92 KQRS Morning Show

92 KQRS Morning Show
Genre Comedy, Talk, Classic rock
Running time 5:40 A.M.-10:00 A.M. CST
Country United States
Home station KQRS-FM
Minneapolis–St Paul, Minnesota
Starring Tom Barnard
Terri Traen
Creator(s) Mark Steinmetz, Dave Hamilton
Air dates 1986 to current
Website 92 KQRS Morning Show
Podcast Podcast

The 92 KQRS Morning Show (also known as the KQ Morning Crew) is a popular, long-running radio morning show originating from KQRS-FM in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is currently hosted by Tom Barnard, and features several other regular personalities. It is also one of the highest-rated local morning shows in America.[1][2]

History

When KQRS - formerly a sleepy classic rock station with a reputation for "stoner" music - was acquired by ABC Radio Network in 1985, it decided to bring in a high-performance team to better utilize the station's 100,000 watts of power. It enlisted program director Dave Hamilton, an industry whiz kid, to turn the programming around. Hamilton in turn hired Barnard, a journeyman disc jockey and highly successful voice-over artist, and Dan Culhane, another veteran local jock, to anchor the vital morning show.

The show quickly generated huge numbers with its mix of irreverent and sometimes tasteless humor and, usually, very little music. The show dropped Dan Culhane in 1987, and over the years accreted a collection of other characters, with Mike "Stretch" Gelfand and Terri Traen joining in the early 1990s to anchor the rest of the cast.

In 1997, competing station WRQC (100.3FM) picked up the syndicated version of the Howard Stern show, giving Barnard his sternest test yet. After a year and a half, Barnard became one of the few local morning shows in the country to best Stern in the local ratings; WRQC changed formats and dropped Stern.

At around this time, Barnard and the Morning Show were recognized as the top-rated morning show in the country, in terms of audience share; the show had a higher percentage of local radio listenership than any other major-market morning show in the US.

KQRS Morning Show members

Terri (Pawelk) Traen

Terri is the only on-air female crew member. Terri is famous among listeners for her many broadcasting gaffes. She also helps to promote the show by appearing in numerous spots (such as stores and bars) throughout the Twin Cities. As a Roman Catholic, Traen often defends the church when others are more eager to criticize it. When anyone from Britain is interviewed during the show, Traen often asks them if they ever knew, or met, Princess Diana. Also, during interviews with experts in any given field, a soundbyte of her asking if they "ever look[ed] for the F. Scott Fitzgerald" is played which references a gaffe made by her years ago confusing the author with the sunken ship SS Edmund Fitzgerald.

Phillip Wise

Nicknamed "Philly Dawg". A former NFL player. He was a safety for the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings. Of note, he was the man who tackled O.J Simpson when Simpson broke the 2000 yard mark. The lone African-American crew member who is almost always referenced when a news segment or topic is about African-Americans (who Barnard jokingly refers to as "Philly's cousins"). Despite the show's racial humor element, Wise and Barnard have been good friends for decades. Wise is often the subject of racial teasing and plays into the jokes, referring to himself as "a black man in America today".

Jeff Passolt

Local KMSP-TV news co-anchor who, like Sansevere, provides insight on news and sports topics being discussed. He was once urged by Barnard to run for political office (in much the same manner as Mark Rosen years earlier).

Dave Mordal

A self described "reluctant' stand up comedian from Elk River, Minnesota. He was a contestant on the first and third seasons of NBC's Last Comic Standing. He also has made guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and was in the 1999 movie Los Enchiladas as the bread delivery guy. His last name is pronounced like "more doll." Dave hosted "Wreckreation Nation" which first aired January 2009 on the Discovery Channel. After a short hiatus, Dave was back on the KQRS morning show as of June 4, 2014.

Throttle-Me Bill

Throttle-Me Bill is currently responsible to contributing audio drops to the show, which usually includes the constant,"Dammit Bob!" whenever Sansevere goes off-topic. Previous responsibilities included acting as the shows phone screener.

John Lassman

Lassman is most known to listeners for his character The Chucker, a bumbling jock who did off-air interviews and almost always mistook the interviewee's identity. It is rumored that Chucker interviews with (among others) Dennis Miller and Rob Schneider have caused them to never want to appear on KQ again. Lassman also created the Call of the Day Challenge in which listeners would send him ideas for prank phone calls. Perhaps the best known of these prank calls was one affectionately titled "Mooseburger," in which a man named Mooseburger thinks that comedian Jack Benny (by that time "Benny" was deceased) is the one making the prank phone call.

