The Mikey Show: Reborn On San Diego's FM 94.9

Friday mornings are special on The Mikey Show. It's the day a live audience is allowed inside FM 94.9's brand-new Mission Valley studio. This is where Mike Esparza, Steve Woods, Sienna Feerrar (due back October 26 from maternity leave), Lauren O'Brien and Jay Isbell get paid to banter. They riff about their lives, the day's news and, literally, any shiny object that catches their collective eye.

Daniel Juarez and Mike Esparza.
Photo by Ron Donoho

Daniel Juarez is here in the studio audience today. He shaved his head the night before. And, he pasted some of that hair onto his chin as an ersatz goatee. Why? Juarez, a local stand-up comic (he recently gave the show a Lady GaGa-esque meat suit!?) wanted to imitate Mikey's look. The radio veteran and his newly bald-pated fan pose for a picture. Juarez stands about a head above the 5-foot-6 radio host. If asked to estimate their weights, though, you might guess the same for each.

Up until December 2009, The Mikey Show aired on a different San Diego radio channel. I'd tried to listen to that Rock 105 version of the morning program when it first hit town years ago. But the show's mean-spirited bits and dumbed-down antics turned me off.

The Rock 105 Mikey Show didn't catch my fancy. But it prank-phone-called and boob-joked it's way to the number-one spot in the morning. Unbeknownst to me, however, while I wasn't listening Mikey was making massive changes to the program—as well as to his personal lifestyle, both of which are decidedly intertwined.

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Over the course of two decades, Mike Esparza has worked in radio all over the country. He was a shock jock for a while, and was fired from gigs in Dallas and San Jose for comments listeners and management deemed harmful to child safety.

"Oh, when we were in Dallas, the show was dirty—filthy," says current Mikey Show cast member Woods, who worked in radio sales at Dallas' The Eagle. "On Fridays, they'd have strippers in the studio, and we'd have beer and get drunk—the whole thing."

Nowadays, Mikey ends every Friday shift by reading his testimony. In 2005, Esparza brought religion into his life. Think about this. Have you ever heard another secular, rock-and-roll radio station host break into a call-to-arms for Jesus Christ (and stay on the air)? Mikey does it every Friday, just before 10 a.m.

The mood in the radio studio shifts 180 degrees when Mikey begins his testimony. Woods and O'Brien hang up their microphones. Moments earlier, the in-studio audience was cracking up at Mikey's impersonation of Neil Diamond; Woods' singing like Dave Matthews; and O'Brien doing the voice of a dippy, Valley Girl weather gal.

But now Mikey is leaning into his microphone, staring almost blankly into space…

"At the end of the show on Friday, I tell my story," he begins. "As a kid I was the victim of sexual abuse, and this created a sense of shame and guilt. In my twenties, I drank and did drugs and had a terrible self-image. And by 2003, I was completely addicted to alcohol. I broke my dad's heart…

"One night, I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life…I've always been funny and had a way with words. But I've never been wise. Look at me, I'm an ordinary guy. But God wants me to come on the air. And if anybody hears me talking to them, go to our Web site, and click on the word HELP…"

The Web site links to a list of resources for people facing addiction, disorders and depression.

Mikey tells a bit more of his story, then he cues up an inspirational song called "Tunnel" by Third Day.

Later, in a subsequent interview, O'Brien says the religious aspect of the show initially made her hesitant. "I wasn't sure what I might be asked to be a part of," she says.

Jay Isbell, Lauren O'Brien and Steve Woods.
Photo by Ron Donoho

Woods says he loves the fact that his boss gets religious on the air.

"I'm not just saying that because I work for the guy," says Woods. "I'm religious, too, although Mikey is more diligent than I am. I pray. But I give him a crazy amount of respect for doing it. He hangs his proverbial balls out there, because there are some people that don't like it. But he does it just right—he doesn't jam it down your throat."

Woods talks about a cab driver who claimed The Mikey Show saved his life.

"This cabbie told us that one morning he'd decided he was going to kill himself," says Woods. "He got in his car and set out to drive off a cliff. But his radio dial was set to Rock 105, and he heard Mikey do his testimony. It spoke to him. And he didn't drive off the cliff."

