His story is interesting - he was the best announcer they had except he was zany and would interrupt or put on crazy audio tapes while the commercial were running. So to keep his job, Russ said he would do the all-nighter which no one wanted and their little problem with his antics, so he could do what he wanted.
*sigh* those were the days...
I read the Ben Fong-Torres piece on him you linked to.
Thanks for the link.