
LISTEN: The Time Trump Called a Binghamton Radio Station
More than a decade ago, Donald Trump was considering entering politics - not as a presidential candidate but as a challenger to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Many people who heard the reports that he might want to be the Republican candidate to face the incumbent Democratic governor didn't take that possibility very seriously.
But the possibility was intriguing enough at the start of 2014 that WNBF Radio requested an interview with Trump.
Several days later, Trump's office called the station's newsroom to find out if we were still interesting in chatting with him.
Kathy Whyte answered the phone shortly before her next newscast. She asked me if I'd like to speak with Trump and I told her to tell his assistant to have him call in.
A couple of minutes later, Trump called from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. We chatted briefly off the air before the program resumed after the news.
During the next 18 minutes, Trump talked about the challenges facing the upstate New York economy, the summers he spent at a camp east of Binghamton and a few other things.
Trump said he went to Camp Hilltop in Delaware County for "four or five years" when he was a boy. He said he had "really great memories" of the camp, located about 45 miles southeast of Binghamton. Trump said he learned to play baseball when he spent a couple of months at Camp Hilltop during the summer.
As for the possibility of running for governor of New York, Trump said he would "spend whatever it took to really do a big campaign." He said "it is a race that I believe I could win."
A couple of months later, Trump announced he would not be a candidate for governor. But just over a year after that, he launched his first presidential campaign at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
LISTEN: Donald Trump discussed politics and New York state government during a call-in to WNBF Radio's Binghamton Now program on January 17, 2014.

Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com or call (607) 545-2250. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.
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