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WABC Radio’s Bernie McGuirk Has Passed Away

“The WABC morning show will hold a moment of silence for Bernie McGuirk on Thursday. The station is preparing a tribute show, which is scheduled to run on October 11.”

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The talk radio industry has lost one of its signature voices. WABC announced on Thursday morning that Bernie McGuirk had died after a battle with prostate cancer. He would have turned 65 at the end of the month.

McGuirk had been with the station since 2007. He partnered with Sid Rosenberg in 2016. Their show was initially heard in middays. They made the move to afternoon drive in 2018.

“Bernie was my partner and my friend,” said Rosenberg. “He was always the smartest guy in the room, and I was fortunate to be the guy next to him. I know our listeners join me in grieving the loss to radio and to New York.”

McGuirk began his radio career in 1986. Most listeners outside of New York likely knew him from his time with Don Imus. He served as Imus’s executive producer from 1993 until 2018. His sense of humor, candid opinions, and parody songs were staples of his on-air contributions.

“Bernie was not just half of Bernie and Sid in the Morning; Bernie was part of the fabric of WABC. Listeners from all around the world started their days with Bernie’s charismatic wit and insight, from tragic events to American’s day to day life. His absence will leave a hole not just at WABC but across the airwaves and in America’s hearts. Bernie was our brother, our friend, our mentor, our colleague. We will all miss Bernie more than words can express,” Chad Lopez, President of Red Apple Media and 77 WABC, wrote in an email to his staff.

The WABC morning show will hold a moment of silence for Bernie McGuirk on Thursday. The station is preparing a tribute show, which is scheduled to run on Tuesday, October 11.

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4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Marie Sheil

    October 6, 2022 at 9:51 am

    Bernie,you were one of a kind. We will miss you terribly.

  2. Sondra Alfonsin

    October 6, 2022 at 2:26 pm

    Bernie was an amazing man. My husband and I are long time listeners. When we heard the news of his passing, we felt as though we lost a member of our family. When you have listened to someone for so many years, the loss is a feeling of emptiness. We always had our coffee ☕️ in the morning when his show started. We will miss him terribly, but know he is out of pain and in a better place😢
    Our sincere sympathy to his wife and family.

  3. Bernadette

    October 6, 2022 at 2:44 pm

    Bernie,
    You were the most intelligent, quiet Irishman I listened to every morning. You could feel the love you had for your family through the radio. May God keep you in his care.

  4. Mark Traum

    October 6, 2022 at 10:25 pm

    Sid remember good friends are hard to come and you were a good friend to Bernie and he to you! We loved the comarady that came over the airwaves each and every morning. How lucky you are to have all those great memories that the two of you created together. We feel your pain. Thanks for keeping us company every morning. Take care be well and safe stay the course and be strong

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News Radio

Dom Giordano: Joe Rogan Needs to Remember He’s an Entertainer And Stay Away From ‘Dangerous’ Topics

Giordano called Rogan a “major, major figure who I think is insane in what he’s saying here and doesn’t have a thumbnail knowledge of anything.”

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A photo of Dom Giordano
(Photo: 1210 WPHT)

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan has never been afraid to wade into controversial topics or interview less-than-desirable guests on his podcast. 1210 WPHT host Dom Giordano believes it might be time for him to start.

In a recent podcast episode, Rogan claimed he believed Israel’s treatment of citizens in Gaza since the October 7th terrorist attacks from Hamas has bordered on genocide. He sat idly by as a guest equated the situation to that of the Allied Forces bombing of Dresden, Germany during World War II, which killed an estimated 25,000 people.

Rogan claimed the message would be “We’re basically saying genocide is ok as long as we’re doing it.”

After hearing those comments, Dom Giordano admonished Rogan.

“Look, I get Joe Rogan’s prominence, but this is a dangerous area. The guy throwing Dresden — and a lot of listeners might remember that the firebombing of Dresden — the allies took it out. They did. I forget how many people were killed. World War II was not pretty. That, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, but it was exactly the moral thing to do,” said Giordano. “That’s exactly what needed to be done. So we’re not committing genocide here and then blaming the other side.”

