A tell-all book about the KQRS Morning Show

If you’re from Minnesota, then you are familiar with the KQRS Morning Show. The popular, long-running radio morning show hosted by Tom Barnard and Terri Traen has been a staple of the Twin Cities airwaves for 25+ years. Although the quality of the show has diminished over the last decade in my opinion, it still has one of the highest ratings among local morning shows in America.

Many of us have grown up with the morning crew and have listened to the crazy antics and controversies over the years on our way to work and school. In 2009, Tom Barnard announced that he was retiring in 2012. A couple of months later, he decided to stay.

I have always thought that a tell-all book about the KQRS Morning Show would be a fascinating read. There are many questions I’d like to have answers to. Here are some of them:

1. Why don’t they ever cover sports? Sansevere gets, like, 30 seconds to report some scores, but it seems like he has to rush through it to avoid pissing off Tommy B. Does Barnard hate sports talk?

2. What was with the whole Crazy Cabé deal? Did the cast of the show know about the Brett Favre stunt that ultimately got Cabé fired?

3. What does the KQRS Morning Show cast really think of Howard Stern? When the Howard Stern show came into the Minneapolis market in 1997, Stern was just brutal with his comments towards the KQRS Morning Show cast. It was some of the most uncomfortable yet fascinating radio I had ever heard (wish I could find auido). The KQRS staff never uttered a single comment about the Stern show on the air. The strategy paid off. Howard Stern lasted only a year in this market, and I think it had a lot to do with Minnesota’s loyalty to our own. Had Howard Stern just done his thing without going after the KQRS cast, he may have lasted.

4. Does Tom Barnard hate Terri Traen? Tommy B has always made rude and mocking remarks to her over the years (mostly in jest), but it seems to be getting more vicious lately. She hardly gets to talk anymore, and fans of the show I have talked to speculate that she is being marginalized. How do they really feel about each other?

5. Does Tom Barnard really do the show over an ISDN line at his home in Florida? Rumor has it that Barnard is too good to conduct the show from the studio anymore and that the cast sees him just a few times per year. As you listen to the show you sometimes get the feeling that he isn’t there in the studio. You’ll often hear confusion when Tommy B.  doesn’t know what he is supposed to read on his screen or when they reference something visual in the studio but Barnard seems lost.

6. Was Phillip Wise brought in as the token black guy? The Morning Show has had a reputation for pushing the boundaries on racial humor, so many think the station needed to bring on an African-American to act as a permission slip for Barnard to crack racial jokes without being boycotted. Since Philly-Dog brings almost nothing to the show to enhance it, I’d say there might be some truth to this.

7. When Barnard does hang up his mic, will the show continue without him? Who would you like to see take his place? Jeff Passolt?

What questions about the show would you like to see answered?