Joe Kelley
Joe Kelley turns food news and brand collaborations into quick, punchy stories that show how big brands use limited-time offers and themed promotions to reach fans. He works within Audacy’s news operation, hosting The KRLD Morning News and contributing authored pieces that are syndicated across multiple stations. His beat centers on food and consumer culture, and he extends the same quick-hit, conversational style to unusual science, technology and public-safety stories across the network.
Fast food stunts and brand collaborations
Kelley treats fast food and packaged-food coverage as news of everyday life, focusing on stunts, giveaways and co-branded products rather than industry strategy. His World Cup piece on Taco Bell’s “emotional support tacos” follows fans through the tension of matches and uses the free taco offer as a way to capture the emotional side of sports fandom.
In his coverage of Coca-Cola and Oreo teaming up for limited-edition cookies and drinks, he highlights the new products, the launch timing and the limited run, giving listeners and readers a clear sense of what will be available and when. He writes these stories with straightforward headlines that keep the brand names and the core offer front and center, making the pieces easy for audiences to scan and act on.
Short-form national news with a twist
Beyond food, Kelley regularly writes short national pieces built around a single surprising detail or visual. His story on schools across Texas canceling picture days ties a statewide decision to a disturbing connection uncovered in the picture-taking process, keeping the focus on the policy change and its implications for families. In another piece, he reports on a Florida woman fleeing a wreck with a motorcycle still wedged under her SUV, emphasizing the dramatic image and the resulting charges against the driver. He uses similarly tight framing when covering venomous “blue dragons” washing up on South Texas beaches during spring break, outlining the unusual sea creatures, the location and the risk without straying into long environmental explanation. These stories show a preference for clear, direct accounts of odd events that are easy to retell and share.
Robots, science oddities and emerging tech
Kelley also has a recurring line of coverage around robots and new technology, often framed through public safety or conflict.
His report on police detaining a humanoid robot after it frightens an elderly woman uses video in the presentation and focuses on the encounter between officers, the robot and the resident, turning a tech demonstration into a public-safety story. In his coverage of Ukraine deploying armed ground robots against Russian forces, he describes the machines as part of a new era of warfare and concentrates on what they do on the battlefield rather than on technical specifications. He applies a similar lens to science oddities, such as a piece on scientists finally solving the mystery of why basketball shoes squeak, explaining how a familiar sound comes from specific physical factors and making the science accessible through a widely recognized everyday experience.
Together with his “blue dragons” beach story, these articles show a consistent interest in moments where science and technology collide with daily life and human reaction.
Networked distribution and format
Across these topics, Kelley’s work is structured for fast consumption and broad reuse within Audacy’s network. His bylines appear under multiple station brands, including WWJ Newsradio 950, WWL and WCCO Radio, while still crediting NewsRadio 1080 KRLD as the source, indicating that his pieces are written for syndication rather than a single local audience. The articles are concise, built around one main hook, and often paired with video or striking imagery when the subject suits it, as in his robot and wildlife coverage.
This combination of food promotions, odd national events and accessible tech and science stories, distributed across many stations, defines his role as a versatile news voice who keeps consumer-focused stories lively and brief.
4 more food journalists.
Al Culliton
Al Culliton is a writer and historian whose work focuses on the American cocktail as a living part of food and culture, using obscure, historic drinks to show how bars, spirits and cities change. They write reported features that trace how forgotten recipes move from old bar guides back onto modern menus, reconstructing how cocktails originally tasted and explaining how new builds reshape them. Their beat is revived classics, regional specialties and low-proof aperitifs, covered one drink at a time with close attention to specs, technique, glassware and service. They write about cocktails as cultural artifacts tied to specific communities and geographies, using single recipes to explore place, identity, regional traditions and diaspora histories. Across masthead work and recipe writing, they combine primary-source research with present-day reporting from working bars, in precise, accessible prose grounded in technical detail.
Alaina Chou
Alaina Chou stands out for rigorously testing food and kitchen products and turning those hands-on trials into clear shopping advice. She is a commerce writer at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, where she makes newsletters and shopping guides for home cooks. Her beat is food commerce, with coverage of air fryers, meal kits, protein powders, pepper grinders, electrolyte drinks, and cookbooks. She focuses on what is worth buying, how it performs, how it tastes, and how it fits daily routines and wellness. She also writes sale-driven lists and roundup pieces, and she has worked on Bon Appétit’s Feel Good Food Plan. Her reporting is practical, direct, and grounded in product testing.
Amadea Tanner
Amadea Tanner is a food journalist for Daily Meal whose distinct focus is food history, culinary nostalgia, and the way everyday dishes reveal broader cultural stories. She covers canned baked beans, boomer-era casseroles, cowboy trail food, and sailors’ rations to show how preservation, technology, labor, and survival shaped familiar staples. Her beat includes retro recipes, mid‑20th‑century home cooking, old-school ice cream flavors, and vintage cookbooks, treating them as records of household budgets and aspirations. She also reports on kitchen culture and domestic design, from breakfast alcoves and pie safes to milk doors and wall phones. Tanner investigates global dish origins and contested national claims in pieces on haggis and pavlova. Beyond Daily Meal, she has worked across food, travel, and sustainability, contributing to outlets including Atlas Obscura, Beau Monde Media, Yahoo, and Tasting Table.
Amanda Garrity
Amanda Garrity stands out for turning food, holidays, and family traditions into practical service stories that help readers plan specific celebrations. She is a lifestyle editor at TODAY.com and has more than seven years of experience as a lifestyle writer and editor, including five years on staff at Good Housekeeping, where she covered home, holidays, food, entertainment, and other lifestyle news. Her work also appears in consumer titles including Prevention, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Best Products. Her beat centers on event-based menus, holiday explainers, and classic TV and film guides, with clear, list-driven reporting that gives readers specific dates, recipes, viewing options, and simple background for family planning.