Jim Trenton

Jim "The Poorman" Trenton
Born	James Trenton August 19, 1953 (1953-08-19)
Occupation	Radio broadcaster

James "The Poorman" Trenton (born August 19, 1953) is an American radio broadcaster. He was a disc jockey on KROQ in Los Angeles from 1982-1993. He is best known for co-creating and hosting the evening Loveline radio talk show. Trenton also discovered and hired his then-co-host Dr. Drew Pinsky. The Poorman got his start as the local 'stoned' surf reporter who was the butt of jokes from the morning DJs on KROQ. From there, he became one of the station's most popular figures. He was fired from KROQ as a result of an on-air prank in 1993.

His moniker could be said to have started when he published a slim paperback restaurant review called, The Poorman’s Guide To Gourmet Dining For Under Six Dollars. He claimed that food reviewing was a cheap way for him to get fed while he was an unemployed actor.

Loveline

To meet its FCC obligations, KROQ had to provide public service broadcasting. Loveline was initially developed by Scott Mason, and was intended as a serious program. Trenton took over development of the program and somewhat changed the format, bringing a comedy/entertainment element to it. However, Trenton also found himself unable to answer serious medical questions related to sexual issues. He then hired "Dr. Drew" Pinsky (at the time a medical student) to dispense the more sober and serious advice.

By August 1993, Trenton's relationship with KROQ had grown tense. He had a history of behavioral problems, often ignoring management direction. He walked off the show and had been suspended for a month earlier that year. The final straw occurred when Trenton responded to a prank performed on him on his 40th birthday by fellow KROQ DJ Gene "Bean" Baxter. Trenton sent a large crowd of listeners over to Bean's house at midnight, and Bean complained to the station's management. That month, he was replaced by former MTV VJ Riki Rachtman. Rachtman didn't last long at the station, and was replaced by Adam Carolla, who lasted many years on the program before voluntarily leaving for other projects.

The hugely popular Loveline continued to thrive without Trenton, earning many millions of dollars, and becoming syndicated. It also had a televised run on MTV for a number of years.

In 1994, Trenton sued KROQ, and demanded a piece of the revenues from Loveline. The court ruled against Trenton, citing that Loveline was created as part of Trenton's employment at KROQ, thereby making it their property. Trenton appealed the decision, but that was also unsuccessful.

On December 8, 1998, Trenton filed a $40 million dollar copyright infringement lawsuit against MTV in the Los Angeles District Court, claiming the network stole his idea for their televised version of Loveline. That suit was also dismissed.

In January, 2010, Trenton accused Dr. Drew of cocaine abuse during their "Loveline" days. This accusation appeared in Life & Style Magazine.

Other radio jobs

After working for KROQ, Jim Trenton was working for some time as the "morning drive" host on GrooveRadio 103.1 FM.

"The Poorman", notorious for upsetting his employers with his speech on-air, has been through many Los Angeles-area radio jobs. In addition to his work at KROQ and GrooveRadio, he had his employment terminated by KIIS-FM (102.7), KYSR-FM (98.7), and KPWR-FM (105.9). At KYSR, Poorman was only employed for one night. Without station management's permission, he ran a contest that awarded a new car to the listener who destroys the most valuable object on the air. Many outrageous acts of destruction were subsequently perpetrated, including one caller who purposely drove his own car into a wall. The caller who totaled his car did not win the contest, and sued the station. KYSR management immediately terminated Trenton upon learning of this contest, but settlements and legal fees as a result of the unauthorized contest topped $100,000.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Poorman found himself unable to find employment in southern California radio. Instead, he purchased airtime and hosted his own music program in 1999 called Anti-Radio, specializing in independent bands. It ran on various small stations with weak signals, and never established a large listenership. When requesting call-ins from listeners, Trenton would often get no calls at all, prompting him to go on long rants about how the show was a failure. The radio station had no screeners or 7-second delay for phone calls, so the show was also the victim of prank callers who purposely called solely to utter profanity on the air. The program's run ended when the station badly needed Trenton's air slot, and bought him out for $300,000. This large payment led to tax problems for Trenton after a 2010 IRS inquiry.

He returned again to radio in 2005 with a Loveline clone known as Love Calls, which aired on sports station KMPC 1540. Like Anti-Radio, Trenton also owned this show, but KMPC required him to utilize one of their employees to screen calls and monitor for inappropriate content. Within a short time, KMPC decided it was unhappy with the raunchy nature of Love Calls, and abruptly yanked it from the air. Trenton threatened to sue the station for lost revenues, stating that their agreement stated that the KMPC-employed board operator was responsible for monitoring and dumping inappropriate content. Therefore, Trenton argued, he was not to blame for anything foul that reached the airwaves. The station realized they were indeed vulnerable to such a lawsuit, and reluctantly let the show continue. After running for about five months, Trenton discovered that the show could not bring in enough money to support KMPC's studio and airtime fees, and he would have to close it down. He reached a mutually beneficial agreement with KMPC, where they bought out the remainder of the show's contract, and the show terminated.

From the end of Love Calls in 2005 until late 2010, Trenton was unable to find a paid position in radio, and was unwilling to continue paying for airtime himself.

He finally appeared again on the radio in November 2010, on San Bernardino, California station KCAA 1050 AM. His new program was initially called Poorman's Radio Invasion, airing for an hour on weekday afternoons. One notable feature of the show was a medical marijuana giveaway—the first of its kind on terrestrial radio. However, the format failed to attract many listeners, causing Trenton to spend much of the time complaining about the show's apparent failure. The medical marijuana giveaway was dropped after the show's primary sponsor, a medical marijuana dispensary, canceled their advertising contract. He changed the format several times, including abandoning the show's name and theme music. One of the attempted changes was a revival of his original Loveline format. However, his problems of receiving few telephone calls persisted, and Trenton abandoned that format, as well. The program was removed from the lineup in late September, 2011, while Trenton prepared for a new syndicated radio program based out of New York City.

