WGR had a locally produced talk show from 10 PM to 2 AM featuring the late John Otto for many years from the 60s onward (he's a member of the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Buffalo Broadcasters website will give you more of his story). He later moved to KB for a few years, then back to WGR again when it went to talk, and stayed at GR on the night show until he passed away in the late 90s (IIRC he actually did a program the Friday night before his death over a weekend). He had a big following. If John were still around, he'd still be doing it today, although Entercom probably would have moved him over to WBEN.
I remember WBEN well first-hand, and we didn't have talk shows per se until after the transition to N/T in the early 90s...although in the late 70s and early 80s Stan Barron's weekday evening "Free Form Sports" show, which was just what its name implied, included guests and even an occasional call-in when Stan thought it was appropriate. Hey, it was Stan, people loved him and enjoyed what he did, he made free form radio mixing sports talk and AC music work (and the advertisers loved it too, paying the top buck for any nighttime show in Buffalo). When John Murphy took over the show after Stan passed in '84, he continued the same format and approach. The show continued in that vein, and morphed into wall to wall sports talk in the early 90s when WBEN turned off the turntables for good and went total talk--by that time Bulldog Parker had taken over the host's job, and stayed with it for several years until all the sports was moved over to now-sister station WGR.
