Buzz Bissinger to host a talk radio show
Philadelphia author Buzz Bissinger ('Friday Night Lights') talks to us about his new job as a talk radio host.
Buzz Bissinger to host a talk radio show
Tirdad Derakhshani, Inquirer Sideshow Columnist
Print journalist, pundit and noted Philadelphian H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger best known for his football tome, Friday Night Lights, has a brand new job – in a new medium: Talk radio host.
Local CBS station Talk Radio 1210 WPHT (1210-AM) on Monday announced that Bissinger, 57, will take the wheel at the station’s afternoon drive show (from 3 to 7 p.m. daily) with co-host Steve Martorano.
A former Inquirer reporter, Bissinger won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for a six-part Inquirer series in 1987 which uncovered corruption in Philadelphia court system.
Bissinger tells us he got his first taste of radio last year when WPHT asked him to act as a vacation replacement for some of the station’s regular hosts.
He’s excited about working in a new, fresh medium.
“This will be my first regular full-time gig on radio,” says Bissinger who left the Inquirer in 1988. “Actually [it’ll be] my first time I’ve worked for someone in 20 years.”
Bissinger says WPHT suits had two concerns before hiring him.
“First thing they asked me was, ‘are you actually going to show up for work’,” he says. They also asked Bissinger, who is generous with his use of four-letter words in his Twitter invectives, if he could keep his language clean.
“Obviously I will not be using colorful and salty language,” he says with obvious rue.
Bissinger says he and Martorano hope to make their show an open forum for anything and everything that will be “informative and also entertaining.”
He adds, “I mean obviously in a show like this we will talk about politics, it’s a presidential election [year], but everything is fair game and we’ll talk about local issues and offbeat topics. … We will have lots of guests … and we will certainly encourage call-ins.”
A vocal, opinionated pundit, Bissinger will be a big gun for WHPT in its coverage of the presidential election, CBS Radio Philadelphia senior veep Marc Rayfield says in a statement.
“With the Presidential election only a few months away, there couldn’t be a better time to heighten our focus on how today’s issues affect our friends, relatives and neighbors,” he says.
“The addition of Buzz to the line-up and presenting Michael’s program live to the audience gives us an incredible advantage as a station created in Philadelphia by Philadelphians for Philadelphians.”
Bissinger, who currently works as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a columnist at the Daily Beast, has been making the media rounds in recent weeks to promote his new book Father's Day, a memoir about his son Zach.
He is famous for his never less-than-passionate and forceful discursive style as a pundit. (Okay, so some people call him a “loudmouth.” (“A nationally renowned loudmouth,” as that scintillating daily newspaper Metro puts it.)
Bissinger considers that appellation, “loudmouth,” for a few seconds, then says, “If I am a loudmouth, then I am perfect for radio.”
He doesn’t apologize for his sometimes explosive opinions.
“I do have strong opinions about virtually anything,” he says, “it doesn’t take to get me passionate about something, but I think that’s the hey to anything: To be passionate.”
The Bissinger hire is part of a programming overhaul at WPHT. The weekday roster will now look like this:
Chris Stigall from 5:30 to 9:00 a.m.; Dom Giordano from 9 a.m. to noon; and Michael Smerconish from noon to 3 p.m.
WPHT's new daytime lineup takes effect on June 25.