On October 10, 2011, Trenton began his syndicated show, called Poorman's Nation. Despite originally being promoted as a live call-in show, Poorman's Nation instead consisted solely of taped interviews from Occupy Wall Street. The program was syndicated by the Genesis Communications Network, but had just one affiliate -- KCAA, which carried his original Radio Invasion program earlier in the year. Trenton conducted his on-the-street interviews while wearing only a Depression-era-style barrel, which earned him some degree of media attention, including an appearance on The Young Turks. However, the show failed to pick up any additional affiliates or local sponsors, and was canceled by the syndicator on November 7, 2011.

Trenton does not currently have a radio program.

Television appearances

While working at KROQ in the mid-1980s, local Orange County TV station KDOC had a program called "Adventures with the Poorman" hosted by Trenton.

In the late 1980s, Trenton hosted a show on KDOC called "Request Video". This was a live show featuring videos of primarily rock and independent bands. In addition, Trenton took live phone calls and interviewed bands. His show was the first to interview the then-unknown Gwen Stefani and her band No Doubt. He quit after 15 months, complaining that the show did not pay him.

In 1994, Trenton hosted a nightly television show on KDOC called The Love Channel. Trenton owned the show and bought the airtime from KDOC, giving him full control of its content and advertising revenue. However, the show was failing to support itself financially, as its ad revenue could not break even with KDOC's high airtime fees. Knowing the end was coming, Trenton did the live show in the nude. KDOC pulled it from the air the next day.

In 1999, Trenton again returned to the television landscape, producing a program called Poorman's Bikini Beach. Like The Love Channel, Poorman owned and controlled the show, renting airtime from various television stations. However, unlike The Love Channel, the show was not live, and was much cheaper to produce and air. It ran off-and-on over subsequent years, frequently switching television stations. It would typically air sometime between 11pm and 1am. The program ran for several years on Los Angeles station KJLA. Trenton canceled the program on January 17, 2011, after expressing dissatisfaction that he had to pay for the airtime himself. Poorman's Bikini Beach briefly returned to California TV on UHF station KBEH in September, but was canceled on January 6, 2012. Again, Trenton had purchased that airtime and sold his own ads for the show.

Trenton also had brief stints at KTTV's Good Day LA and the Los Angeles UPN station's news program.

Film Work

Trenton has also appeared in four films, including the 1987 B film North Shore as the opening surf contest announcer, the 1989 hit Heathers (as the 'Hot Probs' D.J.) and the 1990 film Men at Work (as the narrator).

Trenton was a member of SAG/AFTRA.

Gubernatorial campaign

As one of 135 candidates, Trenton was one of 28 write-in candidates for the 2003 California "recall" gubernatorial election, running as a Republican, receiving 3 votes.

Luvchat

In 2009, Trenton hosted an interactive internet TV show called LuvChat. It began in February, 2009, and was intended to be a web-based, censorship-free version of Loveline. Trenton hosted the show from his beachfront home in Newport Beach, California. Its primary sponsor was the so-called "male-enhancement" product ExtenZe. The show was able to take multiple calls from viewers via telephone, Skype, or webcam. It aired every weeknight from 7pm to 9pm.

With minimal marketing behind it, Luvchat did not initially attract a large audience. Frustrated with the performance of the show, Trenton retooled its format in June, 2009, changing it to a showcase of popular YouTube talent. The show featured interviews with VenetianPrincess, Shane Dawson, Jared from Friday Night Cranks, and many other top-ranked YouTube performers. This substantially increased the size of the Luvchat audience, though it also skewed much younger. The original show's audience typically ranged from 18-45. The newer version of the show mainly attracted minors, with some as young as 10 years old. Trenton received some criticism for continuing to advertise ExtenZe on the program. Luvchat hit its peak viewership on July 7, 2009, when over 10,000 viewers watched the program.

Luvchat also featured "LuvChat 24/7" over the summer of 2009, where Trenton never turned off the camera, and the viewers would constantly interact with him.

The show largely lost its footing in August, 2009, when its technical crew quit at the start of a show due to a dispute with Trenton. Luvchat completely ceased to exist in November, 2009.

Personal

Trenton completed law school while in his 20s, but did not pass the California State Bar exam. This occurred before he got involved in radio.

In 1990, Trenton married a KROQ bikini girl who was 16 years his junior. They had a son together, Nick Trenton, born in 1990, who currently attends Johns Hopkins University. The marriage lasted for less than two years.

Trenton has revealed on both Luvchat and his KCAA program that he has a rocky relationship with his parents, who are both still alive and in their 80s. He has frequent arguments with his father about the direction of his career.

Trenton has indicated on several radio shows that he hasn't had sex with a woman since 2003. He states that this is not by choice, but rather due to the fact that attractive women will no longer sleep with him since he lost his high-profile Loveline job.

Preceded by —

Co-Host of Loveline 1983 – 1993

Succeeded by Riki Rachtman

See also

• Loveline

External links

• Jim Trenton at the Internet Movie Database

Additional Sources

• The Unofficial ALT.FAN.KROQ FAQ
• James "Poorman" Trenton v. MTV, March 1, 2006
• "Poorman saved", Los Angeles Business Journal, April 18, 2005
• The Loveline Companion
• lovelinecentral.com
• luvchat.com
• bikinibeachlive.com