On 12/9, just days after CCME announced Rush Limbaugh’s move from Cumulus’ WABC-AM NY to its WOR-AM there, CCME said WWDC-FM (DC101) syndicated morning man “Elliot in the Morning” (Elliot Segal), would be debuting there on 1/13 as well—and moving to NYC.
So Elliot and his team, also heard on Richmond, VA’s WRXL, brought the morning show to WOR. But now, that’s off the table and Segal is gone from the station. A statement from CCME reportedly said the show will be going back full time to DC 101. “After much thought and discussion, it’s clear that we’d have to make significant changes to ensure that the show resonates as successfully with the NY audience as it does with Elliot’s DC audience. And given Elliot’s loyalty to his DC fans, we support his decision to continue to broadcast from Washington.”
Midday host Mark Simone sat in 2/18 on WOR for Segal, whose show continues on in DC and Richmond. Segal told listeners 2/18 that he will not be moving to New York after all.
RBR-TVBR observation: We had thought before that this was a bit of a bold move for WOR, in that Elliot in the Morning is directed at a younger audience. Both DC101 and WRXL are Alternative Rock stations. We thought it would be interesting, however, to see if 18-34 New Yorkers will turn to the AM band—and if WOR’s regular demos would embrace Elliot’s particular brand of humor. Looks like that’s a “No.” We’ll see who comes in to fill the Morning Show there….as of now, the website says nothing about Segal.
I left my comments to WOR early on that Eliot’s brand of humor did not and would not resonate with the NY audience that expected some type of thought provoking radio similar that they were used to with John Gambling. They never responded to my comments, however, it was clear that many other listeners also shared my view. I am glad the radio station took these comments to heart and didn’t wait long before they realized the experiment failed.
I also commented but was responded to by WOR which came as quite a surprise to me. I tried to keep my comments balanced but told them I could no longer listen as well. I do think that somehow they heard not only the postings, but perhaps their numbers supported the outcry. Nonetheless, I was surprised that they moved so quickly, and I give them credit …so lets see what happens next. Amazing group of listeners who took the time to voice their opinions. Amazing.
Thank God. Elliot was a disgrace to WOR.
Elliot was an embarrassment to the WOR audience. It will be difficult to fill the Gambling shoes but I am sure WOR can do better—-how about John Tesch??
I think listeners were more than surprised to find WOR had a line-up where you couldn’t get the info you wanted. You never heard the news, the weather or the traffic – you couldn’t wait long enough for the nonsense chatter to end. You HAD to switch channels. Heaven forbid you might want to buy a product. I lived through the 60’s but I couldn’t understand what the heck was going on. The conversation was stupid. David Patterson… you’re up ! !
Yes, couldn’t stand listening to Elliot. Missed the news and local info. I always have enjoyed David Patterson. He’s even-handed and very informative.
I gave him 3 days to adjust in the beginning and started complaining to WOR via email but never got an answer. Now I have gotten my answer. Thank goodness they came to their senses.
I’ve been listening to WOR since the late 1950s. Most of the following years my radio dial never moved. Whether I was home, at work or in the car I was able to listen to programs that were educational, interesting as well as informative. In the past few years however, it slowly changed to ranting hosts that would discuss one subject for their whole show.
Without, John Gambling, Dr Joy Browne, and Joan Hamburg only on weekends, I feel that my beloved station has been ruined.
Elliott was certainly not what I wanted to hear in the morning. I just tuned in to hear the weather forcast. Please consider someone who can discuss different topics, without ranting on and on.
elliot should have never been hired!!!!!!!!!!!
he’s a disgrace to the human race with his screeching, street talk and overall gutter image of himself.
i listened to him the first day for two minutes and turned off in disgust. AM SURPRISED HE LASTED A MONTH.
please include joe bartlett in the next show. he’s doing a bit with mark simone who is a Godsend.
i listen to fox radio and many of joe piscopo’s callers say they miss gambling and surfed until they found him. he subbed for john a few times and was most enjoyable.
please stick to your excellent prgramming–joan hamburg is also a “throw away.”
WHAT ARE YOU DOING????? WE NEED A TOUCH OF CLASS AND YOU ARE RAPIDLY THROWING IT AWAY?
I was with you until you said Joan Hamburg is also a throw away. She is most definitely not. Joan hamburg been on WOR since the 70’s and has a deep and loyal following. She’s hard core New York WITH CLASS. She knows where to get a good NEW YORK meal at an affordable price and where the best NY deals are for a variety of goods and services. There’s no one in New York who knows more about NY and how it works than she. I love her passion, civility and class. Perhaps, my friend, you have not really listened to her closely enough.
Why doesn’t WOR710 admit that they made a huge mistake with the Elliot morning show? Might be good for trying to attract the Morning Zoo type listeners. WOR710 remember the class of John Gambling and others that you moved off and around WOR of late and try to fill those shoes or you will lose more listeners.
isent my comments to WOR the first day that the show was the worst
Garbage & I never looked back everyone I talked to fellt the same. I’m surprisedit lastted 1 monthI
There is a great new morning show on AM 970 the Answer with Joe Piscapo. It is a lot like John Gambling without Mayor Bloomberg and John’s bigoted views on education never trying to understand the problems of inner city students.
