A little about Leapin' Leah...
About Me: Grew up right here in Froggyland, and never left. My Dad was a steelworker who served in WWII, Mom worked for Heinz and once I was born was a stay-at-home Mom. I love long walks on the beach, romantic dinners, oops wait, forgot what I was writing..
Education: Went to Shaler Area High School there were about 900 kids in my graduating class. What year did I graduate? Oh, somewhere back in the dawn of time...
Hometown: Born and raised in Shaler, still live in the North Hills...
Favorite Music: It's hard to choose a favorite, there are so many. I listen to lots of different types of music. My favorite from when I was in High School is John Denver,I have loved him for years. I love Keith Urban, Gary Allan, Garth Brooks, Cole Deggs and The Lonesome, and Jimmy Wayne. I'm also a Bruce Springsteen fan, Dan Fogelberg, Bon Jovi, and some lesser-known artists like Michael McDermott, Danny Vaughn, and David Wilcox. I think my favorite of the artists I've met is Phil Vassar, he's so real, so friendly and down to earth - and cute too!
Favorite Song: #1 favorite song of all time - this is a tough one, hmm - today I would say either "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springseen, or "There's A Place In The World For A Gambler" by Dan Fogleberg. My Favorite song that we play today is: "Learning How To Bend" - Gary Allan - the whole CD is AWESOME!
What do you do when you're not at FROGGY: I do a lot of theater, I act and do costuming for local shows. I also love photography and dancing! I've even played Magenta in a stage production of "The Rocky Horror Show" (not acting along with the movie, but in a show)
Favorite TV Show: I'm hooked on "Lost," "Ghost Whisperer," "Moonlight" - what a sexy vampire! and "Numbers." I always used to love to watch the old "Beauty And The Beast" series with Ron Pearlman and Linda Hamilton
Favorite Movie: "Last Of The Mohicans" with Daniel Day Lewis is number one, also love: "The Rainmaker," The Lord Of The Rings (all 3 of them), and "White Christmas." Plus I have to say "The Muppet Movie" Kermit has always been my favorite!
Favorite Food/Drink: I'll take a steak with broccoli and a glass of fresh-brewed iced tea, with chocolate for dessert please. I think that about covers it!
Worst Fear: Singing in front of people!! Talking, acting, dancing, in front of people, no problem. Singing - YIKES - whole different story! So much for my shot at American Idol...
Pet Peeves: TAILGATERS!!!!!! I could be doing 20 mph ABOVE the speed limit in the slow lane and some idiot will decide to ride right on my bumper. Some days I wish I drove a big old wreck of a car so.... well, you can guess the rest...
Favorite Celebrity You've Met: I've met so many wonderful country stars that it's hard to choose, so I'm going to pick actor John Corbett(My Big Fat Greek Wedding) we had him here at Froggy and he was just the nicest guy...and really tall!!! Plus he's from Froggyland originally...
Hidden Talents: I can juggle. Took ballet, and tap dancing for years. I'm a pretty good gardener - when it comes to flowers. And I can sew.
I would love to meet... Viggo Mortensen (from Lord Of The Rings), Garth Brooks, I'd love to meet him AND see him live. Also like a billion other women, Johnny Depp - he just seems like such an interesting guy, I'd love to sit down and have a conversation with him - no, really, I mean it!
I want everybody to know...I love animals, all kinds, I have 2 cats, 2 rats, 13 finches and a canary... and I've loved horses all my life. I took a trip to the Kentucky Horse Park about 3 years ago, I'd been wanting to go since I was 13. It was amazing. I grew up reading books about horses, never had the opportunity to have one, I read a lot about Man O'War (the Secretariat of his time - 1920 or so) and his grave is at the Kentucky Horse Park - for a little girl who grew up on horse stories it was like the Holy Grail!!!
Leapin' Leah's ON-AIR Memories...
Most Memorable ON-AIR Moment: Years ago on another station I was attempting to say "no parking on the Mon Wharf" if came out "The Mon Warking Parf.." I laughed so hard I had to go to commercial and I was still laughing so hard after the commercials that I could barely talk!
Once on a morning show I slept in, was late for work, got outside to find that someone had broken my drivers side window, put a blanket over the glass on the seat to drive to work (I was already late) got to the station to find that my morning show partners had been telling folks they had me tied up in the basement. Later a listener, very concerned, asked if they really had me tied up!!!
I've gotten to do a lot of fun stuff: I rode an elepahnt in the circus, rode a mecanical bull, got to be on stage at Post Gazette Pavillion, went up in a tethered hot air balloon, danced at Night of The Singing Dead, Danced at Dancing With The Pittsburgh Stars in 2007...and hopefully more fun to come!
Worst ON-AIR Moment: My first real air-shift on a new station I was doing a request show. It was an oldies station so all the songs were real short. I didn't know the music or where anything was and I was trying (with the help of a producer) to take calls and schedule songs and getting pretty close to running out of time. A song would be ending and I'd still be trying to find the next one!! That air shift seemed to go on forever - talk about baptism by fire!!! I did it though!
Leapin' Leah loves Froggyland because...
...to put it simply, this is where I grew up, It's home.
