Curtis & Kuby Return; Pat Kiernan & New PD Join WABC
Source: Radio Insight
Cumulus Talk 770 WABC New York has revealed its new lineup following the losses of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to Clear Channel’s 710 WOR.
Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby, who hosted mornings on WABC from 2000 until 2007 will return to the station to host the 12pm to 3pm slot going up against Limbaugh on WOR according to the New York Times. Sliwa had been hosting two programs daily on Salem’s “970 The Answer” WNYM; mornings solo and afternoons with former New York Governor David Patterson. The morning show was set to begin a one hour simulcast on “My 9” WWOR-TV on Monday, January 6. No word on the status of any of those programs yet.
Read more: http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/87245/curtis-kuby-return-to-wabc/
podcast: http://www.wabcradio.com/page.php?page_id=2644
I thought WABC would pick up the syndicated Dennis Miller to replace Rush but never anticipated Curtis & Kuby coming back. Cumulus is replacing the Mike Huckabee Show with Dennis Miller in the noon to 3 ET timepart effective Monday.
Curtis Sliwa is best known for founding the anti-crime organization Guardian Angels in 1979 in response to muggings and such in the NYC subways. During his WNYM career he has been a guest on Thom Hartmann's show.
Ron Kuby is the lawyer known for defending controversial clients like the Blind Sheikh and the LIRR shooter. Kuby hosted a show on Air America Radio from 2008 to 2009 after the first C&K show was cancelled.
The NYT has more info about the new WABC: Talk Radio on WABC Shifts Focus to the Local
WABC is mostly local during the daytime, with an hour of local news at 5am, then:
10am-noon: (Local) Geraldo Rivera (used to be syndicated but Cumulus gave this slot back to affiliates)
noon-3: (Local) Curtis & Kuby
3pm-5pm: (National out of KSFO) Michael Savage
5pm-6pm: (Local) Pat Kiernan
Evenings have two locally produced and nationally syndicated shows hosted by Mark Levin and John Batchelor, then the WBAP-produced Red Eye Radio overnights.
A very interesting turn of events:
- Progressive talk station WWRL flips to Spanish tropical music
- Right wing radio icon Bob Grant dies
- Lynne Stewart (another radical lawyer who also defended the Blind Sheikh) gets out of prison
- WABC, long the station that just played Cumulus Media Networks' master schedule (Imus, Geraldo, Rush, Sean, Mark Levin, John Batchelor, Red Eye Radio) now goes mostly local and even brings back the old Curtis and Kuby show, yes even including the super duper left wing lawyer who defended the Blind Sheikh and LIRR shooter!
Interesting times indeed. I never listened to the original C&K show but will definitely listen now!
= new reply since forum marked as read
He would often fill in at any hour of the day for anybody's show (sortof like Smerconish had done).
I used to listen to Curtis, back when he was by himself (all pre-Imus when he had the early morning WABC slot), then when he was broadcasting with his wife Lisa, then when he was with Kuby, and on and on.... Curtis (as well as Lynn Samuels) was on WABC way before Roach Limpballs came on there. Limpballs actually took Lynn's noon slot when he first came on (I heard Limpballs first show when tuning in to listen to Lynn).
It's as if the stations are reverting back to the old mid-1980s - early 1990s formats. This was not long before Hannity was vomited out onto the scene with "Hannity and Colmes". When they took Colmes away, that heralded the end of any diverse radio and became the start of pure, unadulterated RW hate talk radio.
Along that line, if they are bringing back "Curtis and Kuby", they should try to bring back "Batchelor and Alexander". John by himself late at night is not as engaging as the two (to include Paul) together in that 9:00 slot. 
The two were very intellectually engaging during the Persian Gulf War period in the early '90s.
