Countywide : KCAQ Fires Deejay Over Jokes, Remarks

KCAQ morning radio host Mike Reynolds has been fired for controversial remarks and jokes he made on the air, a station official said Thursday.

The host of the “Q Morning Zoo,” KCAQ’s morning radio show, was fired Wednesday for refusing to follow station guidelines and for playing offensive jokes on unsuspecting victims, KCAQ program director Rooster Rhodes said.

Known as Q-105, the Oxnard-based radio station, at 105 on the FM dial, broadcasts to an area with more than 1 million potential listeners, Reynolds said. Reynolds said KCAQ management considered him too controversial for Ventura County.

“They want a machine, not a talent,” said Reynolds, 30, who had been suspended twice for breaking station rules. The Ventura resident said he was fired because his morning antics, which included badgering clerks at 7-Eleven convenience stores and calling an Ethiopian restaurant and joking about hunger, provoked “a few angry callers.”

Reynolds said his jokes are tame contrasted with those of other well-known morning hosts, such as New York-based Howard Stern. “Compared to him, my stuff is ‘Sesame Street,’ ” he said.

Rhodes said Ventura County is more conservative than Los Angeles County and “we have to play by its rules.”

The final straw may have been a parody of the “The Brady Bunch” television show theme song, which Reynolds played Wednesday morning. Titled “The Horny Bunch,” the song parodied backstage trysts between characters of the popular show.

A KQAC on-air personality for more than four years, Reynolds camped out each Thanksgiving in a box 40 feet above the ground until listeners donated enough canned food to release him.

“His ratings were good, not great,” Rhodes said. Rhodes plans to take over the morning show himself until a replacement is found.