Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX

Music did not just shape my career. It saved my life.

Growing up in New York City, music was the thing that lit the way forward when not much else did. That is not a metaphor. It is the reason I have spent my entire career trying to give that feeling back to as many people as possible. Every decision I have made as a programmer, a leader, and a fan has been rooted in that simple debt I feel to music and the artists who make it.

 I am a music geek. Full stop. Pre-streaming, I had 25,000 MP3s. I subscribe to multiple RSS feeds, I follow emerging artists obsessively, and in just the last year alone I have been in the crowd for Parker McCollum, George Strait, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Chris Stapleton, Jelly Roll, Dua Lipa, The Eagles, Benson Boone, Peter Gabriel, Billy Joel, Sigur Ros, The National, Dasha, Dalton Domino, Rob Baird, Them Dirty Roses, the Windy City Smoke Out, and more. I show up because I love it. That never changed.

 What That Passion Looks Like In Practice

 That same obsession is what I bring to every brand, every team, and every market I have worked in. As VP of Programming overseeing 33 music brands across America, including stations in New York and Los Angeles, I have had the privilege of working across every major music format. But the titles and the markets are not the story. The people and the outcomes are.

 At Power 106 in LA, I personally programmed the station and oversaw the production of Powerhouse. At HOT 97 in New York, one of the most scrutinized and competitive radio environments in the world, I helped lead a team that built and sustained one of the most iconic brands in the history of urban radio. Summer Jam was not just a concert. It was a cultural event that defined what artist-driven radio could be at its very best.

Back in 2012, we put Kendrick Lamar on the headliner stage at our Power 106 SXSW event. At that point, most programmers had not caught up yet. We had, because we were paying attention.

Most recently, I returned WTMX Chicago, known as The MIX, to number one in the 25-54 demographic. The way we got there is the part I am most proud of. I hired a morning talent who had never hosted a radio show, did a complete rebrand of the station, and trusted the process. That is the kind of move that only works when you have a team that believes in the vision and leaders who are not afraid to take a swing for the right reasons.

 During Lollapalooza 24, we were on the ground presenting new artist showcases featuring Dasha and Knox, because that is where the culture is being written in real time and that’s exactly where we want to be.

 How I Actually Work With People

 The LinkedIn recommendations are worth reading, not because of what they say about me, but because of what they reveal about how the work actually gets done. None of these wins happened alone. I have spent my career identifying talent others overlooked, coaching people who had more potential than opportunity, and building teams that trusted each other enough to do bold things in brutally competitive markets.

I am not a top-down leader. I have zero pride of authorship. If your idea is better, we use your idea. My job is to create an environment where the best thinking wins, and then to make sure we execute it better than anyone else in the market.

 I have built and marketed multi-platform features like New @ 2, Leak of the Week, and The New Music Club, all hosted by top tier talent and all built around the idea that passion is what generates revenue. I have executed label-partnered events featuring Kanye and Post Malone, and release launches for Taylor Swift, Coldplay, and Adele. The thread connecting all of it is the same: find what people love, find the talent who can deliver it authentically, and build something that earns loyalty in a world where attention is the scarcest resource there is.

 Where I Am Now

 After six great years in Chicago, my wife Julie and I made the move to New Braunfels, Texas in 2025 to be closer to our kids, Ally in Austin and Dylan in San Antonio. We landed in one of the most vibrant and underappreciated music communities in the country, and we could not be happier about it. We are out regularly catching local Texas artists like Ty Myers, Shelby Stone, Dallas Burrow, Dalton Domino, and Parker McCollum, among others.

In a world where every listener has every song in their pocket, the brands and platforms that win are the ones built on genuine connection, trusted voices, and programming that actually means something to the people consuming it. That is the problem I know how to solve, and it is the work I do. If you are building something and you need a collaborator who has seen what works at the highest level and still shows up every day as a fan first, well, that’s me…

Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX

Tricia grew up in Austin, Texas, and is a proud graduate of Austin High School and Texas State University.

She spent most of her childhood on her grandparents’ ranch riding horses, learning to fix fences, and spending time with family. These experiences shaped her grounded, no-nonsense personality and deep Texas roots.

