Back in the early '80’s, we had Ron Clay & Terry Minors on a Louisville, KY classic rock/metal station- now that was in the early days of morning shock radio & here in the Midwest, they were outrageous enough… a lot of what would now be considered homophobic humor (their skit “Fagnet” with “Sgt Ben Dover & Lt Phil McCrevice” did make me spew my toothpaste as I was doing my morning washing), a horridly hilarious modern day Leave It To Beaver, etc. Eventually, Terry married, had kids, became a bit more religious, cleaned up his act & parted ways with Ron. He’s now the afternoon guy on Louisville’s main talk/news station & it reasonably funny. Ron Clay got a new crew & went on till his death of cancer a few years back.
No real local “Zoo Crews” have arisen AFAIK. I now usually listen to another talk station on my morning drive FROM work so I can listen to William Bennett, then when I get home, it’s Imus on MSNBC.
I saw her broadcasting live once and, during one of the many, many ads she admitted she finds herself giving the time at least once a minute even when she’s asleep. That was many years ago and I’m sure she’s gone completely insane by now.
I have two NPR stations in range of my commute (Chicago and DeKalb) and they rarely synch their pledge drives and the DeKalb one plays Marketplace an hour earlier, so I get to hear it, and, at least until recently, This American Life a week later, in case I missed it. My radio rarely needs to stray.
Do Jamie and Danny still do the morning show for Star 98.7 in Los Angeles? I used to really enjoy the show because they were just so goddamned mean. Then I didn’t commute in the morning for some tme, then I tuned in and heard that Jamie was pregnant (!) and then I saw Danny had that fucked up show on Vh1, and then I moved, so now I’m curious…
Wanna bet?
Been there, done that, hated every second of it. Bought an XM receiver so I didn’t have to listen to any morning drive-time shows. But I still put M&B ahead of anybody else in LA. YMMV, obviously.
You missed the most pertinent point: it wasn’t just a current event, but a bizarre, morbid or macabre event (i.e., “man cuts off his penis and eats it in a stir fry”). The theory being that all such happenings happen in either Germany or Florida. Intellectually, you know that can’t be true, but it was amazing how many stories you could find of something weird that happened in one of the two locales. Definitely one of the highlights of the show. Good times.
I too miss Adam on Loveline. I download the podcasts of his morning show, so I can scroll through the bad parts. Adam’s too funny not to get off a good line/rant once in a while, but the show overall is very hit or miss. And too derivative of the formula everyone here is (rightly) lambasting. He always bagged on drive-time radio hosts on LL, but when he got his own show he didn’t really come up with anything original. Disappointing.
And since we’ve broached the topic: Loveline isn’t worth listening too now (unless you’ve got crazy problems). The guy who replaced Adam (Stryker?) just comes across as a prick. He thinks he’s way funnier than he actually is.
Back to the OP subject: what I wonder is, what the hell is wrong with just playing music in the mornings? Why the need for three hours of slack-jawed yakking while you’re on your way to work? Since when is this the “must be” format for morning radio? I don’t see that it is–which is why it’s usually CDs or the classical station for me.
I remember those “Mad Dog and Billie” ads. Billie was the absolute dictionary definition of an ugly woman in her 40s trying to look like she was pretty and 22 and failing big time at both. The Mad Dog guy was basically a retard.
What I find interesting in that in my travels I’ve heard some of the teams people in the thread say are not that bad. Actually, they all suck.
Not only did I date a Leisure Suit, but he was so incredibly hot that I’m still kinda speechless over the whole experience. He wasn’t with them for long. He said Johnny’s a prick, too! (Of course, Johnny fired him, so his opinion may be a bit skewed.) And then after 3 years, my Leisure Suit fired me. (I shall never recover from that.)
Heard about the S&G thing. Rock on! Teen-age Radiation, baby!!!
Well, I have NPR on all the time so I’ll agree with you that it is great stuff, but I found an eclecticism in CBC’s programming that seems to have been ironed out of NPR here. Plus, whenever I’m in Canada I like to get that different perspective of US politics. Ditto when my local NPR station broadcasts BBC.
Danny was fired for being a drunk asshole. Jamie still does the show with Jack and Stench, and now its called “Jamie Jack and Stench”. Only occasionally funny.
