After Friday morning, Chris O'Brien and Janeen Coyle no longer will be Married with Microphones.
Chris, who started in radio 60 years ago next spring, and Janeen, who debuted on Cincinnati-area radio 45 years ago, are retiring from broadcasting after a Friday morning on-air party with their many friends.
"It will be a festive time," says Chris, 72, who came to Cincinnati's WKRQ-FM (Q102) to host evenings in March 1974, or 50 years ago next spring. Janeen was hired to do weekends at sister Taft Broadcasting station WKRC-AM in 1979, when she was 19, after working several months at Covington's tiny WCLU-AM (1320).
"It's time to sleep in," says Chris, who turns 73 in June.
For most of the past five decades, Chris has provided a witty wake-up call for Greater Cincinnati listeners. Janeen, his wife since 1985, joined him to co-host WGRR-FM mornings in 1995. They're as entertaining today as they were on Q102 in the 1970s.
"The biggest compliment we get from listeners is when they say, 'You sound just like us,' " O'Brien told me when I visited them during their show last week in Cumulus Media's Norwood studios.
"We can't begin to thank our listeners for their loyalty, many of them following us since our Q102 days in the '70s and '80s," Coyle says.
Chris left Q102 in the mid-1970s for a Chicago station, but returned in 1979 for the launch of the Q Morning Zoo with Jim Fox, Jim "Squirrel" Stadtmiller and newsman Scott Shively. By 1986, Chris would do the last hour solo while Fox did his program director chores. Janeen often came in early for his midday shift after they married in 1985.
Did they have any concerns about working together on the air?
"Back at the Q, she came in and did the last hour with me. We had a taste of it. It was another nine years before we could work together," Chris says.
"It was hard at first. But I never had any doubts it would work with the listeners." Janeen says. The couple won a prestigious Marconi Award last year for best large-market radio personality of the year from the National Association of Broadcasters.
When WLWT-TV primary news anchors Sheree Paolello and Mike Dardis announced their engagement in 2019, Chris and Janeen offered them advice in a story on my blog.
They encouraged the TV news team to talk about work at home; don't go to bed angry; and always drive to work in separate cars.
"The worst thing is to start off the day with an argument if he's driving too fast," Janeen says.
For years they drove individually from their Mason home. Chris gets up first, about 3:45 a.m., and wakes up Janeen before leaving the house. After their 5-9 a.m. show, Chris works with production things while Janeen works with sales people and administrative issues. Since last January, when Janeen had a knee replacement, they've been commuting in one car.
On WGRR-FM's "Greatest Hits" format, they're playing some of the same songs they played on Q102: Journey, Survivor, Prince, Elton John, Billy Joel, Madonna, Duran Duran, The Cars and Lionel Richie.
When Chris started on WGRR-FM mornings in 1991, with accordion-playing newsman Tony Michaels, they played 1950s hits by Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.
"Those songs were so short! Only two minutes! Not enough time to go to the bathroom," he says.
Technology has changed too. The songs were on CDs, commercials were on eight track-like carts, and interviews were recorded on reel-to-reel recorders. Now everything is done on a computer.
Chris began in radio at age 13 in 1964 hosting a half-hour show on WOLS-AM in his hometown of Florence, S.C. "We did remotes by telegraph," he jokes.
Janeen started at the Covington station while studying at the University of Cincinnati by taking a bus Downtown and transferring to a TANK bus to Latonia. "I was done (at the station) at 9 p.m. and had to hustle to catch the bus back to Cincinnati, or I had to wait two hours till the next one," she says.
She was Jerry Thomas' sidekick during mornings on WKRC-AM in 1995 before joining her husband at WGRR-FM. The name Married with Microphones came from the Enquirer headline on my story about them starting to work together in October 1995. Tempo section copy editor Lisa Sullivan, wife of sports columnist Tim Sullivan, wrote the headline.
"If it wasn't for her, we'd be doing the Janeen & Chris Show," Janeen told me when they announced their retirement in October. She will continue working as a real estate broker for RE/MAX United Associates, as she's done the past two years.
Asked to name their favorite studio guests, O'Brien rattles off a list from Who's Who: William Shatner, Kenny Rogers, comedian Tim Conway; singer Donny Osmond; actor Peter Faulk (Columbo); and musicians Peter Frampton, Gene Simmons and Davey Jones and Peter Tork from The Monkees.
"We've been very fortunate," O'Brien says.
And soon it will be over.
"It's hard to believe," he says.
Their Friday guests will include their former Q102 boss Randy Michaels; Marty Brennaman; regular morning show guests Randi Rico, John Matarese and astronomer Dean Regas; former radio coworkers Jim LaBarbara and Ernie Brown; former Reds outfielder George Foster; WCPO-TV's Tanya O'Rourke and Steve Raleigh; and GameDay publicist Kathrine Nero.
Chris and Janeen say they'll continue to be involved with the SCPA, Disabled American Veterans and the annual Dancing For The Stars fundraiser.
Do they expect to do radio again?
"I doubt it," Janeen says. Chris chimes in quickly, "Maybe a podcast on down the road."
