Matt Siegel’s 41-year radio run was longer than most marriages. He was the star of Boston radio’s top-rated show, Matty in the Morning, on Kiss 108. And In 2022, he disappeared from the airwaves.
Siegel harbors deep feelings about how his legendary career ended, and he’s ready to talk about it. This week on Globe Opinion’s “Say More” podcast Siegel discusses Demi Lovato, getting older, and the “woke stuff” that ended his career.
Listen to the episode below. Further down in the article, you’ll find three key takeaways, and a full transcript of our interview with Siegel.
Subscribe to “Say More” on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Siegel performs at The Wilbur Theatre on Wednesday, September 30th. Tickets $47 – $125.
Three takeaways from our interview with Siegel
By Anna Kusmer
What ever happened to Matty in the Morning?
For four decades, wise guy radio personality Matt Siegel graced the airwaves of Boston’s hit radio station Kiss 108.
Then, in 2022, he sort of disappeared.
He’s recently reemerged, and is doing a live show next Wednesday at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston.
Siegel’s radio departure was awkward and a bit murky. It had something to do with on-air jokes about pop singer Demi Lovato’s gender pronouns, followed by feuds with station management. Casual listeners may have heard the story of Siegel storming out of the studio in a rage.
Soon after, a prerecorded message from Siegel announced his retirement from the show, citing health issues and a desire to spend time with his family.
For the last 4 years, Siegel’s former cohosts, Billy Costa and Lisa Donovan, have continued the show, which is now called “Billy & Lisa in the Morning.”
I always had the vague sense that Siegel was one of the many men to be swept up in the cancel culture purge of the 2020s. But what actually went down with Matty?
This week, Siegel wanted to “clear the air,” as he put it. He joined me on the Globe’s “Say More” podcast to tell me how and why his legendary run ended, and what he misses most about being on-air.
Here are three takeaways from our conversation.
1. “I was an idiot”
Matt Siegel is seriously sorry. He screwed up, royally, and he’s more than eager to admit it.
“I f---- up. And I’m really, really sorry. I went down a bad road. And then the problem is I stayed in crazy-land,” he said.
Siegel wasn’t referring to his original comments about Demi Lovato’s gender identity, but the fallout that came after. After being told by his boss not to “go there” about Lovato’s pronouns, Siegel delivered an on-air monologue lambasting station management.
“I had this thing in my head where, ‘Don’t tell me what to do, I’m Matty in the Morning,’” Siegel said. “Which translates to: ‘Don’t tell me what to do. I’m an idiot.’”
In the cancel culture era, it’s rare and refreshing to hear a grown man give a clear, full-throated apology. He genuinely wants to make amends to the people he hurt.
2. “The woke thing went too far”
Despite Siegel’s contrition for how he treated his coworkers and friends, he doesn’t regret making jokes about gender identity.
“The woke thing went too far,” said Siegel. “And my personal belief, [is] that’s why Trump is president. Because the woke thing turned so many people off.”
You can take Matty away from his radio show, but if you put a mic in front of him, he will tell you what he really thinks.
3. Sorry, not sorry.
Siegel admits that his behavior toward the end of his run deserved a serious dressing-down. But he then asks a question worthy of consideration, did the punishment fit the crime?
And this is where the interview gets heavy, because Siegel not only lost his job in 2022. He lost his best friends.
Siegel says his last months were marred by a “serious HR complaint” made against him by his former cohost and friend Lisa Donovan, after Siegel made on-air comments about Donovan’s son’s school and its gender policies.
“It’s one thing to poke fun at Demi Lovato. It’s another thing to poke fun at the school that my [radio] partner’s son goes to,” Siegel said, expressing his regret.
Still, Siegel is frustrated that Donovan and his other former cohost Billy Costa won’t talk to him or answer his calls.
“They’re on the air,” he said. “They have my show now. If there’s not a part of them that appreciates what I did for them... all those years and all the money I made for them. I went to their weddings and did all that. [Billy] was best man at my wedding. How’d we get here?”
In Siegel’s estimation, his decision to move to Florida during the pandemic set the stage for the eventual fallout. His jokes weren’t landing with his friends, but he was no longer there in person to realize the pain he was causing.
“I look back, and I think, ‘I could have fixed it so easily,’” Siegel told me. “Why didn’t I just get on a plane and fly to Boston and go, ‘Guys’?”
