| 1. How did you end up at WVU? |
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I went to WVU for a visit and a baseball camp and attempted to walk-on to the baseball team. I wanted to go to a place that had big time sports and was far enough away from home, but not too far. WVU was the perfect choice and to this day I am proud to say I went there.
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| 2. What's your most embarrassing moment while on the air? |
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Hmmm... I can't say I have had too many of them. But I have worked at a couple of different stations in a short time and have given the wrong call letters and phone numbers on more than one occasion. Ya kinda feel like... YIKES, I hope my boss didn't catch that.
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| 3. I know you're back in New Jersey now. Even so, once a Mountaineer,
always a Mountaineer. What do you miss most about Morgantown? |
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The people. Everyone there seemed to love it there. Now you're home at your job and people just don't seem to be as happy anymore. However, believe it or not there is a large alumni base here that gets together often that makes it feel more like Mo'Town. A lot of my WVU buddies were from the Philly area or NY area so we meet up often.
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| 4. Tell us a joke. |
| An institute of higher learning gave me a degree... it was WVU.
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| 5. Better cheerleaders... Eagles or Sixers? Defend your answer. |
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Hmmm, I know more of the Eagles cheerleaders, so I will go with them.
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| 6. You're affiliated with ESPN. Here's your chance to name drop!
What well-known ESPN personalities have you met? |
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I talk to a lot of the guys on my show more so than have met them. I have met Dickie V (at WVU for the UCONN game), Scott Van Pelt (very cool guy), Ron Jaworski is a good friend of my show, Rob Neyer and Jerry Crasnick (ESPN Baseball insiders), KC Joyner (ESPN football insider) is on my show weekly... there are some other guys that come on depending on the season too.
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| 7. In your opinion, tell the fine people in Mountaineer Country why so
many New Jersey kids end up at WVU. |
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Kind of the reason I went... it's not too far away but far enough. The Big East is a great draw for the sports fan plus Maryland and PITT suck so WVU should be the obvious destination if you're looking to get away but not too far away.
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| 8. We all have our stories from WVU that we still tell 100 times a
year... the ones our wives get sick of hearing. Give us one of yours. |
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Man... to pick just one is tough. But I will never forget the Pit the day of the Miami game in 96. There are 100's of stories just in that day alone that I will never forget, but the Pit that day comes up often. That or my buddy passing out on the floor in Rite-Aid on Evansdale... or my other buddy peeing in my friend's boot... yeah he was wasted.
Editor's Note: We just happen to have a few pictures of The Pit for that 1996 Miami game here.
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| 9. Most WVians won't get this, but I'll ask it anyway, as I grew up
listening to both... if you could associate your legacy with one of these, which one... Harry Kalas or Gene Hart? |
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Wow... me being mentioned with those guys is a bit out of control... lol. I am much more a baseball guy though so Kalas is the pick here. There is nothing like watching Phillies baseball with Harry the K. (Though he is slipping a bit)
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| 10. During your days at U92, did you ever get in trouble for something
you said while doing a broadcast? |
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HaHa... I don't think I was the biggest fan of the SID there. Being from NJ, I was hard on the teams when they struggled and the WVU media is more laid back than my style. So there were a few occasions when Kim at U92 would tell me that the team wasn't happy that I was so critical of them... but man when I did the games, the Women's team was BRUTAL. Coach Carey has done a great job with that program... I have spoken to him before, nice guy.
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| 11. Of these other famous Gills, and if you had to pick one, which
would claim as kin?
Bob Gill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Gill
Johnny Gill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Gill
Hal Gill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Gill
Vince Gill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Gill
Blue Gill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegill
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Though I am not a big fan of country music I think I would go with Vince Gill... those country music guys seem to get a lot of nice looking women!
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| 12. Ask yourself a question, and then answer it. |
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What am I doing as I answer this? Watching a re-play of WVU beating Seton Hall.
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| 13. I've Googled and found some pictures of you doing remote
broadcasts. Do you have groupies? What's the nuttiest thing a "listener" has done? |
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Groupies... nah. I work in sports-talk radio. Not a ton of girls in the listening audience. But I do have my regular callers and people who come out to a lot of the remote events. But I have listeners bring me food all the time. When I did music radio (I worked for an Alternative station a few years ago) there were more nutty female listeners... we'll leave it at that.
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| 14. On the top of my head, trying to cross-reference Philly pro
athletes with WV roots... John Kruk, um, anyone else come to mind? Do you speak with any of these folk(s)? |
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You know, that's a good question. I know Anthony Becht pretty well (He was on my intramural basketball team at WVU for a few years). He was from the Philly area and plays with Tampa Bay now. Um, other than that... not too many that I am aware of. I have spoken to Kruk before... real nice guy.
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| 15. Come on, tell us something we may not know about being an ESPN
radio show host! Give us the dirty details. |
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It is fun... it really is. The Philly fan base is a great fan base to talk to everyday. But it's still 3 hours of hosting a show every day. It's harder than it sounds. Like this season, the Sixers stink, the Flyers stink, there is no football right now, college sports aren't big here (though the A-10 tourney is coming to A.C. in March) and baseball is not in full swing yet. So it's SLOW... this time of year is rough. But when football is in full swing and the Eagles play Dallas or the Giants it's a ton of fun to interact with people. But overall, the best thing about my job really is I get into any game free (like I am going to Spring training in March and the same week the ACC tourney is in Tampa... so I am going to the finals!) and talk to some guys I never dreamed I would get the chance to... it's pretty neat to sit and talk to a guy like Allen Iverson or Ryan Howard or Peter Forsberg, the true stars of the game.
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| 16. I'm willing to bet the Atlantic City market wouldn't go for Country
Roads as your intro music. In compensation of that, how often do you drop a few "Go Mountaineers" on air? |
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Oh my show is FILLED with WVU references. In fact, I gave away a prize pack last week if someone could call in as to why I was in such a good mood on a Monday. And the answer was WVU BEAT UCLA! 2nd caller got it right. I also talk to Mike Florio from ProFootballTalk.com every Thursday night at 6:05 and he is a WVU alum and based in WV. When he is on we talk WVU stuff a lot. Also my former PxP partner at U92 Tommy Schogler is on the show every Monday at 4:40 with me (he is a TV Sports Anchor in Indiana now) and we rap WVU stuff all the time.
The number one radio station in the latest ratings here in A.C. was... Cat County 107.3... crazy huh? The same company that owns my station owns them too... they are 2 studios down... but I am not a fan.
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| 17. Of all the hockey, women's basketball and baseball games you did,
what's the one game you'll never forget. |
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I had a few, I called the game when WVU broke the school record for wins in baseball. Joe McNamee hit a HR in that game (I think to win the game). I used that call on my demo.
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