| Genre | Comedy, Talk, Rock |
|---|---|
| Running time | 4+ hours |
| Country | United States |
| Home station | 93.3 WMMR |
| Starring | Preston Elliot Steve Morrison Nick McIlwain Casey Foster Kathy Romano Marisa Magnatta |
| Exec. producers | Nick McIlwain Casey Foster |
| Air dates | 1999 — February 23, 2005 (Y100) May 23, 2005 to Present (WMMR) |
| Website | http://www.prestonandsteve.com |
| Podcast | http://prestonandsteve.libsyn.com/ |
The Preston and Steve show is a morning radio comedy and variety broadcast on Philadelphia Active Rock station 93.3 FM WMMR featuring DJs Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison. The show, which originated at Y100 in Philadelphia, features daily telephone interviews, in-studio guests, celebrity impersonations, unusual news stories, and numerous sound clips and running gags. It broadcasts live on the radio as well as streaming audio via the station website from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. EST, Monday through Friday, and is a featured podcast in the comedy section of the iTunes store.
The show has been named the "Best Morning Show" by Philadelphia Style magazine,[1] and "Personality/Show of the Year" in the active rock category by Radio & Records trade magazine.[2] Before switching to WMMR, the show won various Philadelphia A.I.R. Awards, including the "Best Weekday Morning Team" award for 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005,[3] and was voted best local morning show in the country in FMQB’s Year End Leaders Poll for 2004 and 2005 in two different formats.[4]
In the Summer 2004 Arbitron ratings book, the show was rated fourth in market share for all people ages 18–34, and second for men in the same category.[5] During each of David Lee Roth's, Opie and Anthony's, and Kidd Chris's tenures at WYSP since January 2006, Preston and Steve were ranked first in the key demographics. They continue to rank #1 in the ratings board as of April 2009[update].[6]
In 2006, Preston and Steve received a multi-year contract extension[7] and in 2008, the station gave them a new 1,800-square-foot (170 m2) studio with their own production equipment.[8]
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Preston Elliot, Steve Morrison and Marilyn Russell were among a group of radio personalities introduced to the Philadelphia market through the now defunct radio station WDRE.[9] With several of their WDRE co-workers, they departed the station for Y100 in 1997 when WDRE changed format.[9] After four successful years of (then known as) The Y100 Morning Show with Preston, Marilyn, and Steve, Marilyn Russell left the morning show on March 1, 2002 for family reasons. She has worked part time on many stations in the Philadelphia area since then, including WMGK, and SoJo 104.9, WYSP, and joined morning personality Dave Cruise as co-host on "The BENFM Morning Show on 95.7 in 2007.[10]
WPLY's owner, Dan Lerner, one of the last independent owners in the Philadelphia market, sold the station to Radio One, a national broadcasting corporation, in 2001. Ironically, Radio One was the same group that bought Preston, Marilyn & Steve's previous radio station 103.9 WDRE. Radio One and Preston and Steve did not successfully negotiate a new contract, and the personalities agreed to a deal with local broadcasting group Greater Media. Preston and Steve's contract with Radio One expired on February 24, 2005 and Y100 changed format and became WPHI "The Beat" at 11:50 p.m. EDT that same day.[11]
A legal battle between Radio One and Preston and Steve over their non-compete clause was resolved by a ruling that they were no longer in competition with WPLY. Their new show officially debuted on the air on Monday, May 23, 2005.[12]
| Preston Elliot | |
|---|---|
| Born | Preston Elliot Wilson January 25, 1968 Columbia, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Residence | Harleysville, Pennsylvania |
| Other names | Kenny Knight |
| Spouse | Rachelle |
| Children | Parker Carter Caroline |
| Steve Morrison | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 12, 1959 New York, U.S. |
| Residence | Manayunk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Spouse | Clare |
| Nick Mcilwain | |
|---|---|
| Born | Paoli |
| Children | Benjamin |
Since 1998, the show has held an annual Camp Out For Hunger, in which both Elliot and Morrison "camp out" (ie, live in a motorhome) for one week in December to raise food for Philabundance. The show awards prizes to individuals and groups that donate the most food. Since 1998, the event has raised hundreds of tons to feed the hungry across the Delaware Valley.[13][14]
Results
| Year | Tons of Food | US Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 87.4 | n/a |
| 2006 | 151 | n/a |
| 2007 | 232 | $27,000 |
| 2008 | 220 | $40,500 |
| 2009 | 187 | $45,000 |
| 2010[15] | 263 | $64,119 |
| 2011 | 288 | $76,312 |
In April 2002 and 2003, the show performed a month-long publicity stunt called "Casey's Month of Stunts". During the month, sidekick and producer "Caseyboy" performed various stunts on the streets of Philadelphia, or in the broadcast studio. One stunt was performed every day, until Casey was injured nearing the end of the second full month. The stunts were varied, but always involved inflicting some sort of physical harm upon "Caseyboy" while he held either a station microphone or his cell phone, and were broadcast live over the air. Stunts included: Rolling down the Art Museum's stairs while wrapped in Bubble Wrap, driving a car into a pond, riding a motorcycle through a sheet of glass, being towed around an ice rink by a Zamboni while sitting down with no pants, and having a pitching machine fire baseballs at his genitalia. The stunts were also filmed and the video was posted on the show's website. A short film directed by former Y100 DJ and current filmmaker John Von titled Kill Casey! was created from footage of the 2002 version of "Casey's Month of Stunts", and a DVD of Kill Casey! was released with Y100's Sonic Sessions Volume 8 CD.
