MJ Morning Show Fan Page

The reduction in staff at the Beasley Media Group complex in St. Petersburg, FL has continued this summer. In early July, Froggy was let go from the MJ Morning Show in a shocking move. Now, less than two months later, another member of the program has moved on.

Pat George, who served as the main “traffic guy” for the MJ Morning Show and Q105 since the broadcast returned to the airwaves in October of 2020, had his position eliminated. His final day was on Friday, August 23. Following his departure, Shriner has taken over handling traffic reporting duties for the show.

In addition to his Q105 duties, Pat provided traffic updates to other stations and served as a producer on other programs. He would seemingly always bring his cheery personality to the office every day. He would pop into the MJ Morning Show studio on occasion to talk about breaking traffic situations and other things happening in his life. He was also known for cooking grilled cheese sandwiches and cheese quesadillas for Roxanne and other staff members around the building. In fact, according to MJ, he would simply melt slices of Kraft cheese on bread in the microwave to fix a grilled cheese. His wife, Amy, who works as a hairdresser, also appeared on the show earlier this year to talk about a man who was harassing female hairdressers around Tampa.

Pat spent parts of 45 years in Tampa Bay radio, launching his career in 1979 after briefly doing some law enforcement work. He also worked for iHeart Media and other iterations of that company over the years. Plus, he was even part of the Radio Disney network at one time.

While Pat’s voice was only heard on the MJ Morning Show a few times per morning, it is still sad that Beasley continues to make cuts. At this point, we can only hope that these cuts are done for a while and that the morning show will carry on without any further hiccups.

Cue the Fox News breaking news sounder. One of the funniest and most entertaining members of the MJ Morning Show (and former MJ & BJ Morning Show) in its 22-year history was let go from the program this week. On Monday, July 1, 2024, Froggy’s contract with Q105 and the Beasley Media Group was not renewed.

After a weeklong vacation over the week of June 24 spent with his family at their beach house on Redington Shores, Froggy came back to work on July 1. Little did he know this would be his final broadcast with the crew. After the show, Froggy was pulled into a meeting where he was told that, due to budget cuts, his contract would not be renewed, and he was being let go from the radio station. Following the difficult meeting, Froggy posted on Instagram about the news, and Fester confirmed it to the MJ Morning Show Fan Page later that day.

On Tuesday, July 2, the crew was visibly upset about Froggy’s departure.

MJ said he was made aware of this impending decision back on Friday, June 21. He said he “fought like hell” to convince management to retain Froggy, even offering to take a pay cut out of his own salary to keep Froggy on the show. The management team was not interested in this idea. MJ also said he hopes to bring Froggy back for occasional guest appearances and said he will try to bring in more ad revenue to the station in order to potentially bring Froggy back in the future on a full-time basis. He said he was shocked and angry about the decision, stating that it crossed his mind whether to even continue the MJ Morning Show at all.

Roxanne even started to tear up when she talked about learning of the news during her flight back home from Italy. She said she did not get along with Froggy during their first year of working together, but admitted there was a misunderstanding between the two of them for a while. She later learned to embrace him and shared that he would text her supportive messages when she was stressed or feeling down. Fester, who clearly has a great rapport with Froggy and would routinely banter with him on the show, said it was a business decision and that things like this are not uncommon in radio.

Froggy was such a valuable asset to the MJ Morning Show crew over the years. He started out as a syndication producer back in the late 1990s when the MJ & BJ Morning Show was syndicated to stations in St. Louis and a few other smaller markets around Florida. Froggy 1, a.k.a. Scott Langley, originally had the nickname, but Froggy took it on (originally as Froggy 2) in 2002 when Froggy 1 departed from the program. He went on to do crazy parking lot stunts, prank calls, and always brought an edgy sense of humor to the broadcasts. Even when the show returned to Q105 in October of 2020, he managed to do some stunts in the shoebox-sized studio. He invented characters like Hal Herman, the crazy game show host who hosted segments like “Eight Bit Hit” and “The Truth Booth,” then transitioning into “Hal Herman Headlines.” Plus, he did bits as DJ Skrizzle and became known for his impersonations of Al Pacino and former Family Feud host Louie Anderson. In spite of calling in sick more often than his fellow crew members, “medicating” in the parking lot, and making a few too many crotch jokes, it was all part of his persona in a sense.

We can only hope and pray that Froggy will return to the MJ Morning Show in some capacity in the future. Whether it’s calling in or coming into the studio every few weeks or actually being rehired, the show benefits from his contributions in countless ways, and the crew will absolutely have to work harder to make up for his absence.

MJ rarely ever appears on other shows or podcasts as a guest. However, a local Tampa Bay radio guy recently scored a 40-minute interview with him.

Ryan Hoppe, who has worked for multiple radio stations and companies in the area, hosts the “Hoppe Hour” podcast on which he interviews a variety of guests in pop culture and entertainment, including radio personalities from around the country. He even briefly filled in for Andrew on the MJ Morning Show at one point as MJ was hoping to train a backup producer.

