TJ TAORMINA

TJ Taormina was the kid who walked to school with his headphones plugged into his radio. Having discovered morning talk shows as a 13 year old while growing up in Hillsdale, NJ, he became hooked. In high school, he called countless radio stations–asking to intern, organize CDs, sweep the floors, anything!–just to get his foot in the door.

Finally, in his junior year, Fairleigh Dickinson University gave him a chance. He started out running public service tapes on Sunday mornings for WFDU-FM, his mom giving him a ride to the station, since he was still too young to drive.
In 2002, after getting accepted into FDU’s broadcasting department, he landed an internship at Elvis Duran and the Z100 Morning Show in New York City. During the ten years he spent there, he learned as much as he could from the different positions he held: answering phones, doing phone pranks, producing, and eventually becoming a co-host on Elvis’ show in 2010.