At 7:40am Pacific on Monday, The JV Show‘s on-air hosts opened their microphones following the conclusion of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” on iHeartMedia-owned KYLD “Wild 94.9” in San Francisco.
Rather than the usual antics, however, the hosts struggled to contain their emotions, as they openly cried and were hoping and praying for a miracle. JV was reported missing by San Francisco Police Department on Friday. An update shared this morning put an ominous outlook on the status of the man who has been at the helm of the Top 40 station’s wakeup show.
Rather than pre-empt The JV Show, co-hosts Selena and Graham decided to congregate in-studio and go on the air. All were clearly shaken up, with Graham attempting to keep it light by warning that on-air silence would result in an alarm.
Just before 8am Pacific, Selena said, “As hard as it is to really understanding what is happening, being here in the studio makes it more real.”
Graham noted how he was in his home garage, knowing how he truly felt about going to KYLD and going on the air.
For Selena, going about everyday regular things across the weekend, with her kids, was tough enough, she told listeners. “I knew I needed to bring it up to her,” speaking of her school-age daughter, “before it got to her first.” It did, via a text message from a friend wondering what was happening.
The truth: “We don’t know what’s happened. We don’t know where he is.”
As Selena struggled not to break down and weep as 8am arrived, Graham admitted that his kids wanted to know why their Dad was crying all weekend.
As Radio Ink first reported, JV, legally known as Jeffrey Vandergrift, was last seen at approximately 10pm Pacific on Thursday (2/23). He was officially reported missing on Friday. Vandergrift, who is 54, is considered “at risk” by authorities.
A SFPD update distributed early Morning by Wild 94.9 via Twitter indicated that, since Thursday evening, there has been no trackable activity on his mobile phone. There has also been no activity on his credit cards or any other banking records. “These updates are obviously incredibly worrisome, though we continue to hope and pray for better news,” the station tweeted.
JV is married to the show’s fourth co-host, Natasha Yi. She’s been associated with Wild 94.9 since “The Dog House” was its morning show some seven years ago. Yi is also known for her work in print ad campaigns and as the first Asian showcase model on The Price is Right.
An August 20, 2022 Instagram post on his “theoriginalJV” Instagram account offers a disturbing clue as to Vandergrift’s mental state some three days ago, when the post was edited.
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At 8:09am Pacific, after “Lavender Haze” by Taylor Swift, Selena and Graham were again on the air. “It’s a rollercoaster,” Selena shared as Graham “apologized for ugly crying through the first two hours of the show.”
On Tuesday, and most likely Wednesday, The JV Show “will most likely” not be on the air. “It’s just a lot,” Selena said to listeners.
With some evolution in its co-host composition (Rico was a part of the program as of June 2012), The JV Show has been a staple of Wild 94.9’s wake-up hours. In Summer 2012, sibling KUBE-FM in Seattle began simulcasting the program; this has now concluded.
Vandergrift was raised in Fremont, Calif., an East Bay community. As a KMEL listener, he became a fan of John London, who had a very successful run in morning drive in San Francisco after working at stations in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. He was first hired at KHQT “Hot 97.7,” a popular Top 40 station in San Jose, during the early 1990s. Vandergift, as “JV,” would eventually land his own morning show, which he dubbed the “Dog House,” at what was then “Wild 107.7.” He was 25 at the time, and was employed by CBS Radio after the show moved from Wild in 2005 to the former WXRK “92.3 FREE FM” in an era where the company attempted to lure listeners following Howard Stern’s move to Sirius Satellite Radio. That program ended in May 2007 after JV and former co-host “Elvis” aired a prank call to a Chinese restaurant that turned ugly.
Now split from his ex-partner, on Feb. 16, 2009 JV returned to Wild, now at 94.9 MHz. And, thanks to a live on-air proposal at Wild, Natasha Yi became his wife.
Vandergift wasn’t without his demons. In a September 2011 interview with AllAccess.com, he shared, “The lowest point for me was getting hooked on drugs, losing my mind and turning a good show many years ago into a diatribe about Jesus, aliens, and motorcycles. I lost my job, my lady, and my dogs … It’s easy now to make light of it, but I was honestly at the point of being mentally sick. The road out of that dark place was long but I learned a lot about myself.”
Today, as those closest to him hold out hope for a happy outcome, all are preparing for news that could be most unwelcome, and tragic.
JV in December 2016 spoke with Seth Resler of Jacobs Media Strategies for a podcast, in which he discussed his personal journey as a host. He discussed the highs and lows of being a popular radio morning show host, from drug use and firings to saving the lives of sick children.
