Brenda Matthews, the new midday host on WKQC-FM ("K" 104.7), grew up in suburban Detroit in the Motown era, surrounded by great music coming from the radio.

Once a week, she'd run down the street to a nearby record store to get the radio station hit lists when they came out. But it was still strange she chose a career in radio - she was shy as a kid.

"I never thought I'd be in front of people," says Matthews. "I was the one who didn't want to give the speech in high school."

She got over it. Once she was introducing acts at a concert before hundreds of thousands of fans and it started to rain. She led the crowd in the no-more-rain chant from "Woodstock."

"I realized you can say anything in front of a big crowd and get them going. I sometimes think I'm more comfortable in front of a big crowd rather than a small group."

She got her first radio job in 1979 in Grayling, Mich., about four hours north of Detroit, and quickly went into culture shock. "People were a couple years behind in fashion. It was a conservative area."

She also had to part with her 1976 Triumph TR7 that she'd bought back in Detroit from Bob Seger. Triumphs were sporty but liked to spend lots of time in the garage getting fixed, and British Leyland mechanics were scarce in the outlands of Michigan.

She didn't know it was Seger's car until the title got signed over to her. A friend was selling it for him while he was on tour. "Had a killer sound system," Matthews says, and needed new brakes right away. In 2007, she interviewed Seger, and he remembered the car fondly.

She stayed two years, then got a job in Saginaw, Mich., where she worked for four years. Then she went to the night shift in Grand Rapids, Mich., for two years before landing a job back in Detroit on a country station.

After nine years there, she went in search of more temperate weather. She found it in Orlando, where she spent 14 years at various stations.

Last year she moved to Charlotte with her husband, who does carpentry and renovations and had found work here. They live in a 1926 cottage on Lake Wylie and ride their Harley together on weekends.

CBS Radio hired her for midday work on "K" in November. Operations manager John Reynolds says the midday show is the most-listened-to day part on the station, which plays adult contemporary music and specializes in workplace listening.

Matthews loves to read biographies, and she's working her way through one on Keith Richards now. "I like finding out what makes people tick."

Matthews says she most likes to talk to listeners about the music they're playing and make a personal connection. "I like to sound like a real person, not someone who talks at you, but to you."

Media Movers

Cable network Showtime will launch the third season of "Inside NASCAR," which is produced in Charlotte, with a special Daytona 500 edition 9 p.m. Wednesday. Chris Myers returns to host with analysts Michael Waltrip and Kyle Petty. Their first show will also feature an interview with Danica Patrick. ...

WFAE-FM's (90.7) Scott Graf will leave the station at the end of next month after eight years. Graf, host of "Morning Edition," is moving to the public radio station in Boise, Idaho, where he will join former WFAE-FM program director Paul Stribling. ...

WFNZ-AM ("Fan" 610) will carry all seven home games for the Charlotte Hounds, the city's new professional lacrosse team, says operations manager D.J. Stout. ...

WZGV-AM (ESPN 730) will carry Atlanta Braves games again this year, but it won't be a full schedule because of occasional conflicts with NASCAR broadcasts, says Lanny Ford, the station's general manager. ...

Mooresville's Jim Smith and his auto restoration business, Street Customs, will be featured on "Car Warriors," 9 p.m. March 7 on Speed channel.