Every time my roommate relates a story to me from the morning radio shows, it’s always something I read on Fark two days earlier. Fark must be the morning dj’s dream - all the crazy stories for a broadcast in one place!
I dunno, I thought is was pretty funny when Steve Inskeep told that story about having to pull over at an Arby’s on the way to work to take a dump, and then Renee Montagne prank-called Bob Edwards, prentending to be a collection agent for his overdue phone-sex bills.
I was a morning show DJ once, and hopefully will be again this year. I thought we were pretty good (so our phone calls said, anyway), but we were definitely more music focused. And commercial free, which people seemed to like. But, yes, for the most part, morning DJs are unbearable. That was one of the reasons my buddy and I started a morning show, because the ones on the “big” local station (Bob & Sherri, awful stuff) blew so hard. I think even they are more bearable than Steve & DC, though, which are even more exactly befitting to the OP’s description. Right down to the female third wheel. I want my radio show back in the morning.
Kal, you’re so highbrow! 
I’ve got Jonathon Brandmeier back in the morning and I’m happy as a pig in shit. WLUP all day, every day. Where ELSE can I get all the Guns N Roses I want? 
I know - I should grow up.
There is one of my radio pre-set stations that absolutely must be avoided in the morning. They have the same lame-ass not-funny show as anyone else, but apparently they really slay themselves because they laugh twice as long. I can only handle a very limited amount of “HahahahahaHahahahahahaHaha” in the mornings…well, no. Actually I can not handle any of it.
Audio books. Sweet, sweet audio books.
When I was living in Utah, the morning DJs were pretty tolerable on X96 (who billed themselves as the last indie radio station in a world of homogenized radio, but were owned by Citadel IIRC.)
Then I moved to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. All the radio here, regardless of the time of day, sucks rancid donkey smegma, except for NPR. Even the local classical music station is a platform for neo-con crapola.
I forgot to add: it seems like 4 out of 5 * morning shows around here feature a DJ with an incredibly annoying, longtime smoker’s phlegmmy laugh, like he’s about to cough up a lung. Just hearing that makes me want to hurl. I never could understand how these shows’ producers can justify their shows - they seem to be designed to make listeners switch away.
- I’m not sure this figure is accurate. The actual ratio may be twice as high.
I think comediene Bill Dwyer summed it up best…
“Every city I go to has the same morning radio shows. Two guys with nicknames and a female without. ‘It’s the morning zoo with Johnny Applespeed, Monkeyboy, and Claire!’”
I used to catch a few minutes of Morning Sedition on my way to work before it got canceled. Now the local Air America outlet has dug up some in-town braying jackass and a simpering girl sidekick. Man, I miss Marc and Mark.
Crank Yankers was really hit or miss, but the “Boomer and the Noodge” morning show calls were an absolute spot on parody of morning shows, as are the morning guys on the Simpsons, whatever their names are.
I know, and I’m freakin’ jealous. I miss KNOW like crazy and I just found the KQRS morning show on iTunes. I would kill to go back to St. Paul and work for American Public Media.
Robin
I kinda like “Bob And Tom”, a nationally sydicated morning show, expecially when they have a good comedian on as a guest. They do laugh too much at their own jokes, though, and that can be annoying.
My morning commute is accompanied by either NPR or Howard Stern. Sirius is worth it.
O&A are better than the typical morning “zoo crew,” but it still sounds too typical-morning-show-ish for my tastes.
Now THAT is comedy!
I’d be very curious to hear what station the OP was listening to when in LA. The only morning show that even occasionally strikes me as funny out here is Kevin & Bean on KROQ. They are definitely hit and miss, but hey, that’s better than most of the competition.
I generally stick to NPR or my CDs.
All I can say is: long live satellite radio. I love it and will never, ever go back to listening to FM radio.
I don’t know when they are on but Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington on XFM are worth a listen.
Bill and Marty, KBBL.
Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN radio have a good sports program with a decent amount of light humor. I listen to them and NPR during the AM Drive.
Mike & Mike are in a lot of markets, I do not know about LA.
Morning DJ’s on music stations should just shut up and spin the discs. I never would have went to sports talk and NPR if they did this simple trick. When I want music in the morning, I play a CD of MP3s.
Jim
Dick Purtan (WOMC 104.3 Detroit) was doing the morning talk on a Rock station about 15 - 20 years before all the “zoos” popped up. He was always hilarious and when I have made it back to Detroit in recent years, it seems he still has his edge (after 40+ years in the business). (I don’t get to hear him daily, so I cannot claim that he is still consistently good.)
I listen to Bob and Tom maybe twice a month, and like them at that dose. It’s easy to OD on them though. They do have some great comedians on.