We began the second day of our “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl Week” from Costas Inn with a large donation from our CC&A pal Steve Taormino, who partners with Vehicles For Change, a local organization with national ties that helps folks with transportation and transforms lives.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, band, played, marty, vehicles, talk, years, point, give, ccna, son, wn, local, parole officer, brand, baltimore, steve, work, wife, music
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Steve Taormino
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:28
I got Steve Taormino here. Did you bring cans over here?
Steve Taormino 00:31
no, I got a surprise for you though with that, what do you got? So I was gonna say this to the end but I can do it now. The reason I don’t have cans is because I have so many they won’t fit in my car. What? Yeah, so many I was able to work with a local store that on the human a little bit, and we are donating $2,000 worth of canned goods on your behalf. What? Yeah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:51
hold on. You brought a truckload of cans to me. Yeah. What do I need to know about this? Where Where do they come from? These markets are my spawn.
Steve Taormino 01:02
They did not come from wise. So actually went to BJs if you’re familiar with the wholesale I know okay, and we were able to get $2,000 worth of perishable non perishable items for your cars and there’s just so much
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:14
Oh, what am I car Where’s where is it right now.
Steve Taormino 01:17
It’s still at their store. I used to have to have it delivered or I have to go rent some kind of a truck so I can bring it to you see I
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:22
have the Maryland Food Bank coming here a little later on in the day. And so I set it up at 440 every day. We have a local pantry. So what the deal is today our local pantry St John’s I have all my notes here on my phone so let me just get my phone out. You know read it off here St John’s Food Pantry yesterday. Yesterday was unbelievable. We did the grace and hope mission downtown so if you ever use Gay Street like where the Chick fil A is off a prat you make the left on gay? Oh yeah. On the left side right for you get to the block. There is a beautiful sign. It’s a cross. And it looks like it’s been there since like 100 years. Yeah, says grace and hope mission. I swear I thought it was dead in the 80s I just thought it was a sign from a building. Real place the woman that’s been running it for 49 years from North Machu Picchu. Look remind me my mother and my mother sister. I’ve had such a cool first couple of days. But we gave all that to them yesterday it fade the so it’s going to local pantry. So I don’t know if so I’m thinking that the St. John’s folks here hit the you know, Santa Claus showed up in the case of Steve told me, tell me what you do because you’ve been jiving like marketing and web and communication really with my son who’s the executive producer. Don’t blame him for anything that went wrong today. user errors all makes it plain Jr. Don’t blame me. You know,
Steve Taormino 02:47
a friend of mine used to tell me when I made a mistake. He called me on the phone. And he’s an IT guy. And he would say Do you know what the problem is? I said no. What’s the promise or error? No. He said it’s the I D 10. T error.
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:57
Have you heard of the IG 10 T? Go ahead.
Steve Taormino 02:59
And he used to tell me that now you need to write this down. If you guys are listening, write it down. Because you need to remember this. And he says it’s all caps. So I’d write to the I D 10. T You know what that spells and you write it out? No, I don’t it spells idiot. So it’s the user error. And he used to get on me all the time about that. And I’d have it written and posted up on my walls. And he’d always referred to he said, Did you do the ID 10 T error again? Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:23
it goes back to user error. Exactly. And you know, I’m the user. Right. So, Steve, I get to know each other through business and doing business and local. I said to my son, I think of you is sort of my age, and I think of him as a kid and you’re like 12 months apart like literally so you don’t you were on your Orioles? Team. I am.
Steve Taormino 03:41
I am so yeah. So back then. When? No. I mean, technically, you know, back in the 90s. I’ve never seen him go to a series, that’s for sure. Okay. And I want to see that. I want to see that. Okay, but back to what you do. Yeah. So I actually have an interesting story about my business. So I started my business completely accidentally. So I’m the accidental entrepreneur. Okay, I went to school for music. My goal was to be a rock star. So I got hog wild in that.
04:08
What do you play? Paul? I
Steve Taormino 04:09
play the guitar, the bass guitar, I sing. I play a little piano and I play the euphonium horn. What do you even know? It’s sad. No, no, I
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:19
know what a French horn is. I don’t know what a euphonium horn so
Steve Taormino 04:22
essentially, it’s a mini tuba. It’s a small version of a tuba. And I didn’t originally play that. I went to a concert band for trumpet. And we went to this band and they all are so many trumpets. So the band director said hey, you fonio has the same keys as a trumpet with one extra valve. Would you consider transferring? Chuck man, Joanie kind of thing, or no, no, no, not at all. But what does it sound like? It sounds like a baritone horn. Okay, essentially. So it’s a it’s a deeper baritone voice,
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:51
but they let you play with the tuba guys down at Christmas. Could you produce the Santa tuba guy? Yes, I would fit in that band. That’s what matters. Okay.
