‘He won’t be forgotten’ - Mike Trivisonno remembered as influential Cleveland radio talk-show hostOct. 28, 2021
By Marc Bona, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Longtime talk-show host Mike Trivisonno was remembered warmly as an influential colleague, great friend, wise guy and charitable donor Thursday afternoon after news of his death was reported.
Trivisonno was 74.
Radio and sports personalities on WTAM broke up while offering memories about their colleague, who wouldn’t pass up a poker game and supported many charities, including Coats for Kids.
“He could talk to anyone,” said morning host Bill Wills, who with Trivisonno formed a dual daily radio presence – Wills anchoring morning talk and Trivisonno patrolling the afternoons. “He could be a curmudgeon – ‘get off my lawn!’ He hated paying taxes; I can hear him now. But he was one of the kindest souls. If a guy needed a buck, he was there.”
Throughout his career, the station reported Trivisonno raised more than $5 million for local charities.
Born on the east side of Cleveland, Trivisonno was a caller before going into radio. He started his radio career in 1986. Early on, he covered sports but eventually moved into politics and other news topics. He was known for his outspoken and often conservative stances on issues.
“I’m a dumb dago from the east side of Cleveland with a 10th-grade education,” he was fond of saying.
“He was the smartest 10th-grade dropout I ever met,” said Cleveland city councilman Mike Polensek, who also was interviewed on the air. Polensek is a Democrat, Trivisonno was a Republican, and the two remained friends.
“He won’t be forgotten,” Polensek said.
In an interview, longtime sports radio host Greg Brinda recalled meeting Trivisonno years ago. At the time, Brinda was sports director at WERE, and sister station WNCX was seeking a morning sports guy.
“They didn’t want a sportscaster; they wanted a fan to talk about sports,” Brinda said. “And they said, ‘Do you know of anybody?’ I said, ‘Yeah, Mr. Know It All – this Mike Trivisonno guy has been calling talk shows, first with Pete Franklin and then he’s been calling me. He’s been doing this a long time. I think he’s the ultimate fan.’ … We got in touch with him and hired him.”
A cause of death was not given. Trivisonno did a show Wednesday, Brinda said, and he seemed OK.
“As a broadcaster he understood an audience and fostered it to the point where it became very large and loyal,” Brinda said. “That’s not easy to do in radio.” He added in the last 15 to 20 years Trivisonno had transitioned out of sports talk almost completely, save for the occasional Monday-morning chatter about the Cleveland Browns.
“I’m just proud to have him as a friend,” former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar said on the air, calling today “tragic.”
“You could trust him, and equally important you knew where you stood with him,” Kosar said.
Tom Hamilton, who calls Indians games on WTAM, said Trivisonno was “a guy to go in a foxhole with, that’s for sure.”
Gov. Mike DeWine even Twitted: “Fran and I are very saddened to heart of the death of Mike Trivisonno. Triv was one of a kind – a man who would ask tough questions but who also had a big heart.”
“I think his body wasn’t big enough to hold the heart that he had,” said John Adams on air, noting the void that will be left. The Indians fan known for his bleacher drumming at games added: “Who can take the place of Mike Trivisonno?”
In addition to supporting numerous charities, he owned Trivs, a restaurant in Strongsville. And he was passionate about radio. He would ask questions and swap opinions with anyone – politicians, sports-team executives, fellow radio personalities or Joe and Jane Six-Pack.
He also made news occasionally. Previously a heavy smoker, Trivisonno filed a class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry in 2001 trying to outlaw tobacco sales in the United States; the suit subsequently was dismissed. In 2012, Trivisonno made a critical comment about sharing the road with cyclists. The comment led to a letter of protest to Clear Channel Media, and the company offered free airtime and discounted billboards promoting bike safety.
In recent years, Trivisonno rang out a mantra with his incredulous acknowledgment of “living in a world I don’t understand.”
Fellow hosts said on-air Thursday he would ad-lib many of his commercial spots, a challenging thing to do live and rife for missteps. But Trivisonno could pull it off, they said.
He was a huge listener of radio, Wills said, and knew the simple secrets to success in the industry: He worked hard, and he was himself.
“People would ask, ‘What’s he like?’ ‘That’s him!’… he’s an incredible story, an incredible man,” said “stunned” colleague Mike Snyder on the air.
That be-yourself persona translated to ratings.
“Pure and simple, ratings and sponsors equal success, and he had both of them,” Brinda said.
“The microphone was his joy,” WTAM program director Ray Davis said on air. “It really was his thing that he loved to do more than anything because he could give his opinion and put on a show.”
Snyder added: “This is a great radio town. … Whatever the Mount Rushmore is in radio in the city of Cleveland, Mike Trivisonno is right there on the forefront.”
Trivisonno’s first wife, Linda, died of cancer in 2009. He remarried and leaves his wife, Tammy, and children Michael, Michelle, Anthony and stepson Colin.
https://www.cleveland.com/entertain...tial-cleveland-radio-talk-show-host.html
