New Hyde Park native Mike Fishkin made a big move in September — from the house he grew up in to North Hollywood, Calif.
Since starting “Gone Fishkin,” his weekly alternative rock show on the idobi Internet radio network, in November 2013, Fishkin has traveled the country covering music festivals and awards shows, interviewing the bands he grew up listening to.
But until recently, the 23-year-old, known on the air as “Fish,” was broadcasting from his bedroom to an average weekly audience of more than 20,000.
Now, “Gone Fishkin” is the first show to broadcast live from idobi’s new Hollywood studio.
“It’s a very humbling thing, because literally I’d go around my house telling everyone to shut up before I do an interview,” Fishkin said.
It was hearing Good Charlotte’s song “The Anthem” in middle school that got Fishkin hooked on alternative rock and pop-punk.
He learned the Internet radio ropes in his teens with Mike Gunz, the host of idobi’s “The Gunz Show.”
He took on his own show as a student at Nassau Community College to earn some “brownie points” from a professor whose class he was failing, and idobi gave him his own show about two years later, he said.
Growing up in New Hyde Park put Fishkin close to shows in New York City, as well a Long Island music scene that’s produced notable bands in the genre, such as Amityville’s Taking Back Sunday and Bayside, from the eponymous Queens neighborhood.
For instance, he said, before he could take phone calls on the air, he’d interview artists at Revolution Bar & Music Hall in Amityville.
Fishkin, who attended Kellenberg Memorial High School, said he likes that radio lets him “give people’s music a shot,” including many acts from where he grew up. Most of the music he plays on air is from Long Island or other parts of the northeast, he said.
He’s also found it’s the best way he can express himself.
“I’m not good at writing, so trying to write what’s on my mind, if it’s not on Twitter … sometimes I really don’t get my point across, but on my radio show I’m able to get my point across and connect with people,” Fishkin said.
Aside from family vacations, Fishkin said he wasn’t away from New Hyde Park for an extended period until idobi sent him to the nationwide Vans Warped Tour in the summer of 2014.
But he’s traveled plenty since then, covering Grammy events, the Alternative Press Music Awards in Cleveland, Ohio and the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.
“It’s cool to see how I adjusted doing it myself, basically living out of a suitcase for all these events,” he said.
Fishkin said he likes the traveling because he gets to “build a personal relationship with bands you’ve played from all over the place.” He’ll do more in the coming year, going back to those festivals and award shows.
But this week, he’s back in New Hyde Park for the holidays.
“Nowhere really compares to New York when it comes to pizza and bagels,” he said.
