Back From The Dead...

102.7 WNEW's Leslie Gold "The Radio Chick"

Interview by Chauncé Hayden

Radio personality Leslie Gold, affectionately known throughout the tri-state area as WNEW's "The Radio Chick", speaks to men like no other woman. With a style that is equal parts sexuality, humor and intellect she, along with her side-kick's Chuck Nice and (producer) Paul "Butchy" Brennan have created a show that is a certified hit....or so it seemed.

Despite rising rapidly from 17th to 3rd among men, in just one year, Gold was given the boot a month ago for reasons that still are unclear. However, what management at WNEW didn't realize was that Gold's fans weren't about to allow the popular show to end without a fight.

Loyal listeners quickly formed an alliance by creating web pages (savethechick.com) and contacting advertisers and CBS executives demanding that Gold be brought back.

Surprisingly, after literally thousands of emails and phone calls the powers that be have realized the error of their ways and have indeed brought back "The Radio Chick." The outspoken Gold can now be heard from 9 am to noon, Monday thru Friday on 102.7.

Yes it's true, listeners can continue to enjoy such classics as 20 questions with a Hooker, The Wheel of Wife Beaters, Speed Dating and Porno Passover as well as calls from show regulars such as Jesus and Leslie's own body part "Muffy."

The following is a no-holds- barred chat with Gold, Nice and Butchy about what really happened a month ago when their world suddenly came to an end and how they ended up living to tell the tale.

Chaunce Hayden: Okay, be honest, did you really get fired from WNEW, or was it all just a publicity stunt?

Leslie Gold: Oh yeah, I was fired.

Most radio reporters say otherwise. John Mainelli of the New York Post wrote in his column that he felt the whole thing was just a stunt to bring attention to the station. Well?

Gold: John Minelli had the opportunity to talk to me. I gave him my number but he didn't bother to call. We were absolutely fired! On January 3rd, we came back from being on vacation, and after the show we were called into the program director's office in a very nonchalant manner. He then sat me down and said, "I'm taking you off middays. I'm putting Ron and Fez in, but if you want overnights you can have it."

So you weren't really fired. Your time slot was just being changed.

Chuck Nice: No, that means you're fired! That is the corporate way of saying that you're fired. Nobody likes to say you're fired anymore because they're afraid you're going to come back with a machine gun.

Gold: That's like saying to the vice president of sales, "You're not going to be selling for us anymore, but you can remain as the janitor."

So you're saying you considered their offer of doing overnights at WNEW a slap in the face?

Gold: Frankly, we didn't feel like we earned overnights. We had gone from 17th to 3rd in the midday slot ratings, and we felt we were still growing. There was no reason to switch us out of there. If anything, we just felt we should keep the time slot we helped build.

After your meeting with the program director, what happened next?

Gold: We moved all our stuff out of here. See those clips in the wall? There used to be art there!

Would it be fair to describe your mood as devastated after you were told the news?

Gold: Silly us, Chaunce, we thought we were doing a good job. I was absolutely shocked. I remember just walking into this office and turning to these two guys and saying, "You're not going to believe this, but we've just been canned." I was freaked, I was panicked, I was ...

What about a contract? Did you have a deal with WNEW where you would be paid even if you were fired?

Gold: My contract runs till September. As a matter of fact, it prohibits me from doing overnights anyway.

Chuck: Yeah, and I had my pharmaceutical business to fall back on! (Laughs)

I can only imagine all the emotions you must have felt after you were fired. Which emotion did you feel most, anger or hate?

Gold: Getting fired is part of this business. I was once told by someone I respect in the business that you're actually not in it until the day you get fired. Then, and only then, do you become an official member of the club. So that was ringing through my ears. But I also felt like we were mishandled and mistreated. It wasn't so much the firing, but to have it come from left field after doing such a good job, and having been told we had been doing a good job and then be fired ... I really felt that was a poor way to handle your people.

It's understood to those in the radio business that when you're fired, you're fired. You never get a chance to say goodbye. Yet, WNEW allowed you back on the air to say goodbye to your listeners. Didn't you find that odd?

Gold: When we were told on Wednesday that we were fired, we were also told that our last show would be Friday. But Wednesday night we were too devastated and nobody slept. So we didn't come in on Thursday. We were shell shocked. Then there was a little bit of negotiation to allow us to come back for one more show.

But why would they allow it?

Paul "Butchy" Brennan: I'll tell you why. Because they thought we would accept anything that they offered us. It didn't matter if it was overnights or the middle of the day. They thought that we so desperately needed to be here on the radio in New York City that we would take anything they offered.

So the thinking on the part of management was that they weren't going to lose you.

Gold: They thought if they tossed us a bone we would just take it.

Why even bother doing a last show?

Gold: I felt strongly that my listeners needed to hear it from me that we got fired. I needed to tell them.

Were there any conditions to that final show?

Gold: I had to sit down with management and tell them what I would and wouldn't say on the air. The premise was that I could say exactly what happened. I could say that we were called and told that we weren't yet number one, even though we were inches from it. And that we were being replaced.

What couldn't you say on the air during that final broadcast?

I couldn't say that WNEW management are scum-sucking pricks.

And if you did say it?

Chuck: (Laughs) There's a two-day delay here! It would never have made it over the air! They could go to music anytime they wanted during the broadcast.

Gold: Besides, we didn't have to say it, because we knew the listeners would say it for me.

Speaking of the listeners, they play a big part of this story. It seems you have a lot more loyal listeners than management at WNEW were aware of. Has it ever happened in radio before where the listeners demanded a fired radio host be brought back after being fired, and it worked?

