Greg Lindberg

We all know that MJ has been quite successful in his radio career. Now spanning 41 years since he first cracked a microphone in a broadcast studio at age 16, he has worked in New York City twice, Los Angeles, and Tampa Bay, all of which are major radio markets. In addition, his afternoon show has been on the air for over 20 years with syndication to dozens of radio stations around the country over that timeframe. Of course, the MJ Morning Show (and former MJ & BJ Morning Show) was also syndicated to big markets like Jacksonville, Atlanta, and St. Louis.

Throughout his success, MJ has kept a tight lid on how much money he has made in his career. He has mentioned that the Crotchety Old Man prank call CDs netted him a nice chunk of change, going toward the house he built and still lives in. But he has also openly disputed what the Celebrity Net Worth site says about his overall net worth. Surprisingly, he recently revealed a handful of salary figures he has earned at previous points in his career. This discussion cropped up on the show when a listener commented on one of his Instagram photos of he and Michelle, claiming his wife only married him for the money. Here is a recap of those figures:

• At 97 Star in the Virginia Beach, VA area, he took home just $17,500 per year. This would have been in the late 1980s.
• He was hired to work at Pirate Radio as a producer on its morning show in Los Angeles where he worked from 1989 to 1991. During this gig, he earned $50,000 annually.
• In 1992, WOVV-FM in West Palm Beach, FL brought him on board where he would host his first morning show. His salary for that role? $42,500 per year.
• Fast-forwarding to early 1994, 93.3 WFLZ-FM, a.k.a. “The Power Pig,” hired him to come to Tampa where he would team up with BJ to form the MJ & BJ Morning Show. His starting salary there was $55,000.

We may never know what he has earned since the mid-1990s, but clearly there has been a major shift in the radio industry with a shrinking number of job opportunities and far less pay than radio personalities used to make. Because of this, it is pretty obvious that MJ and the entire crew are doing the current incarnation of the MJ Morning Show because of their passion for being part of an ensemble morning radio program. In addition, they each have other forms of income streams.

Just a few days into 2023, Fester experienced another bout of symptoms of his myasthenia gravis (MG), an autoimmune disorder that affects the muscles.

Fester first learned that he had MG back in the summer of 2011 during the first run of the MJ Morning Show. He was in the hospital for several weeks, including over two weeks in the ICU. His main symptoms were a drooping face and fatigue.

His symptoms dramatically improved and essentially went into remission for a long time until about 2019. When he was in Detroit for an RV trade show representing General RV, he had another flareup of symptoms. However, it doesn’t sound like they lasted quite as long.

Then came January of 2023. His symptoms began with abdominal pain and even some chest pain. He later realized that it was his MG rearing its ugly head once again. He came in to do the morning show on a Monday, but the following morning, he was taking an Uber ride to the emergency room at Tampa General Hospital. He spent five days in the hospital and received IV treatments to help reduce the symptoms. While there, MJ and the crew called him every single morning to check on his status and progress. His voice did not hold up for more than a minute or two, and he would start slurring his speech from talking for just this short amount of time.
Following his hospital stay, he came in to do the morning show for one day, but he quickly learned it was too much for him to handle in terms of stamina. In fact, a brigade of men had to be called into the radio station building to help carry him down the stairs because the elevator was out of service. So, he then spent about two weeks doing the show remotely from his house. He used a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet computer provided by Don the IT Guy to connect to the rest of the crew and contribute as much as he could. While at home, MJ would poke fun at some of the mouth noises he was making and the sound of his kids getting ready for school while the microphone on his tablet was “hot.” Apparently, he did not have a “mute” button.

Fester made his triumphant return to the MJ Morning Show/Q105 studio for good on Monday, February 6. The good news is that he seems to be mostly back to normal in terms of his speech and energy levels, at least from what we can ascertain as listeners. Let’s hope he can go another several years before having the next bout of this frustrating condition.

It’s also worth noting that MJ actually brought up an interesting observation. He mentioned that around 2003, he experienced about three months of extreme fatigue and low energy. His doctor attributed it to thyroiditis, a rare condition. He also mentioned that several other employees at the old radio station complex on Gandy Boulevard in Tampa where the MJ Morning Show crew worked from 1994 through 2012 had experienced some odd health conditions. One example that comes to mind is Froggy 1 (real name Scott Langley), who preceded the current Froggy, came down with acromegaly around 2010. Plus, the show’s longtime newsman, Martin Giles, experienced some neurological issues toward the end of the first run of the show and even had trouble giving his news updates at times on the air. Additionally, Mary the Bull-Dyke (who gave herself that nickname) passed away of cancer at a fairly young age a few years after the show ended. Other personalities from that building who died of somewhat rare health conditions at relatively young ages included Dave Reinhart, Steve “The Big Dog” Duemig, and Chris Thomas. MJ also mentioned that several individuals who had worked out of those studios wound up having autistic children. We can only speculate as to the potential factors at play here.

