. You got an editor who will look over it and you write it yourself, and then voilà, it's on the air. Having said that, things have changed now, even in radio. You know, I have a writer who writes with me, works with me.

Okay.

And of course myself writing it. I'd have producers who gather sound to go in the show, and I have an executive editor, Kyle McMorrell, like I said, who puts it all together, and then boom, I'm on the air. So it takes a few more people now than it was back in the day, you know, when I was doing radio. A little bit more complex, but being the news anchor and having those resources and access to those resources goes a long way. It makes your job so much, much easier. And I got the best doggone crew on the planet. Oh, let me tell you, can I gloat on them for just a second?

Sure, why not?

So, so 1010 WINS went out and hired these young people. I call them little badasses, but I call them my Sandlot Gang. Because I'm telling you, Jaci, there's nothing that happens in this town that these kids don't know about. So the minute it happens, as I alluded earlier, they're cheering. Oh, we got the interview. We got this. We got that. And they're cheering as hell. Y'all act like y'all just won an Oscar. And it's like, we did. We did. We got it. We got the story. And I get the benefit of airing it.

Now, I will tell you, since I've been in this job now over 20 years, and we do the large gatherings like the Folio Awards, which you were at this past year and did a wonderful job at, Um, you know, there have been times when we're together either at the awards program or the conference that we do and major news breaks out. And when you're in a room filled with news reporters and editors, you know very quickly something is going on. But I can tell you, in all of that time, if I wanted to know what was going on, all I had to do was turn to either Ben Mevorach or Tim Scheldt because they would be the first to confirm. And it was always the radio guys first with confirmed news.

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It's pretty cool now even. And I don't know— I'm not accusing anybody, but whatever comes out of my mouth, I hear it on the latter newscast on the television screen. I'm like, you stole that line from me. That is a Larry Mullins line. And I'm like, but it feels pretty cool. It feels pretty cool. I'll say this too. They'll probably kill me for telling them this, right?

Oh, come on. It's just us.

I did a story that pertained to the NYPD. It was a headline or something that I did, and Kyle comes racing into the the studio and says, "Larry, that was an error. That was the wrong information." But this is the thing: one of the TV stations went on and says, "Tintin wins." Larry Mullins is reporting that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm sitting there thinking, I was wrong as hell, but they're reporting what I said. They're following me, you know? And so I just thought it was hilarious. I talked about it on the show. I'm like, it's good to know that TV is following me, but I was wrong as hell on that one. I apologize to the cops. I apologize to the TV station. I'm like, but y'all keep following me, okay? So I'm like, oh, I have to be sure. And it was a simple mistake. I got a word or two backwards or whatever. and put it out there. But, uh, I just found it hilarious. And you have to know me and what I've gone through in my life to know that somebody followed me, you know, the big boys followed me, and they got it wrong. I'm like, y'all got it right by me, but hell, the information is wrong. So we had a little fun moment on the air with that.

But I'm sorry to interrupt you there, but you just brought to mind something that I hear all the time from the public, and your story just Just brings this out, which is people think whenever there's a mistake done in the news that it's some sort of conspiracy behind it.

Let me— baby, let me tell y'all something. We don't have time. There's so much stuff coming into that newsroom, and so many— as we're speaking, I'm getting bulletins from all over the place. And, and, and our objective is to get it to you as quickly as possible. If there's a fire raging or You know, there's a big car wreck or the freeway is shut down or whatever, our job is to get it to you quickly. And if it's something shutting down the freeway, we're figuring there must be some kind of a big wreck or this or that is going on. As it were, we have to come back and say, okay folks, we've been able to sort it out now. It wasn't a big wreck at all, but a duck crossing. A mama and her ducks crossing the freeway of all places. And so it wasn't a conspiracy to make you, you know, miss dinner or you don't show up for work on time because 1010 WINS told us this, and they knew, you know, that all of the Democrats or all of the Republicans or all of the independents or all of the ugly people or fat people or short people or skinny people or whatever were trying to go that way, and you're throwing us off because you hate us, 1010 WINS. No, baby, we don't have time for that. There's no time for conspiracy.

Yeah, well, I also tell people there's no way any newsroom is coordinated enough to pull off the conspiracies that they've been accused of.

Right? We ain't smart enough for that. You know, it's funny. You tell me all of my secrets. So we get these, we get these stories from overseas every now and then where Pope Francis is doing something, and I'm sitting up there. Yeah, Francis said this and that and the other, and blah blah blah blah blah. You know me, Jackie. On my show, I'll say, folks, I'm not that deep. I have no idea what this man is saying. I'm just reading what's on the little thing here, you know, from the translator. But you have to do that. You have to make fun of yourself. You know, I make light of the fact that I don't know everything. I don't know everything. We do these stories about, you know, the constellations and something that's going on in the atmosphere and a meteor shower, the meteor known as Neptune Exodus whatever. I have no idea what that means, but NASA said it, so I'm just reading it to you. I'm not that deep, you know.

Okay.

Um, and as long as you don't take yourself that serious, You're good. And that's why the audience falls in love.

Yeah, true, true that. Now I want to shift gears a little bit and get a little bit serious here. You know, when people talk about radio, especially old school radio, over the air radio, there's been for a very long time now, people talking about how it's a dead format when it comes to news. And now you've got newer formats, podcasting, you know, streaming stuff we're doing right now. How do you feel about the state of radio right now, and do you see a future for it?

