Author and journalist Michael Harris had a live show on CFRA in Ottawa for several years while living in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. His producer was responsible for keeping him updated on current Ottawa news and frankly, most of his listeners were none the wiser. It really only became an issue when a host on the local sportstalk station was taking heat for not living in Ottawa and used Harris as an example of someone on the air who didn't live locally.

The flip of this was Miami talk show host Neil Rogers on 560 WMAQ. His 10am - 2pm show was consistently one of the top rated shows in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market but he was living and broadcast his show from Toronto and never tried to hide that fact.

He regularly talked about Toronto and spending his afternoons at Woodbine betting on the ponies.There were billboards all over south Florida with his face on them and one Saturday morning I was walking up Yonge Street, waiting for a light to change when I recognized the guy that would be coming toward me. I waited and when he crossed said, you're Neli Rogers aren't you? He said yes and we had quite a conversation about his home studio set up and how it all worked.

He retired in 2009 and sadly passed away in 2010. 

Last edited by zed (May 28, 2025 4:27 pm)

As was noted earlier in the thread about my appearance on the Broadcast Dialogue podcast, I used to work at WBZ in Boston. Our lead morning anchor, Gary LaPierre, had worked at the station since 1964, and by the early 2000s (not long after I left) he was enjoying spending parts of the winter in the sunshine at his second home in Florida.

The Boston papers "discovered" a huge "scandal" when they learned Gary was sometimes anchoring the morning news from St. Augustine instead of from Boston, and it was all over the news for a little while.

It never seemed like a big deal to me, and still doesn't. Nobody knew Boston the way Gary did. The newscasts he was reading from Florida were still being gathered and edited back in Boston by a very talented, very local newsroom. Gary was still reading all the Boston papers every morning, watching the Boston newscasts and very deeply plugged into the city regardless of where he was physically located. 

Here in Rochester now, our veteran morning FM talker, Brother Wease, is in Florida most of the year, too. He makes no secret of that, and he's still on the air with a team that's partially in the studio back home. 

As with voicetracking, I'm less interested in exactly where and when the talent is, and more interested in whether the content they're generating is compelling and current. And technology allows for that to happen from just about anywhere. 

fybush wrote:

Here in Rochester now, our veteran morning FM talker, Brother Wease, is in Florida most of the year, too. He makes no secret of that, and he's still on the air with a team that's partially in the studio back home.

Oh, wow. I loved Brother Wease when he was simulcast to 92.9 in Buffalo in the early 2000s.

Glad to hear he's still at it. That show had a great vibe.