Todd Schnitt, the host of The Schnitt Show, may end his program in two weeks, but his successful career will continue. He’s been in syndication for over 20 years and was heard in 75 markets, solidifying his impact on audiences.
Along with hosting The Schnitt Show, Todd also leads a team of five on The MJ Morning Show, which airs on the legendary Q105 in Tampa. He enjoys entertaining his morning listeners without any political content.
At 16, Todd started his career journey and has remained passionate about the industry ever since. In 1976, his family relocated from New York to Virginia Beach, where Todd discovered radio stations that captivated him in Southeastern Virginia.
He was pleasantly surprised to learn that he could even tune in to 77 WABC in New York during early mornings and evenings. As a keen learner, Todd’s inquisitive nature drove him to delve into the intricacies that make radio a possibility.
During the early months of 1994, Schnitt was contacted by Marc Chase, who was then programming the “Power Pig” WFLZ-FM. Chase was relocating to Cincinnati to work for Jacor Communications and informed Schnitt of a job opportunity. After driving three hours, Schnitt met with executives and was informed the following day that he would become the new host of a morning drive show that became known as the MJ and BJ Morning Show.
Todd launched The Schnitt Show during his time on The MJ Morning Show, shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Although many assume the program started on 970 WFLA in Tampa, it originated on WIOD in Miami because Glenn Beck was given his national show by Premiere Networks after 9/11.
However, he was still doing afternoon drive in Tampa. The idea was for Beck to continue until the end of 2001 and then have Schnitt take over the 3-6 afternoon drive slot with The Schnitt Show in Tampa.
Over the past 22 years, Schnitt has been juggling multiple responsibilities. As a result, he has had to prioritize and determine what matters most to him. He acknowledges that the media landscape has evolved significantly and admits that his talk show is not as enjoyable as it used to be. Schnitt finds pleasure in entertaining and engaging with his audience on Q105.
In a recent conversation with Barrett News Media, Schnitt looks back on his experiences in syndication, shares his concerns regarding the current state of media, and explains why music-intensive formats are conducive to producing exceptional talk radio hosts.
RH: As you reflect on your experience in syndicated radio, what accomplishment brings you the greatest sense of pride?
TS: For a smaller syndicated show, I reached a peak of about 75 affiliates in some really good markets. We had San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Raleigh/Durham, Tampa, and Miami. I think I hold the record for being the longest-running talk show host on WIOD Miami.
I am proud of the fact that we were able to do an engaging show. I always describe myself as a very, very independent conservative. We can talk about some of the pitfalls and the problems that I have with talk radio now.
RH: Expanding on the topic, how has talk radio evolved, and what changes have you noticed?
TS: It’s not just talk radio; it’s all the media in this genre. I think with cable news, whether it be MSNBC, Fox News Channel (FNC), CNN, or Newsmax. It’s become so polarized and toxic, and talk radio, which is mostly conservative, as you know, doesn’t escape that fact. It’s not as fun for me as it used to be, it’s just become an angry, toxic environment, and people don’t want to listen to reason; people have written off facts. Again, this is a major issue with all media. It’s TV, it’s radio, it’s internet, and social platforms have even made this worse.
Twitter, at this point, is worse than a porta-potty at the state fair that hasn’t been cleaned in six weeks. It’s an absolute cesspool. I felt as a talk show host as host of The Schnitt Show, there’s a responsibility to be factual, and unfortunately, I think a lot of the hosts in my genre are not telling the audience the truth. They’re telling a lot of uneducated morons what they want to hear.
There’s a talk radio responsibility. Again, it’s not just talk radio, it’s media in general that pours flammable liquid on the conspiracies, and they’re watching things light up like nitrite film in Inglorious Bastards (laughs).
You have hosts that are afraid to lose the audience, so they appease and pander to the nuttiest fringe elements. They won’t call out [Donald] Trump. Trump had good and bad, but they (conservative media) wouldn’t call out the bad. You have hosts that would embrace QAnon crap or ‘Where we go one, we go all crowd folks.’ We know this is a fact, there are big names in talk radio who have been caught red-handed saying one thing on the air to their audience, then saying a completely different thing off the air in emails and text messages, and that’s bullshit. That’s a problem.
There is a responsibility as hosts to tamp down the conspiracy garbage and not make it worse, and that is so problematic out there. For me, Fox News is unwatchable. The nighttime shows on Fox News are like MTV. I call it Moron TV these days. MSNBC is the same on the other side of the aisle. It’s not mutually exclusive here, I’m equally disgusted. I was on Newsmax [TV] for three years. For three years, my first hour of The Schnitt Show was televised on Newsmax in the early days of the fledging network. (Schnitt’s 3-4 EST hour was on TV for three years on Newsmax).
RH: In your press release, you mentioned that you have been working two daily jobs for more than 20 years. Did you choose to focus solely on The MJ Morning Show only because of this, or were there other factors, such as the changing media landscape, that influenced your decision?
TS: I think it’s cumulative. I wouldn’t say that it was the environment that totally got me to drop Schintt. At this point in my life, I’m 57 years old, I’ve been doing this since I was 16 years old. I’ve been doing this for 41 years, and what do I enjoy most? I enjoy doing The MJ Morning Show the most. The driving factor was doing one show a day.
It’s not like the content drove me away, it frustrated me, but the real driving factor here was doing one show a day, which is a full-time job on its own. I’ve got four people with me on the team; I’ve got a five-person morning show. I realize that’s what I enjoy most. We are politics-free; we do no politics on the morning show. It’s all pop culture; it’s engagement, its personal stories. To me, I think it’s great morning radio, what we’re doing on The MJ Morning Show, and of course, it’s on the legendary Q105 (WRBQ in Tampa).
Incidentally, everything comes full circle. Q105 Tampa is where Scott Shannon invented the Morning Zoo format in the early 1980s. (Schnitt worked for Scott Shannon at Pirate Radio, KQLZ, in Los Angeles. Schnitt also joined Shannon again for the relaunch of WPLJ in New York).
Ryan Hedrick: Why do ex-music DJs like Rush Limbaugh transition well to news/talk formats?
Todd Schnitt: That’s why Rush Limbaugh was such a phenomenal entertainer. You might not have agreed with all of Rush Limbaugh’s politics, but there was no question that he was a talented broadcaster.
I one hundred percent agree that his time as a music disc jockey helped him with the presentation and the timing, and he had an entertainment quality to his show that absolutely came from his time as a Top 40 jock.
RH: Apart from their presentation skills and timing, what makes many Top 40 radio hosts successful in the news/talk genre?
TS: It’s the speed of delivery, the engagement, it’s packing entertainment into short spaces. In many cases, it teaches you discipline. I think that’s why a lot of successful talk hosts came out of Top 40 radio.
RH: Have you altered your morning show strategy considering the inclusion of video and social media into the show?
TS: It expands the product. It gives more ways for listeners to engage. Social media has its pluses and minuses. As far as humanity goes, I think social media is a net negative on what it’s done for our children, body dysmorphia, all of the mental anguish, and the pressures that are put on our teenagers today.
