April Margera, the West Chester area resident who became a familiar face on MTV's Jackass and Viva La Bam, appeared on the WCHE 95.3 FM / 1520 AM Morning Show on July 13 for an interview covering her life in the community, the family's reality TV career, and handling fame and addiction.
The episode, hosted by Shai Gilmore and Barry D., is available to stream at 953wche.com and on the station's Libsyn podcast feed.
WCHE's podcast description introduces Margera as a "Mother of Millions," a nod to the fan base she and husband Phil Margera built across two decades of television appearances.
West Chester before the cameras
The Margeras were a working Chester County family long before MTV arrived. April worked as a hairdresser for 27 years, missing only three days on the job. Phil was a baker at the West Chester Acme. They sent sons Bam and Jess to West Chester public schools, according to a 2006 Philadelphia Magazine profile of the family.
That changed in the late 1990s when Bam began filming his CKY (Camp Kill Yourself) skateboarding videos around West Chester. The homemade tapes caught the attention of Jackass producers, and by the early 2000s the Margera household had become the set for Viva La Bam, which ran five seasons on MTV.
"Even though it looks pretty dysfunctional, we're actually the ones that are pretty functional," April told Philadelphia Magazine in May 2006.
Bam purchased a 14-acre property in Pocopson Township near West Chester in January 2004 for $1.195 million, transforming it into "Castle Bam," the show's primary filming location.
The interview
The WCHE podcast description notes that Margera discussed "handling fame and addiction in the family." Bam Margera's struggles with addiction have been public in recent years, and April has spoken about the toll on the family over multiple interviews spanning two decades.
The full conversation is available as the July 13 podcast episode. No transcript has been published.
How to listen
The WCHE Morning Show airs weekdays, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., on 95.3 FM and 1520 AM. Past episodes stream on the station's website at 953wche.com and its Libsyn feed. WCHE describes itself as "The Talk of Chester County."
