Ex-columnist teams with lawyer for the ‘Kerry and Mike Show’
“He brings the brains, I bring the fire. Oh wait, Mike brings the fire, too.”
This is a great time to launch a talk show.
Into a world that is experiencing a widespread coronavirus and massive worldwide protests came Mike Imprevento and Kerry Dougherty to co-host the new “Kerry and Mike Show.” It airs from 9 to 10 a.m. weekdays on WNIS 790-AM.
This planet has never been busier. Demonstrations against racism have taken over segments of large cities. Some are taking place in smaller towns. Millions of us continue to social distance, wear face masks and use hand sanitizer to deal with the pandemic. Total number of those sickened by COVID-19 has reached nearly 7 million worldwide. The virus has taken the lives of more than 100,000 in the U.S., including upward of 1,500 in Virginia. Families with shrinking paychecks are hoping the time is right to restart the economy.
No doubt about it, America is a country in crisis.
Into this thicket came Dougherty, a relative newcomer to the dog-eat-dog competition of AM talk radio. She spent some of the past two years as an occasional guest on the WNIS 6 a.m. show hosted by local radio’s living legend Tony Macrini. She is married with two adult children and a granddaughter. Imprevento has a 14year-old dog named Burt.
Of co-hosting with Imprevento, Dougherty said, “Our early shows have been a huge success. Lots of callers, lots of topics. With so much going on in the news our only problem is not having enough time to tackle all the events of the day.”
Dougherty will tell you that newspapers were her life for 42 years, including 17 years spent as one of the metro columnists with The Virginian-Pilot. She gave all that up 3 years ago to start the Kerry Dougherty website. Her daughter and niece help out.
In introducing “The Kerry and Mike Show” a few weeks ago, the bosses at Sinclair, the familyowned company that produces the show, asked, “What do you get when you take a prolific and opinionated journalist who takes no prisoners and put her before a microphone with a spirited motorcycle riding lawyer who’s also a sheriff ’s deputy? You get fireworks, that’s what.”
“I couldn’t be more excited about moving into broadcasting after my 42 years in newspapers,” Dougherty said. “I was thrilled when Bob Sinclair asked if I’d like to do a show with Mike — to work with me, a radio novice. We have terrific chemistry. He brings the brains, I bring the fire. Oh wait, Mike brings the fire, too.”
Imprevento, a lawyer, also plans to stay with his 4 p.m. Saturday show. And he also continues his association with the Breit Cantor
personal injury law firm. If that’s not enough to keep the former Navy officer busy, he works with Norfolk Sheriff Joe Baron as a fully-certified deputy and staff attorney.
Of sharing radio time with Dougherty, he said, “She is very quick on the radio. Listeners love her. On our show we will follow topical issues from a local and national perspective. At times I’ll spin off into subjects like guns, cars, truck and movies. So far we have been able to keep up with the pace of what’s happening.”
Some listeners may ask why the Sinclair bosses took an hour from Macrini’s show and gave it to Dougherty and Imprevento.
“It was really the only place to add another local show,” Bob Sinclair said. He also noted that Dougherty and Imprevento need no introduction to local listeners. They have what amounts to star power in this market.