Posted on 02/14/2013 8:14:13 PM PST by TeaPartyJakes
Former New York Mayor Ed Koch, who died earlier this month, was a legendary political figure. Barry Farber was a legendary talk radio host in the Big Apple, whose voice dominated the powerful WOR throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The two larger-than-life figures would face off in 1977, when Koch was seeking his first term as mayor. Farber was interviewed in The Right Frequency: The Story of the Talk Radio Giants Who Shook Up the Political and Media Establishment by Fred V. Lucas (History Publishing Co.). Below is an excerpt: *** Covering a quarter of WOR’s airtime was enough exposure to give [Barry Farber] political aspirations. He exited radio in 1977 to run for mayor of New York City.
“There was a real scenario for victory,” Farber said. "Our strategy was to pull an insurgency on the very liberal New York City Republican establishment, run against the Republican establishment candidate. Try to get that nomination. Then hope that the Democrats did what they always do and did up until that year. They always, in their primary, had 15 percent of the eligible voters voting and they always voted with the leftmost candidate.”
“If both parts of the plan had worked-actually neither worked, I got 42 percent for the Republican nomination for mayor—but if I had gotten the Republican nomination and Bella Abzug had been the Democrat, I’d have won. I had the Conservative Party line too. If I had the Conservative and Republican and Bella were the Democrat, that was a real scenario. It was a long shot."
Farber opposed racial quotas, gay rights laws and supported stricter laws for school truancy. Koch was fending off Liberal Party mayoral nominee Mario Cuomo. On Election Day, Koch won the four-man race with 49 percent of the vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at rightfrequency.wordpress.com ...
Farber is still on: http://crntalk.com/barryfarber/barryfarberfeed
I had no idea that Barry Farber ran for NYC mayor. I remember that I used to listen to his radio program in the 80s and early 90s. He had a great show — very cerebral and folksy at the same time. I think he had a very interesting personal career before radio. He supposedly was a very gifted linguist.
We used to get him locally back in the late 90’s & and early 00’s.
I was privileged to have him do a telephone interview of me for part of one of his shows back then. Other than my ramblings, he always had a very informative & interesting show. [Please forgive the gratuitous name dropping. “15 minutes of fame” and all that, you know.] ;-)
He’s a well educated, experienced, knowledgeable and wise man. I miss his show. We’re stuck with Glenn Beck in Farber’s former time slot.
WOW!
Thanks for the Link!
I’ve missed listening to Barry.
He really sounds old now. Hang in there Barry!
Anybody remember Ed Koch’s talk show on WABC? He had the infamous 10am time slot and lasted about 10 minutes. Hilariously rude to his callers and tons of dead air as he searched for a word. I liked Mayor Koch but he was an awful radio personality!
I’ve been on his shoq a few times. He’s a great host.
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