"Sammy and Army" are history.
Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams, the morning show hosts at WWRL (1600AM) in New York, exit the station, in a programming overhaul. The two hosted their last show yesterday.
Former Air America Radio personality Mark Riley and current WWRL nighttime host Richard Bey will take over mornings effective Monday. Program director Rennie Bishop calls the move a "creative redirection."
Both Riley and Bey are New York radio veterans. Riley was a longtime personality at WLIB prior to joining Air America, from their debut in March 2004 until this past August. Bey was formerly at WABC radio until starting at WWRL in August. He has also done fill-in work at Sirius Left. And yes, he did host that talk show back in the 90s.
The "Sammy and Army" show was often controversial among Air America fans. Listeners mostly took exception to the 'conservative half' of the duo, Armstrong Williams, who was most notably caught in a scam involving some suspect dealings with the Bush administration. Williams had to fork over $34,000 to settle his case with the Department of Justice when it was discovered that he accepted $240,000 in payments from the Bush administration to tout their 'No Child Left Behind' act on his TV and radio shows. According to USA Today, Williams was hired "to promote the law... and to urge other black journalists to do the same." When the whole matter was disclosed, he lost his TV show and the White House turned its back on him. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claimed the deal was illegal, as the federal government is forbidden from funding propaganda broadcast within the United States.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Morning shakeup at WWRL
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Eureka, CA 
6 comments:
Finally! WWRL makes a move that I agree with. Mark and Richard will make a great addition to the lineup.
I just wish they were on a little later. 5am is a little early for me.
I used to HATE Richard Bey cuz of his stupid tv show, but he's really redeemed himself since he's been filling in for Lynn and Alex on Sirius Left!
And I agree with ya Jonath, FINALLY a SMART AAR decision! Notice how so few stations have Young Turds?! I so don't miss them on Sirius Left! ESPECIALLY since it freed up 3 hours for my main reggin MIKE MALLOY!!!!!!!!!!!
YEEESSSSS!
Even without Marc Maron, Riley was a great personality to wake up to. He even brought the funny whenever he tag teamed with the news host.
Seemingly, a vast improvement.
I am soooo glad that Army & Sammy left. Sam turned himself into Army's sidekick--and most of the time they agreed with each other. And Sam remained silent when Army would hijack discussions. For example, instead of discussing what lies Bush had told about the war and what can be done about it--Sammy would turn it into a discussion IF Bushed lied at all--and what good thing has Bush done.
The other day Sammy was blabbering in support of cameras all over the place on the street because on the street, he said, you have no expectancy of privacy and in his building a camera in the elevator helped to capture a mugger. He had no IDEA about how these Big Brother cameras can be used to prevent people going to anti-government meetings one day IF these types of meetings were declared illegal, for example.
The Sammy & Army Show would be, at best, an OK mainstream radio show--that I would basically ignore, but turn into from time to time. But to be listed in the "progressive" line-up of Air America was a joke.
I HATED the fact that Air America sabotaged itself in the morning. I heard that they had to keep Sammy & Army because of contracts with WWRL. I guess those contracts ended. The only thing I don't like is how Air America keeps its listeners in the dark about changes--and doesn't seem to allow on-air discussions about them.
Be well & happy,
Barrie
Sam and Army were funny and interesting. Mark and Richard are boring and predicable. Don Imus, I'm coming back to Georgia!!!!
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