One of the most popular voices on morning radio shocked her loyal listeners Tuesday morning and announced that she is hanging up her microphone.
After 12 years in the studio, Jenna Owens, co-host of The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show said she needs to give her other love -- her fitness and skincare business -- her full attention.
Leaving her second family, she said, was a tough decision.
“We've been through a lot together, obviously. We are all so vulnerable with one another. We fight like family, we disagree on things, we try to be warm and welcoming to each other when we know we are going through a hard time,” Owens said.
When Owens started on the show, she said she was young, blond, well-rested and green.
“Every day was intimidating. I would drive to work and go, 'What's my first line going to be this morning?'”
The show's star and creator, the late Kidd Kraddick, saw something special in Owens, but his advice, she said, was, "Don't stay too long."
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Owens recalled his words: “I want you to be here for a bit and then I want you to move on to do something else."
"Twelve years later, I got really comfortable,” she laughed.
Even after Kraddick's death, his entrepreneurial spirit inspired her to think beyond the studio walls. She launched Fitish, an athletic and CBD skincare line, just as CBD was taking off.
“I thought, 'What is the worst that could happen? I am enjoying the process.’ So I just kept doing it, kind of one foot in front of the other and then people started buying the product," Owens said.
The products were selling, but one thing stood out.
“The before and after photos started coming in of people using these CBD products and we were seeing them treat young, old, acne, eczema, psoriasis and conditions I couldn't even pronounce and had to ask my dermatologist because I didn't know what they were,” she said.
Two years later, Owens realized she couldn't do both.
“For the last two years I'd say I’ve been very strongly burning the candle at both ends trying to do both, which is frankly unfair.”
As she prepares to sign off, she said she'll miss her radio family and her listeners.
“Being able to make people feel like they're not alone is a really powerful and inspiring feeling," Owens said. "To be able to touch someone when they're driving to work every day.”
There's one thing she said she won't miss.
“I will not miss getting up at 4 a.m.,” she laughed.
But she said fulfilling Kraddick's wishes for her, all these years later, felt right.
“I think he'd be very proud," she said. "I think he'd be very very jealous he doesn't have a piece of my business!”
Owens said she planned to still be a contributor on the show and take part in the Kidd’s Kids trips every year. Her last day is Friday.
