Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News.
He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.
An educator, author, and elected union official with experience in communications, broadcasting, journalism, Franciscan theology, non-profit management and mental health.
Education
Orchard Park High School
Regents with Honors
SUNY at Buffalo
BA– Community Mental Health & Nonprofit Management
Education Career
Bishop Timon – St. Jude High School: Started in 2018 as Communications Director, moved into a classroom full-time in 2020– first teaching English 9 & 10 and now Religion 9 & 10. Unanimously elected Timon Union Rep 2023 and 2024.
Medaille College: Adjunct Professor, Communications, 2014-2018, teaching mostly Public Speaking, as many as five sections per semester.
Media Career
Spent 25 years working in Buffalo Radio & TV at WBEN Radio, Channel 4, and WNSA Radio/Empire Sports Network. Left WBEN in 2013 as News Director after 10 years as a news reporter and anchor.
Wrote more than 1,600 installments of the [BN] Chronicles Buffalo history series for The Buffalo News, 2013-2023
A proud member of NABET/CWA Local 25 in 1998 when half of our unit was locked out by the out-of-town owners of WIVB-TV.
Community Service
Advocate for Mental Health– have written extensively about my own mental health journey, testified before the Erie County Legislature, co-starred in TV public service announcement
Television co-host of Variety Club Telethon
Past Parish Council President, sacristan, catechist, lector, Eucharistic Minister at St. Mark Parish, Buffalo
Served as President of the non-profit Buffalo Broadcasters, past director of Parkside Community Association
Candidate for Erie County Clerk, 2018.
Endorsed Democrat & Working Families candidate
Raised $150,000 and received 103,000 votes
Awards
40 Under 40, Buffalo Business First
Buffalo’s Best Blogger, Buffalo Spree
Parkside Partner Award, Parkside Community Association
News Director of the Year, Medaille College
Ten First Place Awards for Excellence in journalism, NYS Associated Press Association
Qualifications for holding SLTA office
Tenured at Timon, 9/23
Unanimously elected to represent Timon on SLTA Executive Board, 9/23
attended every meeting 23-24
Virtus Certified, October 23, 2018
To read more about Steve Cichon’s plans for a new era for the STLA, visit slta.stevecichon.com
My name is Steve Cichon, and I am running for SLTA President to usher in a new era of communication and fraternity in our union. You can read more about me and my qualifications at stevecichon.com
I’d be honored by your vote– and will work tirelessly alongside you to make our union something we can all be proud to call ours.
Together, we can bring in a new era for the SLTA, our member schools, and the teachers and faculty in our ranks.
By the end of the ‘24-’25 school year we will:
Make communication a priority:
We will have an SLTA website, similar to the websites for other NASCT-affiliated schools, with our union’s bylaws and contact information as well as our school’s contracts.
This is truly easy enough: timonteachers.com is a Google Drive folder with our school’s contract, the SLTA constitution, slides from meetings, and other relevant materials that I have posted online.
Make fraternity a priority:
Important symbolically as much as in any practical sense, every SLTA member will be issued a membership card and have the opportunity to show pride in union through clothing, car magnets, coffee mugs, etc., as well as attend informative and useful meetings.
Hold a Constitutional Convention:
With all of our members together, we create a set of rules and structure that we can all agree to follow while also conforming to state and federal guidelines.
Work to bring new member schools to our ranks:
Catholic education is only as strong as its weakest example. We have a moral obligation to extend the opportunities we have in representation and collective bargaining to our brother and sister teachers in other Catholic schools.
Follow the rules that a union is supposed to follow:
Federal guidelines dictate that the SLTA follow our constitution and bylaws as written. We are also obligated to follow federal rules in the way we operate as a union. As teachers– we all know the importance of following directions and rules.
Read the SLTA Constitution here and the recently passed amendments here.
The STLA has been lacking in following directions and rules for many years– and offers the same kind of excuses we hear in our classrooms when expectations aren’t met. I pledge to not only follow the rules– but will invite those with questions and concerns to discuss those concerns, instead of paying lawyers thousands of dollars to work around you.
I’m asking for your vote so that together… we can usher in a new era for the SLTA.
Read more about Steve Cichon and his qualifications at stevecichon.com.
As late as the 1940s, newspaper stories written about Buffalo’s Italian population were painted with wild strokes of exotic color.
