"Father" of Conservative Talk . . .

[KlunkLetter]

Who was the "Father" of conservative talk in your market?

In Chicago, I would have to say it was Howard Miller on 560 AM, WIND, a staunch conservative.  While his was not a true "talk" format--he did play adult standards, you knew when you tuned in, you would be getting the conservative point of view.

He was on the radio, gee, from as early as I can remember--early 50's at least thru the 70's.  Maybe someone can give more exact dates.  He was infamously fired from WIND in/around 1968, after a comment he made during the Chicago Riots.

I believe he passed away around 1984, after serving stints on WIND, WMAQ, WCFL in Chicago.

[gr8oldies]

Bob Kwessell. There was once this little AM station in Dayton, OH known as WAVI. It was a daytimer and quite ahead of its time. Kwessell did mornings and was a staunch conservative in the mid 70s. Other hosts included liberals Brad Clay and Dr. Frank Henniger (University of Dayton professor). Mark Scott (I think)a former TV anchor who apparently was into Garner Ted Armstrong. Later hosts included Mike Gallagher (yes, the current Salem host)and Mike Scinto (still on the 1210 frequency as WDAO..doing conservative talk on an otherwise Urban station). Phil Donahue was a talk show host on WHIO before launching his regional, then national TV talk show from WLW-D.

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Greetings from Ohio-where the governor wants everyone to know he's sorry.

[OldAkronite]

> Bob Kwessell. There was once this little AM station in
> Dayton, OH known as WAVI. It was a daytimer and quite ahead
> of its time. Kwessell did mornings and was a staunch
> conservative in the mid 70s.

Around the same time, up I-71 in the Akron market, Howie Chizek started doing midday talk on then-WKNT "AM and FM", at the time a station mostly devoted to serving the Portage County area.  The AM side dropped off shortly after the FM (100.1, which became WNIR) upgraded its signal to serve the entire market.  The FM later bumped up to a full class A, giving it coverage in eastern sections of the Cleveland market.

I was listening to Howie as early as 1974, shortly after he moved to then-WKNT from a stint in the Youngstown market (WBBW).  I don't believe his show was on 1520 more than 2 or 3 years, and went exclusively to FM at some point.

Of course, if you listen to Howie, he basically invented telephone talk radio.

-OA

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Ohio Media Watch - http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com

[FloridaBear1776]

In Florida, most of the few conservative shows that existed tended toward the "John Birch" side of the right in the 1960s and 1970s. The typical Florida conservative talk show began with the Stars and Stripes Forever and contained extensive discussion of the Trilateral Commission, Bilderbergers, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Busing, affirmative action, abortion were all parts of a plot to impose one world order of some sort or another. There was also a lot of discussion about the debauchery of the youth culture of that time (it was the 70s after all), which of course was part of the plan outlined in the Communist Rules of Revolution (supposedly written by the Comintern in 1919, actually a fraud concocted by a former Florida attorney general) and a less-than-sympathetic response from some when John Lennon was assassinated in 1980.

Many hosts who would later become famous as conservatives were still somewhat liberal in the 70s (Stan Major, Steve Kane, Al Rantel, et. al.)

Perhaps the father of conservative talk in Tampa was Bob Snyder, who would scare the elderly with tales of Armageddon while encouraging them to buy gold and survival foods. He later ran into some trouble with the law concerning his gold sales and went to prison.

In Orlando, of course, they were fortunate to see the growth of Gene Burns, a libertarian, on the old WKIS over a decade and a half.

In South Florida, there were a few conservative hosts in the odd hours on WINZ and WKAT but they never really took hold.

[KingDaevid]

> Who was the "Father" of conservative talk in your market?
>
> In Chicago, I would have to say it was Howard Miller on 560
> AM, WIND, a staunch conservative.  While his was not a true
> "talk" format--he did play adult standards, you knew when
> you tuned in, you would be getting the conservative point of
> view.
>
> He was on the radio, gee, from as early as I can
> remember--early 50's at least thru the 70's.  Maybe someone
> can give more exact dates.  He was infamously fired from
> WIND in/around 1968, after a comment he made during the
> Chicago Riots.
>
> I believe he passed away around 1984, after serving stints
> on WIND, WMAQ, WCFL in Chicago.

...but back when Miller was still playing records on WIND, Paul Gibson was doing NOTHING BUT TALK directly opposite on WBBM. Infamous chauvanist -- at one point, someone at WBBM got the bright idea of teaming Gibson with Lee Philip for something called "The Lady & The Tiger." Those would be the only broadcasts that Philip ever got audibly flustered on. Once got a directive from WBBM PD Erwin Shomo to interrupt whatever he was talking about every three minutes to give the time, temperature and current weather conditions -- after a few minutes of that on his next show, he announced that Shomo's home phone number was listed in the Glenview directory and suggested that listeners call _him_ to find out what the time, temperature and weather conditions were. Some rare airchecks are still out there, and are worth the effort to track down. Died of cancer in the mid-'60s...

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King Daevid MacKenzie
WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
heard weekly on http://whiterosesociety.org
"Kill Ugly Radio." FRANK ZAPPA

[RobertGoldberg]

Joe Pyne.  

Joe Pyne, who had a wooden leg, had Frank Zappa as a guest. He began by saying, "So I guess your long hair makes you a woman." Without missing a beat, Frank replied, "So I guess your wooden leg makes you a table," and Joe Pyne looked stunned.

[KingDaevid]

> Joe Pyne.  
>
> Joe Pyne, who had a wooden leg, had Frank Zappa as a guest.
> He began by saying, "So I guess your long hair makes you a
> woman." Without missing a beat, Frank replied, "So I guess
> your wooden leg makes you a table," and Joe Pyne looked
> stunned.

...similar situation happened when Pyne had Paul Krassner on his TV show. Pyne started right in on Krassner's acne scars. Without missing a beat, Krassner asked Pyne if his wooden leg caused any difficulty in having sex with his wife. Pyne was flummoxed, so he went immediately to get comments from his audience, pretty much made up at this point in his career by whatever shopping bag ladies and bums KTTV could rope in from Hollywood Boulevard. All of them are out for Krassner's blood. At the end of this long line of audience carps happens to be Phil Ochs, whom Krassner had brought along to the studio. Ochs very calmly states the words, "What Paul Krassner has just done is in the finest tradition of American journalism." At this point the studio erupts and they're out for Ochs' blood ;-) ...

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King Daevid MacKenzie
WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
heard weekly on http://whiterosesociety.org
"Kill Ugly Radio." FRANK ZAPPA

[RobertGoldberg]

Great story.  Joe Pyne was also featured in the movie "The Love Ins"

[954]

> In South Florida, there were a few conservative hosts in the
> odd hours on WINZ and WKAT but they never really took hold.

Harold Dole on WKAT (Miami Beach) was the token conservative among all liberal talkers. Afternoons, I think.

I'm thinking late 60s-early 70s. One of WKAT's talkmasters starting in the mid-70s, Craig Worthing, is still on the air occasionally. (No, he isn't conservative.)

Now, decades later, WKAT is a talk station again! But all conservative (Salem).

73s from 954
 

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http://www.univox.com/radio/2005septemberpart1.html'>September    2005 Radio News

[jimwalsh2001]

Is it true that Howard Miller got fired after the Martin Luther King assassination for saying the world was better off without a "communist" like King...