LINCOLN – On Feb. 9, Lincoln’s modern rock station, 104.1 the Blaze, shocked fans by doing away with their popular morning show, which featrued Tim and Jon “The Animal” Terry.
Three Eagles Communication decided to fire Tim Sheridan, the program director and morning show co-host, get rid of the morning show and switch to an Omaha-based morning show.
Starting on Feb. 13, Todd and Tyler replaced Tim and the Animal during the mornings on the Blaze. Todd and Tyler, from Omaha, already appear on Omaha rock station 92.3, otherwise known as Z92, which is available to Lincoln listeners.
This year, in March, would have been 20 years of celebration for the “Tim and the Animal” morning show.
Many dedicated fans of the Blaze’s morning show have sent emails and letters out to the managers at Three Eagles Communications expressing their anger and disappointment toward the change.
The “Tim and the Animal” morning show was known for supporting local businesses and promoting local sports.
Often, members of the Lincoln Stars Hockey team and the No Coast Derby Girls would be interviewed on their show.
In addition, Kamp Out for Kids, an anual fundraising event, was hosted by Tim and the Animal for many years. At that event, items were auctioned off and all donations were donated to children in Lincoln.
As a result of the change, two local businesses, Schrock Innovations and The Tint Shop, have dropped their advertisements from the morning show.
Another advertiser, Tiger Rock Academy, has not pulled their ads from the Blaze, but are actively working with fans to get the original morning show back on air.
Listeners were contacting other businesses to persuade them to pull their advertisements from the new Blaze morning show, Todd and Tyler.
Still, there are numerous local businesses still running ads, as well as 16 non-local or corporate businesses.
A dedicated fan, Brett Boller, created a Facebook group called “Boycott the new ‘Morning Show’ on KIBZ 104.1 the Blaze.”
The group has more than 500 members and grows daily. The purpose of this group is to convince the executives at Three Eagles to switch back to the original morning show featuring Tim Sheridan and Jon Terry. There have been over 100 posts made on the
Facebook page, and more are posted every day.
A “Wanted” poster was made for the Facebook page and several dedicated fans and members set the poster as their profile picture on Facebook.
The poster says: “WANTED: Our Morning Show back!” and features pictures of both Sheridan and Terry.
The three main boycotters on the Facebook page, who post several times daily, are Angi Guenther, Richard Roeder and Kia Parsons Itzen.
Members of the group are also petitioning the local companies to halt advertising during the new morning show.
By joining the boycott group, Richard Roeder said that he hopes his efforts will “change the morning show back to local on-air personalities.”
When asked if his involvement has more to do with him being friends with Terry or more with the fact that he is a big fan of the morning show, he replied he is a “fan of the morning show. I have a huge problem with authority and don’t like corporations making decisions they know nothing about.”
Roeder said that Three Eagles would not answer any emails about the morning show.
On the boycott page, fan Doug Tjarks said, “I miss Tim and Jon. Our local guys…Sorry TEC you are pulling for people that don’t support this town and are anti-Lincoln. You took away a nearly 20 year tradition.”
Fans Mike and Gee Powell said, “I’m sending an email to TEC at least once a week, letting them know that I am still upset, and not listening while the morning show is on.”
Angi Guenther, another one of the main supporters on the boycott page, organized a “Bring Back Our Morning Show” party in Lincoln on Saturday, March 3, at Heidelberg’s in south Lincoln.
Many fans who belong to the Facebook boycott group emailed the Lincoln Journal Star and informed them about the changing of the morning show and included all of their opinions on the change, and Jeff Korbelik, writer and reporter for the Lincoln Journal Star covered the switch in an article.
The article explained that Three Eagles decided to hire Todd and Tyler was because they wanted to shake up the ratings that they had received from the Tim and the Animal show.
Another effort for change was with a petition on change.org, also by Boller, called “104.1 the Blaze: Bring back Tim & the Animal Morning Show.”
The petition was created on Feb. 13 and already had 1000 signatures by the next day. Not only have local listeners signed the petition, but people from all over the world, including those from Germany, Canada, Iran, Israel, New Zealand and Uganda.
The petition along with the Facebook boycott page is how fans contact each other publicly.
From the petition and Facebook page, there is a consensus that the new morning show is not a wholesome choice for Lincoln. Some of the topics that are covered by Todd and Tyler are age-specific and not suitable for younger listeners.
The petition organizers are taking donations to obtain a billboard for Tim and the Animal. Donating $10 gets fans a free “Save Tim & The Animal” t-shirt. Profits go toward the billboard, but if donations are short, the money will go toward the Kamp Out for Kids fundraiser.
Both Tim Sheridan and Jon Terry were contacted, but declined to comment on any feelings they had toward the change of their morning show. The executives at Three Eagles Communication, Joy Patten and Gary Buchanan, also declined to comment.