Palms’ Ghostbar comes to life with airing of radio show

By Jerry Fink (contact)

Saturday, March 11, 2006 | 7:27 a.m.

Chaos ruled at Ghostbar on the 55th floor of the Palms on Thursday.

Radio talk DJ Adam Carolla, who replaced shock jock Howard Stern in several markets when Stern went to satellite radio, brought his cast of characters to Las Vegas for a special broadcast.

Among them were newscaster Rachel Perry, sportscaster Dave Dameshek, Big Tad and Oswaldo, the Hispanic carpenter who reviews shows for the program even though his English is barely understandable.

Guests included Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Palms owner George Maloof, magician Penn Jillette, a Roy Horn impersonator (who spoke by phone) and strippers from Spearmint Rhino.

The program aired live locally from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on KXTE 107.5-FM (Xtreme Radio) and was taped for rebroadcast during the show's regular time slot of 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Carolla began by suggesting the mayor and Maloof get together and build a bullet train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas so that the show could come to town more often.

"It would start at my house," said Carolla, who began hosting his show for CBS Radio on Jan. 3.

The show, based in Los Angeles, is heard in about 10 markets in the West.

The 6-foot 6-inch Jillette hijacked the show when he arrived, dominating his segment.

"Get off the tower, get off the tower," he yelled at no one in particular. "How many people are here, 75,000?"

"More like 80,000," Carolla said.

Actually, about 150 Carolla fans squeezed into the Ghostbar, drinking and cheering on the host and his guests.

Jillette (the talking half of the magic team of Penn & Teller) has his own hourlong, five-day-a-week talk show on CBS Radio, which is heard in seven markets.

Las Vegas isn't one of the markets, but the show is streamed on Jillette's website, http://penn.freefm.com/.

Thursday morning Carolla appeared on Jillette's show, which is broadcast from the magician's home.

"He wasn't wearing any pants," Carolla noted.

In his usual rapid-fire brand of conversation Jillette talked about many things, including his young daughter, Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette.

"No one pays any attention to middle names," Jillette said about the unusual name he and his wife gave their daughter. "And when she is 16 years old and is stopped for speeding she can tell the officer they are on the same side and show him her driver's license - 'See, my middle name is CrimeFighter.' "

A large portion of the show (probably too large) was taken up with a bit that often plays on Carolla's usual show, "(Expletive deleted) Kiss Rodeo."

Seven contestants selected from various CBS Radio markets competed for $5,000 in prize money. The winner (Zack from Grand Junction, Colo.) was the one who was best at kissing up to Carolla.

Oswald reviewed "Blue Man Group."

He has a habit of saying 'You know,' and Carolla had Big Tad take a shot of liquor every time Oswald uttered the phrase - which ended up being more than a dozen shots.

Perry also was doing shots in a show that always seemed on the verge of getting out of hand, especially after Big Tad started to take his clothes off (but was stopped, sparing fans the sight of his obese frame).

Rob Barnett, CBS Radio's president of programming, says the company is very happy with the way things have been going since Stern went to Satellite.

CBS, rather than trying to replace Stern with one person in the 27 markets he dominated for years, split up the markets and divided them among five hosts (or groups of hosts, in some cases).

Former Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth is based in New York.

CBS has branded its stations "Free FM," a reminder that Stern fans must pay a fee listen to him.

Barnett says Carolla is doing very well, but the ratings have not yet been released.

"Radio is very different from TV, where programs are rated every 24 hours," he said. "The standard rating period for radio is a full three months and we haven't reached the point yet."

However he said initial surveys indicate Carolla is popular in Las Vegas.

"People are very excited," Barnett said.

He says there will be more trips to Las Vegas in the future.

"It's everybody's favorite place to come," Barnett said. "It's a natural."