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December 15, 2005

Bob Grant

The legendary Bob Grant is leaving WOR in New York.

Who is he, and why should you care?

You likely don't know, and you needn't care.

But if you've been a fan of talk radio since about 1987, you have absorbed some of his influence.

Grant is a New York talk radio legend who helped invent talk radio as we know it today. Brian Maloney has the story, picking up about the time I got into the business:

Prior to Grant, most radio talk shows (with the possible exception of Long John Nebel and Joe Pyne) moved at a snail's pace. There were big long introductions and deep "exploration" of topics. It was boring for an audience that liked radio in sound bites. Grant would take call after call, cutting off anyone who dragged on. Even if you hated his current caller, you'd stay with him because you knew it would be over soon and someone else would be on.
I started in talk radio just before the twilight of the "Fairness Doctrine", when Larry King, Michael Jackson (the British one, but not the British one that writes about beer) and the like dominated syndicated talk. King was a throwback - his current CNN show is a fairly accurate, i fmuch more predictable, rendition of his old radio show; varied but not eclectic, tart but not acerbic, cranky but not edgy, politically apathetic but not apolitical. The rest were mostly worse; Jackson and Owen Span made NPR sound exciting; it was the golden age of self-help radio, where "golden" equals "please kill me", the heyday of Sally Jesse Raphael and Harvey Ruben and Bruce Williams.

Political talk was both straitjacketed by the "Fairness Doctrine", and about as "fair" as the mainstream media at large; Tom Leykis brought the same rigorous sense of integrity to the left that Morton Downey brought to the right; both were to politics what Howard Stern is to humor (not that that's totally a bad thing).

Grant was to political talk radio what MTV was to music; he did politics for people with short attention spans; he opened up the air to everyone; he pissed in everyone's Wheaties in return.

Maloney:

He was incredibly entertaining, in part, because he was more than willing to tell off callers. That played incredibly well in New York. I don't think Grant was ever syndication material because that approach irked a lot of out of town listeners.
He used to fill in for ABC Radio's nightside program on occasion (I've forgotten who did the show; it probably says something that I remember Grant the fill-in, but have forgotten the actual host). I have to confess; I wasn't a huge fan. I'm still not; I found his style manipulative and addicted to the facile cheap shot. His manipulation and cheap-shottiness made him a legend and, I'd bet, a pretty wealthy guy - but it wasn't what I wanted to be when I grew up, either.

Still, he had a huge role in making talk radio what it is today - for better or worse. Mostly better.

Posted by Mitch at December 15, 2005 05:16 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I haven't listened to Bob Grant in many years but there was a time when he was the only conservative show in New York, and I listened regularly.

Sean Hannity says that he grew up imitating Grant. In those days, The Bob Grant Show was considered fast-paced, acerbic, and opinionated. If he started again now, it would be typical talk radio.

He could be syndicated today. He was somewhere between Savage and Hannity. The rest of the world caught up with Bob Grant. It's nice to see his contribution acknowledged.

Posted by: lyle at December 16, 2005 07:44 AM

Grant was right on will many subjects, many times
right or wrong but never afraid to state the facts & correctness is not in his site.

Posted by: Ed schwartzbach at December 18, 2005 03:03 PM

Thanks!!! furniture Very nice site.I enjoy being here.

Posted by: furniture at July 7, 2006 09:33 AM
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