Fernando and Greg in the Morning

Fernando and Greg in the Morning

Genre	Comedy, Talk, Music
Running time	4 Hours, 6AM - 10AM
Country	United States
Home station	KMVQ
Starring	Fernando Ventura, Greg "The Gay Sportscaster" Sherrell
Producer(s)	Jason Dahlstedt
Air dates	since 2005
Website	http://movin997.radio.com/shows/fernando-greg/

Fernando and Greg in the Morning is a San Francisco-based morning radio program on KMVQ-FM / 99.7 Now featuring the first openly gay duo to host a morning broadcast on American commercial radio. The show is hosted by Fernando Ventura and Greg Sherrell and features producer, Jason Dahlstedt as a third and ‘straight’ voice on the show.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Show origin

The comedy duo have been paired on the air in some fashion since March 2005, when Ventura became the first morning show host at now defunct dance station KNGY–FM / Energy 92.7.^[4] Sherrell initially joined the show as a once-a-week call-in contributor as Greg the Gay Sportscaster hosting the Sassy Sports segment, which later become a show benchmark.^[5]

Background

Fernando grew up in suburban Philadelphia and has worked for major Top 40 stations in New York, Philadelphia, Dallas and San Francisco. Before doing mornings in San Francisco, Fernando was most recently music director and assistant program director at top-rated KHKS KISS in Dallas, TX.

Greg, a Texas native, grew up near Fort Worth and then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he met Fernando in 1996 at then – Top 40 powerhouse KHFI. Greg worked in promotions at KHFI before moving on to Clear Channel San Antonio where he was the promotions director for the FM stations before reuniting with Fernando at KHKS Dallas in 2004, where he served as the promotions director.

Jason is a Bay Area native from Hayward, California. He attended Sonoma State University. Before working with Fernando and Greg, Jason worked with Sarah and No Name at Alice 97.3, and was an on air personality at KEZR Mix 106.5 in San Jose, California. Jason joined Fernando & Greg in the Morning as producer in June 2007.

About the show

In addition to Sassy Sports, Fernando and Greg in the Morning features a bi-weekly game called “Homo vs. Hetero”, putting one gay player against one straight player in a battle of wits. A weekly phone call from Greg’s mother, Ginger, is another show feature. When doing sassy sports, at the end, Fernando and Greg would say "If they're playing with balls, I'm all over them."^[6]

Fernando & Greg on Energy 92.7

The two first made waves at independently owned dance station KNGY in 2006 when they had an on-air confrontation with San Francisco Pride, who would not let the duo in as a part of the Pride Parade due to a commitment to another radio group. The confrontation played out on the air and the duo was later allowed in to the parade. The relationship between Fernando and Greg and Pride continues to be amicable. In 2007, the show also made local headlines after an on-air fight with members of the organization GLAAD.

Fernando and Greg in the Morning was off the air briefly in 2009 when KNGY was sold to Golden State Broadcasting (formerly Silver State Broadcasting) on September 10, 2009 and the station changed formats. Outraged fans of Fernando & Greg and Energy 92.7 voiced their anger on social networks and other media outlets.^[7] The campaign eventually culminated in the San Francisco board of supervisors passing a resolution urging the new owner of 92.7 to reinstate the popular morning show hosts and dance format.^[8]

Fernando & Greg on Movin 99.7

The duo returned to the air on November 12, 2009 as the new morning show at KMVQ-FM.

Fernando & Greg on TV

In 2008, Meg–TV, a Bay Area production company approached Fernando and Greg to develop a reality show. Logo TV agreed in 2009 to shoot a pilot, but later declined to pick it up as a series.

In March 2009, Fernando & Greg began hosting Fabulous Flicks on KOFY-TV. The show, airing Sunday nights at 9 p.m. features camp movies with commentary from Fernando & Greg.^[9]

Awards and accolades

In 2007, Out Magazine named Fernando and Greg in their “Top 100 People of the Year” edition and in 2008 they received the Fall Honors award from northern California chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.^[10] In 2009 “Fernando and Greg in the Morning” was named as SF Weekly’s Best Morning Show and as favorite morning show in SF Magazine’s Readers Poll.^[11]^[12]