Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / David Donovan | New York State Broadcasters Association President | 07-08-26
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: We're talking about the Hall of Fame. The man that's
- 0:03Speaker 1: in charge happens to be the president of the New
- 0:06Speaker 1: York State Broadcasters Association. You may remember he gave me
- 0:11Speaker 1: an award. It was very nice. Chair presented me back
- 0:14Speaker 1: on our ten year anniversary show back in January. But
- 0:17Speaker 1: he's a guy that runs the Broadcast Association, the whole deal,
- 0:22Speaker 1: all of it, not just radio, television as well. And
- 0:25Speaker 1: the NYSBA announced their twenty twenty six Hall of Fame
- 0:30Speaker 1: class seven people, three of which very recognizable names, Sid Rosenberg,
- 0:37Speaker 1: Rosanna Scato my friend over at Channel five, and Bill
- 0:40Speaker 1: Ritter over at Channel seven. The other four people or
- 0:43Speaker 1: radio people from the northern part of the state. Either way,
- 0:47Speaker 1: I am grateful, eternally grateful. I really am humbled and
- 0:52Speaker 1: thrilled to speak to the President, David Donovan on this
- 0:56Speaker 1: show right now. David, good morning, buddy, how are you?
- 1:00Speaker 2: Good morning? Said, how are you doing sir? Congratulations?
- 1:02Speaker 1: Well, I'm doing great. This was really amazing. I was
- 1:07Speaker 1: in Israel. It was three am local time in Jerusalem
- 1:13Speaker 1: when I got your email that I had in fact
- 1:17Speaker 1: been selected to be inducted here in twenty twenty six
- 1:21Speaker 1: and to say I'm grateful would be a huge understatement,
- 1:25Speaker 1: So thank you very much, well well.
- 1:27Speaker 2: Said, look At you deserve it. Sorry to wake you
- 1:29Speaker 2: up in the middle of the night over in Israel,
- 1:32Speaker 2: but the bottom line is said is look at. We
- 1:36Speaker 2: recognize as part of the Hall of Fame folks who
- 1:39Speaker 2: have done a terrific job, not only in the career
- 1:43Speaker 2: but also giving back to the community. And you have
- 1:46Speaker 2: come a tremendous success from your day starting in Florida
- 1:49Speaker 2: in the nineties. You know, you've been in a competitive
- 1:53Speaker 2: New York market since two thousand over any w you
- 1:57Speaker 2: worked with Imus, you worked at fan you actually did
- 2:01Speaker 2: pregame shows for the Giants, which is you know, God
- 2:04Speaker 2: love you for that. And then frankly with starting in
- 2:08Speaker 2: I think it was twenty sixteen with Bernie god restssoula
- 2:11Speaker 2: Bernie and Sid show. You replaced Dimus and you have
- 2:18Speaker 2: done a phenomenal job in the morning with Sid and friends.
- 2:22Speaker 2: And you and John Cassimetidis who owns seventy seven w ABC,
- 2:29Speaker 2: have done a phenomenal job serving the community. And you know,
- 2:34Speaker 2: I don't want to go on, but you know the
- 2:36Speaker 2: people that you're in the Hall of Fame with are
- 2:40Speaker 2: the legends of broadcasting, Ernie Anastes, Craig Carlton, Tom Murphy
- 2:48Speaker 2: who ran ABC, Bill Paley who ran CBS, Regis, Philben Walter, Cronkite,
- 2:54Speaker 2: Al Roker, Boomer, Science and Funk Flex, Mike Francessa, mister
- 3:00Speaker 2: g over it Picks, Marvin Scott, and two folks that
- 3:04Speaker 2: you work with, both Curtis and cousin, Brucey Wow, Angie Martinez,
- 3:09Speaker 2: Mike Wallace. I mean, the name goes on Bob Walters,
- 3:13Speaker 2: Barbara Walters, Mike Wallace, Angie Martinez, Diana Williams, and it
- 3:22Speaker 2: is it really is our highest honor and what we
- 3:25Speaker 2: try to do. The way it works is we have
- 3:27Speaker 2: our board of directors, we have a meeting and your
- 3:31Speaker 2: name came up and it was a unanimous vote. And
- 3:35Speaker 2: your commitment to New York City, I mean, you know,
- 3:38Speaker 2: Brooklyn native. I mean, my god, you're You've done a
- 3:42Speaker 2: great job and so you certainly deserve it more happy
- 3:45Speaker 2: and honored that putting you in our Hall of Fame.
- 3:49Speaker 1: Well, thank you.
- 3:49Speaker 2: That was very sweet.
- 3:50Speaker 1: Really, I got choked up. I also know two of
- 3:55Speaker 1: the people going into the hole with me very well.
