With the New York Mayoral Election upon us, we look at the founding fathers of Conservative Talk as Bob Grant and his mentor Joe Pyne set the stage for our modern media landscape, and weirdly play into the backstory of the same racial and cultural animosity we've seen in the 2025 New York Mayoral Election, as the son of the man Grant brought down with smears, jears, and a catchy parody song, Andrew Cuomo, is caught playing the same game as the man who dispised his father, Mario, and Cuomo's political mentor, Bill Clinton.

References

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GD6q-aRlFPlYVGJXKKvLQZltkQGk-0EcVOUbNN_lHac/edit?usp=sharing

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In this edition, we take a look at the first radio station and disc jockeys to play their own songs, the impact of consultants, and how much they kill creativity.

Also, a look at the origin story of WNEW, how they seized an opportunity when another station failed, and the story of a guy who broke his legs working in a uranium mine and then became the biggest name in radio by being the first shock jock, Don Imus.

Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNEW-FM

https://www.nyradioarchive.com/wnewfm.html

https://nab.org/hof/inductees/donImus.asp

https://worfm.com/history.html

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/02/imus200602

https://books.google.com/books?id=D-kCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA29#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://archive.org/details/everythingimusal0000reed/page/24/mode/2up

https://thebluze.com/2017/04/04/underground-radio-in-the-late-1960s/

https://www.nyradioarchive.com/audio/WNEWFM_GirlsJingle_NL.mp3

https://www.nyradioarchive.com/worfm.html

https://books.google.com/books?id=uVYEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.nyradioarchive.com/worfm.html

https://archive.org/details/wor-fm-98.7-nyc-first-fm-rock-station-1966

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/27/791955636/pioneering-shock-jock-don-imus-has-died-at-79

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/biography/don-imus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Imus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldridge_Cleaver

https://www.musicradio77.com/other/Rosko%20Resigns%20WOR-FM%2010-2-67.mp3

https://www.flicklives.com/index.php?pg=112&recno=6133

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life

https://halloffame.nysbroadcasters.org/post/scott-muni

https://nyradioarchive.com/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-sep-30-me-passings30.1-story.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/30/arts/scott-muni-74-a-radio-dj-of-fm-rock-programming-dies.html

https://denniselsas.com/scott-muni/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Muni

https://www.radiohalloffame.com/scott-muni

https://radiodiscussions.com/threads/the-old-wnew-fm-record-library.549283/

https://www.musicradio77.com/other/WOR-FM-Muni-Michaels-10-8-66.mp3

https://topviewtix.com/new-york/new-yorks-broadcasting-history?srsltid=AfmBOorxS6wlZ244-tyGXgvT5Ug_rgtVIwA_w3ZfXFbMuVYPnPDAA4Hm

https://www.playlistresearch.com/ny-radiohistory.htm

https://nyradioarchive.com/audio/WNEWFM_197510_PF_CatOlsen.mp3

https://www.facebook.com/groups/278808429125814/posts/2312907445715892/

https://radiodiscussions.com/threads/early-1960s-nyc-am-radio.623044/

https://nyradioarchive.com/images/radioscans/WNEWFM_Ros_NYT19690105.jpg

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The only way to tell the tale of radio in New York City is to look back... all the way back to over a century ago, as the concept of broadcast radio would be developed on the backs of a massive international tragedy, David Sarnoff being the reason we have culture and a culture war over the airwaves, and the philisophical question of how do you accurately cover a subject with a limited amount of worthwhile people?

Become a Patron: Patreon.com/HistoricallySpeaking

Resources

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GD6q-aRlFPlYVGJXKKvLQZltkQGk-0EcVOUbNN_lHac/edit?usp=sharing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With it being Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame season, our resident favorite Wrestling Historian/Blabbermouth runs through his unofficial ballot for the 2025 class!

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Listen to Matt's new monthly/bi-monthly podcast where he tells you stories that come from inside his mind!

It's a literal place for his stuff!

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It's the season finale of Historically Speaking, and Matt Ryan lays out the case for why we are where we are now was inevitable, setting the through line from the fall of the IWA to 1982 as the Wrestling Establishment began to topple over like a Jenga puzzle.

Resources

Death Of The Territories: Tim Hornbaker

Capitol Revolution: Tim Hornbaker

The Solie Chronicles: Robert Allyn, Pamela Allyn, Scott Teal

National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story: Tim Hornbaker

Inside Out: How Corporate America Destroyed Pro Wrestling: Ole Anderson, Scott Teal

Ric Flair: The Last Real World Champion: Tim Hornbaker

Wrestling At The Chase: The Inside Story: Larry Matysik

The Cowboy And The Cross: Bill Watts

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In our penultimate episode of Season 1, we return to Johnny Powers as he touches down in the Carolinas to try and put out the fire that is the International Wrestling Association, as the Pro Wrestling Establishment becomes the Bacchae for the God known as the Status Quo, while at the same time one old God was cut down the expense of a newer and flashier model down in Tennessee.

Plus Matt breaks down what comes next for Historically Speaking as we line up our next TWO Seasons of Historically Speaking.

Resources

Jerry The King Lawler: It's Good To Be The King

Johnny Powers Interview: 57 Talk.com

https://www.kayfabememories.com/Regions/gcw/gcw22-2.htm

https://www.famousdaily.com/history/tbs-tv-ted-turner-superstation.html

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In what is sure to be our longest, most detailed, and most use of our production resources to date, we bring you the war as it sat between the IWA and the Pro Wrestling Establishment.

From the return of the 1956 Consent Decree, to Sam Muchnick crying poverty amid massive houses at the Kiel, the WWWF looking to combat Operation Hairy Hail Mary with Operation Molotov Cocktail, and it working... kinda?

Accounts and insight into the NWA's battle plans against the IWA in Florida and Georgia, as those old tactics come out to play.

We also go as in-depth as we can as the IWA finally touches down in the Tri-State Area, as we feature news coverage of the IWA's New Jersey and New York debuts... and it has to do with the New York Philharmonic and Don Imus hosting Miss Bare America.

References: Too many characters for a podcast description.... Link Below

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1knnhBsBdhEaRYqJaU2pwnUnxfoLra4JEJsimnNtrygc/edit?usp=sharing

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We go deeper into 1975 on the 13th edition of Historically Speaking, as IWA's TV continues to be a burr in Vince McMahon's heel and both sides play games in the press or politically on the road to the IWA's northeast debut inside Roosevelt Stadium in New Jersey.

We also debut "Suspend Your Disbelief Theater" as we go back to what we think may be July 5, 1975 as George "Crybaby" Cannon tries to convince George "The Animal" Steele to jump from the WWWF to the IWA and debut one day before he battles Bruno Sammartino at Madison Square Garden.

Resources

Capitol Revolution by Tim Hornbaker

Animal by George Steele

http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=064612

https://www.nyprowrestling.com/results/1970s/1975.html

https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=bilanzen&wrestler=481&jahr=1975&monat=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWcrOGeUcKc

https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&sort=liga&kategorie=8&liga=747&jahr=1975&monat=0&showart=&ansicht=0&seite=2

https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&show=179044

https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&sort=liga&kategorie=1&liga=3&jahr=1975&monat=0&showart=&ansicht=0&seite=5

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1329210375172091&set=a.726274668799001

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1329210375172091&set=a.726274668799001

https://x.com/doug_mcleer/status/1943303293293248894

http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=048601;p=0

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.