Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
If you’ve been to Adirondack Thunder hockey games, you know Billy Floyd.
In his sweet suits, white sneaks and endless smiles, he bounds around Cool Insuring Arena, running trivia and other between-period contests on the Jumbotron, high-fiving little kids, shooting T-shirts into the crowd, raising the audience energy level to 11.
Who is this 28-year-old of the Prince Charming good looks, eye-to-eye connection and seemingly endless enthusiasm?
Does he really wake up “happy every day,” as Thunder president and Cool Arena director Jeff Mead tells The Chronicle, “I truly believe.”
Son of TV6 anchor Greg Floyd
Billy’s dad Greg Floyd is Albany evening news anchor for Channel 6, WRGB.
Billy says his parents met “sharing the desk at a television station in Kingston.”
Mom, Nina Anastos Floyd, is now a personal trainer. Among Billy’s many, many side gigs, the two post a mother-son fitness routine on Instagram every Monday.
Her dad, Billy’s grandfather, is Ernie Anastos, a TV news anchor in the New York City market for more than 50 years.
“He’s my number-one inspiration of all time,” Billy says, referring to his grandfather with the Greek term “Papou.”
Visiting New York with him for ball games and other outings, Billy recalls, “Every single person would flock to him. I mean, everybody, like a celebrity.
“He took the time to shake everybody’s hand, give everybody a hug, a kiss, a photo, a signature, anything, you name it. And I would just stare at him like, what’s happening here
“As I grew up, I’m like, Oh my gosh. He’s a New York City icon. He’s the greatest reporter, anchor, positive influence. He had his own television show called Positively Ernie. He covered every breaking story in New York City. He literally ran the game for decades upon decades.
“He retired from television local news during COVID, but he still does his own projects, a podcast, on radio,” at age 81.
Billy says, “In those moments, especially when I was growing up, I realized, I don’t know if I want to be a news anchor like my Papou or my dad, but I want to make an impact on people like they do.
“Not because I want attention or to feel loved: I already love myself, and I already have great people in my life that love me. I want to make other people feel that love.
“I want to be the highlight of other people’s day, just like Ernie is the highlight of their day when they see him on television or when they get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see him on the streets of New York City.”
Billy grew up in Guilderland, graduated high school in 2014, Marist College in 2018.
“In college, I was really afraid to tap into television. I was afraid of failing. So it was mostly hanging out with friends, dating, playing basketball, going out, just living the classic college life.”
After college, staring down the “what next” question, he had a buddy video him on an iPhone doing news bits, and sent the reel to smaller markets where he thought he could get air time right away.
“I applied to over 200 TV news jobs in the winter of 2017, and got one offer: Casper, Wyoming, morning news anchor.”
“I was like, I have to go there. I told the news director: Hey, Mr. Hyman, I’m in. Book it. Done.” Billy says his family, if surprised, was also “so supportive.”
“My time in Wyoming was where I learned about who I really am and what I want to do with this world and with my life.”
He says the gig “was more like hosting the Today Show or Good Morning America. We would talk news in the beginning of the show, important things, need to know, couple of national things.
“The rest of the program was all fun segments I did with my co-hosts, interviews and profiles of people in the community doing amazing things, whether that was a nonprofit organizer, an entrepreneur, a business owner, a kids group doing something special, coaches, food trucks, you name it.”
In October 2020, Billy moved to a TV station in Eugene, Oregon.
“It was me by myself with a meteorologist, reading about Trump, COVID, crime, murder, vaccines. Yes, it’s important, but not my passion.
“It was the first time in my life where reality checked me. Oregon was like a big [message] from the universe: You can be broken and you you can be destroyed.
“I was at the lowest point of my whole life, two months of just devastation.”
He says that without the freedom to do stories he cared about, he preferred “to…go home and figure out my whole new life with the skills and the mindset that I now have.”
Back in the Capital Region, “with no idea what I was going to do next,” Billy says, “I knew I wanted…to grow a positive platform that attracted kids, like-minded individuals, people who need the right vibe, who need positivity. I wanted to create something of my very own.
“I was making a bunch of social media videos, a bunch of content, and I made a video at the Track, asking people — What’s your Number One betting tip?”
It caught the attention of then-Adirondack Thunder Communications Director Evan Pivnick, who invited him to interview for the arena host position.
“Are you kidding me?” Billy laughs. “This is a dream opportunity.”
Billy says baseball, basketball, football, tennis are his sports. Hockey was not on his radar. Now, Cool Arena is his stadium.
Between sponsored bits and such features as “Little Saver on the Ice,” Billy Floyd roams the stands.
“I just do my own thing. I’ve had the privilege of making so many amazing connections with kids, families, people in this community, to where I now know so many people, and they know me back.
“I genuinely just want to be a part of people’s lives. I know I have a responsibility to provide positivity for people.
“I can’t be everywhere at once…but just the action of giving someone 10 seconds of your time, you have no idea how far that can go.”
“The kids are my everything,” Billy says, “especially these teenage kids.
“Life is so hard with bullying and dating and being insecure about your pimples and the way you look and your braces and your smile, and the sports gets so competitive.
“I do my best to let kids know these problems that you’re going through, they are challenging. But life’s gonna go on and you’re gonna realize that all this stuff, it doesn’t even matter.
“When it comes to Billy Floyd the personality, it’s almost like no thought, because that’s just who I really am. The hardest part is in real life, some people look at you weird for being positive.
“But here, in the arena, it’s a metropolis of positivity.”
“I knew I would come here and probably fall in love with the job, but I had no idea I was going to actually fall in love with the city. This is my place to grow myself. I care about growing the people here and the vibe here.”
Last winter he moved to Glens Falls, after a previous tough off-season, “the worst summer of my entire life,” he says, where nothing he tried was clicking.
This summer, he got involved as emcee and host for the Glens Falls Dragons collegiate baseball team. He’s a board member of All Abilities Productions theatrical group. He says its founder Andy O’Rourke became another of the many people Billy considers best friends.
He models suits for J Reid men’s clothing store in Glens Falls, and he launched a podcast called Billy Means Business, promoting local entrepreneurs with friend Andrew Percetti.
Billy’s catch phrase is “Locked In.”
“Me and my circle, when we say that, we mean you’re focused, present in the moment, you’re doing the nitty gritty everyday stuff…to reach your goals, your dream job, the dream location, find the love of your life. I have accepted the fact I’m doing everything I need to get there….
“In high school, I used to think I wouldn’t amount to anything. I wasn’t good at anything school-related. But I was always good at talking to people, at making connections. I was like the glue for the friend groups, because I knew every single person in every group, and I gave every single person my attention.
“I never thought I would have success from that. No one told me you could be a personality. I want kids to understand that, whatever you’re good at, lean into it.
“People think I’m super positive and everything is sunshine and rainbows, but it’s not,” Billy says. He quotes his grandfather: “Being positive isn’t pretending everything is good. It’s seeing the good in everything, and that’s what I’m great at.”
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