Uncategorized

Since the MJ Morning Show came back in 2020, and especially more recently, MJ has made comments to Froggy about how he carries himself as a member of the show. Below are just a handful of things he has criticized him on:
1) Not saying much at the beginning of the show — MJ will ask Froggy why he hasn’t opened his mouth for five minutes or so into the opening segment of the program. Froggy will often retort by saying that MJ and perhaps Fester and Roxanne have been monopolizing the conversation, and that he simply can’t get a word in edgewise.

2) Not saying much at times during the rest of the broadcast – In addition to the opening segment, MJ will point out that Froggy hasn’t uttered a word during a stretch of time, such as 15 or 20 minutes. There are times when this falls during a call-in segment where listeners phone in about a certain subject. At other times, maybe Froggy just doesn’t have much to add about the topic at hand.
3) Looking at his phone — We’re all guilty of it, but MJ seems to complain about Froggy using his phone and sometimes watching YouTube videos during the show. Some of this might be related to show prep or looking up something for the show. (He claims to follow hundreds of YouTube Channels across a wide range of subjects.) However, the crew doesn’t hesitate to give out Fester’s cell number, which he will then pick up to look at the texts coming in after the number is mentioned.
4) Taking time off — On occasion, Froggy takes a sick day. MJ tends to question the legitimacy of these days off and wonders if he is simply taking a long weekend if they are on a Monday, Friday, or a day before or after vacation.
5) Using medical marijuana — Froggy is a card-carrying medical marijuana user. While he jokes about needing it for Peyronie’s disease, flat feet, or other ailments completely unrelated to its benefits, MJ likes to razz him for wreaking of pot at times.
6) Failing to bring enough material to the show — Fester, Roxanne, and Andrew regularly send MJ e-mails with links to stories and other ideas to talk about on the show, Froggy apparently never submits such content ideas the night before each broadcast. He also brings bits to the show like “Eight-Bit Hit” or “The Truth Booth.” But MJ doesn’t seem to be satisfied with the amount of his contributions of material nor the frequency of such bits.

7) His driving habits — On multiple occasions, MJ has observed Froggy driving over curbs and looking at his phone while behind the wheel. He even captured one of his curb-driving moments on video.

So, knowing all of these things MJ likes to nitpick Froggy on, you could argue that he seems to view Froggy as an easy target to chastise for some reason.

MJ has been pulling double duty on the air for the better part of two decades. On October 1, 2001, he launched The Schnitt Show, his afternoon conservative talk radio show. This was seven years into hosting the MJ (and MJ & BJ) Morning Show during its first run. He hosted both shows until the MJ Morning Show went off the air on February 17, 2012. He continued with the afternoon program for a few years until going back to double duty in 2015 when he teamed up with Len Berman to host a morning show on WOR-AM in New York City. After departing from that program in 2017, he once again went back to only working as Schnitt. But in October of 2020 when the MJ Morning Show returned to the airwaves on Q105, it was once again back to wearing two hats.

This week on June 21, he announced during the first hour of his afternoon show that he would be putting the lid on the program after close to 22 years. His final broadcast will be on Friday, July 28, 2023. It marks the end of a highly successful syndicated radio show that has aired on dozens of stations around the country and was even picked up by XM Radio back in the 2000s.

This means MJ is kind of going full circle back to the days of only being a morning show host. What was also exciting to hear in his announcement is that he hopes to totally focus on and grow the MJ Morning Show into more markets through syndication. The first run of the MJ Morning Show was syndicated to several markets around Florida and was heard in St. Louis and Atlanta.

Plus, this potentially answers the question of whether MJ will renew his contract with Q105 which is up in December. It is very likely he would renew in another six months if he truly wants to focus on the show and continue to build its listenership. If not, by all accounts, he’d be essentially retiring from radio completely unless he were to land on another station in the future.

While it’s sad to see the end of a good thing he had going for much longer than most radio shows ever last, MJ Morning Show listeners should be encouraged by this news. He will now have more time and energy to put toward the morning show. Who knows what new bits or segments the crew might come up with. And if they do get a new studio for the crew, the sky’s the limit for possibilities.

Since Roxanne Wilder joined the MJ Morning Show with  its triumphant return to the Tampa Bay radio airwaves on Q105 in 2020, we have gotten to know she and her “perpetual fiancée” (whom MJ quickly nicknamed Dig Doug because of his work in real estate) quite well. The two have been together for nearly 14 years and engaged for about six and a half.

Over the past few years, Roxanne has dropped hints about finally getting married for a second time. She was briefly married to Paul Wilder, one of the first draft picks of the then-Tampa Bay Devil Rays, back in the early 2000s. The latest we had heard is that she and Doug were hoping to tie the knot this fall. However, the occasion came much sooner than that – and a bit unexpectedly.

Roxanne and Doug officially got married on Sunday, April 16, 2023 at Sand Key on Clearwater Beach. They had an officiant present to handle the legal strings, but it wasn’t clear if they had any other family members or friends present, aside from their two young daughters, Evelyn Jade and Davianna.

What was more shocking than their marriage was how the news was presented on the MJ Morning Show. On the morning of Thursday, April 20 at 7:36 p.m. ET, the crew was talking about a “Morons in the News” story regarding a high school student who had Photoshopped his teacher’s face onto pictures of nude female bodies. After Fester made a joke about the story, Roxanne awkwardly jumped in to exclaim, “Hey guys. I got married.” It literally came out of nowhere with no transition or Segway that she had any indication of speaking about it. She then went on to recount some of the craziness of her wedding day leading up to the ceremony.

This means that MJ will now have to refer to Dig Doug as Roxanne’s husband. It also means all four of the main crew members, aside from Andrew the producer, are now hitched with kids. Ultimately, we shouldn’t be surprised by how the news was delivered considering how erratic Roxanne seems to be at times on the air. That’s a big reason MJ had a jingle created to the tune of the old Sears jingle that says, “Come see the psycho side of Roxanne” instead of, “Come see the softer side of Sears.”

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.