Free Beer and Hot Wings

Photo from FBHW

We’re proud to announce that 97 Rock has teamed up with the all new Free Beer and Hot Wings Morning Show and as of January 9th, 2012 you’ll be able to catch the guys weekday mornings from 5-10am.

Here’s a little history on where the show got it’s name…

Instead of calling the show, The Gregg & Chris Show, which by all estimations would have been the most boring sounding radio show in the world, the decision was made to call it The Free Beer & Hot Wings Show, which seemed far more attention grabbing. It was admittedly nothing more than a cheap ploy to get people to listen under the false pretense that they may actually have a chance to win beer and/or hot wings. However, it was not intended that those two things would become permanently synonymous and attached to Gregg and Chris as nicknames, but that’s what happened and now they have to live with the consequences of their B.S. forever. Also, the reason Zane wasn’t given a food name is that, when he joined the show, he was already a well-known personality and frankly, another food name would have just been an overkill of stupidity.

Photo by FBHW

Freebeer – One of the founding members of the show since its inception in March of 1997, Free Beer runs the board and sets up most of the bits on the show. Free Beer is known for many verbal screw ups, a vast sports knowledge, and occasionally laughing like Ricky Ricardo from old episodes of “I Love Lucy”. Occasionally known on the show by the alternate nicknames “Burn King” and “El Matador”, Free Beer spends free time playing basketball, racquetball, tennis and video games and watching movies. Free Beer is married to his lovely wife, Amanda, and has two dogs, three cats, and a lot of fish.

Photo by FBHW

Hot Wings – The other founding member of the show and is from Lake Orion, Michigan which, for reasons unknown, is pronounced Or-ee-un instead of Oh-RI-un, like the constellation. Hot Wings, who is also known as “Mayor of Awesometown” and “Minista of Flava”, loves muscle cars and hates liberals. Hot Wings believes he can tell time just by looking at the sun. Hot Wings likes home improvement and knows just enough to be a pain in his own ass, taking on projects that seem easy, but take him weeks (see “Ultimate Sandbox”). Hot Wings also has 2 dogs (Zak and Bubba) and one cat (Setzer), which was a stray cat that Hot Wings almost ran over and is named after Brian Setzer who was the leader of an ’80s band called The Stray Cats. Get it? Gay? Yes.

Photo by FBHW

Producer Joe – He joined the show as a full-time, paid member in 2005 after working for free for several months and living in a glorified squat house with a community bathroom. Initially, Producer Joe was nearly inept, but The Show kept him around because he worked so cheap and was entertaining to watch as he gained and lost weight, earning him the nickname “Joprah”. He his also occasionally known as “Donkey Teeth” because of his giant, donkey-like front teeth. Now, Producer Joe is an invaluable and permanent part of the team. Though a lot of what he does takes place behind the scenes and after the show, you will hear him pop up on air from time to time when he thinks of inappropriate things to add to the conversation.

Photo by FBHW

Zane – His high school had a radio station and he wanted in! Highlights included getting drunk on the air and “scratching” records. He’d bust out some old school Public Enemy or Erik B and Rakim and try to “scratch.” He sucked. Then he was off to Central Michigan University. Zane worked at the station there and was able to somehow attain enough skill to get a paying gig in Saginaw, Michigan at WKQZ. He worked his way as an on-air DJ playing Ugly Kid Joe and Bon Jovi. Zane was asked to do mornings at about the time that he thought playing records was boring. Zane was going to leave radio to pursue the field associated with his degree (Health Science). But, opted to try the morning show. That was it. Zane has been doing mornings since (1995). Zane’s personal stuff: He’s an alcoholic. He quit drinking in June of 1996 and has never slipped. Zane has a highly addictive personality that has a potential to get him in some real trouble. His addictiveness makes it so he usually hyper-focuses on a few things at a time, and nothing else. Zane’s motto: Don’t lie. When you are honest, you don’t have to remember anything.

Photo by FBHW

Steve – He was born and raised in New Jersey…but no one from New Jersey calls it “New Jersey”. It’s simply “Jersey”. I grew up there, went to college there at Monmouth University. After realizing that I had no desire to take Microeconomics, I figured I’d be a Radio major and work for the college radio station, WMCX. Some highlights include interviewing awful bands, saying the F-word on the air a few times and excelling at mediocre radio. It got me a job, though. I worked for a number of years at 105.7 The Hawk, which is where my paths crossed with the Free Beer and Hot Wings show. I worked for the NHL in New York City for almost a year. Now I’m here. Random facts: At times, I’m a walking contradiction. I’ve run marathons, but in no way consider myself a runner. I make a mean tuna melt. If there’s a television show on about some blue-collar job, I probably watch it. That’s about it.