Mikey and Bob have been doing radio in Pittsburgh for more than 22 years. Their friendship started even earlier, on a little league field. Today, they co-host mornings on iHeartRadio’s 96.1 KISS the show has no producer, no regular guests and no canned radio bits. Instead, it runs on two best friends and a loyal audience.
In a recent feature with my buddy DJ Bonics, he told me Mikey and Bob are two people he believes are doing great radio, so I wanted to catch up with them and pick their brains. I had each host answer the same questions separately. Their answers matched in spirit. However, a few details did not line up, and that makes the story better.
Two Kids, Two Different Memories
Mikey and Bob have been friends since playing baseball together as kids. Bob remembers that time as a haze. “Little league is kind of a blur,” he says. A local butcher called J and S Meats sponsored his team. Naturally, the other kids found a chant. “Kids would chant we beat the meats when our team lost,” Bob says.
Mikey, on the other hand, remembers every swing. The two attended different elementary schools, so baseball became their shared world. “Bob was always a little bit thicker so, even in little league, when he got a hold of one, it was GONE,” Mikey says.
One hit still lives in local legend. “He hit a ball not just over the fence but over the train tracks that were just beyond the fence,” Mikey says. Parents talked about it for weeks.
Another hit went differently. The junior high field had no fence. “Bob actually WAVES goodbye to the baseball and starts a home run trot,” Mikey says. Then the ball kept rolling. The left fielder chased it down and threw it in. Mikey calls it “the longest double anyone has ever witnessed in little league baseball.”
Bob keeps his own version short. “I pitched a little and hit home runs,” he says.
Mikey’s dad coached the team, and he knew how to calm a frustrated pitcher. “Hey, Bobby, why don’t you smile? It’s not that serious!” he would yell. Mikey says it worked “every single time.”
The Contract and the Parking Lot
Earlier this year, the pair signed a four-year extension with 96.1 KISS. Mikey felt relief first. “Negotiating is awkward and we were just happy to lock it in and keep doing what we do,” he says.
Then the jolt hit. “The amount of ELECTRICITY that was pulsing through me when I sent that Docusign back on that extension, WOO!” he says. That night, the two called each other. “So, yeah, I guess keep doing it then, huh?”
Bob took a calmer view. “I stopped living in fear of us losing our job years ago,” he says. As a result, no big celebration followed. “We were happy when it was signed but we were honestly ok with moving on,” he says.
Then came Stuff-A-Bus. Bob and Mikey stood in a parking lot and talked with listeners who have followed them for 22 years. Those fans shared “their best days and worst along with ours,” Bob says. The conversation shifted. “It honestly brought us back to talking about staying.”
Roles on the Mic
Every duo needs a split of duties. Bob takes the breaks. “I am a great #2,” he says. “Best in the world some say.” He thrives when a segment turns messy. “I work well in the chaos of a break trying to put the puzzle together to make people laugh or throw the lay up to Mike,” he says.
Mikey, meanwhile, envies one thing. “His laugh. It’s 1 of 1,” he says. The station keeps a one-minute clip of Bob’s best laughs. Fans request it on rough days. “Give them 1 minute of Bob laughs and the world just feels like a warmer place,” Mikey says.
No Guests, No Producer, No Fights
The show breaks a few radio habits. “We don’t have guests and don’t do the regular radio canned bits,” Bob says. Mikey agrees. “We’re morning show unicorns.”
Nobody sits behind the glass, either. “We never had a third person or a producer no matter how many times one was promised to us,” Bob says. Instead, the audience fills the chair. “Our listeners have always been that third person on the show.”
The pandemic made that bond clear. Mikey says it showed the hosts “how much WE needed them as much as THEY needed us.” Likewise, the toy drive keeps proving it. “When someone stands outside in the cold for 25 minutes just to tell you about the thing that always makes their kids laugh when they listen to us… that’s the good stuff,” he says.
The Punch and the Gold Medal
Disagreements are rare. “We don’t disagree. We don’t argue,” Mikey says. Still, both hosts remember one exception, and they tell it almost the same way.
