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Mark's 11am Monologue. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now the Red Beret has returned to radio. Curtis lee
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Wall guest host The Mark Simone Show on sevent Tenor Oh,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I heard that update about Governor Schurell from a congresswoman.
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  Speaker 1: She's going on a diner tour. Boy. Nobody is from
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  Speaker 1: Jack Ciarelli any longer. Remember he was the big maga
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  Speaker 1: trumper guy this time around, third time around, and her
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  Speaker 1: whole campaign was affordabilely, cost the living, and he washed.
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  Speaker 1: But you don't hear from him at all. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what he plans on doing. I've known Jack. It's
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  Speaker 1: a good candidate, but the voters were interested in, in course,
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  Speaker 1: the living, affordability. That's what propelled Johann Mondamia New York
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  Speaker 1: and in other races where Democrats beat Republicans around the
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  Speaker 1: country and maywell end up determining the fate of the
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  Speaker 1: House of Representatives. You know, Trump, there was a fake
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  Speaker 1: news fake note. Now it's all about oh no, affordability
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  Speaker 1: courts of OLIVI yeah, yeah, okay, get on board. But
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  Speaker 1: it reminds me of a great radio figure who was
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  Speaker 1: here from time to time, the King of talk radio,
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  Speaker 1: Bob Graham. He was here on two different occasions. But
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  Speaker 1: when he was at WABC, was there I was at
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  Speaker 1: that time, there was the woman trying to become governor. There,
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  Speaker 1: Christine Todd Whitless. What the scratsiata what a shanda? Remember
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  Speaker 1: she's the one who was the EPA chieftains for Bush
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  Speaker 1: forty three and in the aftermath of the attack of
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  Speaker 1: nine eleven said, oh, no toxins in the air. You
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  Speaker 1: don't need gloves or masks or has matt suits just
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  Speaker 1: in hale exl Look how many died, Look how many
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  Speaker 1: still suffered. But anyway, at that time it was Governor Florio,
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  Speaker 1: and Bob grand single handedly got her elected. He coined
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  Speaker 1: the phrase Florio Free in ninety three. And Florio was
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  Speaker 1: originally from Brooklyn. He worked in a butcher's shop, joined
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  Speaker 1: the US Navy, and he was paving the way for
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  Speaker 1: his reelection. He was raised in Texas. And Bob Grant
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  Speaker 1: took Christine Todd wit Lists of Patrician by the hand,
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  Speaker 1: took her on the bus tour from Camden County to
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  Speaker 1: Hudson County, and of course the stopover at his favorite haunt,
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  Speaker 1: the Rio Diner in Woodbridge, New Jersey. We're at the time,
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  Speaker 1: guess who the mayor was, is he? Oh yeah, the
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  Speaker 1: guy who just lost his attempted political comeback in Jersey
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  Speaker 1: City to become the mayor, as he addressed a nation
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  Speaker 1: later on and said, I am a gay American. You
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  Speaker 1: know that is Yeah, like Cormo, he attempted to come back.
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  Speaker 1: He was the mayor of Woodbridge at the time. Jim
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  Speaker 1: McGready greed and he crashed in burnerw Jersey City. But anyway,
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  Speaker 1: the point being is Bob Grant's single handedly took this
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  Speaker 1: woman and got her elected, and then, in typical political fashion,
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  Speaker 1: she stuck the ship in his back. Came up, did
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  Speaker 1: an interview in the studios at WABC at that time
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  Speaker 1: at two pen Plaza, Madison Square Garden. Here's the guy
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  Speaker 1: who got her elected. And because people were calling Bob
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  Speaker 1: Grant a racist, she chimed in, oh yeah, she was
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  Speaker 1: stabbing him in the back. And Bob was always respectful
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  Speaker 1: to his guests on the radio. You know, he would
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  Speaker 1: rail against them when he was doing his commentaries, but
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  Speaker 1: he was always respectful. I was there at the station
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  Speaker 1: that day. It was a horrific political performance, and you
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  Speaker 1: got to understand that you may be loyal to certain politicians.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. They care only about themselves. And that
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  Speaker 1: was clearly evidenced the Christine Todd Whitless Miserable Verson. But
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  Speaker 1: she had no loyalty. The guy who did have loyalty,
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  Speaker 1: it's the great Bernard McGirk. And I say great because
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  Speaker 1: he earned it. His father was a bus driver, Irish
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  Speaker 1: bus driver in the Bronx. His mother raised kids in
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  Speaker 1: the Monroe housing projects and Soundview, so where Wesley Snipes
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  Speaker 1: grew up. Yeah, Wesley, pay your taxes. They never did.
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  Speaker 1: And many others who grew up there. But when you
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  Speaker 1: were white back then, you were the minority, and it
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  Speaker 1: was a tough upbringing. But when I've been to the
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  Speaker 1: Monroe projects and I speak to the elderly African American women,
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  Speaker 1: many of them still living there, they would say Bernard
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  Speaker 1: McGirk would walk around with books all the time. He'd
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  Speaker 1: be reading books, he'd be teaching kids to read, even
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  Speaker 1: the ones threatening him to give him a beat down.
