Free Beer & Hot Wings Morning Show
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The Free Beer and Hot Wings Show is a nationally-syndicated morning show based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on alternative rock station WGRD.
The show has a morning talk format featuring hosts Free Beer (Gregg Daniels) and Hot Wings (Chris Michels), the namesakes of this show, along with Eric Zane and Producer Joe . Joe serves as the call screener and is not part of the normal three-man discussion, but checks in throughout the show. The others talk about daily events, mixing in their own blend of humor and sarcasm, and Zane's board of obscure and absurd sound clips.
The show also occasionally features Dude Shadoway, who conducts interviews with various C and D-list celebrities, to the celebrities' disadvantage. Certain traits of these interviews include the repetition of the vague show identification (Power Stereo FM) at inopportune times, random awkward silences, deliberate confusion of words as well as confusion over the identity of the guest
In addition to being syndicated nationwide on a number of stations, a daily podcast may be purchased. The following stations carry the show:
- 97.9 WGRD - Grand Rapids, MI
- Q103 - Albany, NY
- 105.7 The Hawk - Monmouth/Ocean, NJ
- 102.3/101.5 The Hawk - Concord/Lakes Reigon, NH
- 106.7/104.7 The Bone - Portland, ME
- 102.9 The Buzz - Nashville, TN
- 96 Wave - Charleston, SC
- 99.9 The Carp - Eau Claire, WI
[edit] Featured Segments
- Idiot of the Day, a daily segment profiling a person who has done something particularly stupid..
- What Hot Wings Thinks, a daily rant about things in the news.
- Name That Tune, a Tuesday segment where Joe picks out some random music and plays each from the beginning, while Free Beer, Hot Wings, Zane, and two listeners compete to see who can name the tune and artist first. Joe's selection of music sometimes leads to ridicule from the others, such as the time he featured the song "Brand New Key" by Melanie. Melanie's music has since become a cliché on the show as listeners call to complain about hearing the song.
- What Can Joe Do?, a Wednesday segment where Joe is put up to unusual and often embarrassing tasks either inside the studio or in public. Some examples are walking through a car wash, licking a hobo's hand, and eating cookies baked with Ex-lax. One of his latest stunts was to run through a paintball gauntlet where about 80 people with high powered paintball guns shot at Joe. He was only wearing a T-shirt and a speedo.
- Sounds of the Game, a weekly segment during football season where suggestive-sounding clips from actual football commentary from the past week are played, out of context.
- Dumber Than Zane Trivia, a Thursday segment where Zane and a caller compete in a series of trivia questions. In late 2006, it went from $100 per week, to $250 per week, thanks to network wide sponser, Cat Footwear.
- Free Beer's Sportier Than Thou Challenge, a Friday segment where Free Beer and a caller compete in a series of sports trivia questions.
- PA Pranks, a weekly segment where Zane visits a store, calls the store while there, gives a suggestive name, and asks them to page this person to the front desk. Each year, around the time of the yearly March NCAA basketball tournament, the past year's PA Pranks are pitted against each other in an online tournament, where listeners can vote on the funniest prank.
- Wheel Of Bad Games, a daily segment in which listeners can call in to try and win in one of a number of games. No longer referred to as the "Wheel of Bad Games" as, after more than 4 years, listeners finally called them on the fact that they weren't really spinning the wheel; they played the same games on the same day every week.
- Monday - Beat the Buzzer - A caller must name a specified number of items from the category of Hot Wings' choosing within the time limit.
- Tuesday - Stump The Show - Callers must present a trivia question that each member of the show gets a chance to answer. A caller is selected as the Minutia Judge. He/she has the power to throw the question out. It was revealed on November 29, 2006 that the judge also has the power to ban callers for having extremely stupid questions.
- Wednesday - Paired With an Idiot - 2 callers are paired with 2 of the 3 hosts and must guess phrases similar to the $100,000 Pyramid.
- Thursday - Celebrity Name Game - A caller must choose a host to battle 1 on 1. Players start with the name of a celebrity and take turns naming another celebrity that shares the first or last name. The player that cannot think of a valid name is eliminated. Producer Joe is known as the "Weak Link" in this game. Custom rules that have been establish include the Berry/Barry rule (not valid even though they sound alike) and no names similar to John the Baptist. No single names are allowed such as Cher or Prince. At least one member of the show must recognize the name as a celebrity living or dead.
- Friday - Kazoopalooza - This is similar to Name That Tune but Joe, Hot Wings, and Zane are providing the music via their kazoos. Free Beer selects the song while 2 callers square off to identify the song first.
- Most Important Interview Ever, an occasional and experimental segment, where Free Beer and Hot Wings use their real names on a fake show called "Light Rock and Classic Talk with Gregg & Chris." They have a "round table" discussion with (usually) two people: a real author/director/etc., and a fake person in the same line of work as the real person, played by Zane. The interview usually proceeds with Zane's character making outrageous statements, personal attacks on the other person, and generally trying to make the unsuspecting victim look stupid. Listeners who call in are allowed to participate, in contrast to Dude Shadoway's interviews. These are some of the people who have been interviewed:
- Elizabeth Landers, author of The Script: The 100% Absolutely Predictable Things Men Do When They Cheat
- Mystery, the inspiration for the book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
- Soprano Sue, a guru of the Sopranos television series
- Regina Milbourne, author of Miami Psychic: Confessions of a Confidante
- Byron "Big Naz" Williams, a former bodyguard for Eminem. Williams is currently the only guest on Most Important Interview Ever to figure out that the segment was a farce.
- The Iron Sheik, a former professional wrestler. For this interview, Zane played the role of B. Brian Blair, whom the Iron Sheik has displayed considerable contempt and hatred towards. Because the Sheik was expected to "spin out" and use inappropriate language on the air, this interview was taped and no audience participation took place.
