FLASHBACK: Y100 Reunion at Preston & Steve’s Camp Out For Hunger
2022 marked the 25th anniversary of Preston & Steve’s Camp Out For Hunger. Inspired by this milestone, The Preston & Steve Show pulled of the reunion of every 90s-alt-rocker’s dreams. They got the Y100 crew back together!
On the first day of Camp Out, Matt Cord, Josh T. Landow, Kelly Gross, Steve Mclean, Kristin Miller, Dan Fine, Lee Ann Curtis, Jim McGuinn, Liz Romaine, and Joey O. reunited with their former radio comrades in The Preston & Steve Show. The audience in attendance and listeners got to hear about what they are up to nowadays. As well as the early days of our favorite morning show.
Matt Cord is a face that we get to see often, as he is currently part of our sister station, WMGK. He was the original morning jock at Y100, eventually swapping places with Preston in the afternoons. However, if it were not for the efforts of current WXPN assistant program director Jim McGuinn, Preston would not have been in the Philadelphia. By his own admittance, Preston – or as he was known at the time, Kenny Knight – was surprised Jim hired him to begin with. However, the man we know now firmly believes Jim changed his life by doing so. Jim pairing Preston with Steve probably did the job too!
Josh T. Landow and Joey O. have managed to uphold the Y100 legacy with the online Y-Not Radio. It has been running for twelve years in its current incarnation. Both of them are certainly qualified for the job, with Josh in particular having been a jack of all trades while at Y100. Promotion, weekend and night shifts, production – you name it, he probably did it.
While former morning show co-host Marilyn Russell could not be at the event, her son Matthew went in her stead. He admitted to not remembering as much about the show as Marilyn likes to flaunt, but as he, Preston, and Steve pointed out, that’s Marilyn for ya.
Some of the former Y100 staff live quieter and non-radio-centric lives, such as former promotions director Kelly Gross running an interior design business in the Philly area, former night jock Lee Ann Curtis dedicating her time to being a mom, and former account executive Steve Mclean being a retired cat dad.
With it being Camp Out for Hunger, time was also taken to remember the event’s early days. Among stories involving Cecily Tynan, small goals of 1-ton donations, and Preston and Steve being covered in burns and smoke, one involving Good Charlotte stood out. The band played at a Camp Out before they broke out, drawing one of the biggest crowds that the event ever had.
That performance was when the crew of The Preston & Steve Show first realized that the Camp Out for Hunger could be more than just a couple of guys sitting around a barrel. In Steve’s words: “At that point, we were thinking, ‘How can it get any bigger?’…Here we are.”
– Eric Habermehl, The Preston & Steve Show Staff
