Familiar voice leaves airwaves for other passions
For most people, waking up at 6 a.m. counts as an early morning.
For Dino Tripodis, sleeping until that hour will be downright blissful after spending the past 24 years rising at 4 a.m. for his job as the morning co-host on WSNY (94.7 FM), nicknamed Sunny 95.
As Tripodis announced last week on his show with co-host Stacy McKay, his show June 15 marked his last.
“I’m always humbled by the fact that this city let me be one of their people for 24 years,” said Tripodis, choking up. “Every day was different. Every day was fun. Every day was a joy.”
Tripodis, 59, left the station to pursue his many creative interests, including film production, standup comedy, writing and bourbon consumption.
First on the list is finishing a book of one-page essays (working title: “I Wrote Down What You Were Thinking”). He’s currently writing one a day based on whatever pops into his head, whether funny, surreal or serious.
He would also like to devote more time to his film company, Never the Luck Productions, and to his liquor-centric podcast, “Whiskey Business.” Described as hilarious by many who know him, he also plans to return to one of his first loves: standup.
Comedy is the pursuit that drew him to Columbus in the first place, in 1994.
Then a comedian in Los Angeles, Tripodis was an occasional guest on Sunny 95 in the early 1990s until the station managers asked him to join the morning show.
He reluctantly agreed, thinking that they’d made a horrible mistake, given that he’d never worked in radio.
More than two decades later, he leaves the radio station as one of the most familiar voices in Columbus.
For 21 of his 24 years at the station, he shared the studio with McKay, who raved about Tripodis.
“You know when you’re breathing rare air, and I’ve always known I was fortunate enough to be breathing rare air working with him,” she said. “There’s just nobody like him. He’s funny. He’s talented. He’s caring. He’s always been so gracious with me.”
The man who listeners hear making her laugh in the morning is a good friend off the air, too, McKay said.
Once, while appearing at a women’s event, McKay passed out just before going onstage.
“I never hit the ground,” she said. “He caught me (and) carried me over to a table quickly and got one of our staffers to go onstage for a second and nobody knew. He just was that guy, and he’s that guy for a lot of people.”
Erik Schmidt, vice president and general manager of Columbus Radio Group, which owns the station, said Tripodis is like a family member.
“I’ve never once looked at Dino as a co-worker,” he said. “He’s the nicest guy, (and) he’s got a big heart.”
Whether discussing the aftermath of 9/11 or convincing listeners, as an April Fools’ prank, that Ohio State would end its football season against Notre Dame, not Michigan (“People went ballistic,” he said), Tripodis has been a fixture on Columbus radio from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekday mornings.
The search to replace Tripodis hasn’t yet begun, Schmidt said, and whoever takes the spot will have enormous shoes to fill.
For Tripodis, though, the time seems right to move on.
“I’ve never thought for a minute that that station will not survive without me,” he said. “It’ll be fine.
“Maybe it’ll take a little longer to get used to the next person because I’ve spoiled them for 24 years, but it will.”