Saying
Goodbye to a mentor, partner and friend.
Posted
by Matt Levine at September 25, 2007 and is filed under
uncategorized 
Yesterday
had begun pretty much the same way as many of my Monday mornings do. I awoke in
the wee-hours of the night, shook off the cob webs, walked off my weekend
warrior aches and finally put it in gear and headed out the door for my Monday
morning trek to the Radio Station from
By the time I had arrived at the station I even seemed to have a little
hop-in-my-step. Through the years I've found this usually happens after a
Sunday 'two-fer,' meaning the Yanks and Giants
won. However, as I made my way into the newsroom and got ready to gulp
the rest of my coffee and attack the keyboard I was given some incredibly sad
news.
Paul Pacelli who is one of our morning news anchors
at WSTC/WNLK had been the first to tell me that Bill Gonillo
had passed-away. My plans on writing about and announcing wins for Big Blue and
the Bronx Bombers suddenly didn't seem all that important.
I had first me Bill back in the late 90's when I
served under him as an intern in the Sports Department at News 12. At the
time I was still sort of breaking into the broadcast biz and was doing some
radio work and wanted to learn about the TV side of things. From the get-go
Bill took me under his wing. I spent quite a few nights during the Winter of 98' riding shotgun with Bill in a white News 12
vehicle traveling across
A
few years later Bill and I had the chance to reunite as broadcast partners. We
were paired together for The WSTC/WNLK High School Football Game of the
Week. He did Play by play, and I did Color. We
worked together nearly three fun-filled seasons. I think we did our best work
during the first season, because the games were so lob-sided we started
referring to them as "The Blow-out of the Week." It was during these
games that we had lots of time to kill and talk on-air, and boy did we talk -
about everything. I recall talking lots of smack about the Giants and Cowboys,
he liked Starbuch and I liked Simms. We also always
talked about Bill's half-time snack, make that snacks....
It's funny now when I think back those games
just how fast those seasons seemed to zip by, and I realize now just how much
fun we had. I also think it was the time we spent chatting after those games
that I enjoyed most. Bill always understood my point of view. There are few people
I can truely relate to that understand the trials and
tribulations of a sportscaster, and Bill not only understood it, he lived it.
After those games Bill and I would always talk shop, and he would pass along
his lessons and words of wisdom. In addition, I also remember feeling good at
that time about having arriving at level where I was now Bill's broadcast
partner, not his intern, and it is now I realize he was still the teacher and I
was still the student, and how lucky I am to have had an opportunity to work
alongside him.
Yesterday
was probably one of the toughest days I have ever faced as sportscaster. In the
end I went about my business the way I think Bill would liked me too. I gave
Fairfield County their morning sports, I gave'em
their baseball and football scores like a pro and toward the end of my
sportscasts I said goodbye to Bill, and paid him my respects the only way I
could from one sportscaster to another on the airwaves.
Monday I lost not only a mentor, but a partner and a very good friend.
I'll miss you Bill.