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Few people have had a deeper love for and understanding of New York City as Curtis Sliwa. Born and raised in Canarsie, founder of the Guardian Angels, lifelong fan of the Yankees, aficionado of the dirty water hot dog- there is no nook and cranny in any borough that he does not know, right down to which subway line gets you there the fastest. But ever since his unsuccessful mayoral bid in November led to him quitting his job at “the station up the dial,” the New York airwaves have been missing his colorful wit and probing insight into how the Big Apple rolls. That all changes on Monday morning, as Curtis Sliwa teams up with Larry Mendte on 710 WOR’s new morning program, “Curtis Sliwa and Larry Mendte in the Morning.” Sliwa took a few minutes to talk with his new partner about his radio career and what New Yorkers can expect from their new go-to morning show.
Sliwa told Mendte how he interrupted one of his passions, patrolling with the Guardian Angels, to discuss another of his passions, talking for a living on the radio: “I had to interrupt my patrol of downtown Ithaca, New York, [but] I am coming to the oldest talk-radio station continuously running in New York City, and the best talk radio station, so it doesn’t get any better than that, joining with you Larry and the crew at WOR. I come back to what people have been asking me to do ever since I lost the election on November 4th. A lot of people said, ‘When are you getting back, when are you getting back to talk radio?’ … [Well] I’m at WOR, which should be the listener’s place to be in the mornings and throughout the rest of the day.”
Sliwa also hinted that the new show will be anything but predictable, as he made it clear he’ll think independently of his new partner: “One last question before I go back to patrolling downtown Ithaca- what excuse, on day five, are we giving for starting a war with Iran, Larry? Could you explain that to me, because every day it’s a different excuse.”
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