Jeff and Jer

Dialogue with Tom Blair

JEFF DETROW AND JERRY CEZAK came to San Diego on May 3, 1988, and quickly established themselves as the number-one team in morning radio. After four station stops along the way, they landed in 2005 at Star 94.1 FM, where they continue to rule the morning airwaves. Their local hijinks are perhaps only slightly better known than their local philanthropy, which includes campaigns to build Becky’s House for victims of domestic violence, and a drive to raise a million dollars in three hours for victims of the 2004 wildfires. Jeff, whose knuckle-cracking drives Jerry crazy, is the father of five and lives in Solana Beach with his new bride, Kristen. Jerry, an animalrights advocate whose passion for peculiar meals involving veggies and tofu gets on Jeff’s nerves, lives in La Jolla with his wife, Pam, and a clowder of cats.

TOM BLAIR: So, you’re now in your 20th year on San Diego morning radio—which is several lifetimes in the radio business . . .

JER: And on May 3, we will have been together on radio for 25 years.

TB: Where was your first radio gig, Jeff?

JEFF: I started on my 14th birthday—37 years ago—in Wooster, Ohio. Population 23,000 then; population 23,000 now.

TB: You, Jerry?

JER: I started at the University of Maryland radio station. But my first commercial job was in 1971, running The Best of God in Washington, D.C., on Sunday mornings. It was impossible for me to believe I had to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning to go to work at 6.

TB: So, 35 years later, when do you guys think you’re going to get tired of getting up at 5 in the morning to get to work at 6?

JER: Oh, that happened about 14 years ago.

JEFF: It’s never fun getting up, but it’s always fun when we get to work.

TB: Over the years, you’ve been megasuccessful here—changing stations five times, and always moving up. Obviously, you’ve had overtures from bigger markets. Why didn’t you take them?

JER: We just never considered it. About two years ago, Infinity Broadcasting made a call and asked if we wanted to go to WCBS in New York. Without even consulting Jeff, I said thank you very much, but no.

JEFF: You didn’t tell me about that until just now.

JER: Oh, I didn’t? That was some big money. Huge!

JEFF: You might have wanted to just mention it at some point.

JER: Nah. We’d never consider leaving San Diego. This is home.

JEFF: Before we got the call to come here from Chicago, we went to Boston to talk with a station that really wanted us. That was the day the Super Bowl was in San Diego, in ’88. So we were in a hotel room in Boston watching the Super Bowl, thinking, “Oh, my gosh, some dude in San Diego is driving to work in his shirt-sleeves with the top down.” The next day we got a call from this headhunter asking if we’d consider a job in San Diego. And it was done.

TB: You said 25 years together. That’s longer than most—no offense, Jeff—but longer than most marriages. Was there ever a time you two came close to divorcing?

JEFF: Not for a minute.

JER: Not for a second.

TB: What’s the key to that? Opposites attract?

JER: It’s just a magic thing that happens. We’ve never had a fight. Never had a problem.

JEFF:We were blessed to find each other. We were also well-suited to each other.

TB: How did you find each other?

JEFF: Jerry was working in Detroit, and his partner moved on to become a program director. So Jerry was flying around the country listening to people on morning shows. I was in Phoenix, doing my own show, and we met, and it was instant best friends.

JER: Instant. There are only two people in the world I’ll tell anything to: my wife, Pam, and Jeff.

TB: Another thing that’s unusual in the business is how long your radio family has been together—Little Tommy Sablan, Laura Cain, Helper Boy Randy Hyde. What’s the secret to that?

JER: Right. Tommy’s been our producer for 19 years; Laura’s been with us for something like 13 years; Randy, 11 or 12.

JEFF: Part of it is that we all feel like a family. But the other part is what they keep bringing to the show—they’ve all grown, and they’ve remained valuable.

TB: A lot of what you all do on the air is very personal—sometimes even selfconfessional. You talk about your successes, your failures—both professional and personal. Was there ever a time you regretted being too open with listeners?

JEFF: Never. Never. There were times when I dreaded telling something. And Jerry, sometimes, when he starts to open up, he’ll say, “Now, look, I’m not sure this has any place on the show”—and then it turns out to be the best thing that week.

JER: Both of us continue to be surprised that people care to listen to something personal. But people relate, somehow. I guess if you can’t sympathize, you can empathize. Our listeners do that.

