93.3 WMMR’s Preston And Steve graced the top of the list of Barrett Media’s Best Rock Shows of 2024 last week. It’s a list that was voted on by industry professionals and peers, which makes the honor that much more meaningful. The duo, Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison have been together as a morning show since 1998 at WPLY and on WMMR together since 2005.
Preston started in radio in 1990 in rural Missouri eventually landing at WKBQ in St. Louis doing Middays and MD from 92-96. He moved to Philly in January of 96 to do afternoons and MD at WDRE. That’s where he met Steve, a standup comic who had been asked to do a weekly live remote with him on Friday nights. His next step to WPLY is where the morning magic happened (eventually), and they’ve been together ever since.
Steve grew up in New York, where he went to school for radio, television, and film production. In his freshman year, he started doing stand-up comedy while performing with a local improv group. It was during this time that he was asked to do comedy bits for the Long Island radio station WBAB—He was off and running…From BAB, it was on to WDRE, an alternative rock station, where he provided the same services.
About a year after DRE (Steve’s original partner) was blown out, he ended up auditioning for Preston’s morning show (Preston & Marilyn) at Y100 in Philadelphia as a comedy element.
After Marilyn left, the show was rebranded as the “Preston and Steve Show.” “With Casey, the producer, and the addition of Kathy Romano and Nick McIlwain, we became pretty much the version of the show that is heard today, except, when we moved to WMMR, Marisa Magnatta joined as another producer,” explains Steve.
Needless to say, both Preston and Steve are extremely confident about and extremely happy with the team they have in place. “So, I drive the program,” says Preston. “Get us in and out, set the topics, direct the flow, answer the calls, etc. Steve is the rapid-fire comedy of the show. Character voices galore and a great conversationalist. Casey Foster is the finest Executive Producer in our biz and is not only my caddy on the board, giving me everything I need, but he also has this uncanny ability to offer us little nuggets of a quirky candor from an extremely local Philly mind. Sometimes, he gives us gold to run with!”
“Kathy Romano wears a few hats as News/Traffic director as well as running a weekend feature called ‘Her Story’ but it’s her being her that we love. She’s both a friend and foe. Prissy but filthy. An extremely organized mess and puts together some fantastic features that highlight local activities and events that are very detailed and a huge hit.”
“Nick McIlwain is our associate producer who sits in the info guy position. He’s got a great delivery and can load us up with any details we need to know about anything in the moment. He’s also connected to several of the Philly sports execs and writes up our sports reports. If we need an on-the-street guy, it’s usually him.”
“And finally, Marisa Magnatta is an amazing associate producer. She’s 90% off air, but the core loves her. All of those moving parts off-air are hers. Phones, clips, songs, guests, zoom, interns, contest setups, etc. She also runs the entire intern program AND all of our socials. It’s a crazy amount of work.”
All of the show members except Preston and Steve are Philly-born and bred. They also do individual guest booking. “We are insanely lucky to have this group!” insists Preston. “It’s really a case of the right people finding each other and forming a team.”
According to Steve, “Casey is the finest producer in radio, also a great personality and fodder for much of what we discuss on the show. Kathy brings lots of attitude and critical ‘Mom’ energy to the show. Her life is an open book, and she lets us get away with murder. Nick is a fountain of information and has a robust, infectious laugh. He’s a live conduit to listeners through the text board, YouTube channel, and more. And Marisa does the work of a hundred people, grabbing audio clips faster than anyone on Earth while keeping our social media game strong.”
Unlike a lot of Rock shows, “The Preston & Steve Show” plays a big role in the community. “I always see our main mission as keeping people up and entertained no matter what kind of crap they are dealing with,” says Steve. “We avoid divisive issues, and stay away from politics. We’re the place to go to if you want a break from everything while still being plugged into the world.”
“We’re a nice distraction for people who are dealing with what is generally the shitty part of the day,” adds Preston. “That’s priority one. We also have some signature events that serve the area including our Camp Out for Hunger event That brings in both millions of pounds of food and millions of dollars. It’s considered the biggest food drive in the country. Our annual blood drive is one of the largest in the US as well. And we also try to really help out our base with mentions of charity events big and small.”
Between the two of them, Preston and Steve are like mad scientists when it comes to show prep. When I first saw their routines I seriously thought they were messing with me. “I do a shitload of prep,” Preston explains. “I’ve got three stages of prep. Gather, edit, and sort. For gathering, I spend most of my time digging around for stories by using news aggregator sites. I cut and paste the text, print up the documents, and do this throughout the day.
