March 4, 2022
How did you get your on-air name, and what are your favorite jock names of all-time?
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Drew Heyman, WHYI: Lucky to have my real name on-air, and an absolute fave is Broadway Bill Lee. Jonathan Shuford, WRVW: I’ve been using my real name for a while now. At one point I was JJ Mc Lovin which I was never too fond of. It was right when the movie Superbad came out, and our morning show had the privilege of naming me. Wolfman Jack is a classic. Others include Don Geronimo and Bubba The Love Sponge.
Josh Wolff, WAEB: I’m fortunate that I can stick with my legal name. I’ve always used my real name. I always thought Skip Church was memorable. Mike “OD” O’Donnell, WKRZ: OD is rather obvious. One of my favorite on-air names was Jim Shorts. He wasn’t a DJ, he was the sports guy on a Rock station, and they would say, “Here’s Jim Shorts on sports!” Lee Abrams mediavisions: Goofy by today’s standards, but no worse than two first names: Rick Shaw, Sandy Beach, Sam Francisco, D C Washington, Dusty Rhoades, Buzz Stopp, Al Buquerque, Les Moore. Kobe, WUVR: My first name Busta Nutt was given to me by Mike Danger, at WPXY. The vision was to have a character who mainly did club nights, and then started out on the air part-time. The name worked, I had people calling me by name at my first event! Some of the other names I’ve always liked: Tone. E. Fly, George McFly and. JoJo On The Radio. Max Volume, KOZZ: I’m Max Volume. My name is on everyone’s radio. |
Fishboy, WKRZ: My nickname in high school was Flounder which came from the movie Animal House, and when I got here I wasn’t able to use it because of trademark issues. So they called me Fishboy. Atom Bomb.
Valentine, WBHT: After I graduated high school, I took a trip to San Francisco. I fell in love with California! After I realized college wasn’t for me, I went to LA and fell in love with the real Valentine on KIIS-FM. I really liked his style and presentation, and he became my idol. When I got my first fulltime gig back east, the PD wanted me to go by something different and it was kind of a joke, so we decided I should go with Valentine. Favs: JoJo On The Radio is a classic, Elvis, Bubba the Love Sponge. Toby Knapp, WASH: Ask Kid Kelly about my name. My favorite name is Dick Ring – formerly of WDUV Tampa who wanted you to wake up with ahem – a ring – ahem in your ear! Orlando Davis, WLLD: Been Orlando since birth, so that wasn’t hard. My favorite name was Jojo on the Radio. First name basis, did a lot with it via drops and caller interaction. Made the dude a legend at KYLD and KIIS Joey Brooks, WKSS: It’s my middle name and my last name. I was a big fan of JoJo Kincaid when I was growing up. I’ve always loved Billy The Kidd, awesome name. And I’ll throw in Froggy.
Guy Zapoleon, Zapoleon Consulting: I was always trying to be as authentic as I could and have an easy enough name to use on-air. I dropped Zapoleon and kept Guy Maxim (my middle name) as my jock name at my first PD job. Favorite jock names were legendary KHJ jocks Humble Harve, The Real Don Steele, Charlie Tuna, and of course the man who introduced me to my love of radio from WABC, Cousin Brucie.
Adam Rivers, WKCI: It’s my real name and Busta Nutt who was Kobe was he was in Rochester. |
Randi West, WRMF: The promotions director at my first station said you remind me of someone I know and told me her name and hence my name was born. The coolest radio name ever is Porkchop Jenkins and if you disagree…fight me. Rich Davis, KDWB: I was born with it! But way back in the day I was Harley Davidson. Davy Crockett named me that because of the Harley plant in York, PA.
Shadow, KQRA: Shadow is my real name. When I interviewed at WJJO, the awesome Blake Patton said, “Uh…. I assume you’ll go by Shadow, right?” Speaking of Blake Patton, I’ve always loved his name! That or Tina Smash! Erik Bradley, WBBM: I am not on-air (thank goodness for our listeners sake!) so I can only explain my IG / Twitter name, which is just my initials & the fact that the University of North Carolina truly is #1 (@EBUNC1). |
R Dub, Z90/Magic 92.5: I was dropped in the studio at 16 years old and didn’t have time to come up with a name, so it was the “boring” Randy Williams, which soon turned into “R.W.,” and then finally “R Dub!” which has a nice ring to it. Don’t forget the exclamation point! Some of my favorite on-air names: Hamburger, Corn Dog, Skip Church, Bartell Bartell (aka “Bart to the E-Double-L!”), Poindexter. And I’m super proud that I came with this awesome name for our morning show in Tucson (KOHT) so many years ago: “The Mexicanz!” I don’t have many original ideas, but this was one. I remember our sales manager reacting to the announcement: “Can we SAY that???” To which I replied, “I mean, do you take issue with Mexicans?” Needless to say, their name and marketing just EXPLODED and Houston hired them away a mere eight months later. Names matter!
Jon Zellner, iHeartMedia: Unfortunately, I wasn’t cool enough to have a “radio” name, though I did have a “JZ” jingle back in Columbus. Favorite DJ name has to be Wolfman Jack, but I do like some of the clever more recent ones like Skip Church, DJ Goofy White Kid and Vinyl Richie.
Nick Wize, WFLZ: My name currently is Nick Wize which is my government name. Not to brag, but I think I had the best on-air name of all time at 92.3 NOW in NYC. I went by The Guy On The Couch, it was great for theater of the mind and very memorable.
Frankie V, KSSX/KHTS: When I was an account executive for WEEI Sports Radio in Boston, my boss would always call me Frankie V! When I transitioned from sales to on air, the name stuck. My favorite jock name of all time is Mikey V, the other half is The VBROS, but maybe I’m slightly biased lol!
Jagger, KCHZ: Jagger came from a “Name the New Guy” promotion when I was at KZHT in SLC. Three of my all-time favorites: Hollywood Hamilton (what a great radio name), JoJo On The Radio (super-talent, amazing energy), Elvis Duran (combines two eras of music).
Rick Vaughn, KENZ: Prior to moving to KKFR in Phoenix, I had always gone by my actual name, BRIAN. But there were already two other “Brian’s” on Power 92. Don Parker said, “You’ve got the job, but you need a different name.” So I rifled through the phone book, called friends for ideas, then as I was walking out to do my first airshift as Dave something or other, I heard Bob Uecker announce Charlie Sheen’s character to the mound in Major League. It was on a TV in the apartment. So here I am almost 30 years later…still Rick Vaughn.
Dom Theodore, Radio Animal Media Strategies: Chuck Beck gave me Domino in 1990 when I was at WDFX in Detroit because Ann Arbor is the home of Domino’s Pizza and my real name is Domenic. I always got a kick out of Orlando. When I first met Orlando, he was in Tallahassee and we were talking about bringing him to Tampa. There was this running joke that, “His name is Orlando and was working in Tallahassee and before that he was in Jacksonville!” The irony of it all is that he never worked in Orlando!Next Week’s Question Of The Week:
Who are your must follows on social media, and what do you primarily use social media for?
e-Mail your responses to: jodorisio@deanemediasolutions.com or bburke@deanemediasolutions.com