The program manager at AM 970 is Jerry Crawley who was program manager at WOR before Clear Channel bought the station and ruined it. They have other good programs and yes we need David Patterson back and John Gambling can do a mid day show from Salem Boadcasting in Florida and appeal to his many listeners who moved to Florida as well as his many faithful NY followers.
I also sent a message to WOR but never got an answer. Thank god they acted on out input. Mark Simone is doing a great job covering the 9-10 hour before his show and it is nice to have Joe Bartlett sitting in with Mark. Lets hope they save some of this in the new lineup.
I sent WOR 2 emails and none were answered. I channel surfed and found a wonderful replacement 1210am Chris Stigall, he is funny, interesting and I have been listening for the past month. WOR will have to win me back after all those years because I found a replacement I like.
I was a 24/7 WOR Listener for many years like many of the above commentors. I am so happy to hear that they didn’t stick with Segal. He was the worst. I also can’t listen to the conservative screamers like Hannity and Limbaugh. They are egotists who can’t hear anything other than their own voice.
I am listening to Piscopo on AM 970 and he’s a nice guy but he doesn’t have the sophistication of Gambling and there’s too much personal talk about his life and kids, etc.
So I’m waiting to see who will bring in the right person. David Paterson would be great. But I still would have to change stations after Mark Simone
Thank goodness the grossness is off the air! I’ve switched to morning TV watching Roseanna Scotto and Greg Kelly in the mornings. I NEVER turn on TV in the mornings as I readied for work but now I have no choice. John Gambling and the crew always gave me the News, current events around the tri-state, Weather, THE PRECIOUS TIME and a bunch of good chatter. Miss You so much John!!
Wow… what a surprise, accidentally turned on WOR and heard Bartlett’s voice this morning. Stayed on to listen and he never went off the air. That EITM was just not my thing and they would especially loose me when they talked about Richmond VA stuff on a NYC station. It was almost like NYC was an after thought. I turned to Imus for national, Piscipo 97am for local NY/NJ and 1010 for quick stuff. Curious what they are going to do?
I have been a radio nut since I was 12, listening to the best of the best…Jean Shepherd on WOR.
I was crestfallen when John announced his retirement as I had been listening to him for years and thoroughly enjoyed his intelligent, thought provoking show that was driven by current events and the human condition (at least the Metro area human condition!)
Then after listening to the morning fill-ins (Joe Bartlett is an old friend) the NEW GUY comes on and I’m screamed at by a Howard Stern wannabe but without the radio chops! S’up dude? No. No. No.
So I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to start my radio listening day with Mark Simone, who is great, and move on from there.
Then this past week he’s gone, with Mark filling in and the Joe and Hillary, and I’m back! I KNEW that Elliot wasn’t a good fit for WOR. I’m sure you want to attract a younger audience but not 8-year-old boys.
Someone mentioned David Patterson and while I’m a real conservative and didn’t think much of Mr. Patterson’s politics, I really enjoyed him on air and thought he missed his calling as a host.
At any rate, thank you for rethinking this situation and inviting me back into the fold.
I called WOR radio about a week into Elliot’s show and said, “This guy is horrible. Get him off!”
The person on the other end of the phone thanked me profusely for taking the time to call. When i asked if they have received other calls about how bad Elliot’s show is, she said “constantly…..”
As noted above, Elliot is a Howard Stern wannabe without the radio chops. it was like listening to a college frat party.
Put Simone for the morning drive…..or give Joe Bartlett his own show once more! He and Donna Hanover had a morning show which was great. it was on for a while after WOR dumped John Gambling…
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy Elliot is gone.
I guess I voted with my feet, and moved away from the WOR morning show after two days. I’m sorry it took me three days to find out that Elliot was cancelled, but I am ready to give WOR another chance.
I think Andy Dean who the have on in the evenings would be a perfect morning guy he has serious radio chops
Couldn’t agree more! Andy Dean is intelligent, funny, thought provoking and has the street cred to invite and debate serious guests on his show.
I too wrote to WOR early on. Elliot, accompanied by the seemingly obligatory cackling female sidekick (I am familiar with that phenomenon from the 20 minutes or so my teen daughter controls the car radio in the mornings on school days)was obviously not going to make it for me or most Gambling listeners. I never could figure out if WOR was really silly enough to think the Gambling audience would stay or if they had decided to abandon that demographic and develop a new audience. In any event it was obvious, both by the complaints voiced on Simone’s show and the number of callers to Joe Piscopo who were Gambling ex pats, that Elliot was not working. For now Piscopo seems to be heir to the Gambling audience. Lets see what WOR serves up next.
For several days, I listened to Hilarie Barsky during WOR morning drive time. She seems like an amateur. I no longer listen to her. Is that the best a major market like NYC deserves? I always found Rita Cosby to be an interesting afternoon host on the “old” WOR. Why doesn’t WOR test out various new potential hosts, like the Regis show did when it needed to find a new host. This would stir up listener interest, and would allow listeners to offer feedback on the various potential hosts.
