Ryan Gorman comes across as a man wiser than his age. Think of him as a red wine that has aged perfectly, but he’s still in a recently corked bottle. A sommeliers’ paradox.
In January, he began hosting The Ryan Gorman Show, airing weekdays from 7-10 am ET on NewsRadio WFLA and via the iHeartRadio app. The new show breaks down the day’s biggest news and trending stories and features interviews with national, state, and local newsmakers, analysts, and experts.
Ryan’s radio career started at 16 while he was still in high school. He began interning at the legendary pop music station WFLZ in Tampa, FL.
“When I was in high school I was all about Top 40 music,” Gorman said. “We had the local AM station, WWJB, and I just happened to walk in there. I told them I was working over at 93.3, but I was really only interning. I asked them for something to do. ”
The ruse worked. The station gave him an hour as a host at WWJB.
After Ryan graduated high school, he went on to study political science and history at the University of South Florida while continuing to work at WFLZ. He rose from intern to weekend talent and landed his own late-night show. This was his first on-air job. At WWJB he mostly did promotions. The idea was always to get on the air. It took a little time for Gorman to figure out where he’d fit in.
Gorman hosted USF’s top college radio show on WBUL-AM, where he focused on politics and coverage of the 2004 Presidential election.
“It wasn’t really a political talk show,” Gorman explained. “It was more community-based. We’d talk about board meetings, who won the big game on Friday night. I couldn’t fail. They let me run with it and turn it into whatever I wanted. I can’t thank them enough for that.”
In May 2005, Ryan left the University of South Florida and FLZ to take a job as the night show host and music director for WFKS-FM in Jacksonville.
“I’d wanted to have my own night show since I was 21,” Gorman said. “It was a great experience. Everything I wanted a night show to be.” He continued to host his highly-rated night show until January 2007, when he accepted a position at WKSS in Hartford, Connecticut.
“It was mornings,” he said. “I felt mornings would be a new experience for me. It was good and we were successful. I was the co-host and a woman named Courtney was the host.”
While on the morning show, Gorman led a petition with 20,000 signatures to stop the state’s gas tax increase. The petition was brought to the state legislature floor and led to the increased proposal being voted down.
On the show, Gorman said Courtney did radio in her own way and he did it his own way. “We covered some Hollywood stuff, relationship issues.” That kind of chatter can grow stale after a while. Gorman studied political science in school and his interests surpassed the dietary habits of the Kardashians. So, back to Jacksonville.
“When I came back it was different,” he said. “I built a different show. I’d use a lot of audio to tell a story, then build segments around that. A lot of crazy ‘Florida Man’ stuff. It was a little like Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. At least in that mindset. I loved the team in Jacksonville on the second run. Again I was given a lot of room to learn and grow.”
So on your Gorman scorecard, we’ve gone from Florida to Connecticut and back to Florida. Chicago would be next on the list. In 2010, Gorman became an afternoon show host on WKSC-FM in Chicago. “We quickly became the highest-rated afternoon show in the station’s history. We did familiar things like having special reporters for different things. Chicago winters are brutal, but Gorman stuck it out for five years.
He lived across from Soldier Field in the South Loop. “I didn’t know much about Chicago before I moved there. My family is from New York, and I knew Los Angeles. All I knew about Chicago was Michael Jordan and the Bulls. That and the Cubs never won. Oh, and Oprah. I was shocked by how big the city was. But it still had a Midwestern feel to it. The speed was different, the people were different from New York. It was a great experience.”
He’d accomplished what he’d set out for in Chicago. “We turned it into a beast,” he said. Gorman had the desire to move from the music side more toward the news side, more long-form stories.”
Even though he did well in Chicago, something didn’t feel right.
“The music side of radio had changed,” Gorman said. “It was much more formulaic. Talk 10-15 seconds over the music, keep things moving. There seemed to be less personality in the shows. I always wanted to branch out with other interests.”
A lot of people wouldn’t understand the idea of leaving the country’s third market in Chicago to go back to Florida.
“It’s where my career started. I worked my way back to iHeart in Tampa and slowly worked my way back up.”
Gorman made his news bones with his coverage of Hurricane Irma in 2018.
“Grace Blazer became my mentor when it came to news and talk,” Gorman explained. “I started filing in on some morning shows. Northern Florida is what I call home. It has been so cool coming back this time around. I think the rest of the country is beginning to see how wonderful it is, the benefits of being down here. We’ve got the beaches, the great downtown areas of St. Pete and Tampa. The cities are starting to reach their true potential. I think Tom Brady going to the Buccaneers was a great public relations boost for the area.”
Gorman said it’s important to do a talk show in a place you really care about. Your community. He said it comes across on air and makes a big difference.
“With sports talk, I’m a diehard NY sports fan. It’s hard to take that emotion out of a broadcast. I can’t do sports from any random city with any passion. I have to feel it. We do a mix on our show. We’ll start with big state and local topics. That’s what differentiates us from the rest of the day on the station. We’ll look at some national stories, find an angle on how to cover that. We take a lighter approach as often as we can, depending on the material.”
Gorman said it’s not his job to persuade anybody of anything. I’ll give my take on certain things. “Each day the focus will go on how I believe I can make something entertaining. People are on their way to work and I don’t want to beat them over the head with a hard take all morning. There’s enough of that going on around already. I’ve had my moments when I get knee-deep in the policy. Trying to make my case.”
A listener might hold a message longer when they enjoyed receiving it. How it was presented. Some just want to hear what they want to hear.
“Diehard political people want Clay & Buck and Hannity. We’ll mix in Trump when we can, but won’t beat them over the head. I promise you’ll hear my opinion and I like to spout off at times. But mine is a genuine take. There are some grifters out there. I could easily have gone hard right, created a nice lane for myself, like a lot of people have done.”
Gorman also hosts iHeartRadio Communities, a national show running on nearly every iHeartRadio station. The show is dedicated to highlighting the people and organizations working to make a positive difference in communities across the country.
“Last week I spoke with January Contreras, assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services.”
Gorman also hosts national coverage of elections and major news events for iHeartRadio news and talk affiliates and contributes to the Daytime TV Show in Tampa.
Jim Cryns writes features for Barrett News Media. He has spent time in radio as a reporter for WTMJ, and has served as an author and former writer for the Milwaukee Brewers. To touch base or pick up a copy of his new book: Talk To Me – Profiles on News Talkers and Media Leaders From Top 50 Markets, log on to Amazon or shoot Jim an email at jimcryns3_zhd@indeedemail.com.
