Charli McKenzie is the morning co-host and Music Director for Country Y100 in Green Bay/Appleton, WI. She has been in mornings at Y100 for 20 years.
And now she has decided to step down at the end of July to pursue other opportunities. We will get to that in a minute, but first, I wondered why, after 20 years, she decided it was time to step away now.
“Because I feel like 20 years, I’ve had an amazing morning show here, and my daughters, who are 13 and 16 years old, want to go back home to a smaller town.”
“To be truthful, and the opportunity is arising. I’m being offered all these opportunities to do radio out of my house, which was always the end goal, and it’s already able to happen.”
“I’m going to have a home studio, and I’ve got some things lined up already. It was just time for a different pace. That’s the long and short of it. I’m really excited. We’re building a house up there. I’m going back to my hometown and still going to be able to keep my toes in Country music, which makes me happy.”
Shotgun and Charli are the current Y100 morning show.
“Shotgun hired me 20 years ago and was my boss. He started at Y100, and within the year, he decided to do a bigger market. He left me cause he’s a jerk, just kidding. We stayed good friends, and we kept in touch. When he moved back to the area, my partner at the time, Bear O’Brien, was retiring, and I thought, oh my God, let’s do this.”
“I asked him if he would be willing to come hang out with me every day. Be up with his best friend, and it just so happened the company wanted him, and it worked. We’ve been together eight years. He really is my best friend, this is no joke. So it’s fun, we have a very laid-back show here.”
McKenzie credits several factors for her longevity.
“Because I am a Midwest girl and Green Bay and Appleton are very special places. The people are awesome. They are down home. It’s where I grew up, so to stay here and have such a Country music community where everybody seems like Country. That’s why I stayed. And then my company is one of the last best companies in the world. And I will say that all day, they’re amazing.”
Midwest Communications owns Y100 and six other stations in the Appleton/Green Bay market.
What advice would McKenzie have for someone hoping to create that kind of longevity?
“Have fun. Because if you’re not having fun and you’re already tired of getting up, it never gets easier. I’ve been getting up for 20 years, and I still am tired and whiny in the morning at first. You have to have a hunger and want to do it because mornings are the best.”
“At some point, even with kids and busy little kids, I managed to make it work because you have your afternoons free. If you are in mornings right now and you hate it, this may not be who you are because it’s never going to get easier, but it’s fun.”
“Make sure you get out there in the community and go meet the people. That is still the best. The hometown handshake will always overtake anything you can do on social media. Look, you need social media because we’ve got to keep these younger folk listening to our radio stations. But going outside and meeting them will always get you winning numbers, always.”
McKenzie thinks social media, streaming and Spotify have changed the way radio presents music.
“That’s one of the biggest things. We’re like, here’s the brand new single from Parker McCollum. And people will be like, I’ve been listening to that for three months, because streaming is overtaking what we’re doing. We’ve got to try to stop that as far as we need to be the place people go for the music.”
As Music Director of the station, McKenzie will miss the relationships and friendships she has made with artists over the years.
“I think the best was when I got to beat Riley Green at golf. When I see Dierks Bentley and Luke Bryan right now and Lee Brice, it’s always like, remember when? Because we’ve been growing up in this together. We’ve been doing this for 20 years. The only difference is they’re rich and I’m not. Right? But they remember you.”
Will the proliferation of AI derail the path for someone like McKenzie to have a 20-year morning run?
“Here’s the problem with AI. Right now, I think we can see it. We can hear it. The listeners are not fools.”
“AI, to me, when we’ve tried to use it, it sounds a little computer-generated. However, every day, it’s getting better and better. And it does freak me out a little bit that AI will take over a lot of what our job in radio is, and that worries me to death.”
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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.
