http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2007/10/morning-shakeup-at-wwrl.htmlFriday, October 26, 2007
Morning shakeup at WWRL
"Sammy and Army" are history.
Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams, the morning show hosts at WWRL (1600AM) in New York, exit the station, in a programming overhaul. The two hosted their last show yesterday.
Former Air America Radio personality Mark Riley and current WWRL nighttime host Richard Bey will take over mornings effective Monday. Program director Rennie Bishop calls the move a "creative redirection."
Both Riley and Bey are New York radio veterans. Riley was a longtime personality at WLIB prior to joining Air America, from their debut in March 2004 until this past August. Bey was formerly at WABC radio until starting at WWRL in August. He has also done fill-in work at Sirius Left. And yes, he did host that talk show back in the 90s.
The "Sammy and Army" show was often controversial among Air America fans. Listeners mostly took exception to the 'conservative half' of the duo, Armstrong Williams, who was most notably caught in a scam involving some suspect dealings with the Bush administration. Williams had to fork over $34,000 to settle his case with the Department of Justice when it was discovered that he accepted $240,000 in payments from the Bush administration to tout their 'No Child Left Behind' act on his TV and radio shows. According to USA Today, Williams was hired "to promote the law... and to urge other black journalists to do the same." When the whole matter was disclosed, he lost his TV show and the White House turned its back on him. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claimed the deal was illegal, as the federal government is forbidden from funding propaganda broadcast within the United States.