Matthew Erich "Mancow" Muller (born June 21, 1966) is an American radio and television personality. He is best known for Mancow's Morning Madhouse , formerly on Rock 103.5 and WKQX-FM (Q101), both Chicago-based radio shows that have been nationally syndicated mostly in small markets by Talk Radio Network. Muller's career with Q101 was cut short in July 2006, when Marv Nyren, Vice President and General Manager of Emmis Radio, in Chicago, announced, "We’ve decided that the time has come for us to develop a morning show that will better serve the needs and sensibilities of this audience. On October 22, 2008, WLS-AM in Chicago announced that Muller would join that station as a weekday radio talk show host, in the 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. time slot, beginning on October 27, 2008. Muller continued to host his nationally syndicated morning radio program.
Radio career beginnings
Thanks to Muller's radio mentor, Marion Woods and Kendra Utterback, Mancow's radio career began at KOKO-AM (a one-kilowatt AM radio station), in Warrensburg, Missouri, playing commercials during the Larry King satellite feed. His role gradually expanded until he got his own afternoon show.
Among Muller's fans was the general manager of KLSI-FM in Kansas City, who offered him a full-time job as head of station promotions. Muller accepted the position, plus a weekend air shift, while completing his final semester at Central Missouri State University (now known as the University of Central Missouri).
Pre-Chicago notoriety
After a stint at KDON in Monterey, California, Muller headed north to San Francisco. In 1993, Muller made national headlines working for radio station 107.7 KYLD-FM in San Francisco, California, when a story was circulating that President Bill Clinton tied up traffic on an LAX runway for over an hour getting a haircut on Air Force One. Muller staged a parody of the incident on the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge during rush hour. He used vans to block the westbound lanes on the bridge while his then sidekick, Jesus "Chuy" Gomez, got a haircut.
As a result of this publicity stunt, Muller was prosecuted and subsequently convicted of a felony by a San Francisco Municipal Court. His sentence included three years probation, a $500 fine and 100 hours of community service. The radio station eventually paid $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a bridge commuter.
Mancow's Morning Madhouse
Main article: Mancow's Morning MadhouseMuller accepted a job offer by Evergreen Media President Jim de Castro at more than double his salary if he would be willing to move to Chicago to work at WWBZ-FM, "The Blaze". "The Blaze" had lost its fire and it was renamed to "Rock 103.5" (WRCX-FM), and created his radio show, Mancow's Morning Madhouse which debuted in July 1994.
Originally, he broadcasted from WRCX-FM (Rock 103.5) studios in the John Hancock Center and in 1998, moved to the city's alternative rock station, WKQX-FM (Q-101) 101.1, where the show was broadcast from the Merchandise Mart for eight more years.
Within two Arbitron ratings periods he took the station's 19th-ranked morning show to #5 among all teens and adults, and #1 among 18-to-34 year olds.
Muller's "Mancow's Morning Madhouse" ended its live run on Emmis' Alternative outlet in Spring 2006, and had the highest rated audience in Chicago with Men Ages 25 to 54 (among English speaking stations). According to Arbitron, a radio ratings service, Mancow's show, measured in Average Quarter Hour listening percentages (AQH) had a 5.7 Share. The next closest station was all-news WBBM with a 5.3 Share.
In his target demographic, men between the ages of 18 and 34 years, Mancow AQH was an 11.8 Share of the audience in that age group, the highest Share of any other English-speaking station in Chicago.
His show, however, was not without controversy. In 1999, Janet Dahl, the wife of Chicago talk radio host Steve Dahl, filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Muller over lewd comments Muller made about her on his show. In 2001, the case was settled out of court. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, it reportedly reached seven figures.
After Wes Borland left Limp Bizkit, Fred Durst was to be a judge in a Guitar Center competition allegedly to find the next guitarist for the band. Hundreds of people showed up to audition. Durst showed up late for the event, gave everybody in attendance the middle finger, then promptly left. In response, Muller posted a photo on his website of Durst flipping off the guitarist competition audience and began periodic on-the-air anti-Durst rants.
