They look alike, they talk a lot alike and starting this week, Kendal Malewicz and Morgan Ryan both host morning radio shows in Windsor-Essex.
For the past year, the audience on MIX 96.7 FM has woken to the sound of Kendal and Jay in the morning, but they can be forgiven if they thought it was Morgan all along.
Morgan used to co-host the morning show with Jay Marchillo. Last January, she left the show to begin her new adventure as the mother of twins.
She had lots of help from her significant other, Scott, and her twin sister, Kendal who pulled double duty changing diapers and exchanging quips with Marchillo.
"It was the probably the hardest decision and the scariest decision I've ever made in my life because she has ten years under her belt [in radio], I only have a few years," admitted Kendal about stepping into her sister's shoes after Morgan devoted her self to Mornings with Jay and Morgan for five years.
Morgan had her own misgivings at first.
"I really didn't love the idea at first. I just thought it would be too confusing," she admitted. "But if anyone was going to fill in and do the job I loved so much, why not a family member and somebody that I know will do a great job."
It is not like Kendal was an unknown entity since Morgan often talked about her relationship with her twin sister.
Kendal Malewicz of Mix 96.7 FM and Morgan Ryan of Country 95.9 FM. (Photo by Adelle Loiselle)
The babies are a year-old now. The sisters still live in the same house, sharing morning radio's challenging work hours, working for the same company, Blackburn Radio Inc., but on opposing morning shows. While Kendal has made a name for herself now on Mornings with Jay and Kendal, Morgan has spent the last week preparing to fly solo in her morning show on Country 95.9 FM.
"I'm excited to learn about all the music. I'm excited to meet all the really hot country music artists," she joked. "It's going to be different, but I'm excited for the challenge."
"Windsor needs this country music show. Windsor needs this to happen," added Kendal. "Country music is so trendy and to have Morgan at the helm to build the brand to be bigger and better than ever is a no-brainer."
This past week, she has been learning the ropes from Cordell Green, a veteran of morning radio for the past 17 years including the last six entertaining country music fans on Country 95.9 FM. While Morgan will be the region's first solo female radio morning host, Green will move to the mid-day show, called Country Workdays.
It is not the first time the twins have worked together. Both Kendal and Morgan cut their teeth in radio in the Cayman Islands as the Spin Twins on Spin FM.
"We had a very brief show together, and it sounded like one person was talking to themselves," laughed Morgan.
"So they moved us. She got mid-days, and I got the afternoon drive," added Kendal.
As a mother, Morgan hopes to appeal to moms in her new role, but men too. She wants her male listeners to know she's a guy's gal as much as she is an alpha female; a woman who likes football and drinking Belgian Moon and Budweiser.
"It's made with rice. It doesn't make you bloat," she laughed.