Having a blast while providing a daily four-hour vacation to their listeners, JD Rose (left) and Calamity Jane make fun of life, their families, and mostly themselves during their morning show on The Deuce 105.7 FM. Photo by Phil Houseal
Nov 24, 2010
105.7 The Deuce… Your number one choice for country music with a Texas attitude… it is 10 o’clock… thanks for tuning in to 105.7 KNAF-FM, Fredericksburg…
JD Rose signed off and grinned at his co-host, Calamity Jane – better known as CJ – who scowled back.
The unlikely pair – JD is a Fredericksburg native who has worked in radio for more than 30 years, CJ is an East Texas transplant (“when I get excited my accent really comes out”) who was literally plucked from a flower shop to be on the air – have herded the Hill Country Morning Show since June.
The on-air version of how they met involves a naked hitchhiker. The true story is almost as unbelievable. JD first encountered CJ when she came to another studio for live spots on behalf of a florist. “I told my wife if I am ever looking for a co-host, I’m going to get that chick from the flower shop, because she is funny.”
CJ laughed. “I was doing trail rides at a ranch when my mom called and said JD is looking for me. The only JD I knew was a cop! That was the longest one hour trail ride ever.”
When she returned the call, JD asked can you be here in the morning? “I said, yeah, for what?”
Something clicked from the first day.
“We decided we knew each other in a former life,” CJ announced. “We must have either hated each other’s guts, and this time we had to mend that relationship, or we were twins. But he was the girl, and I was the guy, so we swapped roles this time.”
JD couldn’t let that go by. “I’m having her baby,” he laughed, clutching his belly, “Or at least it looks like that.”
As listeners know, this unlikely duo’s radio recipe includes ample amounts of sarcasm and mutual insults. That is no accident.
“You know what they say about don’t dish it out if you can’t take it,” CJ said. “Me… I have chicken legs. I have the skinniest legs anywhere, and they are as white as can be. I was very insecure about these things growing up. My whole family has been picking on me about that for my entire life. All it takes is to joke about yourself, say it out loud a few times, and the next thing you know you think it’s just as funny as everyone else does.”
JD laughed, and added. “If people can laugh at our expense, we’re fine with that. In fact, we are all about that.”
They find the “funny” all around them.
“Funny things happen in our lives every day, we just happen to share that,” said JD, bringing up a recent story about CJ’s husband hunting deer in his underwear.
CJ chuckled. “We have the most understanding spouses on the face of the earth. It’s one thing to be in a relationship with somebody who airs your dirty laundry to your friends or family, but here we are doing it to everyone who can hear your voice in the next nine counties.”
As with the underwear story, CJ and JD have been known to push the envelope for hometown radio. Or, as CJ’s “Maw Maw” told her after one show, “Oh… we got a little bit raunchy today, didn’t we?”
“JD is good at reminding me about waiting until after 8:00 when the kids are in school,” she said. “But people in our age group – that’s from 6 to 106 – find almost everything that we talk about funny.”
JD told of a 79-year-old gentleman who came up to him at the county fair. “I really enjoy your show, but some of my friends think you guys are too much,” he told JD. “But guess what? The people who think you are too much still tune in every day!”
In spite of their outrageous banter, their appeal grows from their sincerity.
“Other DJs get on the air and try to be something they are not, but listeners know,” said JD. “They can ‘hear’ right through that.”
CJ agreed. “People think that what we do is shtick. But it’s just what we are. When we do a public appearance, people go – oh my gosh – y’all are like that all the time. We are just as obnoxious off air as we are on air. ”
Then she turns into FM philosopher.
“If people are laughing and having a good time, even if it is silly or stupid, it’s still funny. You are giving people a little four-hour vacation from their lives,” she said. “I know it is one for us!”