Sweet 98.5 Debuts All-Female AM Show
• NRG Media Hot AC KQKQ (Sweet 98.5)/Omaha promises to shake up the local morning radio landscape with the launch of the market’s only all-female morning show — Sweet 98.5 Mornings with Nikki & Laura debuts Monday, January 20 and features existing morning host Nikki Oswald teamed up with Laura Blenkush, who moves up from afternoon drive. Oswald (right) had been paired with Matt Tompkins, who last week unplugged and crossed the hall to helm a solo morning show on new Adult Hits outlet KOOO (The New 101.9 The Keg). Sweet 98.5 PD Jay Michaels commented, “Taking two of our highly talented personalities, and pairing them together for an all-female morning show is the obvious move when targeting women.”
Oswald began her radio career in Norfolk, NE in 2008, co-hosting mornings and doing middays on KQKX-FM, KEXL-FM and News-Talk WJAG, then went to work for NRG Media in Lincoln, NE, prior to joining Sweet 98.5 in the fall of 2018. Blenkush (left) has been a fixture in the hallways of NRG Media Omaha since 2015 when she started as a part-time board op. She later moved into the digital department and was awarded middays in the summer of 2016. She was most recently doing 4-7pm.
GM Mark Shecterle commented, “This is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while, and I only had to look inside the building to see the next superstar pairing. I’ve been in the business for over 30 years, and I feel extremely blessed to have the opportunity to give these women the keys to mornings on Sweet 98.5. It’s going to be magical, and Omaha deserves to have an all-female local morning show.”