On the Radio

101.9 the end utah

Ever since they came on the Salt Lake City airwaves in the mid-90’s, 101.9 The End has been my radio station of choice. “Utah’s Rock Alternative” plays most of the music I love, and I’ve always loved the morning show. Jimmy Chunga has predominantly been the head of the morning show, and although he’s opinionated and a little full of himself, it usually makes for an entertaining radio show.

Every morning, Chunga and Tysen have a segment called “What’s Happenin’ Hot Stuff,” which is named off of a scene from the 80’s movie “Sixteen Candles.” Listeners can call in with a funny pseudonym (like ‘Ian the Token Gay’) and talk about what’s going on in their lives. Some will say it’s their birthday, some call to rant about something that’s happening in news or politics, a few call to say how much they love Chunga, and others call in just to be heard on the radio. It’s meant to be a quick call, usually less than 20 seconds each, and usually it’s pretty light and airy,

As I was on my way to St. Mark’s yesterday for my pre-surgery class, I decided to call into the show. Now, I probably TRY to get on the show every month or so, but I always get a busy signal. I was pretty surprised to get through, which kinda made me lose my train of thought. Chunga answered “Good morning! What’s happenin’ hot stuff?” And I said “Hey, this is Nicole the Blogger” (kinda lame, I know, but I couldn’t come up with anything more awesome on the spot).

I told him I was on my way to the hospital for some tests because I was having weight loss surgery next week. He said “Oh cool, are you getting the lap band?” and I answered, “No, I’m actually going for the gastric bypass.” Immediately his tone of voice changed, and he got all snarky on me. He started talking about how he “doesn’t advocate that surgery at all” and how he’s had some friends who have had really bad results and complications. He kept cutting me off, said it was gross that I’d be blogging about it, then hung up on me.

I was a little thrown off because when I tell people that I’m having the surgery, the response is usually pretty positive. Many people who are “against weight loss surgery” are still nice to me about it. Chunga made me feel awful about this very difficult decision I’d come to make, and it’s been a 3 year process to this point. He doesn’t know a thing about me, even though I have been on the radio with him in the past (and he was super nice). With how much he advocates plastic surgery and liposuction, I thought he would be less abrasive about weight loss surgery. I guess I was wrong. He wins a “douche bag award” with me, and apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so because I easily found this Chunga Douche picture of him on a Google image search.

The truth is, many people who have bad results with gastric bypass surgery are ones who weren’t a good candidate in the first place. Or, they didn’t follow the eating plans religiously enough and went back to their old eating habits too quickly. I do have a blogging friend Sue, who had major complications with her surgery. I was scared silly as she went through her hospital drama, which coincidentally went on as I was beginning to gather my medical records in preparation for my own surgery. It hasn’t been an easy road for Sue, but I am super proud of her. It’s definitely given me some things to seriously contemplate as I’ve made the decision for surgery.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is…don’t call into a radio morning show about weight loss surgery unless you’re ready to be publicly berated! If you want to people to mind their own beeswax, don’t get near the hive.

Comments

  1. Good grief!!! The one time you get on the show!!!

    • I know! I’m used to the busy signal every time. But now, I’d rather get a busy signal than being belittled and hung up on.

  2. That’s not surprising. I used to be on the radio w/ one of Chunga’s early radio show partners. I have heard several stories to support his intolerance. Sorry you got the brunt of that when you were just calling to share.

  3. I think the problem is that most people don’t have the balls to tell you it is gross. Don’t get mad at honest people. You’re not going to like everything you hear, but you should still hear it.

    If you had listened to mean people earlier on, you might not be where you are now, and had someone stopped you and said you need to slim down, and you had listened you could have gotten to the right track to losing weight then.

    You seem pretty stuck on yourself to be honest, soI doubt you’ll listen to me at all, and just call me a douche as well. At least I’m an honest douche.

    • Lucky me! My first troll comment! And from a guy who eats farts! Yay!

      Honest douche = insensitive.

      What is gross about honesty? What is gross about trying to make my life better? Sorry you feel so bad about yourself that you have to try to bring others down who are trying to change their lives.

      And me stuck on myself? Yes I am. That’s why post people blog. Their lives are important enough to document.

  4. Oh how sad! I’ve been reading you blog and that just makes me furious. I listen to Chunga too sometimes and I really like his voice and sense of humor, but now I don’t want to listen to him. What a jerk. I have found your blog very interesting. I am not overweight, but have several family members who are. I just wanted to let you know that there are people who seriously don’t care about your weight, we love people for who they are on the inside. Chunga is apparently ugly on the inside.
    Seriously, now I can’t wait to meet you at the retreat now that I’ve caught up on your blog!

  5. Eian The Token Gay says:

    Hey Nicole, It’s Eian the Token Gay from The End. I just had a friend send me a link to this blog and I wanted to say that I hope your surgery went well. I’m sorry you had a negative experience with Chunga, I know he can be very opinionated about things. I just hope you’re ok and wanted to say hi.

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