Bob’s version goes first. In high school, he says, he got drunk at a party and tried to steal a taco from Mike. “He punched me… the party came to a screeching halt,” Bob says. “I ended up with a black eye.”
Mikey confirms the hit. “I did punch him in the face one time, but that was back when we were younger and there MIGHT have been some drinking involved,” he says. Both men say they laughed right after. “We are best friend tag team champions,” Mikey says.
The pair also trade tall tales about each other. Bob says Mike was “a Jr Olympic world champion ice dancer.” Mikey claims the opposite. “He won an ice dancing gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics in Japan,” he says. Mikey says Bob revealed it on his first night of drinking beers. “He drank about 12 Bud Ice and then put on a science fair medal I had at my house and told everyone about his Nagano victory.”
Their backup careers are just as strange. “If we were not in radio, we would be senior care home exotic dancers,” Bob says. Mikey remembers a more realistic start. The two once stocked shelves together in the back of a shoe store. “That’s where a lot of the magic of the show really started,” he says.
When the Show Gets Real
In September, the hosts talked on air about a listener named Canadian Bacon Brandon, who died by suicide. His wife reached out first. “It’s real life,” Bob says. “It was suicide prevention month. You never know what her talking about it on the show could mean to someone else listening.”
Mikey says the team cleared the segment with her before sharing it. Callers become friends over the years, he explains. “You get used to their voices and their little quirks when they call in. And then you get a message one day that just stops you.” As a result, the hosts do not avoid hard moments. “It’s in those moments that allow us to show our compassion and our humanity,” he says. Listeners answered with calls and kind messages for his family.
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Stuff-A-Bus: The Championship Week
Bob calls Stuff-A-Bus “the biggest week of the year.” The station plans for twelve months, and the city shows up in force. The Friday finale carries the most weight. “The Friday morning show where we wrap it up and give the final bus count is the absolute closest we will ever get to feel what it feels like to win a championship for the city,” Bob says.
For Mikey, the week is personal. His father backed the drive every year. “Dad would always leave me a voicemail after the toy drive just telling us how proud he was of both of us and the city of Pittsburgh,” Mikey says. The first drive after his dad died hit hard. “Broke me pretty bad to not hear him.”
Now Mikey honors him in a quiet way. “I wear an old shirt of his every year now at Stuff-A-Bus just so I can feel like he’s still there with us,” he says.
Head to Head: The Speed Round
Each host got the same rapid-fire prompts. Here is how they stacked up.
Round 1: Who shows up to the studio first?
Bob: “Mike loads everything in the am and is in first. The joy of not having a producer.”
Mikey: “Me. Unless we’re talking about the morning I trusted a fart that I should have on the way in. Bob beat me that day.”
Verdict: Mikey, with a fart-sized asterisk.
Round 2: Who is the bigger planner and who is the bigger improviser?
Bob: “I do the basic show prep email the night before and I think I am the biggest improviser also.”
Mikey: “Bob is definitely the planner, I’m the WILD CARD.”
Verdict: Both men claim the improviser crown.
Round 3: Who gets recognized more in public?
Bob: “We both look like we belong in a Star Wars bar. Mikey is 6’9, he can’t hide anywhere. Pittsburgh is full of plenty of big guys with mustaches, I can blend in a little easier.”
Mikey: “Bob has an INCREDIBLE mustache and I think he gets ‘HEY BIG BOB’d a lot more than I would get ‘HEY MIKEY’d.”
Verdict: Bob, thanks to the mustache.
Round 4: Who is the worst loser?
Bob: “Does anyone like to lose…”
Mikey: “We live in the CITY OF CHAMPYINZ! Can’t lose here! Probably me though.”
Verdict: Mikey confesses, and Bob dodges.
Round 5: “My co-host would absolutely lose a bet about…”
Bob: “Trusting a fart.”
Mikey: “Being able to roll his R’s when trying to speak Spanish or say a Spanish word.”
Verdict: Bob lands the cleaner shot, and Mikey’s own story backs it up.
Why It Works
After 22 years, the formula looks simple. Two friends show up, trust each other and let the audience in. They stay honest about the hard days and silly about the rest. In the end, Mikey says it best. “I get to work with my best friend every day and I don’t take that for granted.”
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