John Bolaris Credit: Metro
Preston Elliot, Steve Morrison, Kathy Romano, Casey Boy, Nick Mcllwain, Marisa Magnatta, Pierre Robert, Matty Cord and Jackie Bam Bam.
If you don’t know these names, you should.
I had the absolute pleasure of working with these guys and getting to know them on and off the air dating back to the mid-’90s. They all work presently on the station that rocks: WMMR.
I can tell you, being in this industry for more than 25 years, you get to know who are the real deal and who are self-absorbed in their own stardom. The “Radio Heads” from WMMR are the real deal. This crew has worked endlessly for years and years in this town, making you laugh, rock and go hmm.
They give back 100 percent to this community with tireless charitable efforts. Preston and Steve’s Camp Out for Hunger is a massive effort for Philabundance to fight hunger and malnutrition across the entire Delaware Valley. They have been doing it since 1998, and this year alone raised 313 tons of food, along with $106,494 in monetary donations.
That, my friends, is reaching out to the masses. That’s powerful voices at their finest.
I respect them because they started at the bottom and worked for years to climb a torturous mountain. Trust me folks, in this industry, that mountain could get quite sacrificial. I truly admire them because they just didn’t just step into town and become stars. Their blood, sweat and tears for years earned them the right to be truly in a league of their own.
In my experience, I would get to witness the overinflated egos of some anchors screaming for more air time, throwing scripts and belittling writers for inaccuracies. These are anchors who have been working for less than a year in Philly. My advice to you is take less of a dinner break. And if you’re not passionate about what you do, then get out of town.
Off the air, the crew from WMMR are the same as off the air: fun, loving, genuine friends. That rare chemistry takes years to develop and it would never work if you didn’t like each other.
These guys love one another, and are not driven by overinflated egos; simply chemistry that has morphed into one fine radio machine.
I’ve been on the air with this crew for years. Did I do it for the money? No; I never asked to be paid. I did it because I loved being part of something special.
That, my friends, is priceless.
I’ll miss them.