Steve Taormino 04:58
But anyhow, So I went to school for that. And I played all those instruments. And I was in this local rock band that ended up getting some some really good press. We started writing our own music. And I would say by 1998 1999, we were getting interest by local labels and some national labels. We ended up on MTV for a while. CD sales, because that’s what you did back then you sold CDs, right? We had CD sales all around the world. And while we didn’t sell any t shirts, merch, gotta get some merch. But anyhow, long story short, when we started entertaining these record labels, they all told me one thing, you need to have a website for your band, because MySpace was brand new. Think about that for a second. MySpace was brand MySpace,
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:40
brand new sisters. Oh, 101. My kids your age. I remember he came over See, Dad, there’s this thing called Napster. We can steal music forever. Let’s do it,
Steve Taormino 05:51
man. And then ally Mark came out after that. But yeah, this is an iPod. Exactly. So I’m at school, I went to Archbishop Curley High School. All right. And these record labels, they gave me this phone number for a company that built websites or an agency and dial in the phone number right next to the the STRS what they call it it currently the cafeteria. And the the agency tells me one thing, it said no problem. We can build you a website. We just built a website for the Foo Fighters. We just finished the last one for the Goo Goo Dolls. And I’m sitting here and I’m starting to get a little scared. They said our minimum retainer starts at $30,000. They don’t know I’m sitting in. I had like 12 bucks to my name. Right, exactly. But it rollerskating money I was I was very professional. I said okay, and I started asking some more questions. And I’m like, I’m gonna have to call you guys back. And I hung up the phone. And I went back to the band. And I said, Guys, we are not getting a website. Now. They’re all older than me. Because remember, I was in high school, they’re on their 20s. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:52
above Come on, you could have done a geo cities, or that’s what they told me. That’s exactly what they told me. I was alive. That was an adult then you were not. So they. Now they all
Steve Taormino 07:02
pointed to me. And because I knew about MySpace, they assumed I knew about technology right there young guy knows tech all the time. That’s what you get. So they all pointed at me and said you have to figure this out. And I’m just like, what, what am I going to do? So I went back to school and I found this student bootleg copy of something called Dreamweaver, if you remember that, Dreamweaver, yeah, I had to teach myself how to write HTML, like flat at HD flat out HTML. I had to teach myself HTML. At the time, Flash animation was like the big new technology. So I taught myself how to do flash animation, because you
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:37
can make an ad move exactly, period. And then for videos before YouTube, I mean, it’s really hard to if for a young person, I would think that if you’re of that era to say, um, I was talking about beta tapes with him this morning and VHS because Greg Landry is my sponsor Towson transfers. I have someone come in later and hope she’s not here yet. We were in a school play in 1982. I have the video VHS of it. So I have I have made that an mp4 affair. She doesn’t know it. So she’s gonna have a copy of the play today.
Steve Taormino 08:11
She’s gonna get it today.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:13
She’s gonna get it today. That’s fantastic. You gave me $2,000 and things for the Maryland Food Bank. The Maryland Food Bank guys here. He’s gay to grant. You gotta you gotta come get the money. At the food bank. You Food Bank? I see food bank here. Yeah. All right. He’s given big muscles forgiving. So anyway, technology. I’m going back to video two, how would you explain to a kid Betamax and VHS at this point? When you’re like, Dreamweavers? Really? Yeah. To me, but to you? It’s like brand new. Yeah.
Steve Taormino 08:40
So yeah. So I wouldn’t explain that to a kid today at all. Click honest with you. They don’t need it. They don’t need it. They absolutely don’t need it. They have no clue what it is. And it’s just going to be a discussion.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:50
Drive that drive the highway that’s been made for you. Yep. So after
Steve Taormino 08:55
a year and a half of teaching myself how to do all that stuff. We built a website, it worked for our band, and it was well enough that other bands, other DJs other people in the industry wanted them. And I knew the going rate was 30 grand, right? So why not selling for five?
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:10
I thought you would see 29 Well, you know, I
Steve Taormino 09:12
did want some business. I mean, at the time, let’s see, I was working part time at Victoria’s Secret, right? So that was my only income learning
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:19
base. I learned business selling baseball cards was 13 years old. So my thing was if if the card was worth $1, and the kid offered me 60 cents, I would sell it just to get rid of it right? Because I’m like, Just yell it because nobody’s given me a doll. Even though the book The Beckett book says it’s worth $1. But there was a point where like, you don’t want to sell it for 20 cents. Exactly. You want to undercut yourself. I wanted to be the cheapest guy that could sell it at the thing without giving it away. Yeah, when you’re in a room full of people that don’t have Brooks Robinson cards, just take 25 cents off and you win the bid. You gave it you gave the store away though at five grand Well, I was 17.
Steve Taormino 09:55
So that’s how I started. Now mind you, my music career was still in and out. Right, so I was fully expecting to be a rock star. What were you playing? At the time it was modern rock. So we wrote our own music. And we played cover music. So the big 2000 and 432 between 1999 and 2005 Is it was really the height of that. The bands that were big though the new band, a big new band at the time was like creed. Okay, she was trying to try to sound that there was a T there was creed Daltrey Yeah, exactly that bluesy, deep rock kind
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:28
of sound back coming in Nickelback
Steve Taormino 10:29
was brand new about to happen at that point. Yep. And we did really well. We really did. We put it this way we broke even. And it
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:38
was singing your band. Dude. Let’s get to it. Let’s good. Now that I know you’re a musician, I could put you together with I put you to shocks band together. Did you really the house shots? My bad? I didn’t know that. But yeah, no, this happened. This Happened Here cost this last Christmas. Really? Yeah. So Jean Jacques, who I never knew but was from Dundalk did this show for the first time a year and a half ago. We really hit it off. We were drugged city. We stayed in touch her and her boyfriend manager windows a great guy. Then they came a Christmas and we sat over in the corner. It had huge Christmas tree. And I brought John Allen over and I brought her original band which was beyond words. A guy named George can deal as his wife was my art teacher at Dundalk. Small tomorrow. Yeah, man, everybody, each other. So we told these old stories about Edie and the eggs, which was her original band punk rock. And George was the drummer in it was the guitar player in Gina’s original band in 1977. For she ran off Hollywood. Yeah. So she comes back. And when Dell hits me after Christmas and says, we’re doing this thing with the Hard Rock, that’s
Steve Taormino 11:45
when we had my CD release party in HardRock. Right? Well, she gives me a bit bands don’t do that anymore. Our thing by the way. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:52
she hit me and said, Do you know a guy can strum the guitar? And I’m like, Sure, Ed Lauer. So I give it to Ed. And then he texts me said you do you know, a bass player? And I’m like, No. Yeah. Steve ports, my buddy, who’s in a band called classics. married to my high school friend Elaine, great guy hit him. Next thing I know, John Allen’s recruited into the band, because he’s so cute. He looks like Keith Arab and he’s cute. That’s pretty good. Gina. She loves my jean, I think because I do a pretty good one. So they put the band together and they went out. Did they play? They played the stone pony. Oh, that’s fantastic. So Jean is like Drumming and singing in a band with everybody I know. Yeah. And if I were to put a band together, I would call them because they’re good humans. Absolutely. You want to be in a band with jerks? Well,
Steve Taormino 12:40
in the music scene in Baltimore. It’s so small. Everyone knows everyone. And now the cool thing is there are some really famous, great musicians that have come out of Baltimore, and people don’t even know it. Pete And it’s this has been for a long, long period of time in the jazz industry, the rock industry, the pop industry. You know, there’s a guy named Chick Webb, who was the first swing drummer back in the 20s. He came out of Baltimore, Toni Braxton came out of Baltimore.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:06
David Byrne David Rico case, yes. Well, Dennis chambers some other guys. Oh my
Steve Taormino 13:12
gosh, Dennis chambers. I mean, so Dennis chambers, car Filipiak.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:16
Little River Band, the guy, the guy, one of the guys in the current little rubber bands, a local guy. I’m trying to, I don’t know. touring musicians. Yeah.