“Off in a section of the city where the rays of the sun, on a bright day, glisten down upon dilapidated housetops and seek their way into narrow streets and by-ways with which the place abounds, are colonized a people in whose native land the skies are the fairest and bluest, and where the very breezes are filled with invigorating fragrance.” – The opening paragraph of “The Italian Colony in Buffalo,” The Buffalo Courier, 1898
Sprinkled throughout 50 years’ worth of these newspaper accountings of how and why Italians came to and flourished in Buffalo, are the facts – and the colorful descriptions – which make up this story.
Italians in the Hooks neighborhood near Canal Street, 1908.
A handful of Genoese were the first Italians to make Buffalo their home.
When Luigi Chiesa set up his home and birdcage store at Elm and Broadway in the mid-1840s, he didn’t know any English, and there wasn’t anyone in town who knew any Italian. But he quickly became a Buffalo backer.
“Chiesa became a self-appointed immigration agent for Uncle Sam,” reported the Buffalo Express in 1901, “and in his letters to friends in Italy were importunings to this great country, ‘God’s Country.’ ”
His name means “church” in Italian, so not long after arriving in Buffalo, he became well-known among longtime city residents as Louis Church. But to the slowly trickling in numbers of Italians, he was still Luigi and his home was the first hub of Buffalo’s Italian community.
John Roffo was among the first Italians to settle in the neighborhood that would come to be known as Little Italy near today’s Canalside. After arriving in 1847, he was a wine merchant and grocer on Canal Street, then opened a tavern on Erie Street.
Louis Onetto, who owned a macaroni manufacturing works on Broadway near Michigan for more than 50 years, came to Buffalo in 1866.
Those early sons of Italy were northern Genoese, but in the decades to come, the massive numbers came from southern Italian places like Sicily and Naples.
“The Sicilians far outnumber the other Italians in Buffalo,” reported The Express. “They are the dark-skinned, raven-haired, black-eyed Italians who are most numerous on Buffalo’s streets. They are the manufacturers of macaroni, the fruit hucksters, and the bootblacks.”
“The Italian Moses who led the Sicilians to the promised land of Buffalo was Frank Baroni,” reported The Express. He came to Buffalo from Valledolmo, Sicily, in 1882 and immediately wrote home encouraging people to find their way to Buffalo.
“The great majority of the Italian colony,” reported The Express in 1908, “are of the peasant and laboring class.” But not all.
Among the first 42 to heed Baroni’s call from Sicily was a destitute boy, Charles Borzilleri. Eventually, he was the first Italian to graduate from UB Medical School and became prominent not only in the Italian community but in Buffalo at large. He founded Columbus Hospital on Niagara Street and also spent several terms as the president of the Erie County Medical Society.
Those Italians moving to Buffalo settled in one of the oldest parts of Buffalo, displacing the Irish enclave near the Erie Canal and Buffalo Harbor around Canal Street and the Terrace. What was the center of this neighborhood is today covered by the Marine Drive Apartments near Canalside.
“Hemming in on one side by the water’s edge, and intersected on the other by the ponderous traffic of a steam railway, the locality offers few inducements to those who would establish homes within the boundary lines of Buffalo,” reported The Courier in 1898.
That’s why through the 1890s, more Italians began moving onto the other side of the canal as well, into what we would now describe as the West Side.
Long before City Hall was built, St. Anthony’s Church – now in the shadow of City Hall, was the primary place of worship for Buffalo’s Italian population. Italians began to move in from what is now City Hall north to what is now the Peace Bridge.
Right at the center of that newly Italian area was Front Avenue, which would be renamed Busti Avenue in honor of Buffalo’s first celebrated Italian in 1930.
It was the third attempt to name a street after Paulo Busti, an agent for the Holland Land Company. Like many of Holland’s executives, his name appeared as a street name on maps of early Buffalo. The original Busti Avenue was re-christened Genesee Street. The streets now known as Upper and Lower Terrace streets were once known as Busti Terrace, before Busti’s name was dropped off the map for a second time.
A 1930 breakdown said that there were about 20,000 Buffalonians who had been born in Italy, and another 45,000 who had at least one Italian-born parent, making Italians Buffalo’s third most numerous foreign-born residents, behind Germans and Poles.
Buffalo’s Italian community celebrated when, in 1958, the first one of their own was elected mayor. Frank A. Sedita – who grew up in the neighborhood behind City Hall, doing the jobs typical of grammar school-age Italian boys like shoeshine boy and newspaper hawker – was elected to three terms as Buffalo’s mayor.
Howard Simon might be the best broadcaster I’ve ever worked with.
