Who Am I?

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"As a kid growing up in Philadelphia, I was always facinated by radio... ..so much so I took over the basement of my parents home to set up a make-shift radio station. I even did a TV show but, in reality, I just created a set and talked into a tape recorder.

In high school, after a grueling audition , pronouncing words like Versailles and not "ver-sallies"  and Grand Prix and not "pricks", I spent a few years at WCSD In Warminster, Pa. Unlike my basement set-up, this was a non-commercial FM radio station, one of only two licensed to schools in the United States.

While still in high school, I talked my way into a job at a day-time only radio station in nearby Doylestown, PA----WBUX.  I remember going into the boss's office, after three years at WBUX and asking for a raise. He whipped off his glasses, and while shaking them at me said "if you want to make more money, leave."

I did. I spent two and a half great years at WAEB in Allentown, PA reporting and anchoring the news and making some great friends in the city where they're closing all the factories down, as Billy Joel sings to us.

I still have my audition tape that I sent to Phil Boyce, the News Director at KIMN in Denver, a legendary top-40 radio station with a big commitment to news.  I was hired as a street reporter and anchor in 1985 and to this day, KIMN (it's pronounced KIM) remains one of my greatest career moves. I was offered jobs in Atlanta, Sacramento and imagine, Buffalo at about the same time.

Sadly, two and a half years after my arrival, the music died. KIMN's call letters vanished and it became a country radio station---leaving many of us without jobs. Luckily, Kris Olinger, now a good friend, remembered how ---while covering a fire---I walked a good 50 feet before realizing I was dragging my microphone on the ground behind me. She hired me at KOA in Denver, a 50-thousand watt clear channel radio station heard in 38 states at night. Originally, I was hired as a reporter, but ended my career there doing a highly rated night time talk show.  That launched my talk career.

First stop, KGO in San Francisco, where I split my time between talk and news---and never got to experience a big earthquake. I arrived a year too late for the 89' quake. What didn't go over so well here was my weekend talk show, which the General manager thought was a little too racy. I was asked to stay on in the news department, but decided instead to go to KOGO, a newly re-formatted talk station in San Diego. Less than a year later, management decided it couldn't afford the cost of running such an expensive format. I was fired, but spent the next six months (thanks to a nice severence deal) sitting on the beach.

Unfortunately, I spent too much time relaxing and not enough time looking for a job, that I actually considered getting a roomate to share my  loft in downtown San Diego. As luck would have it, I ended up picking up some cash doing weekends in Los Angeles at KMPC, which was attempting to do a hot-talk format. I actually had a blast doing shows there, but then an old friend came calling.

They hadn't forgot about me in Denver and so ----I was invited back by the same company at a brand new talk station, KTLK. Never before have I had so much fun doing a radio talk show. This was the kind of radio I liked, controversial, upbeat and a little edgy. Unfortunately, "Real Talk Radio" as they called it was about to be blown-up for a new talk format.

Just in time, the biggest radio station in the world called----wondering if I'd like to do news on WABC in New York. I said yes----and a few weeks later--- I was living in the West Village and talking on the radio. Eight years later, knock on wood, I'm still here and doing the news every morning on the Curtis and Kuby Morning Show.