Greg Lindberg

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.

The Gen Z producer of the MJ Morning Show is on the move.

After a year and a half spent with MJ and the gang and a few years before that with Q105 and other radio stations within the Beasley Media Group Tampa cluster, Coop is bidding everyone farewell for a new job. His last day on the MJ Morning Show will be Friday, May 13, 2022 (ironically Friday the 13^th).

Coop is leaving radio for good…at least for now. He said he is no longer passionate about working in the industry. He claims there is no bad blood between he and the MJ Morning Show crew. He also made it clear that getting up at the crack of dawn to help put on a radio morning show has gotten old and that he’d be happier with more standard business hours.

His new gig will be at a local tech company that provides software solutions to business clients. The title of his new role is “sales development representative,” and he will likely be doing cold-calling for appointment setting to schedule meetings for sales reps to make onsite visits to prospective clients.

It was also brought up that Fester might have influenced Coop to look around for new opportunities. Fester defended this claim by saying that he would help anyone around him try to advance in their career. Ultimately, Fester believes Coop is not making the best possible decision because of this specific job he is taking. He thinks Coop should stick around and wait for a better opportunity to present itself.
At the end of the segment during which this news was revealed, Froggy made a brief mention of Hurricane “Hitman” Stevens, a former longtime member of the MJ Morning Show during its first run from 1994 to 2012, as being a potential replacement for Coop. MJ has only said that he and the team have reached out to some potential replacements they know from prior work history with them. As of now, a guy named Casey who is a part-timer with Beasley Media Group will be filling in until either he is hired permanently or someone else fills the role. Ironically, Casey is 24, the same age as Coop.

For what is probably the first time ever, MJ is having the crew over for a going-away party for Coop. Throughout the history of the MJ Morning Show and former MJ & BJ Morning Show, there has never been such a formal sendoff for anyone who has left for what they hope to be greener pastures. So, MJ certainly respects Coop’s work and everything he has done as a young producer for the popular morning show.

Over the years, the MJ Morning Show, and its former incarnation as the MJ & BJ Morning Show, has been known for some crazy stunts that have raised an eyebrow from radio station managers to first responders. From Fester jumping off the Gandy Bridge in the late 1990s to the Harry Potter book ordeal of 2007 to the turkey fryer fire fiasco of 2009, there have been more than a handful of these stories. It had been a while since such a stunt of this magnitude had occurred on the show, but on April 13, 2022, the crew was back in a serious limelight it typically tries to avoid.

Thanks to a news story about a Lake County, FL babysitter punishing a four-year-old boy by putting him in a clothes dryer, MJ got the bright idea in his mind to reenact this story as a public service announcement (PSA) to raise awareness not to put children in household appliances. Of course, Shorty Shane, the latest little person to become part of the MJ Morning Show as Dave the Dwarf has essentially stepped aside from doing stunts due to his health, could be a perfect candidate to play a four-year-old child, climb into a dryer, and experience what it would be like when turned on.

So, Fester, Shorty Shane, and Buck the video guy met up at a laundromat on Fourth Street in St. Petersburg to record a video of the premise. Shane and his “best friend” apparently frequent this laundromat and know the lady who manages the facility. They went inside, told the manager their plan to put Shane in the dryer, and then went ahead and started recording the video. After shooting an opening scene outside, they went back in and had Shane climb into the machine with blankets and pillows inside to hopefully prevent any injuries. They turned on the machine for a short time and captured some great footage of him spinning around inside the dryer.

Once the manager realized what was happening after telling them they were not allowed to put Shane in the dryer, she then threatened to call the police. The crew picked up everything and was ready to hightail  it out of there since they had gotten the video content they wanted, but the manager then followed them out into the parking lot and stood behind Shane’s car, blocking him from being able to leave. Plus, Fester had incidentally kept Shane’s car keys in his pocket, so that also held Shane up from getting out. She proceeded to call the police who took 45 minutes to show up as they realized it was not a dire emergency.

During the waiting period, Fester claimed he cautiously tried to move the manager out from behind Shane’s vehicle so she would not get hit, and she later claimed to the police that he forcefully pushed her. Before the cops showed up, Steve Triplett, the vice president of the Beasley Media Group stations in the Tampa market, arrived on the scene to speak to the manager. When the two St. Petersburg police officers came, everyone shared their sides of the story and explained the situation. Ultimately, Fester and Shorty Shane were issued trespassing warrants to not set foot on the laundromat property for a year. However, one of the cops explained to the manager that she had technically committed false imprisonment by blocking in Shane’s car from being able to leave the lot. While she wanted charges pressed against Fester and Shane, they told her that she could actually be charged with a felony for her actions during the situation, and that opening an investigation could result in her being punished much more severely than Fester and Shane.

At the end of the ordeal, Steve promised the manager that the radio station would not post any of the video footage Buck had captured during the event. This did not sit well with MJ, so he convinced Steve and Nio Encendio, the program director of the Spanish radio station 92.5 FM Maxima, to go to the laundromat on Thursday to speak with the manager who mainly speaks Spanish. Their main goal was to see if she would agree to allow them to use the video footage, as long as it did not contain any images of she or identifiable elements of the laundromat. Unfortunately, she had the day off. So, they were planning to head on over on Friday morning after the show.

UPDATE: Steve spoke with the laundromat manager again and even talked to her boss on the phone. Much to the crew’s frustration, he agreed that they would not publish the video of the stunt in any capacity. MJ said he might wait a year for the statute of limitations to run out and for the trespassing warrants to expire and then post it. Thanks to Fester’s daughter, Hadley, he agreed to redo the stunt. He and Shorty Shane went to the Palm Harbor Laundromat to reshoot the video which is now available at MJMorningShow.com.

Hurricane “Hitman” Stevens was a longtime producer on the MJ & BJ Morning Show and MJ Morning Show from the mid-1990s up until the end of its first run in 2012. He did everything from editing audio to booking guests to managing and updating the show’s official website. He briefly worked for another morning show after MJ shut things down but has since held other jobs outside of the media world. He is now the proud dad of a six-year-old son, Rocket, and appeared on the MJ Morning Show on Q105 a few months ago to share the story about how he was almost arrested at the airport over his son’s toy gun. Hurricane was a recent guest on a podcast. “I Can Relate to That” is hosted by AJ, now a coworker of Hurricane’s, who is based in the Tampa Bay area. They spoke about a variety of topics, including how Hurricane got into radio in the Florida panhandle and later with 93.3 FLZ and his work with MJ. Listen to Episode 52 of the podcast on Apple Podcasts here.