Ralph Sutton, a former nightlife promotion guru turned radio host, has an interesting story, to say the least: part of the first in-house promotion team at the legendary New York City club Palladium, Sutton has gotten his feet wet in nearly every sector of the NYC club scene, including hot spots like Mars, Limelight, MK and even Chippendale’s. After a decade of working as a promoter in the nightlife industry, Sutton made an unexpected move to a different kind of entertainment: radio. He says the switch felt surprisingly natural.
“Getting people to show up at a club is kind of the same thing as getting people to listen to a show… you need something catchy and different to stand out,” says Sutton, who has applied much of what he learned running the club circuit toward putting together a show that not only catches people’s attention, but also keeps them tuning in week after week.
The SDR Show, which stands for “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” is not Sutton’s first rodeo. He is also a founder and co host of the nationally syndicated show, The Tour Bus, which has been running for over a decade. Despite the success of his show, however, Sutton realized something was lacking in the radio world. “The powers that be haven’t been keeping up with the times, and as a DJ you can’t really express your personality anymore,” he says. “Shorter mic breaks, less topics, less fun, more music.” That’s when his longtime friend, world renown comedian Big Jay Oakerson, approached him with an idea for a show that took three of the hottest topics in American media and presented them in a way that was witty, fresh, and of course, sexy.
The concept behind The SDR Show, which he hosts alongside Big Jay, was conceived by the same formula he has used in the past to come up with ideas for his most memorable club parties.
“Our most successful party ever was called ‘The Quest For The Perfect Kiss.’ When you entered the party, you were given $200 in fake money and it was up to you to determine your price for buying and selling kisses with other people at the party. The person with the most money at the end of the night won a bottle of champagne. We had a solid idea behind a great name with the quest parties,” says Sutton. “In the same respect, when I was contemplating a name for the podcast show I thought, ‘Who doesn’t like sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll?’ The name alone gets people to listen. Then, as long as we have a solid show to back it up, people will keep listening.”
While a great name might be all it takes to nail that crucial first impression, it’s the content of the show that determines long term loyalty among audience members. And what does sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll have in common? America loves talking about all three.
The SDR Show hosts live interviews with some of the biggest names in music, comedy and entertainment (including adult entertainment) and invites guests to get down and dirty across a wide spectrum of topics. Sometimes the hosts and their guests explore taboo subjects, and sometimes they just muse about what’s going on within their respective career fields at the moment.
So far, the show has been a smash success – in its first month alone, The SDR Show amassed an astonishing listenership of over 6,000. Four episodes after launching, the show is garnering about 3,000 unique listeners per week. It currently holds the No. 6 spot on iTunes’ New and Noteworthy chart and has broken in to the iTunes’ Comedy chart as well, a feat that is almost unheard of for up-and-comers.
While the weekly guests are eclectic and the topics are sizzling, in our opinion it’s the on-air chemistry between Sutton and Oakerson that really keeps the fans coming back for more. “Its simple… Big Jay Oakerson and I make each other laugh,” says Sutton. “People can hear music anywhere. They can’t hear personality anywhere.”
The SDR Show releases a new episode every Tuesday via iTunes. You can catch all the action from past episodes at http://www.theSDRshow.com.
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