Montone Retires From 1010WINS

2

After nearly 40 years of hosting the news on 1010 WINS in New York City, John Montone announced on the air Thursday he’s retiring. He first made the announcement on “The Morning Drive,” and followed it up with this picture and a post on Twitter.

2 COMMENTS

  1. This was part of a wave of retirements at WINS (including such names at the anchor desk as Larry Kanter and Paul James, fellow reporter Al Jones, and editors Jack Conceicao and Ronnie Stern).

    All this reminded me of back in 1992, when WINS’ then-owner, Westinghouse Broadcasting (“Group W”), in spite of the station being among their most profitable (taking in $30 million in ad revenues) and way on top of the all-news mountain (leaving then-separately owned rival WCBS Newsradio 88 in the dust), was under pressure to economize from parent Westinghouse Electric which was losing billions from bad investments and other bad business decisions, and made a buyout offer to nine reporters/anchors over aged 54 – Stan Brooks, Doug Edelson, Jim McGiffert, Michael O’Neil, Paul Parker (Montone’s predecessor as morning street reporter), Brad Phillips, Clarence Rock, Brad Sherman and Paul Smith. (Prior thereto, they had dropped theatre and drama critic Leida Snow and movie critic Bob Salmaggi.) Of that list, five – Rock, Parker, Edelson, Sherman and Phillips – all retired within a one-month period (May-June 1992). Of the rest, O’Neil retired the next year, Smith in 1995 and McGiffert in 2002. Brooks ended up lasting the longest – when he was promoted to senior correspondent, the selfless “cub reporter” at heart stipulated he NOT be paid more than any of the station’s other air staff (which would have no doubt pleased management, though his boss Scott Herman did offer a raise to go with his position) – and continued to report from City Hall until a month before his death in December 2013. (And now, their main newsroom is named after him.)

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here