How long have the three of you been doing the morning show on B96?
J Niice: It’s been four years!
You go on-air at 5:30 in the morning. Is it hard to be on point so early?
Showbiz Shelly: The hardest part is getting up in the morning but once you are up, you start working and talking to one another and from there it’s easy.
J: I am not a morning person.
Julian Nieh: For me it’s not hard. Naturally, I’m an energetic guy.
What has been your most embarrassing on-air moment?
J: The one that I will never live down was the first week we were on the air. We had a psychic on and thank God you don’t remember it but my colleagues sure remember it! It was an epic, tragic fail. The psychic pretty much told someone on the air they were going to go to hell. It was bad.
Julian: When we first got started, let’s be honest, we weren’t exactly clear on our strategy of where we were going. We felt we had to be serious and talk about the news and be political so we would play three news clips back-to-back . We didn’t even know what we were talking about.
What would you say are the best qualities that each of you bring to the show that make it so entertaining?
J: Shelly has a genuine love for pop culture. It’s something she doesn’t have to try to do. It’s natural to her to just know all of that stuff.
Shelly: I think J brings a calmness and sense of authority to the show. He knows a little bit about everything. He is sort of like our main anchor of the show and will guide us through. Julian is the funny guy. He’s hilarious and comes up with those one-liners. He always manages to get himself in situations and I have no idea if it’s on purpose or an accident but every weekend he gets into something hysterical that makes for funny stories on the air.
Who has been your most disappointing guest to have in the studio?
Julian: P. Diddy was not so cool. He was eating his breakfast in front of us. He made the whole thing awkward.
Shelly: He rolled out of bed and came to our studio. It made for an awkward interview.
Your personal lives are all out there for the audience. J, has your fiancé ever been upset with anything you’ve talked about on-air?
J: Absolutely. Usually what will happen is that her co-workers will say, “Did you hear what J said?” and you know how telephone goes. They will mess up a story and she’ll hear it thirdhand and say, “You said what about me this morning?” so usually I’ll have a lot of clean up. Throughout the years I’ve had to get her used to everything and have just said, “You’re going to be talked about.”
Shelly, how did you meet your boyfriend?
Shelly: I met him in a nightclub here, the Underground.
And Julian, you’re livin’ the single life?
Julian: I work in bars and clubs in mainly the ‘burbs and honestly it’s like 20 and 21-year-olds so where else am I supposed to meet someone? I meet girls with some serious issues. They all have issues whether it comes out in two months, a week, two years. Maybe I have issues. With this schedule you have to be in bed early.
Shelly: It makes it very hard for a social life.
Shelly, what’s it like to be a popular radio personality in your hometown?
Shelly: I love it here. I will say it makes for some awkward moments on-air when I know my little cousins are listening and we’re talking about sexual stuff. So it can get weird.
What are some of your favorite restaurants in the city?
J: Carnivale. The mojito is on point! I love Sushi Samba and I also love The Original Pancake House.
Julian: I like anything in China Town, of course. I like Nana. It’s incredible. It’s all organic. Irazu was featured on the Food Network as well, it’s Costa Rican. It’s the best.
Shelly: I love RPM Italian and Karyn’s.
If you could have a drink with anyone, who would it be?
Shelly: I would love to have a drink with Oprah. That is somebody I’ve never had a chance to meet. I would love to just pick her brain.
J: I’d love to have a drink with John Mayer. I feel like he is someone I’d be really good friends with. And Bob Marley, he’s my hero. But he doesn’t drink so it’d probably be fruit juice.
Julian: Jennifer Love Hewitt. A drink with the most amount of alcohol so we can get her drunk the quickest.
Photography by Neal Agustin
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