#MediaMonday – John Holmberg
Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from KUPD-FM, where John Holmberg hosts Holmberg’s Morning Sickness from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. each weekday. Holmberg’s Morning Sickness crew, which also includes Brady Bogen, Bret Vesely, and Dick Toledo, has been going strong for more than a decade. It’s Arizona’s number one morning show.
John, time to share:
Radio is a ridiculous way to make a living. There isn’t anything I can say that normalizes this life I’ve carved out. Everything I had been told not to do or say in life became the very thing that has paid my bills as an adult.
On our show we bash everyone from politicians, local mattress spokeswomen, Olympic athletes, and every race, gender, and sexual orientation on the planet. Absolutely no one is safe. Our radio show isn’t for the easily offended or for those who lack a slightly twisted sense of humor, but if you can handle a good laugh at the expense of other people’s feelings, then by all means, tune in.
I remember that my dad used to listen to Larry Lujack on WLS in Chicago when he’d take me to kindergarten. He laughed the whole time. So I always thought radio was a place that made people happy. Then I met everyone in radio and thought these people are all a disaster…I’m gonna fit in here.
Ridiculous. Twenty years at KUPD and a few before that at The Zone in downtown Phoenix back when downtown Phoenix was mostly male prostitutes and Pat McMahon.
I hate talking about myself. I know, that’s not what anyone would think. I suppose I’m supposed to say “a few highlights from my show over the years.” Unfortunately, our first week on the air was 9/11/01. Aaaaaaand off we went. My ex-wife was in the trade centers. She made it out. A few years later she 9/11’d me and I had to buy my own house back. So I hate Bin Laden for more reasons than most.
I think the best memory of the last 20 years at KUPD is realizing, just recently, that I have a hell of a great group of people around me. The whole crew at KUPD gets along. My boss is a god. Trip Reeb. Nothing more to say than that. Our program director is amazing and a great friend — one of my best. And the guys on the show with me are the bones and skin of the garbage we spew up every weekday. I wouldn’t wanna be with anyone else. Great group of people.
I like the Steelers (my dog’s name is Jack Hamm), Cubs and Suns. I like sun on my face and rain sounds at night. Also, the Drew Barrymore show is terrible.
A few more little-known facts about me: I love dogs more than people and I can’t wait to retire. I have a wife. She is pretty great considering she married an idiot — but I’m working on it.
I have a fake shoulder and soon I’ll have two new hips because I have physically abused myself since I was 5. I love boxing and like an idiot I compete regularly in fights and self-defense training at react defense .com.
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