WEVD: The Little Station that Couldn't

By Scott Pellegrino

Anyone who's interested in talk radio has frequently posed the following question to himself: "How many radio execs did this guy have to blow to get on the air?" You're tuned into WABC and you hear Rush Limbaugh singing Strom Thurmond's praises. "He's not encumbered by being politically correct... If you want to know what America used to be?and a lot of people wish it still were?then you listen to Strom  Thurmond." True enough. Thurmond's campaign slogan for his 1948 presidential run was "Segregation Forever."

Next day you're listening to WOR. John Gambling III is holding forth. You haven't lit up in months, but you can't for the life of you recall anything he says 30 seconds after he says it. If you were being paid, you could conceivably remember, but who would pay for that? That name sticks with you though...always does. Even if he hides the iii behind an initial, you know he's proof that cloning can occur across generations. That III will marinate in your brain till death or Alzheimer's, seared into your absurdity lobe. III. Three generations. Three John Gamblings, all meticulously calibrated to numb listeners' minds for 25 years each. George Bush Jr. may be the nepotism poster boy