And here lies the most human part of Matty’s story. Siegel is clearly hurt and sad, but he’s also angry. Angry that a million “sorrys” aren’t enough to mend the fractured relationships with his former team.
“There’s two ways to look at the ending; One was [that] I was an idiot. Made some horrible choices. And the other was [that] my team abandoned me.”
For more from our conversation with Siegel, read the full transcript below.
Cancel Culture Killed the Radio Star: A Sit-Down with Matty in the Morning
The following is a lightly edited transcript of the September 24 episode of “Say More.”
Anna Kusmer: Why come back to the spotlight?
Matt Siegel: When I moved down to Florida – and it’s fine, I live on a golf course and I have a nice marriage, but how do you compare to walking down the street and strangers come up and talk to you? I missed it. I thought, “Well, maybe I wanna clear the air a little bit about my leaving and stuff.”
So, it was a combination of wanting to clear the air a little bit, but more importantly, this is not a normal thing for people to have a connection with, I don’t know, [a] couple hundred thousand people or something. And I just thought, “one more time.”
And the show is filled with funny stories and stuff like that, but that wasn’t so much the impetus because we sold out 14 shows in a row and made plenty of money at KISS, so I didn’t need to do it. But I just thought it’d be nice one more time. One more time.
Kusmer: I think maybe some young people don’t realize how, compared to podcasts, radio used to be so regional. As you say, there’s a couple, maybe 100,000 people for whom you spent hours and hours a day with them.
Siegel: That’s what people tell me, yeah.
Kusmer: But can you talk a little bit about your connection to Boston? What does this town mean to you?
Siegel: Well, you alluded to younger people. Radio now is not what it was when I was on the radio. Things have changed, [with] podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, and all that kind of stuff.
When I was on the air, everybody listened to the radio. Not so much anymore, but everybody listened. So if you were lucky enough, [like] I was lucky enough to be number one in the ratings for a long, long time, it’s like everybody knew me, you know?
I mean, I get recognized all the time and I wasn’t on television. I was a few times, but it was different. I was sort of the guy for a long time. There are a lot of popular radio shows now, obviously, but not exactly the same as it was before podcasting and the other formats, the Spotify’s of the world.
Kusmer: Do you feel like there is a connection that you forged with Boston [and] Bostonians? What do you think made you so successful here?
Siegel: People said I said aloud what they thought, which always obviously got me in trouble at the end. I kinda overdid it at one point. But, yeah, it’s hard to talk about myself that way, but I could tell you what people said.
Kusmer: Or what do you think makes this town tick? I think you may have had a read on the culture here. What’s your read on the culture that you think is a good fit for you, for your personality?
Siegel: Wise guy?
Kusmer: I think that’s a good one. I think that’s a smart one, actually
Siegel: So, you have Howard Stern who was legendary for saying whatever he wanted, mostly to men. And, KISS 108’s format was [a] little more female because of the music. We were a Top 40 station, which usually dictates more towards women.
Kusmer: Interesting.
Siegel: So, I had the ability to make women laugh. Most comedic shows, the Howard Sterns of the world, got men to laugh. I had the ability to make women laugh somehow, and I think that was the start of it.
And also I was able to shift gears to seriousness. When people [ask] about what I remembered, and it was the heavy stuff in some ways, which is really funny, because my show was 95% jokes.
I was on all day during 9/11. None of the other guys came in. I stayed on the air all day. The Boston bombing, same thing. So, it was comfortable for me. Who knows why. It’s the way I was wired, but it was comfortable to me to switch gears from being the funny wise guy to being a good guy.
And I think that’s how I connected to people. Oh, my God, I did an event not too long ago, [and] a woman came up to me and she cried, like tears. She said, “You know, you’re my life. Especially when it was rough with COVID, during the rough years, you got me...”
A lot of women, some men, but a lot of women said I got them through tough times in their life. I’ve gotten mail. “I went through a divorce, and I’d put you on in the morning, and it made me smile.” I can’t begin to tell you how flattered [I am] when people say things like that.
I just started out as being a wise guy, funny guy. I didn’t expect to touch people like that. It just happened.
Kusmer: I wanted to ask you how the show evolved for you. I’ve heard you say that your original and kind of big, overarching goal was to make people laugh.
But your show became a lot more than humor. So how did the show evolve? Would you say like 9/11 was a turning point for you in thinking, “My role here is actually much bigger than making people laugh”? Was there a turning point for you, and how did it evolve?