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  Speaker 1: And as you know, Bernard was a tough guy. It
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  Speaker 1: was a Hayes man. Went to Cardinal Hayes. I think
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  Speaker 1: he went to Mount Saint Vincent up in Riverdale, then
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  Speaker 1: left school, was driving livery cabs up in Young because
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  Speaker 1: overnight you know how dangerous that is. Back then the
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  Speaker 1: slowbine projects, Milford Gardens, thugs and then late and now
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  Speaker 1: you know who's China hal at Back then livery cabs,
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  Speaker 1: it's pimps, it's prostitutes, it's John's, it's drug dealers, it's
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  Speaker 1: drug users and drunks who were getting out of the
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  Speaker 1: bars along McLean Avenue in the wee hours of the morning,
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  Speaker 1: and it was tough. He talked to me about all
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  Speaker 1: the times he got pissed the whip guns to his head, Rob,
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  Speaker 1: because back then it was cash and carry. And then
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  Speaker 1: he fell into radio. It's one of the best things
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  Speaker 1: that ever happened on radio. At some point he hooked
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  Speaker 1: up with Imus, who had had his ups and downs
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  Speaker 1: and was just a nasty guy. Nasty guy, but he
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  Speaker 1: became the lynchpin, the flywheel, the one person who was
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  Speaker 1: able to turn it around for don Imus, who, depending
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  Speaker 1: on which day it was, was probably in a really
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  Speaker 1: bad mood. If I remember correctly, There was Imus, Charles McCord,
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  Speaker 1: his news guy, Rob Bartlett Loifino, who is now sid
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  Speaker 1: Rosenberg's wingman. If he hadn't gotten Luia Fino here from
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  Speaker 1: w o WAL. I don't think sid Rosenberg would have
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  Speaker 1: cut it. Once Bernard McGirk passed away. We'll get into
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  Speaker 1: that momentarily. But by the time they came to WABC.
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  Speaker 1: This is after that Scarlet Night situation with Rutgers, which
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  Speaker 1: I think occurred in about two thousand and seven. All
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  Speaker 1: of a sudden, MSNBC canceled them because they were simulcast,
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  Speaker 1: and then WFA and canceled them, fired, Imish fired. Bernard
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  Speaker 1: McGirr kept the others on a little bit, but let
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  Speaker 1: them go too, and they were in a lurch. They
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  Speaker 1: were persona and on Grada they had a scarlet letter
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  Speaker 1: on them they would call races, which, let me tell
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  Speaker 1: you something, Bernard McGirr coughing up in the projects with
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  Speaker 1: predominantly African Americans and Hispanics around him, not far from
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  Speaker 1: the Soto Mayor Projects which used to be the Bronxdale
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  Speaker 1: Projects renamed in her honor, near the Bruckna in the
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  Speaker 1: heart of the South Bronx. He was no racist. Probably
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  Speaker 1: the saddest moment that I experienced on his behalf is
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  Speaker 1: that he was supposed to in two thousand and seven
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  Speaker 1: be hired over at WRKO for the morning program in Boston,
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  Speaker 1: and boy, they wanted him there desperately because he would
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  Speaker 1: have been a perfect fit Irish. And remember he used
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  Speaker 1: to do used to do the imitations of John and
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  Speaker 1: Cardinal o'conna and Cardinal Egan. You know, you had that
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  Speaker 1: Federal Express envelope as like the cone on his head.
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  Speaker 1: He was great with the Irish brogue man and loved
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  Speaker 1: him in Boston. So there I am in the studios
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  Speaker 1: of WRKO in Boston. I was leading Guardian Angel patrols.
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  Speaker 1: Some black minister had said, don't come to Boston because
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  Speaker 1: you're just asking to end up in a body bag.
