WABY – Mike The Enforcer, Kim Neaton and Chris Lynch – Interview

(WABY) Mike The Enforcer, Kim Neaton and Chris Lynch – Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: Mike The Enforcer, I hear that you’re home.

ME: Yeah, I got back home at the beginning of October and immediately went back to work full-time at the body shop. I was already doing WABY 93.9FM while I was down there, and now I’m doing full-time Monday through Friday, 7 pm to midnight, and then I’m doing Monday through Friday, 7 pm to midnight down in Knoxville, Tennessee, as well on 93.7FM WVLZ.

RRX: That’s cool, man. How do you feel to be back? Not just at home but back on the airwaves where you belong.

ME: It feels great. They say it’s like riding a bike, and it actually kinda is. The listeners that we have up here make it that much easier because they’re so accepting whether you come, whether you go, whether you still suck, whether you’re still good. You know what I mean? It’s overwhelming to be back into it. When Ralph first called me, I was like apprehensive. I’m like 750 miles away. We made it work, and now I’m back in New York, and now I get to get out amongst the Bastard Nation, so to speak, and go to events and shake babies and kiss hands, and you know?

RRX: Being a radio guy myself and doing it for 30-something years now, I always wanted to be at a place where I fit. So, during the long hiatus that I had when I wasn’t on the radio, I got offers from FLY 92 and WGNA, and I didn’t fit there, so I said hell no. And I feel like you are where you belong. WABY is where Mike The Enforcer should be. That’s exactly the right fit.

ME: Well, thank you, I appreciate that, Rob. The thing to me was, like you said, if you get into that mold and you become accustomed to becoming someone that somebody likes to listen to, you can’t carry that over. I couldn’t do country music as Mike The Enforcer; it just wouldn’t work. And at the time that I got out of it, that’s all that was predominant. There were no rock stations like this anymore. You had classic rock stations, and that was it. As far as the ‘90s and 2000s go, those were forgotten decades. And now I’m glad to be back as a part of something that fits me like a glove.

RRX: 100% I’m happy to have you back.

ME: I’m in the best state of mind that I’ve been in a long time. I’m a happy guy. I’m a single guy. It’s just me and Loki living in Mechanicville now. I’m glad to be back. I’m around my family again and I’m once again around the Bastard Nation in more than one state.

RRX: That’s correct. Well, I hope the ladies are listening. I heard he’s single, there’s nothing sexier than a freaking radio DJ. So Kim Neaton is here with us as well. Kim, I was actually really happy to see you be a part of this. How’s it feel for you to be back on the airwaves?

KN: This is my first time back on the air in about seven years and I’m on Monday through Friday 10 am – 3 pm. I’ll definitely say the first day, turning on the microphone and realizing I’m talking to tons of people out there was a little scary because it had been so long. But I would say after doing two or three breaks, it just kind of naturally came back, and I felt back in the zone. It’s like being on the radio is just, you know, being a good host showing people music that you like, you know, that they’re a fan of too. So it’s easy, you know, it comes naturally. If I’m excited about sharing good music with people, then, you know, it’s something I like talking about anyway.

RRX: And then you come back and you and your peers are also syndicated in Tennessee.

KN: Yep. The guy that owns WABY up here is based down in Knoxville, Tennessee, and he has one station that’s very similar down there, but then just about a month ago, he launched a station called Atomic 106, which is an alternative station. It’s a really good mix of alternative music from when it first started in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, like the Cure and Talking Heads and everything, all the way up to new stuff that’s coming out today. So that only started a month ago, and just two weeks ago, I started being on the air there from 3 pm to 7 pm Monday through Friday. And that I’m having a lot of fun with because that’s really a lot of similar music to what was playing when I was on EQX. The only challenge is that I’m not in Knoxville. I gotta get familiar with the different venues down there and when shows are coming through. But it’s really exciting to be able to have my voice and share good music with people that far away.

The thing I’m most excited about is, I started my own specialty show. It’s a new music show called Generator, and that airs at 7 pm on Sunday nights on WABY and on the station in Knoxville. Not the alternative station I’m on, but the rock one that is similar to WABY. It’s an hour of new music I found, like hard rock, punk, metal; just stuff I think is cool that I wanna share with people. So it’s all new music that came out in the last month or two.

RRX: That’s really cool. I love that. I also want to talk with Chris Lynch as well, host of High Voltage, which airs Sundays from 9 pm-11 pm. It seems like everyone is an old veteran radio DJ that I’m speaking with today. What was it like when Ralph Renna made you this offer to come to WABY?

CL: For years Ralph said to me, “I’m gonna get you your metal show back.” We always laughed about it, like, “Yeah, someday you’ll get me my metal show back.” And three months ago, he calls me and he says, “Do you want your metal show back?” I’m about to say, what the f*** are you talking about? And he hangs up. What the f*** is he doing? So I call him right back, like, “Dude, why the f*** are you hanging up with me?” He says, “Because I’m just trying to build a little suspense.”

RRX: That’s hilarious.

CL: Do I wanna do this show? I said damn right, I wanna do this show. I’m given the freedom to add what music I think is gonna go over well. Whether it’s some grindcore band like Escuela Grind, or a new hardcore band called Zulu. They’ve been out a couple of years, but … I have the choice to add these bands, play them, and no one bats an eye. I wanna be a show where – a band you’re not gonna hear every day on the radio or nearly at all on the radio – I wanna be able to give that band a platform and have kids someday be able to say I love the sound of that band. I wonder who they are, and maybe that’ll propel another generation of kids that like music and rock music!

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