#MediaMonday – Jim Sharpe
Each Monday, we are posting a blog to help our readers get to know the media just a little bit better.
With a TWIST!
No, we aren’t posting story pitch tips or media lists, but instead great stories from the media themselves about their lives, their work and other little known facts! Think of it as your first “networking” opportunity of the week!
Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from Jim Sharpe, the new host of “Sharpe in the Morning” weekdays from 5-7am on Newstalk 550 KFYI.
So, Jim, time to share!
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
Hmmm…
*I like tuna fish sandwiches.
*I am not a Republican, but I am married to (maybe) the only conservative Republican elementary school teacher from Massachusetts. (Really. You can’t make that stuff up.)
*You don’t have to be a Republican to be a talk show host at KFYI. I do like small government, though, and black (invisible) helicopters follow me everywhere I go. That qualifies me.
*I started my radio career at KPGE in Page, AZ (my hometown) when I was 16 and have worked in almost every sizeable media market in Arizona – with the exception of Yuma. Flagstaff, Tucson and Phoenix (as well as Los Angeles, Dallas and New Orleans) have all had to put up with me.
*This is my third time at KFYI (you’d think management would have a clue by now). I did my very first talk show on Memorial Day, 1999 on KFYI back when the station was at 910AM on the dial and broadcast from the infamous “Crack House” at 631 North Central Avenue. That’s the same building that housed Channel 5 for years.
*I have been on-air partners with Heidi Foglesong, Ted Simons and my ex-wife and once did a morning radio show on Power 92 called “Arizona’s Original Homeboys” with another White guy as my partner.
*I have worn a bikini on TV (sorry, Ted).
*I remember Scott Hanson being on Channel 2 in Flagstaff.
*I am more thankful for Arizona’s SB1070 than most folks. And not necessarily for political reasons. It was signed by Governor Brewer the Friday before I started my new show on KFYI and saved me from having to talk about Sandra Bullock, Tim Tebow and volcanoes in Iceland.
*I spent a number of years as a kid growing up on the Navajo Nation – so I know what it is like to live as a minority. Does that make me eligible to be an “Original Homeboy?”
*Neither one of my kids have expressed an interest in joining the media (yay!).
*I have been pitched on topics and guests for years, but didn’t realize how hard it was until I found myself pitching the media as a PR person and political consultant. I try to always have a sympathetic ear now because of that.
*I am available for lunch almost every afternoon – if you are buying.
*My email address (for pitching and lunch purposes) is jim@thinkSHARPERmedia.com.
*I like bullet points.
