'We're back': Nick Vitrano, Katie Schurk to join Otis Day as 95.9 KISS-FM morning show co-hosts, after departing WIXX-FM

APPLETON - Otis Day is getting company in the mornings on 95.9 KISS-FM, and there’s a good chance you might know them.

Nick Vitrano and Katie Schurk will join their longtime friend and former colleague as co-hosts of the new morning show on KISS, Day announced on the air early Wednesday.

It’ll be a reunion for the three on-air personalities, all of whom have worked together previously at WIXX-FM, as another big piece in the recent local morning radio market shakeup falls into place.

“They’re my friends, so I’m very excited about working with my friends,” Day said. “A lot of times ... you start a job and you make friends at work. The benefit we have is we’re already friends and now we get to work together again.”

He prefaced Wednesday's news by telling listeners that as soon as it was announced he was coming to KISS to do mornings, "one thing kept getting brought up over and over and over again from everybody I talked to": bringing Schurk and Vitrano on board with him.

They’ll join Day on the air from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays for “KISS-FM Mornings with Otis, Katie and Nick” once their noncompete agreement with their former employer has been resolved or expires. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but radio companies often have on-air talent sign a noncompete contract to prevent them from going to direct competitors immediately after leaving.

Both KISS (WKSZ) in Appleton and WIXX (101.1.) in Green Bay are Contemporary Hit Radio stations serving the northeast Wisconsin market. KISS is owned by Woodward Community Media and WIXX by Midwest Communications.

Vitrano and Schurk — the longtime “Nick and Katie” component of the recently ended “Murphy in the Morning” show on WIXX — took listeners by surprise when they announced Dec. 8 they had made the difficult decision to leave the station. Their statement, along with one by WIXX, was posted after their final broadcast on the same day. Their departure came less than two weeks after Jim Murphy, the show’s popular and well-regarded namesake, retired on Nov. 28 after 32 years as the morning host.

Chris Carson started as the new WIXX morning host on Dec. 14, going solo on “Carson in the Morning” as Midwest searches for a co-host.

Day, who left WIXX after 24 years to pursue a career outside of radio in 2022, returned to the air Dec. 18 to take over the KISS morning slot held by “The Jake and Tanner Show” for the last six years. KISS parted ways with hosts Jake Kelly and Tanner Jay on Nov. 15.

Day, Vitrano and Schurk have known one another for 20 years. Schurk used to share an office with Day and babysit his kids. He would often fill in doing mornings with the two of them when Murphy was on vacation. He thinks that chemistry, along with the many years of community involvement from all three, will serve the new co-hosting trio well.

“Not that we’re trying to replace Murph at all, because you can’t replace Murph, and nobody wants to replace him, but the fact that we already have that chemistry built in and that we are already comfortable working with each other, really makes this easier,” Day said. “It can take years to build the kind of chemistry on the air that the listeners can feel and know is real, and we already have that. I think it will be noticeable Day One.”

“There’s a lot of comfort in that familiarity,” Vitrano said. “There’s a long history of camaraderie.”

Nick and Katie wanted to leave WIXX-FM on their own terms

The decision to leave WIXX was not an easy one for Schurk and Vitrano. She essentially grew up at the station, logging 20 years on “Murphy in the Morning.” Vitrano had been a co-host for 12. Neither had ever quit a full-time job before.

“It was genuinely the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life,” Schurk said. “You don’t walk away from something for 20 years easily.”

When Murphy announced in early October he planned to retire, it was what Vitrano called “a stark, in-your-face catalyst” for he and Schurk to reevaluate their own futures, personally and professionally. The three hosts shared a tight-knit, family-like bond that resonated with listeners and carried over into their lives outside the studio. It was Schurk and Vitrano’s choice to leave — a decision that was about them and nobody else, they say.

“That’s why we left. We wanted to leave on our terms,” Schurk said.

It didn’t come without countless conversations with one other and their families, much reflection and reexamination, prayers and tears. It was an exhausting process at times.

