MJ Morning Show to end Feb. 17, 2012
There are certain days we all know will come along in our lives at some point. The only question is "when?" We now know the answer to the question of when the MJ Morning Show will air its final broadcast.
On Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, it was announced via social media sites Facebook and Twitter that the MJ Morning Show will come to an end on Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. This move would give MJ a lot more time to focus on his nationally-syndicated afternoon show "The Schnitt Show" and would allow him to spend more time with his family. He had been doing both the morning show and the afternoon show simultaneously for over 10 years.
Here is what was posted on MJ's Twitter feed:
“Let me be first to officially announce that Feb. 17 will be the last broadcast of "The MJ Morning Show." 18 great years! I can now focus 100% of my energy on the growing national footprint of "The Schnitt Show." This also lets me spend more time with my family!”There is no mention of what will happen to Fester, Froggy, Meredith, Hurricane, Dave the Dwarf, and the interns who help out on a regular basis.
UPDATE: On Friday, Jan. 20, the show was off the air as the crew apparently was "very emotional" about the news of the show's upcoming finale that they decided to take a three-day weekend and regroup. The crew will return live on Monday, Jan. 23 to discuss the news.
UPDATE 2: On Monday, Jan. 23, MJ discussed a few details about ending the show. The main reason is to give him more time to spend with his kids so that he can drive them to school in the morning and attend more school functions. He admitted that he didn't want to wake up one day and wish he had done more for his kids when they were young. He said the crew will bring back several former morning show members to reminisce about their time on the show. He also said there was no special significance to choosing Feb. 17 as the date for the final broadcast. In addition, each broadcast leading up to the final one will include short clips from some of the funniest and most memorable moments that have occurred throughout the program's history.
UPDATE 3: On Tuesday, Jan. 24, MJ talked about how in November 2009, he had strongly considered ending the MJ Morning Show at the end of that year. The station's "Jingle Ball" concert would have taken a special moment to recognize the crew. But he decided to keep doing the show primarily for the sake of the careers of the rest of the crew. In the summer of 2011, he had also thought about giving it up after the show was shortened and more music was added, but he kept at it.
MJ also talked about Hot 101.5, a competing radio station in Tampa that went on the air in July 2011 and continues to poke fun at MJ. He wasn't too thrilled with what the station was doing, but he said it made him feel much worse when other kids at Chloe's school were talking about it and she was having to defend her daddy. He recommended that people do not listen to Hot 101.5, especially because the station's new morning show host was a member of a show in Sacramento that indirectly killed a listener after she got water intoxication during a morning show contest called "Hold Your Wee for a Wii."
UPDATE 4: It is now official who will replace MJ, at least in Tampa. On Tuesday, Jan. 24, it was announced that "The Kane Show" out of Washington, D.C. will begin airing weekday mornings on 93.3 FLZ starting Monday, Feb. 20, 2012. Kane started at 93.3 FLZ as a night show host in 1998 and has been associated with the station on and off since then. Froggy 2 was an on-air member of his show for a few years before joining the MJ Morning Show in 2002. In 2004, Kane became the station's afternoon show host and has worked remotely from D.C. since then. Here is the official press release with more details about this move.
As of right now, there is no word on whether Kane's show will also air in Jacksonville or St. Louis. This officially means that Fester, Froggy, Hurricane, and Meredith will no longer be part of the morning team on the show's current stations.
We miss Froggy's creativity
In the fall of 2011, it was revealed on the show that Froggy would no longer be doing his prank calls. This meant no more Dementia Don, no more Rob Ripple, and no more Johnny Stankface. At the time, he was on a schedule of recording three new calls each week for about eight months.
Froggy has also done parody songs in the past, some of which have been funny with a lot of creative thought put into them. Many of these songs were about celebrities and included various audio clips and sound effects. A few years back, he recorded an entire "Frogawogs" album and made it available on iTunes. It was basically a take-off on kids songs.
I think I can speak for most MJ Morning Show fans when I say that "we" miss Froggy's creativity. We miss his more frequent contributions to the show, which have been dwindled down to only his commentary on the various topics MJ brings up each morning. It sure would be nice to hear more out of Froggy. It's really a shame management (apparently Tommy CHuck) took away some of his opportunities to be creative.
But Froggy should also step to the plate and come up with some new ideas for bits, such as parody songs or anything else that isn't a prank call since he can't do those anymore for whatever reason. How about some funny adio compliations? How about some parody songs poking fun at the Kardashians? The sky is the limit, and I hope this post will prompt some action out of Froggy and the rest of the show. With only three hours of a morning show these days, you'd think the crew would have more time to produce and execute more creative bits. Let's hear some!
