Energy 92.7 FM, the Beat of the Gays
The City's moving to a new beat, it's Energy 92.7 FM (KNGY) which serves dance music from pop artists ranging from Kylie Minoque, Gwen Stefani and Kelly Osbourne to the Black Eye Peas and Missy Elliot. The mass-appeal format, which spins tracks around the clock, now boasts a gay hosted morning show and it's the best thing to happen for San Francisco 's LGBT community since the rainbow flag was raised above Harvey Milk Plaza at Castro and Market streets.
DJ and morning air personality Fernando Ventura, from inside the studio booth at their City headquarters says, "Energy is basically about the music. There is a huge passion for dance music with gay men in the community. In San Francisco people love this music and it's been ignored on the radio. So yeah, we're going to pick up the ball and run with it as long as we can."
He says targeting the gay market gives Energy an edge. "Obviously it gives us the opportunity to reach out to the gay community especially because no other mass appeal radio station in the bay area really does it what we do."
After Ventura got hired he got approval to do a gay point-of-view morning show and then recruited long-time pal Greg Sherrell, Energy's Marketing Director. "I've known Greg for a long time," confides the DJ and then says laughingly. "I started using him in a short once in a while, then twice a week, and eventually he just took over!"
Today Sherrell is known to listeners as "Greg the Gay Sportscaster" but his banter goes beyond group athletics. His dating exploits are as racy as was Madonna's in the 80's and he's as sharp and quotable as Queer Eye's Carson Kressley. Even his signature sports report tag-line is a double entendre, "If they're playing with balls, I'm all over it!"
Sherrell's mother Ginger also found her way into the program. He explains, "Fernando emails her really horrible dirty lyrics from rap songs and then she reads them in her country Dallas , Forthworth accent. I guess the best one he ever sent her was the lyrics to "Work It" by Missy Elliott."
Sherrell rolls his eyes in a manufactured display of disgust as Fernando plays the tape of his mother reading the following line over the air waves, "Call before you come, I need to shave my chocha."
The request line rings. It's a heterosexual caller wanting to know what he has to do to win a pair of free concert tickets. "What about sex with me?" asks Sherrell. "I'm a 31 year old clean-cut truck driver," defends the caller. The relentless Sherrell shoots back, "That's about the hottest thing I've ever heard. Oh my God! Pick me up in that big ol' truck and let's go!"
One of the most flattering letters Sherrell received came from a straight man who says his perspective of gay men had changed because of the morning show. Sherrell responds, "We're not here necessarily to break down walls but I think it's great when you do." Ventura adds, "All and all, we just want to be funny, the show just happens to be two gay guys."