So knowledgeable, personable, smooth and genuine that he really didn’t have to prepare.
Still, he’s the most prepared talkshow host I’ve ever seen.
Howard Simon with the late Jim Kelley, 1996.
Even though he’s the best broadcaster I’ve ever worked with– I don’t even feel moved to write about that when I think about Howard. All I can think about is that Howard Simon might be the finest human being I’ve ever worked with.
Howard and Steve, WBEN Studios, 1995
It’s the fact that he is a great, amazing human being that makes him a great broadcaster. Humble. Even keeled. Giving. Would rather make a caller or a co-host look good than put the spotlight on himself. Dozens– maybe even hundreds– of co-workers and fellow reporters owe so much to this kind soul who gives so much, sometimes it’s difficult to realize it’s happening.
Steve and Howard, WNSA/Empire Sports Network, 2003
I’ve known Howard for 30 years. He has never disappointed me. He doesn’t disappoint– as a talkshow host, as a journalist, as a human being.
The world needs more guys like Howard. Radio and sports broadcasting definitely could use more people like Howard.
Rob Ray and Howard, 1995
Of course, the fact that Howard is so nice (and I am such a prick) makes him a very easy target for my merciless chirping.
He won’t like that I’m sharing some of these highlights from early in his career– but I know he’s expecting it. (Or at least he should be. The guy’s about to retire.)
The WGR Morning Show, c.2005
As we listen to the clips below, we will all laugh at Howard talking up a Kajagoogoo or Wang Chung song, reading a newscast, or even being a country music disc jockey. We’ll laugh, because Howard lets us. We’ll laugh, but we’ll all be thinking, what an amazing talent at everything he does.
Wang Chung!UB vs Buff State, 1981NewscastWOHO jockBuffalo Stallions news—WBNYMudhens PBP, 1988Kajagoogoo! 1986 ElmiraReal Country! No bull!!HOWARD SIMON!! WNSA voice over guy
My favorite Howard protege is Chris Parker.
Howard Simon and Chris “Bulldog” Parker
Even though it’s almost 30 years ago, it’s still one of my favorite shows to have been a part of– those two co-hosting on WBEN’s One-One-One Sports.
Howard Simon & Bulldog WBEN 1996 Part 1Howard Simon & Bulldog WBEN 1996 Part 2
WGR is celebrating 100 years of broadcasting and, as WGR Historian, I put together a handful of minute-long stories talking about the station’s rich history.
WGR’s Sign On
Just
weeks after Buffalo’s first radio station… WWT first went on the air, On May
21, 1922, WGR broadcast its first programs the Federal Telegraph Company on
Elmwood Avenue.
“Buffalo
enters into the field of national radio broadcasting with the formal opening of
one of the largest and most powerful broadcasting stations in the east…. thousands of dollars (have been spent) to
furnish Buffalo with a class of radio service which will be equal to that of
stations which have been broadcasting since interest in radio began to assume
such proportions as we see today,” reported the Courier.
The
original owners started WGR to sell radios… and Federal Radio’s $25 set could
easily pick up any broadcast within a 30-mile radius of the city.
“This
renders radio reception in homes of Buffalo and vicinity no longer an
instrument of the well-to-do, but for almost anybody who cares to use it.”
In
1923, WGR became one of the earliest tenants of Buffalo’s brand new Statler
Hotel, where it was a Class B station– authorizing broadcast on reserved
frequencies, without interference, at high power. That meant the station could
be heard regularly within several hundred miles, but could also be heard on
occasion as far away as Hawaii and England.
For
a century now, WGR has been the voice of Buffalo heard around the world.
WGR Sign-on
Early personalities at WGR
Bob Schmidt, later known as Buffalo Bob Smith
For
100 years now, WGR has been bringing the great voices of radio to Buffalo.
Before he was Howdy Doody’s sidekick and one of television’s early stars, Buffalo Bob Smith, Masten High School grad Bob Schmidt was one of the stars of WGR in the 30s and 40s as “Smiling Bob Smith”
In
the early years of radio, the country’s most powerful stations—like WGR—weren’t
allowed to play recorded music. Conductor David Cheskin, the leader of the
18-piece WGR Staff Orchestra, was one of Buffalo’s most popular entertainers
and a “one man wonder” during the pre-war Golden era of Buffalo radio.
The WGR Orchestra
Cheskin’s
music made WGR nationally famous as he conducted 18 network shows a week—
including “Buffalo Presents”— heard all over the country on NBC and CBS as
performed live in the WGR studios.