Siegel: No, not so much. I think the way I was brought up — early in my career, way before I was on here, my dad would listen to the show and not like it very much. He said, “you’re a smart guy, with your stupid little jokes. Why don’t you do some serious interviews?”
So it was in me to. I interviewed a lot of people, and I think I grew up both ways, intellectual in some ways and a wise guy in other ways. I’m complex.
Kusmer: Okay, but that’s interesting because do you feel like that was something you eased into as a host, that you were able to kind of bring more of you?
Siegel: I hardly ever prepared for my show. Ever. I had a team, and they would have the news and the stories, and I would react to them.
And I was terrible at monologues and stuff. I always reacted. I just reacted to what other people said. Like with Billy Costa and before him several other news guys that I had, Bill Rossi and Mat Schaefer and other guys, and they would tell me what’s going on in the day. And I go, “What? Well, what about this? What about that?”
Yeah. So that’s how I did it. To answer your question, I never really planned it. It just flew.
Kusmer: And people would call in a lot too, right?
Siegel: Yeah, we had a big call-in segment, yeah. “Right Now,” we used to call it.
Kusmer: Right. Were there any moments from that, just in terms of the comedy, the funny moments, you remember as being some of your favorite moments on air, in terms of the laughter part?
Siegel: From people calling in?
Kusmer: Or just that you remember.
Siegel: The people will remember the name Carmela.
Because Carmela was the story that for some reason really resonated and I forget all the details, but basically — there are people who are listening to your podcast who know this better than I do — but basically, there’s a woman, and she lived next door to her son’s fiancé.
And she went over to get a cup of coffee or something, and the father of the groom was sleeping with her daughter or something like that. And she caught them in the act, and we did a follow-up. We called back the next day.
That was one of them. There were a lot of those. There are a lot of gags that we planned. We had this guy, Randy, and we used to have him do all crazy stuff. But, Carmela was one of the ones that just happened.
Kusmer: I have to ask about the ending. I can’t say I was an everyday “Matty in the Morning” listener, but I definitely listened for years and years.
And I remember learning that something had gone down where you had been, maybe making fun of Demi Lovato for saying that she was non-binary, and somehow that was some kind of incident that caused you to leave the air. And I, as I’ve been reflecting back on this, think, “Really? The great Matt Siegel, Demi Lovato?”
Can you explain what happened there and, and why that was a point that sort of things changed for you?
Siegel: So I was talking [and] there wasn’t an interview with Demi Lovato. I was just talking about her. So, we were talking about her, and I was doing my stupid Matt thing of “What’s that about? What does that mean? Geez. Blah, blah, blah.”
We go to a break. The phone rings, and it was my boss, the program director. Never called during the show. He was very laissez-faire about my work. Never called. And he calls, and he goes, “Don’t go there. Do not go there.”
And believe me, Anna, if I could have that to do over, oh my God.
And I just went the other way. I just, “Don’t tell me what to do. I know what I’m doing.” And obviously I didn’t know what I was doing.
One thing led to another and I got all upset. I’ll tell you something that’s interesting. I was a lifelong Democrat. Still, I don’t know if [that’s] what I am now. But I mean, I grew up as a Democrat, my parents were practically communists, they were so liberal.
And to think that I got into trouble because I wasn’t left enough, I couldn’t believe it. And that whole woke thing, I mean, I feel really strongly about the whole woke thing. I’m not an expert on politics, but I’m a lot like Bill Maher. [have] you ever see[n] Bill Maher on TV? His take on things is very similar to mine.
He’s liberal, but the woke thing went too far. And my personal belief, [is] that’s why Trump is president. Because the woke thing turned so many people off.
And, I went down a bad road and got a lot of people mad at me. I actually quit for a day and went back the next day. Looking back on that moment, there’s no question, it was just some kind of personality flaw.
I made a bad choice and I got mad [when] all I had to do was say, “Okay, boss. We’ll talk about something else.” And, you know how many times I’ve looked back on that day? Like, a million. Why didn’t I [say], “Okay, boss, no problem”?
But I had this thing in my head where, “Don’t tell me what to do, I’m Matty in the Morning,” which is translated to, “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m an idiot.”
Have you ever made a mistake, Anna?
Kusmer: Yeah. Not that high stakes. But I know that feeling of “I could’ve gone a different way with it.”
Siegel: A lot of people listening who’ve been through divorces and lost jobs, think back on their life, “What was I thinking?” There’s actually a country song called “What Was I Thinkin’.” Feel free to play it.
Kusmer: We can, we’ll put it in.
