Fiss Ed

His bubbly on-air demeanor belies a hard-fought throneship as one of local media company Galaxy Communications’ premier deejays on WZUN-FM 102.1 (Sunny 102), a station among the Salt City area’s most popular light-rock waves. This year’s Christmas season will mark the 30th year since Fiss has labored as a professional on-air morning personality (he’s spent 28 of those years in Syracuse), as well as the 27th year since his first foray into live, Christmas shows.

Although the local color he shares on the morning ride might lead some to believe that Fiss is a born-and-bred Syracusan, he’s actually a Bronx native. Fiss grew up with his mother, Sylvia, his father, Julius, and his two sisters, Jill and Frannie, in a two-bedroom apartment in the Park Side Projects, a racially diverse neighborhood made famous by author Richard Price’s 1974 gang expose, The Wanderers.  

Morning glory: Big Mike Fiss speaks with his Salt City audience on the Sunny 102 morning show. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

Fiss graduated from the City College of New York in 1971 with a degree in speech and theater, but after taking a few graduate classes in education (as well as working as a taxi driver for a period of time) he decided that teaching was not the life for him. Instead, he took the New York State Civil Service Examination in 1972, landed in the upper-percentile of test-takers and was soon employed as a labor standards investigator by the state. He kept that job for two years until state budget cuts forced him to transfer to the Department of Motor Vehicles, a position that lasted about a year and a half. “I was actually a peace officer, believe it or not,” Fiss recalls. “I had peace officer status, which meant that I could carry a gun, which I was never, ever possibly going to use a gun on anybody violating either a labor law or a motor vehicle department law. The whole thing wasn’t really me, you know?”

Recalling his fond on-air memories at CCNY’s student-run station, WCCR-FM (City College Radio), as well as a brief stint at a Maine station that he sandwiched between grad school and his state jobs, Fiss then reconsidered a career in broadcasting. His airwaves quest led Fiss to a Florida station in 1978, then back up north to his long-running career in the Salt City. Always filling the role of morning deejay, Fiss was a major component at WSYR-FM 94.5 (94Rock), which later morphed into WYYY-FM (Y94), until he switched employers and landed at Sunny 102 in 2001. 

In step with his Christmas mantra, in 1989 Fiss began his legacy of producing annual holiday albums, which feature local musicians performing holiday songs. The CDs are sold to local music fans, and the proceeds from the albums have helped secure more than $100,000 over the years, all of which has benefited either the Ronald McDonald House or, more recently, the Elmcrest Children’s Center, which operates Casey’s Place, a short-term home for children with disabilities and serious medical problems. This year’s edition of Big Mike’s Christmastime in Syracuse is available at P&C stores throughout Central New York for just $6.

Fiss is also a member of the Syracuse New Times Syracuse Area Music Awards (Sammys) executive board, and has served as the show’s emcee for the past six years. Regarding his motivation for working with the Sammys, Fiss says, “The local musicians I know are all great people, who would do anything to help anyone. That’s why I am involved with the Sammys, in a way, to give back to them. I also put a lot of time and effort into those annual Christmas CDs as a way to help promote local musicians, and it even gives me an opportunity to play local music on the air in spite of a very formatted radio environment.”

A family guy to the core, Fiss gushes about his son, Andy, who is currently in graduate school at Indiana University, and his daughter Julianna, an undergrad at Vassar College. “The thing I’m most proud of is my family, my kids and friends,” Fiss says. He has been happily-ever-aftering for 36 years with his wife, Willie, a teaching assistant at Eagle Hill Middle School in Manlius.

Having collaborated with scores of fellow deejays over the years, Fiss has left a lasting impression on many of his contemporaries. Mark down Dennis Brogan—a 10-year on-air buddy formerly known as the “Dome Ranger,” and the current director of public affairs for the city of Syracuse—as an a-Fiss-cionado. “What made radio special for me was Mike making it fun,” Brogan says. “I used to say, ‘You drive the bus, baby!’ He gave everybody equal ranking. He’s one of those true friends that impact your life in a way that you never thought he would.” 

Fiss’ current boss, Ed Levine, owner and operator of Galaxy Communications, likewise enthuses about his star employee. “He’s a good listener, he’s got a very warm soul and he’s got a very warm voice. It may not be a classically trained, deeply based broadcast voice, but it’s very warm. People in this town have literally grown up with him. If you were listening to 94Rock, you’re now in your mid-40s. It’s extraordinary to have that kind of appeal.”

