Part 1 of a three-part story
His voice has been stuck in our ears for over 40 delightful years.
Whether he was smoothly playing tunes on WBLS, passionately calling sports games, or bantering on sports talk radio, Rickie Ricardo has left his indelible mark in radio booths in both Spanish and English up and down the I-95 corridor.
Ricardo has been the New York Yankees’ Spanish radio voice for 18 years and the Philadelphia Eagles for 15. He also called Phillies games (2007-13).
And don’t forget his years (1981-86; 1990-92; 1995-99) on WBLS when the powerhouse station ruled the airwaves.
He now covers one of the most preeminent sports franchises in the world, the Yankees, on WADO Radio. The Bronx Bombers have been snake bitten all year with injuries. Yet, they are still in the hunt for post-season life even though their Captain, Aaron Judge, has missed 84 games with a busted rib.
“My gut tells me the Yankees will win the division. I don’t think there’s a better team in the American League, albeit a weak American League,” points out Ricardo, a youngster at 64 and in the business for 46 years. “They will go on to represent the AL in the World Series. That’s what my gut, my heart tells me.
“And I’m not just penciling the Dodgers in as many people are. We’re going to have a rematch of the 2009 World Series. It’s going to be the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.”
Who knew that Ricardo would become a multi-faceted media voice? At 18, he definitely didn’t think so, but it all happened after meeting one Frankie “Hollywood” Crocker in Miami Beach.
“My godfather, Frankie Crocker, is my base; he’s my mold,” declares Ricardo, without any hesitation. “Frankie taught me how to brush my hair, how to walk, how to talk.
“He took a chance on an 18-year-old kid who had six months of radio experience on an AM station in Orlando and brought me to New York.”
The interview process, with the powerful program director, took place in a darkened BLS studio.
“I just sat there while Frankie asked questions and I answered them,” recalls Ricardo. “Twenty-four hours later I got a call from his assistant that I was going to do the overnight.
“Jeff Troy was going to train me on the board. He showed me what the format was and at about 1:30 in the morning, Jeff left me alone and I was on the air. That’s how they threw me into the pool.
“When Ken Webb came in to do the morning show, he asked, ‘Who are you?’”
Besides Crocker, Ricardo has been in the presence of other great broadcasters, and one has stood out.
“John Sterling is the exclamation point to my complete crossover,” states Ricardo about the iconic radio voice of the Yankees who passed away this past May. When Ricardo started doing the Yankees, he had his doubts. Do I belong?
“One day out of the blue, John said, ‘I know about your reputation in New York radio, and I admire you,’ and I was taken aback,” admits Ricardo.
They even had a moment when the two Edgewater, NJ residents were hit with flooding from Hurricane Ida in 2021. Sterling was stranded and Ricardo rescued him.
“John replaced Frankie in the sports realm of my career,” Ricardo declares with reverence. “John is the sports version of the ‘Chief Rocker.’”
In Part Two next week, Ricardo reminisces about his time with music icons Prince and “Super Freak” Rick James.
