After 30-plus years in radio, many of them at WFAN, Craig Carton announced on Thursday’s Carton and Roberts that he will be leaving the station on June 30.
Craig, a staple at the FAN for years, from his time on the morning show and now in the afternoons, gave an emotional farewell to Evan, his listeners, and everyone at WFAN as he begins the final weeks of hosting his familiar spot alongside Evan.
“Today is a happy day and a very sad day for me,” Craig said. “It’s one of the most difficult days I will ever have on radio. “I love Evan, it has nothing to do with Evan Roberts or anybody here. It has everything to do with me and my personal life.”
With a busy daily schedule, a “torn” Craig has made the difficult decision to focus on his family, which he has worked to rebuild over the years after returning to WFAN, and he took time to thank those at the company who welcomed him back to the FAN and put him in a position to make this difficult decision.
“WFAN is everything to me. WFAN is family to me,” Craig said. “I am a 30-plus year radio talk show host, and radio is all I’ve ever done well. Radio has been like family to me since starting in Buffalo…and ultimately being fortunate enough to land here with Boomer back in 2007.
“Making a decision not just to walk away from radio, and very specifically, from WFAN, is not an easy decision…I sadly put myself in a bad place a number of years ago, and three years ago today, I was known as nothing more than a number. I woke up three years ago today in federal prison, a place I was for a year based on bad decisions I made. When I was that number, I dreamed about the possibility, among other things, of one day being able to restart my career. It might have seen silly at the time, but that dream helped me survive prison.”
That dream needed help to become a reality, and Craig gave his thanks to the “saint” who helped that dream come true.
“I had a saint in my corner. A gentleman by the name of Chris Oliviero,” Craig said. “He has maintained his support of me as a friend and a brother through all the ups and downs of my radio career. When I got myself in trouble, he came and visited me. He told me if I ever got my life back in order, and figured out why I made the bad decisions I made, he would be there for me. No guarantees of a job, but that he would never stop being my friend. Having a guy like that as your friend, I’m the luckiest guy in the world. Not only is he my friend, but he paved the way for me to come back to WFAN.”
Craig will no longer be on the air at WFAN full time after June 30, but he will continue to host his “Hello, My Name is Craig” show on Saturday mornings to continue to help raise awareness of gambling addiction, a part of the job he holds close to him given his story and redemption.
“WFAN has meant the world to me,” Craig said. “If WFAN didn’t give me the opportunity to come back and restart a career, no joke, I’m unemployable…so, walking away from WFAN is not easy.
"WFAN is my home."
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