HERE'S THE COYOTE J STORY:

COYOTE J has been proactive as one of the most adamant advocators of post-modern, or new wave/dark wave rock in commercial radio, since 1981. It was in the post-punk scene of Los Angeles around 1981, at underground clubs such as Dillion's, where a young Coyote J was introduced to the burgeoning new wave scene (catching fledging post-modern trail blazers such as The Psychedelic Furs, Missing Persons, Wall Of Voodoo, The Bangles, X, XTC, The Motels, Depeche Mode, A Flock Of Seagulls and so on...).

Later in 1981, Coyote J left behind the Los Angeles scene when he was offered the job as night time disc-jockey at KPRI in San Diego; it was there that Coyote J started introducing new wave and post-punk to the public at large on the radio (up to that date, the ONLY commercial alternative station in the entire country was KROQ in Los Angeles). It was within the context of a rather raunchy radio show that Coyote J's musical backdrop to the madness was established, mostly new wave/post-punk acts such as Soft Cell, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Duran Duran, Human League, New Order, Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, The Cure, OMD, The Psychedelic Furs, Felony, and Madness. All of that, intermingled with quasi-metal acts of the period such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Van Halen, Slade, Krokus, and Motley Crew, with even some new Jethro Tull and Bruce Springsteen thrown into the mix!

It was a witches' brew of modern music just breaking at that time and, although Coyote J gets little credit for it, he was THE FIRST DJ to introduce modern music to the masses in the city of San Diego. Coyote J was the first DJ to air Clash's 'Combat Rock' album in the states (1981), on import way before its official American release in late 1982 (airing the track 'Rock The Casbah' years before it re-surfaced on the American pop music charts in 1983). Late in 1982, KPRI dissolved and was replaced by 91X, which was only the third station in the country to go to the new ALTERNATIVE ROCK format (after KROQ and WLIR, Long Island). Coyote J paved the way for this in the surf city almost single-handedly.

Late in 1983, Coyote J attended the infamous US FESTIVAL in Los Angeles featuring such diverse acts as CLASH, David Bowie, Men at Work, A Flock Of Seagulls and U2... and then Coyote J left the west coast.

Fast forward to the southeast (where Coyote J went to school and decided to return to), with the new rock he had grown so fond of in tow. Coyote J promoted this new music at every turn in the southeast, first introducing it on his INSIDE TRACKS radio show which aired on 95 ROCK in Birmingham in 1983 and 1984. In 1984, he was transferred to 95 ROCK's sister station in Mobile (WABB-FM), where he did afternoons and continued his new music show for PD Leslie Fram (who later went on to program 99X in Atlanta in 1986).

In 1985, Coyote J took his act and post-modern, post-punk show to New Orleans (WQUE-FM), where the only avenue for new wave before Coyote J's arrival had been WTUL, the Tulane University campus outlet.

For personal reasons, Coyote J relocated to Birmingham in 1987, and took the gig as night time DJ at Z-102 (WZBQ), the 100,000 mega-watt FM that was just preparing to sign on in September of 1987. Coyote J was part of the original Z-102 staff which became quite legendary for mixing TOP 40 with dance music, and with ALTERNATIVE ROCK. Coyote J had free reign on his night time show and mixed new tracks from The Cure ('Just Like Heaven'), REM and New Order with standard TOP 40 hit-makers such as New Edition, Cameo and Genesis.