Steve Taormino 13:24
There are so many great musicians. That really are it’s got a long rich history of music. Larkin. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:34
used to interview Raph child America back in them I I had long hair and it
Steve Taormino 13:37
really, I can’t imagine the first time I saw you with hair it was highlighted. Remember that back in the 90s you had long hair.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:44
I had hammer Jack’s here. We had a girlfriend that liked long hair in 1990 9192. So I grew my hair long because it was Amberjacks thing. When I quit the sun in 92 My hair was short but then it got long. So I grew for a two and a half years 9293 into 94. And my hair was cut. My hair was longer than this. Okay, my hair was down to my dad and my so you had like 70s type hair so my wife calls it a mullet. I look at it it looks a lot like what Eddie Vetters hair look like then which isn’t long in the front. Yeah, it was tapered inside and it really was a bi level I guess. And I had a I had a ponytail them but not like I want more out it wasn’t as curly as it is now. But I got Brad Pennington cut my hair at Hooters for charity. Oh wow. In May of 94 before the strike got it to you. Did
Steve Taormino 14:37
you did you like donate it to like Sam LaMantia
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:40
who was doing ad blockers towards his his son is was my guitar player. Okay, Paul LaMantia was in Watkins. Welcome. Yep, putting a lot of rock bands are out to go see Paul. Get your hair cut. Don’t do what I do. Do what I say. I don’t get my hair cut. But he’s right on Joppa roads so you can go see him. So yeah, I’d love music.
Steve Taormino 14:57
But anyway, so I really thought I was gonna be a rockstar. Yeah, like, I mean, how I never thought I was. I mean, well, I mean, how many 18 year olds, you know, in Baltimore get on MTV, how many are getting requests from Australia for, you know, CDs and rights to replay your music and stuff like that. So I was I was like I am on this path, I am going to be a rock star. This is my career. So I said, I’m gonna go to school for jazz. So I was gonna go to Towson for jazz performance and composition. And I thought I was done. That was it. Then I hit the prefaces, the very top and I realized it wasn’t going to go any further. And that was around that 2001 2002 timeframe. Because we just we just maxed out what we could do. Now,
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:37
I see these guys do a yacht rock review. Now. That kind of a band doing covers and stuff. I see bands that are just the guys that are doing the zeppelin thing. They get the lead out and stuff. They’re touring musicians, and I don’t know how much money they’re making. But like yacht rock review now is opening for REO Speedwagon and chain. I don’t know if that’s a $25,000 night gig or 50,000, whatever that is, but they have to leave their families, right. Like, like, like you have to leave your families and you have to get on a bus and you’re gone. And if 38 you may or may not want to do that, if you had two kids right now and a wife at home or whatever, so I think anybody that dreams have that dream when you’re a kid, like all of our like you were when you were a kid and you fall it like like genius shocked did write that it’s all that you do the rest of your life. That’s true. That’s a really rare, rare rare thing. You know, I mean, it is I have a lot of musician friends that are older than me, not my age, but older than me, that all at some point had to take a job because they were in a band. I mean, I have a friend that was the bass player for Dido. He’s He’s my he’s a yoga. He traveled the world playing bass in a serious festivals, like all of that. And there just comes a point where you’re like, now he teaches yoga in Colombia. Yes, that of doing that, because it sounds sexier than it probably is. True. Be Keith this morning with all the road. It’s a tough life, no matter who you are. Even if you’re it’s hard. Billy Joel flying around and hanging at the Four Seasons right now. It’s still not the easiest thing in the
Steve Taormino 17:06
world. No, it’s it’s a lot of travel. It’s a lot of work. A lot of tight spaces. Everything’s last minute to you’re always showing up and all sudden you got to be on stage. And if your family personally I am that is hard. You know, I do have a wife at home. I do have an eight year old daughter that you know, I just love spending time with them. So that life wouldn’t be the world’s meant to win the World Series. See, but let’s hope so let’s hope so. But anyway, long story short, I realized I wasn’t going to be a rockstar. I’m getting this degree in jazz performance and composition. I’m like, well, I could go be a session player. But honestly, the money isn’t that great. That’s not the life I want. I could be a music teacher. That really wasn’t interesting. In fact, then there was the idea of I could just be a starving artist. And that wasn’t so great, either. So I took this idea of building websites and communication outside to make a career out of it. And thankfully, I haven’t had to look back 2000 in 4000 2003. Wow.
