Popular on-air personality Otis Day is returning to radio for a new 95.9 KISS-FM morning show

APPLETON - An unmistakable voice is returning to local radio.

Otis Day will slide into the morning show slot on 95.9 KISS-FM (WKSZ) beginning Dec. 18. The announcement comes just a little over two weeks after the Appleton station announced Nov. 15 it had canceled “The Jake and Tanner Show” and let hosts Jake Kelly and Tanner Jay go after six years on the air.

Day is well known to northeast Wisconsin radio listeners for his 24 years on Green Bay’s WIXX-FM, where his exuberant voice frequently gave him away in public. He left in March 2022 to pursue a career change at Gandrud Chevrolet in Green Bay.

He’s looking forward to being back in the studio.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to do this again. I mean radio was always my first love. Before girls, I loved radio, and I still love it,” he said. “I had to go try something different, and I had a blast doing that, but then this opportunity presented itself, and I’m very excited to join the team.”

Day will host solo to start. A search by Woodward Radio Group for a co-host is in the works.

News of Day’s return lands during the same week that beloved WIXX on-air personality Jim Murphy retired after a 32-year run with his “Murphy in the Morning” show. He signed off Tuesday with an emotional and celebratory broadcast that included members of his family and former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy.

Midwest Communications, which owns WIXX, has said his longtime co-hosts, Nick Vitrano and Katie Schurk, will continue on with a third co-host to be named later.

Both Top 40 stations serve the northeast Wisconsin market, and KISS is betting on Day, with his name recognition and deep connections with the area, to foster a sense of community on the new show.

“I wholeheartedly believe that Otis, with the relationships that he has with people in the community, they’re going to be the show,” said Joe Marroe, music brand manager for KISS and three other local Woodward stations. “That is the heart and soul of what we’re looking for on KISS, is the listeners being the show, and we need someone to drive that and that person is Otis.

“I think this is a different time in the market, too, where there was a very significant retirement with Murphy in the Morning, and bringing a familiar friend back to your morning ride is going to be very important,” he said. “Because I think a lot of people are going to be punching around the dial going, ‘Man, I need my friend right now,’ and Otis is everybody’s friend.”

It will not be the first time Day and Marroe have worked together. When Day was at WIXX, Marroe was his 14-year-old intern in 1999. They ended up working together or six years at the station as Marroe moved up to a part-time position and then full-time before departing for KISS, where he has been for 18 years.

Day said he learned a lot during his break from the radio industry and looks forward to bringing that fresh perspective to the show. He’s eager to “get back on the radio and have fun again,” bantering with listeners and being involved in the community.

There might be just one catch to his new 5 to 9 a.m. gig. Day previously did the 6 to 11 p.m. shift for 12 years before switching to the 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. slot. He’s not exactly a morning person, at least not yet.

“Not at all,” he said. “This is going to be an entire life shift for me.”

Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 orkmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter)n@KendraMeinert.