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SeaBass

Before beginning his radio career, SeaBass (Tommy Miske) was a highly-touted baseball prospect, until a shoulder injury at a Miami Amigos tryout ended any chance of that happening. A comeback attempt with the Ft. Myers Sun Sox of the Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989 was short-lived when he declined the offer in order to pursue a growing broadcasting career.

He entered radio as an intern in the mid 80’s and, after catching the attention of Jim McBean and Skip Herman of WSHE/Ft. Lauderdale’s morning show, was given a weekend air shift. He was soon discovered by Greg Mull, PD at WRXK/Ft. Myers, who immediately hired him and began grooming him as a future morning show host there. In 1988, he took the lead of the failing morning show and pushed it in a totally new direction to the top of the ratings. Suddenly, he was offered (and accepted) a lucrative morning show with KXFX/Santa Rosa, CA.

Upon arriving in San Francisco, he took a call from Greg Mull, then-PD of Tampa Bay’s new WXTB, with an offer to host America’s first Active Rock station, the new 98 Rock. He jumped at the opportunity, and immediately flew to Tampa to finalize the contract. In January 1990, WXTB signed on and soon became one of the most powerful and influential rock stations in the country. For the first few weeks, he stunted in full character as surfer dude “Buck Maui,” then officially appeared as “SeaBass” when Buck Maui “drowned” while surfing. 98 Rock’s first official morning show debuted as “SeaBass & Chief” with SeaBass actually voicing his partner, Big Chief Meteorologist.

He then began building an ensemble cast that included Al Keck on sports and Heather McCoy with the news. In 1992, Marla Stone joined in, and the morning show reached record ratings. Three years later, with the show at its peak and he, himself, drawing a hefty six-figure salary, WXTB decided to do some cost-cutting and paired Marla with a new, less-costly co-host, with the hopes of maintaining ratings.
 
His next move was to the Palm Beaches to do mornings at WKGR-FM which often resulted in beating Howard Stern on the competition across town. After being replaced, this time with syndication, he entered talk radio and enjoyed several years of success at WPBR-AM, until that station was sold and he found himself unemployed again. In 2003, he retired from broadcasting, only to return without fanfare a year later at WBGG/Miami. Five years later, in 2008, he resigned and left radio again.
 
SeaBass, an accomplished life-long surfer, resides in Palm Beach today (2009), and spends several months each year catching the waves in Nicaragua. He’s also active in radio/TV voice imaging and commercial voiceovers, and doesn’t rule out a return to the airwaves someday.

Station History