Fiss handles the daily dawn patrol from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.; he also hosts a Sunday morning smooth jazz program on Sunny 102 from 7 a.m. to noon. And Big Mike’s 27th annual “Old-Fashioned Live Christmas Broadcast” will take place on Friday, Dec. 19, 6:30 to 10 a.m. Performers will include Todd Hobin, Joe Whiting, Dan Elliott, PrimeTime with Paul Valentino, Donna Colton, Maria DeSantis, Steve Hurn, Jenny Pearson, Mystical Harrington and Brogan. You can see Fiss in person during the broadcast at the P&C supermarket, 5351 N. Burdick St., Fayetteville. Admission will be free. For more information, call 472-9111.

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Q: When did you move to Syracuse?

A: In December 1979 I came to Syracuse, because they were starting a new radio station, which became {WSYR-FM 94.5} 94Rock on Jan. 1, 1980. It was Christmas week, Dec. 22, when we left Florida; it was 78 degrees and sunny. It was beautiful. We kept on driving north, and it got grayer and grayer. It’s like going from technicolor to black and white, slowly. By the time we got to Syracuse there was about two feet of snow, and it was freezing. We drove up in two days and we got here on Christmas Eve. We were the only ones at the Dinkler Hotel, which was on James Street. When we checked in the hotel manager said, “Let me see if your room is ready.” I’ll never forget that. There was nobody there! It’s like, “Yeah, it better be ready!” Let me tell you that restaurants are not open on Christmas Day; we had breakfast, lunch and dinner at this Denny’s on Erie Boulevard. That was Christmas 1979. Then within a week we were on the air with 94Rock, which was a monster success. 

Q: Had you wanted to get into radio immediately after college?

A: Right when I got out of college, my wife and I just wanted to get out of the city. So I had traveled through all of New England. I knocked on radio station doors and gave them a tape of myself. They said, “You sound too much like a New Yorker,” and I had a terrible accent. I had no experience, really. I went to these teeny stations in Maine, and I would be humiliated. I’d say, “Well, I came all this way from New York City. Can I just play you the tape?,” and they would listen and they would all say the same thing. It was terrible! My wife would be sitting in the car, waiting for me, and 40 minutes later I’d come out and my face would be purple out of humiliation. She’d say, “Now what?” I’d say, “I hear there’s a radio station in Holton, or Caribou.” We were kind of like hippies, but I was a hippie with a mission. I was a hippie who wanted to work. 

I didn’t get a job anywhere except this little station in Bangor, which was one of the bigger stations I applied to. I was a part-timer and it was literally my first job in radio. It paid $21 a week, and that is absolutely true. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but I never had any money to begin with, so to me it was still $21. But that’s when this series of results came in from the {civil service} tests I took before I left the state and they were like, “You scored No. 5 out of thousands of people.” 

I kept getting calls from different departments who wanted to interview me for a variety of jobs, and the one that intrigued me the most was at the Labor Department. At age 24 I was the youngest labor standards investigator of the state of New York, and my area was Clinton and Essex counties. We dealt with hours and wages, child labor, immigrant workers; I really enjoyed doing it and I’d still be there today if they didn’t have budget cuts. Because I was the youngest, I was the first to get hacked. 

But I was still young, like 27 years old, and I said, “You know, I liked being on the radio, but you really can’t break into radio in New York City.” So we went down to Florida in 1978 and my first full-time job was at WOVV-FM in Fort Pierce, covering the Port St. Lucie area, and I loved doing the mornings there. But that job paid you more in sunshine than anything else. There were hopes that {my wife and I} might someday buy a house or have kids or whatever, but you’re not going to do that working at that station. It was like minimum wage, and I took a huge pay cut leaving {New York} state {to relocate to Florida}. And benefits, forget about it! 

So I started looking around for another job. I didn’t send out too many tapes, but I did send one out to Syracuse. My sister was going to Oswego State, and she was growing up here, and I thought that it would be cool to be with my sister. I sent WSYR a tape, and they called me immediately. They flew me up to Syracuse, and I met the management here. They were very happy with me, and they said, “You have to start in a week-and-a-half.” I was the first deejay on 94Rock.

Q: By the time 94Rock had started, were you already competing with WAQX-FM 95.7 (95X)?

A: They had started two years prior, and they were a tremendous radio station. Champagne Lenny {Bilotti} was their morning man. Ed Levine was the nighttime deejay of 95X, and he was programming it. He’s brilliant, Ed Levine is brilliant. Did you get that? He really is, and that station was incredible. 

94Rock benefited because it was owned by Newhouse. They sold their radio stations in two years to Katz Radio. {Newhouse} was a terrific employer to work for, really. If you’ve got a job with Newhouse you almost have to kill somebody to get fired, and even then you might not get fired.