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:56
So you were writing Dreamweaver at the time. All right, so how, and that’s a whole different skill set than like turning it into a business. Right?
Steve Taormino 18:04
Well, so here’s something I learned from the music world. The reason I think we didn’t succeed as a as a band, and we didn’t become rock stars, is because we didn’t know how to set goals and achieve them. We got to our first goal, which was right is make a CD, write music and do well with it. We did that. And then we had nothing lined up to do next, what’s the next step? And because we didn’t know what the next step was, what the next goal was, we had nothing to strive and achieve. And that’s why we started to fall. So I learned that lesson. And when I started another business and marketing communications, I made sure the next step was always planned before I achieved the first one. That way I could always talk with my team and the people I was working with and tell them what the vision is long term, not just what the short term goals are at the moment. It’s funny
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:49
you say that because I’m assessing where I’m at 25 years and you’re the kind of guy that can help my business. You have helped my business one of the reasons you’re out today, you’re really here for Vehicles for Change, because Marty’s not here. So I want to point that out. There is a charity and a community component that’s deep Romito being here. By the way, if you’re out listening and it’s lunchtime, you’re driving around, we are a Costas it is the Tuesday have a cup of Super Bowl. It is crabcake row we get folks filing, it’s really quiet here this morning may show up at Constance at nine in the morning. It’s quiet. A lot of places aren’t open just yet. Coco’s won’t be open early tomorrow, but we have great guests to Coco’s on Wednesday. We’re going to be Thursday at State Fair in Catonsville, and then a Friday up at Pappas antimony we’re hoping the folks bring canned goods you don’t have to bring $2,000 In old trunk full like Steve did you don’t have to be show off for charity but we really appreciate it and we are offering a free cup or super I don’t want to give give you a I gotta give you a whole gallon of soup when you bring that much but we were doing a good turn for the Maryland Food Bank drop it off. It’s feeding local people here local shelters all week long wherever we are. And we’re moving around we’ve had some tech issues as expected What do you think is road caster man look like? It looks like a light break
Steve Taormino 19:55
when Christmas does in fact I got my daughter a light bike for Christmas this year. I didn’t know the snowman and my
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:59
parents Lie to me they would always say you get that at Christmas and then I didn’t get it that’s why it turned out the way it turned out
Steve Taormino 20:04
well she’s not listening to like right so my kid isn’t listening to the radio right now because she’s in school but she wanted a pogo stick for Christmas and I didn’t get it but what she doesn’t know remember that the rest of her life she’s getting she’s getting her birthday and April She’s not listening she
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:18
will know that two things that my parents promised me that I never got one was light bright. And now I have one because Jr taught me to get one $700 light bright and I can mute my mic anytime I want without realizing it. Or your guests at some point. Yeah, at some point I will learn how you think I’m kidding. This thing looks like the light bright. I’m gonna show everybody look at this thing. It looks like a light bright, and I have no idea how it functions. But Jr is right. I can touch. I feel better when I can touch Jr. When I’m doing the show. He’s off. But I’m literally touching him right now. He’s getting free soup out of this too. So and JR has been our engineer. He’s the one who found wn St. 90. Your story really Jared found wn S T back our original engineer was a beautiful guy named Dwight Weller, and Dwight died. He had hit cancer and he died in 1997. Last time I saw Dwight alive. I was on a plane back from Memphis seeing the Oilers of Memphis of Tennessee soon to be Nashville, playing the Ravens of Baltimore in the burnt Barney suits. Jim Harbaugh was our quarterback so that was the only time we were in the Orioles. She wasn’t it was about I was Vinnie. Then he was still the quarterback 97.
Steve Taormino 21:28
No, but I mean, that was the only time we played the Oilers, I believe because then maybe we played him in 96
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:32
in Houston 97 in Memphis, and we played him in 98. We played him three times. We played him at the Liberty we were in the same division. We played them in the Liberty Bowl. Well in 97 it that’s in Memphis. We played him in Nashville in the Vanderbilt stadium. Yes, in 98. But nine that was the Jim Harbaugh game. They played it was I call it the erector set because when you see it, it looks like it looks like a roller coaster ride. It looks it’s put together with sticks, the Vanderbilt stadium and then in 99 They moved into the big stadium there.
Steve Taormino 22:07
The tight Scott I thought they became the Titans before they were wearing
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:11
all our jerseys in Vanderbilt that year they will lose for three years then Titans moved into the new stadium and they took on the star and McNair and like all the GA them we went into next year
Steve Taormino 22:21
and beat them. That’s right. The only the first team to beat him in the Coliseum.
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:25
I don’t want to I don’t want to paraphrase you know Brian, Billy, but when you go into the den of the lions, you go in with a spear a screaming at the son of a bee like a banshee. That’s pretty good.
Steve Taormino 22:37
That’s about it. It’s pretty, pretty good. Right?
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:38
I love Brian stay true. aminos our guests see a CCNA strategic media I want to get it right see CCNA see where this stands for?
Steve Taormino 22:49
Well actually I started it stands for branding guy here. Time it was a consultancy, and all I had was subcontractors. So it was conceptual consulting and Associates. Obviously we rebranded it when
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:04
I started this was called Wk DB kids broadcasting when I bought it. So I petitioned to make it wn S T which I really screwed up because I was egotistical in the 90s You know I’ve changed but nasty Nestor was my I remember right so when I got the station wn S T was available and I’m like that’s you know, and then later on when I became a dotnet my wife came up with this by the way, we never stop talking Baltimore sports. So that’s why we went with wn S T but wn S T meant nasty Nestor it was so stupid of me. And one of the really big mistakes I made because I should have branded it the nest and the nest because ravens and Orioles were birds, right like and I didn’t like nest I still don’t like nest Brian Adams called me nest on stage when he took my request two weeks ago. I prefer nest or nests tour. I never liked nests tour, it was always weird to nest is better. But the nest would have worked out a great brand. And here’s the other thing. And I came up with if I would have run for mayor and you know I was gonna run for mayor my mayoral slogan was together NES together Together Together NES right hashtag, right. I didn’t realize NES was a suffix in the way that I would want it to be a suffix until Oh my God 2012 Then I started thinking like, awesomeness. You know, forgetful Ness, stupid Ness, you know, that kind of thing. I should have owned the Preakness.