On the March 6 episode of his podcast, he had MJ as the featured guest. The two spoke about MJ’s radio career, the early days of the MJ & BJ Morning Show, how the show has evolved over the years, the Crotchety Old man CDs and how they continue popping up, what MJ enjoys most about still hosting the MJ Morning Show in 2024, and the current state of radio and content consumption. Listen to the full episode on YouTube here.

We’ve all heard MJ talk about how the Q105 management team promised the crew a new studio to work in at some point after the MJ Morning Show returned to the Tampa Bay airwaves in October of 2020. We’ve also heard MJ use a wide range of analogies to describe the crew’s current studio setup, everything from “shoebox” to “dump” to “hell hole.”

However, over 40 months later, the crew is still waiting for a larger and more visually appealing space for MJTV that would offer them a better line of sight and the opportunity to have more guests in the studio without essentially sitting on top of each other. They’re also hoping to get an updated console and equipment which apparently dates back to 2006.

That’s why a few weeks ago, MJ called a meeting with some of the “top dogs” at Q105 and within the Beasley Media Group company. This included Brian Beasley himself. MJ said he essentially demanded that they finally provide them with new digs. After the meeting, it was agreed upon that the show would ultimately move into a new studio by Q3 of 2024, meaning between July and September of this year. MJ said the move should realistically happen by mid- to late September.

Because the crew has been waiting for so long, there is no guarantee that this new studio will actually happen this year. In other words, they’ll believe it when they see it. But MJ seemed pretty optimistic for the first time when he brought this up recently. Let’s all cross our fingers that the new studio is finally coming. Not only does the crew deserve it, but it would put an end to the ongoing saga of the over-the-top descriptors MJ likes to use to paint a picture of their current arrangement. And who knows…such a setup could bring interns onto this version of the morning show for the first time and even opportunities to do more stunts with additional space.

Over the years, MJ and the crew have handed out a huge variety of prizes, from plastic surgery to Microsoft Surface Pro tablets to dash cams to Japanese rice cookers.

The MJ Morning Show’s contest this past week – dubbed “MJ Bill Pay” – was designed to kick off the new year by giving away a total of $20,000 to listeners to help them pay off their inflated holiday credit card bills. During every hour of the program, listeners could win $1,000 in cash by being a certain number caller and identifying the name of the previous hour’s winner.

During the 7 a.m. hour on Monday morning, a woman named Peggy called in and correctly identified the 6 a.m. winner to collect a cool grand. However, right before MJ was about to pass her over to Andrew, Fester piped up and asked Peggy whether they should mention who she actually was, totally throwing MJ for a loop. It turned out to be his 85-year-old aunt, his late mother’s sister, who happens to live in St. Petersburg.

Many radio station contests come with legal fine print about who is eligible to win. Because Peggy is related to Fester, the crew immediately investigated whether she was allowed to participate in the contest and win a prize on the station where her nephew works. It was determined that several categories of “immediate family” relatives were not eligible. However, aunts and uncles were not specifically included in the rules as being ineligible.

Later that morning after MJ and the crew signed off for the day, promotions director Tyson Jones sent out an internal email to the Beasley Media Group team which MJ read on the air about a new update to all contest rules. The language was updated to now include a mention of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Because this change was apparently made in response to Aunt Peggy winning, she still took home the money.

It just shows that you never know who is listening and calling in to radio stations. It also demonstrates that, on this rare occasion, Fester was actually honest about something for once.

In 2022, MJ played up the fact that his morning show contract with Q105 was coming to an end at the end of the year. He ultimately agreed to a one-year deal that would take him through 2023.

This year, he did mention his looming contract expiration again, but he didn’t quite play it up as much until the last two months or so. On Friday, December 15, the last live show of the year for the crew, MJ revealed that he had agreed to a multiyear contract to remain hosting the MJ Morning Show on Q105. However, the agreement was in principle, and he had not signed any paperwork prior to leaving for Christmas vacation in Colorado. The same thing occurred last year in which he was apparently able to remotely sign the agreement from the ski slopes on his phone.

This time around, Roxanne cautioned MJ about signing his contract before the end of the calendar year. Because “Mercury retrograde” runs through January 1 and is supposedly a period in which bad things can happen, she thought he should wait to put pen to paper until January 2. He basically dismissed this warning as “hocus pocus” like he does for some of Roxanne’s claims.

It’s exciting but also somewhat surprising that MJ would agree to a multiyear deal this time – likely for two or three years – after only inking a one-year extension last year. He has made it clear that he is not happy with the fact that the crew has not received a new studio to work in for over three years after being promised this when he first came to Q105 in 2020. In addition, he doesn’t think the Nielsen ratings accurately and consistently represent the true listenership to the program.

However, it is clear that the station has given him the creative freedom he demands for the show, i.e. essentially phasing out music almost entirely from the broadcast. In addition, advertisers have been extremely happy with the show’s reach and impact on their businesses. This is a big motivating factor for MJ as well who is certainly reaping the benefits of acquiring and retaining these sponsors. He has also mentioned his enjoyment for doing the show with the current crew. Finally, the station must be paying him enough – relative to today’s lesser salaries in the radio industry – to keep him coming back.

Regardless of the reasons, it’s fantastic to know that the MJ Morning Show should continue on the air for at least a few more years.