WHO IS BOB GRANT NYC/AM 1ST DRV BYE KING (before RUSH)Died 84

Bob Grant ^ | Bob Grant

[restornu]

The Inventor of Controversial Talk Radio

Probably no one in the history of New York talk radio is more associated with controversy than Bob Grant.

No station is more associated with a wide variety of opinions than WABC. It's a perfect match.

Bob Grant brings a history of more than 25 years of exciting talk to WABC. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride! Life's more interesting that way!

Controversial, opinionated and wildly popular, Bob Grant continues his long run as the "King of Talk Radio" in New York on WABC Radio. Bob has been in the radio business for more than 50 years, and has ruled the airwaves in New York for several decades.

Bob 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.

Bob 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, Bob Grant was hired by WOR.

But he's back at powerhouse WABC airing each night from 8 to 10 PM.

Bob Grant is the author of the best-selling book, "Lets Be Heard". He was honored by the National Association of Radio Talk Show Hosts (NARTSH) in 1996 with The Freedom of Speech Award.

Let your voice be heard!

[restornu]

Bob Grant pass away New Years eve Sean Hannity took over Bob Grant drive bye time it is eerie now it is the same era that Hannity left WABC. wow!

I am looking forward to our Champion host building up those new radio stations to be more powerful than the previous ones.

I listen to WJR so Sean is not heard in Detroit area for now I refuse to listen to the host foisted upon us.

You just can't steal LISTENERS you have to earn it.

I first heard of Bob Grant in 1972 when I moved to NYC he was on WMCA than WOR, WABC around he went. RIP FRIEND!

Conservative NY radio host Bob Grant dies at 84

Podcast

Go Clear Channel

[Fzob]

I miss listening to Grant's famous insult to Mario Cuomo

Mario Mario azende me tuzeprovenos sfachim (Mario listen to me you are a low life)

[GreyFriar]

Rush Limbaugh did a very nice tribute to Bob Grant this afternoon, during his last hour.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Bob Grant did not tolerate “fools” and he broadcast in a city usually run by them, as well as having a city full of them.

However, he told it as it was, ever beholden to the truth and a love for his country.

Old School but learned. Old School and honest. Old School and patriotic.

A hard voice to fill. He will be missed.

[Rodamala]

A legend in the medium has passed. I met the man at the Rio Diner in Redbank once... glad I did.

[jocon307]

Yes, it is kind of strange Grant dying when all these other big changes are taking place.

I remember when he got fired from ABC for making a snarky remark when that black cabinet sec’y of commerce of Clinton’s died in a plane crash (sorry, I can’t remember the guy’s name now, Ron Brown? I’m not sure that’s right.)

My brother had died about a day or two before and I was still shell-shocked. Hubby told me: Bob Grant got fired, and I was stunned!

But in a way I was glad, because I’d been feeling so beat down, it was good to be honestly shocked.

I’m sorry Mr. Grant had to lose his job for me to feel that way, it’s like how I was sorry when I claimed my brother’s Pyrex measuring cup (I was always too cheap to buy one) and I said: what a shame that people have to die for me to have one of these.

Am I over-sharing? It’s a weird day and I hope I haven’t offended anyone.

RIP Bob Grant and A., my beloved and much missed brother (and thanks for the Pyrex!)

[Humidston]

Oh how I THANK YOU for translating that famous saying! I should explain... I’m a Texan but lived on Lowng Island for two years and loved listening daily to Bob Grant. Even though I was an outspoken talk show caller in TX, I was never able to get up the nerve to call BG because he could be so gruff.

That “Mario” saying was something I learned phonetically, but never knew what it meant. We’ve been back in TX since 1994 but I can still recite it!

RIP Mr. Grant.

[onona]

RIP Bob, I enjoyed your broadcasts.

[Alberta's Child]

Grant firmly established himself as a character on the NYC airwaves when he regularly referred to former NYC mayor David Dinkins as “the men’s room attendant.” ROFL.