The year 2022 was the third calendar year in which the second incarnation of the MJ Morning Show was on the air since returning to terrestrial radio in October of 2020. And it was certainly an eventful 12 months for the crew and its program.

Early in the year, we were introduced to Shorty Shane, a 3-foot, 5-inch little person with a huge social media following. MJ met him at a restaurant in St. Petersburg and invited him to come into the studio. This caused some jealousy on the part of Dave the Dwarf, the longtime little person on the show since the late 1990s, who thought Shane was invading on his space. However, MJ made it clear that both men could coexist on the show. The difference is that Shorty Shane is over 20 years younger and in much better health than Dave.

Shorty Shane’s first big stunt on the show was when Fester took him to a local laundromat and put him in a dryer to shoot a video. This brought on a huge to-do between the Beasley Media Group leadership team and the laundromat owner, as well as a visit from the police.

In May, Kyle “Coop” Cooper bid farewell to the MJ Morning Show, signaling the first major staff change on the program. The young producer said he was no longer excited to work in radio, especially with his early hours of working on a morning radio show. He decided to take a desk job in the technology industry. Casey, a part-time producer at the Beasley complex, was brought in to fill Coop’s shoes. Unfortunately, he only lasted two days on the show before quitting. Ultimately, one of MJ’s producers for The Schnitt Show named Andrew became the permanent replacement and has managed to stick it out in the producer’s booth.

Also in the springtime, the show began a new format with more talk time and less music. This included a “long chunk of the MJ Morning Show.” This segment of the program runs from about 7:20 to 8:40 a.m. each morning with no interruptions. Such a segment is unheard of in radio these days, and it is certainly a unique selling point of the Q105 morning show. It also harkens back to the later years of the old MJ Morning Show when most of the 7 a.m. hour was entirely talk time.

In August, MJ and the crew unveiled their first-ever “Tablet Tag” contest. They partnered with Team Logic IT, a sponsor of the show, to give away 20 Microsoft Surface Pro tablets. They then brought the same contest back in November to give out another 20 of the popular portable computers. Listeners had to be a certain number caller and identify the name of the previous winner, hence the “tag” name. The contest proved to be wildly successful as the show was inundated with phone calls and new listeners.

This year, we also saw the “retirement” of DJ Skrizzle, a character Froggy had played in which he would play a recorded song about something controversial on the show and then perform a stunt in the studio. Froggy claimed his body has reached an age where it can no longer handle these physically harmful skits. However, he did introduce “Eight Bit Hit,” “Back That Song Up,” and some other game shows involving interaction with callers under the name Hal Herman.

The year would not have been complete without coverage of two tropical weather systems. In September, it was Hurricane Ian that tore through southwest Florida and caused significant damage south of the Tampa Bay area. In November, Tropical Storm Nicole made a rare, late-season appearance. Longtime meteorologist Denis Phillips was a tremendous resource to the MJ Morning Show, spending over an hour with MJ on the phone several times. It was Nicole that actually brought on a power outage to the Q105 transmitter and the backup power source during the morning show, taking down the 104.7 FM signal completely. As a result, the crew got to only stream a good portion of the show one morning and were able to perform in an uncensored environment. Of course, this included plenty of complaining from MJ.

To close out the year, MJ made a big deal about his contract being up on December 31, 2022. His biggest beef during his Q105 tenure is the size of the studio. He also is unhappy with the fact that the crew members have no line of sight with each other because of how it is set up and how hot it always is. He indicated that he was presented with a new contract offer by Ron “DeCastrate” DeCastro, the new market manager for Beasley’s Tampa Bay radio stations. The contract included the promise of a new studio by the end of Q2 of 2023, but he did not specify the length of the actual contract. Before leaving for vacation, MJ apparently had not signed the new contract. We will have to wait and see whether he does return in January, something that is a high likelihood in spite of the bit he has made out of the situation.

On the morning of Thursday, November 10, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Nicole began making her way through Florida and the Tampa Bay area. Because of the strong winds, the Q105 WRBQ-FM transmitter that carries the terrestrial signal of the radio station went down for about two hours. It just so happened to occur in the midst of the MJ Morning Show from about 7:35 a.m. to 9:35 a.m. ET, a timeframe that includes the “long chunk of the MJ Morning Show” from about 7:20 to 8:40.

The crew first noticed a flashing “police light” in the studio that flashes to indicate that the station is off the air. The broadcast went down for about 10 seconds initially before coming back. This is when the backup diesel generator kicked in. However, just a few minutes later, the backup generator went down as well. Plus, for about 30 minutes, listeners calling into the program who were able to stream the show online were hearing a delayed replay of the show when they spoke to the crew. Roxanne and Froggy discovered that Fester had pulled up the MJTV YouTube stream on the computer in the studio. It was the delayed audio from this stream that listeners were hearing down the phone line.

