Morning zoo is a format of morning

radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio netwo ...

common to English-language radio

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...

. The name is derived from the wackiness and zaniness of the activities, segments, and overall personality of the show and its hosts. The morning zoo concept and name is most often deployed on Top 40 (CHR) radio stations. A morning zoo typically consists of two or more radio personalities, usually capable of spontaneous comic interaction as well as competent delivery of news and service elements. Most morning zoo programs involve scripted or live telephone calls, on-air games, and regular contests.

History

The first morning zoo program, focusing on the zany interactions of two hosts, was conceived and performed in 1981 by Scott Shannon and Cleveland Wheeler of WRBQ-FM in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough ...

, known at the time as Q105 FM. Wheeler had been serving as the personality DJ hosting the morning drive program for the station's previous four years. Shannon was the new operations manager in January 1981. The two decided to break with tradition and work up a wilder show together, founded on their own playful, irreverent and provocative interaction, with spontaneous bits of parody and comedy leavened with straight news. They called the show the ''Q Morning Zoo'', and it quickly became a hit. At its height it had 85 people working to produce it. (Prior to this development, radio station

KZEW KZEW (101.7 FM, "The Zoo") is a radio station broadcasting an adult contemporary music format. Licensed to Wheatland, Wyoming, United States, the station is currently owned by Smith Broadcasting, Incorporated, and features programming from NBC N ...

in Dallas was known as "the Zoo" because of its call letters. Beginning in September–October 1976, morning DJ Charlie Kendall hosted a zany show initially named ''Zooloos In Your Morning'', the name being a wordplay on the

Zulu people Zulu people (; zu, amaZulu) are a Nguni ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated 10–12 million people, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Nata ...

. However, Kendall's was a one-man show, not a "zoo" with multiple radio personalities.) In July 1983, Shannon left Tampa to reinvent WHTZ "Z-100" in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

market, based out of

Secaucus, New Jersey Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,Don Imus in second place. When WHTZ proved a huge success, the name and format of the "Morning Zoo" was copied by stations across the US.

John Gorman John Gorman may refer to: *John Gorman (director) (1884–1936), American movie director * John Gorman (entertainer) (born 1936), English vocalist and musician *John Gorman (politician) (1923–2014), Northern Ireland politician *John Gorman (footb ...

was a program director at

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

rock station WMMS when they adopted the morning zoo concept in early 1984. Gorman traced the sequence of events: Tampa's WRBQ continued to run the morning zoo show after Shannon left; Wheeler teamed with Terrence McKeever and others to keep the show a success. Other US stations that adopted the morning zoo program in the early-to-mid-1980s include KKBQ-FM in Houston in 1982, WRVQ in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, in April 1983, WNIC with the "Harper & Gannon" show by early 1983,

KMEL KMEL (106.1 FM) is an urban contemporary radio station that is licensed to San Francisco, California, and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. KMEL has studios located in the SoMa district, and broadcas ...

in San Francisco in early 1984,

KFMB-FM KFBG (100.7 FM, "100.7 Big FM") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to San Diego, California and broadcasts an adult hits format. The station is owned by Local Media San Diego. It shares studios with LMSD's other stations in the ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

, by late 1984, WZOU in Boston by November 1984,

WGTZ WGTZ is a commercial FM station licensed in Eaton, Ohio at 92.9 MHz serving the Dayton and Springfield market area with an adult hits format, branded as "92-9 Jack FM." It is currently owned by Portland, Oregon-based Alpha Media. Its stud ...

"Z-93" in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County, Ohio, Greene County. The 2020 United S ...

in March 1985, WKPE-FM in Orleans, Massachusetts in early 1985,

WKRQ WKRQ (101.9 MHz, "Q102") is a radio station located in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. The station is licensed to Cincinnati and broadcasts from the WKRQ Tower. It airs an adult-leaning Top 40 (CHR) format and is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. It ...

