TJ Taormina’s love affair with radio started the way it does for so many people in this business. In his case, it began before the school bell.
“I fell in love with listening to the radio, and I started waking up early, even long before I had to wake up for school, just to turn the radio on,” Taormina said. “So it was like six o’clock, turn on my favorite show, and then as soon as I had to leave the house, I would throw a cassette tape in the recorder. I’d run to school wearing the Walkman, then I’d run home and try to catch whatever I missed on the tape.”
Growing up in North Jersey in the mid-1990s, Taormina kept his dial locked on 92.3 K-Rock — and Howard Stern. Now 42, he still remembers what hooked him.
“I was always really fascinated by the fact that it was just a bunch of people talking into microphones, making jokes, and it was a job,” he said. “It was really soothing to listen to. I feel like it calmed me down on my walk to school.”
More than anything, he found a place to belong. “I was just always trying to find a way to get near the radio and listen to what was going on and tap into this awesome community that I discovered around 13 years old.”
From WFDU to Z100
At 16, the superfan wanted in. “I thought, ‘Gee, I wonder if I can do this one day?'” Taormina recalled. He called college stations near home, and WFDU in Teaneck, New Jersey, invited him in.
His mom made it possible, waking up at 4:30 on Sunday mornings to drop him off. “I spent every possible minute that I could there,” he said.
That eventually led to an internship with Elvis Duran and the Morning Show at Z100. Taormina worked his way up from answering phones and producing to co-hosting the nationally syndicated show. Then, in 2013, he launched his own morning show at 103.3 AMP Radio in Boston.
“Howard was my early-day influence and has continued to influence the way I think about radio. I love his passion for it,” Taormina said. “But then also being able to work in the studio with Elvis and work for him for so many years, I saw how he did radio in such a unique way, and he built a community every single day on that show.”
Lessons From Howard, Elvis and Lorne
Both Stern and Duran built tribes — loyal communities centered on one host and the characters around them. Taormina believes the secret is in the people.
“I think they are both amazing curators of talented people, and they set their people up to be strong team players,” he said.
He also pointed to Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, whose biography he recently read. Taormina was struck by “how he built that team and the different layers of filters and how they’re just trying to find the best of the best of the best content.”
“I feel like there’s a parallel there with Howard and Elvis, where it’s like, okay, how do we get the best stuff on the air?” he said. “And how do we put on the best show today for the audience, and always think about what is the audience’s experience?”
Building The TJ Show
The TJ Show launched in syndication through Gemini XIII in February 2023. Today, it’s handled by Radiocraft LLC, the syndication company Taormina co-founded with John Garabedian, Scott Meyers and Gemini XIII. The show airs across a wide range of formats, including Hot AC, CHR, AC, Country, Classic Hits and Adult Hits.
The station count keeps climbing. “We’re almost at 130 or just crossed 130,” Taormina said. “Scotty Meyers keeps track of that.”
The team behind it is tight. “My co-host is J-Bo, and she is awesome,” he said. Producer Kenny O’Boyle reads the news every day and handles much of the production, while Heather Connor also produces the show.
The Transmitter Comes First
The TJ Show lives on radio, podcasts, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. However, Taormina is clear about what matters most.
“I would say the primary focus is without question the radio show, and that is the first order of priority every single day,” he said. “We’re coming in thinking about who’s tuning into the transmitter. And I’m not afraid to say that anymore, because I love the radio, and I think that there’s a beauty to being a broadcaster and figuring out what that looks like in this era.”
He believes that’s how radio finds its way forward. “I think the way we figure that out together as an industry is to focus on that radio audience that’s tuning in every single day.”
The podcast is the second priority, and it isn’t simply a recording of the broadcast. “We actually re-edit our show every day,” Taormina explained. Instead of something that sounds “like an aircheck where it’s segment, segment, segment,” the team blends the material together. “While the subject matter may be changing every three to four minutes, in the podcast it’s cohesive.”
Video and social content remain a balancing act. “The video is always a work in progress, trying to figure out how do we best prioritize our team time to be able to do social media in a way that doesn’t impede on the curation of the radio show every day.”
Advice for the Next Generation
Asked what he tells young talent entering the business, Taormina didn’t hesitate.
“Care about the audience and what their experience is,” he said. “And always put the audience first and make sure that we’re serving the audience and building a community for the audience. What is the listener hearing, and how do we make that experience great for them?”
Radio’s Chance Encounter
For Taormina, radio still offers something the algorithm can’t: surprise.
“I just hope that there are more and more people who continue to be passionate about the radio and that they’re given the support to put on great radio shows,” he said. “And we don’t lose this awesome, cool chance encounter where you can turn on your radio and catch something that maybe you weren’t expecting to hear.”
Social feeds, he noted, have become so curated that discovering something outside your own interests is increasingly rare. Radio is the antidote — a place to be surprised, “rather than 50 videos about things that you’ve looked at that now your algorithm is feeding to.”
“The radio just is this stream of interesting things if it’s done right,” Taormina said. “I think it can still be that for a long time.”
His goal is simple. “I just hope that our show gets to be one of those, and we want to keep trying to build that.”
With roughly 130 stations and counting, it’s safe to say he already is.
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