Gold: We were really surprised. Immediately after that last show, some of our hardcore listeners sprang into action and started Web sites like "savetheradiochick.com." They got the names of the management of not only WNEW, but of CBS as well. They even got all the names of all the advertisers. Over 10,000 pieces of correspondence were sent.

Did you ever think for one minute that the call to action by your listeners would end up with WNEW asking you to come back?

Gold: We were very gratified, but we never thought it would do anything. But it did put the sales department in the uncomfortable position of having to justify what seemed to be a very silly decision. The whole thing became one big corporate hemorrhoid. It wasn't so much that WNEW responded to its listeners, it's just that the listeners annoyed everybody associated with the station's management. One listener actually disrupted the post-game coverage of the Giants NFC Championship game with a "savetheradiochick.com" sign. But we still didn't think it would do any good.

Butchy: Yeah, we had moved all our stuff out and were in the process of making audition tapes and calling around to see what other jobs were available.

Were there other offers?

Gold: We had begun to talk to people.

WPLJ? Z100?

Chuck: (Laughs) Why, do you know somebody?

Gold: The honest answer to that is we don't know. We had inquiries and we started to have discussions, but it was too early to tell.

Another reason why many thought this whole thing was a publicity stunt was because after you were fired, the station kept playing archives of your old shows. Why would they do that if you were fired?

Chuck: The reason that happened was because the moment it was announced we were fired, "The Don and Mike Show" down in Washington made it known they wanted our time slot. Leslie was told point blank by management that Ron and Fez were going to be put in our spot. But now management is put in a tough position because Don and Mike are saying, "We're out of here unless we get that spot." So that's why they kept airing our show!

Would you agree that this whole mess makes WNEW look like a badly run circus?

Gold: Yes, they look foolish.

Butchy: And another reason they kept running our "best of" was because they felt we weren't going to be fired. They were sure we would take their offer and show up at a new time.

Gold: I don't think it was that. I think they just got caught with their pants down. All of a sudden WNEW management were without eight hours of programming. They were missing four hours of The Radio Chick and they were missing four hours of Don and Mike. They were screwed.

Butchy: That's what cracks me up about guys like (NY Post radio reporter) John Mainelli, who wrote that it was a publicity stunt. Why would the station go out of its way to look idiotic? Radio shows do that all the time, but why would management go out of their way to look like they lost control of the station just some for press?

Hey, one of the reasons I'm here talking to you now is because of WNEW's blunder. Whether it was real or not, it made for a fascinating story.

Gold: Let me tell you something. Management here is neither savvy or effective enough to pull that off.

Chuck: If it looks like a circus and it juggles like a circus and the cotton candy tastes like a circus, then it's a circus.

So if this place is such a circus, why come back?

Gold: We were home consoling each other when the calls came in from the corporate office, asking why we wouldn't accept the evening time slot. And our reasons were because number one, often the things we talk about are things that happen in the evening, and secondly, the other option was a one-hour show during day! One hour! Can you imagine! But once they realized we weren't coming back at the other time slots offered, they took a closer look and said, "Well, they went from 17th to 3rd in one year with no lead-in and no promotion." So they then came back to us and said, "Okay, what will you accept?" But that was already two weeks after we were gone. So we told them we can't come back for less than three hours during the day. Anything less than that would be perceived by our listeners as a bone being tossed to us and us taking it. Which is what they were trying to do.

Did anyone ever apologize to you?

Gold: No, never. All they said was, "What will you accept?" So they came back with the offer, nine to noon.

What was your reaction?

Gold: I said, "Let me talk to my guys."

But you had to be happy with the offer?

Gold: It was a victory, but it was a hollow victory, because it was like starting over.

Butchy: It felt better once we got back on the air and got to thank our listeners who had done so much for us. Before that, nobody was really excited. We just felt, "Okay, we've got to do this thing. Let's just get our check and figure out the rest later."

Gold: It was funny because a lot of people in the building here didn't know how to react to us. It was like dead men walking. They didn't know whether to look at us or not. Nobody knew why we were fired or why we were brought back.

Okay, be honest. Is WNEW a sinking ship? In your hearts, is the "all talk" format working?

Gold: I don't think it's a sinking ship. I think there's a place in this market for this kind of edgy talk. Whether or not it's managed right is something else. But there's definitely a place for it.

What separates your show from all the other shows on WNEW, and for that matter talk radio in general?

Butchy: Our show stands out because Leslie is the host, and in this area of the country there aren't a lot of female radio hosts doing what Leslie does. I like to think our show is a little bit smarter than most. We can do the poo-poo/pee-pee jokes, but we can also talk about some of the more adult subject matters as well.

Gold: I would categorize it as juvenile, with a better vocabulary. We just know bigger words!

Leslie, you also have been known to use your breasts as a means of sparking interest. Is that fair to say?

Gold: I can't walk into a room without my breasts being noticed. It's part of me the same as my intellect is a part of me. I'll use whatever tools I have to get new listeners. I'll use my wit, intellect, and if I have to, I'll use my nipples.

Finally, now that it's over and you're once again back on the air, do you feel you're here at WNEW to stay?

Gold: (Yells) ARE YOU INSANE! Chuck describes what happened here as a mob hit gone bad, and every day we have to walk past Big Pussy and Tony Soprano, knowing they tried to whack us!

You can e-mail comments to Chaunce Hayden at Chaunce100@aol.com Write Chauncé... Steppin' Out All material © 2000 by Collins Communications, Inc. Website designed by Pigsnot Prductions.