Larry Wachs says Regular Guys dead and buried, places me on his 'modcast'

"It was a legendary show for 20 years," said Wachs, who was let go from Rock 100.5 in December. "And it’s time to move forward and do new things."

To Wachs, "I don't think [listeners] got the full picture of me when I was on the show. I don't think you're clear who I am as a performer... I was part of an ensemble. Some of my talents weren't applicable."

The modcast is a way to showcase his skills as a a solo interviewer, commentator and story teller. "It's very chilling and a little scary," he said. "It's exhilarating...  I never learn to plan too far in advance. This is just what I'm doing. Where it leads, who knows?"

Wachs said he grew up "worshiping local TV radio guys, wanting to be like them. It's not a bad life, not a bad career to be a local legend in a big town. It's pretty good. Now that it's done, this is a chance to take on a greater challenge."

He has never been big telling a lot of personal stories on the air. He didn't discuss his divorce to any degree on air. He rarely (if ever) mentioned his kids. He chose not to name drop the woman he's now dating. (I'll respect his privacy here but plenty of folks in radio know who it is if you're deathly curious.)

"I love to find ways to tweak elements in my life, incorporate it into story telling with embellishing, changing details, using parts of it in other stories and making a bigger whole. The danger in telling things raw is people get wrong impressions... There's a virtue in privacy."

He prefers to protect his loved ones: "If you don't have trusted allies, you're screwed."

On the Regular Guys, Wachs allowed "Southside" Steve Rickman to play up his personal life for entertainment, whether it was Rickman's prolific ability to sleep with hundreds of women or ultimately dating and marrying someone more than two decades younger.

"I have crazy stories. I have shocking stories," Wachs said. "But I made a business decision. I'm not going to tell them. It's idle gossip. I found idle gossip unproductive. It always comes back on you. I won't be talking out of school good or bad."

This means he isn't going to bad mouth his former Regular Guys partners. (Not that he's buddy buddy with them either. He doesn't stay in touch.)

"I understand your desire to get quotes," Wachs said. "I don't feel it's productive."

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

Wachs first met

Eric Von Haessler

at a radio station in upstate New York. They clicked. In 1995, they became the Regular Guys on a new talk station in Los Angeles KFLX-FM that he called a "circus." It featured syndicated

Howard Stern

,

Kato Kaelin

(from the O.J. trial),

Ken Ober

(MTV's "Remote Control") and Olsen.

They came to Atlanta in 1998 on 96rock and built a following and became a top draw for men hungry for a bit of testosterone-driven comedy and interplay.

Here's what I wrote about them a few years back:

After the Janet Jackson Super Bowl fiasco in 2004, Wachs wanted to make a point how silly this all was by airing backwards porn but the producer accidentally aired the dirty talk over a commercial. (I heard it.) They were taken off the air soon after this inadvertent backfire. In early 2005, Clear Channel brought them back - on news/talk WGST-AM - for a month, then gave them another shot on 96rock.

Though ratings were not quite the good the second round, they seemed to be doing fine - until Wachs in 2006 taped the sister station Hispanic morning show Yogi & Panda in the bathroom and mocked them. That morning team  filed a lawsuit for invasion of privacy and even had Wachs arrested. Though the case was eventually dismissed, the Regular Guys were fired for good.

Whatever regret he may have had at the time has long dissipated. "Those were great stories," Wachs said. "My experience informs me. That's how you learn. I learned a lot of lessons."

At the time, Wachs and Von Haessler both told me the Regular Guys were done. They sought other gigs. But nothing tangible materialized for either of them solo.

So about 15 months later, they surprised everybody when they reluctantly reunited with Tim Andrews and "Southside" Steve Rickman on the new Rock 100.5, owned by Atlanta-based Cumulus Media. The Regular Guys 3.0 (at least in Atlanta) came to be. They lasted five more years together. The show did well. Again, on a weaker signal than 96rock, it wasn't quite the phenomenon it was in the early 2000s but it served its audience.

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

But all was not well behind the scenes. Von Haessler was cut in the fall of 2013. He said he felt alienated by Wachs' controlling ways and had effectively checked out the last couple of years on the show anyway.

Fifteen months later, in December last year, Wachs was let go as well - and so went the Regular Guys name, which Wachs owned.

Andrews and Rickman are now joined by Jason Bailey on the current, generically named Rock 100.5 Morning Show.

Wachs said he was given a year's warning from the top brass at Cumulus that his contract was not likely to be renewed. (This was soon after Von Haessler was released.) He said he felt burnt out and was ready to move on. He thought they'd keep him on through January but was relieved when he was let go a little early.