Billy Cunningham, the self proclaimed Great American of WLW-AM fame (and Sunday Night Live with…) will be showing up on a TV station near you in September.
Back when Mike O’Connell announced he was leaving WLW-AM and his Clear Channel syndicated “The Weekend” show, the rumor was floated that Bill Cunningham was leaving too – to go to Tribune in Chicago (the owner of WGN-AM and a bunch of TV stations). That rumor was pretty quickly shot down that he wasn’t leaving WLW, but that he was talking to them about doing a syndicated TV show.
Well, that appears to have been true. Billy will be doing the show from Manhattan, so he can have lunch now with Glenn Beck. Cunningham is going to try the Phil Donahue approach – walking around the audience with a microphone and shows based on issues – not the fake Jerry Springer “transvestite with 50 pound breasts who got caught having sex with her father by her mother” crap.
Bill Cunningham is 62 – Phil Donahue was 61 when he retired from his daily TV show in 1996.