Madison Radio

Sounds like the changes on the morning show on WJJO are all made and settling in. Greg Bair is back with Johnny. Snuff is still on sports. Dee, The Biatch, is locked in on news.

And, I like it. It's a great combo of people. I always liked Johnny & Greg together. Good move on Hawke's part. Although, I will miss 93.1 The Lake.

Obviously, Tara Arnold is gone for good. Don't know if she's still at the station in any capacity. I highly doubt it. I'm guessing she's in California now doing TV or radio. Madison was too 'small town' for her. Nothing personal against her, but, she, to me, never quite fit well with Johnny. She was just too nice. And, she wouldn't allow herself to utter the word, Fart. That's just not right. I do wish her well in her next adventure. Surely, it's been one for her putting in almost 2 years with Johnny. Johnny needs a real strong female foil. Dee, without a doubt, is just that.

As for Dee, she's awesome. She is quickly becoming my all time favorite female radio person. She's quick, crude, bright and hilarious. Plus, I really dig what she's done with the news. I like the little music and other odds and ends drop-ins she uses. Very cool stuff.

So, welcome back Greg. Welcome aboard Biatch. I hope you stick around. Or, management lets you. It's a real good thing going there now.

What happened to 93.1 The Lake? If you don't like hip hop, don't even bother tuning in. It's painful.

Gotta give Johnny Danger and the morning crew at WJJO a standing ovation today for reading, in it's entirety, The 22 Worst Place Names In The World. Unedited. Now, in todays paranoid, xtian conservative and sue-happy America, it takes a lot of balls to read this list. Especially #2.
I must say, I don't think I've ever laughed harder at a radio bit. Thanks gang. I needed that laugh, too.

So, how many of you Mary Carol fans listened to country music radio for the first time in a long time - or ever - this morning?

I did. And what a surprise to find that she's co-hosting with my acquaintence Jason Stephens. He used to do the morning show at 93.1 The Lake, got moved to mid-days and now is there with Mary. This was their third day together and I gotta say, they sound GREAT together. Whomever had the idea to put them together is a smart cookie. They will flourish there. I can tell just by one mornings listen that Mary is SO much happier there. Seems to me that country music is more her thing than hard rock. I've yet to acclimate Jason with country music but it'll come.

The one thing that was a bit disturbing about what I heard though was the unbelievable amount of commercials in an hours time. It's quite overwhelming. One song, two minutes of Mary and Jason, 5+ minutes of commercials, repeat. But, tis a sign-o-the-times. Sell sell sell. Music is secondary. A distraction from the commercials.

Of course, it's for that exact attitude that I'm no longer working on the air in the business. And I'm much happier for it.

So, Mary, Jason, I wish you the best with the new show. And, what's nice is, even though I'm not a big country music fan, I'll take truck-pulls, maintenence men wanting high maintenence women, hicktowns and constant proselytizing of Christianity over three power chord machismo, hatred, going home and getting stoned 'cause the sex is better when she's mad music, anyday.

Ok, finally got in touch with Mary.

Surprise surprise. She's down the hall at JJO's sister station Q106, (106.3 FM) hosting the morning show. That rocks. Ok, it twangs being it's country music but I'm sure Mary likes playing that music much better than shitty Godsmack and Hinder.

Congrats Mary!

(If you didn't see where this started, see May 4th, 2007)

Alright, on more thought, perhaps what I wrote about Johnny and Snuff on WJJO was rather snide. I don't mean to be that way. I don't know Snuff for shit, but I do respect John as a broadcaster. I gotta give him plenty credit. He's managed to hold onto a morning show slot for what, 10 years now? That's a record in my book. And, knowing people who know him, and having met him myself, he's not the bully jock he comes off as on the radio. Just as I'm not the burned out hippie I come off as on the radio. (Ok, that may be stretching it, but still. . .)
Guess I was just pissed. I thought the chemistry with Mary Carol there was very cool. It changed drastically when Greg left but the two of 'em managed to keep me interested. Then Snuff arrived. For the first few weeks I couldn't hear a damn thing he said. I don't know if it was commanded of him to stay 3 feet away from the mic, but it sure sounded like it. Since Mary's left, he's now in front of the mic and other than the incessant 'dude' thing, I like him. But - and there's always a but - with two cats like that, they need a female counterpoint in there.
Now, the woman who fills in for Ben Larson when he's gone, and shit, I'm spacing her name off right now, I hear she's looking for a full time gig. And having heard her on the show plenty of times, I think she'd work quite well. AH! Tara Arnold! There it is. She's not Mary, but, no one is. So there's my vote for Tara.

Just felt like clearing that up. And I know it don't mean shit to anyone other than those near the Madison radio market. I just got real comfortable with the people there as they were and was just shook up at such a drastic change in personel. Kind of a kin thing. Y'know?

Mary Carol has been off the morning show at WJJO for two weeks now and it's become obvious that she's not coming back. Johnny said one morning that she "quit the show to search for greener pastures." Given that the production guy is very slowly replacing all the show sweepers to something that doesn't mention her name, it's locked. She's gone.

And, that sucks. It was because of her distinct points of view that I even listened to the show. Ya got Johnny who, although he's surely not that way in real life, comes off as the bully jock mostly. And the cat that replaced Greg, Kid Snuff, every tenth word out of his mouth is "dude". Now, I say dude. But not in every fucking sentence.

I guess I saw this coming. In the last two weeks that Mary was on the show, Johnny had been rather mean and condescending toward her. (or was it always that way?) I can imagine that she just finally got fed up with being treated like shit and told that her opinions didn't matter. There were times where I got pissed off at the horrible treatment she got.

Ultimately, I'm writing about this because being a radio guy, I hate to see the good ones disappear. I want to know what station she's going to next. Will it be in Madison? Will she give up on radio altogether? I hope not. She's good. I'd rather hear her doing her own show though.

So, if perchance Mary Carol stumbles onto this post, please put a comment to let me know where you're going. You are missed on the radio already.

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Ok, now we're talkin'. The migration to Paul's server is just about done. After a superbig hassle by the previous webhost, we got the sql database backup and got it imported. Well, I should say PAUL did that. I tried but failed. So I would figure by tomorrow you should be seeing everything from the new and gracious host. And that rocks.