Steve Taormino 24:43
Yeah. Preakness greatness.
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:45
i Great. Yeah, you could do any awfulness. You can do anything you want. But as long as it’s not forgetfulness. It happened today two times every day. But the CCNA you’ve kept the original name. So Then I rebranded to no wn s t, and then I became wn S. t.net. So which is we never stopped talking Baltimore sports, right? And then I went with Baltimore positive because my wife be more blood type was be positive, and I wouldn’t be more positive. So I’ve moved because like, I don’t want people necessarily like I’m in Dundalk. Somebody’s gonna call me nasty here before eventually o’clock. Sure. Yeah, I mean, and that’s my fault, right? That was my branding, right? And as people think of me as an old man am radio station, because it’s four letters to begins with a W Yeah. And you have to go to the am side of the dial, which you don’t you could just preset anything at this point. I mean, I’m really other than coverage area. And if I wanted to buy BHEL would have cost $50,000,000.20 years ago, right to your point of $30,000. Website 5000. You know, million dollar radio station with some partners that alone or $12 million? W QSR. There just was no, there was no entry point to that. But rebranding is a beautiful thing. You know, my wife’s works for Verizon, right. So like they were she was New England tell and 9x Bell Atlanta, right? Yes. I mean, I think you should rebrand. That’s why I as a branding dabbler, I’m CCNA. I think you should, I think should rebrand.
Steve Taormino 26:16
So I’m not I’m not a fan of rebranding unless you’re trying to hide from a crisis. Okay. No brand evolution is a little bit different. Right. So if your CCNA What are you doing? We are still CCNA. But but you’re
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:30
teaching media strategic media? Yes. Okay. And
Steve Taormino 26:32
we’ve been that for the last 1015 years now. But our audience at the time, and it still is primarily is all these big professional service organizations. You know, the lawyers, the accountants, and they all have the acronyms, and they all have the names of their partners in there. What they stand for? Well, actually, there’s a law for it. In the accounting world, you can’t quote me on it. But there’s something that says you have to have the name of the partners in the name of the company. If you’re an accountant. That’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:59
why they’re SPK RFI exactly why and aren’t exactly,
Steve Taormino 27:03
exactly. Maybe someone here can tell me the exact law because I don’t know it fully. But it’s something like some
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:07
law that when I read ads for MH, I see numbers and like, you know, you have to do all that you do. Yep. But our target
Steve Taormino 27:13
audience was those organizations. So we wanted a name that would fit with their expecting and it works for us. It works great for us. So so that’s how
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:21
I got it wrong. I’m sorry. No, not
Steve Taormino 27:24
at all. I’m not I’m like,
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:25
I don’t know.
Steve Taormino 27:26
I you Steve to me, that I’m I am to most people.
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:29
I’ll tell you this for the branding. I’ve done I’ve owned the radio station, 25 and a half years. There are still many, many people to come up and say, you ain’t Emory FM with numbers. You you and I say 5857 Where’s that? Well, I am it’s 1570. And the old days, Jr. Window, this Philco, you just had the little thing you can Annabeth 14 and 15. And you tune it right there. Then I pop in Yep. And they pop out. You know. Alright, so I don’t know we’ve come a long way
Steve Taormino 27:57
we have we have. So what today what we do today is obviously we’re the digital component because that was that was one of our cornerstones and we still do all that stuff. But you know, we are marketing advertising PR branding, you know, the whole whole kit and caboodle. And we’re multinational we have clients obviously all throughout the US some worldwide as well. So we really
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:15
want to Towson you, we got to figure this out. You and me. You’re way too smart for me not to pick your brain. I mean, literally, you know, maybe I do that the next segment I’m gonna I’m gonna hang with you a little bit because I want to talk about Marty a little bit. And once I’m in Vehicles for Change, because one of the things we talked about today’s community not just mark and I love having you on you come on anytime you want. We see your throat back have a crabcake have a beer anytime but people making a difference in the community. Yeah. And like this, you know, comes from my heart. I’m doing it right. But I see you out at these places. And you’re like a real pimp for vehicles, right? Like I am for your for your causes and the people that you care about. And we wind up in the same circles. My son just met you. You get out of bed in the morning, you go to networking events, you run into guys like this. It’s the kind of people you meet. You know, people that get out of bed early in the morning and want bad free coffee and good conversation and, you know, to meet people. I see Marty at these events all over town. And I know Marty got 20 years probably. And I’ve known Jim Schwartz, his cousin forever as a football guy and Jim’s wife, Kathy’s family and
Steve Taormino 29:20
great, great family. But
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:23
what Marty’s managed to do, I told my son I think he spent like Oprah and Ellen and stuff like he’s like Clarkson, Kelly Clark. He’s moved this sort of what was a hyperlocal thing into more of a statewide thing and the more regional thing and now it’s really a national thing and I think he always envisioned that and honestly Marty would be here today he was cordially but he just had a prior commitment this we couldn’t be here so you’re in his pimped today
Steve Taormino 29:45
I am I am the new Marty much better looking I’ll say him are you What do you mean Hey, come on now Hey,
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:52
nice to meet you have to ask is watching out there now. Maybe
Steve Taormino 29:55
he’s list Alright, Vehicles for Change. So I have I’ve been involved with a lot of different charitable organizations. things over the years, and all of them are fantastic for the most part. But I will single singularly say that I don’t know that any of them have the impact that Vehicles for Change has. And the reason for that is because Vehicles for Change not only impacts the people that they serve, they impact the community around them in whole, the cities and in whole and in most cases, the entire state in whole because of the nature of what they do. And I didn’t know this when I first met them, right. So I knew them as a coordination program. You know, they take transportation
