Three years ago, MTV plucked Californian Carson Daly from radio and moved him to the Big Apple, handed him a studio overlooking Times Square and charged him with reviving the network's sagging ratings. Daly's first days in New York were spent "talking to executives about the plan for making MTV cool again. We were at our worst." Daly and the MTV brass ("the young hip suits," he says, "even if they're not wearing suits") hit upon the formula of playing audience-requested videos and featuring celebrity drop-ins--amplified by all that street noise. It worked. The cable network's ratings surged.

Contributing Editor Warren Kalbacker and Daly recently watched from the studio as the barricades that control the crowds of teenagers who assemble outside for his broadcasts were dismantled and evening rush hour traffic clogged Broadway.

Kalbacker reports, "Despite the day-old stubble, earring and black leather jacket, Daly comes across as a wholesome guy. He's also a true broadcasting professional who likes to talk about audience demographics. He insists his viewers aren't exclusively the teens represented by the throng in the street below. Plenty of 20-somethings tune in, he says, and so do his father and his friends. 'They might not like the videos, because they're like 60 years old or whatever. But when we're on with Bill Murray or Madonna, they get into it a little.'"

Q 1

PLAYBOY: Care to analyze the current status of sex, drugs and rock and roll?

Carson Daly: Sex, drugs and rock and roll are why most people get into this business. Most guys in bands who have tons of sex, drugs and rock and roll weren't getting any in high school. But I don't think it's anywhere near what it used to be. Pop culture and music in general now are in a much cleaner, safer environment. With AIDS, sex can kill you. And the drugs have gotten so strong. We're not talking about a hallucinogenic that enhances cool writing. These drugs are ruining the music, screwing up the whole point, which is for a band to play live and connect with fans. A lot of my favorite artists from the early Nineties are in rehab. No one was more bombed than Scott Weiland. Stone Temple Pilots had to cancel a lot of tours. I'm a huge fan of theirs. I'm one of the rare people who didn't get into the business for sex or drugs, only for the rock and roll. I was a total geek. I was a golf fanatic. I really just wanted to have a nonnormal job. I wasn't motivated by whether I could get laid.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: You debuted on air as a disc jockey. Tell us tales of Carson Daly's radio days.

Carson Daly: It was a party every night. I got so many weird phone calls. The big thing when you're a DJ is that when a girl calls, you try to hit on her if she has a sexy voice. We had a poster of this really unattractive, disgusting woman holding a phone. The caption said, "This is who you're talking to right now."

I turned down a lot of opportunities. Most people in radio are desperate. A lot of them are losers. I was socially OK. I had tons of girlfriends and guy friends. I didn't really need my job to hook up. If you're drug free and you show up to do your shift every day, you're a god in radio. You'll be program director. That's why I moved up so fast. I got a job at KROQ in LA when I was 22. The job of disc jockey changed in the early Nineties, when grunge became popular. It represented angst. It wasn't the big, big voice. It was a normal dorky voice. I never went to broadcasting school. For four hours every night I invited my friends to the studio. I never scripted anything. I'd invite listeners up. I did a lot of contests. You get a tattoo guy to come in. Hey, 20th caller, you get a tattoo. I did a lot of piercings on the air. I had my nose pierced. MTV made me take the stud out. The hole is still there. I feel like poking through it again.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Are you concerned about the care and feeding of the screaming 14- and 15-year-old kids who wait patiently on the street in front of your studio?

Carson Daly: When it rains, or when it's really cold in the winter, we'll bring in as many as we can legally. Why are they all out there? I don't know what's the attraction, especially on a day when we don't have a Madonna, a Jim Carrey, an Adam Sandler or somebody else they'd like to see. Unlike Today or Good Morning America, they don't get the best view. They can't even hear the show. Maybe it's just routine now. If they're in the area and can get down here, they know that every day at 3:30 there's a possibility of being on MTV. So they come down here with odd signs and gimmicks. Maybe young people today don't have a lot of things that are constant. Parents are divorced. Kids are doing some pretty whacked stuff. It's my job to entertain them for a bit. I'm still curious why they line up.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: World-class peep shows and porn theaters dominated Times Square not so long ago. Can we pin their loss on MTV?

Carson Daly: Times Square does have a Disneyland feel to it now. But we thought it would be a good place to broadcast. We started it. ABC just came in. So did the ESPN Zone. The WWF theme restaurant came in after we did. This is a safe area now. If you're upset about not getting hookers and drugs, you can blame us. But there are other places you can go.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: The school day ends at three o'clock. Total Request Live airs half an hour later, and young fans queue up early in the day. You wouldn't suspect at least a few are cutting classes?

Carson Daly: I'm sure they are. I used to ditch school myself, to go to the beach or hang out with my friends. If they are cutting school, you know, what can you say? What parents wouldn't have missed school to get as close as they could to the Beatles? Today they're coming down to TRL to catch a glimpse of the Backstreet Boys. Pretty decent reason to ditch. I would like to bring up 40 students who ditched--we've had that happen before--and call the school and get the principal on the phone. "Mr. So and So, this is Carson on MTV. I just want you to know, I have your kids. They're safe. They'll make up the time. We have a really cool Rage Against the Machine world premiere. It's socially aware. And they're going to hang out with me. No problem."