Kid Kelly

Kid Kelly started his radio career earning a salary of just $130 dollars a month, sleeping in a 1970 Chevy Nova bought for $200 and washing at McDonald’s. He was able to improve his life by renting an illegal apartment (a store front window painted black) where heroin addicts shot up at the front door. He lived on unsold chicken wings from KFC for .99 cents per dozen which were only available if they had not been sold by closing time. He kept them cool in his car trunk which he used as his “refrigerator.” He moved around on the East Coast hoping his paycheck wouldn’t bounce, once getting locked out of his studio by the health department when they found a flea infestation.

Kid Kelly has come a long way since those days. He is a (Billboard) multi-award winning 20+ year industry veteran whose radio career took him through Buffalo, where he dominated nights with an unheard of full 65 share of total persons at WKSE-FM (Kiss 98.5) under the air name Kid Crockett. (For the non radio people – that means he had really high ratings!)

He made three separate appearances, including over a decade at Top-40/Pop powerhouse WHTZ-FM (Z100)/ New York as a No.1 rated radio personality in his Nighttime slot in the late ‘80s. He also served in various capacities as Z100’s Assistant Program Director and eventually as Operations Manager in the ‘90s.  He also was on a morning show and put WBHT (Hot 97) Wilkes Barre, PA on the map.

In the early 90s, Kid Kelly created and still hosts the first weekly nationally syndicated 80s radio program Backtrax USA, heard on approximately 300+ stations around the world.

Kid Kelly is credited as the first to launch the ‘80s music phenomenon (now known as Classic Hits) by the Wall Street Journal (Rodney Ho Columnist) and by VH1 (Rebecca Rankin Report). He has produced a “Best Of Backtrax” CD and also programmed/heard on an airline music channel on United Airlines and Air Force One.

He also created and still hosts the first 90s Show Backtrax USA The 90’s, which is heard on 150+ radio stations across the country.

Currently Kid Kelly reigns as the afternoon personality on Sirius XM Hits 1 and is Vice President of Music Programming for the Pop Format, including PD responsibilities for North America’s most listened to Top-40/ Pop channel which he created called Hits 1 as well as Rhythmic Pop channel Venus. He joined Sirius (now SiriusXM) in February of 2003. Kid Kelly is currently on-air nationwide on SIRIUS XM Hits 1 and on terrestrial radio with his Backtrax USA show