Once upon a time, the Johnny Dare / Murphy Wells radio show was born…
Hard to imagine, but 22 years ago Kansas City’s preeminent, high profile dirt ball – for all practical purposes – was essentially created.
The year was 1994, and with four years of on-air experience under her belt, the 35 year-old Wells became the fledgling show’s equally paid co-star, alongside an unknown local drop out, the then 24 year-old Dare.
Dare had been kicked out of high school for riding his moped naked through the school cafeteria where he was clotheslined by a high school coach.
Needless to say, you had to be there, right?
For Wells – a Chanute, Kansas native – it was a homecoming of sorts, moving back from Washington, DC, and for the next decade she and Johnny carved out incredibly high radio ratings and successes.
Just one problem…
Instead of working in tandem to climb the ladder together, Wells was relegated by Dare to being a bit player in the show’s success.
‘I intimidated the (heck) out of him,” she recalls. “So he put his thumb on me because he was afraid I would be the star, not him.”
No such luck, but was Dare at least nice about it at first?
“Oh yeah, we got along great for sure,” Wells says sarcastically. “But it depended on what mood he was in. Most of the time he was very condescending and dismissive of me…You couldn’t tell on the air how badly he treated me, because I was always very professional. But he tried everything he could to make me look bad…It was a really weird thing. It would be really interesting to ask him how he feels now – as a 54 year-old man – about hurting all the people he did. He put me down and would call me names off the air. Like he called my mom a whore on the air one time. And not just me – he did it to everybody – and none of us could do anything about it when he pulled that shit.”
The ratings were too high, the money too great.
Wells left the show voluntarily in 2004, landed a short radio gig in Colorado before returning to another KC station, before a seven year stint in Denver radio, followed later by opening a boutique paint shop that she closed during pandemic in 2020, before moving back to a small town in Kansas last year.
Whew…
“I really, really, really love it there,” she says of her 6,000 population small town. “To me this is just paradise. It’s very nostalgic and the people are normal, down to earth. And the stress level is like zero. It’s fabulous.”
For the most part, Wells has had zero contact with Dare since they parted. One of his producers did call her several years back after I did an update on her – presumably, she thinks – to try to get her address to mail a “cease and desist” letter to her.
“Nope, nuthin’, don’t even think about him,” she says. “Why the (efff) would I? I really don’t care; he hurt me so much. But kudos to him; he’s made a great career out of his smart aleckness and nastiness.”
All of that said…
“It was the Johnny Dare and Murphy in the Morning Show and we were a team – and I was a team player,” Wells muses. “You know, I used to be on Johnny’s Wikipedia page, but now they’ve completely taken me out. Johnny just didn’t want me to be a part of it, even though I was a huge part of it. But I’m not regretful. I probably should have sued for gender discrimination because of the pay and the way I was treated, but see, I didn’t have the right attorneys.”
Wells had been making 50 grand with promotional bonuses, while Entercom insiders say Dare soared to around three-quarters of a million dollars a year in salary. The local radio market today has plunged to almost half of what it was when Dare was raking it in, but one insider estimates he’s probably still making in the neighborhood of 400 grand.
What Wells feels about Dare today?
“Nothing really,” she says. “I really don’t care about him at all. If anything, I have pity for him…He never had any kids and he’s going to die with all that money. I just feel sorry for him.”
Johnny Dare and Murphy in the Morning Show could get very raunchy and down right rude towards people and things off and on. In fact the show was by some so tasteless businesses banned employees from listening to it in a manner where other workers could here what was being said. That being said a lot of people really know the true side of Dare and all the good things he has done with his fundraising will never ever change folks opinions about him. Myself, I know him for who he is and just ignore him for the most part and could care less about most of his opinions and choice of show topics as I don’t listen to him and have not well before Murphy left. I very well remember some of the stuff she is hinting at that took place and it just wasn’t my forte of what radio should be.
I never thought I’d see Nycki Pace so desperate to stay on the air that she would have joined Dares morning show as she did. Could be she has a side I didn’t know about as I guess anything is possible now days.
