Maria Garcia, former co-host of WBLI/106.1 FM morning show, dies at 52

Maria Garcia, a New York radio mainstay known for her eight-year morning show at Long Island’s WBLI/106.1 FM, died Friday near her home in Ocean Township, New Jersey. Garcia was 52.

She was found dead in her vehicle, confirmed her partner, Milton Tirado. The medical examiner has not yet released a cause of death, Tirado said.

"She was determined," said Shawn Novatt, a producer of the WBLI morning drive show variously titled "The Wake-Up Crew" and "Steve & Maria in the Morning," which Garcia co-hosted with Steve Harper from 1997 to 2005.

"She performed even when things were hard," Novatt added, "and if she believed something was wrong at work in the show, she was not afraid to raise her voice and stand up for herself."

Andre Ferro, of WINS/1010, who worked with Garcia at another of her many posts, WCBS-AM, described his former colleague as having "a really fun personality, full of energy at all times."

She could be "a little loud at times, in a funny way," Ferro said. "Opinionated but super talented. And she just loved her son and her family."

Garcia was born in New York City on Jan. 2, 1972, the younger of two daughters of Miguel and Victoria Garcia. She was raised in South Florida from about age 4. There, Garcia attended Champagnat Catholic School in Hialeah and earned a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications from the University of Florida, in Gainesville.

Garcia moved to New York with her future husband, radio journalist and current Skyview Networks executive Andrew Kalb, in 1996 and spent a year at WCBS-AM, where she would later return. In October 1997, Garcia began her long-running WBLI show and evolved into a beloved Long Island radio personality.

"She was part of a No. 1 radio show on Long Island. They were on the air during 9/11," Kalb said. "Her pregnancy with our son was announced at Jones Beach, at the WBLI Summer Jam in 2002."

Garcia and Kalb separated in 2017 and later divorced.

Through the years, Garcia lived in Manhattan, Hicksville, Huntington and Jericho.

Said her son, Ethan Kalb, a student at the University of Central Florida, in Orlando: "The thing that made me realize how really good she was, was we went to London for a vacation and someone recognized her voice. We were somewhere and someone was, like, ‘Are you Maria Garcia?’ "

After leaving WBLI in 2005, she freelanced as a reporter for News 12 Long Island; returned to WCBS for a couple of years; and spent another couple at WNYW/5 as a reporter and also as a "City Rant" segment host. Garcia also had stints at WABC/770, and the CBS News Radio Network through 2021.

Garcia then moved to Doral, Florida, to live with her older sister, Victoria Garcia, a physician.

Garcia's son said his mother moved to New Jersey "maybe a week ago to live with her boyfriend, Milton."

In addition to her broadcasting career, Garcia wrote the 2010 comedy paperback "101 Ways to Torture Your Husband" as Maria Garcia-Kalb.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been formalized.