Copyright © 1999 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved.

This Just In: Talk radio

Who'll fill in when Brudnoy cuts back?

By Dan Kennedy

Could talk-radio legend Jerry Williams or Democratic politco Marjorie Clapprood be returning to the airwaves? The answer won't be known for a few more weeks. But Williams and Clapprood are two of the more intriguing names to emerge in the sweepstakes now under way at WBZ Radio, where the top-rated David Brudnoy will soon reduce his workload from five hours a night to three.

Sometime late next month -- most likely Monday, June 28 -- Brudnoy will give up the final two hours of his Monday-through-Friday, 7 p.m.-to-midnight shift. And though no one's talking officially about who will get the new 10-to-midnight gig, the buzz around the station is that Williams and Clapprood have already applied.

Williams, who practically invented talk radio in the 1960s, was an afternoon ratings monster in the 1980s and early '90s at WRKO, where he campaigned against mandatory seatbelts and tortured former governor Michael Dukakis; but 'RKO, seeking a younger audience, squeezed him out a couple of years ago. Clapprood, a former state representative, was an 'RKO morning host for several years. She's been casting about for a new job since losing a congressional race last year.

Clapprood, when contacted by the Phoenix, confirmed that she's interested in the post. Williams could not be reached for comment.

Also getting mentioned are former WRKO midday host Gene Burns, who was immensely popular here but who would not likely give up his highly rated 7-to-10 p.m. show at San Francisco's KGO Radio, and substitute Brudnoy hosts Steve LeVeille, Lowell Sun columnist Paul Sullivan, and Kevin Sowyrda, who says he'd rather work the midnight-to-5 a.m. slot that's opening up next month when Bob Raleigh retires. Also reportedly under consideration: Pat Desmarais, now at WBSM, in the Fall River-New Bedford area, and Jim Braude and Barbara Anderson, who developed a finely honed shtick during the 1980s, when Braude headed the liberal Tax Equity Alliance for Massachusetts and Anderson the conservative Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government. (Anderson is still co-director, but the organization is a shadow of its formerly powerful self.)

WBZ program and news director Peter Casey, who declined to talk about who's under consideration, says he'll probably announce the replacements for Brudnoy and Raleigh two weeks before they go on the air.

The 58-year-old Brudnoy, who nearly died from AIDS complications four years ago but who is now remarkably fit and healthy, says he's reached a stage of his life in which he simply needs to cut back. "I'm just fatigued. It's just too much," says Brudnoy, a 25-year radio veteran. "I'm very much looking forward to this -- it's been a long time coming."