When Talk Media Network built its morning lineup, it needed someone who understood both the craft and the audience. Joe Thomas fits that description.
His show, First Thing Today, airs weekdays from 5 to 9 AM ET and Saturdays from 6 to 9 AM ET, and it’s making a distinct mark in a crowded space.
Thomas doesn’t think the show’s job is to tell listeners what to believe. He’s direct about it.
“I really believe that people get inundated by so many people saying ‘You must agree with me’ on their shows,” said Thomas. “I like to just lay it out there. I’ll tell them what I see in the tea leaves, but I’m not trying to sales pitch them an opinion. Their opinion is theirs, and if I do my job right, they’d agree with me — but I’m not going to try to make that an entry barrier.”
That philosophy drives every hour of First Thing Today. Listeners from San Antonio to Portland are responding — many in places where Joe Thomas was never a household name. He credits that connection to something simple — finding out how the news actually lands in real lives.
“I want to know how the news is impacting a listener where they are. We’ve got great response from folks in San Antonio and Portland and places nobody had ever heard of me before,” he joked. “They appreciate the fact that I’ll either read their words from a text message or take their phone call, and just try to find out how all this craziness is hitting them where they are. I can think something’s important, but if the listener doesn’t, then I’m losing.”
Years spent working across different markets built the instincts behind that approach. Thomas knows the difference between Lancaster, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania — and more importantly, he knows the people in both places share more than they might expect.
“There are common denominators of people’s lives, and you start from there and build out,” said Thomas. “Everyone’s got those things they’re proud of in their neighborhoods, but there are things that we all get hit with. Having experienced that, it makes it a lot easier for me to tap into what somebody is going through in Youngstown, Ohio, or Greenwich, Connecticut.”
Starting at 5 AM ET gives First Thing Today a competitive edge Thomas embraces fully. By the time other shows are warming up, his audience is already informed.
“It gives us a chance to get out there before everyone else starts spinning it,” Thomas said. “That’s refreshing, especially to the folks who live in central and further west, because they’re getting it at 4 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the morning, and so they’re really getting a jump start on what the stories are going to be.”
That advantage showed itself on New Year’s Day, when a terrorist attack struck New Orleans. First Thing Today was live and talking to people in the city while most of the media world was still catching up.
Saturdays represent another area where Joe Thomas pushed against convention. Most national shows treat the weekend as downtime. He rejects that entirely.
“The listener isn’t working Monday through Friday 9 to 5 anymore,” he shared. “The demographics have changed. Most people, if they don’t have a 5 day a week job, they have a 6 day a week job, or they’re doing a gig job. It’s not ‘hey, I’ve got the weekend off.’ They’re either working their second job, or their first job is a flex job that maybe goes Tuesday through Saturday. Saturdays are so much more of a regular work day for so many people — why would I skip that?”
Away from the microphone, Thomas is navigating the realities of station ownership at WTON in Staunton, Virginia. Challenges have come fast. WTON lost its transmitter tower lease — a blow Thomas calls typically fatal for AM operations. Through relationships built over 17 years in central Virginia, he found a path through it. He expects the station back at full strength soon. Still, the experience clarified something bigger about the state of the industry.
“These big national corporations are struggling with the debt they owe to Wall Street and they can’t focus on their number one customer, which is the listener,” the WTON owner said. “They’re too busy worrying about the customer on Wall Street. Each one’s 6%, 9% down — and it’s great opportunities for guys like me to be individual ownerships.”
Thomas also keeps a sharp eye on how competitors handle their stumbles. Rather than celebrating when a rival struggles, he sees it as a collective loss.
“There are lots of people who celebrate when one of our competitors does something wrong or gets in trouble. I hate that because it makes us all look bad,” Thomas concluded. “That’s either a listener or a client that says, ‘I don’t like radio anymore.’ I want us all to be successful so that we all have to just chase the best.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