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:29
such a huge issue. Well, they talk about it in the city with busing and public transportation, that sort of thing. But for to be really functional at the level you need to be to get to a job in this city. You kind of need wheels, you you don’t need it in Manhattan, right? But you need rent money and man. I mean, so that’s another problem. But in our community here, if you don’t have wheels, and you live in Dundalk, I don’t like my parents didn’t drive and we lived on the bus line in 1978 there was a bit of an impediment then I talk wistfully about taking the 22 bus to Memorial Stadium and taking the number 10 With my dad Dam and the city in the 70s to see skip Jackson clippers, games and whatnot. The nostalgia but like Yeah, but my uncle had a car and he you know, I had it done dog family. Nobody wanted to help anybody is like one of the reasons I do all this cool stuff is because like I saw dysfunction throughout most of the first 20 years of my lifetime. So I’ve been trying to be more functional lately. But part of it is is transportation in my family was not taken for granted. My dad was a streetcar guy, got up early took the bus to the point, one of the reasons he didn’t come the cost, this is much he took the bus the bus passed, didn’t go past costs went down pops tavern went down. Why is Avenue. So my dad when he would come home with shrimp from Costas it meant he got a ride home. That’s right. And he co worker, you know, Joe Thomas gave me a ride home, we stopped the cost. It’s got a beer, got some shrimp, so my dad never drove. So I mean, it really it speaks to when I got to be 16 Having the keys. It’s how I got a job. It’s how I did everything. I don’t think about it like that, because I’ve been driving for 40 years. But if you couldn’t afford a car, have wheels had an unfortunate circumstances where Marty comes in it
Steve Taormino 32:09
does. And he did. So just to point this out. That’s where they started. So people would donate cars, they’d find families who are getting up and taking those buses to work. And it’s taking them three and four hours round trip just to get to a job that’s most likely minimum wage and get back home. We’re
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:24
having your kids be latchkey too. Well, yeah. When that leads to its own, and
Steve Taormino 32:28
that that’s where I’m going next. So these people, they’re they’re not making much money, but they’re still doing it. They’re making a way to get to work and get back. And oftentimes it was at the expense of their families. So their kids, they couldn’t go to after school programs, they couldn’t be involved in sports, none of that would happen, what would happen, they’d end up standing on the corner getting in trouble and stuff like that. So now these families, they have a car now they’re able to go home to after work and get their kids to these after school programs, get their kids to the schools. And a lot of these kids now have a stable family life. And what this does is it starts the process to end what is oftentimes a generational poverty issue. So think about that Vehicles for Change in this one thing by awarding a car to someone is ending generational poverty, that doesn’t just affect the mother in the in the immediate family that affects their family moving forward for generations at a time. So what they do they take that idea and say, Okay, we’re affecting people that have this issue. Now, how can we spread this? How can we develop it even further. So what they ended up doing is creating this program that trains people coming out of prisons, and how to repair cars. Now, do you know much about people that come out of prisons and the process they have to go through
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:42
I have learned a ton about the going back to jail. And when you come out of jail, you don’t have a thing, right people and love and a sponsor, and a place to go and a resource to get a job. And I think the one thing we talked so much about is coming out of jail. I don’t wanna say I don’t want to hire you. But I would be you know. It’s hard to hire someone who’s been in jail and it’s hard for that person to get a job and to find that their second chance and honestly, the skill set to the skill
Steve Taormino 34:17
set there as well. But honestly, the idea of hiring someone that’s coming out for a long term is a little bit flipped, right? So you see someone that goes to jail, maybe there for you know, a year six months, and immediately think oh, maybe that’s not too bad. Someone that came out of prison for 20 years. Maybe they were in they’ve never seen phone. They’ve never seen a phone Yeah, literally but here’s the thing. Yeah, the people that have been in there for 20 years, they don’t want to go back. They’re gonna do everything in their power not to go back or that may not necessarily be the case with someone that wasn’t in there very long. So we need to have an
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:49
interesting thought. I’ve never I’ve never heard that so that’s why have smart people like you by us taught me something but the other side of it is that is a great point. If you’ve been in a joint 20 years, you didn’t get comfortable with no dying to get out and you get out last thing in the world you want to do is go back in, and then what some guys, things are so bad for them, they got to eat in there that was better in jail than it was on the street. I’ve heard that too. And that’s, that’s freaky. So
Steve Taormino 35:11
they come out of prison, right? And the first thing that happens is they’re there. Go ahead. So the first thing that happens, these guys comes out of prison, and they’re given the clothes that were on the back when they went in. And that’s it. Right? So what are they going to do, they’re going to go back to the neighborhoods that they know. And on top of that, they have to check in with their parole officer, which by the way, they can only do during normal business hours. So if you get a job, you got to tell your your new employer, Hey, I gotta take off in the middle of the day to go check in with my parole officer. Oh, and also, it’s not free. You have to pay money to go see your parole officer. Did you know that? No, yeah, you have to pay to see your parole, you have to pay money. There’s a there’s a cost to go see your parole officer. So so how are these guys going to survive that environment? Right, they have no job, oh, some clothes, no transportation, you have to take off in the middle of the day to go see your parole officer. And you have to pay to see them all at the same time. So it’s like a system that set up to send these people back to prison, because there’s really nothing that they can do for the most part, other than go back to their old lives to try and make money to go see their parole officer. It’s a terrible system. That’s why the recidivism rate nationally is about 70%.
