The Ben & Kelly Show

About Ben & Kelly

Ben and Kelly met when Ben was hired on as a video engineer at a small community college in Riverton, Wyoming. Kelly already worked as a video technician at the college working with teleconferencing equipment and programming the college's cable television station. Both jobs were assigned under the college's IT department at the time and Ben's job quickly developed into a network engineer for the college's computer infrastructure, where one of his wards was the college's radio station IT infrastructure. Kelly was also attending TV and radio classes at the college to complete his degree and had come to the radio portion of the degree. Ben decided to take radio classes to better learn how the network infrastructure was used in order to understand the needs of the area. Ben and Kelly decided to team up for class assignments which would eventually put them on the air together, hence, The Ben & Kelly Show was born! Even after the semester ended, The Ben & Kelly Show continued on the air. Kelly was transferred from the IT department to the broadcasting department and many added duties included programming, traffic and production for the radio station. The Ben & Kelly Show was able to grow productionwise, as well as in popularity.
 

Ben & Kelly Demo Reel

The Ben & Kelly Show

The Ben & Kelly Show aired weekend mornings from 8 am until 11 am on KCWC-FM in Riverton, Wyoming. Initially the first hour was 80s @ 8 - a format extended from weekedays at this time which was hosted by the college's radio instructor/station's general manager, but after listening to listener comments, the music was expanded to feature songs from the 90s and early 2000s and rebranded The Weekend Retro Radio, in order to reach a large chunk of audience who wanted this music. Hours two and three were a current mainstream top 40 format and had the features- The WTF Song Of The Day (a novelty or unintentionally humorous record), the Good Taste Tip (where a record within the station's format was picked that they felt their audience would like) and a list which would discuss any number of topics, and thread the breaks together. The show started posting online with A Very Ben & Kelly WTF Christmas Special Christmas week 2012, and then the regular shows were posted from that point forward.​​

The Ben & Kelly Show continued to grow further in popularity and Ben and Kelly were being asked to make personal appearances for events such as hosting Central Wyoming College's Holiday party and the Fremont County 100th Fair and Rodeo parade.

The Ben & Kelly Show With The Dog Lady

At the end of April 2014, Ben accepted a position with a software company in Portland, Oregon. Ben still wished to continue with the show, but knew he couldn't in full capacity, so the show became The Ben & Kelly Show With The Dog Lady. Kelly brought in another host, Mandy Apodaca, whom he was working with at the station with her role as Outreach Coordinator for the local animal shelter. A plot line where Mandy (now dubbed "The Dog Lady") kidnapped Ben and hid him in various dog pounds around the country was developed. Kelly of course was supposed to think that Ben moved to Portland. Ben would supposedly be calling in to try and get out of the predicament, but Kelly would be clueless as to what was really happening and The Dog Lady would of course be trying to hide the situation. With Mandy came the new features The Stop & Squat News Spot (a news story involving pets or animals), and Ask The Dog Lady (where people could call or write in questions on how to handle situations with their pets). By September 2014, life hit Ben full force - a new job, a new town, a new marriage and a new baby on the way. Kelly and Mandy would continue on with the show, but out of prerecorded material from Ben, a change became necessary.

The Weekend Wag

Dropping the kidnapping plot from The Ben & Kelly Show With The Dog Lady, the show was rebranded with a completely different sound. The show would now have more of a feel of a 1960s variety show, while still keeping it modern. Classic and newly produced radio series, sketches and bits were used to create this unique sound. The third hour would become The Happy Hour- a format which would play only upbeat, positive songs spanning the station's entire library from the 1980s to current hits. Most other features from the previous shows would return with the new sound. The show would be retitled The Weekend Wag. Playing on the various definitions of the word wag, this also allowed Mandy to continue her added features as a kinder, gentler Dog Lady. New features added to The Weekend Wag included Sexy Weather - where a weather report would be given in a sultry or sexy voice (depending on who was giving it), and The Weekend Wag Glee where Kelly and Mandy would butcher a classic song by singing misheard lyrics and by not being quite on pitch, or by doing a dramatic or operatic interpretation of a current hit. In April of 2016, The Weekend Wag Glee was replaced with Miss Mandy's Hollywood Dish - snarky gossip of your favorite celebrities.

Ben's presence was very prevalent in The Weekend Wag. From features and humor developed by he and Kelly together, his fingerprints are all over the program. Ben and Kelly would jump at the chance to work together again!

Ben & Kelly Don't Go To The Movies