“In the afternoon, I sit down for the edit phase. I use a highlighter to cut through the bullshit and get to the meat of everything needed. Then I sort. It’s taken me a few years to get to a system that really works for me. I separate the stories into categories: bizarre/fascinating, medical/scientific, food, surveys, entertainment/music, local, miscellaneous.”
“I’ll use color-coded paper clamps so that I can identify each packet easily. I still like to use printed paper stories because I find that it’s easier to carry on a conversation while shuffling papers than it is while scrolling on a pad. I keep a backlog of some of the prep for off days that might pop up, too.”
“Technically, life is prep for us,” adds Steve. “But every day involves getting in at 4:30 in the morning, scouring websites, newspapers, and prep services. I shoot stories over to Preston, who then pops them into the various segments we do on the show. After the show, which usually ends close to 11:00—everyone breaks off and does short-term and long-term prep. And every weekday, we have a conference call at 6 p.m. during which we discuss topics in the news, things we experienced, and guests for the next day.”
As far as big events that have turned the show upside down over the years, Preston says it was the switch from Y100 to WMMR, while Steve says it was 9/11.
“We were really starting to get our stride at Y100 when we saw the writing on the wall, and it looked like there was a format flip coming,” says Preston. “We had a feeling that our current base would follow us over to WMMR, but we had no idea how the active rock community would feel about us coming in. Fortunately, we didn’t have to do too much in the way of changing our approach, but dealing with the detractors, in the beginning, was a bit of a challenge. We just kept doing what we always do, and slowly but surely, we won them over, and in no time, we had a new loyal base.”
“I kind of have to go with the money shot on this one…turning the show upside down,” says Steve. “Being live on air when 9/11/2001 played out was a mind trip. We’d just finished a segment about me not being sure how to refer to my mother-in-law when all hell broke loose. We stayed on air for quite a long time and were literally using the resources we had—pre-social media and viable internet—to convey the news and keep our listeners from completely going out of their minds.”
“We literally had an intern in a separate room, writing down notes from everything they heard on the live TV reports and running in and handing them to us as we carried on the conversation,” adds Preston. “It was very scary for all of us, but I think we held it together pretty well and managed to rise to the occasion, even though our program has always been very much entertainment-based. I remember being thoroughly exhausted after that particular show.”
Over the last 30-plus years together as a morning show, both Preston and Steve have a lot of exciting memories to share.
“Having big celebrities in the studio is always an exciting thing for us. We’ve been fortunate to have some really fantastic interviews with some pretty big people,” says Preston. “Some of the notables would include John Travolta, Kevin Costner, Richard Gere, Jane Goodall, and James Taylor. Before working on The Morning Show, I personally had a chance to sit down with a couple of biggies too, like Paul McCartney and Elton John. Outside of interviews, it’s always exciting to be on stage in front of thousands of people and hear the reaction we get when brought out before the audience. That never gets old!”
“For me, the most exciting things often distill down to being in the moment, on the show, making people laugh, and knowing a lot of Philadelphia is with us—in their cars, at home, wherever,” adds Steve. “That sense of family is unlike anything you can imagine. Besides that, getting into the National Radio Hall of Fame was pretty exciting because it probably was a clerical error that got us in, and we’re pretty sure someone on the judging committee was fired because of it.”
As far as the challenges over the years, both Preston and Steve agree they are pretty much the norm. “Look, when people run into raging fires and defuse bombs for a living, it’s hard to list the challenges of doing a morning radio show,” says Steve. “The basics are what you would assume. The early wake-up call can be tough, and putting on a happy face no matter what you are facing in your personal life can be taxing, but the balance with the blessing this job is makes it all more than manageable.”
As for what they want the show to be remembered for, “Preston and I have discussed this ever since the show began,” says Steve. “We want to have made things just a bit better for the amazingly kind people who have supported us all these years and know that every now and then, somebody will say—and mean it—’I miss that show.’”
“I mainly want us to be known as a group of people who had a good time in the morning along with the listeners who tuned in every day,” says Preston. “I also want to be remembered as a show that had a good heart. I’m very proud of the fact that during the 2000s, we didn’t get sucked into the world of being negative and mean on the air the way so many other shows were at the time. The airways were filled with so much alpha male bullshit, and we proved that you didn’t need to do that to be successful.”
Follow Preston and Steve on Instagram @prestonelliot, @steveofprestonandsteve, and @prestonandsteveshow.
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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.
