I had a chance to talk with DC radio celebrity Chad Dukes, the host of “Chad Dukes Vs The World, about radio, movies, and as always…guns.
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- DC is the seventh largest radio market in the country, and 106.7 The Fan is one of the biggest stations in Washington, DC. In fact it has been number one with male listeners between the ages of 25 and 54 for years now. One of the biggest stars on the platform is Chad Dukes.
Chad host the afternoon drive time show called “Chad Dukes Vs The World.” Chad not only talks about sports, but he also talks about some of his other passions. These includes movies, fast food, and even guns.
He also host numerous podcast and has been a fixture in DC for a long time. What makes chad different is that instead of steering away from his love of firearms he embrasses it on the air. He even has a shooting range that sponsors his radio show.
Chad Dukes
I had a chance to talk with Chad about radio, movies, and guns.
John: You are a pretty big radio star in the DC area with your own radio show on 106.7 The Fan. Would you mind talking a little about your radio background?
Chad Dukes : I do afternoons on 106.7 The Fan. I still do “The Big O And Dukes” show. We do the podcast and we have 1000s of listeners. We also do live shows. We put out an episode on vinyl a couple of weeks ago and sold out of that.
Radio is the only thing I wanted to do. It is kind of fun to do it here since I am from the Washington, DC area. I started as an intern and then started working promotions, board oping, and everything I could.
I got into a verbal altercation with one of the host of the morning show on the station I was at. We had a boxing match and I got knocked out, but I was doing a lot of verbal sparring that my program director loved. He gave us a shot on the weekends, and we ran with it.
I have done radio in 3 different top 20 markets. It’s been fun to have some stability. I just started my 11th year straight on 106.7 which is rare. A lot of radio guys don’t get that type of stability. It has been a good way to make a living.
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John: You have embraced podcasting in addition to terrestrial radio. Which one do you prefer and why?
Chad Dukes : I prefer terrestrial radio for the interaction. Just for the sheer number of people that are listening at that one moment. You can then have them contact you on the phone or twitter.
Podcasting is great It gives you freedom. Freedom of language, freedom of content. I don’t have to worry about what the program director thinks I should be talking about, but as far as what my druthers are, it’s radio.
I would love to give satellite radio a try if the opportunity was there, but as far as far is terrestrial radio you have guys on the work site, guys in their cars, and guys in their trucks listening to you and calling in. This is how I cut my teeth. It is pretty cool to have that relationship with the listeners as the host.
John: With Podcast becoming more and more popular with stars like Joe Rogan and companies like Compound Media how do you see terrestrial radio responding?
Chad Dukes : They haven’t done a really good job thus far, have they? I don’t know how they respond to it. I think there is still a large market for radio. I think there always will be in some way, shape, or form.
I think once more cars have WiFi inside of them and it is not cost or technology prohibitive for you to listen to whatever you want on demand, who knows? My whole deal is podcasting doesn’t have the interaction. Unless it is happening live and you can listen to it live, you are watching something tapped and you don’t have the same connection as you do when it is happening in that moment and that is where radio still has the leg up on podcasting.
I don’t know what 22 year olds are going to do. I don’t have a lot of 22 year olds listening to my radio show, but they sure as hell are podcasting everything. It will be interesting in the next 10 years if radio can shake the cobwebs and update itself with the times.
John: Who are your biggest influences in the radio industry?
Chad Dukes : I wouldn’t say there was one. There was The Sports Junkies, Opie And Anthony, Don And Mike, Howard Stern, Adam Carolla, and guys like that. Even the The Greaseman. Those guys were pioneers. That is what I am looking for.
I am not looking for political talk. I am not looking for sports talk. It bores me. I am looking for shows that get into fights and have open and honest conversation about a bevy of topics. We were talking before the interview about Big O And Dukes. We could talk about comic book movies, guns, and then The UFC.
That is what I want. The ability to slip and slide. That is what radio should be. Shows like that is really where I drew my influence from.
John: Chad Dukes isn’t your real name. How did you come up with Chad Dukes and do people call you by Chad or your real name in your personal life?
Chad Dukes : My real name is Bradley Fukerton III. That is a real mouthful. I realized I needed a shorter version of that. There is guy at my station named Danny Rouhier, and he is just tortured because no one knows how to say his name.
Chad Dukes was a running back for the Washington Redskins who was always on the practice squad. He always killed it in the preseason, but every single year he would get cut. He never made the main roster.
I was 19 sitting in Fedex Field, and I said “If I ever make it in radio I am going to call myself Chad Dukes because I would have finally made the roster.”
It is funny because I have never talked to that guy about it, but I get mistaken for him every once in awhile because I do sports talk radio. A lot of former NFL guys think I am Chad Dukes which is funny. He is a muscular black man, and I am not that.
John: Elite Shooting Sports is one of your sponsors. Did you discover them through your radio show, or were you shooting there first?
Chad Dukes : They didn’t exist when I met up with Greg who owns that place. I toured it when it was just concrete footers, struts, and beams. I honestly didn’t know how it was going to work. The place is a palace. It is unbelievable. I never seen a shooting range like it before.
When I was walking through it before it was built and said “Dude, how are you going to pull this off. It is so massive?” They did, and they have been very loyal to my show and I have been very loyal to them. It is a wonderful partnership.
I love that place. I love that facility, and how they deal with shooting and gun ownership. They do everything the right way, and I have taken people in there with no experience with guns and they have always felt comfortable.
This is including my mom. My mom is a socialist and I have taken her to Elite Shooting Sports and she has shot guns and had a great time. Everyone was nice. I like that because it helps me show people that this is something that can be fun. This is something you don’t have to be scared of. That is a good thing.
