September 2025

I recently flew from Sydney to the U.S. on my own coin for a radio show I connected with.

They didn’t ask me to come over… I invited myself (with permission).

I’ve been listening to a Chicago breakfast radio show since their launch in January 2025: The Morning Mosh Pit. Broadcast on Rock 95.5 Chicago (WCHI-FM) – the show’s talent consisting of Michael Mason, Matt “Marris” Harris and Maria Palmer have a combined 50 years of radio experience, with amazing chemistry to boot.

I discovered Rock 95.5 by accident in 2024 when a video of one of Maria Palmer’s voice breaks appeared on my socials. It was a 15 second piece, where Maria forward announces the next song, turning the song title into a pun. It was so simple, but effective because I laughed, and went straight to the iHeartRadio app to listen to the station straight away.

The playlist is just pure mainstream rock. Think Triple M metro, but only a dash of Aussie rock (INXS, AC/DC, Jet) and way less sport. This station is all about the music, music news, concerts and interacting with the audience as much as possible. The announcers are cool, calm and collective, and appear to have little ego.

Maria hosted the night show on Rock 95.5, which was during the day Sydney AEST. It wasn’t until late 2024 where she ran a social media campaign to move to breakfast with the already established Michael and Marris. This was a smart move, as 6th January 2025 came around and Maria became part of the breakfast show – The Morning Mosh Pit, with amazing chemistry quickly developing with the trio. I know this because I moved my ears to the breakfast show as well – 6 am to 10 am Chicago time / 9 pm to 1 am Sydney time. I tuned in while my night winds down.

The humour, topics and games they played connected with me. Double entendres and puns that push the envelope. It’s one of the strongest shows I’ve ever listened to and makes me feel like I’m part of the show, even though I’m several thousand frequent flyer points away.

One evening, when the show was regularly promoting their hotline for listeners to contribute to the show in their own way via text message or using the voice message option on the iHeartRadio app, so I sent a voice message through with simple praise on what I thought of the show and station overall. I didn’t realise about 10 minutes later, they played the voice message on air, highlighting the fact I was coming from ‘international waters’. With this, the team chatted about Australia and my accent, and with Maria being recently divorced (as with I), started asking me on air to message back to answer some questions about my accent. This went back and forth for about 30 minutes of the show, which made for some amusing content.

Over the next few weeks, I would send voice messages which they would play, contributing to the content of the show, and becoming a running joke as Maria’s “Australian Boyfriend”. Then in early August 2025, they made an announcement that they are having a listener gathering for their “Thirstday” celebrations in two weeks, which tends to be an intimate event at a local bar or brewery in Chicago. What made this “Thirstday” special was the theme became “D-Day” = Divorce Day – a celebration of Maria’s divorce, as well as listeners who also have been or going through a divorce. As someone who recently went through a divorce, and with some holiday time up my sleeve, I thought the next best thing for myself was to celebrate with them by flying to Chicago.

I couldn’t sleep that night as I’m thinking “Should I or shouldn’t I?”. I messaged the show asking if I could attend the celebrations for Thirstday. With a thumbs up from the team, and big support from my boss Darcy, I was able to book my quick holiday within days. I made an Australian themed care package full of iconic Australian snacks, I took a week off and flew solo, squeezing in a baseball game in Cleveland (I’m a Guardians fan), rented a car and drove to Chicago. I also attended a Nine Inch Nails concert at United Center – the home of Chicago Bulls.

Thursday “Thirstday” came around, in which I drove from the heart of Chicago to the suburbs where Mikerphone Brewing in Elk Grove Village was located, where the party was at. Arriving fashionably late (40 minutes – I experienced first hand Chicago peak hour traffic), I walked in, I introduced myself to Michael who was sitting on the couch, who then yelled out to Maria that I had arrived – in which Maria welcomed me with open arms. We chatted about the travel, radio, and the whole party event. I grabbed my beer, sat down and enjoyed the festivities of off-key karaoke, quizzes that they would conduct on air, and Marris fulfilling a dare that Michael made him promise to do a few weeks prior, singing Hinder – Lips Of An Angel.

After Maria and friends kept the karaoke alive, I hopped onto the stage, and screamed – not sung – a duet with my “American radio girlfriend” a rendition of AC/DC – Thunderstruck… purely ticking all the stereotypical boxes along with it.

The party was meant to end at 7pm, but due to the decent listener turnout and fun that was had, the celebrations eventually wrapped up shy of 9pm, with Marris confirming that they’ll run a ‘best of’ in the morning. It had been a long day for the three of them. But before everything wrapped up, I expressed how much of a connection with the show I had, and recorded a video diary with the trio, along with a few happy snaps.

As we waved our goodbyes and I drove back to my hotel, I reflected on the whole trip and interaction I had with them. I’ve worked with many shows and talent for 20 years, and while I was connected at the hip with most of them, The Morning Mosh Pit was the first show that made me feel I was part of it all, even though I’m living in a different part of the world. Meeting in person was like I had known them for years – I wasn’t nervous or shy. Michael, Marris and Maria only knew me from my random voice messages I sent, and I only knew them from their banter and chemistry through my Google Nest speakers and iPhone devices. They treated me like I was their best friend, and going by the interactions I witnessed with the listeners at Thirstday, they felt the same way too.

A week later, a video popped up on The Morning Mosh Pit’s socials of the team doing an unboxing of the care package I hand delivered. Let’s just say Michael wasn’t a fan of Vegemite…

No matter where you are, your show / podcast has an audience somewhere. If you connect well enough, your audience will follow you wherever you go.

You can listen to The Morning Mosh Pit on iHeartRadio, or on 95.5 FM if you’re in Chicago… obviously. Just check the time differences where you’re located.