Q: Was it stodgy working at 94Rock while Newhouse owned the station?

A: Not really. We had a very strong consultant in Burkhart, Abrams, Michaels and Douglas Associates. Lee Abrams has become really big in MTV. He started MTV. Lee Michaels would come to the station like every two weeks. The four of them were partners, and they created that rock format that we benefited by. We were good at what we did, and it was a great radio station. But I’ll say this now: We were never as good a radio station as 95X was. 

We had two guys who kind of ran 94Rock. Howie Castle, the program director, was very competitive. And Tommy Nast was our music director and nighttime sex symbol. Tommy Nast is still well-known in the business. The last night Tommy Nast was on the air, that morning I called him up and said, “You know, Tommy, tonight is your last night, and there are a lot of people who want to issue you a personal goodbye. Folks, this is Tommy’s phone number at home.” And he’s yelling at me on the air, because he didn’t want that, and then all day people were calling him to wish him well. He was so annoyed! 

Q: How much did it help financially that Newhouse owned 94Rock?

A: They had a lot of money. Our station vehicle was a Rolls {Royce}. We called it the 94Rock’n’Rolls. It was a Rolls Bentley, but a Rolls. I mean, can you imagine? When Katz bought all of the radio stations from Newhouse I know one of the things that they wanted was the Rolls. Apparently the Rolls went to the president of Katz Radio. He used it for his own stuff. 

Q: Why was 95X a better radio station?

A: Did I say they were better? They just seemed to have more—what is the term for it—more grit. I think we both had street cred, to a certain degree, but they might have been considered more of a rock station. Out of all of our stations, WOUR-FM 96.9 out of Utica probably had the most street cred, in terms of that kind of image. But at 95X they were the rockin’ bad boys on the block, and people loved that. There was a real war going on here between 95X and 94Rock, and I’ve always told Ed Levine that 94Rock won some battles, but eventually 95X won the war. 

Then we changed our format in January 1983. We gave up the war. We just surrendered. 95X didn’t roll over and play dead. They battled, and they fought in every possible way, even though they only had a little radio station, but it was different. I mean, they did have a 95X limo, but that black limo was not a Rolls.

Q: So 94Rock became Y94FM, but internally was it the same station with a different name?

A: We went from playing Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest to really in one day playing Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand and the Beatles. In one day, boom! And thank goodness I was still there. The whole staff basically kind of left. A lot of the rockers went on to other rock stations, but I stayed because, to me, it was a good place to work. 

Q: Why did Katz decide that the adult contemporary format was better for Y94?

A: The Katz people did a survey, because they are very, very smart. There was really an opening for a radio station like Y94: an adult contemporary station. They also determined that there’s a lot of money to be made in that demographic of 25- to 54-year-old women in particular. All of a sudden, within like a week, our advertisers changed from bars and head shops and boutiques to banks and car dealers, and I said, “Wait! Maybe they know what they’re doing here.” Radio is a business, and they realized that there is some good money to be made in that older, adult demographic.

Q: During the 1980s your on-air partner was newsman Dick DeLine, son of the late WSYR radio and television personality Jim DeLine. What did you like best about working with Dick?

A: He was a nice guy with a great, witty sense of humor. Talking with him was comfortable. He also seemed to appreciate my sense of humor, which is very important when you work with somebody. It was just a nice combination of things. He left in about 1993, something like that, and ended up going to {WTVH-TV} Channel 5 for a number of years as the news assignment editor. In the 1990s he developed brain cancer and he died {on May 23, 2000}, and left behind a wonderful wife and two terrific kids who are now in college. What a great guy, and a real sadness.

Q: What was the culture of the radio station itself like at the time?

A: I used to have put all the records in their packages cleanly, every time I played them, and I had to be very careful as to get it right in the beginning: to make sure it’s queued up so I just push the button. Nowadays the song is on a computer. One button that I press plays every commercial and every song. I just press one button. I mean, it couldn’t be easier. The only easier thing is if I just thought it and it happened, you know?

I was a great {reel-to-reel} tape splicer. I mean if there’s anything that I could really do it was splicing tape. I was a master at it, and then all of a sudden it’s not done anymore. I’ve got this talent that’s never going to be used again. Now, it is unbelievable with {digital} WAV {files}. Honestly, there’s no comparison to how easy it is today. The technology is incredible, and how can you say that’s not great? Who would ever really be nostalgic for the days when it was harder? 

Q: What happened when Y94 was later sold to Clear Channel.