Siegel: But yeah, there’s no question in my mind. I don’t wanna swear on your show.
Kusmer: You can. It’s fine.
Siegel: Okay, I fucked up. I fucked up. And I’m really, really sorry. And it went down a bad road. And then the problem is I stayed in crazy-land. It wasn’t just that one day. I stayed in crazy-land, and it was all that woke stuff. And do you really wanna know how I ended up leaving the radio station? [Are] you dying to know?
Kusmer: Sure.
Siegel: It was the same thing. I went on the air and I talked about, I don’t wanna say the name of the school, but it’s a private school. I could, but why should I? So, I went to a private school that Lisa’s son went to and they had this policy.
Kusmer: Lisa Donovan, your cohost.
Siegel: And they had this policy that they would ask the kids who were, like, eight or nine years old what gender they wanted to be. And I thought that was the stupidest — they don’t even have pubic hair.
Kusmer: They were little kids.
Siegel: Yeah, they’re little kids, and I went on about that. Of course, it got back to the school, and other kids, and the kids made fun of Lisa’s son.
And Lisa flipped out and went to HR and made a serious complaint, and I was really upset. You went to HR? We’ve worked together for 25 years. I trained you. I give you big bonuses every year. We’re friends. How could you go to HR? And another part of the problem was [that] I was in Florida.
I wouldn’t say it was a mistake to go to Florida. It was more like, I happened to go to Florida. And what happened, I assume this is true for most people, in our field, you do the show and then after the show, you decompress. But we didn’t have an after the show.
We had the show, goodbye, I went to the golf course or whatever, right? So I never knew how upset everybody was at me, and the same thing happened with Billy [Costa]. And, I was burning out anyway. I was 72 years old. I’ve done it for, as you said, 41 years, and I was so frustrated. And I just said, “Fine. You hate me that much, I’ll quit.”
But I didn’t wanna say any of that stuff on the air, so we made up some bullshit thing about me having health issues, which was a lie. And I look back, I said, “I could have fixed it so easily.” Why didn’t I just get on a plane and fly to Boston and go, “Guys”?
I mean, there’s two ways to look at the ending; One was [that] I was an idiot. Made some horrible choices. And the other was [that] my team abandoned me.
Kusmer: They kind of cut you loose.
Siegel: Yeah. They wouldn’t even talk to me. They wouldn’t take my calls. I apologized a million times. They wouldn’t talk to me. So, it was 50/50.
Kusmer: I’m reflecting on this feeling of screwing up, wanting to make amends. What I feel about this cancel culture stuff — What upsets me is there doesn’t seem to be this way of sort of... how do we make it better?
We can all agree that it sucks when someone says something terrible and really hurts someone else’s feelings, but how do we repair [it]? What does that look like? And I feel for you that it seems like you really want to. You wanna make amends. And again, this all happened in public.
You’re back in Boston. It seems like there’s something, like, you’re trying to figure this out. You’re actively trying to figure this out. How do I say sorry in the right way? How do I say sorry enough?
Siegel: So Demi Lovato is what started this whole thing, me talking about Demi Lovato, and what’s Demi Lovato’s big hit? “Sorry not Sorry.”
Kusmer: I didn’t know that. That’s kind of perfect.
Siegel: Yeah, isn’t that perfect? “Sorry, Not Sorry.” I was just talking a little bit about the woke thing. Let’s talk about gays. So for a long time, gays had a hard time and it’s changed, and now in modern times, everybody has a gay friend.
So oh, he’s gay. And so you may make gay jokes, but then there’s so many gay comedians that make jokes back. You know what I mean? You go to your hairdresser, and you go back and forth.
For some reason, in the new sexualities, whatever you call it, pansexual or trans and whatever it’s all those things, no humor, no acceptance, nothing. If you don’t accept me, if I’m gonna change my gender and if you dare have a problem with it, screw you. You’re off the air. You’re done. What is that?
Kusmer: Well, what do you think? Why do you think it’s such a sensitive issue?
Siegel: I think that’s why Trump’s president.
Kusmer: But why do you think people do feel so hurt when... Why do you think... I agree [with you on making] gay jokes, but I feel like they didn’t work as well when the society was more actively hostile against gay people than it is now.
My take is that trans people who are not in the norm feel very attacked by policies and politicians and actual real things.
Siegel: No, I get that. But — Why can’t you —
Kusmer: So they don’t have a sense of humor about it.
