A NJ/Philly radio legend needs a kidney — and we’re asking NJ to help

I want to tell you about Glenn Kalina — and then I want to ask you something.

Glenn is a Jersey guy. Burlington County, LBI, the whole deal. But if you grew up listening to Philadelphia radio over the last five decades you already know the name. Hot Hits WCAU-FM in the eighties. Q102 WIOQ in the nineties. Most recently 98.1 WOGL in Philly, where he became the kind of voice that people genuinely miss when it goes away. I feel pretty confident saying Glenn Kalina is a Delaware Valley radio legend.

He was also, for a while, an on-air partner of our own Steve Trevelise at Alice 104.5 in Philadelphia. Which means he is not just a name to us. He is family.

Radio is funny that way. I have always thought of it like a volleyball game — you rotate, and at some point you are right in front of another player, and then you rotate again and eventually you are back in front of them. Every radio professional I have ever known falls into one of three categories: someone I have worked with in the past, someone I am working with now, or someone I will work with in the future. That is what makes us a family.

Right now Glenn Kalina has rotated back in front of me and Trev. And we need to step up.

Glenn needs a kidney

This week Glenn took to Facebook with a personal video message that takes some courage to record and even more to post publicly. He is dealing with kidney failure. His doctor has told him his best option is a new kidney — and specifically, a living donor kidney.

Here is something worth knowing about Glenn that makes this harder to hear: he is not someone who sits still. He is fit, active, social — the kind of guy who fills a room. Kidney disease has affected his energy, his schedule, his freedom. The things that define him are being taken away one by one. And he is asking for help getting them back.

There is also this: about eleven years ago Glenn wanted to donate a kidney to his niece. That is the kind of person he is. It was during that evaluation process that he discovered he had kidney problems of his own. He tried to give and found out he was the one who needed to receive.

SEE ALSO: More Than A Transplant, A New Friendship: Radio Personality Marks Special Anniversary With His Kidney Donor

We have seen this work right here at NJ 101.5

Some of you may remember that our own Bob Williams — the traffic reporter you’ve heard on this station decades — went through something similar in 2018. Bob had been living with Type 2 diabetes for years, and by 2018 his kidneys were so compromised that his doctors recommended he register for a transplant. Bob posted on Facebook asking for help, and a woman named Kim Roumes — someone he knew casually from youth sports — saw the post, filled out the application and became his donor. 

Bob and Kim celebrated the one-year anniversary of the transplant together and have become close friends since. Bob is healthy. He is happy. He still makes me laugh. He teaches future broadcasters. And he famously noted that since receiving a kidney from a Yankees fan, he now roots for two teams. 

Living donation works. Bob Williams is proof of it. Glenn Kalina deserves the same chance.

How you can help Glenn

If you would like to learn more about becoming a living kidney donor for Glenn, the National Kidney Registry has set up a page specifically for him. You do not have to be a match — the paired donation program means your donation can still help Glenn even if you are not his direct match.

Learn more and start the process here: nkr.org/RME835 and here for Barnabas Health Living Donor information: sbmclivingdonor.org

You do not have to be a radio person to understand what it means when a community shows up for one of its own. Glenn Kalina has been showing up for listeners for fifty years. This is our chance to show up for him.