“In a lot of ways, it was just a feeling,” Vitrano said. “It was a feeling that it was time, that there was a certain closure that had been achieved with the three of us, and through the process then of sort of evaluating and looking at what the future might be, I just felt it was time. It was time to move on.”

“We had also agreed we were a package deal,” Schurk said. “We weren’t doing it without each other. I wasn't going to leave him there and he wasn’t going to leave me.”

They gave their two weeks’ notice on Nov. 29, the day after the final “Murphy in the Morning” show, which was an emotional and celebratory send-off. They requested not to do any on-air farewell for their own departure.

“Because the goodbye to Murphy was perfect, and we didn’t want to take anything away from that. And we had just put the listeners through an emotional roller coaster. We didn’t need to do it again,” Schurk said.

Their intent was to have a full two weeks of shows, but Dec. 8 turned out to be their last one. The sudden end for listeners made closure a little tougher, Schurk said, but they're confident the final broadcast with Murphy serves as a lasting farewell.

“I feel at peace that can be used as a goodbye from all three of us,” she said. “That had every ounce of emotion. We’re really proud of that show.”

Vitrano isn’t sure there’s ever an ideal way to close such a meaningful chapter. No matter how he and Schurk left, it would’ve felt incomplete, he said. Listeners understandably were taken aback by their departure, flooding social media with comments and questions. The outpouring was overwhelming.

“You don’t realize the impact you have until after,” Schurk said. “I genuinely was shocked by the response. I didn’t think people cared that much. I didn’t think that we mattered to them that much.”

“Incredibly humbling,” Vitrano said.

'It helps all radio when all the radio stations are doing well'

Unsure of what job opportunities there might be in radio or elsewhere made moving on feel a little like stepping out into the great unknown without a safety net, Vitrano said. Then came the chance to work at KISS, not just with Day but also with KISS music brand manager Joe Marroe, who came up through the ranks at WIXX about the same time Schurk did and lives just a few blocks from her in the Fox Valley.

The new gig allows them to stay in radio at another well-established local station and also continue working mornings, a schedule and lifestyle they’re accustomed to and that works well as parents of school-age children. They'll get to once again to be involved in local events through the station and make a difference in the community. They know how lucky they are.

“It was a massive leap of faith that worked in our favor,” Schurk said. “I feel like this has been a story of opportunities. Everybody saw opportunities. Otis was one of the opportunities. He scooped us up.

“It’s our chance to make our mark somewhere else,” she said.

They’ll always be grateful to Midwest Communications for their opportunities afforded them during their years there and for giving them the time to grow and develop in the industry. There is no underlying storyline about one radio station at war with another.

“The reality is our best friend left the studio. We’re not going to get our best friend back in that studio. We have to move on from that,” Schurk said.

Day wants to see both stations’ new morning shows succeed.

“I think we need them to do well for us to do well,” he said. “It helps all radio when all the radio stations are doing well.”

Schurk and Vitrano are eager to get back on the air, laughing and talking with listeners again. They see the experience of a new show as more of a re-invigoration than a re-invention. Marroe has told them he wants “Nick and Katie” — the same personalities listeners already know. The excitement of working in a different environment and a new location, of mixing old school with new school, has stripped away any nervousness.

“We’re back. We’re ready to take this on. We’re ready to entertain,” Schurk said.

She also mentioned one of the more thrilling but overlooked parts of this next chapter: Her drive to the KISS studios in Appleton means her commute went from 35 minutes to a mere seven minutes.

“I’m so excited for snow now!” she said.

Day has already told Vitrano the two of them can carpool from Green Bay. Vitrano is still warming up to the idea of riding shotgun with the high-energy Day.

“I don’t know how that’s going to go,” Vitrano joked. “I am nervous to ride with that man.”

Day admits, “I’m all gas, all brake. I just want to get there.” But he also points out he’s never had an accident.

“I tapped a trailer once. That’s it.”

Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X@KendraMeinert.