Craig has been a lifelong Chicago boy. He graduated from Taft High School in 1980-something. OK, it was ’82 and he’s still hanging onto that Members Only jacket hoping for its fashion revival. Craig is a big fan of the Cubs, Bears … and more recently, the Blackhawks. “I had a great childhood growing up in Chicago. My father was a Chicago Police Officer for as long as I could remember and my mother was simply the best mother in the world. It was always nice to come home and have mom there after school.”
After high school, Craig attended Columbia College in Chicago … for like 6 years! He first started radio when he interned at B96 in the summer of 1989 for Karen Hand. “My first real on-air gig was in 1990 at a station in Crystal Lake, WAIT-FM (Rockin’ Hits). For all the people in McHenry County who wonder what happened to “Storm Kelly”, that was me. That job lasted for a whole 3 months until they fired everyone and adopted a satellite format.”
As Craig was just starting his radio career, he constantly listened to and really admired George McFly at B96. “He was simply the best. Hands down, no one else came close.” Since then, you might have heard Craig on any one of 10 different radio stations from Chicago to Milwaukee over to Madison down to Rockford. Working north of the border wasn’t always easy for Craig. “That was sometimes a challenge working in Wisconsin. I actually had to pretend I was a Packer fan. Can you imagine? Talk about creating a hostile work environment. Anyway, I really think they really caught onto me when I first had to pronounce the city of “Oconomowoc” on the air. Man did I ever butcher that.”
By working at so many different stations, Craig describes his musical tastes as somewhat diverse, but he does have a strong admiration for country artists and their music. In fact, he proposed to his wife in front of Garth Brooks’ house in Goodlettsville, TN. “We were kinda hoping Garth might be out cutting the grass so we could say 'Hi' to him. As it turns out, that was the week of his big Central Park show and he wasn’t around.” Craig is now a proud member of the US99.5 staff and thrilled to be working on what he calls, “the Big Dog”. US-99.5. Need I say more? I mean, this is great!”
Today Craig lives in the far NW suburbs with his wife and two children and their dog Sadie. When he is not fawning over Sara Evans and keeping the US99.5 listeners “somewhat” entertained, Craig can probably be found working hard on his Ambit business or running from one kid’s event to another.
