3-10-14
That's according to the New York Times which says the grant will come from the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, which it says is the largest single gift ever made to a public radio station. The Greene foundation has given WNYC, WQXR and New Jersey Public Radio gifts before totaling $11 million. The majority of the new money will pay for digital operations, including a new feature called ?Discover? on the WNYC mobile app which goes live today.
1-9-14
This weekend, 77 WABC Radio will broadcast a special program dedicated to the late on-air talk show host, Saturday at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. Grant worked for WABC from 1984-1996 and again weekly from 2009-2013. The broadcast will feature notable moments from the talk show host as well as comments from broadcasters inspired by Grant and his family. WABC Program Director Craig Schwalb said, ?WABC is proud to produce this special to honor the late Bob Grant, a true legend in our industry. We hope our listeners will enjoy this opportunity to remember his contribution to WABC and to the city of New York.?
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1-2-13
Bob Grant is being called the father of conservative talk radio, a radio pioneer, and a racist in the coverage of his death. Certainly he was successful and controversial in the number-one market in America. The radio industry learned yesterday that Grant had died on Tuesday. Grant moved to New York in 1970 to host a talk show on WMCA-AM, where he spent seven years steadily building his audience. Leaving WMCA in 1977, Grant worked his first stint at WOR, and later moved to WWDB in Philadelphia before returning to New York as the cornerstone of WABC's new Talk format in 1984. He remained at WABC until his much-publicized firing in 1996. Ten days later, he was hired by WOR.
Mike Thompson is now the program director at ESPN L.A. Thompson was one of Grant's producers at WMCA and a colleagues at WABC. He tells Radio Ink much will be written about Grant's career. "My hope is that people will remember Bob not as a 'conservative talk show host' as the present genre of 'no hope' radio is perceived. Bob made people think and laugh. He wanted everyone to listen, no matter their affiliation. He was an entertainer whose cynical and sometimes bitter outlook on life made the show about HIM ? not about anything going on externally. Many people that listened to him didn?t agree with anything he said ? but they did learn and LAUGH. He never was predictable about positions ? for those who worked with him and those who listened ? he was one of a kind. I am sure others will agree with me it was the best part of their career to have worked with Bob Grant."
Grant graduated from the University of Illinois and landed his first radio job at WAOK in Oak Park, Illinois. He moved on to WBBM in 1949 in Chicago as a newsman, and as an actor in the early days of television. Ten years later, Bob moved to Los Angeles to work at KNX as a radio personality and television talk show host. In 1962, Bob was hired by KABC as sports director where he met the legendary Joe Pine, who pioneered controversial talk on radio. After substituting for Pine on several occasions, Grant was chosen to take over The Joe Pine Show at KABC in 1964. For Bob Grant and his loyal listeners, the rest would be history.
More coverage on the death of Bob Grant from Long Island Newsday, NJ.com, The Wrap.
(1/2/2014 7:12:44 PM)
Bob Grant was fine company in our small business offices during the afternoon, and the ever welcome dinner guest on the radio.
Auperb host. Astute reporter. Kind friend. Wonderful mentor. Thank you, Bob.
Paul Vincent Zecchino
Mil-Spec Communications
Manasota Key, Florida
ML/NJ (aka "Mike from North Caldwell)
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10-8-2012
83-year-old Bob Grant does a one-hour Sunday show on WABC. He wrote a column that indicated yesterday would be his last show. On his website, in a follow-up post he wrote, "It was a mistake. It was not my last show. I wanted to get your attention since last week so many of you didn?t know I was only on one hour. I got your attention but I upset a lot of people. I have had a lot of practice upsetting people. But, enough about me and that erroneous message."
The New York Daily News ran a story that said, "Conservative radio pioneer Bob Grant is hanging up his microphone ? again. And then changed his mind hours later, saying he would stick around for 'the foreseeable future,' a source close to the 83-year-old told the News. "I am not sick, I am just a tired of [being a] life member of the chorus," he posted on his website. Grant, who worked WABC three times between 1984 and 2012, added, ?I will miss you as much as you say you miss me.?
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8-3-2012
The grant is for $1.5 Million and it comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. NPR will launch a major journalism initiative to "deepen coverage of race, ethnicity and culture, and to capture the issues that define an increasingly diverse America," according to a press release. NPR says it will produce compelling stories online and on-air, staffed by a six-person team.
"This new team and defined area of coverage will empower NPR to cover news and issues across the U.S. more fully, delivering on our promise for NPR to look and sound like America,? said Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of NPR. ?CPB?s forward-thinking commitment to diversity challenges public media to do more, and to do better, and we accept that challenge wholeheartedly.?
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