Pasted from Radio & Records. Yes, it's against the rules and a link should have been created, but it's a superb article that's heart-wrenching, reassuring, touching and mildly maudlin.
At the same time, some readers might look at it with a jaundiced eye, specifically the statement regarding "being a different guy on the radio than in real life." How can talk show guys have to be dickheads on the radio and nice guys in real life. One might wonder how a person might mock the homeless, the hungry, the mentally retarded and downtroden on his or her radio show, yet be a sweet, loving father and husband and a pillar of the community in real life.
Some readers might have difficult reconciling the way some morning show/talk show guys can espouse pornography, drool over strippers and tell in-studio female guests to "get naked," while on the other hand wax eloquently about their wonderful wives and precious, innocent, sweet young daughters.
Life's complex, ain't it.
Monday, Aug. 1, 2005
Don Geronimo Makes Emotional Radio Return
WJFK-FM/Washington and Westwood One-syndicated afternoon host Don Geronimo today made an emotional, tear-filled return to the Don & Mike program, five weeks after the death of his wife, Freda Wright-Sorce, in an Ocean City, MD automobile accident. After opening the show with "our song" — The Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" — Geronimo spent the first hour of the program discussing his love of his wife, not as Geronimo but as his real-life self, Mike Sorce.
With his voice subdued and often breaking, Geronimo took to the mike following the Beach Boys song, saying, "I want to talk to you, the listeners, not as Don Geronimo but as Mike Sorce. My wife, my son — everyone in my family had no problem drawing the distinction between the way I am on the radio and the way I am in real life." Geronimo then talked about how listening to Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl, who often phoned his wife on the air, inspired Geronimo to do the same with Wright-Sorce.
Geronimo continued, "First and foremost, in real life — not radio life, not what you heard on the radio — was that my wife and I had a true love. I adored her, and she me." He said that sometimes others would question how Wright-Sorce could be married to Geronimo. "I was PO'd ," he said, "and there are a lot of you out there who wondered the same thing. The reason Freda stayed married to me is that I am not the braggart, big-jerk bully that I play on the radio. I will go back to playing that role tomorrow. There was a very thin line between what was played out in the show — a fine line between reality and fiction. My life is perfect. My wife is perfect. I have no complaints — [but] you would not listen to that.
Geronimo recalled a scene in the film As Good As It Gets, where the character played by Jack Nicholson tells the character played by Helen Hunt, "You make me want to be a better man." Geronimo saw the movie with his wife, and this morning he recalled, "I turned to Freda and said, 'I'm going to sue these people, ' because I had said this to Freda for about four years. My wife was the single most decent-hearted, kind, generous person that I will ever meet and that you have had the privilege of listening to."
As the show entered its second hour without a commercial break, Geronimo continued, "We were happy and we were in love, and we were anxiously looking forward to the next chapter of our lives, where I could devote more time to her and she to me." He also said that he and Wright-Sorce's son, Bart, is "doing great" under the circumstances.
— Adam Jacobson
At the same time, some readers might look at it with a jaundiced eye, specifically the statement regarding "being a different guy on the radio than in real life." How can talk show guys have to be dickheads on the radio and nice guys in real life. One might wonder how a person might mock the homeless, the hungry, the mentally retarded and downtroden on his or her radio show, yet be a sweet, loving father and husband and a pillar of the community in real life.
Some readers might have difficult reconciling the way some morning show/talk show guys can espouse pornography, drool over strippers and tell in-studio female guests to "get naked," while on the other hand wax eloquently about their wonderful wives and precious, innocent, sweet young daughters.
Life's complex, ain't it.
Monday, Aug. 1, 2005
Don Geronimo Makes Emotional Radio Return
WJFK-FM/Washington and Westwood One-syndicated afternoon host Don Geronimo today made an emotional, tear-filled return to the Don & Mike program, five weeks after the death of his wife, Freda Wright-Sorce, in an Ocean City, MD automobile accident. After opening the show with "our song" — The Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" — Geronimo spent the first hour of the program discussing his love of his wife, not as Geronimo but as his real-life self, Mike Sorce.
With his voice subdued and often breaking, Geronimo took to the mike following the Beach Boys song, saying, "I want to talk to you, the listeners, not as Don Geronimo but as Mike Sorce. My wife, my son — everyone in my family had no problem drawing the distinction between the way I am on the radio and the way I am in real life." Geronimo then talked about how listening to Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl, who often phoned his wife on the air, inspired Geronimo to do the same with Wright-Sorce.
Geronimo continued, "First and foremost, in real life — not radio life, not what you heard on the radio — was that my wife and I had a true love. I adored her, and she me." He said that sometimes others would question how Wright-Sorce could be married to Geronimo. "I was PO'd ," he said, "and there are a lot of you out there who wondered the same thing. The reason Freda stayed married to me is that I am not the braggart, big-jerk bully that I play on the radio. I will go back to playing that role tomorrow. There was a very thin line between what was played out in the show — a fine line between reality and fiction. My life is perfect. My wife is perfect. I have no complaints — [but] you would not listen to that.
Geronimo recalled a scene in the film As Good As It Gets, where the character played by Jack Nicholson tells the character played by Helen Hunt, "You make me want to be a better man." Geronimo saw the movie with his wife, and this morning he recalled, "I turned to Freda and said, 'I'm going to sue these people, ' because I had said this to Freda for about four years. My wife was the single most decent-hearted, kind, generous person that I will ever meet and that you have had the privilege of listening to."
As the show entered its second hour without a commercial break, Geronimo continued, "We were happy and we were in love, and we were anxiously looking forward to the next chapter of our lives, where I could devote more time to her and she to me." He also said that he and Wright-Sorce's son, Bart, is "doing great" under the circumstances.
— Adam Jacobson