The Free Beer & Hot Wings Show is hosted by Gregg “Free Beer” Daniels, Chris “Hot Wings” Michels, Steve and Kelly.
A Brief History of the Free Beer and Hot Wings Show
The Free Beer & Hot Wings Show began as an afternoon show in Omaha, NE at non-commercial radio station KIWR in March of 1997. The Show, comprised of former Central Michigan University roommates Gregg Daniels and Chris Michels, eventually moved to mornings several months later where they remained until the summer of 2000. At that time, they moved on to WBON in Knoxville, TN. In June of 2002, The Show moved to New Jersey, where they were simulcast on WTHK in Trenton and WCHR on the Jersey Shore. The Free Beer & Hot Wings Show began full syndication in 2004 with the addition of WGRD in Grand Rapids, MI. Steve joined the show in 2009, followed by Kelly in 2019. The show is now heard on radio stations in 26 different states.
Where Did the Name Come From?
Instead of calling the show ‘The Gregg and Chris Show,’ which by all estimations would have been the most boring sounding radio show in the world, the decision was made to call it The Free Beer & Hot Wings Show, which seemed far more attention-grabbing. It was admittedly nothing more than a cheap ploy to get people to listen under the false pretense that they may actually have a chance to win beer and/or hot wings. It was not intended that those two things would become permanently synonymous and attached to Gregg and Chris as nicknames, but that’s what happened and now they have to live with the consequences of their B.S. forever.
The Show
Gregg “Free Beer” Daniels
Host
One of the founding members of the show since its inception in March of 1997, Free Beer sets up most of the bits on the show. Free Beer is known for many verbal screw-ups, a vast sports knowledge, and occasionally laughing like Ricky Ricardo from old episodes of “I Love Lucy”.
Free Beer spends rare free time playing video games, shooting hoops, and hanging with the love of his life Kayla, and their boys Gage, Henry, Oliver and Hayden, Murphy and Lennox. On the side, Free Beer is the lead play by play announcer for Compass Media Networks coverage of the national college football game of the week, as well as handling some NFL and college basketball games.
Chris “Hot Wings” Michels
Host
Hot Wings, the other founding member of the show, grew up in the Detroit area doing unathletic things with his friends such as riding bikes, playing Army in swamps, making stupid videos and lighting small fires. Hot Wings knew he wanted to be in radio when he was 14 and got laughs while performing on a fake radio show in his 9th grade Speech class. Hot Wings hates a great many things including, but not limited to geese, which he has referred to as the terrorists of birds, people who don’t put their shopping carts away and people who put bumper stickers on cars. He also believes that the number of stickers on someone’s car is directly proportional to how bad the driver is. He is oddly knowledgeable about trees which is something he picked up from his father who wears black socks and dress shoes with shorts and has a tendency to singe his hair around gas grills. Hot Wings believes he can tell time just by looking at the sun. He likes home improvement and knows just enough to be a pain in his own ass, taking on projects that seem easy, but end up taking him weeks to complete. Hot Wings is divorced and anxiously awaits a hot, wealthy woman to come along and provide him with really good pizzas with a garage full of cool cars. Hot Wings also has 2 sons who are awesome, but still young enough that he could take them in a fight if he needed to.
Steve
Executive Producer
Steve was born and raised in Jersey, which many people are surprised to hear is referred to as “The Garden State.” He attended Monmouth University and after realizing that he had no desire to take Microeconomics, he figured he’d be a Radio major and work for the college radio station, WMCX. Some highlights include interviewing awful bands, saying the F-word on the air a few times and excelling at mediocre radio. This led to a job working for a number of years at 105.7 The Hawk, which is where his paths crossed with the Free Beer and Hot Wings show. Initially a board op, Steve eventually worked his way up to the position of Assistant Program Director of the station. He then worked for the NHL in New York City for a year. And now he’s here.
Steve is married to his wife Annette, who he met on stage while playing “The Dating Game” at a Live at Night show in 2014. He considers himself to be “literally the worst game show prize ever.” Together, they are trying not to screw up the lives of their daughter Evelyn and son Nicholas too badly.
Follow Steve on Twitter and Instagram.
Kelly
Producer
Kelly “Cheese” Cheesborough has been with the FBHW family since 2019. She got her start in radio after hearing a commercial asking, “do you think you’ve got what it takes to be on the radio?” Kelly tried out for the gig and landed her very first radio job as a midday gal on an alternative station in Atlanta, GA. From there, Kelly joined a morning show in Atlanta and then made the jump to Free Beer & Hot Wings.
While Kelly’s known on the show for her beautiful dumptruck laugh, aggressive competitive nature, and foul southern tongue, you can also find her on her yoga mat pretending she’s got her life together. Kelly’s an animal lover, avid traveler, bookworm (pop up books are her fav), amateur baker, concert goer, mediocre chef, coffee enthusiast and wannabe Instagram photographer. Kelly is recently engaged to her fiance Ross, also known as Ron, Rahhhn, and Razer Ron Ramone, Esquire. Together they’ll have his two kiddos, two dogs, and two cats in one really fun house.
Maitlynn
Maitlynn joined the FBHW family back in 2016 as an intern while attending Grand Valley State University. After graduating in 2018, she stayed with us part-time until moving to host her own morning show on 94.9 WMMQ in Lansing, Michigan. After a little over a year there, the powers that be decided FBHW should be on there instead and she moved to a morning show on the Lansing-area Top 40 station, 97.5 NOW FM. After taking a break from radio to work in publishing in her hometown of Jackson, Michigan, Maitlynn came back home to her idiot family in February of 2023.
Maitlynn is the oldest of her three sisters and credits being such an open book to growing up in a house full of women. She loves rock music and despite her young grandma-like demeanor, is actually a pretty big metalhead and takes joy in scaring people at stoplights. When she’s not living it up with her best friend/roommate, Maitlynn loves thrift shopping, fashion, having elaborate nails, going to concerts, seeing comedy shows and would go as far as sucking a nickel out of a fish for Nickelback tickets (Yes, that actually happened. Yes, it was weird).
