Industry News

Talk Host Sam Greenfield Dies

Details are incomplete but TALKERS is being informed that progressive talk host Sam Greenfield hasimg died. During his career, Greenfield hosted radio talk shows at WEVD, WWRL, and WVNJ in the New York City market. Recently, he’d been producing talk content posted to his YouTube channel. Information posted on the Democratic Underground message board indicates that Greenfield had been in some sort of occupational therapy and rehabilitation when he contracted COVID and died from pneumonia.

Industry News

Hosts Jim Leach and Frank McNeil Exit WMAY-FM, Springfield

Longtime Springfield, Illinois air personality Jim Leach is leaving Mid-West Family Broadcasting’s news/talk WMAY-AM/FM to take on role of public information officer for the Illinois Department of Public Health. The progressive talk host – who’s been hosting the 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm show – admits to the State Journal Register that he feels “incredibly fortunate to have been given the platform and latitude” to express his views on his talkim show on the station for nearly three decades. Leach tells the news outlet that his role as “a smart, local progressive-leaning talk show on a commercial radio station is going the way of the dinosaur. ‘It was certainly my hope to make sure that we had a wide array of viewpoints and to make sure a lot of people’s views and opinions were heard, and I feel like we accomplished that. I find that a really gratifying part of the job. We opened up that platform and that ability to be heard to a wider audience.’” Additionally, the new lineup does not include current early evening host Frank McNeil, who tells the State Journal Register that station management suggested another time for his program that “wasn’t acceptable at this point in time.” See more from the State Journal Register here.