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Peter Werbe with Sunday night co-host, Juline Jordan
Peter Werbe's 46-year run on Detroit radio is over.
Werbe, 76, tells Deadline Detroit that on Monday, his boss, Greater Media Detroit, informed him he was being terminated.
Werbe was the company's public affairs director and hosted Sunday's "Night Call"on WRIF, which began in 1970, and "The Peter Werbe Show." The latter aired on company's stations WRIF, WCSX and WMGC, along with its three HD stations.
The termination came this week as new station owners, Naples, Fla.-based Beasley Broadcast Group Inc., took over.
"I don’t bear them any animosity," Werbe said. "I would have love to have continued the show but all good things come to an end. It's part of the consolidation and cutbacks, and I was one of the cutbacks."
"It was pretty much a corporate decision," he said, adding that the local management had been " amazingly supportive of me and continue to be."
Werbe says he'll spend more time writing for the Fifth Estate, which started as an underground paper in the 1960s and now publishes four times a year as an "anarchist" magazine. He was one of the original writers in the 1960s.
Werbe, like many folks these days, has taken a keen interest in the presidential race.
"I'm proud of the last 46 years," he said. "But it would have been good to have continued on in what promises to be an interesting period ahead, regardless of who wins."
In a statement on Facebook, he wrote:
As of October 31, 2016, my employment with the Greater Media Detroit radio stations has been terminated by the company. My shows were aired on WRIF, WCSX, and WMGC. Neither show will continue with different personnel.
Nightcall began in May 1970 making it the longest running live phone-in talk show in American radio history. I’m proud to have been its host for the majority of its run.
I have other pursuits to fill my time, particularly the Fifth Estate magazine, www.FifthEstate.org, but I will miss the broadcasts that have been so much a part of my life for so long, as they have been for many of you.
And, I will particularly miss doing the Sunday night show with my dear friend and on-air, co-host, Juline Jordan, who sat across from me during the last 18 years of the show. The photo is a favorite of mine, of me and Juline during one of the many demonstrations we attended together. We hope to see many of you at similar ones in the future no matter who wins the election next week.
