I don't know if my reputation can become more tarnished than it already is, but if so this confession will do the trick: I like "The John Boy and Billy Big Show."

Sort of. Kind of. More or less.

I'm an occasional fan, at best. I tune in often enough to recognize and appreciate the show's recurring characters but not so often that I could be considered a loyalist. I'm a relentless station-surfer when I'm driving -- which is when I listen to the radio -- and only a few things can keep my finger from punching the "seek" button: The band Jet singing "Are You Gonna Be My Girl," for instance, or the train-wreck appeal of any random Paul Harvey commentary.

Love me some Paul Harvey, I do. That old dude is bad. Really.

I'm apparently not alone in my unreliable affection for John Isley and Billy James, the country-tinged, Charlotte-based duo who have turned themselves into a syndicated juggernaut. The Big Show can be heard on nearly 100 stations in 20 states, including each of the Confederate states -- no surprise there -- and a handful of others, among them Michigan, Illinois and Indiana.

But the boys have had a tough time in the Triangle over the years. They're now taking their fifth whack at the pinata here. The first four weren't exactly whiffs, but the riches didn't spill out, either.

Isley's explanation: "They moved us around so nobody could find us."

There's some truth in that. Since arriving in the Triangle in the early 1990s, the Big Show has moved more times than a deadbeat tenant. It appeared on four different stations before disappearing from the local dial altogether a year or so back. The Big Show returned last month to WRDU-FM, where it had made a previous stop during its decade of wandering the airwaves.

You wouldn't think it would be this hard for J.B.-and-B. They're homeboys, in the sense that both are Carolina natives. Some of the comedy bits are truly funny and have introduced a handful of catchphrases into the popular culture. (If you've ever said, "Love ya, mean it," you know who to thank -- or blame.) And if you've got an appetite for NASCAR or redneck politics, two pastimes with healthy constituencies in North Carolina, then Isley and James are your guys.

So I don't get the trouble they've had finding a home here.

"Yeah, we don't get it, either," James says.

I have two theories. The first is rooted in the rapidly changing demographic face of the Triangle -- which is a fancy way of saying, "We sure have a lot of Yankees here nowadays." As every day passes, the natural audience for John Boy and Billy's redneck antics is diluted a little further.

The second theory has to do with the traditional rivalry between Raleigh and Charlotte. If there's a burning local need for dumb-acting, Hee Haw-talking, hairy-looking, grilling sauce-peddling radio personalities, we could surely produce our own. Why do we need to import a pair of yahoos from Charlotte when ours would be naturally superior?

After all, we've got the legislature here. Raleigh is a veritable Yahoos R Us.

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