Siegel: This has been my problem with that whole world. Why can’t you just say or think, “I know this is weird to you. I get it. It’s weird, but that’s how I wanna do [it].” And everybody would be, “Okay.” That’s all they had to say. All they had to say was, “I know this sounds odd to you, especially you baby boomers. But I feel more comfortable this way.” And then you’d go, “All right. What do I care?”
But that’s not how it played out. It was like, if you dare comment about it, you’re done. You’re toxic. We don’t want anything to do with you ever again. And that was such a turnoff to so many people in the country.
You’re like, “What do you mean? What?”
Kusmer: Do you think this shift, as you see it, made your style of comedy, your style of hosting, sort of untenable? Do you think if it hadn’t been Demi Lovato, it would’ve been something else?
Siegel: I don’t know. Maybe. I managed to go down the one road — I told you, when my boss called, he said, “Don’t go there.” And he was right, and I was wrong. I went there. And then I blew up my career because I didn’t get it. I get it now.
I put it all together. It’s like, I was wrong. I’m sorry I hurt my staff. And I feel sick about that. I would do anything to make amends to them. Swear to God, I feel sick about that. But in fairness, what they did to me was equally bad. And I really believe that. I really believe in my heart that I screwed up. I went down a road I shouldn’t have.
I hurt people, there’s no excuse. I mean, I can’t believe I did it. It’s one thing to poke fun at Demi Lovato. It’s another thing to poke fun at the school that my [radio] partner’s son goes to. I thought it was funny. I didn’t think it was so bad, you know? But, how did it go from that to never talking to me again?
They’re on the air. They have my show now. If there’s not a part of them that appreciates what I did for them, all those years and all the money I made for them…
I went to their weddings and did all that. He was my best man at my wedding. How’d we get here?
Kusmer: As you mentioned, Matt, you are pretty anti-Trump. And but it’s interesting because I don’t think of your listeners, like the “Matty in the Morning” crowd, as being a liberal bubble by any means. And in a way it’s almost like a refreshingly probably mixed crowd, your fans compared to how partisan everything feels right now.
But, I’m curious, did you ever get in fights with fans or interact with fans about politics? Because you had put a stake in the ground of not liking Trump.
Siegel: No, I didn’t do that on the air, hardly at all.
Kusmer: Did it ever happen off air [in] your interactions with fans?
Siegel: No, I didn’t want to go there. It was sort of greedy, you know? I don’t wanna lose half my audience. You know, that’s a big thing in Florida on the golf course.
Kusmer: What?
Siegel: [It’s] forbidden to talk politics. And it’s funny because it’s a rule that every[one] — it’s not a rule on the wall. You know, it’s just an etiquette thing. Everybody knows. And if you bring up a political question, somebody in the foursome will go, “Uh-uh. Don’t go there. Shut up.”
Kusmer: Hit you with a club.
Siegel: Yeah. Because — especially in Florida — if you start talking politics, you just ruined the day for everybody.
Kusmer: Is that hard to sometimes hold yourself back from bringing up a Trump comment?
Siegel: Nah. We were talking about the woke stuff and all that. I mean, I have opinions, but I don’t go to protest marches or anything. I have feelings about it. I’m not fond of him.
Kusmer: And you’re saying that’s mostly a calculation based on the entertainment business, [that] not being political helps you?
Siegel: Given my track record, can you understand how I don’t feel the need to take a side anymore for the rest of my life?
Fine, fine, fine. Trump, fine. Everybody’s fine, you know? Demi Lovato wants to have sex with chimpanzees, I don’t care.
Kusmer: But people come to you for spicy, unfiltered takes. That’s what I would say [is] my sense is that’s [it’s] part of your brand. So, do you feel like [it’s] hard to continue to be that guy while also feeling like there’s so many third rails that you can’t touch?
Siegel: So, you’re asking me if I still had a radio show, but I don’t.
Kusmer: Or just because you’re going on stage and people still very much care what you have to say. You’re in front of a mic now.
Siegel: I can tell you right now, if you go to thewilbur.com and buy tickets to my show, there will be no political stuff, none. I just don’t do it. It’s not my act.
Kusmer: What do you miss most about being on air?
Siegel: Oh, we laughed. Every interview I did was still funny. The thing, [is] I was waiting around for you to ask me, like some of the cool moments. I had two incredible moments that stick out. The number one was in 2016, we had Hillary Clinton on frigging Election Day. Election morning.
Kusmer: How’d you land that?