Billy
Keaton was one of WGR’s most popular hosts after he, like many early radio
entertainers, settled down with radio after a life on the road as a Vaudeville
man.
Billy Keaton in the WGR studios with singer Johnny Ray.
After
his “Stuff and Nonsense” program took off, his success turned a temporary
Buffalo assignment permanent. After the war, Billy’s wife Reggie joined the
act, and the two hosted the “Mr. and Mrs. Show” on WGR.
As
a long-time WGR Radio fan favorite, Billy was the natural choice to welcome the
first viewers to WGR-TV in 1954.
Then
and now, the great voices of Buffalo can be heard on WGR.
WGR– Early Voices
Baseball on WGR
For
100 years now, Buffalo’s best sports coverage has been a reason to listen to
WGR.
From
the earliest days of announcers recreating baseball games from tickertape print
outs, complete with broken pencil sound effects for the sound of a hit
Roger Baker
To
Bisons play-by-play from Offermann Stadium with Buffalo’s first sportscaster
Roger Baker and his protégé who’d spend more than 60 years broadcasting sports
in Buffalo, Ralph Hubbell.
Hubbell
broadcast the games of Bison Great Ollie Carnegie as he set an International
League homerun record which stood for 69 years.
Later
it was Bill Mazer who was behind the WGR microphone when another great Bisons
slugger—Luke Easter famously hit a White Owl Wallop over the Offermann Stadium
scoreboard.
Pete Weber and John Murphy at the Rockpile
In the 80s, WGR was owned by the Rich Family—and with Pete Weber behind the play-by-play mic…
The station was instrumental in helping get Pilot Field built—starting a renaissance for building in downtown Buffalo, and a renaissance for classically designed ballparks all around the country.
Baseball on WGR through the years
Ted Darling on WGR
WGR was the long-time home of Ted Darling… whose smooth and exciting style brought gravitas to the expansion Sabres in 1970 and became a trusted uncle behind the Sabres play-by-play mic on radio and TV for the next 21 years.
Sabres broadcast crew, Mid-80s, in the Memorial Auditorium Press Box. Mike Robitaille, Jim Lorentz, Rick Jeanneret, Ted Darling
His genuine excitement for what he was describing on the Memorial Auditorium
ice and the stunning pace of his broadcasts helped make listening to the radio
almost as exciting as being there for a Perreault rush or a Korab check.
Darling’s voice instantly brings generations of Buffalo hockey fans to a different place and time.
There’s something that feels like home when you hear Ted Darling….
Ted Darling
Rick Jeanneret on WGR
Spine-tingling. Quirky. Explosive. Imaginative.
What can you say about Rick Jeanneret that even comes close to listening to him?
Across
a span of 51 years—Rick Jeanneret’s has been an inseparable part of what the
Sabres are to us…
And for most of those years, it was WGR that brought you that voice.
Rick Jeanneret
Van Miller calls four Super Bowls on WGR
There were different places around the radio dial you heard Van Miller’s voice through the years, but the only place you ever fastened your seatbelt for Van Miller Super Bowl fandemonium was WGR.
Van Miller, the Voice of the Bills (Buffalo Stories archives)
Thinking of those great teams of the 80s and 90s, our minds flash pictures of Kelly, Bruce, Andre and Thurman—but the sound is undeniably Van Miller.
Another
voice that made WGR feel like home during the Bills Super Bowl run…
Van Miller– Four Straight Super Bowls
The Great DJs of WGR in the 70s
The 1970s were the glory years for big personality disc jockeys and rock ‘n’ roll music on WGR.
Shane Brother Shane was “Buffalo’s zany philosopher king.” The Cosmic Cowboy did it all to make smiles across the miles, hoping you fill your night with life, love, laughter, family, friends, fun and music.
Shane Brother Shane
Stan Roberts—whose WGR jingle called him the Corny DJ—is remembered for wearing a lampshade on his head on Royalite TV commercial and Dial-A-Joke, but also as a warm, friendly, and funny presence on morning radio across five decades.
Buffalo Stories archives
Frank Benny was one of the smoothest broadcasters to ever work in Buffalo– as the weatherman on Channel 2 and DJ on WGR starting in the 60s through the 80s.
