First Posted: 1/13/2015
For 34 years, KRZ-FM’S Jeff Walker has been entertaining listeners with his gift of fine wit and zany humor. And, occasionally, over the past 20 years, he’s packaged collections of that humor onto his comedy albums. With an equally funny cast of singers and musicians, Walker’s entourage, The Wackjobs, have released eight albums and have recorded more than 200 Al Yankovic-like parodies. Each album benefited a local charity.
Walker’s latest Wackjobs CD, “Radio Clowns” was released on Black Friday and, according to the popular DJ, it will be his last. But he wants to make it clear that the parodies will continue for as long as he sits behind the microphone each weekday from 3 to 7 p.m.
“When I announced this was the last Wackjobs CD, people said, ‘Oh my God, you’re retiring?’ ” Walker said. “And I’m thinking, ‘No. Where did that come from?’ I always quote Mathew McConaughey in ‘Failure To Launch’: ‘It’s going to take a stick of dynamite to get me out of this house.’ I love my job. I don’t think there will be another Wackjobs CD, but I love doing the songs. They will remain a regular staple of my afternoon show.”
“Radio Clowns” has spent several weeks at No. 1 on the Gallery of Sound album chart. It features 31 tracks, including “The Frozen Song,” “Meth Lab,” “Bread, Milk, Eggs,” “It Sucks Outside” and “Pot Holes.” Traditionally, Walker sets the songs to the same melodies of current pop hits or pop classics. His first, he recalls, was a parody of Neil Diamond’s “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.”
“I started tinkering with this in the late ‘80s,” he said. “Something in the news would make me think of a song I enjoyed, and somehow the words were similar. And it was basically the response of people calling in and saying, ‘Hey, that was funny. You should do some more of those,’ that inspired me to keep doing them. I have fun doing them. I just love writing, creating and playing them.”
Walker records the CDs at Saturation Acres recording studio with producer Bret Alexander. “Radio Clowns” is available at Gallery of Sound stores and at www.thewackjobs.com. Cost is $11.99. Reaction to the latest and final Wackjobs album has been positive.
“From the response I’ve gotten from people that have bought and listened to ‘Radio Clowns,’ this is by far and away the best Wackjobs CD,” he said. “I’d stack this up far above all of the others.”
Another Walker tradition has also continued with the release of the album. Like all of its predecessors, all net proceeds from “Radio Clowns” will be donated to a local charity. The choice for this CD was Candy’s Place, a cancer wellness center located in Forty Fort.
“They have all of these resources available to local people battling cancer,” Walker said. “If you talk to anybody that has ever utilized their services, or had a friend or family member who has, everybody just speaks nothing but praise for Candy’s Place.”
