Nick & Kristen are morning hosts at 99.5 Wolf in Portland, Oregon. The married duo also spearhead “Nick and Kristen’s Medical Debt Payoff,” which has paid off $16 million in medical debt for people in the Pacific Northwest to date.
For Nick & Kristen, the crusade to help with medical debt began in a very personal place.
When we decided to have a family, I got pregnant and immediately started having complications and was admitted to the hospital on medical bedrest for three months. We built a little radio station, and I worked out of there,” said Kristen. “I had something to do every day, so that was kind of nice.”
“After our daughter was born because she was in the NICU, we got a bill for over two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and we both had insurance at the time. So we were super confused by that. We were able to get it down to 70 grand after negotiation. At that point, we’re like, this is going to destroy our lives.”
“Those are the stories that we hear every year, so we teamed up with our charity partner who buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar, and then we crowdfund, and 16 million dollars later, a bunch of people get letters in the mail almost always around Christmas time every year saying that because of the people that donate to us that they don’t have medical debt anymore,” said Kristen
Nick added, “We wanted something that stood out. Then, after the Pregnancy and how difficult it was, that was something that really stood out to us. People are going through life barely surviving because they had to take an ambulance to the hospital, through no fault of their own. They were having chest pains; what else were they supposed to do?
“Just seeing that. We’re not a political show, but I think we can all agree, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, that medical debt and medical costs are outrageous. They cripple families, and if we can try to eliminate some of that, especially around Christmastime, what a gift to be able to do that,” said Kristen.
Nick and Kristen met in radio when she was a news anchor on 840 KXNT, and he was the overnight weekend at 98.5 KLUC Las Vegas.
So how does the husband-and-wife morning show dynamic work when you are together nearly 24 hours a day?
“I think it really works out well for us, also considering the fact that we broadcast out of our house. So if we have a brilliant idea while our daughter’s at school, we can come up and we can record it on our phone. We can plot it out. We can write it together. It’s made things tremendously helpful because, at any moment, we can strategize, Which is something that we love to do, like we love to go out to lunch and talk about the show. Okay, what can we do, said Kristen.
So, in a case like this, how do you turn it off or step away from it for a while?
Nick said, “One of the hard parts is disconnecting and not having everything be for the show. But we have to. We’ve learned to enjoy the moment and then just remember the details. So if we go to a hockey game, we’ll have fun, and then as we’re driving home, we go. All right. What can we talk about on the show tomorrow?”
“What happened that stood out, that made us laugh or something interesting, and then we’ll just have that conversation afterward. A lot of the time, it’s hard not to talk about work, too. So we have to find a way to not just talk about work. We have date nights and stuff like that, and we do stuff that we don’t talk about on the air. We just kind of enjoy family life and pick moments from it.”
Is there anything off-limits? Keeping in mind that their goal is to be a family-friendly show.
“Big ones like religion, politics, things like that that we just don’t discuss with our audience. We’re not here to educate; we’re here to entertain and make people have fun. That kind of discussion that we have off the air doesn’t make it on the air just because we feel like it wouldn’t be entertaining for our audience. Just like any other married couple, you have conversations that aren’t really great content, Not great for the audience or for the listener. I think those get filtered through, but I can’t think of, well, maybe in-laws. It’s so relatable.
Nick added, “Maybe we’ll tweak something, and we’ll maybe make it not so personal, but we’ll bring it to the table as is a topic, if anything.”
Kristen said, “We just want to be positive influences on the world. I think we know the kids are listening in the car, And we have our daughter, so we don’t take it to an extreme. We never go blue.”
Being positive and uplifting fits into their individual personalities.
“Both Nick and I have been doing this for 20 years. We’ve heard from different program directors that if you’re not getting complaint emails, you’re not connecting. You’re not creating a passionate fan base, and while I think that’s true to some point, there’s also a flip side of being that steady rock. That show that is always going to be there. That’s always going to be positive and energetic.”
“Our biggest complaint from people was that we’re too nice. We’re too happy. In Washington and Oregon right here on the border. There’s a divide between the states, and everyone’s like, you got to do the Washington versus Oregon thing. You have to turn them against each other. We live in Washington, and we broadcast to Oregon. No five years trying to bridge the gap and just bringing everybody together,” said Nick
Kristen added, “Why divide when you can unite?”
And to that end, the show is very local based with content.
“We’re trying to be the local morning show. We don’t talk a lot about other steady cities or states, even Nashville. We try to keep it all locally based, said Nick.” “We’re trying to elevate locally.”
The show also believes strongly in getting out into the community.
Nick said, “I think a part of that is being out where people can see us, and we get the whole you guys are normal compliment all the time, which I don’t know how to take.”
Kristen added, “More people recognize our daughter then than us.”
“We did the Nick & Kristen name campaign, which we started a couple of years ago. Local businesses, if they named something after us, we would come down there, and Nick would shoot a video and make them a full commercial that they could use for whatever they wanted. We had so much fun doing that; it connected us to all these local business owners. That got their name out there. We always ask them to name something really stupid after us, Like we have a sledgehammer in a rage room.”
“We have a smoothie at a yogurt place,” said Nick. “Who knows if it’s still named that on the menu, but it was when we went in, and it was just fun. It’s a way of talking about it on the air. Hey, that yogurt shop that you go to, you could now get the Nick & Kristen. Or when you go bowling, use the special gold Nick and Kristen ball. It’s just another way of connecting.”
“We got a garden center named after us. It’s the Nick & Kristen Ace Hardware Garden Center. They made a whole beautiful sign, and it’s still hanging up there. We were shocked when we came in because we normally would slap a sticker on something. They’ve kept it for years. We were like, that’s amazing.”
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Stream the show live here.
Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
