BJ Shea’s illustrious career in rock radio started with a cassette recorder, some friends, and an affinity for the art of audio entertainment in a pre-podcast world – but a few morning shows and legendary allies later, an invitation to host a mental health-focused radio show in the late 2010s led to his most proud career moment to date.
“It started in Massachusetts; I’m originally from the East Coast,” he shares.
Shea recalls that “a lot of kids in my school ended up doing a lot of things they weren’t supposed to be doing…Me? I bought a couple of cassette recorders and decided to do little recordings. I had a buddy of mine that also kind of wanted to do stuff like this. He was a tough guy, but he ended up really being very creative. In those days, if you showed any signs of not being a tough guy, it seemed like it was detrimental. But I never was a tough guy, so I didn’t care what people thought of me.”
While Shea and his friend messed around with audio equipment in search of a fun hobby, he unknowingly launched his journey toward broadcast media. “We didn’t know we were doing radio stuff, but we were doing all sorts of bits and different comedy pieces…and that was my first sort of foray into audio entertainment without really realizing it. And then I would call in radio stations to try to win tickets to ball games,” he says.
It took a while for Shea to connect the dots. “I just didn’t make the connection that I was really doing audio entertainment – whether I was trying to get tickets or whether I was doing the stuff with my friend. I thought I wanted to be in the supermarket business and tried that for a while, but my mouth used to get me in trouble with management because I was very outspoken.”
Ultimately, a career as a broadcaster made itself known for Shea, as his support systems encouraged him to pursue roles entertaining people through audio. He says of his light-bulb moment, “I never got into radio for music; I got into radio to be an entertainer. I never cared about the music they played; I cared about the people coming on and whatever they were doing that was fun and entertaining.”
“I’m very agnostic musically,” he admits, confessing his love for any music with a pop streak. “I’m very bubblegum, which is so bizarre since I’m this rock guy – I’ve been working in rock music for a long time. But I do bend towards bubblegum. Avril Lavigne – people make fun of me because I love Avril.”
Of his beginnings in broadcasting, Shea recalls, “I was at a college station in the late ‘70s, got my first job somewhere in the early ‘80s… and eventually I got my big break in 1988 getting to go to Rochester, working for Brother Wease at WCMF. One of the best talents ever to be in the business…that’s where I really learned how to do radio.”
Ultimately, a friendship with Bob Rivers led him closer to hosting his first morning radio show.
“That became a really good friendship, but also he was a big advocate for me. He really thought I was talented…somebody who’s as good as he is and has accomplished what he’s accomplished, the fact that he thinks as well of me as he does is really quite special and humbling, actually. He’s a hall-of-dang-famer.”
After “bouncing around the country a bit,” Shea found himself in the Pacific Northwest, which ended up being a good fit for his on-air persona. “I realized that I’m kind of a geeky, sort of sensitive, new-age guy…and Seattle just seemed to be the right place for that kind of person,” he says.
When it comes to what makes good radio, Shea believes the markers of a great host – improvisation, the ability to be entertaining off the top of your head, and great storytelling – make radio an art form. He says this categorization of the work is often overlooked.
“It is something that I cry and scream and whine about a lot at conventions or to anybody who will listen is that there’s not enough people remembering that that’s what this is – this is a performing art. It’s a performance,” he says. “All of the science of trying to get the best ratings, and all of the business of trying to make the most profit – all of those mixed together has just pushed the art aside, and we’ve forgotten that we’re still an art. I haven’t, myself.”
While there are radio talents that put on great shows across the country in different ways, Shea reflects on what it means to have a microphone in front of you while you guide listeners toward the next tune. “There are a lot of people who aren’t performers on the radio,” he shares. “We don’t have casting directors in radio. But we’re an art, and I will always say we are.”
In 2017, BJ helped with the launch of Audacy’s mental health-focused broadcast initiative, I’m Listening, which held a really special place for him in his career.
“Mental health is really special to me because I had a lot of issues. I was a very verbally abusive person, and it was affecting my children,” he recalls. “I said… ‘I don’t want to be this way, and my kids don’t want this,’ so I started going to therapy about 20 years ago, and it had a profound effect on my life.”
“I learned how to really take a look at my thoughts,” he remembers of starting therapy for the first time. “I thought it was fascinating and wonderful.”
Between beginning his own therapeutic journey and his experience seeing the effects of neglected mental health on loved ones, Shea sought out ways to make a difference in his community.
“I just was very adamant that I would love to help get the word out and get more research done, and there were some great people here in Seattle that we were able to connect with,” Shea says.
He remembers of the broadcast’s beginnings, “Dave Richards, who was my program director and also the operations manager of the market at the time, he went to the company and said he would like to do something amazing and asked me if I would be part of that as well.” Shea looks back on his eager agreement fondly, having mental health already top of mind at the time the idea came to fruition.
“I’m Listening was born from that. Dave and so many great people put that together, I just had to come in and host it, but the amount of people that were involved to make this happen is one of the greatest things I’ve ever been a part of,” he shares.
“And I think it’s wonderful that Audacy gave us the time, gave us the ability, gave us the resources to do this, because it’s such an important subject, especially for men to hear other men say that they go to therapy. It’s not something that’s discussed in society, but more and more, it’s happening.”
Shea’s camaraderie with the mental health community combined with an opportunity to put his first-hand journey to use on air led to a professional moment that he will remember with elation for the rest of his career.
“I’m just so happy that I got to be part of that. I consider it probably the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my career and probably will ever do in my career,” he says.
BJ Shea can be heard across the Seattle airwaves every morning on iHeart’s 102.5 KZOK, “BJ & Sarah Mornings.”
