By DEVON GOHDE
Every Friday night on the Ramapo College radio station, WRPR-FM 90.3 senior Joe Bennett and junior Ryan Nelson host a radio talk show called, “The Moonlighters.” Whether it’s poking fun at each other or comparing Michael Bay and Travis Knight’s style of directing Transformers movies, they both agreed Travis Knight did a better job.
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The show came about after Bennett and Nelson met in a TV Noir class and realized they work well together. Nelson was already in the school’s radio club and asked Bennett and a few other classmates if they’d be interested in starting a late-night radio talk show. They agreed.
Before deciding on the ‘The Moonlighters,’ the show was going to be called ‘The Late-Night Losers’ due to their time slot being 8-10 p.m. on Friday nights, but others felt that it would turn people off to the show. The first episode aired early in the fall of 2019 semester.
He only was available to interview due to Nelson’s work schedule, but he was happy to speak for both of them.
All of the co-hosts had a fun time just chatting and making each other laugh while on the air. Every so often, the group would take a break and play songs that they wanted to hear or that listeners had requested via text to one of the hosts or the show’s Instagram page. The semester ended, and the show went on hiatus during the winter break. The second season of the show aired on Feb. 14.
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Scheduling conflicts left only Bennett and Nelson hosting the show.
‘The Moonlighters’ Today
There is no set theme to “The Moonlighters” every week is whatever is relevant to that week and what the host wants to talk about.
“It’s a late-night talk show well talk about literally everything and anything that will not have the FCC coming after us,” Bennett said
There have been segments on wrestling and funny, but real news articles, like ‘Woman Accused of Shoplifting Jumps Into Passaic River.’ It is also encouraged for listeners to suggest songs for the breaks of the show through text and call. On their recent Valentine’s Day special viewers called in to tell their worst date story or to request love is awesome or love is terrible type songs. Also, listeners are welcomed to call in and join in on the conversation. They get up to 3-5 callers a night.
According to a study done by Nielsen.com, 93% of adult Americans listen to AM/FM radio than watching television.
Bennett doesn’t know what will become of the show, but hosting had inspired him to maybe have a career in radio broadcasting.
“I really come to enjoy being on the radio and co-hosting a show and entertaining people and getting all the messages saying, ‘hey this is funny’ or ‘hey can I join in on the conversation’ and the interaction with my co-host, it’s just a fun experience,” Bennett said.
UPDATE: Sadly Nelson has pulled the plug on the show but Bennet plans on learning how to work the radio board to bring it back.
You did well telling your audience about the show. Although the instagram photo you included is no longer available. The score on your headline was a 73. NICE WORK!!