I know this, I got into radio and television because we're all in that same medium, I feel, at the right time. And by that I mean I got it when it was in its infancy. It has grown, it has reached a peak, and now it is slightly starting to go down. And let me tell you why it's going down. We have, of course, You know, the infiltration of Facebook and Instagram and, you know, and YouTube, which I'm on, and so many other outlets where people can go and get their news. You know, we can take a handheld, an iPhone or an Android, and get our news from there. So if we can get it instantly, you know, using these devices, why wait till you get home to turn on a TV? Or why even have a radio in your car? You know, at one point we were hearing that some carmakers were considering taking AM radio out of the car. You know, and that turned into a big debacle. All of this to say though, I think the state of radio as we know it, it'll never be the same. It'll never be the same. And yes, the audiences are dwindling. Yes, the audiences are getting smaller and the revenues are getting smaller. But this is the thing, just like what we are doing and what I'm doing in my YouTube page and so many others, radio is evolving. It is rebuilding itself. It might not be an over-the-air through your car radio or your home stereo medium. It might be a radio station that you're gonna be able to watch on your handheld. Now, I look at so many shows, Howard Stern even, you know, Charlamagne tha God and The Breakfast Club, Boomer Esiason, you know, his radio show is now in your hand on a, on a, on a, on an iPhone. So radio, maybe the, the transmission, if you will, or the distribution of radio Which is how we've made our money over the years, that might be in decline. But radio companies now, broadcasting companies, they're figuring out a way to monetize, you know, that social media thing. They're figuring out a way to buy these streaming services. Our company has purchased a truckload of streaming services for that reason. So the medium, the, the, the vehicle, the car may be getting old.

Okay.

But we're buying a new car. put it in that instance, you know. So for anybody interested in getting in radio, go for it, baby, because the news is still there. You will always need the news. You will always need to know and be informed as to what's happening. It's just how we get it to you, that's what's changing. So radio isn't dying.

So I'm going to let you wrap up. Anything you want to mention that we didn't? Now, you did mention your YouTube show.

Yeah, I have a YouTube page that was established August the 5th. And the page allows me to do the things that I don't get to do on the radio, and that is share my thoughts with you about what I really wanted to say. A lot of people that, uh, that write into me, a lot of fans— I hear from about 100, I get about 100 pieces of fan mail a week, which is unusual for a newsman. But I get mail from people saying, Larry, I heard it in your voice. I know you wanted to say something about so-and-so and so-and-so, but I know because you're an unbiased newsman on the radio, you can't say it. Voilà! That's where Uncle Mole comes in. YouTube at Uncle Mole. That's the name of this the the YouTube channel, and it allows me to breathe a bit. It allows me to talk about okay, I did this story on the news today, and you know doggone well that boy wasn't thinking when he went in blah blah blah blah blah. I can get into those things. I still don't get into politics again because I know who I am, and whether camera live at home in a pub or wherever. I'm still Larry Mullins, you know, and I can't go rattling in one place and then turn right around and go on the radio and says I'm middle of the road. Doesn't work like that. So I'll stay away from politics on the YouTube channel, but everything else is, is, is, uh, you know, it's freestyle. But it allows me, um, on that particular page to present Uncle Moe, which is my 30-minute sit-down, long form I should say, where I can really tell you what's on my mind about everything from You know, I can't get into politics, but I'll tell you, you need to get out and vote and why. And there's also a page called G-Daddy and Teach that features me with my 6-year-old grandson, TJ, who's teaching me a thing or two about life. And Jaci, it is a hot mess. He thinks he knows everything.

Mm-hmm.

So, uh, so he does that portion with me. And there's also a section called The Brick. The Brick references a scripture in the Bible. Where I would take certain scriptures and I would draw parallels to our everyday life and kind of—

Oh, I see.

Yeah. So it's a brick upside the head to wake you up and whisper words of encouragement. It's an inspirational daily thing. People are loving those. People are loving those bricks being chunked at them every day. And so that's my claim to fame on that. I'm @LCMullinsWins on all of the platforms. I'm on TikTok, I'm on X, I'm on Facebook, I'm on, um, What's the other one? Instagram. And all roads lead back to my YouTube channel. So, uh, it's, uh, it's something I've always wanted to do, do, do. And I'm thrilled, um, you know, to be able to do it for this long. Anybody to have lasted this long in television and radio, hey, that's a blessing. That is a blessing. Uh, in closing though, I wanna say, if it is your interest and desire to be in radio or television, baby, it's not dead. It's gonna be around for a long, long time. It may appear on somebody's watch, you know, by the time they get to see you. But if that's the way it's going, okay, so, uh, you know, resolve to that, um, and, and make plans for that. You know, I say the person is armed who can go out, or triple or quadruple threat, if they can go out and produce it, write it, shoot it, and present it. You know, that's the way to go. That's the ticket. So I'm, I'm actually backtracking right now, trying to pick up some of the things that I didn't have to do because I was a privileged reporter or anchor. You know, and so now, you know, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm trying to regenerate this Larry Mullins thing for as long as it'll last. I'm not going to do it forever. You know, somebody else has to come in soon. I may be retiring in the next year or so, but, you know, um, that's when you move out of the way and let some of the young blood come in and do it.

So let me wrap up with one more question to you, which is, what's the best thing about being Larry Mullins?

As corny as it may sound, the best thing about being Larry Mullins is doggone it, I get to be Larry Mullins. That there is no pretense. I don't have to prop it up. I don't have to pretend that I'm a genius. So hey, I'm ride or die. The Fair Media Council is a 501 nonprofit organization advocating for quality news and Working to create a media-savvy society. For more information about the Fair Media Council and upcoming Fast Chat shows, check out fairmediacouncil.org. Thank you.