what we do, and wanted an honest relationship with a local media entity and its community, and how we help their business every day with local goodwill and commerce.
I was extremely fortunate. I had a “community” long before there was such a thing as a “web community.” You and I were “linked in” before it was a website. You were probably “following” me on the radio long before you were on Twitter. And we defined what “friendship” meant before there was a Facebook and a “like” button.
From my childhood in Dundalk, we might’ve gone to school together. Or watched Orioles or Colts or Blast or Terps or Skipjacks games. Or I might’ve dated your friend back in the day or did business with your neighbor or we drank beer together in some East Baltimore basement in the 1980s.
If you’re here now, it’s probably because I’ve earned your trust (especially if you’ve read this far). And that’s not easy to do in 2014. In the new web universe, it’s called “earned media.”
I call it the #BmorePositive effect of “Smalltimore.”
And over the years the partnerships and relationships that I’ve formed with high-integrity athletes and people like Brian Billick, Joe Flacco, Dennis Pitta, Rex Ryan, Mike Nolan, Mike Flynn, Brendan Ayanbadejo, Brandon Stokley and Jameel McClain and the three years of nationally syndicated radio have brought so many amazing people into my life who’ve given me an outlet to do not only good radio, but to also do good deeds. I will be featuring many of them in the coming weeks and months in a new feature called, “My Favorite People.”
I hope you know how appreciative I am that you all have joined me in this journey, and I can’t wait to continue to be a part of those special WNST sports moments moving forward.
8
We’re going to be doing things a bit differently starting on Tuesday, September 2nd here at WNST.net and on our radio dial at AM 1570. I believe you will love the “new” WNST. I’m building it for you so that you’ll want to listen every day and support our many local sponsors.
The only way that WNST has stayed in business and continued to further our legacy heading into our 17th year is by keeping our local business and community partners happy and providing them with good value. If I couldn’t sell Bud Light for John Daue at Winner Distributing, printers for my dear friend Joe Enoch, pizza for the Romiti family at Squire’s in Dundalk, gym memberships for the folks at Planet Fitness and cars for Jerry’s Toyota, WNST would have ceased to exist a long time before Paul King wasn’t on Facebook. My lessons learned on the street as a kid doing a little radio show on an AM station in 1992 taught me very early in my career that you were only worth what you could sell for somebody else as far as being a local media “star.”
Many former employees believed that they worked “for Nestor” when in reality we’ve all worked for the businesses who sponsored us, believed in us and trusted us to put their most important asset – their name – next to mine and our hosts at WNST over the years.
As “Nasty Nestor,” I built a foundation of helping local businesses. My success spawned the ability to feed other people’s families and that’s a great feeling for someone who yearns a sense of significance. My Pop worked in a steel mill from the time he was 40 until he died in 1992 and I had somehow become a “job creator” (at least that’s what the Republicans would call it).
In the end, I only really answer to him and his legacy. My Pop would very, very proud of “Nasty Nestor” and what you’ve helped me build over the years.
Peruse this website and everything that you call “an ad” is what keeps our families fed at WNST. And it’s our job as a media entity to make sure these businesses earn your loyalty and patronage.
I could go on and on and on about the bonds that I’ve built and the business owners that I’ve developed deep, professional, personal and eternal friendships with over the years. I love and appreciate each and every one of them and look forward to continuing those relationships in the coming years and serving them with the best and most active Baltimore sports radio station and web and social community in the marketplace.
8Like every other media entity in America, we’ve been through tough times over the past decade as the world went from newspaper to blogs, from transistor radios to iPods, from television to YouTube and from lined notebooks to iPads. We’ve also seen many local business partners go through turbulent times and some didn’t make it through the economic storm of 2008 through 2011.
One of my awesome friends and partners, a serial entrepreneur, always says: “If you want to make something in life that truly matters – make a payroll!”
In other words, create some opportunity for others so that you’ll feel the gratification of creating a greater community and feed more families through your abundance.
I have done that for 16 years and I’ve given well over 1,000 people a chance to make a name for themselves
