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Who Is Angelo Cataldi Wife

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The deadline of an assignment I’ve been given by Angelo Cataldi for his morning radio show is getting closer. It needs to be done and it needs to be excellent. Cataldi is counting on me. Do it right, or else.

Or else what?

Getting yelled at? Being in his bad graces?

I don’t want to find out.

All I know is the urge to live up to his expectations is strong. But time is running out. My heart is pounding. What am I going to do?

Then I wake up and the nightmare is over.

It’s just another in a series of dreams I’ve had sporadically over the years, anxiety in the dead of night even long after I stopped working on Cataldi’s show.

Cataldi, 71, is retiring after 33 years as the lead host of the 94WIP Morning Show. Profiles and farewell articles are piling up.

And for good reason. For more than three decades, he delivered excellent ratings during the most listened-to hours in radio. The success of his show was a testament to him and his teammates placing themselves in the shoes of the listeners – his fellow sports fans – by figuring out what was important to them. It took work ethic and dedication every day.

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But that journey didn’t come without stress for staffers like me, and bumps in the road for the guy behind the mic.

In a recent sit-down exit interview, Cataldi and I talked about his drive for perfection, my recurrent nightmares, and details about the darkest moments of his career.

What was Cataldi like to work with?

I know the answer to that. I lived it.

For about a decade starting in 2009, I had a variety of behind-the-scenes roles with the Morning Show on WIP, a longtime sister station of KYW Newsradio.

I know Cataldi the radio host better than most.

So – already knowing the answer – I asked him: “What do you think it was like to work with Angelo Cataldi?”

“It was not easy,” Cataldi said. “And I’ll tell you exactly why: I’m demanding. I have an enormously high standard that I aspire to every day. And I hold the people that work with me to that standard, to the point where I can’t imagine some days what they’re saying after I walk out.”

His zero-tolerance for a product that was anything less than excellent was, for me, inspiring. He over-prepared for his show, began prep for the next day shortly after the previous program concluded, and arrived at the station a couple of hours before hitting the air.

He expected the same from his staff. If you were getting information for him, he wanted it in a timely fashion. You couldn’t “hit and run” the assignment either, but it also couldn’t be a “book report.” It had to be concise enough to repeat on the air clearly.

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If you were getting a soundbite for him, it had to start and end exactly where he felt was most effective.

If you were producing a piece of audio for him, like a highlight montage, you had to anticipate his sound design expectations.

If he went to a caller who wasn’t there, even though you did your job moments earlier to make sure the caller was there, he would be aggravated. It was an awkward moment in the show. That bothered him.

As a staffer, if you could manage to please Cataldi, it felt like you could manage to please anyone.

“I’m a Type-A,” said Cataldi, “and I’m a perfectionist.”

If 99% of a show went well, but one minute didn’t, Cataldi said he would take that minute home with him.

“And I go, ‘Why did that happen? How can that happen?’ And I lash out. I’ll say, ‘Why did you mess that up?’ And when it’s me, I’ll just kick my own butt for the next day,” he said.

The formula to getting by on the job was simple – work hard, be prepared, be energetic, show personality, bring ideas to the table, don’t overstep and don’t be annoying.

And, absolutely, positively don’t fall asleep.

“If you’re not helping the show, you’re hurting the show,” he explained. “And I protect it like it’s a kid.”

On my very first day as a morning show intern in May 2009, I walked into the station at Two Bala Plaza at 4:30 a.m. having not yet met Cataldi. I introduced myself and a second later he asked me to find Jimmy Rollins’ on-base percentage. There was no formal introduction, no pleasantries.

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“I’ll tell you what’s going on in my head in that moment,” Cataldi said in our exit interview. “I’ve got a show to do in an hour and a half. I’ve got somebody here to help

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