Former show members

Bob Sansevere

Sansevere, a sports columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, joined the morning show with Jeff Passolt after the departure of Mark Rosen, and is known as "Sanny" by the listeners. He has also served as a city council member of the suburb of Orono, where he and his wife Mary run a miniature horse ranch , and hosted a social-commentary segment on KSTP-TV called "Sansevere Sounds Off" until February 2008. Bob now hosts a show on 105 The Ticket from 2pm-4pm.

Brian Zepp

Abruptly left the KQRS morning show on the 27th of September, 2013 after an unscheduled four day absence of host Tom Barnard. Barnard had previously stated both on-air and on Twitter, "Either he goes or I go" in reference to Zepp. The nature of Barnard's dispute with Zepp was never made public. Zepp was quoted as saying, "I look forward to forgetting what it was like to work with Barnard." Brian Zepp is currently the afternoon drive(4pm to 7pm) host on KQRS.

Tony Lee

Lee was the show and segment producer from its debut through early 2000, when he left amid a contract dispute. His most significant contributions were the "Tony Tunes," a series of song parodies written and performed largely on his own, and putting together the year-end compilation CDs that were released from 1989 to 2001. After his departure from KQ, he helped Radio One create urban station KTTB and in the fall of 2001 launched the station's precursor to Tone E. Fly's morning show. Tony is now a creative person for ESPN 1500. You may hear a Tony Tune or two there.

Mike "Stretch" Gelfand

Short, middle-aged, Jewish man and a self-proclaimed social liberal & atheist. He frequently interrupted Tom Barnard with his attempt at humor when commenting on an issue and ran the show's dead pool with listeners as well as a weekly football pick segment. He had no problem making fun of others, but got noticeably irritated and offended if anyone took a jab at him. Like Barnard, Gelfand is a voiceover artist and a member of the Film Actors Guild. He was a winning contestant on Wheel of Fortune, but was unable to solve the bonus puzzle “from top to bottom.” Gelfand retired from the show in 2012.

John "Jay-Bee" Blackshear

Jay-Bee was a member of the Morning show from 1993 to 2002, Jay-Bee was the original African American of the Show. With his voice of reason takes or silly stunts, Jay-Bee could be counted on for a good chuckle. Jay-Bee was best known for his Black football picks, where he rivaled Stretch's football picks. Jay-Bee is now part on the Morning show and is working for the University of Minnesota Athletic Dept. as an Equipment Manager.

Justin Severson

The show's former producer. He moonlights as a beer vendor at Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Vikings, and Minnesota Wild games. He also hosts a comedy podcast, NoLaughTrack, for Minneapolis-based Acme Comedy Club.

Brittany Hagan

Barely on the show, actually answered the phones and said like three words on-air a week, but MAN was she amazing at answering those calls. "Best in the Biz", said EVERYONE. Most known for her drop that "Throttle me Billiam" played, "It's Britney Bitch". Brittany's ROCKETING career was abruptly stopped by a freak accident of some innocent autoerotic asphyxiation, her body was found at the The Louvre. Every year the ole gang gets together and does a 5k in her honor, they can still feel her judgmental soul not approving of their work attire. Throttle me Billiam STILL dawns a sweatband on his arm to pay his respects to his BWB (Best Work Bud). He's never taken it off.

Mark Rosen

Sports anchor for WCCO-TV; the show's original resident sports expert who was known to the show's listeners as "Little Marky Rosen" or "Rosepetal." In 1988, as the show rose in popularity, Rosen was contractually forced by WCCO to leave KQRS to join WCCO-AM (despite a "Free Mark Rosen" campaign by Barnard).

Mark Curtis

Sports anchor for KSTP-TV who replaced Rosen in 1988. Went on to work in the same capacity with Dave Pratt at KUPD in Phoenix, AZ. Currently is the 5, 6, and 10pm weekday news anchor at KPNX in Phoenix.

