For the past 18 years, Charles Santoro has been an Executive at the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network and is now making a name for himself in his new acting career. From humble beginnings, Charles Santoro’s life has shown that with hard work, determination, and a little bit of kindness, you can live the life you’ve always imagined.
As a Brooklyn native, Charles, affectionately called “Charlie” by his many friends, loved baseball from an early age. In our interview, he recalled how he loved the Mets and the Yankees. Charlie’s parents were from Italy, and unfortunately, couldn’t take him to many games when he was younger. He remembered how his uncle would cut baseball tickets out of the back of milk cartons so he could take Charlie to the Mets games.
“I grew up a Mets fan,” Charlie explained in our interview. “In the seventies, I watched Billy Martin, Thurman Munson, and Graig Nettles—I loved these guys. The first game I went to was in Shea Stadium, and I sat all the way at the top. You couldn’t have sat any higher, but it got us to a game.
“In the seventies, I went to my first game at Yankees Stadium,” Charlie continued. “When I first saw the field, I couldn’t believe it. It was beautiful. They say you can’t be a Yankees fan and a Mets fan, but I really became both. I love the Yankees, and it’s funny now because I’m friendly with all these guys on the team. I still can’t believe it. It’s a dream come true.”
Though Charlie Santoro is thriving as a sports entertainment executive now, while pursuing his acting career in his spare time, the road to creating his career path wasn’t easy. After years of working hard to build his own pizzeria business, Charlie lost everything and quickly had to recover in order to provide for his wife and two kids.
While working three jobs, he was noticed by several of his employers for his hard work and efforts. One of these places was Rent-A-Center, where Charlie was an account executive. He was quickly promoted to manager, running and improving all aspects of his store. Within a year, Charlie became the top salesman in the company. Because of his impressive management and sales skills demonstrated during his time at Rent-A-Center, he was head-hunted by a leading chain of electronic stores, the Wiz, to become a sales manager. Within a year of working there, he was doubling sales and creating great and lasting relationships with clients.
His strong work ethic caught the attention of the owner of the Wiz, Charles “Chuck” Dolan, who personally visited Charlie Santoro at his shop to congratulate him on his success within the company. “He was an older gentleman, and he carried a pad with him. I thought ‘Am I getting fired? I’m doing pretty well here,’ but I didn’t know what to expect,” Charlie laughed at the memory. “Chuck Dolan came into the office, and he wanted to congratulate me personally—that’s what kind of man he was. He was incredible.”
Dolan took him out for lunch, and Charlie explained his situation: how he lost his business and house and was working three jobs at the time to provide for his family. At the end of the lunch, Dolan gave Charlie Santoro a card with his number on it, saying that if Charlie needed anything, to phone him up. At the time, Charlie didn’t realize how valuable this connection would be for him.
Six months later, Charlie Santoro found himself applying for a job at Metro TV. He was also working a part-time job at a radio station and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to advance in his career path. He called up Dolan, and he was able to get him an interview, which quickly lead to five interviews.
“I was supposed to go on one interview. I went on five. After I got out, I called my wife and told her that I thought I was going to get the job. She thought I was nuts; this was so above what I was doing. I was a retail guy, making pizza and selling TVs. This was a different world, but I’ll never forget it. I got the call that I got the job, and I was stunned.
“This was 24 years ago. She offered me the job and said the starting pay was $100K. I couldn’t talk,” Charlie emotionally recalled. “All in with my four jobs, I was making around $50K. I’m getting a little emotional here because it’s still hard to believe.”
In one minute, Charlie Santoro’s life was changed. He was able to get out of debt, buy a house, and provide for his family with one job. He attributes this life-changing moment to his connection with Dolan, but also realizes that because he was able to provide great service to all his clients, treating them with kindness and respect, he was recognized and able to make that important connection.
“I always treat people right,” Charlie said. “I’ve never looked down on people or looked at them for what they have in their pockets, so anybody who bought anything from me, I treated them like they were the most important people in the world. I did that in all my jobs, and that’s how I did well. I treated people like they should be treated.”
From this amazing opportunity, Charlie Santoro was able to connect with Michael Wach, President of Cablevision, and began working with him at WFAN. Charlie was thrilled to get into sports radio. Eight months later, Michael Wach was given the opportunity to move to YES Network and took Charlie with him.
Charlie Santoro has worked with YES Network for the past 18 years and couldn’t be happier with where his career led him. He said: “The rest is history. I’ve been here 18 years. It’s crazy, and it’s opened so many doors for me.”
In 2018, Charlie Santoro had his acting debut in the off-Broadway production of “Bat Boy” where he played Yogi Berra. He recalled feeling so comfortable on stage and quickly fell in love with acting.
Since his debut performance, he’s acted in several titles including a TV commercial in 2019 entitled “Buzz In The Bronx” where Charlie played a barber alongside Chazz Palminteri and several New York Yankees players. He also acted in a movie, The Call, and a mini-series, Gravesend. Charlie Santoro is excited about his upcoming acting opportunities this year, and he’s busy getting into character for two other films he’s working on, filming in November of this year and February 2023. Follow along with Charlie Santoro’s acting career on IMDb.
“It’s crazy how life turns around,” Charlie said. “Now, I’m going to Coney Island next week to talk to a bunch of kids who had rough beginnings like I had. I grew up in the streets of Brooklyn just like them, in trouble and getting into all kinds of nonsense. As a kid, you don’t know any better, and if I could help just one kid, it would be unbelievable, and if I could help more, that would be even crazier. I would do anything to help kids.
“The thing is, if you treat people the right way, it doesn’t matter who you are or what you do,” Charlie continued. “Treat them the right way, with respect. I treat the people at the stadium like I treat the owner of the stadium.”
After being in many tough situations himself, Charlie Santoro believes in always being kind and helping others. He’s been able to accomplish this throughout his career by working with non-profits like Hank’s Yanks and connecting with other people in his line of work. Charlie is thrilled to have this opportunity to mentor, connect with, and inspire young people.
Though he loves acting, Charlie Santoro expressed in our interview that working at YES Network has been the biggest highlight of his career: “It’s the best job I’ve ever had. The organization is great. I never want to leave this job. Where I came from, it’s really unbelievable that I’ve landed here. When you get up and love what you’re doing, there’s nothing better than that.”