Buzz is perfect for Philly - over the hill and ready to fall apart. Does he have Nancy Pelosi's surgeon? Truly a face for radio.— dunraggin
WOW. "Buzz" Bissinger. I'd forgotten what a malformed face looked like.— EGGHEAD.- What is there to "love" about Martorano? Are you people out of your minds? He's a miserable, boring OLD dinosaur. I wouldn't listen to him if I were paid to do so. He fails at every radio shot he's given. This Rayfield guy is a total loser.— mel-b
- s1360m, all we want is an honest media. Do you know about Fast and Furious? Do you know about Solyndra?— nodonkey1
- Martorano is well to the left, and Bizzinger is neurotic and insane. Smerconish is a principle less self promoting boot lick. What a substantial transformation. I' ll listen to Dom G when I can, then Wntp almost all other times, and occasionally give Stigall, r Nel and Zeoli a shot.— Thoughtful&concernedvoter
- Thoughtful&concernedvoter, Who's better? The hosts you mentioned or ntp? Honestly I've never given ntp a shot but I will starting June 25th! — Limericky
- Prepare to have your ad dollars fall off a cliff
— waynoNE - s1360m, Take a deep breath man. We're just having a harmless conversation about programming decisions. We all know we can go to 106.9 or 990 for conservative talk now. Thanks though.— Limericky
- have right wingers ever stopped to think that maybe they would be taken a little more seriously if they ever provided valid, sound arguments to issues? Instead, all they know how to do is whine and cry. Go to Fox or Rush or any other right wing venue, and all they do is whine and cry. WAH WAH, WPHT is airing a show that isn't going to be a regurgitation of Rush or Fox. Why not just come out say you're taking your ball and going home while you're at it.But then again, the right wing style has always been to whine, cry, and blame others instead of offering solutions. This goes back to the Nixon era, when Spiro Agnew blamed Watergate on "the liberal media". Yeah, instead of owning up to the wrongdoings, blame the reporters who broke the story. Funny, they talk about being patriots, but what they really want is old-school, Soviet style media that will protect political leaders (of course only when the politician in question has an R by his name).— s1360m
- sounds better than Hannity and Rush. Good look to Buzz. Is he going to be working with Friday nights?— Paul Deon
- better make sure you get a heavy duty bleep button in his studio.
And I guess car salesman wasnt working out for Martorano— Pat c - Martorano is truly the loser of local radio. When is he going to give up? He'a failure everywhere; why keep hiring him? — nydb
You won't always agree but Buzz tells it like is. That is the same reason he won't make it past Labor Day because he will offend too many and won't be willing to pull punches. Looking forward to at least a few weeks of fun........— Earl J- Good point MilesLong1, so you start with Chris who is a conservative, then Dom who is a conservative, then you go to Michael, then Buzz & Steve, all who are on the left of the spectrum? I don't know, something doesn't seem right about that.I don't think Michael's audience listens to either Chris or Dom and vice versa.— Limericky
- a nearly incontrovertible truth - if you listen to Rush, you are unintelligent.— AndyReidsMustache
- wow what happened to PHT? Don't these people know liberal radio doesn't work? They will discard Dom G. eventually and end up like Air America.— MilesLong1
- I like Martorano alot but he is also way to the left. I enjoyed his show with Rich Zeoli and listened faithfully because of the right/left debates they had. But if Smerconish is to the left, and Buzz is to the left, and Martorano is to the left, what the heck is going on?— Limericky
- "Has been"? He just published another book... Phillyup, you wish you accomplished a tenth of Bissinger's achievements.— ptahan
- Agree 1210 is veering left and if I wanted that I'd watch CBS,NBC,CNN,ABC, MSNBC etc. I will go wherever I can get Rush's show- I wonder if Marc Rayfield ever asked his listeners if he should jettison Rush and replace with the yuppie, bootlicker Smerconish?— justablogger
- The Inquirer brought this has been back and it was embarrassing. I give it 30 days.— Phillyup
- Love Martorano, can't stand the pompous, arrogant, obnoxious, and rude Bizzinger. Why do program directors think that obscenity and vulgarity are desirable traits in a host/personality, as if the more obnoxious and irreverent you are, the smarter you are? I guess I'm going to have to find a technology that lets me filter out Bissinger's inanity and only hear Martorano...and I agree about Smerconish. I used to be a fan, but lately find him mostly self-indulgent and uninformative
- At least they had the sense to pair him with Martorano. Bissinger is so full of himslef, they need Martorano to keep people from flipping the dial. — mike l
- Michael Smerconish replacing RUSH pathetic Looks Like WPHT is Moving left,,, Their Loss WABC just Got another Listener for Rush and Sean— Ubercatholic
- Good, another unintelligent listener leaves our airways. — mike l
- Where his Friday Night Lights and Prayer For A City are thoughful works, the on-air persona is a whiny and grating non-likable character. Always have been a Steve Martorano fan and I wish him well keeping this guy reined in. Only a matter of time before Bissinger is censured from his own show. Book it!
Smerconish has become a snooze too. Philadelphia Talk Radio was once filled with giants in the industry. Not so much anymore.— DelawareRiverRat 
I heard him a few times on WIP. I thought he was pretty good. I'll check it out. Talk radio is like pro wrestling- for amusement only.— CCRichards- when given the chance before, he's been unbearably boring on Chris Matthews TV show, and unbearably pompous on WPHT radio— thermal321
