Gary Daigneault
News Director
Gary Daigneault (News/Program Director) has been “The Voice of the Morongo Basin” since he showed up in the Morongo Basin in 1979 in a beat-up old Datsun and a brand-new new wife (He has a new car but still has the same wife, he likes her).
Gary Daigneault has co-hosted morning shows on local radio for the past 39 years, 27 years at Z107.7.
As a broadcast journalist, he is one of the most highly decorated reporters in the state, with numerous awards and citations from the Associated Press, National Association of Broadcasters, the Radio-Television News Association, and Radio Inc. magazine. A highlight of his career came in 2010 when he was inducted into the Associated Press Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement recognized by the U.S. Congress.
Gary is also heavily involved in local theater. He has directed 17 musicals in the past 16 years at Theatre 29 in Twentynine Palms. He was named “Best Director-Musical” by the Desert Theater League for his 2013 production of “Gypsy.”
Daigneault taught ROP Broadcasting classes for 27 years, retiring from Morongo Unified School District in 2016.
Gary and Cindy, herself an accomplished actress, singer, and photographer, live in Twentynine Palms, they have 2 children and 3 grandchildren.
Active in Community service, Daigneault is a founding member and current President of the Theatre 29 Board, 4 term Past-President of Yucca Valley Rotary Clubs, Past-President of the Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree Chambers of Commerce, and vice-president of the Yucca Valley Chamber. He spent 8 years as the Chairman of the Joshua Tree National Park Commission.
Tami Roleff
Managing News Editor
Tami is a transplanted Mid-Westerner who moved to California thanks to her husband Keith and the Marine Corps. They’ve lived and traveled all over the world. During Keith’s 20 years in the Marines they were stationed in Quantico, Virginia; North Carolina; Okinawa, Japan; and San Diego, before finally settling in Yucca Valley. Although Tami sometimes misses the green trees and 10,000 lakes of Minnesota, she doesn’t miss the winters, humidity, or the mosquitoes, and has grown to enjoy living in the desert.
Tami’s degree in English has helped her with her work in the fields of journalism and book editing. During one of Keith’s deployments to Iraq, Tami took Gary’s ROP Broadcasting Occupations class and was hired as a reporter in 2007. She became managing editor in 2011, and won her first Golden Mic award that year by the Radio and Television News Association for her story on a man who was lost in the desert for nine days–and survived. Under Tami, Z107.7 was also an RTNA finalist in 2014 for Best Radio Newscast (Division B).
Tami spends her “free” time with her golden retrievers and enjoys taking photos of anything and everything. Thanks to her vocation and avocation, she’s traveled to places she probably wouldn’t have, seen things she might not have noticed, and has met people who have enriched her life.
Cassidy Taylor
Assignment Reporter
Cassidy Taylor was born and raised in the Morongo Basin. A graduate of Twentynine Palms High School and Gary Daigneault’s ROP Broadcasting class, she started working at Z107.7 as a weekend DJ and assignment reporter in 2013 and stayed there until going to college in 2015.
In college, Cassidy worked with the campus radio station, KLJX-LP, Flagstaff (KJACK), and the television news station, NAZ Today, while also working part-time for other local radio stations in Flagstaff, Arizona. She was only a little bit busy, but it paid off with three awards from the Broadcast Education Association. In 2019, Cassidy graduated with a degree in Creative Media and Film from Northern Arizona University while serving as Station Manager for KJACK Radio and a director and Production Manager for NAZ Today.
Today, Cassidy is back home in the Morongo Basin and can be heard every weekday morning with Gary Daigneault on the Z107.7 Morning Show helping residents wake up with a smile or a laugh, or both – depending on the day! When she isn’t cracking truly terrible and cheesy jokes on air, she’s reporting local news for the Z107.7 news team.
In her off-hours, she can be found with her pups, Leia and Kyla. She has tried to start a garden more than five times and loves the desert, and especially, this desert community. Her biggest life passion, though, is radio.
