Connecticut's 'Chaz & AJ' morning show to be simulcast on Long Island's 'The Shark'

A little bit of Connecticut radio is coming to Long Island radio starting Monday at 6 a.m. when one of New England's top morning rock shows will begin simulcasting on Farmingdale-based WWSK/94.3, "The Shark."

"Chaz & AJ in the Morning" — a New Haven-based fixture that years ago originated at Ronkonkoma-based WRCN/103.9, where it aired from 1996 to 2003 — will replace the Shark morning show hosted by Brian Orlando since 2014. A spokeswoman for WWSK owner Connoisseur Media said Orlando — a Ronkonkoma native and one of Long Island radio's best-known personalities — "is moving on to his next chapter."

This marks the second time a Connoisseur-owned station has simulcast a popular show on a Long Island property — "The Anna & Raven Show," which originates on WEZN/99.9 in Milford, Ct. also began airing on WALK/97.5 starting Jan. 2, 2020.

In a joint statement, Chaz and AJ — neither Connoisseur or WPLR, where they've worked since leaving WRCN, gave out their full names — said, "We’re going to work hard every day to earn the trust and ears of Long Island listeners. For decades, we’ve believed they deserve a better show — and we intend to bring it."

On the popular New York Radio Message Board Thursday, that last line was interpreted as a swipe at WBAB's long-running morning team, "Roger & JP," a Nassau/Suffolk morning institution for 26 years. As one reader posted, "Chaz and AJ had some choice words for Roger and JP when they left WRCN to go to Connecticut in 2003 and it seems based on their quote [the rivalry] continues."

In a phone interview Thursday, Chaz said "what I think about them is irrelevant — it's what listeners want. I'm not here to be the anti-Roger-and-JP [and] I hope this doesn't become an anti-Roger-and-JP [situation.] We'll go after the listeners, not after them. We want anyone who is bored with their current station to give us a try."

(Neither Roger Luce nor John Parise could be reached for comment.)

What those potential listeners will get starting Monday will not be all that radically different from what they've been getting from Luce and Parise all these years: Rock, interspersed with newsmaker interviews, jokey bits, musical parodies, weather, traffic, charity drives, and a whole lot of listener interaction (Chaz and JP's sizable fan base is referred to, on-air and off, as "the Tribe."). Their show on WPLR/99.1 has been New Haven's dominant morning show for years

The Chaz/AJ partnership began on Long Island 30 years ago when Chaz — a New Haven-area native who was a radio industry veteran at the time — replaced AJ as morning host on WRCN. AJ — who was born in Huntington, raised in Port Jefferson, and had interned at WBAB — rejoined WRCN a year later, as the other half of what was then called "Mornings with Chaz & AJ."

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