Bill "The Big Unit" Michaels is a breath of fresh air for Milwaukee radio. Appearing on the scene in March 1999, Michaels brought a humorous, tell-it-like-it-is style to a station that needed a more youthful and fun voice, WTMJ-AM 620.

Unit shook things up a bit at Milwaukee's gold-standard AM and quickly earned a spot as one the city's favorite radio voices.

Michaels hosts 620 WTMJ's popular sports talk show, "Sports Central," weekdays from 6-8 p.m. and also is the host of "Wisconsin Sports Weekend," "Badgers Saturday," "The Greenhouse", "Packers Sunday", "Brewers Roundtable" and "Bucks Central with Coach George Karl."

But the big news for Bill these days is that The Big Unit is getting smaller. He's working hard with his trainer, Gary Jackson, at The Wisconsin Athletic Club and Unit is well on his way to accomplishing his weight loss goal. He began his workouts and diet on November 16 and as of December 5 he had dropped 14 pounds. He wants to drop 130-150 pounds, and has set a goal of shedding 75 pounds by Feb. 16, 2002.

OnMilwaukee.com sat down with Michaels recently and talked weight loss, sports and life.

OMC: Give us the quick Bill Michaels story. Born where, first job.

BM: I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. My first job in radio was at WRCR in Rushville, Indiana. (A multi-format station including weekend trader radio). My grade school basketball coach yelled at me once for not setting a proper pick . His exact words were, 'You Big Unit, get that big body down on the darn blocks and screen the defender' (at least that's the clean version)....and that's where it started.

OMC: How long have you been doing sports talk?

BM: I have been doing sports talk for almost six years now. I've done it all in radio though -- hard rock, light/easy listening music, country, sex talk, news and sports.

OMC: What were your perceptions of Milwaukee when you moved here?

BM: The reason that Milwaukee was so appealing to me was the fact that, first and foremost, it was still close to my kids in Cincinnati. Secondly, I was familiar with all of the teams...The Brewers were in the NL Central and so were the Reds.

My dad is a huge Bart Starr fan so I grew up watching the Packers every chance we got. I went to Ohio State and obviously have Big 10 ties that would link me to Wisconsin. I also was a huge Cinncinati Cyclones fan and that was my link to the, then, Admirals of the IHL.

And...my first real love was basketball. So, with Marquette being in the same conference as Cincinnati, coupled with me following Oscar Robertson and the Bucks...Milwaukee seemed like a natural fit.

Then I visited Milwaukee in January, 1999 and saw all of the snow...I thought forget this! Then I went to interview in Phoenix for a sports talk job there and while playing golf was told not to retrieve an errant shot because of snakes. I thought to myself, "Hey, that snow thing isn't so bad after all."

The city is beautiful and has so much potential. The people welcomed me right away. The lakefront was an attraction since I'm a huge boater. Milwaukee just felt like home.

OMC: What are they now?

BM: It's a city that is struggling to grow but has the will to do so. There is a wonderful life here in the city if you just get out and experience it. Between going to as many sporting events as I can, I love the night life, Water Street, The Third Ward, the new addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, the great suburban communities and most of all, I love getting to the high school and grade school games. The youth here is great. It's a city that can truly change and grow for the better and will always keep that home town, small town feel.