A: Clear Channel bought it around 1998 or 1999, and then everything was different. It’s funny how Clear Channel just sucked any fun out of the business. In the year 2000 when Clear Channel was growing and accumulating radio stations you would have thought that was the future. There was a term that one of my managers {at Clear Channel}—I don’t want to say who—who said that you’d eat or get eaten, and therefore let’s be the ones who eat. It’s kind of this greedy, nasty way to think about it, but Clear Channel has come to the point where it’s so big. Who would have thought that after the year 2000 it’s much, much better to be at a locally owned and operated radio company than a major conglomerate? If I didn’t really feel this way I wouldn’t say anything about it. 

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Q: How did you make the transition from Y94 to Sunny 102?

A: When I was going to leave Y94 and come on over to Sunny 102, Ed {Levine} said to me, “Look, why don’t you resign on the air, and it will make the newspapers the next day.” So we picked the day that I would resign, Sept. 10, 2001. The next day was Sept. 11, 2001. So Osama bin Laden really, to a certain degree, hurt my big move, you know? Nobody cared. It’s like, “Wow! I guess there are more important things in the world than Big Mike!”

Q: You had left Syracuse for a period of time, and it has often since been rumored that it was related to something that happened on the air. Can you explain what happened?

A: When I left Syracuse in 1990 it was related to nothing at all on the air. This is one of those things that after a while everybody talks about, because nothing is made clear. What happened was during that time we were a very successful radio show, and the station was doing very well, but the management kept on thinking they can do better by changing things. This was when the station was later owned by NewCity Radio. They felt they could do better without me, so that’s when they let me go. They fired me. There was nothing on the air. It’s always been one of those weird, almost urban legend kind of things. People now claim that they’ve actually heard me do things. 

When they fired me I got a job pretty soon afterward in Columbus, Ohio {at WSNY-FM 94.7 (Sunny 95)}. I had a three-year contract, and I worked exactly three years. During that time, twice {Y94} asked me to come back to Syracuse, and the second time they offered me a great salary. My sister was here and my mother was here {in Syracuse}. I wanted to be close to family, and I like Syracuse. I said, “Why don’t I come back and give this a shot.” I again did very well on the radio. We had No. 1 ratings in the 1990s and we did very well. 

Q: What is it that people claim that you said on the radio that caused so much controversy at the time?

A: Well, there was one thing that was kind of bizarre. Carrie Lazarus {then an anchor on WHEN-Channel 5, she’s now at WSYR-Channel 9} thinks I said something about her on the radio {Fiss wouldn’t disclose exactly what was said}, which I never said. Her husband at the time, an attorney, brought court papers to determine what I said. The Post-Standard made a big issue about it, and I was on the front page of the paper: “What did Big Mike say?” was the question or something like that. Nothing ever happened with that because nothing was ever said about her. 

Q: During the 94Rock days, did you and the station’s other deejays get in trouble often for what you’d say on air?

A: We always used to make jokes on the radio. Some of the jokes I’ve apologized for. I’ve probably said “I’m sorry” on the radio more than any other deejay in town. In no way do I ever wake up in the morning hoping to offend anybody. My hope is to entertain people. We had a crew of people and we all had a great time on the radio, and occasionally something would be said by somebody that was really in bad taste, or was offensive or nasty. It wasn’t intentional. I am the furthest thing from a shock jock. I really am not that, but because we did a lot of free-form, fun, conversational radio, every now and then somebody would say something.

Q: On your current morning show on Sunny 102, what kind of planning goes into the show each day?

A: I get up at 3:45 a.m. By the time I get to the station, which is about 5 a.m., it’s too late to really plan for the day. Some of that should have been done already. So during the day I set up my interviews ahead of time. Sometimes we have contests that I’m already set for. I’ve got a good staff right now. I have a terrific meteorologist named Mike Ellis, and I’ve got Keith Kobland from WTVH-Channel 5, and he’s just a great radio news guy. I have Bretagne {Pidgeon}, who does traffic. Also sitting in every day doing celebrity birthdays is Cindy {Humble}; she’s the office manager at the station. I’ve got Chef {Kevin} Gentile once a week. Also when things happen overnight, to keep people up to date, we give it a spin. I don’t do a serious talk show, but we try to have a lighthearted good time with music and things like that.

{During the early days at 94Rock} once in a while I would record {95X’s} Champagne Lenny to hear what he was doing, and I always admired that he localized his material so well. One of the reasons why he was popular was because he knew this town so well. And I thought the only way for me to really become popular is for me to really get to know Syracuse. I’m not an expert, but I know the villages, I know the suburbs, I know Syracuse. A lot of deejays come to town and it doesn’t matter where they are, they’ll do the same show. But I really, really wanted to become known as a Syracuse deejay. Some people are kind of surprised that I didn’t grow up here, because I think I’ve done that well. 

