Most of my career has been spent playing cheesy Top 40 music. So you can imagine how glad I am to finally be on a station like Q105. Here’s me back about 20 years ago interviewing former Ruskin teen idol Aaron Carter, the little brother of Backstreet Boys lead singer Nick Carter.
I love what I do. Tonight I get to go on stage at Amalie Arena to introduce all the awesome 80s and 90s performers at Freestyle Explosion Throwback Jam at Amalie Arena. It's going to be a night packed with the jams I listened to back when I wanted to be on the radio so bad! Thanks to a great mom who supported me in choosing this completely wacked out career path and some awesome listeners from coast to coast who've been loyal, I've been able to live this life. Let's take it back!
1990: My first radio station, Thunder 107
That's me at about age 18 on the right. This was my hometown Top 40 station. My boss was the guy on the left. 2nd one in the pic was Curtis Stigers (remember the song "I Wonder Why"?).
Ring Announcer?
Radio wasn't my first career choice. I wanted to be a pro wrestler. My buddy I trained with stuck with it and became "Scotty Too Hotty" for you WWF / WWE fans. I stuck with radio though and would be the guest ring announcer for his shows when he was in the minor leagues.
1995: College
After leaving Maine to go to college in Boston, I worked for WXLO, a radio station about an hour away in Worcester, Massachusetts.
You never know who you'll meet!
It's one of the cool and weird parts of the job. Some days you interview musicians. Others, you run into Greg Brady.
2002: I hated winter.
As soon as I had the chance to come to Florida, I took the first job I could find. I'd never been to Tallahassee, but figured it'd be awesome. Life on the beach baby! I took a job at Hot 104-9 in Tallahassee.
Uh where's the beach?
Soon I realized Tallahassee life wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. But working for Hot 104.9 meant free drinks wherever I went. So there was that.
Top 40 Geno
Yeah most of my career has been spent playing cheesy pop music from the 90s and 2000s. Remember Hanson "Mmm Bop?"
... and I drank and drank.
Another shot with my Hot 104.9 friends... I loved the crew and the station, but honestly hated Tallahassee so I only ended up spending about a year there. My liver couldn't take it much longer.
2004: California here I come
My old boss at WXLO got me to come to California to be a morning show host for the first time. PS that's not him to my left.
Geno and Jordan
I was paired with a really nice woman who'd done morning shows for years. This was us at The Price Is Right.
A highlight...
Being the morning guy, you get a lot of interesting guests. We had everyone on the show from Corey Feldman to Peter Jennings. But one of the highlights of my career was getting Gilbert Gottfried to laugh uncontrollably when he came on the show.
Cali life
One cool part about California life is being so close to the Hollywood weirdness. This was at a Star Wars premiere.
Takin' it back!
KHOP had some really fun throwback concerts. "Ice Ice Baby" was the first song I ever played on the radio so it was cool to do a show with Vanilla Ice.
A Tampa legend!
I even got to do a show with Shock G and Digital Underground. RIP Shock G!
KHOP was a Top 40 station...
So a lot of the acts during this era were those pop punk bands like Fall Out Boy and Simple Plan.
Being a morning guy wasn't for me...
Honestly, I hated being a morning guy. I thought it would be everything I wanted. You're the big star on the station. The money is better. But waking up at 5am for me is torture. And I hated the cheesy bits we had to do like this one. "Hey how about we have the 6 foot 4 guy ride a mini bike on the radio... it will be hilarious!" Dumb stunts like this are why I just had to get out of morning radio.
2008: My favorite radio station I listened to in college...
When I left California, I had the chance to work for an iconic radio station in Boston. WBCN launched bands like U2 and the Ramones in the US. They were also the station I'd listen to Howard Stern on when I was in college so it was such an honor to work for them.
Again, you just never know...
Especially at 'BCN, you never knew who'd pop by.
Legends!
The company that owned WBCN also had WZLX, a classic rock station so I got to hang out with guys like Steven Tyler and Alice Cooper.
Steven Tyler
If we ever meet, have me tell you my Steven Tyler "DUDE!" story.
And they also had a Top 40 station...
As glad as I was to leave Top 40 behind in Cali, CBS also owned Mix 104.1. I will say meeting Katy Perry wasn't so bad!
2011: Goodbye WBCN, Hello 98.5 The Sports Hub
Sadly, WBCN was past its prime and it was blown up. The company instead wanted a sports station. It was cool as a kid who grew up in Maine to work for the flagship station of the New England Patriots and Boston Bruins.
Perks
I even got to skate on the ice at Fenway Park when Boston hosted the Winter Classic. Clearly, this photo wasn't taken that day.
#4, Bobby Orr
One of those "pinch me" moments for sure.
2013: See ya Boston
I had to get back to Florida. I love it here. So I did something that was unimaginable to me at the time. I took a job working for a country station.
Oh sure it was fun.
Even though I'm really not a big country music fan, getting to go to things like the ACM Awards in Las Vegas was pretty cool.
Florida
I put up with the country music because I got to live in Florida... and do shows like this one at Universal.
Country life...
And country stars were really nice. Reba was a great example. So sweet.
2019: The Q!
But I knew my days were numbered in country. I asked if I could switch to Q105 in 2019. I was so lucky that the head honchos said yes. Q105 is way more me. I love hosting the Saturday Night Dance Party. Thanks for joining me on this radio "this is your life" tour.