In May 2006, Preston and Steve reprised the "Month of Stunts", in a lesser frequency (three per week instead of one per day), and using Intern Joe instead of Casey. Intern Joe completed a number of stunts, including receiving a tattoo on his "taint", driving around in a pick-up truck covered in horse manure (called the "Poop Coupe"), standing between two sumo wrestlers while they were fighting, partaking in an activity known as the "Human Piñata", being pulled by a horse across a farm, being fired upon by a woodchipper with various objects inserted, and also towering over the ground on a toilet for 24 hours (mocking magician David Blaine's attempt to live in water for a week.)
Also known as their "Public Service Announcement", this annual tradition typically occurs on the last weekday before the 4th of July weekend. In 2004, Kathy got drunk live on the air, a show which has been cited as a favorite of the cast and crew as well as listeners. In subsequent years, Casey (2005) and Nick (2006) joined Kathy. Nick and Marisa replaced Kathy, who declined to participate in 2007. Typically a state trooper is present in studio to administer sobriety tests while Preston and Steve 'administer' their own forms of sobriety tests. Drunk Day 2008 was aired on Thursday, July 3, 2008. Nick and Casey participated, and it was "Double Dare" themed, complete with host Marc Summers. This show is generally regarded by fans as being one of the most successful and funny Drunk Day shows. Drunk Day 2009, aired on Thursday, July 2, 2009, was the first to feature non-cast members; the participants were Miss FHM 2005 and frequent guest Lauren Harris and Philadelphia Eagles fullback and show intern Kyle Eckel. Nick took part in his fourth Drunk Day on Friday, July 2, 2010, with peppy show intern Julie (a petite, energetic former Philadelphia 76ers dancer) as his partner in drinking. Fan reaction to the 2010 Drunk Day was mixed, with many commenting that it was bland and underwhelming given the energy level of previous years. 2011 Drunk Day was a surprise with Preston Elliot drinking alone. It included a spin on the game crackshot with Preston rolling the die and drinking instead of being shot. Another segment included this is your life with callers from preston's past checking in. Preston got a surprise call from his old drum teacher bringing him to drunken tears. 2011 Drunk Day was considered a greater success than last year.
Since the spring of 2005, The Preston and Steve Show has hosted an annual Science Day. On that day, the show uses strange science experiments as fillers instead of their normal conversations. These experiments have involved various home made explosives such as dry ice bombs, and experiments involving liquid nitrogen, such as freezing and breaking various things, or making ice cream. These experiments are usually followed by the show crew screaming "SCIENCE!" accompanied by a clip from the song Weird Science. The clip of Steve screaming "THAT WAS AWESOME" comes from the experiment where they set off the dry ice bomb.
The Preston and Steve Show hosts these mixers for listeners at different locations. Occurring roughly every two months, single listeners of the show can reserve a spot at the mixer by providing their personal information to the jocks. Elliot and Morrison make the final decision as to who gets to attend; those who get in get a chance to meet others, start a relationship, possibly hook-up, and meet the cast and crew of the show. There have been several weddings that have resulted from the mixers.
Preston and Steve have reinstated another tradition from their Y100 days on WMMR, the "Philly's Hottest" Competition. Selecting a category, such as "Philly's Hottest Student", or "Philly's Hottest Healthcare Worker", female listeners and paid models that qualify for the category that submit their pictures will have their photographs posted on the radio station's website. Listeners and visitors to the station's website then vote (a process that takes normally one to two weeks), after which a winner is decided.
In 2007, Philly's Hottest sponsor, Steven Singer Jewelers, known for its viral "I Hate Steven Singer" campaign, created the exclusive Philly's Hottest Necklace. Valued at $2,000, the necklace can only be obtained by winning the Philly's Hottest contest. Not only do they win the exclusive necklace, but Steven Singer Jewelers provides the winners with a $500 piece of jewelry, and a $500 gift certificate for redemption in store.
To celebrate the anticipated 10,000th loss in Philadelphia Phillies franchise history, Nick rolled 10,000 marbles down the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum as Bill Weston (WMMR's program director) looked on. After being cleaned up by the show's production crew, the marbles were donated to Toys for Tots and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.[16]
Once a year, on or around Valentine's Day, the show will "launch" a blow-up sex doll tied to weather balloons from the roof of a building somewhere in the city. The location is never the same each year and is given only moments before the launch occurs, with several sites including buildings in Center City, Philadelphia. The doll itself is filled with a prize, usually jewelry or certificates from Steven Singer Jewelers, and the first person to catch it upon landing and call the studio wins. The entire event, from the sound effects to the countdown, is done as a parody of a NASA shuttle or rocket launch, during which time the phone lines are kept open for the rest of the day so listeners can call in with sightings of the Vag. Nick and WMMR DJ Pierre Robert are usually on-site to broadcast the event live and track its initial progress. In 2008, the show launched two sex dolls, one male and one female, with the male doll given the name "Sputdick."
In 2006, Preston had a slip of the tongue while trying to say "awesome" and instead said "office." Later that year they announced that they would be releasing a calendar featuring one (sometimes two) woman a month. Lauren Harris has been the only woman to be in the calendar all three years in a row. This year all girls were featured topless or nude. Release of the Calendar is typically accompanied by a "Totally Office Calendar Party", which can draw thousands of participants to see the women depicted in the Calendar in person and receive signed copies of the Calendar.[17]
This annual blood drive is hosted by Preston and Steve in coordination with the American Red Cross. The event typically attracts a very large crowd, and various promotional items and free concert tickets are often given out. The 2011 (6th annual) blood drive collected a total of 1,174 units of blood, and gives them a 6 year total of 6,409 units.[18]
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