This is the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone with part two of the radio documentary series where airing, courtesy of radio diaries, about three radio personalities who had huge audiences in their time, but today are largely forgotten. These days we're used to media that amplifies the most outrageous

voices in the room. It's something we often trace back to shock jocks like, you know, Howard

Stern or in-your-face talk shows like Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh. But long before those guys,

all of them, there was Joe Pine.

At the height of his career in the 1950s, the New York Times called him the ranking nuisance of broadcasting.

Our guest is one of the most controversial men in recent American history.

This is Joe Pine, and the action starts in just a moment.

My name is Ed Pine, and Joe Pine was my dad.

I mean, if you were a Broadway play, you'd be a flop. I'm not a Broadway play. But you're a flop,

not politically in the specific sense. He just was a very opinionated guy on air. It wasn't like,

what's your thought on that, sir? It was just,

no, why the hell do you think that? Why do you want to be a corruptor of other human beings?

Well, I certainly wouldn't want one of you people to marry my daughter, I'll tell you that.

And he got such a following from it. I just couldn't believe that people could be so enamored.

In fact, this is such an absurd show. I'm leaving the studio.

You're leaving the studio.

Yes, he's really leaving.

This is Joe Pine. I'll be back with another guest as soon as we comb the streets.

And now, let's get on with that number one record.

When Joe Pine came into radio, he was a disc jockey back in the late 40s, early 50s.

My name is Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers Magazine, and I've been writing about talk radio for the past 35

years. Radio DJs back in those days were very mild-mannered, very genteel. You know, hello,

...