South Florida oldies station WMXJ has a new morning man, sort of. Joe Johnson, a veteran at the station who's been filling in on the morning shift since Bruce Kelly was fired two months ago, will take it over permanently, WMXJ executives said Wednesday.

''The transition worked so well that we wanted to keep it going,'' said Bob Hamilton, the program director at Majic-102.7, as the station's known to its listeners. Johnson will keep partnering with perpetual second banana Donna Davis, now working as sidekick with her third WMXJ morning man.

Johnson started out on WMXJ's night shift 22 years ago. But since becoming the station's production manager nine years ago, his on-air presence mostly has been restricted to his show Beatle Brunch, syndicated to 110 markets around the country.

WMXJ executives approached him about taking over the morning show two years ago, when Rick Shaw retired. Johnson turned them down.

''I just turned 50 years old, and I thought my days of getting up at 3:30 in the morning to go to the station were over,'' he said.

But working with Davis, he said, changed his mind. ''Donna and I are good friends off the air,'' Johnson said. ``My wife and I hang with Donna and her husband all the time. Being on the air with her is almost like being at dinner with her. We have this chemistry which reinvigorates on the air.''

Johnson will keep doing Beatle Brunch, which airs from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sundays. And he doesn't expect drastic changes in the morning show, though it will probably feature more music and fewer interviews.

''I've been a commuter in South Florida for 22 years, so I know what it's like to listen to the radio in the car, and what listeners want and don't want,'' he says. ``We don't have to do big stunts like mooning cars.''

Johnson's predecessor, Kelly, flirted with a move to Philadelphia, but decided he wants to stay in South Florida and is talking to radio stations here. He hopes to be back on the air locally by the end of the summer: 'Otherwise, it's `Here's your burgers and shake, have a nice day.' ''

-- GLENN GARVIN

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