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KiddChris, known for his unfiltered radio shows and jokester personality, can be heard regularly on 102.7 WEBN in Cincinnati as well as on Saturday nights on Detroit’s Channel 955. His time in Cincinnati marks his longest stretch in any city, predated by stints in Wichita, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and more.
While he talks about the evolution of his shows over the years, he recognizes that the inspiration for his radio career started with prank calls over the Utica, NY airwaves via Bill Keeler’s Keeler in the Morning.
“I was raised in Syracuse and there was a guy on the radio in Utica…and on his morning show, he would do prank phone calls. I’d be in the shower getting ready [for school], and right at that time the prank call would happen.” KiddChris thought it was awesome and set his sights on one of Keeler’s later shows at a rock station.
“I was just working at a grocery store, and I ended up meeting that show. They needed help, so I ended up being an intern. From then on, I just started working part-time for them, and it just became a thing,” he says.
Eventually KiddChris went on to host a show in Wichita, where he learned a lot about what he does now. “You learn people and their different sensitivities,” he says. “That was in the ‘90s, so that was fun. I have tapes I hear now, and I go, ‘What was I thinking?’ But that’s all part of it.”
KiddChris’s style when it comes to hosting a show comes down to doing the job he was hired for. “Whenever I work for a company, I get a handbook of what they want. They tell me the game plan, then I do it.”
“The places that I’ve had the biggest success happen to be where they wanted me to have some teeth. Maybe sometimes when their plan goes the way they didn’t think it was gonna go, I’m out.”
Over the years, his show has taken different forms as he’s learned more about what makes good radio, and becoming a father plays into the differences as well.
“I’ve learned more, especially after becoming a dad and stuff, that I’m not gonna attack the other radio stations and all that stuff. That’s where it’s been a big learning experience,” he says.
Adding “dad” to his roles has also contributed to many of the evolutions his show has seen. “There’ll be stuff where I’ll stop because I’ve got a daughter. That plays a huge role.”
“I used to fight about everything I wanted to do on the show, and these are just ideas that the audience didn’t even know about, and I’m screaming about it for no reason. I look back now and think, ‘Why did I waste my energy?’. Things like that, as a dad, it’s not even worth fighting over stuff.”
In recent years, he’s also found himself advocating for mental health. “During COVID, I had a massive breakdown at work in the boss’s office. When COVID happened, everything was collapsing, and I was scared to death. I freaked out.” He adds that he’s been more in tune with his mental health since noticing the impact shorter winter days have on his mood. “I usually will put up a blog or something reminding people around this time that they may have someone in their life who disappears [during the winter], and you should check in.”
He continues, “I never ran from that stuff. If it’s there, and it’s something I want to talk about, I’m gonna talk about it. It’s not like it’s some big revelation. It didn’t happen before because I didn’t know before.”
KiddChris still finds himself adapting to how things are done on a regular basis. “Every day it’s a constant learning thing,” he says. But something that has always been a part of his process is embracing digital.
“I’ve embraced the digital stuff for years,” he says, noting that there are challenges that come with shows who don’t embrace even some of the simpler digital platforms like some social media channels, as well as honing their brand and creating connections with their audiences in unique ways.
“Anyone can go on and go, ‘That’s Guns N Roses, here’s Papa Roach.’ You’ve got to make your worth…You have to come up with something else other than just being the jock on the air. You’ve got to come up with ways to sell it,” he says.
With rounds of layoffs happening sporadically across the industry, KiddChris finds space to both feel for his fellow jocks while respecting the tough financial decisions that have to be made on a larger scale. He fondly remembers an email he received from Michael Smerconish when he was leaving Philadelphia that read, “You’re not dead until you’re dead.”
KiddChris adds, “People end up getting jobs. You’re gonna work.”
The content of KiddChris’s iconic shows comes down to how he relates to the listeners who love him. “That’s something that took me forever to learn. I would spend hours on my computer trying to come up with funny bits around a story or a joke or writing a song or commercial parody. Whenever I would go out to an appearance though, no one would say, ‘That was a great parody or bit you guys did.’ It was, ‘Hey, that story you told about this was hilarious.’ I learned to just go out and live my life and take notes as I go along. That’s the stuff that sticks with people, and you can’t get it from a prep sheet.”
