Of Snow, Burns, and Severin...

[Bob Nelson]

Now that Tony Snow has accepted a job at the White House, he no doubt
will wind up giving up his Fox News/TalkRadio show (9-noon). Not sure
if Fox will continue to have that radio show with a different host or
not but it reminded me of a situation where a syndie host suddenly
left and the syndicator/originating station had to find someone quick.

It was in the early 90s when Gene Burns was doing a show for WOR that
was syndicated,
and WRKO carried him here (early evenings after Jerry?). I guess he
had some kind of squabble with management and left; so they quickly
hired...Jay Severin. First time I had
heard Jay. Jay later did late nights for WRKO, then of course was one
of the first
talk hosts for WTKK when they launches, and now he's syndie by CBS Radio).

So there's an example of a sudden resignation (and again, I'm sure
Snow will indeed
leave his show) of a syndie talk host leading to a scramble to find a
replacement.

>From a WOR history page: "Yeah, was just curious what they were going
to do. From what I can gather "Fox Talks"/Fox Talk Radio had Snow,
Alan Colmes, and
John Gibson.

http://www.foxnews.com/access/radio.html

Snow's live slot is indeed up against Ingraham
and Beck (Gallagher too), and more than a few locally based shows.

I remember a situation when a syndie talker suddenly left and they had
to find a replacement, quick. Gene Burns had a nighttime show out of
WOR/NY (carried in Boston on WRKO, who used to have Burns
as a host 10a-2 pm themselves) and Burns left in some kind of
squabble with management. He was replaced by...Jay Severin, who
now does a nightly show for CBS radio in several markets. First
time I heard Severin (who later did 10 pm, or was it 11 pm, slot
for WRKO, then afternoons for WTKK, and now he's national).

(From a WOR history page:
"July of 1993 brought Gene Burns to the WOR Radio Network as an
afternoon drive time host. Burns offered a Libertarian viewpoint that
was unique in the Talk Radio industry. In October 1994, Gene Burns
left the company and was replaced by Jay Severin, a Republican
political consultant. The show replaced Burns on the WOR Radio Network
as well.")

I thought WRKO ran him maybe 6-9 pm, 7-10, something like that, after Jerry
(the Burns syndie show/replaced by Severin). WRKO may have dropped the show
soon after, not desiring a Gene Burns show without Gene Burns!