Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Radio host Castronovo preparing to fly solo on Monday
Popular South Florida radio wise guy Paul Castronovo is not lacking in confidence, but in the days leading up to Monday’s debut of “The Paul Castronovo Show,” the host admits to feeling uneasy. How will Big 105.9’s manic master of morning-drive radio adapt to a new program, for the first time in 26 years without that straightest of straight men, Ron Brewer.
“Well, I, uh, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know how that shoe is going to fit,” Castronovo says with what seems like sincere candor. Then, wait for it: “Ron took a lot of sick days. It’ll be like doing ‘The Paul and Young Ron Show’ with Ron calling in sick a lot.”
The past several weeks have been a whirlwind of emotion for Castronovo. The news that Brewer was leaving and the stress of planning the final broadcast of “The Paul and Young Ron Show” at the Fort Lauderdale Improv on Dec. 16 left him with debilitating laryngitis the moment the show ended (he slept through “Rogue One” that night); he’s caught himself a few times getting choked up over the end of his old show; and the interview process for his new team has been rigorous.
“Everybody drinks really hard. They all fit it in,” he says.
In many ways the new show will feel like the old show: same time (6-10 a.m. weekdays), same station (WBBG (FM 105.9) reaches listeners in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties), with many of the same guests, including random comedians and regulars such as former Dolphin Kim Bokamper,
Chef Ralph Pagano and restaurateur Anthony Bruno. Basically anyone who might bring food and a few laughs.
But in place of the calm, beige presence of Ron Brewer, Castronovo will trade commentrary on news of the day with a young woman named Ghia. The dynamic between the two will not follow the well-worn path that Castronovo and Brewer took through Middle-Aged White Guy World.
“Ghia is dating some dude named Bentley that she met on Tinder who lives in Kentucky,” Castronovo says, laughing. “She’s a lifestyle person. She’s a train wreck. She’s a Brooklyn-born Dominican Jew. I can’t wait to peel back that onion.”
Most recently of the New York-area afternoon-drive show “Trey and Ghia” on Fresh 102.7, Ghia ( just Ghia, and “named after that ridiculous car,” Castronovo says) is one of several new voices that will surround the host of “The Paul Castronovo Show.” Ghia began in radio as a phone screener for Elvis Duran’s show on Z100 in New York, and also has been an on-air personality at Big Apple-area stations WBLI and WBAB, and as a morning host on KFAT in Anchorage and Philadelphia’s Wired 96.5.
Other prominent members of Castronovo’s new team are former WSFL-TV and “Paul and Young Ron Show” alum Smart Dressed John, who will do sports, and local comic Luis Diaz, an audio producer. Castronovo calls Smart Dressed John a “diamond in the rough,” and says Diaz clinched his role when he offered to get in a ring with an MMA fighter.
“I’ve injected a lot of youth in the show. Everybody’s in their 30s, some in their 20s,” Castronovo says. “It’s like an improv group, really. We’re going to be a funny show, and that’s all we want to be.”
The “Paul and Young Ron Show” wasn’t broken when the duo’s 26-year run on South Florida radio ended on Dec. 16, still the favorite program among morning-drive listeners, who lined up by the hundreds in the dark to attend the show’s final broadcast at the Fort Lauderdale Improv. Ron Brewer had announced he wanted to do other things with his life.
Castronovo says there was never any thought to finding a new co-host to take Brewer’s seat. The chemistry the two had was special, even if “never in a million years” did Castronovo think the partnership would endure through stints on WSHE, Zeta and Big 105.9.
“We were the go-to show in South Florida for a lot of people because we lived here. We lived and breathed the lifestyle, me being the rah-rah football guy and fisherman, and Ron’s quirkiness and oddness. We were completely different people, but there was something about it,” he says.
The relationship allowed them to repel all competitors, including flamethrowing Tampa shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge who moved to 93 Rock in 2009, and the Jacksonvillebased hosts of the “Lex and Terry” morning show that joined Zeta when Castronovo and Brewer moved to Big 105.9.
“My favorite ‘Paul and Ron’ moment was when, after Howard Stern left Clear Channel, and they asked us to move to Big 105.9, [Zeta] brought in Lex and Terry. We made nicenice and we introduced Lex and Terry to the staff, and, boy, it wasn’t a day or so on the air before they started trashing us to listeners on Zeta, the station we built,” he says.
“About three months later, or whatever it was, they were onstage at Zetafest, a concert that Paul and Ron created, and the crowd started chanting ‘Paul and Ron! Paul and Ron!,’” Castronovo says, laughing. “I’ll never forget, they were like, pardon my French, ‘F--- all you Cubans,’ and they walked off the stage. And that was the last time they were heard from in Miami. They just didn’t get the market.”
As special as their relationship was for South Florida commuters, Castronovo believes the time had come for a new direction for both men. Each had heard the other’s stories too many times, and they had stopped spending much time together away from work.
“I invited him to lots and lots of show dinners, but toward the end he did his own thing, which is fine,” Castronovo says. Another reason he is energized by his new show. “I’m a family guy. I’m an Italian guy, so I like the camaraderie, and I think a morning show can have that. And I see it with this new group.”
Castronovo says he hasn’t spoken with Brewer since the final show, but sent him a text message that hasn’t been returned. There’s nothing to be read into that, he says, since Brewer is probably traveling and “isn’t big on using the phone.”
“I could dwell on the sadness of it ending, but that’s not going to accomplish anything,” Castronovo says. “I looked at Ron on the morning of the last broadcast and, if it was me, I would have been a complete emotional cripple. I would have been blubbering my eyes out. He didn’t seem affected at all. Bizarre. But that’s two different people.”