Best Radio Personality 2012 | Jonathan L on KWSS 106.7 FM | People & Places | Phoenix
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Best Radio Personality

Jonathan L on KWSS 106.7 FM

The name Jonathan L is a familiar one to anyone who's paid attention to the history of the Arizona FM dial. A longtime radio presenter, writer, and promoter of all things cool, L. is most famous for his stints at KUPD, KUKQ, and KMFA. L. broadcasts from Berlin these days, but it was a high priority for him to get his latest show, The Lopsided World of L, on the FM band in Phoenix. The show airs at 10 p.m. every weeknight on KWSS, and you're as likely to hear some strange German industrial grind as you are classic tracks by L's pal Frank Black of The Pixies (L. provides some DJ narration on Black's latest disc, as Grand Duchy). It's not a Phoenix-centered show, but hearing that voice on the dial is certainly a nostalgic treat (that comes bearing brand new musical gifts).

Best Radio Morning Show

Holmberg's Morning Madness on 98 KUPD

With morning radio shows dropping like flies, it's nice to know that we still have the antics of 98 KUPD's Holmberg's Morning Sickness to get us through our weekday mornings. The Morning Sickness crew has been going strong and keeping Valley folks tuned in for more than a decade by bashing everyone from politicians, local mattress spokeswomen, Olympic athletes, and every race, gender, and sexual orientation on the planet. Absolutely no one is safe from the never tactful host John Holmberg and his sidekick Brady Bogan. Even the show's producer, Dick Toledo, takes a verbal beating from these guys! This radio show isn't for the easily offended or for those of you lacking a slightly twisted sense of humor, but if you can handle a good laugh at the expense of other people's feelings, then by all means, tune in from 5:30 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday.

Best Weekly Radio Program

Totally Jazzed with Johnny D.

We love John "Johnny D." Dixon's other program, the Sunday night free-form excursion Mostly Vinyl, but his Monday night show, Totally Jazzed, takes the cake, as Dixon digs deep into his trove of Blue Note, Impulse, and rarities from Arizona's own jazzy past. Dixon's not afraid to get far out, balancing the smooth sounds with some of the farthest-out stuff you're likely to hear on a station other than New Jersey's WFMU. It recalls the kind of stories we've heard about Dixon on long-gone alternative station The Zone, when he'd play freaky jams in the midnight hour. The only difference (beyond the time slot)? He doesn't have to pray the station owners aren't listening.

Best Sports Radio Talk Show

Bickley & MJ

In 2008, Arizona Republic columnist Dan Bickley had the dubious honor of getting his ass handed to him by Phoenix Mercury captain Diana Taurasi in a lopsided game of HORSE. While the acerbic sports scribe might be wanting when it comes to athletic prowess, we're willing to wager that he would've wiped the floor with the WNBA star had it been a sports trivia contest. Bickley's a know-it-all wiseacre who's got the gift of gab as well as the ability to break down the intricacies of the sporting world. (His insights into last year's enraging NBA lockout were quite astute.) Ditto for his co-host Mike Jurecki, a football aficionado who has his finger on the pulse of the NFL and plenty of dish on the Arizona Cardinals. Each weekday during afternoon drive time, the pair gathers around a hot mic to casually shoot the shit with each other as well as with first-time callers/longtime listeners eager to join in the conversation.

Best News Radio Station

KJZZ, 91.5 FM

Easy call here, and we're not just talking about the National Public Radio component of this top-drawer outfit. Steve Goldstein, who hosts the locally produced Here and Now for an hour on weekdays starting at 11 a.m., does a heck of a job, bringing on topical guests from all walks of life (disbarred ex-County Attorney Andrew Thomas one day, a New Times reporter the next). And the local morning news team does a great job, as well. But, of course, we are slaves to the daily news shows All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and BBC Newshour, if only to avoid the screamers and shouters who dominate the airwaves both locally and nationally these days.

