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Frankie Russo show absent from lineup on WABC.

S

Syfy

The weekend lineup on wabc did not feature Frankie Russo for December 4th and 5th as well as his archived shows no longer being on the wabc website or apple podcasts. Does anyone know what is going on? This weekend there are replays of another show scheduled in his regular timeslot. Wondering if he is done at wabc and maybe moving to another station.
wabcradio.com

The Wacky Side Of Midnight Frankie Russo

Frankie Russo is the ‘LOVE ME or HATE ME’ KID FROM BROOKLYN! Politically, he brings a calm conservative voice that combines the access of an insider with everyday pragmatism.!
wabcradio.com wabcradio.com
 
Syfy said:
The weekend lineup on wabc did not feature Frankie Russo for December 4th and 5th as well as his archived shows no longer being on the wabc website or apple podcasts. Does anyone know what is going on? This weekend there are replays of another show scheduled in his regular timeslot. Wondering if he is done at wabc and maybe moving to another station.
wabcradio.com

The Wacky Side Of Midnight Frankie Russo

Frankie Russo is the ‘LOVE ME or HATE ME’ KID FROM BROOKLYN! Politically, he brings a calm conservative voice that combines the access of an insider with everyday pragmatism.!
wabcradio.com wabcradio.com
Click to expand...
As I understood it, Frankie Russo was (or maybe still is) brokered programming, which means he wasn't an employee of WABC. Rather, he went out and sold ads, got sponsors for his show and generated revenue, and WABC brokered that midnight time slot to him. I recall a few months ago he was on the air railing against the management of WABC because they chose to air other programming instead of his show on 9/11 and according to his on-air rants, he was not being treated well overall by the station, they weren't always giving him call screeners and other support as they were supposed to, etc.

If he's departed, maybe they simply had enough of him, or vice-versa?
 
Mikey Radio said:
As I understood it, Frankie Russo was (or maybe still is) brokered programming, which means he wasn't an employee of WABC. Rather, he went out and sold ads, got sponsors for his show and generated revenue, and WABC brokered that midnight time slot to him. I recall a few months ago he was on the air railing against the management of WABC because they chose to air other programming instead of his show on 9/11 and according to his on-air rants, he was not being treated well overall by the station, they weren't always giving him call screeners and other support as they were supposed to, etc.

If he's departed, maybe they simply had enough of him, or vice-versa?
Click to expand...
They had him as a listed host with archives on the wabc website though so something makes me think he was being supported by the station in some capacity.
 
Finally WABC did the right thing and apparently has taken this clown off the air. All the screaming and attacking the other WABC radio hosts every weekend. I once did listen when I first discovered the show last January 2021. It was always the same people on both nights ... the guy from West Palm Beach with the bongo drums. Others from NY and NJ ... always the same people. People that can't sleep and love to be on the 'air'.

He had no sponsors like Frank Morano and other WABC radio hosts all have. Finally, in September or October he's screaming at the start of the show ... 'we have our first sponsor' ... Mike L and the pillow ad. It wasn't his first real show 'ad' ... WABC put the ad on the show for two weeks and then it was gone. When Frank Morano has an advertiser on his show, usually 'Frank' will be the code to put in for 'free shipping' and such ... with Russo the code for the pillow ad was 'WABC' and not 'Frankie' ... so it was only a WABC radio spot that they could place on 'any' show throughout the day. He tried to make it like he and Mike L were 'good friends', probably not. That night also the pizza guy showed up and was there as a 'co-host' until he went off the air this week-end ... it was one 'free' radio ad for the 'pizza place' for five hours every weekend. I kept thinking that other pizza places in NY should sue WABC for equal time to also sell their pizza. Then the 'radio crazies' were always on the air. He tried to read 'news stories' on the air and flubbed them all up. It was hard to listen to him. He tried to always show that 'he was smart' ... he's studying this and that and he's going to be a scientist on day. He claimed he was getting paid by WABC although several months back people were calling and asking him if he was buying his own 'air time', as he once did and he would get defensive on that topic. Probably why he was so 'bent out of shape' that he had no sponsors ... on one show months ago he just kept it up that he had no sponsors and the other radio hosts did ... especially Frank Morano and his show through the week. He was always attacking Frank's show and called him various names like 'the cheese man' and just a week or two ago he pretended to not know his last name and went 'crazy' over that for ten minutes and also attacking Curtis Sliwa.

The show was close to being a 'porn' show with all the women comments and I wondered why or how long WABC was going to let this happen. Then with attacking Frank Morano and Curtis Sliwa. They truly lived in his head 24 hours a day.

I could write more but the screaming 'nut' is gone, I hope. When you do a search for his WABC podcasts, you get this message ... "404 Ooops. The page you were looking for couldn't be found, here are some options: Go to the HomePage."

Finally WABC did the right thing as his show went 'off the rails' many months ago.
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TTalkradio1 said:
The show was taken off before I think in 2016. Why is he mad at Curtis Sliwa?
Click to expand...
Curtis Sliwa was running for mayor of NYC as a Republican but I guess he (Silva) was a 'never Trumper' or so he (Russo) kept saying. I don't live in NYC so I only pick up some of the news on my radio at night from WABC when the signal comes better into PA. Russo would not support or vote for him in the Nov election as I picked up his messaging. I believe I also heard him one weekend say when Curtis was hit by the car or taxi ... that it was probably a publicity stunt for votes and news coverage. I guess Curtis Sliwa and his wife must have a lot of cats in an apartment, or so Russo kept talking about it every weekend. He kept playing 'cat meows' and made other comments. Everything seemed personal and not friendly joking around with another WABC radio host. The attacks on Frank Morano and his show always seemed to be on the mean side and not a 'friendly back and forth' between two radio hosts.

On Frank Morano's show one night in November or late October on 'Ask Frank Anything' ... someone called and asked Morano ... if he were in a lifeboat and Russo and Silva were in the water and there was only room for Morano to save 'one' person ... who would he save? I agree that it's a stupid question but Frank answered that he would probably save Curtis because he knew Curtis and then he said ... 'I don't know Frankie Russo'. Well that set him (Russo) off about two weeks ago when his show had just started. He played the actual recording from Frank's show and for 10 or 15 min utes he was ranting and raving with the reply Frank Morano had given.

He always blamed everything on the 'suits' at the radio station. He used to have ten phone lines to take calls ... several months ago he said they took two phone lines away from him ... so now he only had eight phones for incoming calls. That set him off and he ranted and raved for several weeks over that. As one person already mentioned, there didn't seem to be any call screeners on the show anymore. He said two or three weeks ago that there was no call screener tonight and he would be taking 'cold calls'.

The wheels had definitely come off the Frankie Russo train. In the last few months I would only listen for 10 or 15 minutes at the start of the show and it was always the 'same old - same old' and I would turn the radio off. He would always remark how all the incoming phone lines were lit up ... when he had ten lines. He kept saying no one at WABC had a show like this with all these lines lit up ... he had no ad sponsors or any 'money making' advertisements but his show was the hottest thing at WABC !!!
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Russo's show was like listening to local CB radio here in the 1980's & 90's. Same people on every night clogging up the airwaves with useless noise. The last time I heard Russo on the air he showed up unannounced to suck up to Sliwa (who was covering for Morano) and bring him pizza. I knew as soon as Curtis was back on WABC Frankie Russo's days were numbered.
 
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