[ConradofMontferrat]

MARCH OF THE GAVONES!!

GET OFF MY PHONE!!

He was my friend, even though I never met him, and only spoke with him on HIS phone.

Charlie from Philly.

Rest in Peace Bob, you were a pioneer and a good man.

[ConradofMontferrat]

Caller: Hi Bob, How You Doing?

Bob: You don’t really care How I’m Doing! What’s on Your Mind?

He HATED that: “How You Doing?”

[Fzob]

“the men’s room attendant.”

I remember that as well. Fitting for Dinkins and classic Grant.

[CaptainK]

He turned my political ideas around.
RIP.

[Exit148]

Ah — yes! He hated that chit-chat people had before they got to the point of their call.

And -— he could spot a phony, during a conversation, long before anyone else. And he never hesitated to expose them. What a guy!

RIP Bob. You are gone from this earth, but you will NEVER be forgotten!

[Tanniker Smith]

One of my favorite Bob Grant stories he told (I didn't hear it when it happened) was about the times he'd have to sit around the office during a ball game or hockey game, in case it ended before his show finished. He said that one more than one occasion he opened the show with something like:

"Welcome to the Bob Grant Show, a free and open exchange of ideas and opinions. What's on your mind this afternoon? Well, that slams the lid on things today...."

Get Khaddaffy!

[Alberta's Child]

Some of the best Bob Grant stories I ever heard were from people who interacted with him in his personal life off the air. I used to work in the same building as him, and a lot of the building staff used to dislike him because he was a crotchety old coot. LOL.

[jyro]

Arthur Godfrey

[Zenjitsuman]

I once called the Grant show, and he said I was very perceptive. I was honored to get a compliment from one of my hero’s.

My wife and I went to a Bob Grant roast, I remember a new broadcaster Rush Limbaugh was one of the roasters on the dais
Rush was as funny as some of comedians. Rush said Bob was one of the Conservative talk formats pioneers and that was true. Bob Barry Farber, Barry Gray all great talkers and honest intellectuals worth the listener’s time.

RIP Bob- Strait Ahead to heaven, slam the lid on this chapter and on to the next.

[ExCTCitizen]

Bob Grant, you are now on GOD’s radio station with Paul Harvey and Bob Steele of WTIC.

[restornu]

RUSH: I do want to say some words about Bob Grant. Bob Grant was the first to popularize conservative talk radio, and he did it in New York City on WABC and on WOR. Everybody in talk radio had heard of Bob Grant. He was legendary. He was courageous, confrontational. He was all of those adjectives, and he was funny. He was also a nice guy. I'll tell you something about Bob Grant. There was a roast for him -- oh, I guess in 1990 or something -- and I was on my way back from a Rush to Excellence Tour. I was invited to attend it.

I was on my way back to New York, and I was in New Jersey, and I went to the roast. It was people like Freddie Roman and Pat Cooper, a bunch of comedians that gathered, and it was just a hilarious evening. There was no way that I was gonna be able to compete with these professional comedians, so what I did was I stood up and I basically said some nice things about Bob Grant because I really meant them. He was extremely accommodating to me when I arrived in New York -- and, by all rights, he could have been just the opposite.

But he was. He was helpful. He was accommodating. He helped me. Folks, in my first two weeks on the air in New York, every phone call I took, all they wanted to talk about was what Bob Grant had said the day before. He was that powerful in New York. He was that provocative. What I was saying my first two weeks, people didn't know who I was. I was still getting my feet wet in New York. I had no idea if what I was doing was going to succeed or not.

Every phone call -- literally every phone call -- people wanted to talk to me about what Bob Grant had said the day before, and I ended up laughing with him about that. But he was one of these people who has this on-air reputation for confrontation, but he was just a down-to-earth, humble guy who never got lost in his ego. He never got lost in all of this. As far as I was concerned, his both feet were planted in reality his entire life, and he helped me immensely when I got there.

