WDJX Pin

Enjoy 90 Minutes With Pete and Joe
by Chris Goodman - The Crimson Record, May 1989

"THANK YOU LOLA!" yelled Peter B. (just "b") after Lola Lee's newscast, with his hands on the radio controls, his headphones on, and his mouth to the microphone. He's just half of the "Pete and Joe sandwich" you can digest every weekday morning on radio station WDJX between 5:30 and 9:00 a.m.

"We're smokin'," said Joe Caruso, Peter B's counterpart and the other half of the great sub. Together, their colorful and creative humor has earned them the number 4 spot in the rating battle of morning radio.

Some of their main competition includes Ron Clay's Asylum on WQMF, whose off color bathroom humor has earned the second spot in the ratings. Also, Wayne Perkey on WHAS, whose morning show stresses information, is number one by a large margin. 'There's no way we can beat Wayne," Joe jokingly commented, "with all of the Guns and Roses and Def Leppard music on that program."

Joe describes the Pete and Joe morning show as "something new and different in morning shows." Some of their unique "bits" include the Answering Machine Olympics and Friday's "Blow Up Your Boss," where listeners call in and yell "BEND OVER," and then a nuclear bomb-like sound effect makes a "blowing up" noise.

Prior to working in Louisville, Pete and Joe both worked at WLS radio in Chicago, but never as a team. They discovered that they were compatible and thought about doing a morning show. They applied at WDJX, among other places, and got the job.

Half of the jokes and bits you hear on the show every morning are spontaneous. However, they put a lot of work into their show. Joe says, "For every hour we spend on the air, we prep a hour." Pete continued, "You can only do so much planning for a joke." They get some of their material from magazine articles, newspaper clippings, The American Comedy Network (ACN) and "life experiences in the Derby City."

Pete and Joe both agree that they are comfortable in Louisville right now. They have received other job offers in cities as big as Houston, but they neither deny that "if the right opportunity comes along, we'd be foolish not to consider it," They didn't "define" what the "right" opportunity would be.

The man sometimes laughing in the background in Jack Anderson who does traffic reports. He made the statement, "Just your normal delays," famous.

WDJX-FM says the ratings setback it experienced in the most recent Arbitron survey had nothing to do with this week's changes in its lineup of disc jockeys.

Last Friday was Jim Parker's final day on the afternoon shift after two years. Parker will join WZPL in Indianapolis. Chris Randolph was scheduled to take over the 2 to 6 p.m. duties yesterday.

Parker said his departure was a friendly one, but he also indicated that he was left out of the new alignment. WDJX program director Chris Shebel declined to comment.

Mike Shannon, formerly with a St. Louis station, will be the new personality from 6 to 10 p.m.

Christopher Randolph (August 30, 1989)
3:02 - 2141 KB

WDJX FM & AM [Various] (1989)
2:55 - 2054 KB