Is This the End of WMMR As We Know It?

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Former Preston and Steve forged member Kathy Romano (picture courtesy of Chorus Photography) | the late WMMR DJ Pierre Robert (Getty Images) | Nick McIlwain, who introduced his resignation from WMMR final week (picture courtesy of Chorus Photography)

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Is This the End of WMMR as We Know It?

Last Wednesday morning, I watched the solar rise at French Creek State Park, the place my household rented a cabin for Thanksgiving week. I sipped sizzling espresso from a steel tenting mug as I did my greatest to finish a New York Times crossword puzzle – on paper, I ought to add – from the coated porch. This journey was meant to be a 99-percent phone-free expertise, which was, imagine it or not, the concept of my two teenaged youngsters, and all of us did our greatest to honor this, therefore the paper crossword. But I couldn’t assist however discover my cellphone going loopy in some unspecified time in the future that morning. So, what was all of the hubbub about?

As textual content after textual content and DM after DM advised me once I finally gave in and peeked, longtime Preston & Steve morning-show forged member Nick McIlwain had introduced, throughout Wednesday’s present, that it could be his final day on the air. He’d been with the present since Bill Clinton was within the Oval Office. And then on Wednesday, with out advance discover to listeners, poof. That was it. His announcement got here one month after the loss of life of Pierre Robert and 6 months after the station terminated Kathy Romano as a Preston & Steve forged member.

On air, McIlwain made it clear that he wasn’t being compelled out and that this was his personal choice made after a lot contemplation.

“I took Preston out to lunch a month or so ago,” McIlwain recalled for listeners. (I listened to a recording following my return from the woods.) “And then Pierre died. Our entire lives have been thrown into chaos over the last few months. It really started for us here in this room – and anybody who is a fan of the radio station – back in May, with Kathy. So it’s just been a lot. A lot of ups and downs. And lately, for me anyway, more downs than ups.”

Later, he did his greatest to struggle again tears.

“I feel like a change might help me improve my life, my physical and mental health,” he shared. “And make me feel a little more like a human being… Mental health is important. Full stop. I’ve dealt with depression and anxiety most of my adult life… and if you know someone with depression, reach out to them. Human interaction is a wonderful salve.”

McIlwain’s contract reportedly wasn’t set to run out till 2030, which is when the contracts for the present’s namesakes are additionally as a result of finish. He didn’t say particularly what the following chapter of his life would maintain – and even point out if he himself is aware of.

His departure from the immensely fashionable (relative to terrestrial radio, anyway) present that he had been part of for therefore lengthy can be newsworthy in and of itself. But what makes his announcement much more necessary is the context surrounding it.

While many radio stations are basically run by robots nowadays, WMMR has all the time been a way more personality-driven endeavor and one the place the group of listeners and followers is so necessary in a means that you just simply don’t see at different main FM stations within the area. You begin pulling out items of the puzzle, and the consequences are palpable. WMMR listeners care.

The actual hassle at WMMR started in 2022, when Beasley Media Group, the Florida-based company overlords who personal WMMR, fired late-afternoon DJ Jaxon, who had been a fixture on the legendary station for shut to twenty years. At the identical time, the corporate additionally eradicated the in a single day stay broadcast, which had been an actual rarity within the trade. “Today was a really dark day in the station’s history,” one longtime WMMR worker advised me on the day of these choices.

“We’ve been live and local 24/7 and used that for all the good it brings us for 54 years,” one other WMMR supply advised me following Jaxon’s termination. “But corporate ownership simply doesn’t care. And that’s the real punch to the gut. They are completely profit-driven. And they don’t care about history or legacy or what the station and the people who work there mean to Philly and to the listeners. They care about one thing and one thing only: money.”

Then got here 2024, when Pierre Robert’s producer and typically sidekick often called Pancake, misplaced his job, as did at the least two different WMMR staffers on the identical day. A station insider referred to that as a “terrible fucking day.”

But 2022 and 2024 had been to don’t have anything on 2025. In May, Beasley fired Preston & Steve forged member Kathy Romano, who had additionally been with the present for many years.

“It’s really hard, man,” Preston Elliot mentioned on the air throughout his announcement that Romano can be no extra. “We are profoundly sad about this.” (Romano has since landed her personal morning present at B101.1 – in the very same time slot as Preston & Steve.)

As for what was going to come back subsequent, no person might have predicted it: the premature loss of life of Pierre Robert, WMMR’s most iconic (by far) character. From a enterprise standpoint, the implications of which might be immeasurable. Folks didn’t tune in to listen to “Ramble On” or the most recent from the Foo Fighters. They tuned in to listen to Pierre serve these songs up. And now? McIlwain departs, leaving Elliot, Steve Morrison, Casey “Casey Boy” Fosbenner, and Marisa Magnatta because the remaining forged members.

All of which begs the query: Is this the top of WMMR as we all know it?

“We have been absolutely gutted,” says a present station staffer who insisted on remaining nameless out of concern for their very own job. “Things are just dismal.”

Don’t get me flawed: There remains to be a whole lot of expertise at WMMR and the Preston and Steve Show will proceed to entertain. But you’ll be able to’t lose a man like Pierre Robert and a 3rd of the on-air expertise of a present like Preston and Steve and suppose that issues are regular. But maybe Beasley is searching for a brand new regular, one which doesn’t rely a lot on “personalities” – with their pesky brokers and expensive contracts – and prefers one that’s, plain and easy, cheaper.

My prediction, as somebody who for many years has carefully adopted the radio trade in Philadelphia and WMMR specifically? After 2030 (on the absolute newest), WMMR can be just about unrecognizable.

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