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| I'll always be proud of co-hosting the 2019 Greenwich Town Party with Sean |
*I had hoped to be on the air today but the job I started at 6 a.m. didn't finish until well past 4:30 this afternoon, so no "Doubleheader" today.
It was a Sunday morning in 1997 and my radio future was sketchy.
I had dabbled -- that's the word -- in broadcasting since 1990, going from Majic 105 as weekend overnight DJ to a stretch where there would be nibbles but no bites to joining WREF in Ridgefield.
WREF came along at the perfect time as my corporate job at Kraft Foods was being moved to Chicago. The thing was, I could go to Chicago but Kraft wasn't going to pay for relocation for any of us. Obviously, that was a non-starter.
So getting to join WREF as a board-op and air talent was a blessing. At least, I thought so. I was a board-op for Ridgefield High School football and I was playing some music (mostly big bands and the like which I was quite comfortable with). I was given a Saturday morning shift. I even had a news anchor! Maybe I'd found a home.
Not so fast. The news anchor didn't show up a few weeks in. I eventually found out the station had been sold and we'd soon be out. WREF's studios would leave Ridgefield -- I turned out the lights as the host of the last air shift -- and it would be over.
I served as "Assistant General Manager" while the turnover took place. Meaning I answered phones and listened to the radio and tried to figure out if I wanted any of the equipment.
As for that last shift, it was a Sunday afternoon and I had some family in the studio when one of the guests told me today was my last day. Er...what? Sure enough, he went and bought a copy of The Ridgefield Press -- oh, the irony -- and there it was.
As I was speaking my farewell, the line cut out and it was over. All I could hear was static on the studio monitors.
But two friends at WREF -- Steve Goodwin and the late Luke Michaels -- told me it wasn't the end of the world. They would put in a good word at another station they work at.
WGCH in Greenwich.
And so, as WREF was dismantling the studios on route 35, I was going to the building next to the Food Emporium grocery store on Dayton Ave.
It was Sunday, Mar 30, 1997. Twenty-four years ago today.
Steve trained me and I was to fill in for him the next Sunday.
I learned which reel-to-reel tapes went on the proper machines and the carts I was supposed to play and the intricacies of the board and the microphones and everything else. There would likely be no air time but I was in radio, at least for a few days.
I took that knowledge and did my best with it the following Sunday, having raced from New Jersey where I spent the night with my nephew Michael on a scout trip at Liberty Science Center. So, what I'm saying is, I was on little sleep as I flew -- yes, really -- on the Cross Bronx.
Eventually, I met the WGCH characters: Jim Thompson and Dima Joseph and Bob Small and others. Bob, no doubt, yelled at me for screwing something up. It was the first time but it wouldn't be the last and he found out eventually that I'll yell right back. That's why it works after all these years where we both know we want the best of what we do.
I'd meet more people as time went on. John Iannuzzi and Sean Kilkelly and Laura Smith along with salespeople (yes, we had them!) and ownership (the wonderful late John T. Becker) and management and sponsors and so on.
I thought maybe I'd be forgotten after the first shift and I sort of was Once again, I dabbled, as a last resort around WGCH when a board op was needed. Somehow I eventually got asked to run the controls for a football game (John Jay and Ossining) and I started hitting it off with the sports director, John Connelly. I did some more board op work and was allowed to do the halftime show. John liked what he heard and soon made me the pregame and postgame host. It was a role created for me in that I served as the person signing on and off of the broadcast, including all "throws" when we returned from commercial.
That meant I was on for hockey and basketball in the winter of 1988-99.
I became the go-to. Need a board-op? Sure! An engineer for a remote? Happy to do it! Come in on Christmas Eve for midnight mass? Why not?
I did a home improvement show and a golf show and other shows that I don't even remember. I hosted "The Trading Post," writing down the requests of listeners who wanted to sell whatever they had around the house.
On Jan 28, 1999, I did color on a hockey game between Trumbull and Greenwich. I had no business doing it but I had to fake it to make it. Then, on April 10, I called my first game: Port Chester and Greenwich baseball.
I'd found a home.
That fall, I called Section 1 football on our then-sister station, WVIP in Mount Kisco. That's the very same station that I once won a contest on back in...gulp...1984. I knew who the first Monday Night Football game was between (Jets/Browns). I was listening in the car from White Plains all the way home and ran upstairs to call in. I won movie passes and I don't think I ever used them. I still have the audio of them talking about me.
John Connelly left WGCH in the summer of 2000 and I was soon tapped to take on the sports director role -- now part-time -- and call Greenwich football.
Things have changed a lot since then. Tony Savino joined the station a few years later. Other faces came and went and returned. We moved from Dayton Ave to Lewis St. Our old tower is gone. We're on FM now to go along with our AM signal.
I do a Friday morning sports chat with Tony Savino and "Doubleheader" and "The Clubhouse." I host occasional special events, such as the Greenwich Town Party. If it all works out, I'll be back on Greenwich football this fall for my 23rd season of being associated with them and 19th as...nope, not gonna call myself "The Voice"...lead broadcaster.
Oh, it's been a ride. I've slept on the floor of both Dayton Ave and Lewis St. I've literally been in both places at all hours. I've helped put it on the air and take it off. I've seen technical issues and wound up in crazy circumstances.
I've got stories I'll tell and others I might wait to tell. Statute of limitations and all.
I've covered election night and read the news and covered tragedies and breaking news and triumphs. I've interviewed many great people -- familiar and otherwise.
I've received countless kind words that are extremely humbling and have seen criticism that was hurtful and, sometimes, fair.
And so, perhaps I'll just copy this post and use it again next year when my 25th year comes to an end.
Shockingly, I try to do this without much fanfare. It's always been about the listeners and the extended community. I really don't like being the story.
I just try to keep WGCH and AM radio as relevant as I can.
There are no guarantees. I know that now more than ever. Things change and when the inevitable end comes for me I know I'll be grateful for a quarter of a century at WGCH.
Thank you, Greenwich, and beyond.
Onward, listeners!
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