Not a shock that longtime Twin Cities radio "personality" Tony Fly is done entertaining us on television, at least in his current incarnation.
I've never been a big fan of Tony Fly. It's not that I don't like him, it's just that he doesn't sell anything I buy. He was a fixture at KDWB-FM for many years, probably more than I can remember, but I had little interest in the hot hits of the day. I'm far from an authority on his career, but his online resume says his career dates back to 1988, when he worked at Z100 in New York as a weekend guy. He bounced around a bit before winding up doing more than 10 years at KDWB, which ended in 2003. He's not afraid to let you know that he was "NUMBER ONE IN-DEMO LITERALLY EVERY RATINGS MEASUREMENT PERIOD."
He did double duty at the end of his KDWB days, evidently, as he did mornings in Austin. I presume that's Texas. I'm too lazy to look it up if he's too lazy to spell it out on his resume.
His poorly crafted resume gets a bit confusing, as it appears that he went to work for what would be his post-KDWB employer prior to departing the Clear Channel family in 2003. Whatever he was doing during that time, I remember him best as the longtime morning show host of what was B96, the urban hip-hop radio station that was abandoned for reasons I'll never understand. As the format changed, Tony remained with the frequency until 2012, when they, presumably, had to dump his salary.
I had forgotten that during his B96 years there was also a local television program showing snippets of his wacky morning zoo, a la Howard Stern in his prime. So I guess it wasn't a stretch for the Fox-owned My29, or whatever they call it these days, to hire Tony in 2013 to host an hour of television that essentially resembled a morning radio show.
For more than two-and-a-half years Fly has been gabbing on the late night airwaves. I can't believe it has been that long already. Where does the time go?
The program started out with your typical morning zoo formula. Tony was the driver and perky Fox9 traffic babe Kelsey Soby was the sidekick. Dan Edwards, who I knew nothing about, other than that he somehow worked with Tony previously, served as the producer/second sidekick who they turned to when they needed a third wheel.
It was a lame show that seemed to cater to the kind of people who don't know what a Mensa meeting is. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't for me, shockingly.
It was a video version of a morning zoo, taped seemingly 12 hours ahead of its late night time slot. Thanks to technology the show was not limited to folks calling the host via telephone. Viewers could respond to the weeknight broadcasts by sharing videos of themselves, and those videos were periodically broadcast as part of the show. And of course viral videos and other visual stimuli were a necessary part of the formula. Since I didn't watch the show regularly, or for long periods of time when I'd stop and gawk, I can't say how often they'd have a guest on the show, but it happened now and then.
Again, the show wasn't for me, but it wasn't a bad idea. We have plenty of hours of TV based upon people telling us their opinions, and disagreeing with each other in response to those opinions. That now passes for entertainment. I get it when you're listening to such banter in your car, or while hand washing your delicates, but I don't get the appeal of watching people sit around and talk.
"On the Fly" did a good job of keeping the show interactive. Besides injecting its viewers into the broadcast it offered interactivity via social media channels, pretty much like every morning zoo these days.
The show plugged along for about a year, give or take, and seemed to gain some steam when Edwards departed. He left for a purely off-camera job with the KARE-TV sports department, and has since moved on from that. When he departed as the show's second sidekick, that left a void, although it appeared that the show made an effort to bring in more local "celebrities" to fill that void. Tony seemed to take a liking to a guy who calls himself "L.A. Nik," who is either a brilliant entrepreneur and self-promoter or a complete ass clown.
Aside: Edwards strikes me as a more interesting person than Fly or Soby.
The show chugged along, sans Edwards, until last spring. As it neared the two-year mark Soby announced her departure from the show. Her excuse seems rather fraudulent in retrospect, and despite the fact I didn't think she brought anything special to the table, her departure signaled the beginning of the end.
That's because the brain trust at Fox didn't replace her. The show seemed to fill Edwards' void a bit by cutting to whomever the control room wizard of the show is, but there was no replacement for Soby. And the show started to take a rather awkward turn. Rather than try to replicate the chemistry with another version of Soby, Tony started sitting down with the local touring comedian of the week, as well as other local non-celebs who were often two-bit comedians. Sure, I saw Fancy Ray McCloney on the show once, and Tony's old B96 sidekick, whom I know nothing about, was a semi-regular, but none of these folks were a draw. And they sat around and chatted about God knows what, with little viewer interaction, although it seemed like they tried to bring a little of that back in the final weeks.
I didn't love the show, but the original formula seemed to work, and not sticking with it after Soby's departure seemed to hastily bring the show to its final resting place. Word on the Internet today was that the show will cease after this Friday. I'm not the least bit surprised.
Tony isn't completely unemployed, thanks to a small gig he picked up, as the Remy Maxwell of 105 the Vibe. Ironically B96 just relaunched, more or less, on the day Tony got his pink slip from Fox. Perhaps as that station slowly ramps up its on-air personalities there'll be another gig for Tony. I'm sure he'd be happy to trade his part-time gig at 105 for something more lucrative.
Otherwise he'll be busy hustling any voiceover work he can find. Like all great broadcasters he's looking for a slew of those gigs, particularly since he lost his last steady radio gig in 2012.
He doesn't do anything for me, but Tony seems like a personable broadcaster that people gravitate to. He seems to have adapted with the changing radio landscape and has a lot of name recognition in this market. There are fewer jobs in major market radio these days, but the cream always rises. He'll be back in a more prominent role in this market before too long, I'd bet. And if I'm right, here's hoping his job isn't torpedoed by poor format decisions that seem to have been responsible for his demise in recent years.
