Mike McConnell on IPAs, showers and what choked him up in his final week on the air at WLW

Recently retired 700 WLW host Mike McConnell can be called a lot of things.

Warm and fuzzy typically isn’t one of them.

But in his final week as host of The Big One’s morning-drive show, McConnell, who signed off after a 50-year career in radio, said he found himself getting choked up.

“I just started hearing from so many people,” McConnell said on The Enquirer’s That’s So Cincinnati podcast. “I was just getting inundated with people with stories of difficult times in their life, where it is something I said, or a topic I covered, or whatever, changed their outlook … I don't know how many times people said, ‘changed my life’ in in the e-mail.

“I was getting emotional," he said. “I can't keep reading these things.”

McConnell talked about his start in radio at the University of Dayton, how he got his big break at WLW and tips for people who need to wake up for work at 3:30 a.m. (Skip the shower.)

And in an oh-so-Cincinnati story involving IPAs, he revealed how he discovered his son-in-law – former That’s So Cincinnati podcast host Paul Dehner Jr. – seldom listened to his show.

That’s So Cincinnati, The Enquirer’s weekly podcast on what's making news in our community, features a who’s who of special guests. Listen to it at Audioboom, Apple or your favorite podcast platform.

This story was updated to add a video.