Giordano called Rogan a “major, major figure who I think is insane in what he’s saying here and doesn’t have a thumbnail knowledge of anything…he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about here.”

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Buck Sexton: NBC News Paying Contract of Ronna McDaniel is Nothing Compared to Megyn Kelly

“$600,000 for them is a rounding error. The amount of money these corporate news outlets can put toward stupid decision making — in both of those cases firing talent — is remarkable in and of itself.”

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A photo of Buck Sexton and the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show logo
(Photo: Premiere Networks)

NBC News severed its ties to former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel after intense internal backlash. Radio host Buck Sexton says paying out her contract will be a simple one for the network, especially after what it paid to Megyn Kelly.

In 2018, Kelly insinuated it was ok for people to wear blackface as long as they were impersonating a black character. The subsequent backlash led to her departure from NBC News, with the outlet paying her the rest of her contract.

A similar situation unfolded with Ronna McDaniel, who has signed a reported two-year, $600,000 contract with the network to serve as a political analyst after resigning from her role with the Republican National Committee earlier this month.

After her hiring, many at MSNBC and inside the NBC News organization pushed back against the idea of hiring someone who had been intensely critical of the mainstream media, and also touted lies about the validity of the 2020 Presidential election until joining the network as a contributor.

NBC News Chairman Cesar Conde revealed it was his decision to end the relationship with Ronna McDaniel.

“I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it,” he wrote in an internal memo to staffers.

After the news of McDaniel’s departure became official, The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show began the show with the topic, leading Sexton to argue this isn’t the first time NBC News has been in this position.

“They did it. They actually fired the former RNC chair. I think she did one interview. The reports are they’re gonna pay her $300,000 for both of the years of her contract. For NBC, that’s nothing. Remember, NBC had to pay out Megyn Kelly’s contract a while ago at like $70 million or something,” said Buck Sexton. “$600,000 for them is a rounding error. The amount of money these corporate news outlets can put toward stupid decision making — in both of those cases firing talent — is remarkable in and of itself.”

At the time of her exit from NBC News, it was reported Megyn Kelly would receive $30 million from the outlet.

Co-host Clay Travis argued that while listeners of the show may not be big fans of McDaniel, people should be concerned about the treatment of Trump supporters. “They aren’t interested in talking to half the country,” he posited.

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Eric Von Haessler: I Have Never, and Will Never, Win a Radio Award

“They can go through the motions all they want, but I know me and my career, and my career is nothing.”

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A photo of Eric Von Haessler
(Photo: 95.5 WSB)

95.5 WSB afternoon host Eric Von Haessler has had a long radio career. However, he says his trophy shelf has been, and will forever be, empty.

The deadline to submit applications for the Gabby Awards from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters is coming up, and Von Haessler joked with his team that entering a submission would be an exercise in futility.

“It’s never going to happen. You’re wasting your time. Nothing I have ever done in radio has gotten an award, anywhere. And never will,” Von Haessler said when producer Jared Yamamoto shared that he was being “forced” to submit a clip of the show to be nominated for an award.

“They can go through the motions all they want, but I know me and my career, and my career is nothing,” The Von Haessler Doctrine host continued. “What might happen, something like 15 years after my death, my grandchildren maybe (will see me get inducted).”

He noted that he doesn’t ever believe he’ll be inducted into any Hall of Fame, and said he learned a valuable lesson when he first got to Atlanta.

“I learned my lesson very early on. I was here for two weeks in 1998. And there was an award thing, it doesn’t exist anymore. We had just come to town, and they worked it out to where we would present some award, because we hadn’t been here long enough to do anything. And I watched this person who worked in the same building as that station. And she won like five awards. I had just came into town. I was like ‘Wow, she must be untouchable.’ Then she was fired like two weeks later.

“And that’s the lesson that hit me with just like, man, I was 34 years old. That was a great time to learn the lesson ‘awards don’t mean anything.’ Audience size, audience size, audience size. That’s all that matters. And that’s how I felt.”

It is worth noting that Eric Von Haessler finished in second place — behind KFI AM-640 host Tim Conway Jr. — for BNM’s Top 20 Major Market Afternoon Hosts in 2023.

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