Audacy New York Market President and head of Infinity Sports Network, Chris Oliviero was the guest of Andrew Marchand on his Marchand Sports Media The Main Event with Andrew Marchand podcast. In an episode for members of the podcast, Marchand and Oliviero discussed many topics including Oliviero’s background and how he got into sports radio from the very beginning, his internship with Howard Stern, Mike & The Mad Dog, Don Imus, Boomer Esiason and much more.
As Marchand went through some of Oliviero’s background, he brought up that he grew up in Brooklyn and NYU and that he did the internship with Stern. He then asked, “As a kid, how was Chris Oliviero getting interested in radio? Was that the thing you wanted to do? How did that happen?”
“Some kids wanted to play centerfield for the Yankees, I wanted to be on the radio,” Oliviero said. “I was a pretty good ball player. But really what happened, WFAN debuted July 1st, 1987. I was 11 years old, and I was a sports fan. And I just got exposed to it, and I was blown away by this new thing. 24 hours a day, you could talk to them, they could talk to you.
“So, I became a fanboy. I would write letters to the hosts, to Steve Somers, Jody McDonald, and I just became passionate about sports radio. I tried to get an internship at WFAN when I was at NYU and I was rejected. And then…I was lucky enough, 48 hours after that rejection, I got accepted to a Howard Stern internship.”
Oliviero explained at that time WFAN and the Stern show were part of the same company. He said getting that internship with Howard Stern, “Was a blessing and kind of just started my career. So, another door opened with Howard Stern, and it kind of worked out.”
Marchand dug in on what it was like being around Howard Stern and the show at that time.
“I think you’ve got to put it in a context of time, this was the mid-90s,” Oliviero said. “This was pre-technology, pre-internet, pre-streaming. Terrestrial radio was at its height. Howard Stern was at its height. Multiple New York Times bestsellers, hit movie, number one in every major market in America. He was the ‘it’ of all entertainment in the mid-90s. So, to experience that firsthand was just a learning experience you couldn’t get anywhere. I avoided any on-air attention, which I think actually worked in my favor.
Oliviero then spoke of a key relationship he made while doing the internship with Stern’s longtime producer Gary Dell’Abate, known to most people as Baba Booey, who took a liking to his work. “I realized that I was there to learn and not for my five seconds of fame on the air,” Oliviero said. “He took me under his wing and coached me in the business. And Gary was actually the one, it’s like six degrees of separation, who actually then a year later called Mark Chernoff and said, ‘Do me a favor, can you interview Chris? You rejected him a couple of years ago. He’s got some experience now. He’s a good guy.’ because Chernoff used to be Stern’s program director at K-Rock. So, it’s just relationships, knowing people, being in the right place at the right time.”
Oliviero talked about starting out and realizing pretty quickly he was not going to be the next Howard Stern or sports radio superstar on the air. “I dabbled in on air with Sid Rosenberg and Craig Carton at WNEW, with the sports guys as kind of a third mic,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for performers when that red light goes on. They have something in their DNA that I didn’t have.”
Marchand and Oliviero would go on to talk about being in the position Oliviero is in deciding who goes on the air, the New York Yankees play-by-play position and plenty about the history of WFAN. That portion of the podcast is only available to members.
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