Tricia has been on the air since 2018 and is very excited to join the legendary JB & Sandy Show. She is known for her straightforward opinions, quick wit, and fearless honesty. As a proud voice for women with a “guy’s girl” edge, her takes often surprise and delight listeners. She also happens to be married to Sandy which creates unique and sometimes hilarious on-air situations.

Off-air, she loves interior design, travel, girls’ nights, workouts, and all things food! She also loves being mom to her and Sandy’s teenage daughter, Landry.

Tricia delivers authentic Austin charm while making listeners feel like they’re chatting with a fun, down-to-earth friend.

Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX

Sandy McIlree has been a cornerstone of Austin morning radio since the mid-1990s, best known as one half of the long-running *JB and Sandy Morning Show*.

He and JB Hager launched the show Jan 16, 1996 on Mix 94.7 KAMX, where they quickly built a dominant presence in Central Texas through their authentic chemistry, humor, and community focus. For 18 years, the program was a staple of Austin mornings until late 2013, when the partnership ended after JB’s contract was not renewed.

During their run, JB and Sandy earned significant local recognition, including multiple “Best Radio Show” awards from the Austin Chronicle and Best Morning Show honors from Austin Monthly. Their most impactful legacy is the JB and Sandy’s Bikes for Kids initiative, which began in the late 1990s and has distributed more than 20,000 brand-new bikes, helmets, and locks to children in need across Central Texas.

In a notable expansion of their reach, JB and Sandy brought their morning show to television when KEYE-TV (CBS Austin) replaced its early morning newscast with a simulcast of the program starting in late 2009. The simulcast, which typically aired from 5–7 a.m., allowed the duo’s radio banter and personality to reach a broader television audience for nearly two years.

Sandy also ventured into national and golf-focused programming. He co-hosted the golf talk show “Beemer and The Bald Guy” with 2002 PGA Champion Rich Beem. The program aired on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (Channel 208 / XM 93) and was syndicated to markets across the country. The show blended golf discussion with their signature humorous, laid-back banter, appealing to both serious golfers and casual fans.

Following the original show’s end, Sandy and JB had a brief reunion on Austin Radio Network’s 105.3 The Fringe in 2014. Sandy later hosted the syndicated The Sandy Show with his wife Tricia, which aired in Austin on iHeart’s KVET-HD2 starting in 2021.

In a full-circle return, Sandy reunited with JB Hager on April 1, 2026, bringing the JB and Sandy Morning Show back to iHeartMedia’s 98.1 KVET, with Tricia McIlree joining the team as a key on-air voice and Executive Producer of The JB and Sandy Show Podcast. The reunion has been met with strong enthusiasm from longtime listeners.

Sandy’s career reflects decades of dedication to local Austin radio, from building a major morning show to maintaining community connections through major initiatives and returning to the airwaves with the same authentic style that defined his work for over 30 years.

Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX

JB started in radio as part of the Kidd Kraddick morning show out of Dallas. While Kidd was sitting out a 2 year non-compete, JB produced the morning show at KNIX Phoenix and remotely launched with Kraddick. Bitboard online networks for radio talent and Morning Mouth Magazine.

JB returned to Dallas after the launch of KHKS (Kiss-fm) Dallas to produce and cohost.

He went on to Host the acclaimed JB and Sandy Morning show at Mix 94.7 in Austin for 18 years. JB and Sandy also launched Bikes for Kids which did over 2 million dollars and 20k bikes for kids in Central Texas.

While doing morning radio, JB would write for local magazines including a monthly column in Austin Woman that ran monthly for a decade.

He also found the online music series, www.onairstreaming.com, and co-founded a social video app, Ferris, later sold to Tinder.

For 8 years, JB has been co-hosting and producing THEMOVE Cycling with Lance Armstrong. A podcast that cracks the top 5 in sports podcast annually during the Tour de France and has reached #1 in sports podcast on numerous occasions.

JB has also done freelance podcast consulting and production including working with Podjourney Ai, which is part of Gemini XIII.

In April 2026, JB and Sandy reunited on the legendary KVET-Fm for mornings in Austin Texas.