She's a former reality TV star. He's worked with music stars. Get to know new WIXX morning co-hosts Huggie and Natalie
BELLEVUE - He’s from the one-stoplight town of Beecher, Illinois, a regular weightlifter at the YMCA, a former house DJ who once wore a TV on his head and proud dog dad to an 81-pound goldendoodle named Buckley (aka "Big Baby Stinks").
She’s a Milwaukee native, a book lover and homebody at heart with a cache of bad dad jokes, the former star of a TV reality dating show that aired all over the world and the proud mom of a 5-year-old son named Atlas.
Together, Dan “Huggie” Amsden and Natalie Jansen are two-thirds of the new “Huggie, Natalie & Corey” morning show that debuted Feb. 7 on WIXX-FM. Along with longtime station brand manager Corey Carter, they have taken over the reins after a series of buzzed-about on-air changes in the time slot beginning in November when Jim Murphy retired from “Murphy in the Morning” after 32 years.
Amsden moved over from afternoons after joining WIXX in 2022. Jansen is new to listeners after a 10-year run at Milwaukee active rock station 102.9 The Hog (WHQG-FM). The two of them sat down together at the Midwest Communications studios to introduce themselves to the morning crowd.
How long have you known each other?
It has only been a few weeks, but Amsden and Jansen say it feels like forever — in the best sense of the word. They were Instagram friends, so when she was at Midwest Communications interviewing for the position and Amsden walked in, it was like they already knew one another even though it was the first time they met.
“As soon as you meet that person and you just have that connection, it’s an instant spark,” Amsden said. “So it just kind of felt right at that moment.”
“Meeting Huggie, I was like, 'Wow, this is the boy version of me,'” Jansen said. “Out there, crazy.”
More than a few listeners have asked if they’re a couple — something they cleared up on one of their first shows.
“No, we’re not dating. You can put that in print,” Amsden said.
But maybe they’ll get married in five years ... if nothing else works out, Jansen joked.
“I’m a backup, backup, backup plan,” Amsden said.
What's one thing WIXX morning listeners are going to quickly learn about each of you?
“Well, that I am odd,” Amsden said, breaking into his signature laugh. “My afternoon show was a little different. You’re still going to get that same energy. You’re still going to get that same annoying laugh. You’re still going to get that personality.”
Some people think it’s all really just a character he takes on once he gets behind the mic. Not the case, and that goes double for the laugh. Both are authentic.
“This is what you get, man. My parents have been annoyed with me for years," he said. "I just want to provide something fun, something different in the mornings.”
As for Jansen ...
“I just like to tell it as it is. I know WIXX has a lot of younger listeners, a lot of female listeners. I’m coming in as a brand new female to the industry in this male-dominated world,” she said. “I don’t back down. I don’t let things get to me. I want to show that it’s OK to try new things. It’s OK to be scared. It’s OK to be nervous. It’s OK to make fun of yourself.”
What kind of morning show are you hoping to create together with Corey Carter?
“Wild but positive,” Amsden said.
“I feel like this morning show is going to be fresh and new,” Jansen said. “It’s going to be different. It’s going to be lively. It’s going to hopefully wake you up in a good mood. It’s somewhere you can go and know that you’re not going to get judged. You’re going to hear jokes. We’re going to be in good spirits, and that’s all that we’re trying to do. We’re just trying to create a good morning show with good people.”
Both of them have radio experience in big markets (he in Portland, Seattle and Las Vegas; she in Milwaukee), but it’s the first time either of them has done a morning show, so they can also guarantee there is probably going to be some messing up. Everyone has to start somewhere, they said, and they view it as part of the learning process.
Their hope is to create “a breather” for people each day to forget about politics and work and focus on the positive rather than the negative. Even they don’t know what kind of show it will morph into with time, but they’re confident in two things: their love of talking and their fearless approach.
“We’ll see what it turns into, and that’s the beautiful thing about a new show or a new anything,” Jansen said. “You just see what happens and you hope for the best.”
You each have had brushes with fame in reality TV and in music. Can you talk a little about that?
When she was 24, Jansen starred on Season 3 of VH1’s reality TV series “Dating Naked,” where she dated 12 men at once and eliminated one each week.
“I was basically the naked ‘Bachelorette,’” she said. “It was the time of my life. I was in Bora Bora for three months, I had no responsibilities, nothing. Who wouldn’t jump on that opportunity?”
People often ask how she could have put herself out there like that and what her parents thought.
“I’m my own woman. I’m proud of what I do. I’m comfortable in who I am, and why not?” she said.
While she didn’t ultimately find lasting love on the show, she said she made friends from all over the country and had other opportunities come her way because of it.
She played Phylicia Rashad’s assistant on an episode of the Fox drama “Empire” filmed in Chicago. A professional dancer for more than 15 years, she was also was a member of Milwaukee’s Femme Feroce dance company.
Amsden has been making music most of his life, from a successful band in high school to Touch Me Touch You in college, a group he has recently started writing music for again.
“There was a point in my life where I was a house DJ and I would wear a TV on my head called Tv_TV,” he said, noting it was a dark time in his life in Portland, Oregon.
He traveled to Miami and Los Angeles and eventually ditched the 20-pound TV to expand his brand. He has produced with Ludacris, Macy Gray and Kaya Jones of the Pussycat Dolls.
He and Carter cleverly teamed up last year to write and record “Wisconsin Started the Fire,” the remake of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” with references to Kwik Trip, Bart Starr, Screech and Spotted Cow, among dozens of others.
“My first passion is always going to be making tunes,” he said, but radio is a close second.
When you each moved here, what first struck you about the Green Bay area?
“How many roundabouts there are,” Jansen said. “I hate them. I think they’re obnoxious. I don’t think they slow traffic.”
Coming from Milwaukee, where the sound of sirens, traffic and people was a constant hum, she was also immediately struck by how quiet it is here. It made her nervous at first but now she loves it.
“And everyone is very nice up here,” she said.
Amsden too has embraced the quiet and appreciates being close to family in Illinois.
“The cool thing about this place is they love the Packers. The Packers love the people, too, I think,” he said. “It’s just a good community ... and there’s a lot more interesting things in Green Bay than I think people outside of Green Bay realize.”
It took a few weeks for listeners to warm up to him when he started, and he knows it will take several months for the same to happen with “Huggie, Natalie & Corey,” but people in the community are accepting, he said. As someone who worked previously in major markets, where on-air talent often just gets 15 to 20 seconds to talk in between introducing songs, he has noticed that listeners in this market genuinely want to get know the personality behind the voice.
“I’m excited to meet everyone and for them to get to know me,” Jansen said “I feel like I have to earn their respect. I have to earn their trust. No one knows me, right? I’m coming in here brand new, so let’s do it together. Let’s get to know each other together.”
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: New WIXX morning show co-hosts ready to be 'wild but positive'