Not satisfied with just mixing in a few post-modern, new wave tracks with the standard Top 40 fare, Coyote J introduced 'THE EDGE' (Sunday nights on Z-102), in the spring of 1988. In the spring of 1989 Coyote J was fired in a storm of controversy from Z-102, which culminated in Coyote J having to be physically removed from the Z-102 studio by program director Steve Russell for violating format rules! **A fascinating side note: this firing occurred ON THE AIR, as Coyote J opened his mike and stopped the music playing (Boston's 'Long Time'), when the argument between the two became hot and heavy. It is most likely the ONLY ON AIR firing in the history of modern broadcasting!** To be sure, the audience (hearing what had gone down), went ape-shit demanding Coyote J be brought back; 'Save The Coyote' petitions circulated all over Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and the firestorm actually worked! Coyote J was reinstated for a short while, but by that time tensions were too great between management and Coyote J. Shortly thereafter, Coyote J resigned for good, after management insisted Coyote J could keep his gig, but ONLY if he changed his name to Jock Mahoney ( ! ) and disavow his entire Coyote J act. For the record, Coyote J did one show as Jock Mahoney before resigning, which Coyote J assumed was management's actual hope and plan to protect themselves from any violation of contract lawsuits.

In 1989, Coyote J moved on to the world famous Top 40, I-95, where he was part of ''The Morning Wake-up Service'' Zoo team (with Trey Matthews and Andy Spinosi-RIP) and, of course, Coyote J continued THE EDGE on Sunday nights. In early 1990, another CONTROVERSY arose as The Morning Wake-up crew, despite being number one in the ratings for two years running, was suddenly and unceremoniously dumped (contracts were not renewed for slipping to number two ( ! ) in the latest Arbitron ratings). At that time, I-95 opted to go with Jimbo Wood in mornings, a far more economical approach as The Morning Wake-up Service, with all its many parts, was an expensive endeavor for a Birmingham radio station. This parting of ways caused THE EDGE to be canceled, as well. But once again, the passionate outcry from Coyote J's loyal supporters got 'The Edge' reinstated within three weeks.

In October of 1991, yet ANOTHER CONTROVERSY erupted when far right wing pastor James Dobson's group started targeting I-95 as being too permissive with the music the station was airing as a whole, including 'The Edge.' The pressure grew intense with the station being recorded by Dobson's group 24/7, looking for what they found to be offensive lyrics to forward to the FCC in an effort to get the station's license yanked and/or challenged. A live dance broadcast on Saturday nights from Cafe DeVille, replete with the bootie music of the day and hosted by Scott Bohannnon, was picketed each and every week by zealous right wing tight-asses. To make a long story short, Coyote J was caught by the Christian group airing 'I Sit On Acid ' by The Lords of Acid with the refrain saying, 'sit on my face.' Even though it aired late ( 2 a.m.), management got nervous about getting a fine levied that they could not afford, and again, Coyote J was out.

In 1992, 'The Edge' went into syndication and Coyote J, by now somewhat famous throughout the state (despite, or maybe because of the many controversies), found a large number of stations anxious to air the only show that was featuring new music from the now simmering alternative music scene in the southeast (outside of Atlanta's 99X, whose success fueled the demand for Coyote J's show in part). Rather quickly, affiliates were signed including: WHHY-Montgomery, WVNA-Muscle Shoals/Florence, WQEN-Gadsden, WTID- Tuscaloosa and later, once again, WZBQ- Tuscaloosa, WTGR- Auburn, WBRR (The Bear)-Birmingham, PLANET ROCK- Jasper, and WRAX Birmingham. THE EDGE ran in some form of syndication until 2003, when Coyote J pulled the plug lamenting, '...It's too much effin work and I am not even sure anybody is listening.'

After a year of THE EDGE being totally off the air (Coyote J was employed by WRAX during that down year), Coyote was once again approached to host a post-modern, new music speciality show in 2005 on WRAX. WRAX, by then, had downgraded to a weaker signal at 101.7, really a Tuscaloosa station. Even though that show was called 'Coyote J's X-POD,' make no mistake about it, that show was THE EDGE, whose latest host station simply had a desire to put their own stamp on...

After the legendary X folded in December of 2006, Coyote J signed with Rock 99.5 to host THE EDGE once again on Sunday nights in January 2007. Today THE EDGE  airs on 99.5 from 10pm-2am (cst) Sunday nights (as well as on WZRR.COM).

Check out Coyote J's myspace: www.myspace.com/104295722