Well, Super Dave…
I covered Dare and Murphy – and Dare long after Murphy had been effectively run off. I also knew him well from his association with Craig Glazer and many other.
And my personal opinion of him was that all the charity, TLC stuff was mostly contrived and used to build audience rapport and claw his was closer to that $750,000 salary.
In other words; do I think he was a super nice guy with a heart of gold?
In a word, no.
But like Murphy finally confesses, it achieved his purposes.
That said, there are tons of phony people floating through life. I just happened to far and away prefer the more real ones. But that’s just me…
That’s the thing about radio, if you’re not the top dog you get miserable pay. There’s no way I could stand side by side with a guy like Dare if he’s making 700K more than me. Heck, Dare is so vile I couldn’t stand next to him under any circumstances.
Damn I wish Murph could’ve sued the heck out of em’.
Interesting take…
That said, remember KY102 and 99.7 KY?
Max, Wanna and Moffitt were making more-or-less equal pay, former Entercom big boss Bob Zuroweste assures me. So it can be done.
I think Tanna was far more aggressive, if you will, and more inclined to get down and dirty with the boys. Murphy was comparatively more subdued.
Then again, I think you are correct.
Not that I embrace everything PC about today’s culture – far from it, actually – but I doubt Johnny could ave walked all over her (and pretty much everybody else) the way the game of life is being played today.
She’s clearly at peace though, and to the extent that Dare has even a scintilla of conscience, at some point in time he’s going to have to look back and wonder if making all that money was truly worth it.
Personally, I don’t think he does and whatever the secrets he may be keeping about his personal life, he will go to his grave to whatever extent happy.
Because, short of getting this chance and screwing everybody over and pretending to be some sort of nice guy, he’d probably be stuck insole hum drum, boring ass job that undoubtedly awaited him.
You’re right in today’s world Dare’s antics almost certainly wouldn’t fly. Interesting point about ole’ Max and the gang, I wonder what went down there..then again I probably don’t want to know.
As for having a conscience for screwing people over to be on top? You’re right again as the alternative would’ve been the midnight shift at the truck factory. So Dare almost certainly has no regrets, just a very small inner circle. I imagine Murphy has a much wider gaggle of friends/family to spread cheer and love.
If this were a contest I’d say Murph wins in the end but the bitterness remains.
I think you’re pretty much right…except Murphy doesn’t show any signs I can discern that she’s bitter. I think she’s totally moved on and in a really good place right now.
Bitterness towards other just makes you a bitter person as well. Murphy figured out the JD’s in the world ain’t worth it.
Amen to that
Dare just followed the formula of Randy Miller, Mancow etc.
Followed it?
That’s an understatement!
He copied Mancow so closely that Mancow gave him a very hard time publicly and Dare HATED it. Murphy confirmed all of that…but it wasn’t like hot wasn’t obvious.
Making all the called begin with, “love you, love your show” and conflating “Turd” and “Hard.”
The list goes on…
…and why is the website so clunky? With all the high profile writers you have, it seems you’d have someone with some web savvy build you a site with some bells and whistles. Do you guys not have an email list? Your content is great, but the package needs work. My two cents.
Well, frankly its not been a wildly sought after priority the past year or two. Open to your input though.
*cough* Watson’s Girl update *cough*
Excuse you?
I went on about 21 years ago to do a stint about chains of love or something.. Can’t remember, but I was chained to Tard and some other listeners. Biggest joke ever. Even the other male listeners treated the women horribly and JD didn’t do shit about it. I was a huge fan of Murphy Wells and really enjoyed meeting her when I did that gimmick. Probably the only good thing about those 2 or 3 days. JD even did an interview with some actress at the time and couldn’t stop ripping on her. Hoping all that money keeps him warm when he is old and tired.
Honestly, Johnny without Murphy was not the same. Maybe he managed to finagle more pay over time, but the show’s best years were their teamup..
Johnny Dare and Murphy.
From far away they were the perfect trailer park couple. The duo voted most likely to appear on Dateline, 20/20 or Snapped.
Close up they were far much worse.