Posted on 07/10/2020 6:51:15 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
Longtime conservative political operative, civics connoisseur, and radio personality Jay Severin has passed away after battling cancer. He was 69.
Special: Ditch the fake news ==> Click here to get news you can trust sent right to your inbox. It's free!
Severin became a giant force in political talk in New England before spending years as a host on TheBlaze Radio Network's national platform.
"Jay was one of the rare talents that could not only see beyond the headline, but had the empathy to understand how it affected the listener," Glenn Beck told TheBlaze. "He was a good man, and I'm a better one for having known him."
Tom Shattuck, podcaster and senior editor of the Lowell Sun, paid tribute to Severin after news broke of his death on Thursday, calling him "the Boston talk titan."
"This was a guy who liked free speech and was not afraid to push the boundaries," Shattuck said of Severin, adding, "He made a difference...he was powerful, he was loud, he was poetic in the way he spoke, and he's going to be missed."
I used to listen to him on my drive to Portland from W Mass. He was a fun listen.
Rest In Peace.
RIP.
He was on RKO for less than a year, but was on WTKK from their debut in ‘99 to
maybe around ‘11..sometimes off for awhile.
Former WRKO and later KGO (San Fran)
host Gene Burns did a show on WOR in
NY for awhile.Contract squabble so Jay
filled in.Then Gene left and Gil Gross
got the show.
For a time had a show called Jay Severin
Has Issues across the country, a few months.
Admittedly he portrayed himself as a
swinging single, a “libertarian libertine”
but some knew he was married and had a
daughter.On his first “Has Issues” show a caller asked him how his wife and daughter
were doing.Jay haughtily said “I don’t
know what you’re talking about” and went
to the next caller.
He called out Boston Globe writers like Scot Lehigh (”Scat He-Lies”) on air.
Famed pic in Globe showed him being
yelled at by Imus at a Kiss Me I’m
Imus event.
The radio biz is huge egos, and hardly any money. Syndication is where the money is.
My wife worked in radio for decades. Every couple of years the stations would get sold. Entire departments would get fired. Formats would change over night.
The first episode of WKRP was pretty accurate in terms of how things change. One minute playing golden oldies and the very next, Top 40 or talk.
Anyone in the business for more than a few years could tell you horror stories about owners.
May he rest in peace.
Yes re WKRP.Mrs Carlson owns the station
and hires a new program dir, Andy Travis, who changes
format to top 40.She comes to the studios
and tells him, “Young man, this radio
station is a business.It is not here for your personal listening pleasure!” Andy
says he knows it’s a business.That’s
why he changed the format.
He says it may take awhile to make profits
but they will. “Too little, too late!”
she replies, adding she wants a faster
turnaround.She could just sell off the station...
Les Nessman:”But there are already a lot of rock and roll stations here!”
Andy says yes. Rock is where the money
is.
In Boston, the left wing Boston Phoenix
owned WFNX.The paper was among the “Occupy” type attacking huge corporations.
So the company owner winds up selling it
to the biggest radio company out there,
iHeart, for big bucks! Money changes
everything.
A couple years later iHeart changed the
format to country after running variety
hits, then elec. dance music.
Greater Media/Beasley owned a country
station in town that did very well.Did
Boston need another country station? As it turned out, iHeart’s country station
would later do very well, too. That’s part of the business.
I didn’t know what Jay was up to after Budget cuts ended his run on The Blaze radio. The Blaze ended up shutting off the radio component after merging with CRTV. Thus folks like Chris Salcedo and Buck Sexton left The Blaze. Doc Thompson, another former host at The Blaze, had just left in 2018 to create a new service but he died in a train accident in 2019. His Mojo Radio service continues and his co host still runs his old show.
I noticed the same thing.
Sad to hear. I used to listen to him on WTKK.
I used to listen to him a lot here in the Boston area...a good guy.
RIP Mr. Severin
Former Blaze Radio host Jay Severin dead at 69
7/10/2020, 9:50:03 AM · 18 of 30
TangoLimaSierra to TEXOKIE
Ping
Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Thank you so much for the ping and the link, TangoLimaSierra!
Jay and Pat Buchanan were close if I remember correctly.
I was referring to SS.
I did not really mean to ask you the question per se, more like a question to everyone. Thanks for answering though. Have a good weekend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.