Think I’m wrong? Bring it on! Mandy Connell
The Queen of Snark By Gioia Patton/photo by Melissa Donald
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“I have the opportunity to give my opinion about whatever I want to give my opinion about. And people are there listening and responding to that. I think most people would relish the opportunity to have their voice heard and then get feedback on it. What you don’t realize is that you get negative feedback, and you have to grow a pretty thick skin in this industry.”
OCTOBER
2011
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— talk show host Mandy Connell of 84WHAS Radio
ust days before I interviewed Mandy Connell by phone, I received a press release stating that she’d just been named #6 on America’s Top 10 Local (Radio) Talk Show Hosts. “You know…it’s always fun to be recognized,” Mandy begins at the mention of the accolade, “although at first I thought ‘#6… what’s up with that?” she deadpans. “But I really like a lot of the radio talk show hosts who are above me. So I was kind of like ‘OK…#6, I will take it, because there are quality people in the slots above me, (the closest person to Louisville on that list being in St. Louis).” Mandy’s talk show airs Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon on 84WHAS radio. Asked in what way her show differs from the one she had in Fort Myers, Mandy explains: “The Florida show was a little more fast-paced, because we covered a lot more information. Although it was basically the same kind of snarky commentary with phone calls as this show.” Mandy says the reason she enjoys her 84WHAS show much better than the one in Fort Myers is because, “I can get into topics with a lot more depth. I’d describe the difference between my last show and this one as kind of the difference between USA Today newspaper and the New York Times,” she adds. Mandy’s current #6 ranking, combined with her ‘snarky commentary’ remark prompts me to ask if I’d be correct if I labeled her ‘The Queen of Snark.’ “You know…some people work in marble, some people in oils…I work in sarcasm,” she replies matter-of-factly. “It’s the medium that I’m most comfortable in, and I’ve used the phrase ‘snarky commentary’ for about a decade. And now I’m seeing it everywhere,” she continues. “So I’m going to take full credit for the use of the word snarky, as I’ve made it hip again.” The actual story behind Mandy Connell’s metamorphosis from a Delta Airlines flight attendant to successful news radio talk show host reads like a script outline for an Oxygen Channel movie-of-the-week. #1: During a 1996 Hartford, Conn.-to-Palm Beach flight, a bored Mandy picks up the microphone and proceeds to give a blow-by-blow reenactment of the fist fight that had taken place on the same flight the previous week between two passengers, who’d been equally determined to put their briefcases on the same empty seat. Today’s Woman