Former WABC radio host Lynn Samuels has died 1942-2011

[Politics4US]

Mark Simone has reported on his twitter that liberal radio host Lynn Samuels has died.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[SeekAndFind]

Years ago, when she was a left wing host on WABC, Lynn Samuels used to do a change-of-pace Christmas Eve show in which, among other things, she invited listeners to sing Christmas carols.

This year on Christmas Eve, Samuels died. She was 69.

No cause of death was immediately announced. Her body was discovered after she failed to report for her 10 a.m. Saturday show at Sirius XM radio and the company asked police to go to her Woodside, Queens, home.

On the radio, Samuels was exactly what much of the country thinks New York sounds like. She had a city accent she never tried to hide or soften, even when her bosses suggested it would prevent her from ever getting a radio job outside the city.

“This is who I am,” she said.

“She was unique beyond words,” said John Mainelli, her WABC program director and longtime friend. “I'm so glad I knew her.”

Samuels was a self-described progressive who often threw curveballs. She was a long-standing critic of President Obama, saying she didn’t believe he ever really had progressive credentials.

Her periodic unpredictability didn’t serve her well in today’s party-line talk radio, but helped give her a long run in the earlier, looser talk era.

Her criticism of conservatives often extended to her fellow radio hosts, but she would add that she liked a number of them personally. She became close friends with conservative host and writer Matt Drudge, serving for a time as his call screener.

Mainelli said he exchanged messages with her on Friday, at which time she said she would be doing both her Saturday and Sunday shows live this weekend.

“I am stunned,” Jay Diamond, her one-time WABC colleague, wrote on the New York Radio Message Board. “She sometimes got mad at me, but I loved her, and we were friends to the end. The world of radio, and the world in general, will miss this great talent, and great human being.”

Aside from politics, Samuels would devote long segments to cultural matters like books, music, a movie she saw or the merits and demerits of wearing foundation garments.

Her Christmas Eve show, which she said was not her favorite program, began as an attempt simply to do something fun and different on a night when most people weren’t discussing budget legislation.

Her own politics ran back to the activist movements of the 1960s, about which she often talked. Her radio career began around 1979 with a late-night show at WBAI (99.5 FM).

She moved to WABC in the late 1980s and remained there on different shifts for about 15 years. She was fired three times and rehired twice.

After WABC she struggled at times to stay in the city, taking a job in a laundromat while keeping her hand in radio at Sirius XM.

A very private person off the air, Samuels left no immediate survivors.

But the local radio world was saddened.

To the end, said Mainelli, she was “the same as she had always been - lively, full of curiosity, and happy, all existential things considered.”

[Impala64ssa]

Yes, I remember that argument she got into with Barry Farber, calling him a “patronizing pontificator”. She also made a nasty remark about the wrong Rosenburg being knifed, the stabbing of Yankel rosenburg during the Crown Hts. riot. These incidents effectively ended her tenure on WABC.

[ml/nj]

Sad news. There was something endearing about Lynn. Unlike others on the left she left you know when she had been had. I remember one call to her I made where I was speaking about the murder of Vince Foster. She replied with her predictable, "But he was Bill's best friend," in that unmistakable high pitched righteous whine of hers. So I said, "Where did you ever get that idea? They were 19 months apart in age. Clinton moved away from Hope to Hot Springs when he was six years old. They didn't go to high school together. They didn't go to college together. They didn't go to law school together; and they didn't go to Moscow together." Lynn was crushed and she admitted it with something like, "Well, maybe they talke on the phone a few times." The next time I called she greeted me with, "If it's not Carl from Oyster Bay, it must be Mike from North Caldwell.

WABC made a mistake cancelling her. Their bad judgment continues now to where Rush and Levin are the only ones I ever listen to.

RIP, Lynn.

ML/NJ

[ml/nj]

Lynn about Rush & Sean

I thought Lynn was gone before Hannity showed up.

ML/NJ

[Exit148]

I too, am sorry to hear of her passing. I hope it was not in pain.

One time, returning from a FReep in DC, she made a comment on the radio FOR Pres.Bush -——— defending him for whatever the incident/accusation was. (I forget the circumstances) But I was surprised that she would defend him in the way that she did. When I got home, I e-mailed her and thanked her for her stand, and that I was surprised that it came from her — but was happy she did so, and she needed to be thanked for it. She returned my email and simply said that fair was fair. She felt he was getting attacked wrongfully and he needed to be defended.

I never forgot that and it really made me listen to her in a different manner.

I hope her soul is at peace.

[justiceseeker93]

I remember that argument she got into with Barry Farber, calling him a "patronizing pontificator."

Farber is a really nice guy (and brilliant in languages and some eras of history), one of the last of the true Southern gentlemen. Never knew that he and Samuels shared the same program - on WABC?

She also made a nasty remark about the wrong Rosenberg being knifed, the stabbing of Yankel Rosenberg during the Crown Hts. riot.

What other Rosenberg was she thinking of? - surely not Julius or Ethel.

[Borges]

What are you talking about?

[mware]

I didn't agree with her on just about anything.

...but she was a hoot to listen to.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

She called for the assassination of Bush I.

I call that terrorism.

[Politics4US]

Her last show was on WABC in 2002. Lynn didn’t want to be paired with Farber, right?

[VA Voter]

My wife could never figure out why I listened to her on WABC. She was definitely an acquired taste.

[justiceseeker93]

On lynnsamuels.com, which I presume was her personal blog, there is an audio of a melange of Sirius shows she had done around Christmas time in past years. I listened to it for the sake of nostalgia, even though I never listened to her on satellite radio. I presume that the FCC has no rules for satellite, because there are a slew of F-bombs in her monologues, almost all completely unnecessary considering the mundane subjects she was discussing at the time.

[Politics4US]

I didn’t like her. She was liberal, and wasn’t nice to conservatives on the show.

[Impala64ssa]

She was referring to Norman Rosenbaum, who was seeking justice for his brother’s murder. Apparently she didn’t like the idea of Norman trying to hold Al Sharpton, to an extent, morally culpable.

[OddLane]

ping

[Reubin]

God bless your soul, Lynn. You were one of a kind. A wonderful person. Funny. Witty. Opinionated. Outspoken. Always entertaining. Humane. A real mensch! In a just world, you would have been a huge star. You were always true to yourself, the highest praise I can offer. And this praise comes from an ardent right-winger. I miss you already!

[OddLane]

She was one of the better hosts on WABC-back when Steve Malzberg and James & Joel had their own shows.

Now the station, excluding Rush, is in the doldrums.

Doug McIntrye left, Joe Crummy is gone-and is being replaced by that open borders idiot Geraldo-and we're saturated with Mark Simone.

Blecch!

It's getting as bad as WOR.

[BCrago66]

I’ll miss her.

Here’s a clip I found from a few years back talking about Obama; she was no fan. Whoever posted it gave it the title:

“Barack Obama Belittle and Stereotype Working Class Americans.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw0zr9hn01E&feature=related

[BCrago66]

According to the New York Post, she died of a heart attack:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/radio_lynn_samuels_dies_at_3IfblQ55n2UtWEjPd1eQWM