The DJs of WGR in the 70s
The Commercials of WGR in the 50s & 60s
WGR has aired literally millions of commercials over the last hundred years…
Our sponsors have not only paid the bills, but have made for great memories themselves, like these Buffalo classics from the 50s and 60s:
The commercials of WGR in the 50s
The Commercials of WGR in the 70s & 80s
Hundreds of thousands of sponsors have aired millions of commercials on WGR over the last century…
Through
the 70s and 80s, thousands of local institutions used the power of WGR with
commercials you can’t forget–
The commercials of WGR in the 70s
The Voices of News on WGR
Sportsradio550 has been Buffalo’s premier source for Bills and Sabres news for decades, but for 80 years— WGR was also the home of some of Buffalo’s most beloved news voices.
Since his time as News Director at WGR Radio and WBEN Radio, Ray Marks (center, seated in the WGR Newsroom in the mid-1990s) had been teaching communications courses at St. Bonaventure, Buffalo State, and Medaille. He died in 2015. (Buffalo Stories/staffannouncer archives)
We also remember WGR personality and Traffic Reporter Mike Roszman and pilot Herm Kuhn, who died when the WGR Traffic plane crashed between reports in 1993.
WGR’s News voices through the years
Artie Baby Boo-Boo & The Coach
Back
in 1988, Art Wander got Bills General Manager Bill Polian so mad, he told Art
to get out of town.
Instead, Art spent the next decade taking your calls (and East Side Eddie’s calls) on WGR.
Then there was “The Coach,” Chuck Dickerson.
Chuck Dickerson, “The Coach”
He was a coach for the Bills—until Marv Levy fired him after Super Bowl XXVI for being a little too opinionated.
For
a decade starting in 1993, Chuck Dickerson was the loudest football fan in
Buffalo.
Art Wander & Chuck Dickerson
John Otto, Buffalo’s first talk show host
WGR has been heading to the phones as Buffalo’s call-in show pioneer for more than 60 years, starting with John Otto in the early 60s…
John Otto, WGR, 1975.
And you’ve been a big part of what makes WGR special ever since, taking part in call-in shows with hosts lke JR & Susie, Paul Lyle, Tom Bauerle, Ann Edwards, Clip Smith, and so many more…
But the brilliant and dry-witted John Otto– and his nearly 40 years overnights on WGR– is the stuff of legend.
Some shows were more legendary than others.
Thursday nights it was Desperate and Dateless, with co-host Shane Brother Shane (and later with Tom Bauerle.)
John Otto & WGR talkshows
This was a fun project and it was wonderful to celebrate so many great broadcasters and friends, but the truth is– it felt a bit funny.
For the first half of my broadcasting career, WGR was a sworn enemy of the stations where I worked– first as a news competitor at WBEN and then as a sports competitor at the now-defunct WNSA Radio.
But many of the guys I worked with at WBEN and WNSA now work at WGR, so I guess we won 🙂
During the decade I worked at Entercom Radio (2003-2013), I primarily worked at WBEN– although you regularly heard my newscasts on Star 102.5, KB Radio, and 107.7 The Lake.
You also heard me occasionally on WGR, filling in at the sports desk, like in this clip from 2003…
Cichon says, remember the time you spent listening…
Of course, my biggest on-air contribution at WGR was as the curator of the Haseoke archive.
Over the last few weeks, eBay seller wmlengadairy has been selling a huge collection of Buffalo area and Western New York milk bottle caps from the late 30s, 40s, and early 50s.
These are the paper lids which came on top of glass milk bottles, which were most often delivered daily to homes nearby the particular dairy by a milkman.
Many of these are extremely rare, and together show how the neighborhood dairy was an entrenched part of life not too long ago.
Walden Dairy, Buffalo, NY
Neeland’s Dairy, Alden, NY
Merlen’s Dairy, 167 Grove St., Tonawanda, NY
Mayback’s Dairy, 225 Northampton St, West Side, Buffalo, NY
Sparks Dairy, 314 15th St, West Side, Buffalo, NY
Lancaster Dairy, Lancaster, NY
Sparks Dairy, Buffalo, NY
Randleigh Farm, Lockport, NY
G.V. Goerss Dairy, North Tonawanda, NY
Hamburg Dairy, Hamburg, NY
E. Wagenbauer Dairy, Depew, NY
Walden Dairy, Buffalo, NY
O. Miller Dairy, 188 Grape St., Fruit Belt, East Side, Buffalo, NY
Quinby’s Dairy, McKinley Parkway, Hamburg, NY
Watson’s Dairy, Ebenezer, NY. West Seneca
H.M. Perry Dairy, Akron, NY
Lacto B Laboratories, Buffalo, NY
Robert E. Lannen Dairy, 575 High Street, Medical Campus, East Side, Buffalo, NY
Central Park Dairyland, 888 West Ave, West Side, Buffalo, NY
Holland Dairy, 420 Holland Ave, Lackawanna, NY
Walden Dairy, 72 Walden Ave, Buffalo, NY
Select Dairy Products, Rowley Rd, Depew, NY
J.V. Schneider Dairy, Lancaster, NY
Duggan’s Modern Dairy, Hamburg, NY
Cameron & Sons Dairy 317 Riley Street, East Side, Buffalo, NY
Fischer’s Dairy, 350 Northumberland Ave, East Side, Buffalo, NY
Marian Dairy, Buffalo, NY (Riverside?)
