Popular CT Radio Host Diagnosed With Cancer, Expects Full Recovery

CONNECTICUT — One of Connecticut's most popular media personalities shocked his audience this week by revealing he is battling cancer.

AJ from WPLR’s Chaz & AJ morning radio show told listeners on Monday that he has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, after showing signs of anemia and undergoing spinal taps.

"But they caught it early," AJ explained. He has already begun management for the disease, and starts "more aggressive" treatments this week. "There's a really good feeling they can bring me back, either exactly as I was or very close to how it was before."

Before the diagnosis last month, the radio star had gone on a fasting diet. In retrospect, the timing for that was lousy, he told his co-host. When he started dropping pounds at the beginning of the summer, losing nearly 55 pounds between June and December, he just thought the diet was really, really effective.

The start of the cancer treatments was delayed and complicated by Christmas Eve surgery for a partially collapsed lung and internal hernia the host hadn't known he needed until it was nearly too late. AJ continues to suffer from two external hernias that will require treatment, as well as three fractured vertebrae in his back.

"I'm like a damaged car," he told listeners.

But all those ills, including the cancer, are "100 percent treatable," according to Chaz, who said he is looking forward to his co-host making a complete recovery.