Happy Birthday KHQ

WKHQ out of Petoskey/Traverse City went on the air in 1980 and now 25 years later, the station is celebrating. The station will host The 106KHQ 25th Anniversary Celebration on June 4 at the Grand Traverse Resort.
Advance tickets are required and are available only by winning them. The station plans to give them away right up through June 3 for the party that will include a performance from the group Frickin’ A. In fact morning show host and promotions manager Tony Brueski is trying to figure out how to accommodate more people, as demand has been heavy.
“In addition to giving away tickets on the air, we have been giving them away at various locations throughout northern Michigan on the weekends and the lines have been quite long,” said Brueski.
Brueski is new to the station, arriving just a few months ago to host the morning show with Lisa Knight, but had been aware of the station’s reputation.
“For years KHQ has always been considered one of the best Top 40 stations in the country,” said Brueski. “The fact that the station is in a medium size market and is so respected by the big boys says something about it.”
When a position opened up, Brueski jumped at the chance. He had been an air personality in Green Bay, Wisconsin for the past 10 years, so northern Michigan winters were not going to be an issue. It was the water in addition to the station’s reputation that sold him on moving to the area.
“The water is blue and emerald green over here and the beaches are clean,” said Brueski. “It is amazing, but across the lake, the water is brown and the beaches are not very sandy.”
Brueski is settling in quite nicely to a chair that once belonged to radio legend Bill “The Captain” Vogel. Vogel has since left the on-air world and has his own voice over company, Vogel Sound, or affectionately known as The Mouth, based in East Jordan. But for the first 20 years Vogel was The Mouth of KHQ and put the station on the map. He built a large following with his Zoo Crew Morning Show and his fan base included visitors and residents alike.
“Our family has fond memories of The Captain’s morning antics,” said Pete Hillman of Lansing. “My wife and I are both school teachers and we spent our summers up north, and the morning ritual was a cup of coffee and The Captain. He was as much of our northern Michigan experience as was our time on Lake Charlevoix.”
Vogel, who left in 2000 to join the Michigan Talk Radio Network, developed a side career doing voice over commercial work on a nation level during his KHQ days. Today his voice is heard in 49 states as well as on numerous national radio/television commercials. He has fond memories of his days at KHQ.
“Yeah, there were a lot of good times, that’s for sure,” said Vogel. “We certainly had a lot of fun, and sometimes maybe a little bit too
much fun.”
There was a time when Vogel regularly pulled practical jokes on his listeners, and a few times they went a little too far.
“I did get in a lot of trouble when I impersonated an officer once,” said Vogel. “Now, I had a lot of officers who listened to the show who thought it was funny, but the Police Chief didn’t and he sent this detective in to see me. This guy was big, about 6’ 8’’, and pretty intimidating until he told me he was a fan of the show. I basically got off with a warning.”
Another popular practical joke was when a listener called, frustrated with her boyfriend who was spending all of his time with his truck and hardly any time with her.
“She called and said his truck was in the shop,” said Vogel. “I called her boyfriend and pretended to be from the shop. ‘We said the paint job was all done. He said what paint job, that he had brought it in for some engine work. I told him that we painted it bright yellow - his truck was black. Boy was he pissed and of course our conversation was on the air. He was even more outraged when I told him we wouldn’t charge him for the paint job.”
There were others like the time when he called UPS and asked how much it would be to ship him and his wife to Florida as he explained that airline tickets were too expensive. Vogel kept it interesting during his morning reign in northern Michigan. His departure meant filling some pretty big shoes, but one thing that the station is proud of is their format has never changed.
“It is amazing that we have remained with our same Top 40 pop format from the start,” said Brueski. “I think that points to our success and staying true to the listeners over the years. A lot of Top 40 stations have come and gone; I see us being around for quite some time.”
Coincidently, Brueski also does national voice over work. His most recent project was for the Madden 2006 game. A confidentiality agreement prohibits him from detailing the contents of his work until the game is released later in the year.
But the focus for now is all about celebrating 25 years of being on the air. In addition to giveaways with Pepsi throughout the night ,KHQ is bringing in pop punksters Frickin’ A who have scored it big with a remake of Rick Springfield’s hit ,“Jesse’s Girl.” All the stations air personalities will be on hand. While tickets are free you must have them to come to the event. Again, the only way to get them is to win them, so tune in to 106KHQ for your chance. For additional information on Bill Vogel visit his website at www.themouth.com and tune into KHQ at 105.9 on the FM dial, or visit their website at www.106KHQ.com.
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