By Craig Michaels
Like many people in the business, Johnny Toot has been fascinated by music and radio from a very young age. Johnny, whose real last name is Isabell, is a Coachella Valley native. Always a prankster in school, Johnny explains how he acquired the name Toot; “I was a class clown and every once in a while I would talk a bunch of gibberish and I blurted out “Hey I’m Johnny Toot” randomly. Before I knew it, I would hear people in the hallways in high school say “hey there¹s that Johnny Toot kid.”
Johnny admits when he was younger he would constantly call radio stations and prank the on-air personalities with different voices. His fist experience with radio was at age 13 when a local radio personality, Rick Morton (now the morning show host at Jammin’ Z90 in San Diego) invited him into the studio one day to be the guest DJ. Of course once the microphone was turned on, Johnny froze but the radio seed was planted.
After graduation Johnny worked at a few different jobs until his mid-20’s when he met one of the DJs from KCLB who would later give him his first big break into radio. Johnny was offered an internship on KCLB which is part of the Desert Radio Group in Palm Springs. Eventually his hard work and enthusiasm for radio was noticed and Johnny was hired to do the mid-day shift from 10am to 2pm playing rock music. He was no stranger to rock since he was also the front man for a rock band called “Start to Finish,” which eventually disbanded.
In his early years, Johnny’s focus was on finding interesting stuff to talk about to his listeners without sounding stupid. He quickly began to grow and develop his radio skills which complimented his outgoing personality. If you ask Johnny to describe his personality, he can sum it up with two words, “I’m nuts!”
Recently the higher ups at the Desert Radio Group felt Johnny’s on air sound was a better fit for the afternoon show which is typically a little more personality driven. You can now tune in to catch Johnny and his crazy sense of humor weekdays from 2pm to 7pm on 93.7 KCLB. The future looks bright for this rising radio star who says “for now the Sky’s the limit but hitting the lottery wouldn’t hurt.”
Written by: Craig Michaels
Craig Michaels Productions
(760) 880-3848