10 Questions with ... Jim Kerr & Shelli Sonstein

1) What was your first job in radio and early influences?

Jim: WYNZ, Ypsilanti MI. 2/11/1967. I was 14 years old. I was joined a few months later by my junior high classmate and friend Jim Harper, who was 13. He went on to a long career as one of the top morning personalities in Detroit. I thought girls would be impressed that we were on the radio. They just thought we were weird. Influences included the great WKNR personalities, Scott Regen, Jerry Goodwin and Bob Green, The Big 8 jocks of CKLW like Big Jim Edwards and, of course, J.P. McCarthy of WJR.

Shelli: I was so lucky. My first job was at WMMR in Philly in '73 when I was 18! I was a high school activist -- always on radio and Tv as a 16-year-old on up, protesting the Vietnam war, organizing city wide anti-war strikes. That switched to women's rights as the war was ending and I was in my first and only year in college: Temple University. The PD of WMMR, Jerry Stevens, called to say I was always on-air there talking up my issues, why wouldn't I come over to their side and they'd train me to be a reporter and anchor news? It was the time of affirmative action; radio and TV wanted more women on-air. My earliest influence was WFIL/Philly. I was listening one Friday, I think I was 10 or 12, when the radio station promised everyone a rose the next Monday morning. I wondered how can they ever possibly give a rose to every person in Philadelpia? That was how they promoted the arrival of Don Rose. I was hooked.

2) What led you to a career in radio? Was there a defining moment that made you realize "this is it?"

Jim: A second grade field trip. Mrs. Douglas took our class to WWJ radio and TV in Detroit. I never imagined a workplace could be so exciting. I didn't know if I wanted to be a camera man, stage manager, news reporter, radio announcer or Bozo the Clown. I only knew I wanted to be there!

Shelli: see above. I was so lucky.

3) When and how did you guys meet and begin working together?

Jim: Shelli showed up for an on-air audition at 6a on August 29th, 1977. I had been hosting the morning show at WPLJ since March 18th, 1974. When newscaster Liz Fulton left, we utilized as substitute news people from WABC. Needless to say I was surprised when someone I had never seen before walked into the studio. PD Larry Berger hired her that same day.

Shelli: It was August 29th,1977. I was called by WPLJ PD Larry Berger to come up from Atlanta (where I was switching radio jobs to a News/Talk station) to audition as Jim's newscaster/sidekick. I don't even think there were female sidekicks at the time! I showed up on a Monday morning in his studio at 6a and he basically said, "Who the hell are you?" Somehow, Larry Berger knew it was going to be a good match. How he knew is a mystery to this day.

4) Jim, how was it like working with Shelli initially and what's it like working with the same partner for 40 years?

Jim: I was the youngest on air person at ABC/NY as I had been at WLS and before that at WDAI/Chicago. Shelli was younger than me. It ticked me off. All these years later she's STILL younger than I am.

5) Shelli, same question: How was it initially working with Jim and now, 40 years later?

Shelli: Jim was always so easy to work with, so generous on-air. I was taken from the start with how different we were, but we never attacked each other. There was always respect. Forty years later, we can communicate through a glance; sometimes not even that. Luckily my husband (who I wouldn't have met had it not been for Jim) understands Jim is my work husband and has been long before that became a trendy term. It's a special relationship. Very hard to define. It goes beyond work. Look at the hours I have spent with him. Probably more than with anyone on earth.

6) Describe a typical morning show meeting. a) What is the process? b) How much show prep do you do and what are some of the key benchmarks of your show?

Jim: Our formal meetings are rare. We do speak with PD Eric Wellman almost daily. Remember hotline calls? Big E sends us texts during the show if he has a comment (which he frequently does).

Shelli: Meeting? We only have those when our PD demands it! The beauty of our show is its naturalness. It is organic. Jim and Joe (our producer) plan conversation items. Note: I did not say "bits." I am usually clueless as to what comes next. It is an organic show based on real human conversations, not punch lines. That said, I come in at 4a to prepare my news and Jim's weather and sports. So, lots of TV news watching in the AM, 24/7 news, and six newspapers a day. Always The Drudge Report, plus several other websites

7) Tell us some of the best morning show moments on WAXQ during your time there?

Jim: Anytime we can make a positive impact on our audience or any single listener for that matter, we feel it's a great moment.

Shelli: Some of the best were also some of the worst. The assassination of John Lennon became, for us, a family mourning together for days. By us, I mean Jim, me and the audience. A "best" moment came with the birth of my dirty joke of the day. Again, an organic moment. I was telling Jim a dirty joke off-air. The commercial ended and he said, "But you never got to the punch line." So I told the joke on-air. The next morning, at the same time, 7:20 a, Jim asked me for another dirty joke. By the third day, listeners were submitting jokes. It became our highest-rated feature and that's how 7:20 came to be the prime time to run morning show radio contests. It was very risqué at the time. I joke that I sex-educated an entire NYC metro area generation.

8) How active are you guys with social media like Facebook and Twitter and how do you think that benefits your morning show?

Jim: FB gives me immediate feedback. I am a bit obsessed with FB birthdays. I never miss a day no matter where I am in the world.

Shelli: Any communication with the audience is a bonus. Even before social media, I always answered listener e-mails during the show. We're a family with our audience.

9) Forty years working together in mornings is quite an accomplishment, let alone the #1 radio market in America. How are you guys planning to celebrate this momentous occasion?

Jim: I tried to make it a special Shelli day. She works harder than anyone I know. I wanted to make sure she knew how much we all appreciate and admire her as a broadcast talent AND as a person.

Shelli: Jim being Jim; I thought the on-air celebration August 29th was to be our anniversary celebration. But Jim looked at it another way: he turned it into celebrating MY 40 years on NYC radio. Because my first day with him in '77 was my NYC radio debut. The best gift would be to never stop doing together what we love.

10) Finally, who is funnier and why?

Jim: Shelli is funnier. She doesn't have to try to be funny. I do. It never works. I'm told that I do and say funny things, but it's never on purpose.

Shelli: Jim makes me laugh just because he is, for lack of a better word, peculiar. I'd say eccentric, but he's not rich. Okay, maybe unique is the best word. Just who he is makes him funny. Of course, he doesn't see it that way. I mean, when I was proposed to, HE cried. Not me. He cries at commercials! Who goes to the beach fully dressed? Who has to be forced to take vacations? Come on, this is funny stuff!

You guys talk for a living but give us the lowdown on your favorite music ... both artists and songs?

Shelli: My tastes run from REM to Midnight Oil, Stevie Wonder to Gershwin and anything from "West Side Story." I walked down the aisle to "God Only Knows." My husband still hasn't gotten over it. "I may not always love you" are the first words. To me, it's the best lover song ever written.

Also, can I just give some info on Jim he'd never reveal himself? He is so generous with his time; he has emceed so many charitable functions, I finally bought him a tux because he was renting them so often, he probably kept the rental guy in business. He has done so much work with one charity, they named a building for him -- a home for women with developmental disabilities. Also, it is because of Jim Kerr that NYS got rid of the no-compete clause in broadcast contracts. That was all due to Jim. Every broadcaster in NYS should send Jim a bottle of wine. His preference, by the way, is cabernet sauvignon.