O'Neill and Elliott celebrate Valentine's Day by renewing the wedding vows of Kurt Jull (second from left) and Michael Teufel.
Lane says probably 90 percent of mainstream radio personalities
who are gay are not out on the air, with the exception of KGNY,
a dance music station in San Francisco. Carter is probably the most
Elliott visits Lake Union during his stint in Seattle.
radio personality as well as a player in The 3rd Floor sketch comedy
thought that it was kind of preposterous when he explained to me
troupe.
that he’d never been out on the air in a 20-year radio career.” While
Elliott was immediately comfortable with O’Neill, and the two of
she says she encouraged him to be honest with his new listeners,
them decided he would come out on their show, once he was official
O’Neill stresses that ultimately the decision to come out was entire
“I think this example with Mitch will probably impact other
ly hired at The Buzz. “1 think without Daria 1 never would have done
ly Elliott’s.
stations and make it easier for more people to come out on the air,”
it,” he says. “I felt so safe with Daria. She is so respected in this town
says Lane, who acknowledged that gay men are more likely to meet
and so loved by her listeners, and Daria’s so nurturing.”
prominent lesbian on a show targeted toward a general audience.
KRSK program director Jeff McHugh says that he didn’t realize
Elliott was gay when he was hired as O’Neill’s co-host but that once
with opposition than their female counterparts. “There’s a lot of
O’Neill, who attended the same high school as Matthew Shepard
he found out, the choice was clear. “1 knew that if Mitch was going
homophobia out there and people have these stereotypes in their
in Casper, Wyo., has been a “straight but not narrow” ally for many
to be on the air, he was going to have to be out. That was the only
mind and when they just hear people who are people and just happen
years. The Reed College graduate has served as host of Basic Rights
[negative] thing in his demo is that he seemed kind of shallow, like
to be gay, that will help people to see that it’s not that big of a deal.”
Oregon events and voiced her support for the queer community at
there was something missing."
Elliott explains that he never lied to his listeners in Seattle or
every opportunity. She says she couldn’t see how Elliott could not be
McHugh says KRSK’s parent company, Entercom Communications,
Atlanta. “I never acted like 1 was currently in a relationship, but
out to listeners in Portland. “[Mitch] is a proud, gay man. 1 just
was totally behind the move. He stresses that although there was
I would talk about ‘my ex,’ and I would talk about how 1 missed my
ex’s family, how 1 was really close with my ex’s brother and my ex’s
mom and dad, and just had to be really careful to say ‘my ex’ instead
of ‘Patrick’s mom and dad’ or ‘his mom and dad,’ ” he says.
After KLSY changed its format to cut back on banter between
radio personalities, Lane recommended Elliott as a co-host for Daria
O’Neill’s afternoon slot on The Buzz. The format was similar to the
morning show at KLSY before the cutbacks, with a lot of focus on
personal stories and relationships, and music chosen by a music
director based on research in the “adult contemporary” market.
(Producer Ted Douglas describes the music on The Buzz as “what pop
music has become.”)
“There were many, many, many excellent applicants, but (Mitch]
seemed genuinely interested in creating a dialogue and not sort of
thinking about getting the next punch line in or what he was going
to say that was funny, and of course his voice was very comforting and
beautiful and excellently modulated,” says O’Neill, who has been
some trepidation at the management level, he never encountered any
"My face was flushed
and we were nervous.
We were watching the phones
because we didn't know
if we were just going
to be screamed at,
if some religious-right person
was going to call and tell us
we were going to hell.
We didn't know
what was going to happen."
show targeted toward a general audience. This attitude of acceptance
is pretty remarkable considering how few mainstream radio personal
ities are out (only a handful in the entire country) and especially
considering Entercom is the fourth-largest radio broadcasting
company in the United States and the largest radio company in the
country that focuses only on radio.
Lane, who had helped coach Carter at the time she came out on
The Bert Show in Atlanta, brought his expertise to the table as the
team at The Buzz considered how to reveal Elliott’s sexuality to the
listening audience. “We didn’t want to hype it too much, but we did
want people to notice that it’s part of who he is,” says Lane. This is
how the team came up with the idea of “The Mitch Test.”
For Elliott’s first few weeks on the air, O’Neill and Douglas, who also
appears on the air, kept track of Elliott’s ambiguous use of pronouns and
—Mitch Elliott
a favorite with Portland audiences for many years as a television and
Continued on Page 22
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