MORGANTOWN — In 2004, Bog Iger left a voicemail for The Walt Disney Company detailing his disappointment in the organization and listing numerous reasons why it was falling behind the times.
A year later, Iger was named the company’s CEO.
Is any of that true? Not at all, it’s completely made up.
This is absolutely true: Tony Caridi, the play-by-play voice for WVU football and men’s basketball, first came to West Virginia based on the result of a coin flip.
As the story goes, the position for an afternoon news anchor on WAJR-AM as part of the West Virginia Radio Corporation (WVRC) came down to Caridi and another woman.
General manager Dale Miller gave the OK to make the final decision based on the flip of a quarter.
“I never knew if I was heads or tails,” Caridi said.
That was 40 years ago. On Saturday, Caridi will be on the call for WVU’s most anticipated season opener at home in at least 21 years, when Penn State travels to Morgantown.
There was a thought of some type of gathering to mark the 40-year milestone, but Caridi nipped that in the bud.
“I just don’t really like that type of stuff,” he said. “I don’t mind reciprocating for someone else, but for me, I’m not interested.”
Having taken over for Jack Fleming full time as the Mountaineers’ play-by-play voice in 1996, Caridi’s tenure has covered five WVU head football coaches, the creation of the transfer portal and NIL, the agonizing death of the Big East and the ever expanding Big 12.
For a generation, it’s been the voice of a kid from the Buffalo suburbs who has been the one constant in a sometimes confusing, but always interesting WVU sports world.
Caridi admits it wasn’t supposed to happen exactly like it did. Like any first job, you gain some experience and move on to something bigger and better.
Except, “When I first arrived, there was always a reason to stay,” Caridi explains.
Caridi was joining WVRC just as it was developing MetroNews, which today is carried by 61 radio stations throughout the state, as well as parts of Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia.
His opportunity as the afternoon guy delivering the news quickly turned into doing TV features for the delayed broadcast of WVU football games — yes that used to be a thing — and he took over as the daily host of Statewide Sportsline.
He was permitted to freelance here and there on other TV networks for college basketball and football.
“Looking at it all now in the scope of 40 years, it’s absolutely bizarre on how it’s all worked out,” Caridi said. “The one thing I will say is what really kept me drawn to working here is I always wanted to work where it matters.
“There aren’t too many places in this country where the majority of the state centers around one university. There is great passion elsewhere, but WVU matters for the state.”
And West Virginia began to matter to Caridi, too. He met his wife in Morgantown in 1988. They had their first child in 1991. His “reasons to stay” only grew from there.
His voice in covering WVU athletics is that of a “professional homer,” the words he used to describe himself.
“I don’t feel that fans tune in to their home station to hear some type of sterile broadcast,” Caridi said. “I do care if WVU wins, but the duty is to do it in a professional manner.”
Credit can be given to the opponent, even if it’s Penn State or Pitt. Caridi’s emotions for the Mountaineers never overtake the reality of the situation.
If the Mountaineers are playing poorly, Caridi does not whitewash the fact with an abundance of optimism.
Caridi says he carries that theory with him into each broadcast, none of which he believes have been perfect.
“Honestly, I’m still trying to figure this thing out,” he said. “The greats like Dick Enberg and Vin Scully will tell you they never once had a perfect broadcast, but that’s what you continue to strive for.”
For the most part, Saturday’s four-hour broadcast is a blank page. Only Caridi’s scene setter is written out.
“For me, that’s the fun part, because you have no idea what happens next,” he said. “You are walking a tightrope with your mouth and you are praying you don’t fall off.”
There are no plans to step down anytime soon. Caridi’s mother and father ran a grocery store back in Lockport, N.Y. until they were in their 80s.
Caridi, 61, uses that as a guide, “I’ve still got a long ways to go.”
And it all started with a flip of a coin. Had that flip gone the other way?
“I think I would still be in the business, because I love it that much,” he said. “In the grand scheme, my life could have been totally different. I would have a different wife, different kids.
“I honestly don’t know, when you really think about it all, if it makes it interesting or scary, but I have zero regrets.”
