Lawrence James Travagliante—better known by his on-air moniker Kid Leo—serves as both

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

and afternoon

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

Little Steven's Underground Garage ''Underground Garage'' is the name shared by two related but different radio outlets, a syndicated show and a satellite radio station, both created and supervised by American musician Steven Van Zandt (best known as a guitarist in Bruce Springst ...

Sirius XM Radio Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

(channel 21). He first began in radio in 1973 at noted

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

rock station

WMMS WMMS (100.7 FM) – branded ''100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard'' – is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Widely regarded as one of the most influential rock s ...

(100.7 FM, "The Buzzard"). During his 16-year tenure, WMMS was consistently one of the highest-rated radio stations in the country. In 1988 he left to work as an executive at Columbia Records, where he served until 2002. Since 2004, Travagliante has been involved with Underground Garage. He also currently operates his own consultancy, LJT Entertainment.

WMMS

Kid Leo started at

in February, 1973. He became the afternoon drive DJ in 1974, holding that time slot until he left the station in December, 1988. In 1977 he was promoted to Music Director, then assumed the Operations Manager position in 1986. “To many, Kid Leo ''was'' WMMS. For sixteen years he was the pulse of the station, pumping music and life into the veins of listeners.” He was known for embracing new acts, and was credited with breaking many artists in the Cleveland market and giving them more advantage with greater national exposure. Some of those artists were Bruce Springsteen,

John Mellencamp John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrument ...

Pat Benatar Patricia Mae Giraldo ('' née'' Andrzejewski, formerly Benatar; born January 10, 1953), known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American rock singer and songwriter. In the United States, she has had two multi-platinum albums, five platinum al ...

Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone ...

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

The Pretenders Pretenders are an English–American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete ...

, New York Dolls, and

Southside Johnny John Lyon (born December 4, 1948), better known by his stage name Southside Johnny, is an American singer-songwriter who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Southside Johnny has long been considered the Grandfather of ...

. Kid Leo played a biographical role in the video of "Make Me Lose Control," a 1988 Billboard Hot 100 No. 3 super-smash hit single by

Eric Carmen Eric Howard Carmen (born August 11, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist. He was first known as the lead vocalist of the Raspberries. He had numerous hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s, first as a member of the Rasp ...

. While at WMMS, Kid Leo became involved in the campaign to bring the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Cleveland. For his efforts in helping secure the Rock Hall, former Cleveland mayor and then-Ohio governor George Voinovich presented him with the key to the city in 1990. His on-air work is represented as part of the permanent radio exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Kid Leo received many industry awards while in radio, and in 1980 was named one of the “Heavy Hundred: The High and Mighty of the Music Industry” in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine. He was also named Best Disc Jockey by ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

'' magazine in their January, 1987 issue. His radio gravitas was also referenced in the director's cut of Cameron Crowe's 2000 motion picture ''

Almost Famous ''Almost Famous'' is a 2000 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe, and starring Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, and Patrick Fugit. It tells the story of a teenage journalist writing for ''Rolling Stone ...

''. In 2003 he was inducted into the Radio and Television Broadcasters' Hall of Fame of Ohio. In 2013

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

named Kid Leo one of the ten All-Time Great DJs.

Columbia Records

Kid Leo joined Columbia Records in 1989 as Vice President of Artist Development. His first responsibilities were to oversee the

Alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

Metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

and Dance departments, and strengthen their presence within the company. He was named the label liaison for

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

' “Steel Wheels” tour and collaborated with the band and their management on behalf of Columbia's interests. He instituted the first promotion department at a major label that was solely dedicated to the

Adult Album Alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...

(AAA) format. Kid Leo was directly involved with the campaigns that broke

Alice In Chains Alice in Chains (often abbreviated as AIC) is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1987 by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney, who later recruited bassist Mike Starr and lead vocalist Layne ...

Shawn Colvin Shawn Colvin (born Shawna Lee Colvin, January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. While Colvin has been a solo recording artist for decades, she is best known for her 1998 Grammy Award-winning song " Sunny Came Home". Early ...

and

Train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...

. In 2002, he left Columbia Records but continued on as a consultant through 2004.

LJT Entertainment

In 2002, Kid Leo formed LJT Entertainment LLC. The company is a music- and media-focused consultancy whose clients have included Columbia Records, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Renegade Nation. LJT Entertainment's offices are located in Southport, North Carolina.

Underground Garage

Since 2004 Kid Leo has been Program Director for

, a channel on

that was developed by Little Steven Van Zandt. In 2021 he was promoted to General Manager. He worked closely with Van Zandt in applying 24/7 format rules to the concepts that Little Steven uses on his own terrestrial-radio syndicated program. Kid Leo is also on the air in the Underground Garage (Sirius XM channel 21). His show airs Wednesday through Friday from 4 p.m. ET until 7 p.m. ET. As General Manager he guides an on-air staff that includes Michael Des Barres, Lenny Kaye, Slim Jim Phantom and Drew Carey..

Personal life

Kid Leo sat on the Board of Directors of the T.J. Martell Foundation for 35 years. It is a music industry-based charity which raises funds for research in the areas of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

and AIDS. In 2022, he was honored by Cleveland State University when CSU's President and Board of Trustees conferred him with the degree of ''Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa''.
''Cleveland State University official website.'' Cleveland State University. 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2022.

References

External links

Sirius XM: Underground GarageRenegade NationThe T.J. Martell Foundation - New YorkRadio Television Broadcasters' Hall of Fame of Ohio inductee pageRock Hall WMMS exhibit
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kid Leo 1950 births Living people American radio DJs American music industry executives Radio personalities from Cleveland Cleveland State University alumni