Wednesday marked the one year anniversary since 1040 WHO announced that Jeff Angelo would move to the main chair in its popular morning drive program.
Angelo wasn’t an unknown to the 1040 WHO audience. He had previously hosted in the 9-11 AM timeslot. He also hosted in mornings on an interim basis after the departure of previous hosts Maxwell Schaeffer and Amy Sweet.
While reflecting on his first full-year in morning drive, Jeff Angelo used the word “evolution” to describe that timeframe.
“It’s been an amazing evolution of the program into what I and my coaches had wanted it to be,” Angelo said. “This is, of course, one of the most awarded radio stations in the country. The morning show has been hosted by people that are now in the Radio Hall of Fame. You start off with this incredible sense of responsibility and at the same time, you also have to think within yourself ‘Where is the show going? How do you make the show relevant to the modern news/talk audience?”
Angelo — who, in addition to his time in radio, spent three terms as an Iowa State Senator from 1997-2009 — credited iHeartMedia Vice President of News/Talk/Sports Programming Grace Blazor and 1110 KFAB Program Director and midday host Scott Voorhees for helping fuel that evolution of his show.
“I would do coaching calls with them via video, and we basically started the whole experience off with saying, ‘What does the modern listener come to the morning news/talk show for? What do they want? And how do you continually refine the program to become one morning listeners in Iowa want?’
Well, eight weeks ago, the show went to number one in the ratings book,” said Angelo. “And then the next ratings book came out, and it was number one again. That’s just gratifying. You actually have a qualifiable way to see that the work that you’ve been putting in and the coaching of Grace and Scott was paying off. It is the 101st year (of 1040 WHO) and you’re tuning up the show for the new audience, the next generation of news/talk listeners. So when that ratings book came out and said that this venerable radio station in it’s 101st year was back at number one in the state, that was just incredibly gratifying to me.”
Jeff Angelo admitted that there were bumps along the road to returning the show and station to top status in the market, noting that “people attach themeslves to people that they hear on the air,” so when the morning show changes were enacted it took time for listeners to get into a routine.
“There’s actually a grieving process for listeners to go through, where the people that used to be there that they have become attached to become an essential part of their day,” said Angelo. “They’re not there anymore. And part of that process is there’s this new person, and he’s not doing it the way it has been done in the past.”
But, through persistence and reliability, Jeff Angelo has built a rapport with the morning audience on 1040 WHO.
“If you’re somebody that’s gonna just drone on and on about the topics of the day, that’s not somebody that a listener voluntarily exposes themselves to,” he shared. “They have a lot of choices today and they need to really enjoy what they’re hearing. So I do try to bring a lot of energy and humor and an unusual side, and even goofiness. Over time, I needed to really come to understand what the listener wanted from a morning show and invite them to be part of the conversation.
“I’ve been in radio since I was 19 years old and this is the show I’d always dream of. This show, if you put all the elements together with the help of the coaches, is the show that I always wanted to do. This is the person I’ve always wanted to be on the air. When you can come away from the show at 9 o’clock every morning and say ‘I’m really proud of what just happened,’ that’s very gratifying as a person that loves radio and has always wanted to be in radio. This is my dream job, my dream career, and I could not be more blessed to be doing what I do.”
Despite the success of the program, Jeff Angelo believes there’s always room for improvement.
“I’m always in constant improvement mode,” he admitted. “I never ever want to say ‘Well, this is exactly where I wanna be with the show. Can’t be any better.’ For me, personally, I’m always trying to ask the questions that are in the listeners’ minds whenever I have a guest on. And sometimes I can go back to an interview and say ‘Oh, you let the guest go on and on. You didn’t really challenge them on a certain point that they made.’ Or ‘You didn’t lead off the interview with the question that at the top of everyone’s mind,’ which is what the listener expects.
“So, a lot of times in my eye, I go back and listen to my interactions with guests and even callers and say ‘Did I ask the right questions? Did I respond appropriately so the person that was listening can say well that’s what I would’ve asked if I had been in the situation?’ So I always think that there is there’s improvement in that particular area.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