I’m so glad that this idiot Elliot is gone. I can’t understand how he succeeds in DC or wherever else he broadcasts from.
It would be nice to keep Joe Bartlet in a NY local oriented morning program
similar to the John Gambling format.
Good for WOR for getting rid of Elliot. Now they should work on cleansing their airwaves of these phony weight loss advertisers (“If your weight loss is too dramatic, reduce your dosage to only 1 pill”)> What a scam.
Please bring Joan Hamburg and Dr. Joy Brown back. You realized your mistake with Elliot. I couldn’t believe what I heard. I would like to continue to be a listener, but……………
I also contacted WOR, which responded to “give him a chance.” I did for a couple of days, and complained again when his topics turned to passing gas. I guess WOR did want to attract a younger audience, but the question is, who at WOR made this hiring decision and wonder if that person is still working there. It will go down in history like Coca-Cola’s decision decades ago to reformulate a beloved beverage.
Five minutes of Elliot and that was more than enough for me. My first
thought was who, in management, made the decision to replace John Gambling or anyone else with the likes of Elliot.
Management does not know the New York market, the listeners nor
appropriate radio programming. Most of Clear Channel’s programming
is in last place when it comes to worthwhile on-air hosts to listen to.
Propaganda on some of their stations is as thick as mud, with mud-
slingers reading copy without a thought to accuracy, respect for
listeners and any semblance to enlightening an audience and not broadcasting the same-old, same-old, same-old propaganda a la
WABC-AM.
That is old hat. Wake up and start your day with programming worthy of your listeners.
What a terrible mistake for Clear Channel,the record of WOR-AM since the days of their start in New Jersey at Bamberger’s Department in 1925.
I guess the best I can say is…you do not and did not know WOR-AM, the New York market, respect radio listeners–especially at the start of the day.
Do not be a tag-a-long in the downgrading of radio. it is one of the
most mediums in the business. Respect it and you will not only respect your listeners, you will respect yourself.
We hope you learned the hard way on WOR-AM. Apply your experience to all of your stations. Break out of the pack of degrading radio. Make a positive difference. You deserve a second chance. It is time to review all of your programming on all of your stations across the country. Time will tell.
Thank God your generation is dying out. Enjoy the rest of your hate-mongering, propaganda-spewing radio lineup.
Edsel, New Coke, All New WOR
Gee. Being glad a whole generation is dying off? Of course, that isn’t hate mongering now, is it?
Knew Elliot in the Morning would never last–thank goodness! Piscopo on 970 can’t even come close to John Gambling’s thoughtful, topical & fun show–plus John didn’t have the enormous ego of Piscopo. Mark Simone would be the perfect replacement if he ever agreed to get up early & do the show.
I am so glad they took that idiot Elliot off. he was the worst. I switched to wabc and listed to Imis who I was not crazy about , but he was a lot better then eitm.I don’t care for rush and sean either. I thought David Patterson was great he was so easy to listen too. He didn’t scream and holler like the rest of them..So many are gone that were good, the Vet, the car doctor, joy, gardening and so much more..hopefully you make more better changes.
I thought Elliot’s show was too much of a drastic change from Gambling. I would like to see someone better than John was, he seemed to become somewhat boring & too comfortable in his job,also, even sometimes bordering on arrogance. I love Mark Simone although I doubt he’d do the morning show. Someone like him would be great.
You got rid of Elliot, now get rid of that irritating Hillary person. She is boring, repetitive and interrupts everyone else.
Get Joe Bartlett a classy intellectual who knows a lot about a lot of things…hey, Mark Simone and Joe…a perfect duo.
Oh and what’s this nonsense replacing rush Limbaugh with the mets spring training?
I’m starving for real news.
I think Mark Simone would be great in the morning slot & Hillery in Joan’s old slot (whereMark is now)
I vote for Hilarie Barsky. Give her a shot in the morning slot!
I was a Gambling listener for a decade or so. His format, guests, and political persuasion were perfect for me, yet I understood his desire to pack it in, and looked forward to his replacement. It took all of an hour to realize that WOR was no longer interested in it’s listeners in this time segment and had set off to attract a new demographic.
I started searching for a new talk show; liked the Imus interviews but he’s a joke, actually a bad joke; didn’t want straight news; and so would up at 970 The Answer with Joe Piscopo. He’s somewhat the answer although light on content and analysis, and bit much on personal happenings in his life. But tolerable compared with Elliot and Imus. I’ve just heard that Elliot is history (I’m out of it when it comes to industry gossip, etc.), so I’ll go back to OR.
The thing that has me puzzled is: what were these highly paid executives thinking when they made this change? Did they talk with people that are in the know, i.e. their staff, people on the firing line like Joe Bartlett, and (gasp) their listeners. There should have been some people at Clear Channel that went South with Elliot.
Bartlett and Simone in the morning has a good ring to it. So glad Elliot was kicked out of NY!
Glad to see Elliot gone. WOR radio has too much class for him.
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