South Philly Review

Suits, ties and board meetings may be a few words that remind people of banking. Sports radio is probably not.

South Philly natives Bob Marino and Anthony Gargano — who have a 30-year friendship forged from half-ball games and Rita’s water ice — are looking to change that.

“It was Anthony’s idea, he was like, ‘What if Bob comes on the air with me and discusses banking?’” Marino, Delaware Valley Region president and director of Valley Green Bank, said. “People see banking as very boring and stogy. And our growing up in South Philly kind of humanizes the whole process and Anthony came up with the idea for Ask Bob.”

Ask Bob is a weekly commercial of sorts that runs on Philadelphia’s 610 WIP sportsradio, where Gargano has been a personality for a decade. The one-minute spots taped biweekly feature Marino and Gargano talking, well, like two boys from South Philly about everything from a remote deposit to lending.

“It’s about relationships, you should look at your banker as someone who is a valued and trusted person in your business,” Marino said. “Really get to know your banker and let them get to know your business.”

This approach to banking is why Marino switched to Valley Green in January, and also the message Gargano and Marino are trying to convey in their radio spots.

“[Bob] was saying maybe we should do some advertising, present it and thaw out some of the stodginess of banking,” Gargano, from 18th and Ritner streets, said. “Listen, I endorse 12, maybe 10 products and I make sure I believe in them. You know, I think they are good products.

“Bob, I know for a fact, the other ones I’m pretty sure about. Bob, I know the guy’s a genius.”

Many would scoff at the idea a banker and a sports radio host have professional common ground. But that’s what friends are for.

“…The way our parents brought us up, your friends and your family are at the core of who you are,” Marino, 46, said. “So many great things I’ve experienced with my family and my friends and it’s almost interchangeable. My friends are as close as my family. Everyone is watching out for each other, these seven guys are my brothers, if I was ever in trouble, they were looking out for me.”

Gargano refers to the same circle of seven, which includes his cousin Joey — who is owner of Boys Town-Girls Town, 1708 E. Passyunk Ave. — whom both credit with connecting them. And though the network of seven friends now stretches from Jersey to “Frisco” to Wisconsin, some bonds can stretch infinitely without breaking.

“I think it’s South Philly people, I think you’re raised by this, you’re raised that the minute you make a friend when you’re that age, that’s it, that’s foxhole,” Gargano, who gave his age as “four years younger than Bobby,” said. “I live a pretty social life. I get to be friends with ball players and reporters. But when I say ‘friends’ I’m talking about my seven friends who I grew up with and it’s a South Philly thing cause we are foxhole guys.”

Raised on the 2600 block of South Colorado Street, Marino went to St. Monica’s for middle school and then on to Central High. Though Gargano’s family moved out of the area when he was about 8, South Philly was still home.

“My mother loved South Philly, she hated Jersey, so we would stay weekends over my grandmother’s,” Gargano said of his kin who still lived at 18th and Ritner. “It was funny, I was there ’cause I loved going back. All my friends were there so I would go.”

With an age difference that may seem insurmountable in other areas, the four-years-apart Marino and Gargano learned early that age is just a number.

“What happened was my cousin Joey and Bobby went to school together. I was the tagalong and I’d tagalong with those guys and they became my friends, and I became the mascot of the crew,” Gargano said.

Gargano moved back to the area when he enrolled in Temple University, commuting to complete a bachelor’s in English from his grandmother’s home. Marino was also an Owl studying business, a subject in which he would later get a master’s degree from St. Joe’s University.

Upon graduation, the two went their separate ways to carve out professional careers.

“I was working part-time for Central Pennsylvania Bank, a Philadelphia bank that was later purchased and became Meridian,” Marino said. “I was going to school full-time and then banking part-time. Then it reversed a few years later.”