Former MSNBC, news radio, and daytime TV talk show host Phil Donahue died Sunday at the age of 88. He was remembered fondly by 710 WOR host Mark Simone.
Simone shared his admiration for the TV pioneer, noting that Donahue was a frequent guest on his radio show. However, unlike many democrats, Donahue rarely caught the ire of Mr. New York.
“I loved Phil Donahue. He was a regular on this show for years back in the 90s, into the 2000s into the early to mid-2000s. Great guy,” said Simone. “He was an old-fashioned Democrat … They could argue their side of the policy. They never got mad. I used to debate Phil Donahue once every couple of weeks on the air. Never got mad. There was no anger anywhere. Phil Donahue was a wonderful guy.”
During The Mark Simone Show, the 710 WOR host gave major props to Phil Donahue for revolutionizing daytime television, calling the program “revolutionary” in the process.
“Give this guy a lot of credit for what he pioneered in television … They did have daytime talk shows before Phil Donahue, but they were always liked The Today Show. They were fun interviews, would do a cooking demonstration, they would have a comedian,” said Simone. “It was like a magazine show for housewives. That’s what daytime TV was. Phil Donahue changed all that in the early 70s.
“He came along and nobody had ever done this before. It was a daytime talk show about issues, serious stuff. And it was one issue, one topic, for the whole hour. This was considered unbelievable back then, a whole hour on abortion. It was shocking. Revolutionary … It became the hottest daytime show. It revolutionized daytime. Then everybody came along and copied him. Oprah (Winfrey), Sally Jesse Raphael, Geraldo (Rivera) had a daytime show. Everybody had a daytime talk show. But it was Donahue that was the pioneer.”
