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Matty in the Morning announces retirement; says this time he really means it
By adamg on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 9:10am
At 8:10 a.m., Matt Siegel announced his retirement from Kiss 108 after 41 years at the station.
"As of now, I am retired," he said. "It's time, it's been such a glorious run."
You may recall how, last May, he stormed off the air after he was told to stop being a smartass about Demi Lovato.
Siegel said it's been a tough year for him - brain surgery, a broken foot and even getting grumpy on the air, when all he ever wanted to do was make people laugh. He said he came to his decision with the help of his wife and four kids and that he'd now be starting a new career as a lousy golfer.
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Comments
Not to be snarky
But I'm curious what demographic listening to "morning zoo" commercial radio at this point.
I remember a billboard in Porter Sq proclaiming, "It's just Matty being Matty". Helpful warning since I certainly don't want to listen to anyone who needs a disclaimer.
A lot of people
He's the top rated, and most listened to morning show for women 25-54... a very key demographic for advertisers. And it's been that way for decades...
While the numbers are not what they used to be, radio listenership in Boston is still fairly massive in volume.
There's a podcast called 97.9
There's a podcast called 97.9 The Rat Race that is a parody morning zoo crew radio. It's so much better than the real thing.
Kinda my point
Everyone I know under 40 listens mostly to Podcasts or streaming services.
Correct
A lot of people under 40 listen to podcasts/streaming... however the numbers show that a lot of people under 40 also listen to the radio as well.
It's not an OR scenario. Many people, including myself, do both. It's pretty easy when every car is equipped with a radio.
Kiss 108 spins new and relatively recent Top 40
hits, Contemporary Hit Radio in industry parlance, so its audience (800K of them, per Nielsen) is top-rated among listeners 18-34 and third among persons 25-54, so mainly young adults.
No surprise that the radio audience is an aging one: Kiss ranks in the Top 5 locally, but is consistently beaten by The Sports Hub, WBZ-AM news, WROR classic hits, (which means mostly 80s stuff -- main demo: men age 45-54), and WZLX classic rock (again, middle-aged dudes).
It's pretty easy to get a nicely-customized, ad-free listening experience via streaming these days, and a lot easier to find your way to new music if that's your thing. I'd expect younger listeners to continue to desert mainstream commercial broadcast radio in droves. On my now far-less-frequent car commute, I occasionally tune into college radio, but mostly I'm listening to podcasts or Spotify. I never use radio for weather, sports or traffic anymore.
Yes
Makes me wonder if this 'retirement' isnt voluntary and Iheartmedia wants to give KISS a 'make over' and Matty just isnt part of the picture. Matty is really what's left of the hayday of KISS before it got sucked up into a huge communications conglomerate.
Yeah Radio is dying.. I rarely listen anymore. If I am in a car where I am not using my iphone for music.. its usually on WBZ 1030 for a hot minute (to get traffic) or WBUR (NPR). Not really into much popular music & stations like KISS I can only listen to for a minute or two before I change it.
If I want music on the radio, I listen to MIX. Its just more my speed for music.. less pop-y more Hot AC. Yep im old...
Supposedly the announcement today was pre-recorded
Very surprising that your #1 guy for the past 40 years didn't get a chance to say goodbye live. What really happened will come out in the next few days
Not Unusual
That's always always the case when an on air personality leaves, especially under less than perfect circumstances. They're just gone. I think it's because management doesn't trust what they might say on the air on that last day.
Who actually gives a shit
about the melodrama so often associated with people in the entertainment business?
He probably had the chance
Unlike the last time, it doesn't sound like anybody stormed out of the studio. It wouldn't surprise me if Matty didn't want to go live, and wanted to prepare exactly what he wanted to say ahead of time. Don't forget, almost everything you hear on the radio now that sounds live, is actually pre-recorded.
Broadcasting
Yup. I graduated HS in the early 90s with a full scholarship to a broadcasting school. I wanted to be a deejay or audio engineer. I got a job doing tech and abandoned the scholarship & school.. kinda glad I did.
I briefly dated a deejay when I first moved here and got a tour of the station (while he was working). Pretty much his station was the only one that was 'live' and that the other 3 stations that were produced out that facility were programmed stations. Personalities would come in a Sunday and do all the voice overs for the week. Said it took about 2 hours for the entire week. Then the station programmer would set everything up.
