John and Jeff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John (Boyle) and Jeff (Carroll) are a pair of radio talk show hosts based in Los Angeles, California, United States. They broadcast from KLSX, a CBS Radio station in Los Angeles, but their show is also syndicated across America. The show was ranked #98 in the 2008 Talkers Magazine Heavy 100.[1]
John grew up in Rhode Island and Jeff grew up in California. Both were born during the mid 1960s. John started in radio through his management position at Los Angeles station Power 106 in the early 1990s. He was nominated for the Billboard Major Market "Marketing & Promotions Director of the Year" award in 1994 and 1995. John and Jeff began recording their shows on a karaoke machine for practice, and submitted one of these recordings to a 1998 comedy contest put on by national radio personalities Mark & Brian, and won the $2500 cash prize.
The pair began calling KLSX program director Jack Silver to get him to produce their show. Silver invited them to an on location radio broadcast of The Tom Leykis Show, where they entertained the crowd. Three months later, the two were given their own show originally called Buried Alive from 3-5am, which was renamed The John and Jeff Show in January 1999. The show is also known as "The Third Shift Free-For-All" on Wednesday and Thursday nights. They broadcast for 5 hours, 5 times a week, in the middle of the night.
The show has a wide variety of topics with a particular focus on society and politics. John and Jeff have moderate political beliefs (though John tends to be more liberal than Jeff) and are known for being extremely opinionated and often have heated arguments with callers. One of their oft-stated opinions is that the criminal justice system is too lenient, as they believe that all violent criminals (including sex offenders) should be sent to prison for life, with no possibility of parole. They also believe that a married woman's place is in the home, not in the workplace. They have often stated that one of the main causes of America's gradual descent into decadence over the last few decades is the increased prevalence of mothers working full-time jobs since the '50s.
During the early years, the show would focus on one different topic per hour. Then starting in 2005, the format was changed to open phones where callers could discuss anything they want or choose from a variety of news stories that were brought up by the hosts.
John and Jeff also give advice about relationships. They believe that no one should get married until the age of 30. John is known for often mentioning that he only dates Asian women and as of June 2007 is currently dating the current Ms. Thailand. Both John and Jeff claim to be members of the UFO Phil fan club, although no such fan club is known to actually exist.
Contents |
[edit] Past cast members
There are only four people who manage the show. Besides John and Jeff there is a producer (screener) and an engineer. Occasionally, these two join the hosts for a small discussion over the air that usually lasts less than a minute. Over the years there have been several producers and engineers:
Little Phil "Bucket of Fries"-1998-2000(Producer)
Christa - 2000-2003 (Producer) She contributed to many over the air discussions and arguably considered as the third host. The stories of her personal life as well as titillating discussions with John and Jeff and callers sparked a lot of attention on the show. After her departure, none of the producers who came afterwards got as much air time.
Eugene- 2000-2002 (Engineer)
Wedge - 2003-2004 (Producer & Engineer) Michelle (2004?-present) Engineer. Chris - 2005-Present (Producer)
[edit] Past Events and Features
At the top of the 1 AM Pacific time hour, Jeff reads the names of show listeners who have requested "shout-outs" on the show's website. They usually include the person's name, what they do during the night and what city they are in, occasionally including personal short messages to someone whom the listener knows and thinks is listening to the show.
The show rarely has guests, but there have been exceptions to this, including psychic Kenny Kingston, and a divorce lawyer.
The magic 8-ball was first introduced by Jeff in the early 2000s. Callers would ask a question and Jeff would shake the ball until it gave an answer which was usually "most definitely" or "cannot predict now". Although the ball is still available today, its popularity faded in early 2005. Now it may be once every 3-6 months before the subject is brought back up.
The concept of "The Third Shift Free-For-All" was introduced in 2002 to allow callers to talk about anything. It was originally on Thursday nights but was extended to Wednesday nights in early 2005. A feature of the free-for-all was a trivia question posed by Jeff called "stupid useless trivia", which has now become a part of the show on most nights. John and Jeff give a Third Shift t-shirt to the caller who answers the question correctly.
The John and Jeff Show was ridiculed almost daily by the very popular Opie and Anthony Show. WFNY-FM, New York, the flagship station of the Opie and Anthony Show has played on this by producing a satirical promo for The John and Jeff Show with the tag "Now Opie and Anthony Approved" which features audio of The Opie and Anthony Show spliced to sound like an endorsement. The audio snippets are actually taken from a show where Opie, Anthony and Jim Norton blasted the program for being too "nice", and the "exact opposite" of what they are doing. John and Jeff tend to avoid talking about other talk show hosts on their own show.
