Pocono News Section

Fired DJ Comes Back

Fired DJ Comes Back - Friday, January 4, 2008 at 4:07PM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Friday, Jan 4, 2008 @04:07pm EST
JACKSON TOWNSHIP - An area DJ who was fired last Spring is back in the public eye. Stroudsburg disc jockey Gary in the Morning was fired after repeating Don Imus' controversial comments. Imus is back on the Pocono air waves but the radio station would not allow Gary back. So he decided to start his own station online.

Gary in the Morning is back. You can't hear him if you surf your radio dial but you can hear him if you surf the internet.

"It's very nerve wracking because it's the beginning of everything," Gary said of his new show.

Stroudsburg radio station WSBG fired Gary in April. Managers told us they had to do it because Gary turned a phrase that many people found offensive into a game. It was the phrase Don Imus used to describe the Rutgers Womans Basketball team.

Gary said, "Some people got offended. I apologized to them. I don't want to hurt anybody but I offend everyone equally."

Now Gary can say whatever he wants. He turned part of his Jackson Township home into a studio and launched an internet radio show at www.garyinthemorning.com.

He recruited his WSBG co host Elisa to join him. She said, "On the first day when I got back on the microphone, you feel that adrenaline and this is a feeling i had missed."

Off air a former WSBG engineer works on the technical issues.

In addition to working on air, Gary also sells advertising. It's a kob he hopes to eventually pass on to someone else so he can focus on his mission. "To be able to serve the community, be able to do what I've always done, which is to do silly stuff on the air," he said.

The show runs on Gary's website live between eight and nine in the morning. It then repeats all day long.