My Life, Part VIII: On the Air

Everything changed when NYC Club Owner and hit sensation Manager Vito Bruno came into my life. That was long before he made the press from the grueling deaths in his family or the chaos that surrounded him. This was when he was at his prime. This is when hit sensations like Crystal Waters, Noel, and more were all over the radio air waves. I was fortunate to get to work with this man at his peak, and the lessons I learned have stayed with me to this day.

I received a call from security at the gates of B91 at around 11:30 p.m., telling me that there was a man in a limo who wanted to come up.. He walked in, wearing a long leather trench coat, and asked for me. I immediately knew who he was – Vito Bruno.

It was the surprise of a lifetime. This was the guy you wanted to know in my business. This was the guy who at the time ran Warsaw, the hottest NYC club of its day. Vito handed me his card and walked past me into my office. He made himself comfortable, then asked me to sit, as though he was the owner.

My life had changed again. And this was a change was one that every kid would dreamed of.

Vito loved how I‘d changed the way things were run at the station and decided to make me and my co workers his new “radio boys.” We soon found ourselves becoming bigger than any college station could handle. Vito asked us to put together a mixed-music show with star DJ's and his acts as special guests. His acts were so hot that they didn’t need our promotion, but we didn’t care. This was a dream come true.

Every week we got on the air, we put on a seriously crazy show. We had DJs from London, NYC, Chicago and of course, live performances from Vito's acts. It got a little out of hand for a while, and we had our usual meetings with the Dean of Radio about FCC complaints. We were college radio, not HOT 97 or one of the local stations, but our show was as popular as anything they aired. We were known as the NEW B91 and of course, I was Vito's boy.

It was pretty cool for a kid who’d just came off of a series of let downs and grew up in a strict Jewish home. I was soon known as the kid who’d single-handedly changed a college station and given it ratings up there with with the mainstream.

We brought in some new guys to the station who added to the ruckus we were causing, and made some others extremely jealous. We now had an underground hip-hop show, a mixed-music show, and an all-night "Dance Party." This did not sound like a college station. And the older guys, who did not like the change, knew it. They made the Dean and the FCC well aware of the “problem,” and we were warned, fined, and whatever you can imagine. But the ratings, the calls and the popularity only increased.

The problem arose when one of the guys who was helping us grow decided to start giving away club tickets on the air – a big no-no in the eyes of the FCC. A college station cannot give away tickets to NYC clubs, especially when the only commercials they have are public announcements. It was like airing an announcement for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, then offering tickets for “Tequila Night” at The Palladium.

None of this sat well with the Dean or the FCC. After a few months of warnings, the FCC basically hit the station with a fine that they could not afford. That was enough for the college to shut down all operations until they decided what they wanted to do.

Eventually, they decided to pull all dance music and hip-hop from the station, saying that it wasn’t the “right music” for them to air. I was out of a job, along with everyone else at the station who wasn’t on the Dean’s good side.

The call came in from Vito, and his "boy" had a new job…at HOT 97.

It was a bit of a twist…but one I could deal with! It was 1993 and the music market was hot. HOT 97 was moving into hip hop from dance and freestyle. I walked into the Hot 97 building with no idea what to expect.

Vito was very good to me. He thought that he could turn me into his own new "star." He began by introducing me to "SPEEDY." This guy was the best friend everyone wanted. He was half my size and spoke in Spanglish. He was in his late 30s or early 40s, and he was in charge of the HOT 97 street team. He was a great guy. If you were with him, giving out T-shirts and hats from the HOT97 Truck, you never head a problem with women.

I went out with him a few times, but my main job was in the clubs, helping them prepare for their HOT 97 performances. Vito knew that if he put me in the clubs as the station’s PR guy, the show would work. The week before my first show, he walked me into an office that was marked, "Music Director." That’s where I met Tracy Cloherty.

I was totally stunned. I had heard of her at WKRB, but I never really knew who she was. Tracy was born and raised in Brooklyn. She attended Kingsborough Community College in the 1980s working at WKRB, which is where I’d first heard of her. The guys who were still there from her time, would go on about how she was their "dream woman." When I met her, I knew why.

Tracy started her professional career at HOT 97 in 1988 as an intern in the promotions department, where Vito started me. The only difference was, at the time she was attending New York University with a major in Communications. After college, she then worked her way up the programming ranks, and was named Research Director/Programming Assistant in 1990. Three years later, when I met her, she became the Music Director, and then the Assistant Program Director in 1995.

As of 1998, Tracy was promoted to the position of Program Director at Hot 97. Then in October of 2001, she was promoted to Vice President of WQHT, WRKS, and WQCD while still retaining the daily programming responsibilities for the #1 rated radio station in the tri-state area.

Tracy is now the VP of Programming for Emmis New York, and has earned her way to become one of the most powerful women in the music industry. This is why my friendship with her back then means so much to me. Looking back, everything she did for me was for the right reasons.

She put me in the right direction for knowing the music and knowing how to do the right promotions and PR at the shows. And boy, did we have some crazy shows! The stock market and any ideas of being a broker were put on hold. At the time, one of my best friends from Shearson Lehman Hutton would call me every day and scream, "Get the heck out of that internship and get your ass back in the pit!" The club life was just way too exciting. And meeting all of the stars and having the ability to promote the station and them, was a hell of a rush. Maybe looking back at it today and to see what happened to my bro and all my best friends, i'm happy i didn't jump when they said jump.

I met guys like RUN DMC, Wu-Tang Clan, and many, many more. It was a different life for me. Actually, a kid from Brooklyn who grew up with freestyle and dance music, was thrown knees deep into a hip-hop world.

It was a very big learning curve and something that helped me grow...really quickly. It something that I’ll keep with me for the rest of my life. When you are put into a position to make something happen, for a different lifestyle than you were ever use to, it prepares you for anything down the line.

We had lots and lots of fun. I will be realistic here, I did think that I was a bad man. Just think, a Jewish white kid from Brooklyn, who grew up in a religious home...now put him in the middle of a hip-hop club, with hip-hop acts performing, and this kid is on stage promoting a radio station...hummm. Well, I’m here. I survived it and made many friends along the way. There were nights where the station threw parties themselves. Nights like when we met people like Vana White. Boy, did she party! And so did every other star that I met, whether they were TV personalities, actors, singers, or just famous for being famous.. They are real people too, and I can vouch for that!

So the time was fun and I was also done with Kingsborough. I had all the time in the world on my hands now, and I was going to make sure that I got the best value out of my free time. I would walk into the house, and my mother would of course look at me and nod. My father would just stare and ask me how my night was. I would reply really simply with, "As usual."

My mother would ask if I wanted to put money away, as usual and I would, of course be resentful. Don’t forget that I was 20 going on 21, and I was already making over 60K, between the promotions, the club tips, the tips from the performers and the little extra I was getting from clubgoers for slipping them through the back stage into the club.

I was not living the life my parents intended me to live, but I really did not care at the time. All I knew is that September was four months away, and I was either going to go back to school and make something of my Communications major, and get back into the pits of NY's finest Brokerage firms or this was going to become my life!