After 16 years as the Libertarian shock jock from Chicago Mancow Muller is about to spread his special brand of magic over New York. Citadel Broadcasting’s flagship WABC-AM announced 9/13 that Erich “Mancow” Muller has been hired to host a weekly show for the New York news/talker. Starting 9/19, he’ll be on from 6 to 9 p.m. Sundays.
Mancow’s 77 WABC program will be in addition to his nationally-syndicated “Mancow Radio Experience”, heard weekday mornings in 50 U.S. markets, via Talk Radio Network from facilities in Chicago and New York.
Mancow will host an eclectic, issues-driven program designed to get a jump on the big stories of the week in New York and beyond. Like his syndicated program, Mancow’s Sunday night 77 WABC show will be intelligent, theatrical, and refreshingly honest, with the host not taking himself too seriously. Mancow offers, “I’ve never been more excited by a radio show in my career. 77 WABC is the epicenter of the radio universe…this is where radio legends have launched their careers.” A rabid fan of live and local talk radio, Mancow says, “New
Yorkers will be the show. It’s God first, listeners second, and me third.”
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who had hosted from 7-9 PM Sundays, is unable to continue a weekly show due to his globetrotting travel schedule which includes trips to Israel, where he begins taping a TV series, Turkey, Spain, and Australia over the next eight weeks. Rabbi Shmuley will continue his association with 77 WABC as a guest host and “roving ambassador”, producing exclusive segments for WABC and WABCradio.com. His first project is a September 16 debate in Manhattan with Christopher Hitchens, sponsored by 77 WABC, and in Israel he will be doing sitdowns with the Israeli political leadership for broadcast on WABC.
Mancow’ hiring by PD Laurie Cantillo followed an on-air audition at WABC one day last month. Cantillo most recently worked in Chicago as program director for XM/Sirius Satellite Radio’s “Oprah & Friends” channel, which she helped launch with former Harpo Radio GM John Gehron in 2006, reported Robert Feder in his Chicago Public Radio Vocalo.org blog: “There’s both irony and vindication in his hiring by WABC, considering that owner Citadel Broadcasting also is the parent company of WLS-AM (890), the news/talk station that terminated Mancow last February. Despite high ratings for the midday show Muller hosted with Pat Cassidy, WLS bosses said they weren’t a ‘good fit’ for the station between the morning duo of Don Wade and Roma and the syndicated Rush Limbaugh.”
