Eva Ready For Life, Post-Alarm Clock
• We want to send our most sincere best wishes to our former Gavin colleague Jamie “Eva” Matteson, who announced she will be stepping down from her longtime role as morning co-host at Saga Hot AC WMGX (Coast 93.1)/Portland, ME and plans to travel and spend some quality time enjoying her life. Her last day is Feb. 28. As Matteson so accurately explains that inner battle common to most morning personalities, “Those 3am wakeups are hard; it’s ‘fight or flight’ every morning when that alarm goes off. And you never get used to it.”
Interestingly, Matteson this month celebrates her 15th anniversary in a position that was originally billed as a temp gig, as she tells RAMP, “I arrived on Jan 21, 2005 for what was supposed to be a four-week fill-in stint. I am beyond grateful to everyone at Coast 93.1, especially my PD Randi Kirshbaum, who called me 15 years ago to come and fill in — that call changed my life.”
She added, “I have been so blessed to live and work in Portland, which is No. 1 on my list of cool cities of any size. I’m going to miss my partner Blake — he has brought so much to our show in the six years we’ve been together — he’s made me better on the air, and our Coast listeners have embraced us through our fun times, and a really rough time last year when Blake suddenly lost his partner, Kyle. My decision is certainly bittersweet, but it really is what is best for me and my health right now.”
In the near term, Matteson plans to temporarily relocate to Nashville, “where I can sleep, rest, give myself some space and time to realize what’s next for me. And I plan to travel… a lot, starting with the Canary Islands for the summer. Then we’ll see what joy looks like to me.” Your best wishes can be shared with Eva at evalovesmaine@yahoo.com.