Name Sonny Fox | Role XM Radio | |
Y100 miami s sonny fox on espn 1986
"Sonny Fox" (born 1951) is an American DJ who hosts the uncensored comedy channel on XM Radio which is now SiriusXM.
Sonny Fox hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He fronted a rock and roll group, "Jay Walker And The Jay Hawkers" in the mid- to late-1960's, playing venue's across Michigan. Regional hits included "Love Have Mercy" and "Baby Blue," both on LyKe (sic) Til" records. (Check Google or YouTube.) Among the appearances was playing at the graduation celebration for the 1966 Arthur Hill High School party at the Saginaw YMCA. Beginning in the late 1960's, Sonny Fox/Jay Walker obtained a job as a disk-jockey on WKNX (1210 AM) in Saginaw, Michigan. Legend has it that he obtained his first on-air job when he was promoting a 'Jay Walker And The Jayhawkers' 45-record at various Michigan radio stations. WKNX hired him when he expressed interest in "...getting back into radio..." He meant that he had been in numerous stations promoting his group's records. The music director(?) at WKNX assumed he was referring to actual, on-air experience. WKNX was a 10,000 watt daytime radio station, meaning it was only able to broadcast during daylight hours. In the winter, hours were short. As Summer approached, hours expanded requiring the addition of another disc-jockey. Thus - Jay Walker/Sonny Fox arrived on the WKNX airwaves. He appeared on KHJ in 1973. He worked with Robert W. Morgan and "The Real Don Steele". With the rise in popularity of FM radio, he left after one year and joined current XM Radio executive Lee Abrams to work as program director at both WYSP in Philadelphia and WKTU in New York, where he and Abrams developed the Superstars Album format.
After 3 years with WYSP, Sonny opted to change directions and moved to Miami to work in morning radio there. He created radio's first syndicated stand up comedy show, The Comedy Hour. The show featured back-to-back routines from the top comics of the day such as Bill Cosby, George Carlin, and Lenny Bruce. In 1999, Fox created "The Mp3 Comedy Network" a service which delivered comedy programming to morning radio programs across the country.
As he was launching the new service Lee Abrams, then head of programming at XM Satellite Radio, approached Fox to ask if he would be interested in reviving his comedy show programming skills in a new environment. Sonny took over the Program Director duties in November 2002, overseeing operations of both XM Comedy (Channel 150) and Laugh USA (Channel 96). Fox now hosts "Funny In The Morning", a comedy morning show which airs on Sirius/XM's "Raw Dog", (XM Channel 99 and Sirius Channel 99). In addition to hosting the morning show, Fox also hosts and produces Stand-Up Sit-Down, a 60 minute interview program with comedians of the day. Sonny Fox can also be heard voicing programming elements on other XM and Sirius channels. Sonny currently lives in the Florida Panhandle where he hosts his morning comedy show in New York remotely.
On November 15, Fox broadcast his last weekday morning show on Sirius XM. He will continue with a weekly show on Saturday mornings.