Congratulations go out to WFNZ host Chris ‘Mac’ McClain who is celebrating his 20th anniversary with the radio station. McClain and co-host Travis “T-Bone” Hancock handle the morning shift for the sports station in Charlotte and have done so for 15 of those 20 years.
“I would’ve forgotten,” McClain said at the start of their show as Hancock started to get into what would happen on the show in his honor which included special call-ins, stop-ins and even a song that was made.
“It is something to behold that in this day and age, someone can, in a market that’s growing, and a lot of changes happen all the time, that you have [stood] the test of time. Your career is longer than 20 [years], I want to let people know you are at what 26 or 27 overall?
“There was another early career that we don’t even know exactly what was going on with ‘Jacksonville Mac’ and ‘Sirius Mac,’ but 20 years here and I think the building and the listeners are excited. In this building the last seven years, we have not celebrated a whole lot. We have lost two bosses unexpectedly…there hasn’t been a whole lot of ‘hey, let’s have a day and honor someone doing something that needs to be honored.’ It’s all about you. I think it’s also about the fact that we as an audience, we as your co-workers we just kind of want to celebrate something awesome.”
McClain then shared, “I started on this day, July 12th in 2004 and I never would’ve thought, Bone, that I would be here in 20 years. That wasn’t the way radio worked. I worked at a Baltimore station when I was in college…then I went to CBS Sportsline…then Jacksonville…SiriusXM…my first 8 years, I worked at three different places.”
He then added, “And there couldn’t be a better place to live for 20 years. I love this freakin’ city.”
Hancock, who joined the station about a year later than McClain as an intern, then wondered, “Where would I be if our partnership didn’t hit?”
When BSM profiled the show in 2022, McClain said about working with Hancock, “Somehow Bone’s still dealing with me. We went through so many interns. He’s one of my best friends, to think we spend all this time together, to think that he ends up elevating to being the co-host of the show. He’s improved so much, grown up so much since we started.”
