John DePetro

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John DePetro (self-nicknamed The Independent Man) is a radio talk-show host.

1 Background
2 Controversies
3 References
4 External link

[edit] Background

DePetro was raised in Edgewood, Rhode Island, the youngest of seven children to Thomas and Virginia DePetro. With seven children in the house, the DePetro household was always bustling with a combination of comedy and debate. The DePetro children were encouraged to be competitive in both academics and athletics. At a young age DePetro was a competitive basketball and baseball player. Remembered by childhood friend Mayor Steve Laffey, "John Depetro was one of the fastest players I had seen in Edgewood sports. In baseball he could steal bases at will. In basketball he could race down the court making easy layups. I had never seen anyone so competitive and fast at such a young age." Attending St. Paul School, DePetro was an honor student who also showed an early interest in comedy and broadcasting. In the sixth grade he interviewed Rhode Island radio icon Salty Brine. DePetro told Brine he aspired to also be on the radio someday. Brine laughed and told him he sounded perfect for the business. DePetro then proudly played the interview for the students of Miss Gannon's class on his new tape recorder he had received for Christmas. As president of the eight grade class, DePetro told classmates of his desire to someday host a talkshow on the radio and TV. While classmates listed Pro-hockey player and Astronaut as desired professions in the class yearbook, DePetro listed "To talk on the radio". DePetro attended Bishop Hendricken High School where he developed a reputation as a confident comedian. While a freshman Hendricken he volunteered at WBRU, the Brown University college rock station, in Providence. By the time DePetro entered his senior year Bishop Hendricken began to give credits to DePetro for his work at WBRU. After high school DePetro stayed in Rhode Island where he majored in Communications at Rhode Island College. He quickly made an impact on the campus radio station first becoming the music director, followed by Program Director and finally the General Manager.

From 1990 to 1998, he worked for WABC Radio in New York City. DePetro was torn on his desire to be on-air with his abilities in broadcast managemnet. For a perioed of time DePetro was a fill-in host on WABC while serving as the National Sales Manager for WABC and WPLJ. In 1999 DePetro left New York City to be the full time host of the John DePetro Show on 920 WHJJ. He is listed on the “Heavy One Hundred”, a list of the 100 most important radio talk-show hosts in America.^[1] Also in Providence, DePetro had a six-year run on WHJJ where he investigated and reported on corruption involving Rhode Island officials.^[1]

DePetro was the host of The John DePetro Show on WRKO in Boston, Massachusetts, for several years, from 9:00am to noon, where he displayed a unique blend of humor, edge, and news coverage. DePetro made appearances on Fox News, CNN, ABC News and MSNBC. He has also been a guest on such shows as the Sean Hannity Show and Imus in the Morning.^[1]

On February 7, 2007, it was announced^[2] that DePetro had been hired by WPRO AM 630 in Providence to do a daily talk show beginning Feb. 14, 2007.

DePetro is married with three children.

[edit] Controversies

In July 2006 DePetro was suspended for calling former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello a “fag”.^[3]^[4]

In November 2006, a day after the last gubernatorial debates, he called the Green-Rainbow Party candidate Grace Ross a "fat lesbian".^[5] Despite being instructed to apologize on air and DePetro calling Ross and apologizing to her personally, WRKO still fired him and his show's engineer.^[3]