Radio industry veteran Steve Lapa passed away last week at the age of 72. The Lapcom Communications founder played a pivotal role in 77 WABC host Sid Rosenberg continuing his radio career.
After initially sharing his admiration for Lapa in an Instagram post that said “Without Lapa my career would have been over 12 years ago. He really believed in my talent and put his neck out there for me,” Rosenberg shared the story of how Lapa helped him remain in the industry.
“If not for Steve Lapa, there never would have been a Chad Lopez or a 77 WABC,” Rosenberg said Monday morning. “When I was done, it was over. I ran out of places to work. WFAN in New York, 790 The Ticket and 560 WQAM in Miami, Florida. There was little 640 Sports in Pompano Beach and my boy was a fan of mine. And he was like ‘Wow, I’m gonna get a New York talent for like 50 cents on the dollar to work in Pompano. He was smart, he was a good man, and he loved me. He knew my talent.
Sid Rosenberg admitted that he and Steve Lapa had many arguments during his time working for the longtime radio executive. Rosenberg said the edict from Lapa was to stick to sports. But that didn’t interest him.
“I was trying to get into politics … I was talking about Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and Lapa was furious. He said ‘You don’t want Chinese food at an Italian restaurant.’ I said, ‘Well guess what? I’m Sam’s Club. I’m Costco. You get everything with me. If you don’t want that, go hire one of these dummy sports guys,” Rosenberg said. “He trusted me and it worked out. But he died on Friday and it really did make me sad.”
