MAY 6, 2019 RADIOINK•COM 17
filling out the schedule to a personality
and a live human being. I could show
everyone that I could do something
besides fill out the contest sheet and
screen phone calls.
Radio Ink: What made you think that
leaving WFAN and taking a job in
Pittsburgh was the right move?
Giannotti: I always thought I was going
to get on the air somehow. I would get on
the air when I was producing, and Steve
Summers would use me in a way in which
I was speaking and doing different voices.
Joe and Evan would also use me on the air.
I knew that eventually I would get there.
I remember there was a day Mark
Chernoff said he liked the way I was
arguing with Joe about something. He
goes, “You know, I think I want to put
you on the air.” I said, “Really?” He
said, “Have you ever hosted a show
anywhere?” I said, “Nope, never in my
life.” “Well, I’m just going to put you on
an overnight and see how you do.”
He puts me on the day after
Thanksgiving 2008, 1 to 6 a.m. I remem-
ber doing a monologue and walking out
of there saying, “Yeah, I can do this. This
is something I’m not great at right now,
but I know that I can do it.” After that
first show, it was Chernoff that said to
me, “I think we need to train you into a
talk show host.” After just one show. I
actually laughed because I thought he
was joking. He wasn’t joking.
He said, “I’m going to look around
because you actually don’t have any
experience doing this. You just did your
first show, and I think you have the tal-
ent to do it.” CBS Radio at the time was
flipping all these stations from music
stations into FM Sports Talkers. He said,
“I’m going to look into it.”
There was an opening at the Sports
Hub in Boston. It was a night opening,
and that didn’t end up working out. Then
Pittsburgh opened up. I remember Mark
Mason, Eric Spitz, and Mark Chernoff
sitting me down. They said, “We have a
place for you, but you have to sign this
non-disclosure agreement. We want to
see if you’re interested.” At that point
they could have sent me anywhere. They
could have sent me to Hong Kong and I
was ready to do it.
Those three that I mentioned, Spitz,
Chernoff, and Mark Mason, are the titans
of Sports radio. It was a total no-brainer
for me. I was single, living in New York
City, in my 20s. I was prepared to go. I
said, “We’re going to take this market by
storm.” I felt really good about this situa-
tion and moved out there in a good frame
of mind.Radio Ink: You started as the night
host, but it didn’t take long until they
gave you mornings.
Giannotti: Six months. I was very for-
tunate. At that point I didn’t even know
how I was doing because we didn’t have
a lot of commercials, there weren’t a lot
of ratings. I was sort of judging myself
based on the shows and listening back. I
didn’t know what they thought.
I remembered there was an oppor-
tunity where one of the morning show
hosts had taken off for a week and they
needed a fill-in host. It was perfect tim-
ing, where this guy took off and I stepped
in. First it was supposed to be one day.
Things went well. Then I saw Terry Fox
on the phone, pacing — we were actually
at a remote at the time. I wondered if he
was talking about me.
He comes up at the end of the show
and says, “Tell everybody you’ll be here
the rest of the week.” I did that week,
and they ended up hiring me right before
football season 2010. I was doing morn-
ings full-time. I hosted a few shows on
WFAN part-time, did six months of nights
in Pittsburgh, and then boom, in morning
drive in a top 25 market, just like that. It
was a whirlwind.Radio Ink: In addition to that, you are
on the CBS Radio Network.
Giannotti: CBS Sports Radio started,
and I wanted desperately to be a part of
it in any capacity. I loved Pittsburgh, it’s
where I met my wife, but I wanted to get
back home and work in New York. Eric
Spitz called and said he wanted to offer
me a Saturday show. It was cool that they
thought that highly of me to put me on
this new network. I was doing five days
of morning drive, the Saturday show, and
a college football show on the network. I
was doing all three things, trying to get
better.“Gregg has come a long way — as
a producer here at WFAN for the
midday show, he started doing voice
imitations. They were very funny.
He had a great personality, and
when we started our Sports station
in Pittsburgh, we knew that he
could really develop as a talk show
talent by having the opportunity
to be on every day. He took it from
there, quickly moving from nights to
mornings. Then we had him come
back to New York to host the national
morning show on CBS Sports Radio
for a couple of years. When we
needed to make a morning show
change following Craig’s situation,
he rose to the top to become
Boomer’s morning show partner.”Mark Chernoff
VP/Programming
WFAN and Entercom New York“Gregg had a very strong grasp of
the industry at a young age. He has
always been a great student of radio,
listening and learning from those
he has admired, both on the air and
off. When you combine his natural
creativity and on-air talents with his
drive to learn, his desire to improve
his craft, and his passion to succeed,
Gregg’s rapid rise in the industry
should come as no surprise.”Eric Spitz
VP/Sports Programming
SiriusXM
Formerly Asst. PD, WFAN