One man, one mic

Meet Trevor Carey, the conservative who will probably cheese you off, but not in a way you expected.

So, I got my interview with KERN News Talk 1410's latest addition, Trevor Carey, and my hypothesis was somewhat correct on how someone who used to push raunchy rap CDs ended up a conservative talk show host. It was his 8-year-old son looking at some CDs record labels had sent him to promote, then feeling dirty because he knew he didn't want his son listening to it.

Then he realized he was mad and was tired of just being one man yelling at his TV or radio. No. He wanted to be one man yelling into one microphone about the evils and ills of the world. But don't let the smooth taste fool you. Trevor's a conservative who loves God, family, America and Sam Lyn Ballpark, but he's also against the war in Iraq and thinks George W. Bush and his administration are "inherently evil." He claims he didn't leave the Republican party, they left him, but he says he is not a liberal or a Democrat. He's playing on his own team. The team of angry, jaded conservatives.

"Some might call it a conspiracy theory but once you present the facts it's no longer a conspiracy," Carey said. "America needs to wake up to this unjust war. To realize the Patriot Act is a complete invasion of the constitution. I feel that we owe it to the next generation to wake up."


Radio killed the music career -- Carey got out of the rap promoting game and stepped into the talk radio arena. Which will get more gnarly?

Carey said his show is going to be rapid fire with a strong, musical element. The show will also be about "the listener." Although Carey's a personality, he knows it's really the audience that makes the show.

"It's called talk radio, not listen radio," Carey said. "I want people to talk and I will listen. I won't hang up on you. I won't call you a name unless you deserve it. Unless yuo talk bad about my momma."

Carey and I talked quite a bit about hip hop and rap music. Suge Knight. The Last Temptation of MC Hammer known as "Pumps N A Bump." Angry violent rappers letting loose bags of rats and snakes in a record label office. Driving the Bone Thugs around high as hell, smoking weed in the back of the van. Record label folks getting beat up by rappers. Hoo-boy. He could write a book. He also writes screenplays. He's a clever dude.

He joked that he contributed to the corruption of my little sister and myself since we were totally listening to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony in 1996 when he helped them reach number one on the Billboard charts as the leader of their record promotion team through Sony's Relativity Records label. Other than warping my fragile little mind as a teen, Carey seemed like a funny, smart guy over the phone. It'll be interesting to see how Bakersfield takes the former music industry insider.

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Read more about Trevor in tomorrow's Californian.