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If Suzanne LaFrankie left WPHT...

K

Kyle D

Oh wait, she did leave the station. Michael Klein had the news last week and not one person has mentioned it.

I don't know what that says about 1210...

The fact that Philadlephia doesn't have a live and local 24/7 talk station (non-sports) is pathetic. As long as non-radio hacks keep getting talk gigs in this town I don't see it getting any better either.

I was in Cleveland/Akron a few weeks back and Akron of all places has a "live and local" talker. It's not live 24/7, but it is for the majority of the broadcast day. It was a lot of fun to listen to local talk again even though I had no ties to the area and its issues.
 
Sorry, but I didn't notice because I never like her show and wouldn't even sample 1210 during the evening. She was boring, boring, boring.

My next comment will get me flamed like a rack of ribs, but what the heck:

I wish that WPHT would air Michael Savage live from 6-9. Yes, his act can get old at times - but it can also be damn entertaining and refreshingly different too. The guy does not tow the "party line" which is a plus. Either way, Savage is a heck of a lot more interesting than anything WPHT has been doing with LaFrankie. And, he is no longer aired in this market.

OK, fire away!
 
Kyle D said:
Oh wait, she did leave the station. Michael Klein had the news last week and not one person has mentioned it.

I don't know what that says about 1210...

The fact that Philadlephia doesn't have a live and local 24/7 talk station (non-sports) is pathetic. As long as non-radio hacks keep getting talk gigs in this town I don't see it getting any better either.

I was in Cleveland/Akron a few weeks back and Akron of all places has a "live and local" talker. It's not live 24/7, but it is for the majority of the broadcast day. It was a lot of fun to listen to local talk again even though I had no ties to the area and its issues.
Click to expand...
CBS Radio should have never blown up WCAU-AM back in 1990 because people would not be complaining about local talk radio in Philadelphia today. CAU was local 24/7 for many years, so was WWDB-FM.
 
Kyle D said:
The fact that Philadlephia doesn't have a live and local 24/7 talk station (non-sports) is pathetic. As long as non-radio hacks keep getting talk gigs in this town I don't see it getting any better either.
Click to expand...

Remember, there's always the mighty WCOJ right down the road...
 
Julius, even if Oldies 1210/WGMP had never happened, the odds are unlikely that 1210 as WCAU would be local 24/7 now. Economics change, and with the emergence of hosts like Limbaugh and Hannity, you need at least some syndicated fare to compete/succeed.

Playing the completely wishful thinking game, I'd love to hear Jeff Katz back on 1210.
 
Speaking of live and local. Favorite local hosts past and present?

Two of mine:

Tom Marr
Bernie Herman

Anyone know what became of the above?
 
Remember next Thursday night for live and local talk the Party Zone will have your fill with me Mike Phillips who hosted talk on Channel 7 back in 1994.
 
Bernie Herman retired to the Des Moines area after being unceremoniously dumped by WWDB's then-new management in early 1996 (he and Harry S. Gross were let go at the same time, though unusually allowed to do their final programs after being told).

I had a lunch meeting with Mr. Herman a few months after he left the station that turned into a wonderful three-hour chat about the good old days of Philadelphia radio. Bernie was one of my absolute favorites of all time. In this market, perhaps the only talent coming to mind with a similarly genuwine "gentlemanly" demeanor would be "Mr. Movie" Steve Friedman. Another class act.

I still have hours of the old Bernie Herman Show on tape. Listening gets me depressed, though, as I remember how cool and intimate local talk radio was before syndicated political preaching took over.

For Bernie Herman and the brokered WNJC "Party Zone" to even be mentioned in the same thread here is pretty sad.
 
george..you don't have the old wwdb tape of bernie, irv and Richard Hayes do you? That's a classic...they were on remote from the Sirlion and Saddle if I remember it correctly...
 
Irv is the man who paved the way for today's non college broadcasters like myself
 
george..you don't have the old wwdb tape of bernie, irv and Richard Hayes do you? That's a classic...they were on remote from the Sirlion and Saddle if I remember it correctly...
Click to expand...

I don't, but that tape probably is indeed a classic! It's amazing to see how the station changed more in its final five years than the preceding twenty before that. When the station was purchased and subsequently "modernized" by the principals now behind Millennium/NJ 101.5, WWDB became an almost completely different outlet. Bernie and Harry S. Gross were let go, Irv was moved out of afternoon drive and into late mornings, Paul W. Smith took off for WJR (after a well-publicized battle with station owners trying to keep him from leaving), "Doctor" Laura was brought in on tape-delay, Susan Bray was taken out of her longtime mid-day spot and moved to nights, and Tom Marr took over afternoon drive after being a weekender (remember the "Saturday Night Shootout"?). The news staff was fired, with the lucky ones landing with Metro and still being heard on the station. For the first time ever, bump music (featuring hit tunes) was being used out of breaks. Brokered informercials began to pop up all about the lineup, including morning drive. What angered many was the nature of the informercials, with many disguised as regular WWDB host segments featuring "guests" talking about everything from investments to the health of your colon.

When the Beasleys took over about a year later, the station became even more unstable.

Interestingly, around the time WWDB annoyed longtime listeners with the changes, Westinghouse was just beginning to quietly launch what would become WPHT. Instead of taking advantage of the turmoil, 1210 did what some thought was impossible-- sound even worse. A LOT worse. It wouldn't be until Tom Bigby took over for WPHT to actually become more than a small blip on the ARB radar.

Irv is the man who paved the way for today's non college broadcasters like myself
Click to expand...

Mike, I am a "non-college broadcaster", but realize there should be a period at the end of that sentence. When you're able to intelligently discuss just one subject half as well as Irv Homer, give me a call.
 
George Brusstar said:
I don't, but that tape probably is indeed a classic! It's amazing to see how the station changed more in its final five years than the preceding twenty before that. When the station was purchased and subsequently "modernized" by the principals now behind Millennium/NJ 101.5, WWDB became an almost completely different outlet. Bernie and Harry S. Gross were let go, Irv was moved out of afternoon drive and into late mornings, Paul W. Smith took off for WJR (after a well-publicized battle with station owners trying to keep him from leaving), "Doctor" Laura was brought in on tape-delay, Susan Bray was taken out of her longtime mid-day spot and moved to nights, and Tom Marr took over afternoon drive after being a weekender (remember the "Saturday Night Shootout"?). The news staff was fired, with the lucky ones landing with Metro and still being heard on the station. For the first time ever, bump music (featuring hit tunes) was being used out of breaks. Brokered informercials began to pop up all about the lineup, including morning drive. What angered many was the nature of the informercials, with many disguised as regular WWDB host segments featuring "guests" talking about everything from investments to the health of your colon.

When the Beasleys took over about a year later, the station became even more unstable.

Interestingly, around the time WWDB annoyed longtime listeners with the changes, Westinghouse was just beginning to quietly launch what would become WPHT. Instead of taking advantage of the turmoil, 1210 did what some thought was impossible-- sound even worse. A LOT worse. It wouldn't be until Tom Bigby took over for WPHT to actually become more than a small blip on the ARB radar.
Click to expand...
What about WCAU-AM, what led to their demise?
 
Rockin Rob said:
For the 20,000th time, CBS bailed on CAU 1210 and decided that what we now call "classic oldies" would be more profitable.
Click to expand...
We all know how that ended up.
 
tom mar,oooooooooooo man, if you disagreed politically, you we're a COMMUNIST,a SOCIALIST. how many times he told me get out of the country. i can't count. he would call me comrad!!.there is one host that nobody mentioned, bernie mccane.great host, and a very personable man.
 
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