- 3:58Speaker 1: Rosanna Scotto has been a friend of mine. We both
- 4:00Speaker 1: went to poly Prep many many decades ago. I knew
- 4:03Speaker 1: a brother too, and she does a tremendous job on
- 4:06Speaker 1: Good Day in New York on Channel five. And Bill Rittle.
- 4:10Speaker 1: You know, Bill Rittle and I don't agree on a
- 4:14Speaker 1: lot of stuff. In fact, I've called Bill out on
- 4:17Speaker 1: some of his opinions on Channel seven. I've even said
- 4:22Speaker 1: things like I missed the old days when my anchors
- 4:24Speaker 1: didn't a pine on the nightly news. But with that said,
- 4:29Speaker 1: he's a terrific guy, met on more than what occasion,
- 4:32Speaker 1: and he's had a great career in New York and
- 4:34Speaker 1: he does deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
- 4:36Speaker 1: So no disrespect to the four other radio people from
- 4:39Speaker 1: the northern part of the state, but I can certainly
- 4:42Speaker 1: appreciate what's anascato and Bill Ritter going in with me.
- 4:47Speaker 2: Well, both have done a phenomenal job. Bill has done
- 4:49Speaker 2: a terriffer. He's won several awards from US for his
- 4:53Speaker 2: work on fire safety. And we do try to geographically
- 4:58Speaker 2: disperse this, and we have, for example, two radio guys
- 5:01Speaker 2: from who are legends, absolute legends, and Glenn's falls, Dan
- 5:06Speaker 2: Miner and Pete Pluttier. So we try to make sure
- 5:09Speaker 2: that we cover the whole state, and we try to
- 5:11Speaker 2: make sure that we cover both radio and television. And
- 5:15Speaker 2: I have to tell you it is a very You've
- 5:19Speaker 2: existed in the most competitive media market in the world, really,
- 5:24Speaker 2: but it is really a tough competition to get into
- 5:27Speaker 2: this Hall of Fame.
- 5:27Speaker 1: Well how many names you, guys, as you start out with.
- 5:30Speaker 2: We start off with about forty or fifty and you
- 5:33Speaker 2: get down to seven every single year.
- 5:35Speaker 1: Wow.
- 5:36Speaker 2: Wow. It takes a while, and there's a lot of
- 5:39Speaker 2: discussion back and forth. And we don't make these decisions lightly,
- 5:45Speaker 2: as you shouldn't.
- 5:46Speaker 1: These are a very big deal. In fact, you know,
- 5:47Speaker 1: I got a bunch of people now, David David Donovan,
- 5:50Speaker 1: the president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, who
- 5:54Speaker 1: want the honor. I don't even know if you do this.
- 5:56Speaker 1: I think you do, because I remember Bill Evans getting
- 5:59Speaker 1: in last year, being a presenter like Don shul and
- 6:03Speaker 1: Dan Marino at the Football Hall of Fame. I don't
- 6:05Speaker 1: know if the host that day just announces it, if
- 6:08Speaker 1: there really is a presenter, But I got a whole
- 6:10Speaker 1: bunch of people already reaching out to me trying to
- 6:12Speaker 1: line up to be the presenter that day as well
- 6:15Speaker 1: as you offered me a table at ten, I got
- 6:18Speaker 1: sixty people that want to come already. So what does
- 6:21Speaker 1: that day actually look like October twenty second at the
- 6:25Speaker 1: Rainbow Room.
- 6:26Speaker 2: Well, what it does is the presenter and we can
- 6:29Speaker 2: discuss that or maybe we can auction it off to it.
- 6:34Speaker 2: I like to What we do is is that we
- 6:37Speaker 2: have a luncheon and it is at the Rainbow Room,
- 6:41Speaker 2: and you know, everyone you know gets a table, and
- 6:45Speaker 2: then we have additional tables that are available as well.
- 6:49Speaker 2: And I also bring in students because we have to
- 6:53Speaker 2: look at the next generation. So I'll bring students from
- 6:55Speaker 2: the colleges around the area. We'll sit at a couple
- 6:58Speaker 2: of tables. We usually get about, you know, two three
- 7:01Speaker 2: hundred people in there. I get it can get crowded,
- 7:04Speaker 2: but it is. Frankly, I've been told by a number
- 7:08Speaker 2: of folks both at the national level, would have you
- 7:10Speaker 2: it is one of the special events in broadcast. Oh.
- 7:14Speaker 1: I can attest to that because you mentioned John Konsumatidis,
- 7:17Speaker 1: a terrific owner my dear brand. He won an award
- 7:19Speaker 1: this over the award last year we had a great
- 7:21Speaker 1: table WABC table and I was there middle of the afternoon,
- 7:26Speaker 1: gorgeous day. Yeah, it was great. I loved it. It
- 7:28Speaker 1: was great. And I sat there going, Dave, these bastards,
- 7:31Speaker 1: they better put me in one of these years. I'm
- 7:33Speaker 1: not coming back.
