When you're anxiously awaiting the start of a Summerfest show, the minutes before the band takes the stage can seem unbearably long. So, when the emcees step out to fire up the crowd, it looks like they've got an easy job.

The personalities whose task it is to introduce the headliner are typically DJs you recognize -- but who usually work completely different hours and in an utterly different setting.

It's hardly rocket science for Brian Kramp and Jon Adler, the morning team at WLUM (FM 102.1). The only challenge for them is being on the grounds at 10 or 11 p.m. -- then getting up to be fresh and on the air the next morning at 5 a.m.

"If we make it to work, it's OK, if we don't, then there are problems," joked Kramp. "That's when the 'music in the mornings' aspect really shines."

Adler said they just take it easy that night, lay off the beer and do their jobs. "It's fun, but it's work," he says.

Kramp and Adler don't prepare a script for their emceeing duties. They'll ask the band if there's anything they want mentioned, and make sure to thank the stage sponsors. But beyond that, they go out and let it rip.

On Wednesday night, the duo had the job of introducing Chicago's Alkaline Trio on the U.S. Cellular Stage. Moments before they hopped onstage, the station's promotions manager laid down the ground rules:

"All right, here's the deal," said John Schroeder, in a mostly unnecessary and largely facetious pep talk. "You're here, and you're not yet drunk. So you have to go up and do the stage announcement, because you're a super combo. You have to set the drinks down, and Adler, you can't be smoking on stage. I'll be in the crowd, silently judging you ... Break!"

With that, the pair stepped out to the screaming masses. They didn't need to say much, since the crowd was already whipped into a frenzy. But they thanked their sponsors, asked if anyone had heard the interview with the band that morning and made a joke about the Milwaukee-Chicago rivalry. And three minutes later, they exited as the band took the stage. Their jobs were over for the night.

Ironically, radio DJs are heard by many more people on the radio than those who are in attendance at a Summerfest show, but the difference is that they're not standing there in front of them.

Is that intimidating?

"You can't see them, because the stage lights are usually blinding you," said Kramp. "You can only see the first few rows. I just don't like that the stage manager says we can't touch the microphone because it's in the position that the lead singer wants it. You can't roam around, and because we're taller, we have to bend down."

"We always look like hobbits," said Adler.

So, even though Summerfest is a well-oiled machine and musicians are moved on and off the stages with precision timing, emcees still have accumulated their share of stories over the years -- like the time Adler was showered with beer.

"I got hit with numerous bottles of Miller Lite, and I don't think it was in a bad way, two years ago when we did the Violent Femmes," said Adler. "I don't know why, but they just threw bottles at me."

"I didn't get hit with any bottles," said Kramp.

And then there was the experience introducing Social Distortion in 2007.

Said Adler, "I was very nervous, because I'm a huge Social D fan. I talked to Mike Ness backstage, and there's not a lot of room back there. He said, 'I love Milwaukee for two things: Harleys and Allen Edmonds shoes.' I was like, 'Really?'"

And sadly, the emcees don't partake in a lot of the rock and roll lifestyle you'd imagine that goes on backstage. But it happens on occasion.

"I got to drink Heineken with Jesse James Dupree of Jackyl, and I also got to drink Millers with Sebastian Bach of Skid Row," said Kramp.

Other than that, it's all business. On Wednesday night, the two didn't say a single word to Alkaline Trio, who stayed in their candle-lit dressing room until the very last minute.

The only thing you don't want to ask the band is, "What are you doing tonight?" said Kramp. "Because they respond with, 'Playing a show.'

"You are there to announce a band. Even though you don't have to work, they have to work," he said. "You don't want to tell them about a bar they should go to, because that isn't going to happen. Usually they want to get on the tour bus and sleep or get out of town."