Best TV Newscaster

Kari Lake at Fox 10 News

We previously honored this veteran Phoenix journalist's longtime 9 p.m. co-anchor, John Hook, and now it's Lake's turn in our spotlight for three simple reasons: consistency, a natural curiosity, and a direct and concise way of explaining things. And she's on Fox News, no less, a network known to squishy liberal types for slanting the news to fits its preordained political point of view. Lake knows the Valley, having been a TV "personality" here for going on two decades. We wish that her employer would unshackle her for more projects, like the half-hour special she wrote and anchored a few years ago on landmine removal efforts in Cambodia. We can't remember the Phoenix connection to the mini-documentary, but Lake did a great job on it, so what the hell.

Best TV Journalist

Gilbert Zermeno at KPHO, Channel 5

The true stars of the TV news biz often are those whose faces we rarely see on-screen — the camera people, editors, and, yes, folks who produce what passes locally for "investigative" journalism. Our winner, who universally is known in media circles as "Z," is outstanding at what he does, which is to identify, organize, and execute some pretty in-depth yarns for local public consumption. He has been over at Channel 5 for well more than a decade, which in that line of work equates to about a century. Zermeno knows this Valley and this state like few other journalists, and is as comfortable working with "talent" (on-camera reporters, especially the usually excellent Morgan Loew) in a desert outpost on the border as he is on Phoenix's often-mean streets. Z's stories stand tall in a TV market not known for producing many riveting exposés, and for this we applaud him.

Best Public Information Officers

Vincent Funari and Karen Arra, Maricopa County Superior Court

We miss J.W. Brown, a fine longtime journalist turned PIO who ably represented the county judicial system as its spokesman before (sadly) getting on the wrong side of certain powers that be at the courthouse. But the pair left behind, Funari and Arra, also are top-notch and accessible. Funari is an exceptionally pleasant gent who would rather chat about his beloved Philadelphia Eagles than about the high-profile case of the moment, which is fine with us. Arra is a vocal diehard Arizona Wildcat, no easy task in this ASU-dominated neck of the woods.

Most important, these two promptly get us the information we need when we need it (now, of course!), and for this we thank them.

Best Power Couple

Kurt and Brenda Warner

Though it seems long ago, it's been just a few years since the great Arizona Cardinals quarterback came within one play of leading the formerly pathetic local franchise to a Super Bowl win. One year (and another concussion or two) later, he finally retired from the game that brought him fame and fortune. With Kurt's departure, it seemed we'd seen the last of wife Brenda, one of the more visible and chatty football spouses around. But the Warners, who are the parents of seven children, have given new meaning to the old saw "giving back" to the community. Besides Kurt's slightly askew appearance on Dancing with the Stars and a new autobiography by Brenda (One Call Away), the couple has continued unabated with charitable work here and around the nation. Their foundation, First Things First, has helped dozens of Valley kids and families financially and, to hear them tell it, spiritually (it's a "Christian-based" charity). The couple have built homes with Habitat for Humanity, nail by nail. We desperately miss Kurt as a player, and the Cards miss him even more. But he and Brenda seem to be everywhere doing good works. For this, we call them all-stars.

Best Powerless Couple

Sheriff Paul Babeu and Jose Orozco

Ah, the best-laid plans of mice and, well, gay sheriffs. Paul Babeu seemed well on his way to a seat in the U.S. Congress earlier this year when a story in these very pages about his purported threats against his Mexican-born lover derailed that dream, most likely forever. It was one of those stories that really was better than fiction. Babeu had been a one-trick pony (or stallion, as he may like to think) up until that point, a ubiquitous national talking head on the bad things that illegal immigrants continue to mean for God-fearing Americans and the rest of us schlubs. Now he's stuck — if voters re-elect him in November — as the Pinal County sheriff. As for Orozco, what he wants most is for his ex to "pony up" a lot of money in a pending lawsuit. Just another Arizona love story gone awry.

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