Monique Rodriguez is the midday host and host of “Homegrown with Mo!” on ALT AZ 93.3 in Phoenix. She also handles some Social Media content for the station’s small staff.
Another Top 20 show on the Barrett Media 2024 list, she was born and raised in Mesa, AZ. Rodriguez says she has always been a massive radio nerd. “From recording songs and DJs on tape to calling in and trying to win tickets. It’s how I discovered music in the 90s, along with being raised on MTV, VH1 and BET. Ooo and The Box, does anyone remember The Box?,” she asks.
In 2011, Rodriguez was working as a massage therapist, helping people recover from injuries, but something was missing in her life. “I kept feeling this calling to do something in entertainment,” she explains. “I was a fan of radio ever since my mom won us tickets to see Batman Forever (the best Batman movie ever) in the late 1900s. So, I quit massage and enrolled into a radio school in Denver, only to have my appendix burst two weeks before moving, and all that money saved up was goneski”
“As much as it sucked, it was the best thing to happen to me because I ended up interning for X1039 (RIP) as a promo assistant, working my way up to morning show producer within a year. I eventually moved on to 98KUPD, where I started all over as a promo kid, and worked my way up again to a weekender and fill in. That made me the first female voice on an all-male station in eight years.”
“Eventually I caught the ear of Trip Reeb, who lured me away from KUPD when we switched our Classic Rock sister station, KDKB, to Alternative. I went from nights to middays to mornings and now happily back in middays. We just celebrated our ten-year anniversary.”
“I keep making this joke that I’m an emotional support DJ because the number of calls I get from listeners during the day that just want to vent or talk about their lives is unreal,” says Rodriguez. “But I also have to remember, I have grown with them in the last ten years.”
“I have been there through so many amazing and difficult times in their lives, and so have they with mine. It’s crazy to think how many people’s lives you affect every day, even if you can’t see it. I also try to make middays fun because I wanna have fun. Plus, the world is always on fire; we all need a good distraction.”
Rodriguez says the craziest thing that has happened to her over the years was getting the opportunity to cover the horror movie “The Nun” for the station. “I got sent out to Mexico City for the premiere inside of an old, run-down convent at the top of a mountain during a crazy rainstorm that made the experience even more terrifying,” she explains. I’ll never forget that!”
“My biggest accomplishment over the years was getting to do mornings,” says Rodriguez. “It had been a dream of mine since my mom won those movie tickets through our favorite morning radio show in the 90s. To be able to do it for three years and compete as a one-woman show against a 3+ morning show, mainly all male, was pretty badass.”
“The biggest challenge for me over the years was stepping away from mornings during COVID,” she adds. “I was not in the right headspace. Depression hit really hard for me. The thought of possibly being let go every day was ruining my mental health.”
“Radio was my life, so the thought of losing the one thing I really wanted felt like I’d rather delete myself. Then, when I moved from mornings to middays, I felt this sense of relief but a massive amount of failure. I was looking at middays as the end of my career, which turns out it wasn’t, just a chance to make things better and learn from my experience.”
“It took me a few years to work through it (thanks therapy), but once I started to accept the things I can’t control and falling back in love with what I do, it turned out it was a massive lesson of figuring out who I really am and not letting my career define me.”
Rodriguez has no shame when it comes to what she loves most about the business. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say THE PERKS,” she admits. “Do you know how many killer shows we get to see in a month? I don’t have enough appendages to keep count. Plus, the opportunity to sit and chat with some of your musical faves and pick their brain on why they wrote a certain song or share your common interests. I’ve been very fortunate to have that. Plus, tickets are insanely expensive now, so I’m saving a ton of money, too.”
What’s missing from the industry right now? “The supporting and conditioning of the next generation of on-air talent,” she says. “In the last few years, I have seen and heard from less and less people wanting to get into radio or even breaking through in radio.”
“With so many companies downsizing and stretching talent thin by broadcasting an evergreen show to multiple cities, it just really waters down the potential of what radio could be again. Especially since it’s been proven time and time again that personalities (especially local) can win you over more than music that can be heard anywhere.”
“To fix that, it has to start with us!” She says. “We need more mentors. More talent that wants to see future talent succeed and carry the radio torch for others versus looking at them as a threat. I was one of these promo kids coming up and wished I had more exposure to people who wanted to help me hone in on my craft. Especially if they’ve got the one thing you can’t teach: a personality. I’m sure we can cultivate a better environment to help them grow.”
“As for me growing on a professional level, my big project right now is learning how to physically DJ. I keep having all these songs pop into my head and blend together, so I need to put them somewhere so I can finally get some sleep instead of singing The Lonely Island’s ‘Sushi Glory Hole’ in my head for a few hours.”
“Oh, and I am suuuuper passionate about supporting the local music and art scene in Phoenix. It’s been an honor to witness firsthand the amount of talent we have, not just in the valley but throughout Arizona in all different genres. That’s why I host a local show on Sunday nights called ‘Homegrown with Mo!’ It’s about an hour’s worth of handpicked music through submissions and word of mouth.”
“On top of the radio side of it, my wife and I also film our own ‘tiny desk-ish’ performances for YouTube and other social platforms because that’s where everyone is looking. I’m definitely looking to build Homegrown into something bigger than I ever have this year and next since the ten-year anniversary for that is coming up in August 2026.”
Follow The Mo Show @MoRoRadio on all platforms.
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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.