For a full week leading up to Limp Bizkit's Summer Sanitarium 2003 concert in Chicago, Muller continually mocked Durst on his radio show and invited listeners to attend the concert with anti-Durst placards. When Muller's fans complied by showing up with the placards, openly taunting the singer, booing him and pelting him with refuse, Durst erupted into a profanity-laced homophobic tirade and left the stage only 17 minutes into the show. Durst was eventually sued for breach of contract (for not completing the show) by Chicago lawyer Michael Young in a class-action suit.
When it was announced in late 2008 that Mancow, along with Pat Cassidy, would take over the 9-11am slot at WLS, it was of the general opinion of Chicago print media that the show would quickly falter. The reality was however quite the opposite, as just four months after the debut of Mancow and Cassidy, Arbitron ratings had the show at #1 in the 12+ audience, and nearly doubling Chicago competitors in the male demographic as of February 2009.
Mancow and the FCC
Muller and Emmis Communications, the company that owns radio stations on which Mancow's Morning Madhouse was broadcast, have had numerous run-ins with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for broadcasting offensive or obscene material. In particular, in 1999 David Edward Smith, the then-Executive Director of the Illinois-based Citizens for Community Values, began filing complaints with the FCC. While the first several of these complaints were initially dismissed by the FCC for lack of context, eventually the FCC began levying fines on Emmis – largely as a result of persistent efforts thereto from anti-obscenity commissioners Gloria Tristani and Bush appointee Michael Copps. By June 2002, various media sources reported that Emmis had paid $42,000 in fines for FCC violations on Muller's program.
Smith continued to file complaints about the content of Muller's show. In 2004, Muller filed a suit against Smith, claiming that Smith was violating his First Amendment rights to free speech. A federal judge declared this suit to be, "frivolous and insubtantial," and as a result Muller dropped the suit on August 3, 2004. Shortly thereafter Emmis Communications announced it had reached a, "consent decree," with FCC, agreeing to pay $300,000 and to admit that the Mancow program had at times violated FCC regulations. In the meantime, Smith had petitioned FCC to deny the renewal of Emmis station licenses, including one for a station, WIBC-AM in Indianapolis, that did not broadcast Muller's program – which was unsuccessful.
Cowboy Ray
On November 20, 2005, Ray Hofstatter, aka, "Cowboy Ray," a 45-year-old mentally challenged frequent caller, guest on Mancow's Morning Madhouse was struck by a car in a hit-and-run accident and critically injured. Ray died shortly after his life support was terminated on January 11, 2006. Muller offered a $13,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the driver, but was unsuccessful. The hit-and-run case of Cowboy Ray was featured on Fox's America's Most Wanted television show on February 25, 2006. As of 2009, the driver responsible has still not been found.
Politics
On December 6, 2005, Muller made an appearance on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends where he referred to Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean as "vile," "bloodthirsty" and "evil." Muller also commented on Dean's negative opinions on the War in Iraq, calling Dean a traitor that "ought to be kicked out of America" and "tried for treason."
On May 22, 2009, Muller had himself waterboarded during his morning radio program, having lost a listener poll determining whether he or co-host Pat Cassidy would be the one waterboarded. The talk show host had previously claimed that calling waterboarding "torture" was wrong, something he had stated that he hoped his reenactment would prove. Lasting only 6 seconds (" 8 seconds less than the average person ", according to program guest Marine Sergeant Klay South), Mancow afterward changed his opinion, saying, " It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that's no joke ", and described waterboarding as " absolutely torture ".
Questions were later raised about the validity of the procedure. South had no formal training in waterboarding and had never before performed the procedure, leading the online celebrity and gossip site Gawker to accuse Muller of faking the whole thing. Muller replied in an interview on Countdown with Keith Olbermann , " I admit it, it was a stupid radio stunt. But waterboarding, all it is, is water in your nose and mouth with your head back. " Further adding " We went into this thinking it was going to be a joke. But it was not a joke — it was horrible. 'Hoax' is probably not the right word, but we did think it was going to be a joke. <
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