Sometimes you just need someone to talk to, listen to and share a laugh with. This can be difficult when your morning commute leaves you alone in a car, stuck in traffic with just your road rage for company. Without the help of an imaginary friend, many people find a little sane interaction through morning radio shows.
Keith Kennedy chats with people from all over The 330 every morning over the airwaves. “We’ll get them to work with a smile or a chuckle,” says Kennedy. Along with his two co-hosts, Tony McGinty and Meg White, Kennedy takes his listeners from point A to point B with a smile on their face.
Originally from Orrville, Kennedy has been working in radio since his teens. “I had my first full time job when I was 16, which made me the only senior at Orrville High School with full health benefits,” says Kennedy. He has made the Greater Akron Area his home since 1998, when he started at 98.1 WKDD. Now, he not only does the morning show, but also has a position with iHeartRadio overseeing 48 radio stations and nine different markets as the Senior VP of Programming.
As we are all crawling out of bed, Kennedy is already starting his workday. “There’s something that’s always magical about getting up early in the morning and getting stuff done while most people aren’t even out of bed,” says Kennedy.
With each phone call and joke, he helps commuters shake off the yawns and get geared up for the day ahead of them. Though the callers can be unpredictable, Kennedy loves that they share so much about themselves. “We’re a friend to somebody and their companion in the car while they’re driving to work, so they seem pretty willing to be open with us and they share anything.” Questions about work, home, spouses, and just about anything else all spark hilarious stories—the kind typically reserved for close friends. “That’s why radio is cool, because it’s such a one-on-one medium, and I get to feel we’re friends—and we are—and they’re family too. You never know what you’re going to get when you answer the call.”
