Three-Hour Philly Phormat Phlush on WPHT-AM

Sid Mark was on the big talker WPHT-AM in Philly live on New Year’s Eve last night and rebroadcast today from noon to three (not available as a stream) playing Sinatra et al. He does local and syndicated weekend Sinatra shows in Philly. [When I was courting my wife in the early ‘80s we loved Sid’s syndicated Sinatra show, Saturday nights on WYNY-FM. Sunday nights WYNY ran the Dr. Ruth sex advice show and the rest of the week was MOR. No narrowcasting back then.] During that period I remember Mark Simone and Jonathan Schwartz on WNEW-AM having fun at Sid’s expense, claiming that “there’s this guy on another station” that just lets the Sinatra albums track without offering any special insight to the music. They joked about Sid calling his show the “official” Sinatra show. Twenty-five years later Sid is still going strong on AM radio with a signal that anyone would love to have. Although I get some static from the speaker and from my wife (who doesn’t enjoy radio static), it was great to hear Tony, Lena, Lou Rawls in glorious AM mono from Philadelphia.