Over A Decade Of Bringing Newsmakers & Celebrities To Listeners

Since 1998, I've been the host of a radio show which has brought a huge variety of newsmakers, journalists, authors, celebrities, organization leaders, musicians and many more to listeners. (Oh yeah...before that I was a Disc Jockey playing country music and before that Oldies)

I'm able to explore current events, get insight into political policies and campaigns, bring the needs of community organizations to the attention of people they needed to turn to for help, talk about books with their authors, performances with musicians as well as movies and television shows with actors and sports with legends and the stars of today.

My original show, with the obvious title of The Chris DeBello Show, was heard on a single northern New Jersey radio station. Five years later my show was rechristened Issues And Ideas With Chris DeBello and was heard on four stations which covered northern New Jersey, northeast Pennsylvania and southeast New York.

Issues And Ideas With Chris DeBello is now available to any radio station in the United States. It's a weekly newsmagazine program which presents discussions on matters that educate listeners, offers insight into current events and encourages greater civic involvement.

The people who appear on Issues And Ideas With Chris DeBello include politicians from the national stage, pundits who are seen on newschannels and read in syndicated columns, best selling authors and the new kids on the bookshelf, veteran musicans along with the younger ones making their marks, internationally known actors and community leaders. My goal is always a simple one. I want the listener to learn and to care about what truly matters in their backyard as well as in the world around them. I speak with each guest not as someone who pretends to know it all but rather as I believe a listener would. My questions are always geared to bring out the knowledge and experience my guests possesses rather than what I alone think.

I invite you to explore my website. You'll see lists of guests I've talked with over the years, an audio archive, photos and some special pages related to a couple of causes I've given strong support to...The Muscular Dystrophy Association and Domestic Violence Awareness. I've always had the belief that when someone stands on any platform before the public, they should bring with them a passion for two causes to either inspire people to join them or discover their own causes to be passionate about and support.

Created, hosted and produced the news magazine show Issues And Ideas which was heard for eight years on four stations covering Northern New Jersey, Northeast Pennsylvania and Southeast New York. Issues And Ideas built a large and loyal listening audience that vastly outnumbered the competition.

Created, hosted and produced New Jersey Newsmakers, which was a weekly show that ran for seven years and presented discussions with New Jersey politicians from the state, county and local levels. The segment lengths of New Jersey Newsmakers gave listeners and voters a significant opportunity to hear their elected leaders answer quesions about events and policies. New Jersey Newsmakers was the only venue many of these politicians made themselves available to.

Before Issues And Ideas and New Jersey Newsmakers, hosted the Morning Drive show on WNNJ-AM in Northwest New Jersey for five years. When that show was launched in 1998, the station hadn't achieved significant listenership for over two years. After the first year, listenership in the mornings as well as for the station overall had increased dramatically.

Booked all of the guests who appeared on the shows through established contacts with publishers, PR groups and charity organizations.

Assisted in promoting the needs, programs and activities of causes and community-based organizations. These efforts resulted in the radio stations receiving numerous awards and commendations from groups including The American Red Cross, Disabled Veterans Of America, The American Cancer Society, The Muscular Dystrophy Association, The New Jersey Broadcasters Association, The Advertising Council, USO and many others.

Hosted and promoted events, ceremonies and fundraisers for organizations including The Muscular Dystrophy Association, Special Olympics New Jersey and Domestic Abuse And Sexual Assault Intervention.

Hosted and produced a twelve hour radiothon for three years to raise money for the construction and development of a children's heart center for the Kiwanis organization at an eastern Pennsylvania medical center.

Hosted and produced a special twelve hour program on the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The show featured discussions with politicians, authors, organization leaders, Faith leaders and others.

Produced and co-hosted Operation DUI for four years. Operation DUI involved the station's morning host during his four hour show taking drinks at regular intervals under the supervision of area police officers. The host would be asked to take breath and physical tests to determine when he was legally intoxicated. Listeners were also given information about the dangers and legal penalties from driving while intoxicated.

Has personally received awards and recognition from organizations and groups including The American Cancer Society, USO, The Muscular Dystrophy Association, The Sussex County Department Of Human Services, Sussex County One Stop Employment Center, Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership, Prevent Child Abuse New Jersey, Court Appointed Special Advocates along with many more.

Developed and cultivated strong working relationships with dozens of community-based organizations, political leaders, public relation firms and publishers. These relationships and the mutual respect they contained built a greater success for the radio shows along with a more positive view and standing in the eyes of the community for the radio stations.