Nestor J. Aparicio 36:24
I was gonna use that word. You know, I was gonna say recidivism, I couldn’t get it out. So going back to jail is
Steve Taormino 36:30
what I said. Yeah, exactly. So people recidivism is
Nestor J. Aparicio 36:32
because you don’t want to have that. But that really is the biggest issue. And and that’s been the charge politically with the state in the city. That’s the mayor saying, hey, the governor is sending people from jail back into my city and, and bad things are happening. This is not learning not wrong, and maybe pointing in the other direction, right? The real direction is how do we fix it and you know, pointed the problem out at each other. And that’s
Steve Taormino 36:57
what vehicles or change is done. So they started this program where when people come in or out of prisons, they immediately Well, let me rephrase it. For people that apply for this, when they come out of prisons, they immediately have an opportunity to learn a trade. And that’s auto repair. Number one. So Vehicles for Change sponsors them, they teach them how to do this, they understand they have to check in with the parole officers, they understand there’s a cost for it. And they go through an internship program where they’re learning this trade. And then once they go through that process, and they learn everything, Vehicles for Change, then places them in employment, like an employment agency would do. So now they have not only the training, but they have gone through the process of parole and all of that. And they have a record of positive employment somewhere. So they have referrals. The employers can come and say, how did they do? What did they learn, you know, Vehicles for Change. recidivism rate is right now out of the people that have gone through their program. Go ahead. 1.5%.
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:49
They’ve had a hiccup, one hiccup.
Steve Taormino 37:52
So the national is 70%. I think the state of Maryland is somewhere around 40 or 50%. Vehicles for Change is 1.5%. Over the last few years.
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:01
They’re changing things.
Steve Taormino 38:03
They’re changing thing. That’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:04
good Vehicles for Change. Exactly. Right.
Steve Taormino 38:06
So they’re changing things. Marty, I love hearing this stuff. They’re changing things, not only for the person, not only generationally, but when someone doesn’t have to go back to prison, they’re saving taxpayer money, like crazy, right? I think it costs 30 to $40,000 a year for every person that’s incarcerated that comes out of the taxpayer dollars. And when they go back that’s just more drain
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:28
feeding them and housing them and shelter all the above. Well, of course we
Steve Taormino 38:32
are but but if we don’t have to do that, because now they are a positive contributor to our society. Why do that?
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:39
Alright, I’m gonna get Marty on to talk more about this at some point. Hopefully that’ll be well because Marty is always doing stuff. So you can always help him already.
Steve Taormino 38:45
You can go to vehicles for change.org If you’ve got a an old vehicle that you’re willing to donate, and to be clear, it doesn’t have to be a car that you would consider usable. It can be a beater, any kind of vehicle talked
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:57
about my 1977 caprice classic wagon, it had brown panels puke green, rusted out in the bottom 10 miles to the gallon. Yeah, donate it. I wouldn’t have thought I could have given that to anybody. Yeah, yeah,
Steve Taormino 39:10
they take it. I’ll take it. I don’t have it anymore. Not only do they use it for the for their people in order to give them to someone to use, but they also use it for training purposes. Nice. So they got these people coming in. They need to be trained. Alright,
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:21
well, Marty’s local Steve caminos local CCNA
Steve Taormino 39:26
strategic media.
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:27
All right. I just want to get it right. That’s right. What did I call it ca?
Steve Taormino 39:30
I don’t know. But don’t practice the wrong way.
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:32
CCNA is my dude. Always appreciate your wisdom man. And you gave me some funny thing to read at the beginning I didn’t read the started his career folding bras and panties for Victoria’s Secret was a featured musician on MTV television that is MTV television and back then it was I want my MTV found himself detained in Cuba trying to explain the dad joke to Raul Raul Castro’s personal MP. He’s I was in Cuba once but I went under the radar I almost didn’t make a big deal and I’m gonna see him room together is an expert witness for the Maryland Attorney General. That’s right I’ll do that the next time we want to get into that I lost Torben green I don’t lose his wife She’s over here she’s going to talk good thing I started what is now a multinational marketing company to ages 17 I think it currently guys with a smart I keep going back to this your curly guy I’m a
Steve Taormino 40:25
curly guy fryer for life fryer for now.