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Credit social media for helping put together part of the new FM 94.9 Mikey Show. Woods knew Mikey from Dallas—but Mikey called him to be on the show only after Mikey's wife, Rebecca, noticed an interesting Facebook post by Woods. And Mikey discovered O'Brien on YouTube, by doing a search for videos of female San Diego comedians.

"I never thought they'd hire a girl off the street that had never done radio before," says O'Brien. "I had been getting ready to move to L.A."

Jay Isbell and Sienna Feerrar were both working for Clear Channel Communications when The Mikey Show was on the company's Rock 105 (KIOZ) station. Isbell was a promotions director; Feerrar worked on-air for various Clear Channel stations.

"When I first met Mikey he was doing nights on the air, and I didn't like him," says Isbell. "He had a lot of walls up and seemed pretty full of himself."

Feerrar had briefly teamed with the cheerier, Christianity-infused Mikey as a fill-in cast member near the end of his stint on the Rock 105 show. She subbed for Sky, an on-air personality who was out on maternity leave; Feerrar subsequently became pregnant herself during the stint (and is scheduled to come back to FM 94.9 on October 26).

For the record, Mikey doesn't want to stir up the circumstances around his leaving Rock 105. However, he writes on the 94.9 Web site: "In December of 2009, my radio crew decided to do a new radio show without me. I was unaware that they had signed new contracts with my former radio station, KIOZ, without me. I was devastated, confused and felt totally and completely rejected."

(No one from Rock 105's morning show responded to an email request for comment.)

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"I think Mikey is pretty much doing the same show now that he was doing over there [at Rock 105]" says Isbell. "It's just a different cast of characters."

Each member of the Mikey team talks about a sense of family. Even a live audience member sitting next to me during the show uses that word to describe the group: "It's a much more relaxed, family kind of show," notes avid fan Mike Gage.

The Mikey Show team poses with the studio audience.
Photo by Ron Donoho

"We all take turns making fun of one another—nothing is out of bounds," says Isbell. "We can all make fun of Mikey, because he's family. But you can't…"

Having watched the show live in-studio, I can attest to the smiles and the chemistry. This is a team that likes each other. They hang out sometimes after work; they plan vacation travel together.

The Mikey Show is a mixture of set-up comedy bits—my favorites include Mikey's nasal and breathy Captain Buzzkill, and O'Brien's wayward hippie songstress Eskimo Blue Water (whose real fake name is Judy Douche)—as well as hyper-personal information about their own lives.

Is it hard to live your life on the radio?

Kinda, sorta for O'Brien. "I have walls," she says. "I have always been hesitant. I like to be in control of the information I put out. I have a lot of layers. But the vulnerability is coming..."

It's not a problem for Feerrar. "I'm an open book—I'll laugh or cry on the air," she says. "My husband is more reserved but he knows what he signed up for—if he farts at the dinner table that might get mentioned on the air."

Mikey also calls himself an open book. But that wasn't always the case.

"A long time ago, I was always somebody different on the radio," he says. "I acted like Howard Stern. I tried to be cool with the ladies. I even tried to sound like a surfer. But my work is the best when I'm just being me—even when I'm not cool. People react to it. Listeners know when you're being real."

The Mikey Show format is simple: The cast talks with each other on-air for about 20-25 minutes, followed by 8-10 minutes of commercials. Talk, break, repeat. They have a list of topics scheduled for each segment. But if something comes up, they go off on the tangent.

Ratings? In the tangled realm of reporting ratings, depending on the demographic, Mikey says his show is anywhere from sixth to ninth. "I'm not used to that," he sighs. "It's humbling, and it hurts."

The Show, the current Rock 105 morning offering from his ex-crew, is currently beating his show, he says.

The new Mikey Show has been on FM 94.9 since February 1, and the host thinks many people don't know he's back on the air on a different channel.

And so he toils on, and takes comfort in his faith.

"This is all for my good," says Mikey. "This is building my patience, which builds character. This is simply a season. I'm actually very lucky. I am blessed. And I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life."