The only decent local show in LA is Joe Escalante (of the punk group the Vandals) on 103.1. Joe is very bright, has a law degree to go along with his punk rock creds, doesn’t try to be funny, plays great music and interviews great guests. Not as good as Dicky Barrett (from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones) who used to be on the station, but head and shoulders above the rest of the dial. (Dicky was fired for unknown reasons – but damn he had a great show.)
There was a very funny exchange on WFLN 95.7 the Philly classical music station during morning drive time. Can’t remember the guy’s name but he was a meteorologist who gave the weather report, and described an arrangement of lows and fronts leading to “back side air flow”. The morning guy commented that the same condition may be the result of excess broccoli consumption. Even classical stations have potty humor.
When I was commuting an hour each way to work in the mornings, I would listen to The Monsters in the Morning, an Orlando-area staple – a zoo crew with “Triple R” Russ Rollins (never figured out where the third “R” came from), Dirty Jim, Bubba “Whoopass” Wilson, Daniel, Black Bean, Drunky the Bear, and the Sexy Savannah (who thankfully left and was replaced by Tiffany, who was supposedly hot but never funny). Then one day, in what alcoholics refer to as a “moment of clarity,” I realized they weren’t that entertaining, and now I can hardly tolerate them. They have moments where they’re hilarious, but they are few and far between. Still, the Monsters are far better than the majority of local morning shows around here.
I always had a soft spot in my heart (head?) for Smith & Barber in them Morning on WPLR out of Connecticut. They worked together for years, they’re not complete idiots, and they didn’t necessarily have to go “blue” to be funny. Now I see they’ve been replaced by “Chaz & AJ in the Morning,” and I shudder to think what that might be like. Of course, my friend Billy always insisted that WPLR stood for “We Play Lame Records,” but I disagreed.
People like Bubba the Love Sponge? Idiots, pure & simple. Drek.
In Florida, the Ron and Ron Show (’86 -’97) starring Ron Bennington and Ron Diaz was hilarious. I was bummed when that show ended and just recently learned that Ron Bennington and “Fez” Whatley (an R&R alumnus) have had a morning show for a number of years. IMHO, Philadelphia born Bennington (sounds just like Joe Pesci) is as quick, sharp and funny as they come. I’m anxious to hear if the Ron and Fez Show is as funny as the old Ron and Ron Show.
I like the Walton and Johnson show. It’s carried on a lot of FM stations down along the Gulf Coast (5:30 am to 10:00 am, weekdays). Worth a listen if you’re in the area. As Walton and Johnson themselves put it, “We suck less” (than their competition).
Another vote for Bob and Tom. A couple years back they included podcasting as part of the subscription, commercial-free. Haven’t missed a single show since. I love the chemistry they have.
As far as local guys? We have The Big Dogz. An over the hill hippie poseur and a fat geek consantly seeking approval. The only guest of note they have is Bob Zany (who’s weekly subissions work better on B&T anway since they’re actually funny). The rest of it is lame games and potshots with those stupid pre-recorded cartoonish chuckles. I thought of the first 30 people I know that came to mind and can honestly say I don’t know one that listens to them. Of course, B&T are carried on a Fargo station that most people can get. So that says something. God, I hate those two idiots.
In Milwaukee I always got a kick out of Bob & Brian. Are they still on the air? You Can’t Win was always entertaining.
In the Miami area there’s a morning show, Paul and Young Ron, who also do a bit called “You Can’t Win” where they ask a series of extremely difficult trivia questions. Is that the same thing in Milwaukee?
Dude, how did you miss Ronnie and Fez Marie? They were in NYC backing up Opie & Anthony at WNEW until O&A blew up their spot, then CBS sent them to Washington for a while until O&A hired them to come to satellite.
They’re doing 12-3 east coast, which is the death slot, but that’s 9-12 on the west coast, so they’re mid-mornings for half the country.
The show’s great. Fez had a heart attack a few months ago (which was mostly Opie’s fault) but he’s recovered nicely and with football season starting, I’m looking forward to Fez bailing on bets.
I can only assume they used the same unknown trivia. I made the mistake of moving to ND in 1994, so other than runs through Milwaukee when I was OTR, I really haven’t heard the show in over a decade. I do remember way back then one of the questions was the name of the guy buried in his Corvette in Pennsylvania (?).
Other questions weren’t so obvious to non-family members and the “game” sometimes took months and months to get a winner. Keep in mind, this was before the days of Google. To have a shot of winning, you had to be pretty dogged in finding obscure references.
(I shall never recover from that.)