Tober’s Dairy, 124 Scoville Ave., Clinton/Bailey neighborhood, Buffalo, NY
C.W. Coxson Creamery, 255 Steele St., Jamestown, NY
B. Ball Dairy, 59 Johnson St., Broadway/Fillmore neighborhood, Buffalo, NY
Nagel’s Dairy, 488 Kensington Ave., Buffalo, NY
Lang’s Dairy, Buffalo, NY
T.A. Beale & Sons, 20 Mesmer St., South Buffalo, NY
Fischer’s Dairy, 350 Northumberland Ave., East Side, Buffalo, NY
A.C. Engl Dairy, 1336 E. Genesee Street, Buffalo, NY
Henry Kart Dairy, 2990 Main Street (just North of Hertel), Buffalo, NY
Central Park Dairyland, 888 West Ave, West Side, Buffalo, NY
Select Dairy, Buffalo, NY
Keep our forests green, use your ashtray
Hamburg Dairy, Hamburg, NY
North Park Dairy, 185 Norwalk Ave., Hertel/North Park neighborhood, Buffalo, NY
Niagara Creamery, 72 Walden Ave, Buffalo, NY
Hillcrest Dairy, Buffalo, NY
Hutts’ Dairy, Buffalo/Amherst, NY
Robert E. Lannen Dairy, 575 High Street, Buffalo, NY
DRINK MORE MILK
Queen City Dairy, Buffalo, NY
W.H. Beale & Sons, South Buffalo, NY
Yates Farms, Orchard Park, NY
J.V. Schneider Dairy, Lancaster, NY
Sprengers Dairy, Buffalo, NY
T.A. Beale & Sons, 20 Mesmer St., South Buffalo, NY
T.A. Beale & Sons, 20 Mesmer St, South Buffalo, NY
Wm. Manning Dairy, Eggertsville, NY
North View Dairy, East Aurora, NY
Briggs Dairy, Elma, NY
Sterling Amherst Farms Dairy, 4949 Main Street, Amherst, NY
Bills Safety Jordan Poyer and sportswriter Jerry Sullivan have been going back and forth for a couple of weeks now… But there’s nothing new under the sun.
I recorded this 1997 postgame exchange between Jerry and Bruce Smith at the WBEN studios on Elmwood Avenue from a live feed coming from Rich Stadium.
With the static from our wireless microphones, it’s hard to hear exactly what Jerry is asking Bruce, but most of Bruce’s response is pretty clear. “You a punk ass motherfucker once you get (interference),” said Bruce, to the laughter of the assembled reporters, photographers and players.
“I know you’re going to say it,” said Bruce. “I know you ain’t gonna stop.” The first clear words we hear from Sullivan on the tape are, “(something) stop being an asshole…”
To which Smith replied, “Oh, I’m the asshole! I’m the asshole! Oh yeah,” before turning to another reporter and calmly telling him, “Go ahead, man.”
That year, I produced Bills games on the radio. For years, we’d run the postgame show without a delay. My timing or the exact order of events might be off, but I think we started running a delay on the player press conferences after Thurman Thomas stormed away from the podium microphone one time yelling something close to, “half of you ain’t ever put on a jockstrap,” but with the word “fuck” worked in there somehow.
I think I have that audio somewhere, but I couldn’t find it today.
Anyway, that running live on the radio earned me a strongly-worded note from my boss about trying to make sure to avoid those sorts of words going out on the air if possible.
When this Bruce Smith interview aired live, I was able to “dump” out of delay—so the WBEN audience never heard Bruce Smith call Jerry Sullivan a “punk-ass motherfucker” on the radio. The problem was, with the 1970s technology we were using at the time, there was no way for me to hit dump a second time so quickly and avoid allowing Jerry and Bruce calling each other assholes on the radio.
