BobLassiterAirchecks.com

It’s a trip through Bob’s life story on this WLS Saturday Night Special - it starts with his washing dishes in Haddon Heights - which you’ll remember from his JFK Anniversary show on WFLA - and ends in Chicago. A rags-to-riches story…with a moral.

(Note: there are some fairly long patches of static in here, but it’s worth waiting them out.)

DOWNLOAD - Lassiter in His Own Words

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: April 27, 1991
• Time: 2:07:08
• Format: mp3
• Size: 29.1MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

A complicated topic. First of all, there’s a discussion of Chicago serial killer Larry Eyler, who’s on Death Row and offers to tell who and where his other victims are if the death penalty is taken off the table. Meanwhile, a 24-year-old in Hickory Hills tried to kill a whole black family by setting their house on fire…and yet he only got one year in prison. What’s wrong with this picture? And, when Bob finds himself with an empty board, he pulls one of his classic tricks: dead air.

DOWNLOAD - Crime, Punishment, and Larry Eyler

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 5, 1991
• Time: 1:25:27
• Format: mp3
• Size: 19.5MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

Two weeks before George H.W. Bush’s deadline for Saddam to leave Kuwait, war was obviously on the horizon. Bob wants to know how much the listeners were willing to pay each soldier to fight and die in the Persian Gulf. Not surprisingly, people have trouble answering that one. There’s also a bit of the dreaded third and final hour - the open hour.

DOWNLOAD - What Price War?

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 3, 1991
• Time: 47:07
• Format: mp3
• Size: 10.8MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

For years you’ve sat back kept your mouth shut as disastrous economic policies took hold in Washington, in the boardroom, and on Wall Street. Now the economy’s headed straight to Hell, and guess what? It’s your own damned fault. So says Bob on a WLS Saturday night.

DOWNLOAD - America’s Financial Future

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: October 27, 1990
• Time: 1:03:56
• Format: mp3
• Size: 14.6MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman and the General

Bob decides to get a sense of the audience at WLS. He asks his callers a short list of questions about current events, changing the list every now and then. As always, it’s refreshing to hear Bob challenging positions that we all know damn well he agrees with. There’s a fair bit of silly banter with Jim Johnson the Journalist, too.

DOWNLOAD - Sense of the (Chicago) Audience

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 10, 1990
• Time: 1:02:44
• Format: mp3
• Size: 14.3MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman and the General

These are the short cuts of Bob that Neil Rogers has long used on his radio show. They were probably recorded during Bob’s 1985 tenure at WINZ.

DOWNLOAD - Neil’s Carts

• Station: WINZ 940AM
• Date: 1985
• Time: 0:14
• Format: mp3
• Size: 235KB

Courtesy of Neil Rogers

More calls to Bob from the General, this time after Bob’s return to WFLA in 1996.

DOWNLOAD - More from the General

• Station: WFLA 970AM
• Date: 1996
• Time: 4:51
• Format: mp3
• Size: 1.11MB

Courtesy of The General

A compilation of The General’s calls to Bob during Bob’s WSUN morning show in 1993.

DOWNLOAD - The General Calls Bob

• Station: WSUN 620AM
• Date: 1993
• Time: 9:29
• Format: mp3
• Size: 1.08MB

Courtesy of The General

Another short clip from the morning show at WSUN. The police have begun taping conversations among teenagers at Clearwater Beach, searching for obscenities so they can charge the kids with lewd conduct. Bob wonders what constitutes obscenity, and nemesis Fred P. White tries to straighten him out.

DOWNLOAD - Curse Words

• Station: WSUN 620AM
• Date: July 27, 1993
• Time: 2:43
• Format: mp3
• Size: 639KB

Courtesy of The General

A very short clip of an annoyed Bob with no calls, during his days doing mornings at WSUN; he fills up the air by reading out the TV previews for the final few episodes of Cheers and yelling at the listeners for not calling.

DOWNLOAD - Coming Up on Cheers

• Station: WSUN 620AM
• Date: April 22, 1993
• Time: 0:47
• Format: mp3
• Size: 749KB

Courtesy of The General

I just wanted to give you guys a heads up on some big additions coming to BobLassiterAirchecks.com.  Our good friends Keith Newman & the General have sent in an earth shaking 200+ tape collection of Lassiter recordings dating back to the spring of 1987 at WPLP.  Needless to say, it will take some time to get it all transferred and posted, but Mike and I have set an initial goal of 5 tapes a week.  So, remember to subscribe to our RSS feed so you can stay up to date on all the latest postings.

Use this link to subscribe in your iTunes; http://boblassiterairchecks.com/blog/feed/

Also, check out our new sister site 20/20NewsAirchecks.com featuring classic recordings of CKLW’s 20/20 News team.  Blood & guts news reporting at it’s finest!

Mr. Bourbon (a/k/a The General) calls to compare Newt Gingrich’s mom calling Hillary Clinton a bitch, with Neil Rogers calling Sharon a “psychotic bitch” on WIOD. According to Bob, it’s the kind of caller he truly worries about.

DOWNLOAD - Mr. Bourbon

• Station: WSUN 620AM
• Date: January 5, 1995
• Time: 2:14
• Format: mp3
• Size: 527KB

Courtesy of The General

“Give me Reagan. Bring him back.“

In the context of talk radio, who might you expect to be pining for the good old days of the conservative, often controversial Republican administration of Ronald Reagan? Tim Coles? Probably daily. Rush Limbaugh? Who’s he? David Gold? He’s in Dallas at last report.