Cabé

The Cabé (the radio name of Lee Mroszak) joined KQ in early 1997 by way of Andy Savage's morning show on sister station 93.7 The Edge after that station had flipped formats to active rock. His stay was short-lived, however; he managed to alienate Dennis Green during an interview at the 1997 Vikings training camp, and on December 1, the morning of a seminal Monday Night Football game between the Vikings and the Green Bay Packers, aired a bit that allegedly found Brett Favre in a hotel room with a woman that was not his wife. After protests from Favre, Packer fans, and the Packers organization, Cabé revealed the bit to be staged, and he apologized and was subsequently fired.[3] That same week, he was a guest on the Howard Stern Show, where he proceeded to rip into the staff at KQ for making him take the fall.

Dan Culhane

Culhane - originally a co-host during the show's "Tom and Dan" days - was dropped from the show under uncertain circumstances in 1987. He's worked around the radio industry ever since, currently serving as production director for CBS's local stations, including News Radio 830 WCCO and Buz'n @ 102.9.

Bryce Crousore

The show's former producer who also appeared on-air, Bryce is a recovering drug addict who freely spoke about his addiction and recovery. He frequently referenced pornographic films and websites, and was teased when women who claim to have large breasts call in because it gets him aroused. Bryce left the show in April 2011 to care for his mother. He was not fired and there was no contract dispute. Although it is worth mentioning that Barnard, frustrated with Bryce's humor, had his microphone removed with no notice. Following that show Bryce told management he was taking a leave of absence.

Controversy

Asian-Americans

On June 9, 1998, Barnard was reading a news item about a Hmong girl that had killed her newborn son. The crew made several derisive remarks; in particular, Barnard stated that Hmongs should "assimilate or hit the goddamn road" [4] and, in response to his reading of the $10,000 fine levied against the girl, "That's a lot of eggrolls." [5] KQRS weathered protests from the Asian-American community and eventually issued a public apology in addition to making several PR-building concessions to the community. In a related concession, Tony Lee's stereotypical character "Tak" was axed from the show.[6]

Native Americans

In September 2007, Terri and Tom made comments about the Minnesota Chippewa and Sioux tribes, respectively, and the American Indian Alliance that raised concerns from the tribes.[7] The tribes mounted several protests throughout October, and the station again issued a public apology.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ NAB 2006: "...In the past 48 books, KQRS has ranked #1 during Morning Drive. He has achieved a 23.7 share (WI Arbitron 2006) among A25-54 while the nearest competitor posted a 6.7 share."
  2. ↑ Lambert 2007: "How popular is Barnard? According to the most recent Arbitron ratings, released last week, [...] Barnard, put simply, IS morning drive radio in the Twin Cities. Everyone else could save the electricity. Among men 25-54 his show gobbles up a 31.7% share of the audience. 93X, (KQ's sister station), is second with 8.2."
  3. ↑ Silverstein 1997: "The station, KQRS-FM, has apologized to Favre and the Packers for airing the hoax, perpetrated by deejay Lee Mroszak, who goes by the name of "Cabe." Mroszak was fired Wednesday after the station learned that the report had been staged."
  4. ↑ Evans 1998:"In a June 9 broadcast, Barnard sparked controversy by mocking news reports of a 13-year-old Wisconsin Hmong girl who was accused of killing her baby. Minnesota's Hmong community responded with outrage to Barnard's comments, which concluded, 'either assimilate or hit the [redacted] road.'"
  5. ↑ Collins 2007: "... Barnard and his co-hosts made fun of a teenage Hmong girl who was charged with killing her newborn son. [...] They said of her potential $10,000 fine: 'That's a lot of eggrolls.'"
  6. ↑ AP 1998: "KQRS officials said on Friday that the station would no longer use an Asian character called "Tak" on the show. "
  7. ↑ Collins 2007: "The uproar stems from a broadcast last month in which Barnard and Traen talked about the Red Lake and Shakopee tribes while discussing a report by the state Health Department that Beltrami County has the state's highest rate of suicide among young people. The jocks then mentioned Bemidji and the Red Lake Indian Reservation, which are both located in Beltrami County. "Maybe it's genetic; isn't there a lot of incest up there?" Traen said about the tribe. "Not that I know of," Barnard replied. "I think there is," Traen continued. "Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure." "Well, I'm glad you just threw it out there, then," Barnard said to laughter in the background. Barnard also criticized the Shakopee Sioux, who own the Mystic Lake Casino, for "doing a hell of a job helping them out." Traen commented, "They don't give them anything?" "Hell, no!" Barnard replied."

References