Back in those days, while there were relatively few ways to hear or see full press conferences, it just so happened one of the local tv stations—I don’t remember whether it was 2, 4, or 7—aired this press conference live on its post-game show.
The complete exchange between Bruce and Jerry was aired live on TV and talked about for weeks on sports radio talk shows on WBEN and WGR—as well as in letters to the sports editor as published every week in the Sunday News.
When I look at old photos of three-year-old me crying or listen to whiny old cassette tapes I made as a five-year-old, it’s pretty clear that I was a sensitive little boy.
Because of that, some things that most people roll with— left me traumatized.
Now I was surrounded by a huge, loving family— but it was also a family which was (and continues to be) filled with every sort of mental illness imaginable.
This was true in close relationships, very close relationships, and very, very close relationships.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about the difference between building a house on a foundation of rock versus building on a foundation of sand.
There was sand in every crevice of my young life.
Things like moving seven times and being in seven different schools by the time I was in sixth grade, just for starters.
As a kid, rolling with it was just fine. I didn’t know any better, even as I stumbled around trying to find my own way.
What seemed everyday normal to me maybe should have had a giant warning sign on it, but it didn’t. And from my perspective at the time, why would it? Isn’t this the way it should be?
The most important skill I learned during that time was to make sure I outwardly looked like all was swell— even as the stormy, weak, and teetering emotional foundation upon which I’d built my life was crumbling and constantly being patched in real time.
I’m happy to say that the space in my head and my heart has been reimagined and refortified, and, while I’ll spend the rest of my life finishing the rebuild and getting used to the new space, I’m feeling more more grounded these days with far less anxiety and far more direction.
Sadly, finding firmer ground for a less chaotic life hasn’t come without cost. Looking back I realize that never having developed a good sense of self, I was always willing to play any role in a relationship I valued— right down to doormat if necessary.
Most of my friends and loved ones are happy to see me strong, healthy, and happy— but a few of the most cherished people in my life couldn’t stand the idea of me standing my ground for my own health and well-being.
Its not easy to stay away from these people, some of whom are dealing with (or not dealing with) their own dilemmas in their own lives. That they can’t make room for me working to make my own life better hurts.
And the hardest part of that is— whatever anger, bitterness, and even hatred some of these folks have for me— I still love each of them with the same intensity and commitment as I always have.
Only now, that estranged love comes with intense and haunting sadness. I love them and wish them well— but if you can’t be part of my new adventures… or at least be happy that I’m happy— well, necessity makes our relationship a memory.
And that aches, but it’s growing pain that’s better for all of us in the long run.
Pop tasted so much better in those 16oz glass bottles.
Coke Pepsi RC Cola… Cardboard eight packs filled with loose glass bottles lined the bottom shelf of the pop aisle at every supermarket in Buffalo and they were always on sale.
But even when they weren’t on sale, buying those 8 packs of glass bottles was the cheapest way to buy the name brand pop.
That’s why Gramps loved ’em and literally filled the hall with them. Grandma Cichon lived a few doors from Seneca Street in a worn out, but grand old house.
When you walked in the front door and looked straight ahead, you looked through the front hall, then a more narrow hallway, and then right into the kitchen.
It was in that narrow hallway where there was always enough pop stacked up to quench the thirst of a small army. With 10 kids, that’s pretty much what Gramps had— and he’d buy all the pop he could when it was on sale whether he needed it or not.
When you look straight past the pop, if Grandma wasn’t at the stove cooking, you’d see her first thing when you’d swing open that heavy front door.
She was always sitting at the head of the worn out white Formica kitchen table— complete with a cup of instant coffee in a gold butterfly mug and Kool 100 burning in the over-full ashtray.
If you creaked open that big door and looked slightly to the right— and he wasn’t working one of the three jobs he still had when I was a kid— Gramps would be sitting in that well-used comfy chair just on the other side of the beautiful leaded glass doors which lead into the parlor.
Grandma generally would see us first, and start to say hello, before Gramps– who was much closer– would take his eyes off of Lawrence Welk or Bugs Bunny to intercept us for a minute.
“Ha’oh dere, son,” Gramps would say in a pretty thick standard Buffalo Polish accent.
I had no idea there was anything to notice about that. Isn’t that how everyone’s Grandpa talked?
“Can I get you a glass of pop or a sandwich?” Gramps would ask reflexively, and immediately piss off my ol’man.
“Jesus Christ, Dad, it’s ten o’clock in the mornin’,” Dad would say, walking toward Grandma in the kitchen.
As we kids run in to give him a hug, Gramps would ignore my ol’man completely and give an inventory in case we were hungry.
“Well help yourself. In the ice box we got two kinds of baloney… Polish loaf… olive loaf… pimento loaf… ham…”
The sound of his voice would trail off as we walked through the narrow hallway filled with pop on the way to the kitchen.
I wouldn’t think anything of this hallway until twenty years later, when the girlfriend-who-became- my-wife asked me about it after visiting Gramps.
In the same way I never thought anything about my grandpa’s Polish accent, I never thought anything about the supermarket end cap worthy pop display.
That’s barely an exaggeration.
The entire length of the ten-foot long walkway had pop cans and bottle pushed up against the wall, stacked two or three deep and two, three, or four high in some places.
It was mystical and mystifying. Gramps’ pop display was far more impressive than what you’d have seen at Quality Food Mart, half a block away at Seneca and Duerstein. Better selection, too.
There were 2-liter and 3-liter bottles; flat, mixed-flavored cases of grocery-store brand cans; some times a wooden case or two from Visniak, but more than anything else, 8-pack after 8-pack of glass bottles.
As I mentioned, Gramps had ten kids— but there weren’t ten kids living there at the time.
Huns, it’s for the kids, Gramps would say as Grandma would yell at him coming home from grocery shopping with more pop when there were already hundreds of servings of soda pop lined up waist high, the first thing you see when you walk into the house.
I’m sure there was something about taking advantage of a good sale… or getting one over on a cashier with an expired coupon… or (put a star next to this one) getting under my grandmother’s skin by buying things she’d say they didn’t need…
But Gramps wasn’t a drinker. Never a beer or a highball, but would relax with a coffee or a pop.
He also really wanted to share his pop, and make sure you knew it was OK to take it. He wasn’t just being polite in offering it. That wall was there to prove, “I got plenty! Go ahead and take one!”
You could expect to refuse a pop at least three or four times while visiting with Gramps, and then one more on the way out.
And of course, this stuff was pop. I don’t think I even heard the word soda until was 8 years old.
“Sure you don’t want a pop, son? Why don’t you take some home? I’ll get you a bag.”
Almost 20 years after the corporate balloon he helped
inflate burst— I still don’t know what to think about Adelphia Communications
founder John Rigas, who died this week at the age of 96.
I worked for him for a couple of years just before he was sent
to federal prison and the company was bankrupted.
It’s was a bizarre moment… sitting in my Adelphia middle
manager’s office watching video of him being lead off in handcuffs on the NBC
Nightly News, with the reporter making reference to “Adelphia’s management
team” being arrested– somewhat chilling, since that could have described me at
that point.
I had to lay off a handful of friends and co-workers because
they were hired using the convoluted process that was a part of Adelphia’s
shell game style of bookkeeping.
In the end, my job, and the jobs of all of my friends at the
Empire Sports Network and WNSA Radio were lost. I was mostly unemployed for a
year.
I personally lost thousands of dollars in talent fees and
retirement earnings— many lost much, much more.
But as far as Mr. Rigas himself— the honorific still feels
appropriate— in each of the many personal interactions I had with him, I always
found him to be warm, kind, and humble.
After his arrest, though, little things began making sense.
The story I most often tell about Mr. Rigas is about the
time I went to his office to interview him. He was gracious and welcoming to
me. Also in the room were two executive managers whose salaries were both well
into six figures.
As Mr. Rigas and I made small talk before the interview
started, he excused himself and called a quarter-million dollars’ worth of Vice
Presidents over by their first names and asked, “Can one of you get me a cup of
coffee?”
The two men, with very important high-ranking jobs and
tremendous responsibility within the company, nearly killed each other racing
for the door to be able to get “the boss” his coffee first.
The whole ordeal felt sinister and abusive in the moment,
and it was proven that this incident was reflective of the way the company was
run all the time.
I learned a lot from Mr. Rigas and from working within the
corporate structure he lorded over, and nearly all of it was “the way not to do
things.”
There was what I can only imagine to have been genuine
personal kindness to my face— but that doesn’t mesh with the ruthlessness with
which he and his family played with and damaged the lives of their employees,
including many of my friends and many reading this right now.
May perpetual light shine upon him.
May we also learn from the selfishness, greed, and power thirst that knocked him from his great heights.
By Steve Cichon