John: When did you start shooting?
Chad Dukes : I don’t even remember. I shot with my grandfather and my father before I can remember. I started as a very small child. I started with BB guns, then .22s, then pistols, and the shotguns. My grandfather had a nice piece of property down in Hague, VA, and it was just unbelievable. We could go down there and fish, shoot, and ride motorcycles.
It was the best part of my childhood. Shooting was always a part of it. I can’t remember a time in my life where I haven’t shot guns.
John: Do you hunt or are you just a target shooter?
Chad Dukes : I have hunted. I have a huge respect for hunters. I am very pro hunting. I just have never gotten into it. I think you kind of need to be indoctrinated into it as a young person. I have gone out and shot and sat in blinds, but I never have had the opportunity to make a kill. There is just something about the whole process where I have had difficulty with it.
I am very pro hunting, and I love the skill it takes to hunt. I have a great appreciation for it, but the actual process of field dressing I never gotten comfortable with it. I might be able to it, but I am just busy. I haven’t been able to devote the time to it.
I don’t want to be one of those guys that shoots a deer and drops it off some place and has it cleaned up. I want to go through the process, and use all of it. It is just a way to show respect. That is a convoluted way of saying, “no I don’t hunt right now.”
John: A lot of celebrities shy away from talking about guns, but you don’t. Do you think that their fear of embracing firearms is legit and can hurt their careers, or do you think that it is over blown?
Chad Dukes : It can absolutely hurt your career. Hollywood leans very left. We all know that. If you come out as someone that has conservative ideologies or as a gun owner at a bare minimum you are going to be excoriated by the press and your peers. The worst case scenario you are going have trouble getting work.
If you are Mark Wahlberg you can rise above it because you are Mark Wahlberg, but if you are Kid Rock or Nugent you get immediately filed away as a right wing wacko. If I was an actor it would be very difficult to come out and talk about my enjoyment of firearms, or that fact I am an owner and collector.
Does it hurt them? Yeah. Do they hide it? Yeah. I understand why they do it, and it is a sad thing.
John: You also support the second amendment. Why do you think the second amendment is so important?
Chad Dukes : It is one of the reason this country was founded. Self defense is a human right. It separates us from virtually every other nation in the world, and it is all about responsibility. I am a big proponent of person accountability and responsibility.
Basically trying to help yourself before looking to others to help you. The second amendment embodies all of that and it needs to be protected, and I do everything I can to do that in my personal life. I take all that very seriously.
It embodies everything that I love about being an American. That sounds dramatic, but it is also the truth.
John: What is your favorite gun that you own and which gun don’t you own that you want?
Chad Dukes : I recently got a SCAR. That was my white whale for awhile. They are tough to find. I got it in .308. It is great.
My favorite gun that I own is my Glock 40 10mm. For whatever reason I shoot that better than I shoot .45 or 9mm. It is a Glock so no one is going to confuse it with a Kimber or Sig. I got some of those too, but that is probably my favorite because I shoot it the best. I take pride in that.
Kimber has a new revolver out [K6]. It looks sexy. It looks like a Porsche. I would love to get my hands on that thing.
John: You are a big movie buff. What is your favorite firearm from any movie?
Chad Dukes : I bought the stupid Beretta Storm .45 because Leonardo Dicaprio used it in “Inception”. I am not above buying a gun because it looks cool in a movie.
I would probably have to say the lever action that Arnold uses in in “Terminator 2” is top 5. Anything from Tombstone. I am just a sucker for Tombstone, or anything out of the old west I am a big fan of. The minigun from Predator. How could you not want to shoot an abandon car with one of those?
John: Best movie villain ever?
Chad Dukes : That is so difficult. I am a villain guy. Antwon Sugar from “No Country For Old Men.” One that is really underrated is Simon Gruber from “Die Hard With Vengeance”. Everybody always thinks of Alan Rickman in the first one, but Jeremy Irons in Die Hard 3 is delectably evil.
I would say Daniel Plainview from “There Will Be Blood”, playing the protagonist and the antagonist, would be on the list. Bruce the shark from Jaws. Does that count? Jaws is my favorite movie.
I got it. Done deal. Bill The Butcher (William Poole) from “Gangs Of New York.” Just one of the greatest roles in the history of cinema. I love that guy.
John: Any future projects coming up?
Chad Dukes : I have nothing, but future projects. I have a couple of live shows at the end of August for “Big O And Dukes” and “The RodKast”. I am doing stand up with Good Old JR (Jim Ross) from the WWE at the DC Improv. I am also opening a vinyl shop. I have way too much going on.
John: Final question. What three guns would you want in a zombie apocalypse?
Chad Dukes : I have a Keltec KSG which holds 12 shotgun shells. The problem is that it has the selector switch which I don’t like. If there was a swarm you wouldn’t want that. Probably a DP12. I don’t want to mess around it though.
I have a 12 gauge bull barrel that was my Grandfather’s that has never had 1 issue in 70 years of use. It is not for reloading purposes really if you are dealing with multiple targets. I feel it would be reliable.
Also my first pistol ever. A Glock 17. I feel like I shoot that well. I got the right ammo for it, and I have never had a problem with it.
When I am doing the zombie apocalypse thing I go with reilable over sexy usually.
- Chad Dukes can be heard on 106.7 The Fan in DC or at www.washington.cbslocal.com/category/shows/chad-dukes-vs-the-world/
- The Big O And Dukes show can be found at www.bigoanddukes.com
- The Rodkast can be found at www.rodkast.com
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on the history of the patriot movement and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss or at www.crumpy.com.