Big Dave and Chelsie are ready for their big move.
After passing on an overture from Denver two years ago, the WUBE-FM (105.1) afternoon duo debuts as B105's morning team Monday.
Chris Carr and sidekick Jeff "Marverick" Bolen, a 26-year Cincinnati radio veteran, left Friday. Carr, a Wisconsin native, told listeners he's going to Minnesota to be closer to his ill mother. Producer Jason "Stattman" Statt sticks around to be on the new morning "Big Dave Show."
"We were shocked and sad to find out that two of our friends had decided to leave the station. Then we were excited at the possibility of doing the morning show," said Chelsie, an Aurora native who started 20 years ago at WUBE-FM. She was paired with Big Dave – he's 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds – in afternoons four years ago. (They don't give their last names.)
Not every station can replace a "personality of the year" winner with another. "Chris Carr & Company" won three large-market "personality of the year" awards in six years. "Big Dave & Chelsie" won the Academy of Country Music award in 2012, which prompted an inquiry from Denver.
"We never considered leaving Cincinnati," said Chelsie, a South Dearborn High School graduate who lives in Hebron.
Big Dave returns to morning drive – radio's prime-time – where he started here in 1988 on "Young Country" WYGY-FM (96.5). He moved to nights on B105 in 2005 and to afternoons in 2008. Evening host Jesse Tack temporarily takes over 3-7 p.m.
"We're fortunate to have such a deep and talented staff," said Grover Collins, program director. He thanked Carr for "the success he brought B105," which won two Country Music Association "station of the year" awards (2009, 2012) during his tenure.
Listeners will continue to hear a "B105 Salute to a Soldier" every morning, but nothing else from Carr's cast.
"We're going to make the show our own. We have to. We're following a really good show that was wildly popular. If we come on the air and try to do their show, it won't sound real – and that's the last thing we want," said Dave, a Tennessee native and Fort Mitchell resident.
Carr was first or second in the morning ratings with Jeff Thomas and Jenn Jordan on sister WKRQ-FM (101.9) this year, Collins said. WUBE-FM ranked No. 2 with all listeners behind WLW-AM in July.
Big Dave & Chelsie fans will hear "Chelsie's Not As Naughty As It Sounds Question of the Day" at 6:20 a.m. (instead of 6:20 p.m.). And every Friday Big Dave will review movies playing at the fictional Big Bone Lick Double Drive-In.
"I just like the way the city feels in the early morning hours. There's a strange kind of electricity to it. It's like this sleeping giant that is about to wake up, and we're its alarm clock," Dave said. "We're not going to try and re-invent radio on the first day of the show. Maybe by Thursday?"
Crosley exhibit: WLW-AM founder Powel Crosley Jr. has been honored with an exhibit in Chicago's National Radio Hall of Fame a year after founder Bruce Dumont told me about his desire for a Crosley tribute.
The Museum of Broadcasting Communications' display for "America's Innovator in Radio Manufacturing and Broadcasting" features photos, six Crosley radios, a Crosley car hubcap and 1961 Reds team photo. They were donated by the Bradenton (Florida) Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau, which operates Crosley's Seagate mansion in Sarasota, and the Manatee County Historical Records Library in Bradenton.
Crosley, who died in 1961, was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame last year.
WKRC-TV news: Anchor-reporter Sydney Benter from North Bend has returned to Channel 12, where she interned before graduating from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2011. I wrote about her in 2012, when she was the Terre Haute, Indiana, TV anchor seen on Time Warner here after the cable system replaced WLWT-TV with the Indiana NBC affiliate during a pay dispute. Benter, 25, is a 2007 Taylor High School graduate.
Movie news: Don Cheadle's "Miles Ahead" won't be the last we see of Hollywood in town this year, says Kristen Erwin Schlotman, Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Film Commission executive director.
When Cheadle was wrapping up his Miles Davis movie last week, she said the film commission "looks forward to more projects yet this year." She declined to give specifics.
"Miles Ahead" and Guy Fieri's Food Network show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" followed Cate Blanchett's "Carol" feature film to town. ■
