The following biography of how "Phone Fun" came about is in 2 parts. The first part is from an article of 7x7 magazine written by Rachel Laumann in May 2004. Part 2 written by Nick McGregor.Part one:::Sonoma State University is home to the globally broadcasted school-based radio station, KSUN. Headed by San Francisco's own morning guy, David Paige, the station has had a rapid growing fan base. In the past few months they've seen their most rapid increase in listenership due in part to the arrival of new KSUN DJ, Nick McGregor. Last February I made a visit to the Sonoma State campus and flyers for his show On the Rag, immediately caught my eye. The following Friday, I tuned in to with plans only to listen to the first few minutes and found myself sitting by the computer for 4 hours. The following week the laughs kept coming. Unfortunately, in mid March, Nick crank called the wrong family and was no longer permitted to make outgoing phone calls. Just last week I was lucky enough to have a phone interview scheduled with Nick and he was able to shed some light on his quick success through the phone.
RL: First off, Nick, I would like to thank you for taking this time to speak with me
Mcgregor: It's my pleasure
RL: It's my understanding that this is your first year at Sonoma State and your first semester on their radio station, but that hasn't stopped you from coming in with a bang. What would you attribute this to?
Mcgregor: My prank phone calls.
RL: Of course. I've heard a few of them and I'd say that I've become a personal fan. What gave you the idea to devote your air time to making these calls?
Mcgregor: Even before I signed up for air time I knew that's what I would do. I've been making prank calls ever since I can remember. Back when I was 8, I spent the night at my friend Chris Maurer's house and somehow he got the phone number of the girl he "liked" and I prank called her all night. Then when I was in fifth grade, a friend of mine at the time, Paul, some how got a list of phone numbers of people in our class and I would call those people.
RL: Well, it seems like you got an early start.
Mcgregor: You could say that. Soon after that though, I found that people began to recognize my voice, I guess I have a distinct voice, but I didn't want to stop making phone calls, so that's when I broke out the phone book and just called people out of the white pages.
RL: Would you be making calls by yourself or were you able to find an audience?
Mcgregor: Both actually. If I was really bored, I would call people alone, but most of the time it was with an audience. I've been to parties where the entire would be sitting around a speaker phone listening to me make calls. I've even taken requests from people to call people they know and play a joke on them.
RL: I've heard you do probably close to 100 prank calls on your show and I haven't heard you laugh once, but meanwhile you keep your audience in stitches. Do you have a strategy on keeping yourself from laughing.
Mcgregor: Well, I don't really think they're all that funny
RL: No?
Mcgregor: No, not really. Also, when I'm making the calls It seems like it's more of a task opposed to a joke, if that makes sense. If I'm in the studio by myself, I don't see anyone else, hence I don't know anyone is laughing and I forget that it's funny. When I make prank calls with my friends I have to be in a separate room because if I see someone else laugh, I may not be able to hold it.
RL: Could you elaborate on not thinking it's funny?
Mcgregor: When I listen to the tapes of my show, I don't really laugh that much. And when I say that I don't think they're funny, I don't mean their are completely unfunny, I just mean that in comparison to people like the jerkey boys and other comedic entertainers, I'm not very funny.
RL: Don't you think you're holding yourself to too high of a standard?
Mcgregor: Yes and no. I know that it is impossible to achieve their level of humor while being a rookie in a college radio station, but being funny is being funny. When you watch movies with inexperienced actors in them, you don't say the movie was good and give it a reprieve just because the cast is green. Being entertaining is being entertaining, you can't have double standards.
RL: When you would make these calls at parties with your friends would they laugh and be entertained?
Mcgregor: Yeah, but they don't necessarily count because they know me. People you know have an easier time making you laugh than people you don't know.
RL: I understand the point you're making, but I didn't know you when I started listening and I've become a fan of the show. In fact, I enjoy you more than I do Crank Yankers.
Mcgregor: Ya know what I think helps though, I think hearing them live really helps. It adds a certain edge of not knowing what could possibly come next. If you were to listen to my calls on tape or CD, they wouldn't have the same effect.
RL: Is there a possibility of a greatest hits CD of your show?
Mcgregor: Not of the show, just the prank calls. The head of our productions department, James Reilly, was talking about getting his show on CD, so I'm hoping it's possible to just take the calls from my show and get them on CD.
RL: Didn't you just say you don't think a CD would really do justice to you though?
