On an overcast Saturday, a speedboat ripped past Lake Minnetonka mansions as the skipper pointed out those supposedly owned by Target CEO Brian Cornell, former Wild winger Zach Parise and the Pohlads. Meanwhile, a passenger hiked up his shorts to reveal the freshly inked name of another Minnesota celeb: Falen Bonsett.
Colt Parkey, co-host of Falen’s 101.3 KDWB weekday afternoon show, had just gotten the duo’s “Falen & Colt” logo tattooed on his leg, the result of an on-air dare. Now he was wondering, perhaps belatedly, if Falen’s husband might not take kindly to seeing her name on another man’s thigh.
“Jake doesn’t care,” Falen said with a laugh as she prepared to throw T-shirts to a group of boaters for a KDWB promotion. She did point out another concern: Now all of Parkey’s co-hosts, past and present, would expect the same commemorative treatment.
Parkey grinned. “No one compares to you,” he said.
During the decade she spent as Dave Ryan’s KDWB morning-show sidekick, Falen, as she’s best known, established herself as one of the most outspoken female radio personalities in the Twin Cities: a funny, crass, self-described “oversharer” who stood out for her willingness to talk about taboo subjects, from family secrets to the most unflattering bodily functions.
Last year, Falen’s popularity led her to become one of the rare women to host a prime-time radio show. She did so by smashing the old Top 40 trope where the guy did most of the talking, and the young gal by his side was mostly hip, giggly eye candy.