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:30
So I want to give a shout out on the air right now live radio and when this replays and I hope this guy finds me okay Barry stitch I’m looking for you all right Barry I’m looking for you I need stitches phone number I want to everybody stitches name keep coming up with me. Why? Because I keep seeing currently people okay. And currently people were like, hey, you know anything about curl? You know who it was? It was Colin. Colin works here at Costas. She knows Colin right here. So Colin, this this. You know, Colin? Yeah. Colin Colin works here. And last Thursday morning. We did Fox 45 News. So this can I get a plug the cost, please. All right. So originally, I wanted Damian from families to come to the segment with me on Fox 45 Five. Patrice said, We need a chef. So we could cook things because me standing there looking stupid talking about a couple of Super Bowl, which I’m doing here with Steve. She said we get one of your restaurants come out. And I said all right. You know, to Jamie’s opening families underwater. I had Pete like Tuesday afternoon I’m like Pete I need Thursday morning. Early in the morning a 30 foot piece like I’ll get out of bed at four in the morning. I’ll see him crabs. I’ll do shrimp will do. And I’m like dude, it’s a soup thing just all he needs vat of soup. A bowl a ladle not on us. We’re gonna do it first class. Pete got out of bed because this is repeat putting on teeth. Three on to Philo’s. I want to make sure I get it right. Pete gets out of bed at four in the morning comes over your five in the morning steamed crabs fried up soft shells brought all of this food and stuff delicious look pretty left it all for Fox but we brought crap because my head fat all the fox 45 people. Yeah, you know the amazing place here. So he brought a personal assistant so I didn’t have to grab everything out of the big cost his truck in front of Fox 45 over 41st Street. And I know Colin Colin works here so called Paul. I didn’t know he was so young. I thought he might have been 20 I said hey man, we’re part of town you know I lived on the go. No, I got a curly. I’m like well, you lost. They just remodeled Dundalk. It’s even better than when I went there. And so we started talking currently am like, you know stitches like I play soccer for Stitch Fix. Stitch and I played little league together and we were 10 years old. Did you Eastwood Little League. He was on the Yankees I was on the Orioles. He he he we were real rivals man I had my John Rolla was on my team right and Mark Carroll Caskey on my team. I struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning on a called third strike. Ritchie path struck me out or low outs. It was a ball it was it was it was below my knees and my knees run with his big it’s not that I’m still scarred about it. I mean to have in 1978 All right, but I’m a memory man. I’m still talking about it. All right. You know, so stitch was on the other team. He was a shortstop at the Yankees. So I noticed it my son’s name is Barry Barry Stitz might have been the only other berry that I ever knew. As a young person. There was Barry back Barry Manilow berry a lot of berries. Some played hockey, Barry Goudreau from Boston they were but my son is a berry. My father’s name was Bernard his father was a Barney. So Barry sort of like was a compromise. You’d like your name or no? Indifferent. I don’t like mine. So you know I didn’t give I didn’t give you mine. You’re welcome. So my sons who are producing today Stets came back into my life. My son was born in 84 states came back into my life probably 8990 He was at Towson playing that he became blast spirit. And next thing I know we’re on airplanes together. He’s doing the show with me. I have a million pictures of me, but I haven’t seen burying God a dozen years. Yeah, and his name keeps coming up because I’m on the Fox 45 set with good looking Colin who says I’m a curly fryer. My parents wanted me to go to curly
44:27
Why didn’t you there were two girls there we
44:31
had a whole school we had a whole school of girls up the street
Steve Taormino 44:34
yeah we’re Where do you think they came after?
Nestor J. Aparicio 44:36
I know what they did they went all the way coffee by JR took the 22 Oh my I see you are finding the curly the billions family with the curly right. So I mean like my my best friend would get home from school are you shooting baskets? Listen to Tom Petty sounds like you got to go play some Pac Man. Donkey Kong, you know sounds
Steve Taormino 44:55
like you got got some sour nests going on there.
Nestor J. Aparicio 45:00
I don’t want to wait. So I’m going to do you know, even though we’re very responsive at this point, it was at listen back and you were going to turn green and like all dill still, but you’re not going to turn green. And it’s not elicit don’t use I can take you down the street right now. So anyway, currently, you know, the current Dundar thing was,
Steve Taormino 45:20
it’s a real thing.
Nestor J. Aparicio 45:21
My parents offered to send me to curl email, karma, whatever, I didn’t want them to spend the money and honestly, I want to stay with my friends. So it wasn’t really like it was getting on a weird bus and like I just what happened? What happened was, there was racial tensions and Dundalk imagine that back in the 80s. I grew up thinking I was gonna go to Kenwood because Colgate said Kim would all do all my, my mother, my uncle’s, everybody in the neighborhood, the Kenwood? Yeah, and then it got rezone to 1980 8182 So I spent my childhood thinking I was gonna go to camera when I went up going to Dundalk. And there was a, you know, hubbub about race and this and that and all the same crap that you know, 40 years later, you hear all the kids from Turner sat in one corner. I hope it’s not that way anymore, but it was honestly segregated. But it was weird. You know, it was uptight Archie Bunker standoff, because what I would say in the 80s, but But currently was just not. I love that I want to Dundalk and I love that you want to curl and I love giving you a hard time because of it. No. And
Steve Taormino 46:16
it’s great to do that, too. I mean, I do the same thing with my friends. They went to Calvert Hall, friends, Loyola, for sure.
Nestor J. Aparicio 46:23
And it was Cardinal Gibbons, guys. Come on.
Steve Taormino 46:26
We’re not even going there. Absolutely.
Nestor J. Aparicio 46:27
Mount St. Joe the male
Steve Taormino 46:30
church. Some went to the hall. Oh, really? Perry Hall. Ah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 46:33
okay. All right. All right. Let me know. You’re never coming back on the show now. Right. Well, it depends. You had fun. I had fun. We had fun. Chris. He’s gonna have fun. I thought we’re going to talk St. Francis. We can we’ll talk more stuff. Husband excited about baseball, football. He came in the room yesterday looked at me left and I’m like, I made him sick. So I have the wife of Torben on that we mentioned yesterday, so thanks for coming by. And good to see us. Good morning. My best right well,
Steve Taormino 46:58
I’ll get better your best.
Nestor J. Aparicio 47:00
Yeah, please. States. I’m looking for you. I gotta have you on the show. Wherever you are. So Barry, I thought he meant my son. That’s all right. Well, you can do that. Jr. has been here saving chairs getting a bowl of soup. I hope you get the filet mignon. I really do. You know, make sure you get the good stuff. Get a lobster while you’re here. Get some crab as soon as fantast Jr’s kept us on the air. My son’s here hanging out. My poor wife is back at the radio station making things work. It’s all good. But the vehicles were change Steve Trevino Si Si and a strategic marketing strategic media. Yep. All right. Strategic media marketing. That doesn’t mean I’m trying to rebrand you the whole time whether you want to be or not. I’m Nestor. We’re wn st back for more Costas right after this.