"Q102" and WEBN's ''Dawn Patrol'' in Cincinnati by October 1985, and WNVZ in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia B ...

in September 1985, among others.

Shows

In Australia, the morning zoo format was heard on

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to ...

as '' The Cage'', amongst other stations, including SAFM in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, whose version of the morning zoo was the highest rating breakfast show there between 1985 and 1990. The Don and Mike show originated as a morning zoo show at WAVA-FM in the 1980s, and retained some elements of the format. In

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

, LG73 (call sign CKLG) adopted this format for its popular morning program, led by Dean Hill, from 1985 to 1993. In Quebec City, CJMF-FM 93.3 had ''Le Zoo du 93'' from 1985 to 1990. Not only does the show still hold a number of records in terms of ratings and market shares (a quarter-hour of 148,000 listeners), but it also skyrocketed the station to now unreachable numbers, with 573,200 listeners on a weekly basis (according to the BBM summer 1987 survey). Steve Wright introduced the format to the UK when in 1981 he started his ''

Steve Wright in the Afternoon ''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' was the name given to English DJ Steve Wright's popular radio shows. Wright's afternoon show was known by that name from 1989. Wright presented the afternoon show on BBC Radio 1 from 30 March 1981 to 24 Decem ...

'' show on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance ...

which featured his "posse" of co-presenters and features. Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave also used the zoo format. Their audience was measured at eight million listeners by

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...

, and

Simon Mayo Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo (born 21 September 1958) is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022. Mayo has presented across three BBC stations for extended periods. From 1986 to 2001 he worked for Radio ...

also revolutionized British radio by introducing the format when on 23 May 1988 he took over ''

Radio 1 Breakfast ''Radio 1 Breakfast'' is a radio show that is broadcast across the UK on BBC Radio 1. It is hosted by Greg James since 20 August 2018 as the show's 16th presenter. The show ran six days a week until February 1968 (seBBC Genome Project, then fi ...

'' from Mike Smith on

which also featured co-presenters including news anchor Rod McKenzie and sidekick weather and travel girls, including Carol Dooley, Sybil Ruscoe,

Jackie Brambles Jackie Todd Brambles (previously Sherry-Brambles) (born 1 March 1967), formerly known as Jakki Brambles, is a British journalist, radio DJ and television presenter. Early life and early career Brambles was born in Harlow, Essex, England and gre ...

and the late

Dianne Oxberry Diane Clare Hindley (nee Oxberry) (13 August 1967 – 10 January 2019) was an English broadcaster and meteorologist, best known as a long-serving TV and radio presenter for BBC North West. She presented weather forecasts for the regional ...

, and the show's producer

Ric Blaxill Richard Eric Blaxill (born 19 July 1962) is a British radio and TV music producer and music programming director. Early life Career Radio 1 From 1988 to 1994, he was producer/senior producer at BBC Radio 1. Top of the Pops From 1994 to 1997, ...

who made regular speaking contributions. The programme also became known for various features, including On This Day In History, the long-running cryptic game ''

The Identik-Hit Quiz ''The Identik-Hit Quiz'' was a daily feature on the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show between December 1989 until September 1993, was hosted by Simon Mayo. The quiz ran initially at 6:40am - when the show began at 6:30am - then after the programme was ...

'', where Mayo and his co hosts would 'act' a short scene which cryptically led listeners to the title of a hit song, and also his '' Confessions'' feature where members of the public sought absolution for their (often frivolous or humorous) "sins". The format is used on stations of many different genres. Even

Christian radio Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk program ...

stations such as WAWZ in New Jersey have a morning zoo. Dayton, Ohio Classic Hits radio station WZLR reunited Dr. Dave Gross and Wild Bill originally from the Z Morning Zoo on

in Dayton. The show is now called ''The Eagle Morning Zoo''.

References

{{reflist, 30em Radio programs Radio comedy

History

Shows

See also

References