Mitchell Likes it in the Middle with Humor

In these days of polarization inside the political climate, it’s refreshing to hear a voice that stays straight down the middle of the fairway, avoiding the scrum and keeping the conversation light and entertaining. With over 16 years as a radio personality in the Lincoln area market, that’s exactly what Jack Mitchell strives for every week day morning on the air waves.

He spoke Monday to the Executive Club at their weekly luncheon held at the Venue Restaurant & Lounge near 70th Street and Pioneers Boulevard.

“I think the thing I enjoy most about my job is making people laugh and talking about the things we do have in common,” said Mitchell, who took over as host of the Morning Show at KLIN Radio in 2006. “When I started in this position, I had some people that would tell me, ‘it has to be hard news’ and I think that isn’t right. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

And his unique approach to subject matter has proved successful in the heart of a country that has proved to be divided.

“After all, in this business the name of the game is to get people to listen. So, I rarely used my show to tell everybody about what I think and that they should think like me,” Mitchell recounted. “Instead, I use it to talk about what’s happening, to relate common experiences. I love Lincoln. I’ve grown up in Lincoln. I like to find things that bring people together.”

Mitchell went deeper into his philosophy of avoiding the divide and seeking commonality.

“I’ve really learned and realized over the years that I have very limited ability through talk radio, to change people’s minds about things they believe in very strongly,” said Mitchell, who went to high school at Lincoln East. I think a lot of the radio community there is a constant argument about something. It’s constantly trying to persuade people about something. And I’ve realized for the most part, I can’t do that.”

Growing up in Lincoln and before seeking out and launching his career in broadcasting, he went to law school at the University of Nebraska and earned his law degree in 2003. During law school and after he worked at Bowman & Krieger Law Firm in civil litigation, he said, quipping “a very low-priced litigator.”

Speaking of litigation, Mitchell freely admits that that is not his real name. He said when he started working at KLIN, there was a variety of co-hosts including John Bishop, who co-hosted with Mitchell from 2008 to 2012. Mitchell’s real name is John Liesveld. He said the station’s “higher-ups” thought he needed a more marketable name and a different first name since it might prove confusing. So, they resolved to utilize a well-used practice of applying the native city of birth (Mitchell, South Dakota) with the middle name (Jacob) which soon was quickly changed to Jack to arrive at his radio name.

This enabled a confusing and humorous exchange by Mitchell about the commonality of names in his family which he shared with audience.

“I now have a father-in-law Jack, grandfather John, myself John named Jack and my son Johnny Jack. It is the most confusing thing. We gotta find some more names in our family at some point.”

Mitchell shared many stories over his storied past on the air waves, including catching the attention of then Nebraska State Senator Tom Carlson, who took umbrage to Mitchell and Bishop’s radio parody of taking the state fair from Lincoln to Grand Island. This landed the radio pair at the grand opening of the state fair in Grand Island in 2010 with a front-row seat at a Mel Tillis free concert.

Another fine tale told was of the time he and Bishop were doing some Husker Sports coverage with a show with then NU Athletic Director Tom Osborne in November of 2011.

“We’re doing the show with Tom (Osborne) in the studio on the Thursday before the game with Penn State,” Mitchell recalled about the days of reckoning surrounding Coach Joe Paterno’s last game. “While we’re taping we can see Bo Pelini pacing around the parking lot. He was waiting for Tom (Osborne) to discuss whether or not the game that weekend was going to be played. It turns out, we were almost responsible for the delay of the decision to play the Nebraska-Penn State game back in 2011.”