After that I was kinda glad I never pursued the schooling.. I would have been out of a job within a couple of years after graduating.
I think my friend eventually lost his job.. to a computer.
There's some irony there that I chose a career that would have put the other one out of business pretty much.
Programmed stations. And radio wonders why its dying........
anyone remember Mix 98.5 with John Lander in the morning
Miss those guys
John lander, Lynn Hoffman, Mr Leonard Mike Ellis,. The Nutcrackers!
Matty
They all play the same 10 songs every 30 minutes. I remember when I could listen to KISS108 with my parents during the mid 80’s - mid 90’s and not feel embarrassed, or feel the need to turn it down. Nowadays it’s all, “BOOTY, BABY, DRUGS, CARS, $$$, DIAMONDS, GUNS, I’M HIGHER THAN YOU and MUMBLED whatchamacalit rap. Old hiphop told a story, simple yet with substance. A character, or some woke “PROBLACK” wake up to the man message. Remember the “GANGSTER RAP”! “PARENTAL EXPLICIT ADVISORY” of 1989-1992. Now “HIPHOP” is as “Americana” as unlocked doors, white picket fences, and APPLE-PIE. Yeah, heah ta stay.
25-54 year olds, particularly women
Sounds like the 72 yo Siegel will be replaced by 70 yo Billy Costa :-)
Some national syndicated show
Like so many chain-owned stations, I think Kiss 108 will turn to one of their nationally syndicated shows from the iHeart stable...maybe Elvis Duran from NYC.
Billy
At least Billy Costa is a really nice guy. Matty was so angry and obnoxious. Good riddance.
Evolution of a crank
As a local since I was a kid, you could notice how the show went from kooky morning zoo type stuff to a sort of sanitized Howard Stern type of anti for several years in the 90s (many stations around the US did this sort of thing) where Matty would say some more provocative things that maybe you wouldn't want your kids to hear in the car. After a few years it just kinda settled into the mild crank / poking fun, and then the terrible music of 2000-2010 for the most part made the station unlistenable.
As we sort of get into the post American idol / Glee shows (since those shows seemed to dominate conversation, as well as reality shows) we settle into the 'Larry David' sort of old jaded Jewish man routine where he ended up.
For the whole dumb 'pronoun' storm off, honestly that isn't something that really was way out there. I consider myself pretty progressive, but I think for some folks, pronoun 'politics' have gotten way too extreme and to be honest, I don't care what a star announces they think they are this week. If he called her a lying drunk, or alcoholic, would AA or other groups protest him? No.
Bottom line, it is a comedy show - if you don't like it, don't listen. This is how it has always been. He did not attack all trans people, and questioning pronouns or misgendering pronouns is, IMHO, not something we should equate with an act of violence.
As we watch certain political parties tear away at norms, and start to bring up things like interracial marriage being up to states, or chipping away at actual rights of gay / trans people, that is what you need to worry about. Not some millionaire being goofy on the radio in the morning.
If you really want to be offended, try listening to Greg Hill on WEEI - the regular 'liberatarian but pro Trump pro My Pillow Wuhan Flu it is a fake' sort of nonsense that used to occur daily, yet no one wrote articles about it.
Pick your battles.
Good luck to the guy.
Good luck to the guy.
I don't think I've heard him outside of a dental appointment situation since he jumped to "the disco station" just a few weeks after being subjected to this difficult interview the night I watched it after coming home from the FZ concert in Providence.
Wow
That interview was amazing.
the story i heard..
matty was having some trouble with his prostate. he was talking about a procedure he had a week or two ago and got a bit detailed. he mentioned that men have a "small hole on the top" of their penis. i guess this was too much for some people to handle. he was off the air the next day and never returned.
Where did you hear that?
Where did you hear that?
Listened to him in high school…
in 1988. Still surprised he lasted this long. One of my notebooks still has the KISS sticker!
In light of the medical issues, wish him the best.
Don't. Stop. Come back.
He gave us Wendy Williams
She credits him for her first radio job and learning a lot from Matty. Salute.
The Best!!!
Been listening for years and so enjoyed the show. He will be missed in Boston. What a loss for us in the city. No need to listen to Kiss 108 anymore.
Best of luck Matty and Thank You!!