Q: Other than your stint in Ohio have you ever considered accepting a radio job in another city?

A: In the 1980s I won four Billboard Personality of the Year awards: two as a rock personality, and the next year I won as an adult contemporary personality. I had gotten a number of calls from stations, and the only one that I was kind of interested in was WNBC in New York City. They had Imus In the Morning, and it was down to three guys to do afternoons: Joey Reynolds and Howard Stern. A guy called me up and I was flattered; he said, “I like what I hear. Send me another tape.” So I sent him another tape, and I never heard from him again. Howard Stern got the job {in 1982}, and I’ve always thought that they made the right move. I’ve been so lucky that I’ve been here, quite honestly. I wouldn’t mind making millions of dollars, but I’d rather be happy, and if I’m happy then who cares about the money. 

Q: How did you get involved with the Syracuse Area Music Awards (Sammys)?

A: Joe Whiting {a local rock musician} was over at the house, and he said that he was on the Sammys’ executive board. He said they had a problem, because they don’t have any idea what to do next. They had no money about six years ago. In fact, we even owed money. We had to have a fund-raiser to pay off the previous Sammys, which was two years prior. So I said, “Why don’t you guys try to at least try to keep the Sammys going as an annual event, and give away the awards at a pre-existing event?” He said, “Wow! That’s an interesting idea. Will you come to a meeting and explain that?” 

So I went to a meeting and I said that the Sammys really does something important: It recognizes and celebrates local music, and this town has great local music. I said, “Why don’t you give away the awards at an event like Taste of Syracuse {a downtown event held every June and sponsored by Galaxy}, for example? We could ask them if we could use the stage for a bit to give the awards away. It’s not as fancy as the Landmark Theatre, but at least it keeps the event alive.” One thing led to another and all of a sudden we’ve been with the Taste of Syracuse for six years now. So I’ve been on the board, and I’ve emceed all the Sammys shows for the past six years. I love going to the meetings. They’re great people, and it’s fun. 

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Q: You’re known especially for your annual Christmas shows on the radio. How did that tradition start?

A: At the time of the first shows I remember our program director Dr. Phil Locascio yelled at me and said, “There’s no way we’re going to do that!” I said that we’ve got to do a live Christmas show on the air. We had a little battle about it, and he said, “Look, I’m going to be out that week, so if you do that I don’t even want to know if you did it or not.” That was the first year, and it was 1982. I started the whole thing because I wanted to hear my wife, Willie, sing a song on the air, because she’s a great singer. So it started out with just a couple of people in the studio. Bob Tringalli played piano, we had the mayor of Solvay, we had {Pompeian Players impresario} Father Charles Borgognoni, who gave a little prayer, and a friend of mine named Ted Monto. It was very, very small, but at least we did a live something on the radio. 

The next year it got a little bit bigger with some more musicians. I think by then the program director had left the station, and I said to the next program director, “Look, we’ve been doing this every year. It’s an annual event. People want it now!” So it was already done, you know?

Q: You are also known for producing an annual album, Big Mike’s Christmastime in Syracuse, which features local musicians who play holiday tunes. How did that tie in to your Christmas shows? 

A: One of the guys who had worked with me back in the 1980s was Dennis Brogan. He said, “Why don’t we record this live broadcast and put it on a cassette?” I didn’t think it was a good idea, because if you listen to it more than once it’s not as good as you think it is. So I said, “Why don’t we get guys together in the studio and record some new, fresh songs?” So we got the Dean Brothers, Mario DeSantis and Todd Hobin, who has been my partner in this thing right from the beginning. Todd recorded “Emmanuel,” which is a great song. Our first Christmas album came out in December 1989. We sold them at the McDonald’s restaurants, and they benefited the Ronald McDonald House, because we loved the Ronald McDonald House, and we still do. 

Q: You’ve interviewed many celebrities on the air over the years. Any stories you’d like to share about mingling with the stars?

A: I interviewed Jerry Springer after he started his TV show. He was visiting Syracuse and was the emcee of a forum sponsored by the County Department of Mental Health. I asked him why his show had taken the low road, and he said his viewers liked the type of guests he had on, so I told him his show was trash. Later in the day I got a call from Joel Delmonico, our station manager at Y94, who insisted I apologize to Jerry Springer for saying his show was trash. And I refused. There was no way I was going to apologize to Jerry Springer for that. So apparently Delmonico spoke to Springer and apologized. Six months later Jerry Springer’s face was on the cover of Time magazine and the headline was “Trash TV.”    

Just enough for the city: “Big” Mike Fiss, pictured during his stint as a state employee in the Bronx. And dig those shoes!