Mornings in Indianapolis offer up lots of talk-show radio, but young Indianapolis listeners (particularly 30-something females) seem to prefer the banter of the Wank and O’Brien show, a 5 to 10 a.m. program on 97.1 Hank FM radio (WLHK). Along with Mel, the traffic chick, and producer Kassie, show hosts Ed Wank and Dave O’Brien round up a daily dose of humor, commentary, and live and recorded skits for their rush-hour listeners, and it’s all set to a Country music soundtrack.
Video of the Shrine Circus in downtown Indianapolis, hosted by 97.1 HANK FM radio and the Wank and O’Brien show.
Wank and O’Brien first got their start together in Indianapolis media in 1997. Their instant rapport helped the Wank and O’Brien show catch the attention of a radio station in California, which swayed the duo away to work in the West for a year, before returning to the airwaves in the Circle City. Having opened for Drew Carey, Dennis Miller, and Ray Romano, Wank got his comedic chops in the late eighties on the stand-up comedy circuit. It wasn’t until he landed in Syracuse in the nineties that he made his way to radio, later living in Pennsylvania, before heading to Indiana. The author of The Hockey Dad Chronicles, Wank is working on another book with co-author and writer for the Indiana Business Journal, Lou Harry. O’Brien got his start in radio when he was attending college at the University of Virginia. O’Brien later held radio spots in Roanoke before making his way to Indianapolis.
Now, both hosts of the Wank and O’Brien show call Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis their home, where they spend their mornings inside a glass-enclosed studio on the first floor of the Emmis Communications building.
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