KDKA’s Marty Griffin to be back on the radio Monday

KDKA radio host Marty Griffin said he will be back on the air Monday, and he has a lot to say.

“I have to try, I just do,” said Mr. Griffin, who recently completed eight weeks of immuno-, chemo and radiation therapy to treat throat cancer stemming from HPV. He says he’s still weak, but “I woke up this morning feeling a lot better, and I truly believe there is a road to recovery and I’m on it.”

“Maybe it’s the way I was raised, maybe it’s a character flaw, but I actually have guilt about not working. Guilt about people who are doing things that I’m not doing, and I feel a necessity. So Monday will be the day.”

His “Inside Story” program runs from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays. Given the events on Saturday at the Tree of Life synagogue, as well as the pending Nov. 6 midterm elections, he’s jumping back into it at an especially poignant time.

Mr. Griffin, who suffered a setback when he blacked out in early October, will still receive fluids daily for two weeks at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. He also needs to gain back some of the 40 pounds he lost.

Although there was joy Monday when he rang the bell at Hillman, signifying the end of his treatment protocol, he said his current condition “is a pimple on the elephant’s behind compared to the terrible events happening in our community.”

“In our lives we run into a lot of people, obviously. But I have never met such magnificent people,” he said to the medical personnel. “I can’t imagine how you do it every day. I can’t imagine the joy and the grief and pain and the struggles that people go through in front of you and how you manage it like superstars every day … and all you want us to be is happy.”