Lisa May calling it quits
Lisa May has been waking up with Southern California for almost 30 years, first as the traffic reporter and sidekick to KROQ’s (106.7 FM) Kevin and Bean show and more recently as the entertainment, news and traffic reporter for Heidi, Frosty and Frank on KLOS (95.5 FM).
After so many years she has become a close friend to listeners, so it is is some sadness that we have to say goodbye: May has decided to retire from radio, move to Palm Springs, and open up a fitness center. Her last day on KLOS will be Friday, December 13th.
In her KROQ days, May was officially the traffic reporter, and worked not for KROQ but Total Traffic, the company contracted by KROQ to provide such reports. But she quickly expanded her on-air time to become more of a sidekick, someone for Kevin and Bean to bounce discussions and bits off of. She was so natural at it, that I doubt anyone listening knew she wasn’t in the studio at KROQ.
When Kevin and Bean decided to make changes in 2015, they dropped news — meaning longtime newsman Doc on the Row (aka Boyd R. Britton) was out, as was May, since the contract to carry traffic reports was cut.
That didn’t sit well with many listeners, some of whom boycotted KROQ for the move. Soon, though, May was invited to join KLOS, and she quickly became an integral part of the Heidi and Frank Show even before Frosty returned.
Interestingly, though, her move actually harkens back to the time when she was let go from KROQ: she bought a house in Palm Springs in 2015 and had planned to move there at the time, but held off due to her joining KLOS.
And the fitness center is not just a whim either. May got certified as a personal trainer and has been working with clients on weekends over the past two years. Her new center will feature high-intensity slow strength training similar to a studio she has been working out at in Toluca Lake.
As to her career in radio, reader Joe Rodriguez sums it up this way: “I have lived in Los Angeles all of my life, 57 years. I’ve listened to a lot of radio and it shaped the view of my life and made living in So Cal so memorable. Too many stations to tell you about whether FM or AM. I went to bed listening to radio most nights.
“Two people I enjoyed in their careers were Nicole Sandler (brilliant) … The other delight was Lisa May.
“The majority of people in LA love her so much. Her energy and tone is one of the best. She doesn’t have an ego and she took a lot of crap in her day. We wish her the best; she is one of the real professionals in town.”
Other Changes
It’s supposedly not related, but May’s announcement came at almost exActly the same time as other news out of KLOS – the departure of weekend and fill-in personalities Ken Anthony and Rita Wilde (both of whom are former KLOS programmers), Frankie DiVita and Mike Vogel.
Cost cuts? Absolutely. KLOS joins the list of stations that use recordings of jocks overnight and weekends rather than real personalities, meaning that much of the broadcast day, no one is indeed in the building.
Confessional
Wilde is not sitting by and doing nothing. She and CW West have joined together to launch a new podcast, entitled Rock and Roll Confessional.
New episodes are released every two weeks. The program explores the music industry and features interviews with the people who played key roles in the building of the legacy of Rock and Roll: musicians, DJs, record company representatives, managers, bands, photographers, agents … even roadies.
Designed to appeal to those who know the music or just want to know more about it, the podcast is for music fans who want to know what happened behind the scenes when all that great music was being produced. You can find it on various places including iTunes, or head over to RockAndRollConfessional.rocks. Yes, “.rocks” is a real web page extension!
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