‘SideShow': Bissinger to join WPHT as talk-radio host: ‘If I am a loudmouth, then I'm perfect for radio.'

Pulitzer-winning journalist, pundit, and noted Philadelphian Buzz Bissinger, best known for his football tome Friday Night Lights, has a new job: talk radio.

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 cohost Steve Martorano.

Bissinger tells us 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, 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 "informative and also entertaining" open forum.

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 WPHT in its coverage of the presidential election, CBS Radio Philadelphia senior veep Marc Rayfield says in a statement.

"With the ... 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 lineup ... 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. OK, 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 much to get me passionate about something, but I think that's the key to anything: to be passionate."

The Bissinger hire is part of a programming overhaul at WPHT. Beginning June 25, the weekday roster will be: Chris Stigall from 5:30 to 9 a.m.; Dom Giordano from 9 to noon; and Michael Smerconish from noon to 3 p.m.