Genre Comedy, satire, talk Produced by Dean Metcalf | Country United States | |
Running time 6:00 A.M.-10:00 A.M. ET (Syndicated) Home station WFBQ Indianapolis, Indiana Starring Tom Griswold
Chick McGee
Kristi Lee
Josh Arnold
Bob Kevoian | ||
The Bob & Tom Show is a syndicated US radio program established by Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold at radio station WFBQ in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 7, 1983, and syndicated nationally since January 6, 1995. Originally syndicated by Premiere Networks, the show moved to Cumulus Media Networks (now Westwood One) at the beginning of 2014.
Contents
The program enjoys extensive popularity and has frequently received recognition by the National Association of Broadcasters as an exemplar in American radio.
About
"Focusing on comedy and talk, The Bob & Tom Show is a mash-up of news, sports, conversation, and interviews" which airs new broadcasts every weekday morning live from 6 to 10 A.M. in the Eastern Time Zone (5–9 A.M. Central) or tape-delayed on affiliated stations in other time zones. There is an additional weekday segment which airs between 10:00 and 10:20 A.M. ET only on home station WFBQ.
For most of The Bob & Tom Show’s 35+ year history, the cast consisted of hosts Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold, sports commentator and comic foil Chick McGee, news director Kristi Lee, and producer Dean Metcalf. Kevoian and Griswold originally teamed up in the early 1980s at Petoskey, Michigan station WJML before being lured to WFBQ "Q95" Indianapolis in 1983 to host what was initially a music-heavy morning show. After McGee (in 1986) and Lee (in 1988) joined the show, the primary cast that listeners would know for decades simply as “Bob, Tom, Chick, and Kristi” was set.
As the show became more popular and successful, Mark Patrick, Dave Dugan, Whit Grayson, Steve Salge, and Ron Sexton joined the Bob & Tom staff to voice dozens of recurring fictional and parody characters. Salge and Sexton, along with Metcalf, are still active today as voices of most of the show’s fictional characters and callers.
Steve Allee is the show's music director. He has co-produced more than 50 Bob & Tom albums over the past 25 years.
Several guests usually join the primary cast each day in the studio or via phone or satellite, including numerous comedians who tour nationally. The show has frequently featured up-and-coming comedians who went on to become household names, including Ellen Degeneres, Drew Carey, Louis CK, Jim Gaffigan, Daniel Tosh, George Lopez, Brad Garrett, Ron White, and Tim Allen.
During the show, live or pre-recorded comic songs and skits are often played, including many from a huge library of archived pieces. There are frequent impromptu "calls" from numerous characters voiced primarily by Salge, Sexton, and Metcalf.
Professional athletes (including frequent guest Pat McAfee and, in past years, Peyton Manning, Jeff Saturday, Reggie Miller, and numerous INDYCAR drivers), musicians, authors, and actors from television and movies are also frequent Bob & Tom guests. The show has occasionally talked with national politicians, although those interviews generally steer clear of controversial issues. Nationally known authors including frequent guest John Feinstein have also been featured.
Since January 31, 2011, The Bob & Tom Show has aired on the American Forces Radio Network as the morning show on AFN's Legacy Channel-The World's Classic Rock Station. The Bob & Tom Show repurposes their live morning show as an overnight show called Bob & Tom All Nighter. All Nighter airs 12–5 A.M. on a few terrestrial affiliated stations and their streams.
In the early years of the show, Pat Carlini served as a fifth in-studio cast member, joining Bob, Tom, Chick, and Kristi during their second or third hour after Carlini completed her weather-casting and news anchor duties at WTHR television's morning news program.
Since the show was first syndicated in January 1995, Dave "Gunner" Gunn sometimes filled in for Bob, Tom, Chick, or Kristi when one of them was absent. Gunner currently serves as the show's host during "Best of Bob & Tom" broadcasts when the primary cast is on vacation. Additionally, for several days in May 2016, Gunner filled in while Chick was on vacation, which was Gunner's first appearance during all-new broadcasts in years. Subsequently, Gunner occasionally joined the cast, both to "run the board" (operate the broadcast studio's main audio mixing console, which Tom calls "master control") and to serve as an additional co-host.
On September 1, 2015, Bob and Tom were selected as inductees to the National Radio Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony took place on November 5, 2015, at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in downtown Chicago. During his induction speech, Bob announced his retirement effective at the end of 2015. Bob's last day on the air was December 17, 2015. He planned to spend retirement traveling with his wife, Becky. The "master control" seat, historically occupied by Bob, has been filled after his retirement mostly by Bob and Tom staffers who do not speak on the air.
