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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.

In late January, Q105 program director Ted Cannarozzi was an unexpected special guest during a segment of the MJ Morning Show’s “Truth Booth.” Normally hosted by Hal Herman (a.k.a. Froggy), this edition was presided over by Wink Tinklecrotch (a.k.a. Fester). The segment involves the host asking one or more members of the show or their relatives uncomfortable questions which they must answer by telling the truth.

During this particular segment, Ted (a.k.a. “the “well” man) was pretty truthful in his responses about the morning show crew as well as its future on WRBQ-FM. Here is a recap of how Ted responded to the questions from Wink:

1. What was your biggest reservation about signing the MJ Morning Show to Q105 and bringing back the program to the Tampa Bay airwaves in 2020?

“I was worried if it would work or not because it was such a departure from what was on mornings before with Mason. You know, you guys do a totally diferent kind of show. I had also heard that MJ was difficult to work with. I will say that he has been surprisingly better to work with than I expected.”

2. Of all the cast members of the MJ Morning Show, who is your favorite?

“This is kind of a toss-up, but I think I’m going to say Coop. Roxanne is my favorite in a way, but I think the show would fall apart without Coop.”

3. Which member of the MJ Morning Show would you “give the axe to” if there happen to be budget cuts in 2022?

“Even though this goes against my last answer, I’m gonna say Coop. My reasoning is that he has the least exposure on the show among the cast members, and he’s young and he’ll bounce back from it the quickest.”

4. In your years as a “hot rockin’ DJ,” how many radio station groupies have you shown the “inside of the radio van” to?

“None, but I did end up marrying the sales assistant at 98 Rock.”

5. What do you like the least or what annoys you most about MJ?

“It’s the nightly 6:30 p.m. calls he has made to me at his convenience and when I’m still working at the station. And he calls me while he’s walking two loud dogs, huffing and puffing and grilling me with questions on about 30 subjects.”

6. A year from now after the show’s contract expires in October of 2022, will the MJ Morning Show still be airing on Q105?

“[Awkward pause]…I hope so. Things are going very well. You know, ratings are good, and of course we want you back. This is gonna keep going. Things were a little dicey there at the beginning and we were wondering if it was the right move, but things are clicking.”

7. Which of your two bosses (Steve Triplett, the Tampa Bay VP/market manager for Beasley Media, or Travis Daily, the operations manager) do you like working with the least?

“Well, seeing as how I work most closely with Travis, I like working with Travis the most.”

There is a new little person in town…at least in the town of MJ. On Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, Shorty Shane was a rare in-person guest on the MJ Morning Show in the Q105 studio. The pandemic and small size of the studio have both taken a toll on the show’s tradition of having lots of guests, interns, and a variety of other characters come through the door during the programs’ fiBased in St. Petersburg, FL, Shane “Shorty Shane” Moore is a 30-year-old content creator, motivational speaker, and comedian. Standing at 3’5’’, he has a large social media following on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. He sounds like a super cool guy who has a self-deprecating and funny personality. MJ came across him online and later approached him at a local restaurant, ultimately inviting him to come into the studio.

While Shane might be the next dwarf in town, Dave the Dwarf is not too thrilled. Dave joined the MJ & BJ Morning Show way back in 1998 and was basically the official morning show dwarf who participated in a number of crazy stunts and made guest appearances around town on behalf of the show and radio station. Actually, it was Chip the Midget who was the show’s original little person in the mid-1990s until he decided he no longer wanted to be a “character” on a morning radio show due to his wife’s insistence. Chip stands at 3’8’’.

During Shane’s appearance on the program, Dave called in to voice his opinion that he thought Shane was trying to infringe on his territory. MJ and the crew made it a point that Dave was still very much a member of the show and that the two should meet in person. They also mentioned the fact that Dave has had several health issues in recent years, now 57 years old, and that Shane is simply younger and in far better health than Dave. As such, Shane would be able to do more things for the show. This didn’t seem to make any difference to Dave. He hung up pretty abruptly during the call.

So, can Dave and Shane coexist on the MJ Morning Show? If the two can speak privately and actually meet each other in person, there is a chance they could get to know each other and become more amiable as members of the show. However, Dave seems quite adamant that he does not want another little person being affiliated with the show in any capacity as long as he’s still kicking. Only time will tell to see what happens with this conflict which seems to have emerged quite suddenly.