Siegel: I don’t know. She was in town. To this day, I don’t know how we did that. I really don’t. Somebody knew somebody who knew someone. Anyway, we had Hillary Clinton, and I joked around with her. And I made her laugh, and she laughed.
And, I said, “If the Hillary Clinton in that interview was the Hillary Clinton all the time, she would’ve been president.” Because I said, for example, “Okay...” — And you got to remember, everyone thought she was gonna win. No one thought Trump was gonna win. After the scandal on the TV show, where he talked about grabbing women.
Kusmer: Access Hollywood, yeah.
Siegel: Nobody thought he was gonna win. And so I was just joking with her. I didn’t even ask her about policy. I said, “So let me ask you this: So you’re gonna go back to the same bed where your husband was? Are you now gonna sleep on the other side of the bed where the red phone is?”
And she said, “They can move the damn phone when I’m president.” And I thought that was so funny. That was cool, you know? So that was [a] really amazing night, and morning rather.
And then the other really cool thing was when Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won the Oscar for Good Will Hunting. And they went to a party, and they called us from the party in Los Angeles, to say “Hi” to their Boston fans on my show.
That was so cool. I mean, I get chills just remembering that. They just won the Oscar, and everybody loved Ben and Matt, you know, Boston heroes.
Kusmer: They transformed the city with that, really.
Siegel: And they picked my show to come on. Well, I knew them. We’re not, like, pals, but I had met them. So, that was really fun. And I miss that. Oh, God, I miss that.
Kusmer: The camaraderie.
Siegel: We were pals. We used to travel. We’d stopped doing it at one point, but we used to take listeners to places, like the resorts, and Bill and I would go with them and drink with them and party. And yeah, those were the good old days. I miss them.
Kusmer: I was actually shocked when I learned you were in your 70s. I think maybe you’re just trapped in amber in my head as 20 years ago when I used to listen to you the most.
Siegel: You’re going to tell me I look younger?
Kusmer: You do.
Siegel: Hold on. Did you say that? And [can you] put that on some[thing]?
Kusmer: But we’re all getting older.
Siegel: Yeah, I’m 76. Jesus, when did that happen?
Kusmer: I know. Do you feel old? How is it different than what you expected, getting older?
Siegel: Memory lapses. Not like I have a disease or anything. Just, you know, senior moments. My health’s pretty good. You know, I got this and that, but like everybody else my age. But, so far, so good.
Kusmer: How do you reflect back on your career? What are your biggest reflections now?
Siegel: There’s no question the number one is the woman who burst into tears because it meant that much, and I’ve met a lot of people in Boston, women mostly, who have these sweet reactions. They get all excited. “Oh my God, it’s Matty.”
I mean, who gets that? And it happens to me a lot, and it’s just unbelievable. And that’s why I feel so bad that it ended awkwardly. But that’s part of the reason I wanted to come back to the Wilbur. [To] put a nice bow on it.
Kusmer: Something nice about coming back in-person. I always find radio to be a strange medium because you’re alone, but you’re also with so many people. You don’t know who’s hearing you, and you don’t know what impact you’re having. You can’t see them reacting, right?
Siegel: No, we used to do live shows where we would go to a bar or something, and we’d have, like, 100 people there or whatever, and it was so different. You tell a joke, and you hear if they laugh or not.
But actually in a weird way, it works in reverse because most of your listeners are alone in the car. I mean, people listen at home, but the majority are in the car, and it’s a morning show. So in the car going to work. They’re alone, and there’s their little pal, Matty.
Kusmer: If this is your last sort of big public splash, what is your goal for this last statement to fans?
Siegel: I had a boss early in my career. Not the boss that I had at the end, but earlier. And, I had gotten in[to] some beef with somebody at the station over some stupid thing. But he called me in his office to try to work things out. He says, “Let me tell you something, Matt. You are not an asshole, so stop acting like one.”
I’m not an asshole, but sometimes I acted like one. I know what I was feeling.
Kusmer: Matt Siegel, radio personality, “Matty in the Morning” on KISS 108, a Boston legend. He’s got a show next week at The Wilbur called “An Evening with Matty in the Morning.” Tickets are on sale.
I can’t thank you enough for coming in. I really appreciate it. Good luck next week and take care.
Siegel: Thank you so much for having me. As I said when I first met you, I’m flattered you even wanted to talk to me.
Kusmer: Absolutely.
Victoria White of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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Anna Kusmer can be reached at anna.kusmer@globe.com.