Bruce Kelly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bruce Kelly (born Bruce Grimes, June 11th, 1956 in Alexandria, Virginia) is an American radio personality. He was the original program director, format creator and morning personality on The 80s on 8 from XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C. from September 2000 to November 2005. Kelly was also the first "live" human voice heard on XM or Sirius Satellite Radio during XM studios beta test launch in May 2001.
As of November 2005, he resigned from XM to care for his ailing father and has yet to resurface at another radio company.
[edit] Media Coverage
Throughout his career, Kelly has frequently been the subject of national headlines, including the following.
- the 1987 removal of Evan Mecham as Governor of Arizona
- 1989's "Radio Relief", in which all Phoenix radio and TV stations participated in a fund raiser to benefit victims of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
- a 1991 April Fool's Day hoax involving the "accidental death" of cartoon character Bart Simpson
- in 2000 as the Washington Redskins on-field/booth announcer, he became the only NFL announcer in history to be fined ($60,000) for interrupting play during a home playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Kelly has also been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, Arizona Republic, Boston Globe, Nightline, in addition to dozens of local TV, magazine and newspaper features.
[edit] Publicity Stunts
Starting in the mid-1970's, Kelly continued a long held radio tradition of over-the-top publicity stunts for the benefit of local charities. Some of the many stunts that attracted national media coverage include:
- 1976 — In front of a crowd of 10,000 and dressed in a white tuxedo, jumped into a vat containing 20,000 gallons of orange flavored Jello at Kings Dominion
- 1983 — Over the course of three days, sat in every seat (59,000) of Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium
- 1984 — In less than 72 hours, completed the entire Boston Marathon (26.2 miles) on a custom made pogo stick
- 1990 — Demolished over 3000 Milli Vanilli LP's and CD's with a steamroller in protest over the duo's Grammy award being revoked due to controversy surrounding their lack of actual singing on the recordings
- 1997 — Became the first heterosexual to be Grand Marshall of a nationally recognized gay pride parade, after numerous gay public figures declined, most notably Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe
[edit] Other Career Highlights
Kelly also was #1 rated in WRVQ Richmond, 96-X and WHYI Miami, WPGC Washington, D.C. , WBZZ Pittsburgh, WHTT-FM Hot Hits Boston, and most notably, fifteen consecutive years as the dominate morning radio personality in Phoenix, from 1985 through 1999, on KZZP, Y-95 and KKFR.
In 1990, he was honored by Billboard Magazine as the CHR personality of the year.