Mike Lipsitz
Reporter
Mike moved to Landers from midtown Manhattan in 2004 and joined the Z107.7 News crew in 2009. Having spent the prior ten years in the entertainment industry, his return to writing and reporting was at once a welcome change and a familiar position.
As far back as high school in Memphis, Mike realized he could leverage writing and editing as a way to evade math classes. The plan worked and he carried it on into college graduating from the University of Missouri School of Journalism without ever taking a college level math course. During his four years in Missouri, Mike covered Town Hall and local politics for the Columbia Missourian, a city daily newspaper.
After graduation, journalism degree in hand, Mike headed for the Big Apple and a six-year stint writing copy for some of Madison Avenue’s biggest players like Saatchi & Saatchi, Compton Worldwide, and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. He says writing collateral material for clients like IBM, Chrysler Motors Corp., and the NASDAQ Stock Exchange challenged him to translate complex ideas into marketing material their audiences would want to read. It was good experience, but lacked fun and frivolity! So peeking out from around his workstation, Mike found himself backstage at the New York Metropolitan Opera, “The Met,” and getting paid for it! One thing lead to another and the next decade was spent traveling the U.S. on tour doing major shows with major stars … Mike was in charge of costumes and says, “It was crazy fun!”
After 9/11 New York wasn’t the same for Mike and he began thinking about where to relocate. His mother suggested he go to Ft. Lauderdale to be with his “own people.”
“I didn’t know if she meant gays or Jews, but it didn’t matter,” he says. “I followed my brother’s advice instead and headed for Joshua Tree … or Landers, actually. This is where everything came together. I write news, which I love; and I volunteer throughout the year on local stage productions!”
Mike says he has fun doing all of it; something he recommends for everyone.
Heather Clisby
Reporter
Nosy by nature, Heather Clisby wisely chose journalism to justify her curiosity and eagerness to report and conclude.
After graduating in journalism from Cal State University, Long Beach, Clisby worked in a variety of communication mediums – newspapers, magazines, radio, blogs and public relations. On the eve of the Internet’s birth, she was living in San Francisco where her career veered into public relations. Thus, she earned her favorite professional title of all time, “Games and Events Gal” at shockwave.com.
Career highlights include: scoring an all-access Platinum Press Pass to the Kentucky Derby (NBC), all calories consumed as a restaurant reviewer (Long Beach Press-Telegram), hanging backstage with the Cowboy Junkies at The Tonight Show (Music Connection magazine), throwing a $100,000 Hollywood party for game designers (Burson-Marsteller), interviewing Phyllis Diller in her living room (BUST magazine), exploring Costa Rica on assignment (BlogHer.com) and Director Peter Weir wanting her opinion of his new film, “The Truman Show” during an interview (KUSF-FM, San Francisco).
Her all-time favorite editorial assignment came to her while working at the Nob Hill Gazette in San Francisco: “Get me the entire history of beards by Monday.”
Clisby also orchestrates comedy improv workshops for any brave soul – kids and adults – willing to look silly. Beyond comedy and journalism, Clisby is wildly passionate about her environment and puts in many hours as a Desert Institute volunteer.
Clisby spent a few years as an organic farmer in North Dakota, living in a trailer and blogging the experience. Fun fact: She spent 1995-1996 circumnavigating the globe with a Round-the-World ticket, exploring 12 countries in Africa and Oceania.
A native of Long Beach, California, Clisby resides with her dog, Sweetpea, in the Indian Cove home built by her grandfather in 1960. She is quite thrilled to be part of the Z107.7 family.
Keith Bailey
Reporter
Keith Bailey is a Chicago native who moved west to sunny California with his lovely wife Nicole, a lieutenant in the world’s greatest Navy. Keith is a former corpsman in the Navy and who became a registered EMT after serving. In 2011 Keith made a career move from the medical field to broadcasting. He cut his teeth in the broadcasting industry by hosting and producing fallout MMA, a mixed martial arts radio broadcast that highlighted women’s mixed martial arts. Keith is a huge mixed martial arts fan, so covering this sport and interviewing some of the world’s biggest stars was a dream come true. Keith enjoys coaching youth basketball, and has coached several of his son’s teams.
