Article on Jerry Williams

[Donna Halper]

At 12:58 PM 7/9/2008, iraapple wrote:
>This is an old article and since I am mentioned in it I think its now
>appropriate to tell the real story-behind-the story as Larry Glick used to
>say.

Ira is correct.  Jerry (rest his soul) had a persona that was about 
"I don't get no respect!" but in reality, he got a lot of 
respect.  He was a very talented guy, who knew how to keep a radio 
show moving and  he made a major impact in every city where he 
worked.  But he was not the intellectual he thought he was, and he 
had a huge ego-- I don't say that unkindly.  Many stars are not as 
smart or as clever as they think they are, but they start to believe 
their own publicity.  Jerry was excellent at doing radio, but on 
TV... not so much.  This is true for a number of people historically, 
and not just Jerry.  Many radio talkers have tried and failed to do 
TV-- they are two very different media.  Some of you may have heard 
of the famous women's show host Mary Margaret McBride.  She was so 
popular on the radio in the 30s and 40s that her anniversary 
broadcasts filled venues like Yankee Stadium.   But in the late 
40s/early 50s, she tried to bring her show to TV and it was a 
disaster.  She went back to radio and finished her career 
there.  Doing TV is much harder than it looks.  For example, whether 
you like her politics or not, Rachel Maddow is making an amazingly 
quick transition from radio talk host to TV talk host, and every time 
she fills in for Keith Olbermann, she grows more comfortable and more 
confident.  But she is one of the exceptions.  I can give you a LONG 
list of radio talkers who tried and failed miserably at doing 
TV.  Even Rush Limbaugh had a hard time getting ratings on TV but his 
radio ratings remain very strong.  Bottom line-- Jerry used the Avi 
Nelson debacle as further proof that he got no respect.  The real 
story was a lot more complicated than that.