Certainly not the so-tagged leader of those “liberal“ talk show hosts, Bob Lassiter. His constituency might be thrown by this, but it’s true: Lassiter misses Ronnie, probably as much as anyone does.

The passing of the Reagan era, for those on either side of (or atop) the political fence, has had something of a neutralizing effect on popular brands of talk radio, the essence of which is clash.

Kind and gentle just doesn’t cut it.

“The issue is apathy,“ Lassiter said in a recent interview. “No one has ever been accused of Bush-bashing, and if you did, there’s nobody to defend him, because nobody cares about him very much either way, his politics, his personality.“

The current menu of issues evidently doesn’t provoke, Lassiter observed of his current audience. “I don’t know what their problem is. We can get them whipped up on non-issues: the best pizza in town, abortion, gun control,“ he said. The trouble is, “we haven’t bombed anybody lately. Everyone has his own troubles.“

Even the great Lassiter. In mid-February he moved his podium to later afternoons after working the noon-3 shift to a point of dominance in the local talk market. The later time period does not produce the same sort of show, although it’s not precisely clear if that’s bad or good.

There is a wealth of information to be imparted during his 3-6 time slot: news, traffic, weather, more news, financial reports, more traffic, more weather and some sports, besides commercials, the lifeblood. Lassiter estimates he has lost almost 35 percent of his talk time to WFLA’s (970 AM) full-service afternoon-drive format.

“It’s a different show,“ he said. “It has to be less complicated because the audience is constantly coming in and out. There is no time to develop my kind of complex topic. It has to be gut-wrenching, easily understood . . . in four or five minutes.“

On the midday shows, “I fully expected listeners to be there for three hours. At 3, I know better.“

Perhaps subliminally, Lassiter is beginning to feel some heat, he related. “On air and off air, from people I run into, I’m hearing feedback that I’m starting to take seriously to the effect that these are not my hours. It’s starting to make me nervous. I haven’t had anyone come up to me and say, `Oh, I’m glad you’re on afternoon drive.’ I’ve had 20 people or more say the opposite.

“I’m not sure whether I might not have made a mistake.“

WFLA general manager David Macejko disagreed. “When Bob and (program director) Bob Schuman and I first discussed this change, I expressed strong reservations. I was wrong. I think Lassiter is doing a much better show (now).“

In a perfect world, Lassiter craves prime time, but that isn’t yet viable locally. “I’d go back to (nights) tonight if they’d pay me. It’s the ideal time to talk to people. People go out of their way to sit down and listen. But the station, even though you’ve got this incredible audience, can’t sell the time.“

Lassiter first made his mark locally with late afternoon-evening talk shows on the defunct WPLP (now WTKN). Recently, that station returned John Eastman to a nighttime program, the only live locally produced nighttime talk radio program carried in Tampa Bay.

Afternoon drive time, with its larger and more diverse audience, is probably Lassiter’s home unless drastic changes occur. “He’s indicated a willingness to move around,“ Macejko said. “But right now that’s not an option.“

Given free reign by management to do what he wants on the air, Lassiter intends to rely on his own ingenuity to gear up for the so-far colorless Bush era. “The monologue is a trademark, something I haven’t done a lot in the last six to nine months. It’s something I know no one else in this market can do, so I do them.“

In an apparent effort to sort out his audience, The Mouth of Tampa Bay, The Mad Dog, whatever, intends to redisplay that trademark much more often. The overall approach tone likely will be less frivolity and more issues. For one thing, Friday’s studio-audience format will be ditched.

With Ronnie lounging in retirement, Lassiter’s wit is all that’s left. Or is it right?

Tedd Webb becomes WFLA’s man of two hats when he moves into a permanent 12:30-3 p.m. talk slot Monday. Webb will also retain command of the 6-8 p.m. Sports Huddle . . . WTKN’s (570 AM) new morning host, Tom Bauerle, and afternoon talker, Jay Marvin, will conduct a special program Saturday from noon-2 p.m. from the St. Anthony’s Health and Fun Fest on the St. Petersburg waterfront . . . On the other side of the corridor from WFLA, WFLZ’s (93.3 FM) Jack Harris is expected to have a new co-host within two weeks, general manager David Macejko said without revealing details . . . WFLA has added Costas Coast to Coast, hosted by NBC-TV personality Bob Costas, from 9-11 p.m. Sundays. . . . WEND (760 AM) is negotiating with David Fowler to host a new morning drive show, 6-9 a.m. That new station is beginning to sound much like the old WPLP. Fowler, Tim Coles and the Sun Network’s Chuck Harder all are WPLP alumni.

This particular clip never says exactly what this topic is or the logic behind it, but Bob asks each caller a series of questions (each caller gets a different set of questions than the last), and at the end the caller gets to say anything they want, about anything they want. If we knew more, we’d tell you.

DOWNLOAD - Questions and a Free Shot

• Station: WSUN 620AM
• Date: September 22, 1995
• Time: 31:23
• Format: mp3
• Size: 3.6MB

Courtesy of Normand Dupuis

Probably the single most talked-about topics on the Bob Lassiter Show in September of 1995. O.J., Nicole, Fuhrman, and the race and racism of people watching the trial all come up in this clip, as do comparisons with Waco and Ruby Ridge. Oh, and Ross Rebak’s attorney.

DOWNLOAD - More O.J. and Racism

• Station: WSUN 620AM
• Date: September 29, 1995
• Time: 36:22
• Format: mp3
• Size: 4.16MB

Courtesy of Normand Dupuis