RUSH: Okay, let me set the stage for you. When I got to New York and started at WABC, and ended up moving to WOR, but Bob Grant was there, and Bob Grant was king, and he was the only one doing what he did. Well, Barry Farber was out there, too. There were some others, but Grant was the first, quote/unquote, "controversial, provocative conservative, unabashed, unafraid conservative," in the daytime.

He worked in the afternoons. So here I come. I knew who Grant was. Everybody did. I quickly learned that you did not leave your lunch in the refrigerator when Grant was gonna arrive or it might not be there when you wanted it. Everybody joked about it. But my first... As I say, my first two weeks, all anybody wanted to talk to me about was what Bob Grant said the day before, and I asked somebody about it. "I'm never gonna break through here.

"Nobody cares what I'm saying. It's all about what Grant said. These are people that can't get through to Grant calling me telling me what they thought about what Grant said," and I eventually met him and I was complementary, told him how much I admired him and so forth. He was extremely gracious and accommodating. Here comes this new guy. This happened all the time, new arrivals, and he was the pope.

RUSH: Eventually my program took off, and when it did, there was all kinds of curiosity on the part of the news media, and local and New York camera crews would come in and they would want to get video of my program, say, post-State of the Union or do an interview feature with me. After a while, Grant, Bob Grant said, "What is going on here? Why do they want to talk to him?"

You know, when the local affiliate Channel 7, WABC-TV, would come in, he'd say, "Wait a minute! I work for ABC; he doesn't. He doesn't work here. He's just doing a show here. Why do they want to talk to him?" Eventually he had me on the air, had me on his show, and he said, "Just who are you? Just who are you and what you are doing?" But it was all in good fun. You know, a lesser person would have tried to undermine me.

These people are all over the place, in every business, but the point is he was the epitome of class. But not only did he not undermine me; he was helpful, and he was supportive. There are not very many people in any business who would have done that. In fact, I'll give you an example. Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers playing for the Packers. Brett Favre was still starting quarterback and got hurt in a very important game in Dallas, and Aaron Rodgers gets thrown in, and he's first or second-year rookie.

He hasn't played. It's an important game, and the announcers are saying, "Favre is not helping him on the sidelines. This kid Rodgers is on his own," and we were left to conclude that of course Favre wouldn't help him. It's Favre's job. Makes all the sense in the world. I was surprised. "Wait a minute. You're on the same team here. I would think Favre would be trying to help the guy, but the announcers said -- and I don't know that this is true. The announcers said, "Favre, you'll notice, is not helping Rodgers when the Packers' defense is on the field."

I just thought it strange, and the conclusion I drew was, "Well, Favre was thinking, "Look, I'm not gonna help this guy take my job. He's on his own. I'm gonna eventually get over this injury and I'll be back. I'm not gonna help this guy,'" and nobody thought that was strange. Now, I don't know that really happened. That was just what the announcer said. Don't anybody call Brett Favre and tell him that I said X. I'm just telling you what the announcer said.

I don't know what went on on the sideline, other than what the game announcers reported, and that's what I'm telling you. The point is I'm telling you this only because Bob Grant went out of his way to be helpful. He was just a decent guy, despite -- media did everything they could to destroy him in New York. They tried to paint him. They took him out of context. It's nothing new, what leftists and the media tried to do to successful conservatives in the media.

But I really liked him, and he was funny. He was a curmudgeon kind of guy now and then. But he was likable. He was fun to be around, and nobody had a bad word to say about the guy other than teasing him. He was thought of very affectionately, and I had the chance to thank him a number of times personally when he was alive. I made sure to do that, because he's been in failing health for a while.

But in many ways, he was the trailblazer.

He was the pioneer who took the arrows. He was a New York City institution. I was on the air in Sacramento being moved to New York. You know, sometimes people from New York came there, had relatives or whatever, and they would call and just start telling me about Bob Grant, you know, what Bob Grant's saying in New York. I couldn't get away from the guy. I just could not get away from the guy no matter what, no matter where I went. I had people telling me what Bob Grant was saying.

It was a plus to be able to have known him and to be able to call him a friend