- 7:35Speaker 2: Well, I must have read your mind. Ship.
- 7:38Speaker 1: I just got a text as we're speaking, talking about
- 7:41Speaker 1: Hall of AMers. And I'm not just patronizing this guy.
- 7:45Speaker 1: This guy is one of the all time greats. He says,
- 7:48Speaker 1: I want to put my name on the list of
- 7:50Speaker 1: potential presenters. Happened to be the president of CBS Radio
- 7:55Speaker 1: when An and all those stations were at their very best,
- 7:59Speaker 1: the great Dan Mayon.
- 8:00Speaker 2: I know Dan very well, know Dan very very well.
- 8:04Speaker 2: He's done a great job.
- 8:05Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of those execs back then, and they
- 8:08Speaker 1: had a deal with Don I Miss and Howard Stern
- 8:11Speaker 1: the same company. I mean, could you imagine there were
- 8:14Speaker 1: actually times David Donovan and Lurlupino, my amazing sidekick here
- 8:18Speaker 1: he went to some of those Christmas parties. You'd have
- 8:21Speaker 1: Howard Stern and Don I Miss, not often, maybe only
- 8:24Speaker 1: once or twice, but at the same Christmas party.
- 8:27Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, absolutely crazy. So it was a very wild
- 8:32Speaker 2: time back then, and I probably should have admit this,
- 8:34Speaker 2: but while you guys were doing that, I was an
- 8:37Speaker 2: attorney at the FCC.
- 8:39Speaker 1: Wow, No kidding, you were yeah for ten years I
- 8:42Speaker 1: didn't know that. Wow, that's funny. So let me ask
- 8:45Speaker 1: you this on the way out. And again, I can't
- 8:47Speaker 1: thank you enough. I'm eternally grateful. I really am. I
- 8:50Speaker 1: mean that from the bottom of my heart. This is
- 8:52Speaker 1: a huge, huge deal for me. It really is, and
- 8:54Speaker 1: my family and my father looking down from heaven somewhere,
- 8:57Speaker 1: it really is the future of radio. I have these
- 9:00Speaker 1: discussions with my friend Michael Harrison, Talkers Magazine, Jason Barrett,
- 9:05Speaker 1: Barrett Media. Now you and I know this the broadcaster
- 9:09Speaker 1: is you give out TV awards as well, right, what
- 9:10Speaker 1: was not ascatto, Bill Ritter, But in terms of radio,
- 9:13Speaker 1: because I believe that five of the seven people going
- 9:17Speaker 1: in this year with me are radio people, and you
- 9:20Speaker 1: bring in young students because you're you know, you're looking
- 9:22Speaker 1: at the future. What is your opinion on the future
- 9:27Speaker 1: of radio?
- 9:28Speaker 2: Well, I think I think we certainly have some challenges
- 9:31Speaker 2: right now, and I think one of the biggest challenges
- 9:33Speaker 2: is that the automobile manufacturers want to pull AM and
- 9:39Speaker 2: now they're even talking FM receivers out of cars, and
- 9:43Speaker 2: that really sense. A large part of the radio audience
- 9:46Speaker 2: is in the car and drive time. As you will know,
- 9:51Speaker 2: that could be very damaging. So we are working very
- 9:53Speaker 2: hard in Washington, d C. To pass the AM Radio
- 9:58Speaker 2: for Every Vehicle Act.
- 9:59Speaker 1: Yeah, just so you know, I brought this up with
- 10:01Speaker 1: President Trump the last time it was on this program
- 10:03Speaker 1: about seven weeks ago. Kach Matitis asked me to I did,
- 10:06Speaker 1: and President Trump was really behind us.
- 10:10Speaker 2: He is behind us, and we have three hundred and
- 10:12Speaker 2: seventeen co sponsors in the House of Representatives, including twenty
- 10:17Speaker 2: two members from New York City. We have over sixty
- 10:20Speaker 2: co sponsors in the Senate, including Senator Jillibrand and Leader
- 10:25Speaker 2: Schumer supports the bill. So we're trying to get this
- 10:28Speaker 2: across the finish line. That's what it comes down to.
- 10:31Speaker 2: We are on the five yard line. We want to
- 10:33Speaker 2: get it done this year. We want to because we
- 10:39Speaker 2: really have to send a message to the automobile industry
- 10:43Speaker 2: that local radio should remain in cars. Thanks for listening
- 10:49Speaker 2: to Sit in Friends in the morning. You can hear
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