In recent years, Scott Potasnik ("P-taz") replaced Gunner as the fourth in-studio voice when Bob went on extended vacations or took Mondays off. Tom has described "P-taz" as the show's "sex desk" correspondent and, after Bob's retirement, as its "fact checker."
The show has also been featuring "guest hosts," usually comedians, as a fourth or fifth in-studio voice, sometimes for several days or weeks at a time. Josh Arnold served as a frequent guest host during spring and early summer of 2016 before being named a regular cast member on August 1, 2016.
Kristi Lee announced on January 11, 2016, that she, too, had left the show, having last appeared on December 17, 2015. She returned to the show on July 11, 2016, resuming her traditional news and commentary role.
During Kristi's absence, Carlini had re-joined The Bob & Tom Show as news anchor (for all four hours each morning). After Kristi returned, Carlini appeared on a half-time basis for several days and later resumed a fill-in role when Kristi was on vacation. Potasnik has also not been a regular cast member since early summer 2016.
The show introduced the free Bob & Tom Show App for iOS and Android in early 2016, through which users may hear live streams of new broadcasts on weekday mornings through affiliate stations plus "B&T 24/7," a continuous stream of "Best of Bob & Tom" shows. This marked the first time that a stream of broadcasts from the show's archive became available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at no charge to listeners. Previously, "B&T 24/7" was available only to paid subscribers of the "VIP" feature at the show's web site. "B&T 24/7" features segments recorded throughout the show's history, most featuring the original primary cast of Bob, Tom, Chick, and Kristi.
On November 17, 2016, Bob and Tom were reunited during their induction into the Indiana Broadcasters Hall of Fame. On April 3, 2017, Bob is scheduled to make his first live on-air appearance since his retirement for the show's annual Cincinnati Reds Opening Day broadcast.
The show's primary cast performed live on stage with guest comedians and live musicians at evening shows in venues around the country for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Later, they supported the Friends of the Bob & Tom Show Comedy Tour, which featured many of their frequent guests and spawned Comedy Central broadcasts and a DVD recording.
Characters
Many fictional characters and parodies of real-life people have sprung up during the show's history, some voiced by Bob Kevoian, Tom Griswold, Chick McGee, on-air producer Dean Metcalf, Steve Salge, and Ron Sexton.
The show also takes calls from actual live listeners, plus miscellaneous "crazy listener" caricatures.
Show members
TV program
On November 3, 2008, WGN America began airing an hour-long TV show taken from the day's radio broadcast at Midnight ET Monday through Friday (as of November 2009, it was moved to 2 a.m. ET). The program ended its run on WGN America on September 10, 2010, as part of an extensive revamp of the network's schedule. As part of the deal, WTTV Indianapolis (another Tribune-owned station) would be the first to air the nightly one-hour telecast.
Public service
Over their career, the show has been actively involved in charitable work. Some of the albums they have produced since 1986 have been utilized to raise money for various charities. After the syndicated portion of their show ends at 10:00 a.m. Eastern they typically devote up to a half-hour to further interviews, often about local events, bands, and charities.
In October, it has become tradition for Chick to get a prostate exam on the air to raise awareness for prostate cancer. Bob and Tom used to promote this exam as "Proctober"; however, this exam is now "Rectember". The latest exam was held on September 6, 2011 with Gunner doing it.
The Bob & Tom Show has produced seven CDs for the USO to include in holiday care packages sent to troops stationed worldwide.
Bob and Tom had a friendly wager with former Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday that if he ever got a touchdown they would donate $5,000 to the charity of his choice. During the 2006–07 NFL season, they increased the wager to $10,000. They assumed that they were safe since offensive linemen almost never score points in NFL games. In January 2007 in the AFC Championship game against the rival New England Patriots, on a play near New England's goal line, Dominic Rhodes carried into the middle of the line and fumbled. Saturday fell on the ball in the end zone for the touchdown. Bob and Tom made good on their wager and donated $10,000 total with $5,000 each going to People's Burn Foundation of Indiana and Kid's Voice of Indiana, Inc.
On May 9, 2014, Bob and Tom presented a comedy show as a tribute to the late Tim Wilson. All proceeds were to go to help with the education of Tim's son.