Cash and Cans delayed for quarantine – how one illness affected a radio station

FRANKLIN — It was the day after Thanksgiving that radio personality Fred Caruso first noticed just a little cough that cropped up while he was working on his signature fund and food raiser, Cash And Cans. Later that night, he developed a few other mild symptoms.

“I got the chills for about a half hour. I really didn’t think anything of it,” he said. But when his wife developed similar symptoms over the weekend, they decided to get tested, and found out they both were infected with the novel coronavirus. “To be honest, I was surprised that it came back positive. I usually get a little tickle this time of year.”

Caruso and his wife experienced a mild case of illness and, aside from feeling “a little bit run-down,” the only other ill effect they’re experiencing is cabin fever while they wait out their quarantine period. If things continue to go well for Caruso, he expects to be back at work on Monday.

“We are ready to re-enter society,” said Caruso, adding that the farthest he’s traveled since receiving his diagnosis has been to the end of his driveway to retrieve his trash can.

That’s a far cry from the life he usually lives. He is celebrating his 42nd anniversary as an employee at Northeast Communications Corporation, which operates Mix 94.1 FM as well as three other radio stations. “I’ve only called in sick one day in 42 years, until this hit,” he said.

“I very rarely get a day off, and that’s the way I like it,” said Caruso.

He said he has no idea how he contracted the virus. He said he and his co-workers have been diligent in taking all the recommended precautions.

“We are very careful. We mask up, the live event I was at had hand sanitizer, everyone was masked, I wiped down all the pens we used, I did everything right.” He speculated that perhaps his caution was one reason his case wasn’t more severe. “We are fully on board with masking up and doing what we have to do to get through this.”

Organizational impact

When one person contacts coronavirus, the effect it has ripples out to everyone around them. That was the case with Northeast Communications, where, besides being known as the co-host, along with Amy Bates, of “Mix Mornings with Fred and Amy,” Caruso works as assistant general manager and operations director.

For organizations and businesses, it’s not a question of if a team member will contract coronavirus, it’s when. Jeff Levitan, vice president of Northeast Communications, said the business has been operating differently all year, to prevent a single infection from becoming an outbreak.

“Right from the beginning, in March, we asked the staff, what do you want to do? Do you want to go home or do you want to go live and local? They all said they wanted to stay and be live and serve their community,” Levitan said. So, they locked the building to outsiders and separated staff into their own space. “It’s worked very well to this point.

“The real difficulty is, you can very easily cut our staff in half if there’s an outbreak. We’re in the media business 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It could really do damage to our programming,” Levitan said.

There are two other employees who had contact with Caruso, and both have tested negative, Levitan said. That has meant that the business has been able to provide the same programming as usual, with the exception of some shuffling of shifts. That the disruption is minor is significant, because 2020 hasn’t been kind to the radio business.

“I’ve been in the broadcasting business for almost 50 years. I have dealt with a lot of crazy things, all kinds of recessions, this has been the toughest of all that we’ve had to deal with,” Levitan said.

Cash And Cans

Caruso’s illness did have one major disruption, though, and that was with regard to the Cash And Cans drive, now in its 34th year. That was supposed to be taking place this week, but Levitan said they didn’t want to do it without Caruso. Instead, the event will take place Dec. 14-18.

“Tens of thousands of dollars we raise for the community, as well as food,” Levitan said. “Fred and Amy work on that, they start at 5 in the morning and they don’t stop until 7 at night. Fred does it all, and it’s intense.”

It’s Caruso’s personality that draws the donations, collected at live broadcasts throughout the Lakes Region.

“He’s the face of the event. When he’s in the broadcast vehicle, the people come to him, they throw money at him, they throw food at him, they love to do it in the flesh. I don’t know if they’d throw money at anyone else,” Levitan said. “This is really a ground effort.”

It’s a monumental effort, but Caruso said it’s a highlight of his year.

“We’re in a people business, I really miss interacting with folks,” Caruso said. “This week, our Cash And Cans week, is probably my most fun week of the year.” It’s not just collecting food and donations, he said, “It’s meeting our listeners, seeing kids come up with their piggy bank, I really miss that.”