When Angelo Cataldi retired from his morning radio program on SportsRadio 94WIP in Philadelphia, many was expected he’d keep a low profile. Making an occasional appearance to reconnect with listeners and former colleagues wasn’t a far fetched idea, but hearing him on the airwaves of 97.5 The Fanatic was hard to predict.
Cataldi surprised Philadelphia listeners on Tuesday morning by appearing in-studio with longtime friend and former morning show competitor John Kincade. The Philadelphia sports radio legend made a cameo to help promote his new book LOUD: How a Shy Nerd Came to Philadelphia and Turned Up the Volume in the Most Passionate Sports City in America.
“When I decided to leave the business world to do this, you were one of the major people,” Kincade told Cataldi, “…that I talked to about leaving to try to do this for a living, and I thank you for that. But I did ask you at the time, ‘Was there a room you would rent me or something if it failed?,’ and that call was never answered.”
“Please, I didn’t want to be around you that much,” Cataldi replied. “Enough is enough, come on.”
When Cataldi revealed that he wrote the 274-page book in a six-and-a-half-week timeframe, co-host Bob Cooney acknowledged the difficulty behind recounting key moments of his broadcast career within that window. Cooney, a former writer with the Philadelphia Daily News, is in the midst of writing his own book on a friend and has informed people that the project is going to take him years. Cataldi has notes he took from each show, perhaps expediting the process of reflecting back on everything and ultimately turning around the book at an expedient pace.
“It came together pretty quickly,” Cataldi remarked. “I haven’t been happy with probably anything I ever wrote. First of all, I hated working at the Inquirer because they butchered your copy, you know that Bob. The bottom-line of it is this came out the way that I wanted it to, and they didn’t hack it up in the edit. The fact-checking was somewhat humbling because I have been saying things for years on the air that were completely untrue.”
Kincade read the book before interviewing Cataldi for the program and shared that he found many of the narratives within to be “fantastic.” An aspect of the book that took Kincade by surprise is how he made it a point to thank the Philadelphia radio listeners and credited them for his success. To this day, he does not understand some of the vernacular within the radio medium and took time to assimilate into the industry and genuinely become comfortable on the air. Part of Cataldi’s success came from being genuine with the audience and speaking their language.
“The minute I came here, I went, ‘This is where I should have been born,’” Catladi said,” because I was critical of everybody; I was very outspoken…. I had to learn it, but I did learn it and it resonated.”
Cataldi mentioned how he finds Kincade to be an inspiration for having overcome cancer three times and remaining persistent in Philadelphia radio. Whether it was during his time with SportsRadio 94WIP or on 97.5 The Fanatic, Cataldi has found him to be a talented and entertaining voice that enhances the radio medium. Kincade affirmed that he would have no career without Cataldi, although the retired sports radio host believes that the way in which he helped that come to reality was by always being willing to have him on the air.
“You were the most consistently provocative and entertaining we ever had on our show in all those years,” Cataldi said, “and whenever you indicated to me a desire to come on, did I ever say no? I would blow off a coach for John Kincade.”
In the first few months after his retirement, Cataldi still woke up at 3 a.m. and would realize that he could go back to sleep. He is now focused on his family and transitioning into caring for his grandchildren, prioritizing time for them when he was previously unable to while regularly hosting. In fact, he acknowledged that putting his career first was a mistake over his time on the radio, something he speaks about in detail within the book.
“I have really done a lot with this book, but I did it because it was an homage to the fans,” Cataldi said. “This is really my last goodbye. I’m not going to do podcasts; I’m not going to be in front of a microphone after this book tour.”