Mcgregor: [Laughs] Yeah, but it's something I still think I would want to have. It wouldn't be something I would market though. I would never be found in stores. I would probably not try to profit from it. It would just be something that I gave to my friends who would appreciate it and if I charged money, it would only be to cover the cost of making them. Personally, I would rather if everyone just burned themselves a copy and I didn't have to deal with distribution.
RL: Where did you come up with that name that you use? Wally�
Mcgregor: Wally Banffshire?
RL: Yeah
Mcgregor: It's actually the name of a guy I know who listens to the show every week. When I first started I knew he was definitely listening, so I thought it would be funny if I used his name a few times. It's also the goofiest sounding name I've ever heard. But what happened was, I used it for a few weeks and then I found out that people who had caller ID and the people who I'd left messages on their answering machines were calling back during other people's shows and I wanted to be prepared in case someone called while I was in the studio, so I figured since I'd made so many calls using that name, I should just stick with it. It's come in handy too when people HAVE called back and I could at least pretend my name is Wally. It wasn't the only name I've used though, but after about the third show the bulk of the calls were made with the name Wally.
RL: Let's steer back to your show for a second. It is just you in there, right?
Mcgregor: [Laughs] Yes, it's just me. But I do have two other characters. A black guy named Joe Rucker Mother F*****r and an Asian named Phan. I've done a few prank calls as them, but they serve as a way for the show to continue. They took on larger roles as the semester has gone on because I'm not allowed to make prank calls any more since I supposedly scared some family into not going on vacation when I told them I wanted my lawnmower back.
RL: What would you say a typical show would consist of?
Mcgregor: I get in there, I talk to myself using the characters, I make prank calls, I don't play the music they tell me to play, and I use the music I like as almost a commercial or a break. I remember when I started they said that I should play music for 50 minutes of the first hour and talk for 10 and then 45 minutes of music and 15 of talking in the second hour. They also said that I have to say the station name every chance I get and the talking that I do should consist of me saying which bands I just played and which bands I'm about to play. Anyone who's listened to the show knows I through that right out the window.
RL: What type of music do you usually play?
Mcgregor: When I was making prank calls, I barely took breaks because I wanted to just keep rolling on with the calls, but when I would play music it would be bands like The Aquabats, The Scholars, Forces of Evil, Suburban Legends, Reel Big Fish, The Nuckle Brothers, Catch 22, and the Hippos. I know that those bands aren't as popular as some other bands that are being played on other shows, but I didn't think anyone was really listening to the show for the music anyway, so I just played what I wanted to hear. Also, the guy in charge claimed that when we reported that we played a particular band on the show, that they would be paid. I have a feeling none of those bands get anything from us or CMJ, the company we report to, but maybe they're getting $3 checks in the mail every month.
RL: Will you be returning to KSUN next year?
Mcgregor: No, no way. For two reasons. One, I won't be attending Sonoma State next year, yielding it impossible and two, I don't think I would want to do it again. I have this strange feeling that I'm disliked by the majority of the other DJs.
RL: What would make you say that?
Mcgregor: I remember about a month ago I had a few friends, Nick Sellberg, Tyler Tebrich, and Keith Heyward; two of whom don't go to this school, come and do a show with me and I remember sitting with them in the waiting room of the study and seeing, "Nick McGregor is the worst KSUN DJ ever." written above the door. I also saw, "Nick McGregor needs to be nicer..... jerk." It didn't really bother me all that much, but it gave me the idea that there were a few people that aren't fans. Also, there's this other DJ named Mike, but he calls himself "The Mouth" and he was telling me that the other people didn't like that I was upstaging them and I hadn't 'paid my dues' as he put it. But it's ok, I didn't try and be funny for the other DJs I tried to be funny for my friends who were listening.
RL: You said that you won't be attending Sonoma State next year, where will you be?
Mcgregor: I'll be at a junior college next year with hopes to go to USC or UCLA the following year. Keep in mind that I said, "With hopes" because realistically I don't think they'll let me in.
RL: Well Nick, I wish you the best of luck in your school change and thank you for allowing me to pick your brain about your show
Mcgregor: Thanks Rachel.
Article by Rachel Laumann
Part 2:::
Hi kid,s I hope you laugh at the prank calls I've put on this page. I just want to say thanks to Jefferson Liou for putting these on CD for me. Thanks out to Wally Banffshire for letting me use his name (even though he didn't have a choice). Thanks to Sean Malone because we went to the same school that year.
It's gonna be a hit or miss with these prank calls. I don't know if I even put the best ones on this page. I've found that they aren't easy to listen to because you need to focus on them almost as if you are watching a movie opposed to just listening to music that cand just simply be background music. Thanks for taking the tme to read this.--nick mcgregor
