"Jeff and the Showgram" may be long gone from a local radio station’s morning lineup, but now listeners can hear another familiar voice on the airwaves, filling that time slot.
San Diego radio personality AJ Machado launched his new show on KyXy 96.5FM Monday morning, filling the 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekday-mornings slot left vacant in late June with the abrupt cancellation of the longtime program, "Jeff and the Showgram."
"AJ Mornings" features Machado – a fixture on San Diego radio for more than 17 years – and co-host Sara Perry, who was on the air at KMFB-FM, for the past 15 years.
In a press release, Chris Patyak, program director for KyXy 96.5, said “AJ Mornings” aims to be “an exciting and fresh way for our listeners to start their day.”
Machado said “it was only a matter of time” before he and KyXy paired up.
“I’m looking forward to building something fresh, fun and relatable that the audience can wake up to for years to come!” he added, in the station’s press release.
Per his station bio, Machado is married with two daughters. He enjoys competitive running, cooking, and martial arts. He spearheads the “AJ’s Kids Fund,” which helps collect toys for patients at Rady Children’s Hospital.
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Perry is also married, and a mother to one daughter and one son. She enjoys yoga, walking her dog and, as her bio states, “making Target runs alone.”
"AJ Mornings" is produced by another familiar local radio personality, Hula Ramos. He and Machado have worked together in the past.
Machado, Perry and Ramos are starting their show after a 6-week lull for the radio station's morning programming.
After its June 27 broadcast, "Jeff and the Showgram" was suddenly yanked from the airwaves after being broadcast on San Diego radio for nearly 30 years.
"The Showgram" was co-hosted by Jeff Detrow, Tommy Sablan, Laura Cain and Emily Griffiths, during the weekday morning commute.
Following the cancellation, Sablan told NBC 7 that he was proud of the work "The Showgram" had done over the decades -- not only on the air but in the community.
Sablan said he was optimistic "The Showgram" gang would land on their feet and one day come back to radio.
The radio show, formerly called "The Jeff and Jer Showgram," had been on the air in San Diego since May 3, 1988.
For 27 years, it was helmed by broadcasters Detrow and Jerry Cesak, with Sablan serving as producer and on-air sidekick. Cain joined the team in 1992, and Randy Hoag joined in 1993. Griffiths rounded out the ensemble in 2009.
When Cesak retired from radio in October 2015, the program was renamed "Jeff and the Showgram." At that time, Sablan said KyXy had signed the show on for a few more years.
In 2016, the "Showgram" saw another change when Hoag left the program. After that, Detrow, Sablan, Cain, and Griffiths held down the fort.
Over the decades, "The Showgram" bounced around several different local radio stations, including a run on Star 94.1 where a contract dispute took the show off air in 2009. For a couple of years, Cesak and Detrow produced an online radio show from Cesak's garage.
The show eventually found a home on KyXy, debuting its first broadcast on that station on Jan. 24, 2011. "The Jeff and Jer Showgram" was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2016.
The hosts continue to run a Facebook page for "The Showgram," in which they take turns posting messages. The threads are filled with comments from fans expressing how much they miss listening to the radio show.
On June 29, two days after the final "Showgram" aired on KyXy, Detrow posted a message to the Facebook page in which he called the loss of his job "a sock in the gut."
About three weeks later, the group posted a photo of all of them together, with the caption, "Planning the future!"
On Aug. 2, Sablan published a post in which he told listeners that the group loves and misses them.
"There's only so much we can say right now but please know we will be back on the air," Sablan added.
