R.I.P.: KBEQ AM Show's Mama Zeke

Sweet and straight-talking Mama Zeke might not have been on the morning show marquee at Country KBEQ 104.3 FM  Q104 FM, but she became a much loved radio personality just the same.

News of her death at age 83 prompted an outpouring from fans Thursday, according to the Kansas City Star.

She was Geraldine Zeikle in real life and the real-life mother of one of the show’s hosts, Zeke Montana.

Listeners to the country music station, along with co-hosts Mike Kennedy and Christa Patrick, will miss her family stories, her sometimes blunt advice to callers and her songs.

Post by Q104 KC.

Montana said his mother broke her pelvic bone in November and her health waned after that. She died Wednesday.

Montana, who grew up in Independence where his mother still lived, joined the morning show in 2002. It was the next year when his mother was first on the radio for the station’s Mother’s Day show. She’s been an occasional featured personality ever since.

Mama Zeke exuded a cool mix of gentleness and no nonsense, and the show started a bit called “Ask Mama Zeke,” patterned after Jay Leno’s Fruitcake Lady, Montana said.

To a caller who asked what would be a good name for a new pet goldfish, she was blunt: “What the hell do I care what you name your fish?” Her relationship counsel to female callers ranged from urging sexual restraint to “make a nice dinner and get some of that K-Y Jelly.”

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