It was a rare instance in which MJ clearly sounded despondent, depressed, and extremely frustrated deep down inside. We rarely ever hear him display this tone on the air, and he made it clear that when a radio station transmitter goes down, it is the worst feeling in the world for a broadcaster, especially during a weather event like a tropical storm when he delivers lots of info about what’s going on. He then said this could be the straw the breaks the camel’s back in terms of his decision on whether to re-sign for a new contract with the Beasley Media Group next month. On a brighter note, Fester, Froggy, and Roxanne tried to lighten the mood by making some corny jokes and also reminding MJ about the numerous streams people can tune into to hear the program. They can listen on the Q105 website and app, iHeartRadio app, TuneIn Radio app, Audacy app, as well as using smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Plus, MJTV has become a popular option to both listen to and watch the crew do the show on a live video stream on YouTube. With no FCC rules in place for an Internet stream, MJ dropped two “s-bombs,” and a caller named Carl even snuck in an “f-bomb.” In spite of these reminders and the large amount of phone calls and texts the show received about how loose the crew was during this timeframe, MJ was still clearly disgusted by the whole thing.

Thankfully with about 10 minutes to spare before the crew signed off for the day, Max the Engineer was able to get the transmitters for both Q105 and 99.5 WQYK back up and running. MJ was then able to squeeze in several live commercials for sponsors. We will have to simply wait and see to find out the future of the MJ Morning Show and whether this weather-related transmitter issue truly plays a role in MJ’s decision on a new contract.

The MJ Morning Show crew is no stranger to hurricanes. MJ has lived in Florida since 1992. Roxanne and Froggy were both born in the Tampa Bay area. Fester moved to the region as a youngster. And while we haven’t learned too much about Andrew’s background, it seems like he has lived in these parts for a good while.

In addition to living through tropical storms and hurricanes, the crew members have had the opportunity to cover many storms over the last few decades as broadcasters. When Hurricane Ian was approaching the Sunshine State during the last week of September, the show did what it always does – going into “auto pilot” hurricane coverage mode.

Throughout the week, the crew mixed in a ton of listener phone calls from around the Tampa Bay area and south, as well as provided updates on the storm track, power outages, gas and supply availability, notable flooding and damage, and other important news relevant to a broad listening audience. In addition, longtime and highly respected Tampa Bay meteorologist Denis Phillips (whom Froggy jokingly refers to as “Dee-nis”) from ABC Action News made multiple appearances on the program, speaking to the crew by phone for over an hour at times. Even retired NewsChannel 8 meteorologist Steve Jerve briefly came out of retirement to phone into the program to provide his expertise.

During several shows, the crew went well past its typical 9:45 a.m. sign-off from Q105. In fact, in one instance, MJ and Fester stayed on the air until after 1 p.m., going for over seven hours of broadcasting that day after opening the show at the regular time of 6 a.m. The crew also opted not to play any music at all during several broadcasts. Instead, they wanted to provide as much live and local information as possible, something that has become more and more of a rarity on radio these days.

In the aftermath of Ian, Beasley Media Group which owns Q105 has provided a platform for donations to the American Red Cross. However, since the radio company is based in Naples, FL in the heart of much of the storm’s destruction, they ensure that all of the donations they are collecting are specifically going toward relief efforts in the impacted areas. While we all love the MJ Morning Show for its bits, stunts, jokes, and hearing the crew take jabs at each other, they once again proved that they can get serious when it is necessary. As MJ stated multiple times, while the Tampa Bay area was spared from a major disaster, his heart aches tremendously for those in Southwest Florida.

At 6 a.m. on the morning of Thursday, August 11, 2022, the four main on-air players of the MJ Morning Show were nowhere to be seen around the Beasley Media Group complex where the Q105 studios are housed in St. Petersburg, FL. Only Andrew, the show’s current producer, was around, preparing audio clips and handling his normal pre-show duties.

That’s because of a bad car accident on the Howard Frankland Bridge, a major thoroughfare that connects South Tampa to South Pinellas County. MJ, Fester, Froggy, and Roxanne were all stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, literally completely stopped at times. MJ called into the show from his car right at 6 a.m., and Andrew put him on the air. He was then joined by Fester on the phone in the second segment. Finally, by the third segment, MJ arrived at the station to crack his microphone nearly 40 minutes into the broadcast. Then came Froggy. Then Fester. Then Roxanne finally walked in at 6:52, just before they went to break again.

This was likely the first time in the 20-year history of the morning show that such an instance of this had occurred. At least a few crew members are always in the studio at the top of the show, even if Froggy and Fester roll in at the last minute. So, listeners may have been jarred awake at the sound of MJ and Fester talking on the phone rather than into their regular mikes.

MJ said he wondered what would happen if such an accident had held up the crew since they all take the bridge in the morning. Ultimately, it was only a matter of time for them to find out. At least he was able to call in and get a good connection while on the bridge. Andrew could have always put on some best-of segments or spun a few “’80s and more” tunes before they all arrived.