Woody & Wilcox just signed another five-year deal with iHeartRadio, where they are syndicated across the country while based in Charlotte, NC, at 106.5 “The End.” They started doing mornings together in 2003 at the CBS-owned Classic Rock 103.7 “The Planet” in San Diego.
“We got paired together for mornings by accident, basically,” says Wilcox. “Woody was already doing mornings with a couple of other people. I was filling in for the traffic woman because she was on vacation for the week, and I didn’t have a full-time job at that point. After that fill-in week, management essentially said, ‘Why don’t you stick around? We don’t think she’s coming back’ and the rest is history.”
“Then we were let go REALLY quickly after that! Lol…but not our fault! After the Janet Jackson Superbowl wardrobe malfunction in 2004, we were one of those ‘lucky’ few shows around the country that was working at a CBS-owned Rock station in a market where Howard Stern happened to be on a Clear Channel station,” Wilcox continues to explain.
“In the wake of the Janet Jackson fiasco, Clear Channel dumped Stern from all their stations over fears of him breaking obscenity rules and the fines that would come with that. CBS then put Stern on in any of those markets where they had rock stations themselves. San Diego was one of those markets, so we were let go to make way for Stern. We’d been on the air together maybe six months or so at that time.”
“They actually brought us back briefly after Stern left terrestrial, and CBS had taken a bunch of their stations to the all-talk ‘Free FM’ experiment,” Woody interjects. “That didn’t last either, but we really enjoyed that brief stint. It was our first time doing all talk, and we got to work with PD Jim Daniels. Although we didn’t work together long, Jim had a big impact on us at that time. He was a great PD.”
“Then we moved to Anchorage! Like you do in radio,” says Woody. “In 2006, we packed our families for the trek North. At the time, I had twin two-month-old primi daughters, and Wilcox had a 17-month-old daughter. ‘Honey! We’re leaving San Diego for Alaska!’ That’s a fun conversation.”
“Honestly, my wife, Denise, encouraged the move, and I’m so glad she did,” says Wilcox. “We replaced Bob and Tom at 100.5 “The Fox” (KBFX) in Anchorage. We spent four years physically in Anchorage, and then in 2010, we moved within Clear Channel to Charlotte to 106.5 “The End” (WEND), where, again, we replaced Bob and Tom. Almost 15 years later, we’re still on in Anchorage, and in the spring, it’ll be 19 years total on 100.5 The Fox.”
“In 2014, we started syndicating to other markets. KKZX in Spokane was the first. We’ve been on there for ten years. We’ve added twelve more affiliates since then for a current total of fourteen stations. Like everything else about our show, the way we distribute it is weird, too. About half our affiliates are within our deal through iHeart, and the other half are through an outside syndication company thanks to the great Rich O’Brien and the gang at what’s now called G Audio Networks and Radio Resources.”
“The two other members of our show are Chelsea and Cool Beans, both of whom joined us in Charlotte,” says Wilcox. “Both are also highly overqualified. Chelsea’s a Georgia Tech grad, so you know her parents are proud of how this is going. She’s a married mom with two small boys. She’s smart and funny and brings a tremendous vibe and point of view to our show!”
“Cool Beans was some sort of secret agent for the IRS before working with us (true…kinda). She’s one of the quirkiest people we know. She eats like a five-year-old (just chicken tenders), she goes to Build a Bear by herself regularly, she has the ‘Golden Girls’ 24 24-hour a day channel on in the background at her house 24-7, and she’s going/gone to six stops on Justin Timberlake’s tour this year.”
“They’re both WAY more interesting than us, and they both were interns with us initially, starting essentially when we moved to Charlotte in 2010. Cool Beans has since become our producer. In about 2012, Chelsea became a full-time third person on the mic on the show. As a foursome, we’ve been together for about 14 years total.”
“Wilcox has been an assistant high school basketball coach on the side for the last eight years,” explains Woody. “I coached a middle school mountain biking team (yes, that’s a thing!). Chelsea gets up at 4 am on her off days to drive excessive distances for club youth hockey, where drunk parents get into fights in the stands, giving Chelsea tons of show prep, and Cool Beans has another job doing corporate taxes just to pay for her Justin Timberlake/Build a Bear habit.”
“Wilcox is the QB of the show, and he’s well known for his quirks/loves…the mail, state capitals, the wind, sports mascots, getting injured too easily, never seeing movies (name a classic movie, he hasn’t seen it) and thinking too much. I’ve never thought about anything too much.”
“To Woody’s point, I just watched the original ‘Gladiator’ for the first time last weekend…I won’t tell you how it ends. No spoilers,” says Wilcox.
“Listeners are a HUGE part of our show. We learned long ago that they’re funnier than we are. We’ve developed such an odd group of regular contributors who are incredible and memorable. Trying to find that fine line of not being too inside but having that feeling that if you listen, you’re a part of a group/club is one of the tougher but more important things we do. Sometimes we nail it…sometimes we don’t.”
“We do have music on our show now. However, our affiliates just receive our segments so they can put their own music in on their end,” Woody says. “That allows us to be on multiple formats. We’re on ALT, Classic Rock, and Active Rock, and we’re on in four time zones. The show is very adaptable. While we lean a little bit ‘guy,’ it’s not over the top the way some Rock shows are. We have GREAT female listeners!”
“Our show is delivered day of, not the next day, for every affiliate regardless of time zone, so it’s timely,” says Wilcox. “After much trial and error, we’ve discovered this is the best option technically and cost-effectively.”
“Some of our most rewarding moments have come while helping our two favorite charities: Purple Heart Homes (housing solutions for veterans) and The Isabella Santos Foundation (rare pediatric cancers),” says Woody. “Several years ago, we traveled with Purple Heart Homes from Charlotte to Anchorage and then Fairbanks. In each city, we were able to identify and help a veteran and their family by installing wheelchair ramps and other modifications on their homes and starting local chapters of Purple Heart Homes in each city. It was an incredible experience and one of the most meaningful things to come out of our show over the years.”
Follow Woody & Wilcox @WoodyAndWilcox on X and on IG. “We’ve recently had our Facebook page hacked, and literally, as we speak, we are trying to get that back.”
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Charese Fruge’ is an award-winning Content, Broadcast, and Marketing executive with over 20 years of experience in markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, San Diego, and Las Vegas. As the owner of MC Media, she works with radio brands and individual talent, especially young women, helping them grow their brands and negotiate on their own behalf. She is also a Voice Actor and Voice Over Talent as well as a Freelance Writer for International Broadcast Outlets. Find her at @MCMediaOnline or www.mcmediaonline.com.