TB: A year ago or so, Jeff, you went on the air and talked for a half-hour or more about your marriage breaking up. What was the reaction from listeners? Did anybody give you any grief?

JEFF: No, they were all supportive. But some of them also felt let down, because so much of what I am is a husband and dad. So I think they shared in the sadness at that failure. For almost a year before that, there was a time when I said practically nothing on the air. And Jerry had to carry me. I was almost catatonic. He never once said, “Hey, step up. Pull out of it.”

JER: No, because the show was really good that year.

TB: Obviously, a big part of what you do is make people laugh. Jerry, what’s guaranteed to get a laugh out of you?

JER: The one person guaranteed to make me laugh is Jeff. He’s the funniest person I’ve ever known. George Burns said Jack Benny was the funniest person he’d ever known. When the two of them were together, George was helpless. It’s like that with Jeff—he always, always makes me laugh.

TB: What makes you laugh, Jeff?

JEFF: Uncomfortable makes me laugh. When Jerry reacts to things that don’t go well, it makes it even funnier to me. I love it when things tank on the air, because I see him starting to sweat. He’s such a professional. I happen to be one of those whose life just doesn’t always work out, and that’s funny.

TB: What’s the biggest blooper you guys have ever committed on air?

JER: Oh, my God. We were talking about Frightmare on Market Street, our Halloween haunted house, which our station—maybe it was Q106 at that time . . .

TB: Who can keep up?

JER: Right. Anyway, our station sponsored it, and we plugged it. Now, when we’re on the air, we operate on the seven-second delay. . .

JEFF: But we didn’t get the delay mechanism until right then. This was the day they installed it. I run the controls, and nobody else knows we have it yet. So this is my chance to pull one over on everybody in the studio. I know we’re on delay, because I can see the light on the board, and there’s a button to push to dump it. So anything I say, I’ve got seven seconds to dump it out before it gets on the air. So Jerry’s on the air, talking about our haunted house and how good it is, really selling it like crazy. And I say, “Yeah, go this weekend. It’s great. I’ll tell you how great it is, it’ll make you sh--!” And they’re just looking at me, so I say, “Delay, delay.” And I’m pointing to the button. So they’re all relieved and they laugh. Three minutes later, Tommy goes on the speaker box: “Hey, guys, I don’t think that delay’s workin’ so good.” Turns out the engineers had installed it bass-ackwards. The funniest thing: The haunted house had its best weekend ever.

TB: You’ve worked for a lot of GMs, and lots of program directors. What’s the biggest blowup you’ve ever had with management?

JER: When we left our first station here, Y95, they were really mad. When we told them we were leaving, they took us off the air for three months but kept us under contract. I remember the vice president of the company seeing me in the hall one day, and he was just so angry. I said, “You know, this is business. This isn’t personal.” And he said, “No. You’re wrong. It is personal.”

JEFF: Since then, we’ve worked for big enough people that they understand it’s business. And though we’ve always made more money when we’ve moved, we’ve never moved for money. When I speak at schools, I always tell the kids we have a passion for what we do, and we’re not driven by the money, and that’s why it’s worked.

JER: I always tell kids that money is not the key to happiness. But if you have enough money, you can get a key made.

TB: Well, you have made a lot of money. Are you rich? Or have you spent it all?

JEFF: We’ve always been very fortunate. Of course, the economics of business is that you’re never making more for yourself than you’re making for them. But yeah, the answer to your question would be yes.

TB: Have you ever felt any animosity from other station employees who might feel there’s less money and fewer resources available to them because you got so much?

JER: Not that I know of, because we’re usually out of the station by 9 a.m. And I don’t really know more than three people who work here.

TB: Do you guys want to be doing this job when you’re 80?

JEFF: I do want to be doing this at 80. I have done this since October 1, 1969, when I was 14. And it’s not a job; it’s a calling. I just can’t believe it. My fifth-grade teacher called my parents to school and told them I would never be able to hold down a job. And I believed her, for a number of years. And then, I couldn’t believe I found something where they needed people just like me. I love it. And I would be glad to be doing it when it’s embarrassing that I’m still doing it.

JER: I don’t want to. There are a lot of things I think I’d like to explore doing one day. I have a lot of interests. For example, I always wanted to at least try being a shepherd.

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »