Crumb becomes big piece of pie at WMMR

 
Listeners of WMMR 93.3-FM's foul-mouthed sports guy and morning co-host Vinnie the Crumb will be surprised to learn that Crumb, a.k.a. Vinnie Caligiuri, worked 18 years in the staid banking and mortgage fields before entering radio.

"In 1999, I had gotten laid off by my mortgage company," said Crumb, 38. "I was working for my brother putting up garage doors. We were driving around when I heard Barsky [the WMMR morning host at the time] announce a contest to hire somebody to do a weekly funny sports report.

"Though I never worked a day in radio in my life, I made a tape that featured jokes about Doug Pederson [the former Eagles quarterback], Andy Reid, and Roger Neilson [the former Flyers coach]. Barsky called me on the air and hired me on the spot."

Though combining sports and comedy can be dicey (ask Jay Mohr), Crumb's raunchy sports reports were an immediate hit.

It wasn't long before Crumb's weekly reports increased to daily reports, but he still had to work another fulltime job for a year until he was finally hired full time by WMMR.

Now, the former banker is enjoying his new "hours" as a radio star.

"This is the greatest job in the world," he said. "I don't understand how those prima donna DJs can complain. I grew up listening to WMMR. At one time I could recite their entire weekday lineup [The Morning Zoo, Pierre Robert, Joe Bonnadonna, John "Bubba" Stevens]. I'll always be grateful to Barsky [who competes against Crumb on WPTP 96.5-FM] and WMMR, which went out on a limb for me."

Vinnie the Crumb's reports can be heard weekdays at 6:55 a.m. and 7:55 a.m. and between 5:45 and 6:00 p.m. on WMMR.

Station switch

When CBS is in war coverage, the NCAA basketball tournament games will be broadcast on ESPN. However, the CBS announcers will do the games. Ian Eagle and former Sixer Jim Sparnarkle will call the Saint Joseph's-Auburn game from Tampa today at 12:25 p.m. If the Hawks win, they'll play the winner of the Wake Forest-East Tennessee State game Sunday at 2:15 p.m.

Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery and Lesley Visser will handle the Oklahoma State-Penn game today from Boston after the conclusion of the Kentucky-IUPUI game at 12:30 p.m. If Penn wins, it will play its second-round game against the winner of the Syracuse-Manhattan game later Sunday afternoon.

The NCAA tournament games also can be heard on ESPN Radio 920-AM.

I don't want my MTV

This week MTV could have stood for Martelli TV. The Saint Joseph's coach, who normally doesn't shy away from a microphone and camera, has been all over the airwaves because of the NCAA tournament.

At one point Martelli and Penn coach Fran Dunphy were on WTXF's "Sports Sunday" and WPHL's "Sports Extra" simultaneously. The WPHL interview was taped.

What's next for Martelli: "I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here?"

Kudos

With much of the talk on WIP 610-AM about the war, part-time host Steve Martarano, who has years of experience as a general talk show host, has been doing a good job taking on the serious subject.

Special guest

Former WIP funnyman Joe Conklin popped up on WTXF's "Good Day Philadelphia" Wednesday to help judge a Simon Cowell sound-alike contest.

Laura Nachman covers television and radio sports for Calkins Media. She can be reached at bradyresident@aol.com.




March 21, 2003 7:41 AM