Being successful in "The Business," or any business for that matter, requires a combination of passion, hard work, a little bit of luck, and treating others well. Today's guest personifies all of that.
Rich Davis from the Class of 2001 has been at SiriusXM almost since the beginning of satellite radio. He's also hosted talk shows, podcasts, and now has a daily show on Fox Sports Radio with his business partner and cohost, Steve Covino.
A Long Island native, Rich tells the story of how his high school principal challenged him to go to Syracuse, and not stay at home. And Rich's story of finding WJPZ may be one of the more unique ones we've heard yet. It involves breaking up with his high school sweetheart.
When Rich walked in to Z89, folks like Harry Wareing and Matt DelSignore were there, and the then-sophomore was immediately taken by the station. He soon gobbled up every on-air shift he could (starting as "Dickie V"), and made a name for himself. Eventually the folks at Hot 1079 noticed him, and he began getting commercial radio experience. Soon, he was sending tapes out to every station he could find in the top 50 markets, and spending a summer interning for Scott Shannon at WKTU-New York.
Rich tells the bold story of how he moved up from t-shirt folding to becoming Scott Shannon's "personal intern," what that involved, and Scott eventually introducing him to Kid Kelly. Kid was helping run Z100 at the time, and began frequently airchecking Rich. They'd chat weekly, and one night, Kid asked Rich to come down to New York and do a weekend overnight on Z100. He was off and running.
Today's guest will tell you that historically, he doesn't say "no" often. In fact, his ambitious schedule of being a full time student, working at Hot, and moonlighting at Z100 and Q102 in Philly eventually got him fired in Syracuse, "in the most hilarious way possible."
Following his time at Syracuse, Rich continued to be a utility player at Z100, until Billy Hammond was let go as the night guy. Rich was tapped to fill in for a "couple weeks" which turned into a couple years. Eventually they brought in a new night guy, and Rich was back to late nights, trying to figure out what was next, maybe even a move out of radio.
Kid Kelly, at that point in 2004, had moved on to something called "Sirius Satellite Radio," which was actually a punch line to many industry people at the time. But he recruited Rich to do music and talk shows, and soon the format took off. Now, he's on many different stations, where you'll never hear him mail in a break. Why? Insecurity. Rich explains.
After COVID and some cutbacks, Rich managed to avoid a non-compete and started fill-in work at Fox Sports, eventually parlaying that into a daily show with Steve Covino, which you can hear weekdays 5-7pm Eastern. https://foxsportsradio.iheart.com/featured/covino-and-rich/
Rich continues to be as busy as ever, doing a morning podcast on Patreon with Covino, voicetracking several stations for SiriusXM, then doing the Fox Sports show. And he has two little kids at home. But all of his success in the business traces back to WJPZ, as he reminds us.
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The WJPZ at 50 Podcast Series is produced by Jon Gay, Class of 2002, and his podcast production agency, JAG in Detroit Podcasts.
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