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Ross treats that esoteric sleep schedule like its no big deal.
Ive always been a night owl!
he crows, his signature gentle croak still radiant even after hours on the air.
The other morning shows usually feature something more like aural espresso scream-laughter over shouted gossip.
Wake and Bake, WFMUs flagship show, is something gentler by orders of magnitude.
Its like Mister Rogers for people who likeCourtney Barnett.
Sometimes I feel like a weakling for quitting NPR, but listening to Wake and Bake assuages my guilt.
Its not like Rossneverdelivers any real news.
and moves on to a Kiwi Jr. song or the weather report.
Rosss off-air personality is different from Clay Pigeons but just barely.
As connoisseurs of weirdness know, WFMU is a 25-year-old, all-volunteer station based in Jersey City.
Some WFMU shows feature aggressive noise music, others bossa nova.
If you tune in at a random time, you never know what youre going to get.
And even though the DJ gigs are unpaid, theres fierce competition to get on the schedule.
Freeform radios fans and practitioners take the art form very seriously.
In 2017, it became clear that the station needed something more like a traditional morning show.
The slot had previously been filled by a Jewish show called JM in the AM With Nachum Segal.
It had been the stations highest earner but departed so it could go to an ad-supported format.
He was then 60 years old.
Somehow, Ross kept this show upbeat, but it was still far from Wake and Bakelevel anodyne.
Still, Ross was convinced that he was the man for the job.
Eventually, the pool was divvied down to three, then two, then Ross took the crown.
Rosss salary from WFMU isnt lavish.
He relies on his wife, Kirsten Ulves successful illustration career to supplement his income.
He met Kirsten through the show and they bonded over their mutual midwestern roots.
Without my wife, I might not be able to work at WFMU.
Their wives are the one whos making them bread.
Ross is the kind of guy who can say bread and seem sincere about it.
The shows relentless yet uncloying positivity took shape immediately.
In March 2020, WFMU streaming listenership went up by a third.
People were hungry for exactly the break from bleak reality that the show had been designed to provide.
He has a sturdy, pleasant voice that adds something extra to the songs he plays.
What I like to do is drive people almost to the point of madness with repetition.
I need the hyena.
Rosss melodic instincts come from those musician years, but he has never recorded an album of his own.
So this show teaches me to do my best and let it go.
