The creation of Gray Wheeler and DJ Erik Mattox this show originates live on WSFM, 103.3 “Asheville FM.
Each week, “Just Say It with Confidence” features a theme that is carried throughout the hour. Sometimes that means the history of Hawaiian music, how the word ‘ain’t’ has been used in songwriting over the decades, or by playing bonus cuts from overpriced box sets to save listeners some money. Mattox explains, “Sometimes we do these ‘Non-Obvious Maniacal Compendiums’ in which we go deep on what at first might seem an overly-familiar topic. For example, we did a show on Van Halen without playing the band itself. It was mostly an exploration of the classical music roots of their song ‘Eruption.’”
Within a year of launching the series, Wheeler and Mattox were honored in Boston by the Alliance for Community Media with the 2025 Hometown Media Award for the single best episode of entertainment in community radio. The winning episode was entitled “Connections,” in which the co-hosts traded songs with tangential connections to each other to emphasize how radio might be a cure for loneliness, especially in light of the regional devastation brought by
Hurricane Helene in Autumn 2024.
