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WABC - What happened to Lionel, 2-5 am weekends

I stopped listening to WABC once he became the "permanent" fill-in 2-5am. Its like listening to 4 hours of Gilbert Gottfried screaming at you. TJ was equally unlistenable, but for a different reason (George Noury lite). James Flippin wasn't bad but never got any traction, he wasn't hosting all that long before they brought the others in the fold.
 
I remember Lionel in the '80s as a frequent caller ("The Gulfport Attorney") to 970-WFLA. Eventually got a host job on WFLA, became popular, and landed a NYC host job.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Stations like KMOX and WCCO are kinda caught in a catch-22. Of course they'd probably want someone in overnight who isn't a far-right conspiracy kook whose best days were a generation ago as a token liberal, but when the alternatives are Red Eye Radio and Coast to Coast AM...
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Why is it that you just criticize on here and don't ever offer solutions. What would you suggest putting in that time slot. Like how many times do you need to say they are probably gonna replace the other side of midnight but there isn't good alternatives you've said the same thing multiple times for some reason.
 
TXPH97 said:
I remember Lionel in the '80s as a frequent caller ("The Gulfport Attorney") to 970-WFLA. Eventually got a host job on WFLA, became popular, and landed a NYC host job.
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Im curios what shows on wfla did he call into. Do you remember if he ever called into any of the syndicated shows at the time like rush ?
 
Syfy said:
Why is it that you just criticize on here and don't ever offer solutions. What would you suggest putting in that time slot.
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I can think of a number of professionals who could do an entertaining talk radio show that isn't conspiracist in nature, but what are they going to do? Stream overnight every night with no affiliate? Broker time on some station running the power of a lightbulb in the hope someone notices? No one wants to be the first in, especially in radio as it is today.
 
Syfy said:
Why is it that you just criticize on here and don't ever offer solutions. What would you suggest putting in that time slot. Like how many times do you need to say they are probably gonna replace the other side of midnight but there isn't good alternatives you've said the same thing multiple times for some reason.
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Playback their daytime hosts on Memorex or picking up wither Red Eye or Valdez would be a start.
 
Lionel is awful. I dislike him. He yells, screams, interrupts, talks over the callers, and makes fun of everybody and calls them names and always hangs up. What is enjoyable about listening to that? He is very unpleasant and rude to the callers. Nothing entertaining about hearing callers insulted as he rages and rants. A caller cannot get a word in edgewise. His sarcasm is played out. How long will it take WABC to get rid of him? He is headache inducing and cringe.
 
The best host of Red Eye Radio was Doug McIntyre (who came up with the Red Eye name.)

He was energetic without yelling and kept things light. He was a talented broadcaster who knew how to keep the audience engaged. Unlike the current hosts, he wouldn't ramble on for 20 minutes without telling the audience who or what he was talking about. People tune in and out, and as a radio pro he allowed for that.

The current hosts get too far into the weeds. One of them has a good sense of humor but doesn't talk very much, while the other keeps talking and talking. He stumbles through news articles as though he's reading them to himself. If either says something mildly amusing they both laugh loudly for about 10 seconds.

Maybe that criticism is too harsh ... doing 5 hour in the middle of the night 5 days a week can't be easy ... but McIntyre was a much better listen, IMHO.
 
Lionel also plays games with the phone. He will give a caller some dead air time to confuse the caller or hang up and when they call back he acts like he will listen and hangs up again for his personal laughs.
 


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