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  Speaker 1: It was high crime. The mayor was opposed to it,
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  Speaker 1: and so here it was they were going to hire
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  Speaker 1: Bernard McGirk to be the co host with the former
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  Speaker 1: Speaker of the crooked Boston Excuse mean Massachusetts Legislature, Tom
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  Speaker 1: Finnerant and then Alslom Shady Sharpton and Barack Obama started
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  Speaker 1: working the phones to all the advertisers and telling him,
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  Speaker 1: if you hire that racist Bernard McGirk, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: launch a boycott. So when I got there that morning,
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  Speaker 1: I said, hey, where's Burnie? Oh no, no, no, they decided
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  Speaker 1: not to take him. Honest, but what that would have
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  Speaker 1: helped you, Thomas, You know you're a politician. I was
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  Speaker 1: honest with him. Politicians make horrible talk show hosts because
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  Speaker 1: they always speak with a seven second soundblite the worst.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: He goes, No, you're right, I needed Bernie. So once
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  Speaker 1: again Bernard McGirk was off into the ABYSS, labeled a racist. Meantime,
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  Speaker 1: unbeknownst to anybody, don Imus who represented his whole crew,
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  Speaker 1: because you paid Imus, and then he paid his crew,
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  Speaker 1: so you were subject to whatever Imus said you had
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  Speaker 1: to do. He was meeting with the Buckley family who
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: owned WOR, this station seven ten at the time, family
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  Speaker 1: owned station, and they were on the cusp of hiring him. Now,
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  Speaker 1: remember the morning shows there had either been gambling one, two, three,
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  Speaker 1: or programs that sounded like the Gambling show. You know,
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  Speaker 1: it soundedlikes So this would have been a major departure
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  Speaker 1: for them. I don't know what happened, but negotiations broke
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  Speaker 1: down and at that point WOR decided not to bring
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  Speaker 1: him into the mornings. That's like halfway through twenty two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and seven and then towards the end of two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and seven, what happens. WABC hires Imis in the
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  Speaker 1: Morning and his crew to replace Curtis and Koby. They
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: fired Kooby and they put me in a box doing
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  Speaker 1: overnight radio and that was syndicated across the nation. But
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  Speaker 1: they weren't gonna let me go, and they said this
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  Speaker 1: so wow. It was all within a year, and every
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  Speaker 1: step of the way, Bernard McGirk was loyal to Imus
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  Speaker 1: and loyal to the team. Never told his stories, the
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  Speaker 1: horrific stories of how badly i'mus treated him and all
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  Speaker 1: the members of his staff. By the way, the executive producer,
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  Speaker 1: when you saw him in the studio, he was feeding
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  Speaker 1: information i'mus. Bernard would read the books, he would give
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  Speaker 1: him the questions to ask. There was sometimes Imus was
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  Speaker 1: almost incoherent, and Bernard McGirk would save the day whether
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  Speaker 1: i'mus was off in New Mexico and then eventually in
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  Speaker 1: Texas at Ranch whatever. And then he had a wish
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  Speaker 1: at WABC. He wanted to have his own show. He
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  Speaker 1: had earned it many times over great talk show hosts,
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  Speaker 1: and he said to management and ownership, I want to
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  Speaker 1: be able to bring up Sid Rosenberg from Florida, who
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  Speaker 1: was having a difficult time, and he convinced him. He
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  Speaker 1: convinced them that, yeah, this could be a good show.
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  Speaker 1: I remember I went down to Florida. I was hosting
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a Guardian Angel conference at the hard Rock Casino in Hollywood,
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  Speaker 1: and I was asking questions about Sid because he had
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  Speaker 1: just been fired in another radio station. Assumed he had
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: some of the same problems he had before. He hadn't.
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  Speaker 1: I reported back to ownership management and I told, man,
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  Speaker 1: you got it. You got to bring Sid up because
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: he wanted to hire Mike Lupeka, the sports writer at
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: at the Daily News. Great sports writer, but horrible talk
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  Speaker 1: show hosts. And I must say, convince him. You don't
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  Speaker 1: have to come into the station. You could do it
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  Speaker 1: from your basement in New Canaan. Yeah, just destroy the
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  Speaker 1: station even more, saying God, they listened to me. They
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  Speaker 1: brought Sid Rosenberg up. Sid was a great addition. And
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: then unfortunately Bernie, and this is a message to all
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  Speaker 1: of you to get to your menfo never took that
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: PSA test. A simple prick of the finger, A simple
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: prick of the finger. If he had had that blood test,
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  Speaker 1: it's simple. I can assure you he would not have
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  Speaker 1: died of prostate cancer like so many men needlessly do
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: because they don't get tested. If you're forty five or older,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you gotta get tested. Women folk listening out there, you
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  Speaker 1: have the right to nag them, be all over them,
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  Speaker 1: make sure they get that test, because the toughest guys
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  Speaker 1: are the ones least likely to take the test because
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: they think, oh man, it goes my manhood. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I'll have to be using no longer the urino. I'll
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: have to go into the stall and do a squad
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  Speaker 1: in for us. That's nonsense. I had stage four prostate cancer.
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  Speaker 1: But Bernie was old school. And when we return, I'll
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  Speaker 1: tell you exactly what happened there. For one year, this
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  Speaker 1: guy suffered and you continue to do talk radio while
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: his partner, Sid Rosenberg was hoping that he would have
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: a shot to do the show on his own. You
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  Speaker 1: imagine that this guy who had brought him, who said
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  Speaker 1: I want sit up here, and all Sid was doing
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  Speaker 1: while Bertie was suffering, is I could do this show
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  Speaker 1: on my own. Really, No, you couldn't. No, you can't.
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  Speaker 1: And I'll give you the rest of the real story
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  Speaker 1: as I do my homage to a great all round
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  Speaker 1: figure in talk radio, Bernard McGirk, who should be honored
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  Speaker 1: on a regular basis for all he put up, with,
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  Speaker 1: all he did, and what he contributed to the thing
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  Speaker 1: of ours. One eight hundred three two one zero seven ten.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: That's one eight hundred three two, one zero seven ten