MARK SIMONE

 

President Donald Trump called him “one of the very best, a truly great talker, a special guy” Liz Smith wrote that he was “wonderfully entertaining and intelligent.”

 

Mark Simone – New York’s Longest Running Talk Show Host

 

 

In 2022, Mark Simone’s daily 10am- Noon WOR talk show ranked number one in total audience in its time period, beating every other station in the NYC Nielsen ratings, the only talk show to do that in this century and the first talk show to do it since Rush Limbaugh did it in 1992. His streaming numbers and the daily podcast tell a similar story.

 

Before his many years on WOR, he spent 18 years as part of the powerful lineup on WABC, along with Rush, Hannity, Imus and Levin.

Besides his own show, which often hit number one in NYC in the Nielsen ratings, Mark also became known as the “Super Sub”, becoming the regular fill in for Hannity, Imus and Levin. With all of that combined, in the average month Mark was heard by over 23 million listeners.

 

Also WABC in addition to his talk shows, Mark has always been one of the county’s leading musicologists, Mark did a very popular Saturday night Sinatra show for two years and Saturday Night Oldies was a huge ratings success for 7 years. Mark has hosted over 200 PBS specials on music and the arts. He has also taught Master Classes at universities on music.

 

 

Before WABC, he cohosted the Late, Late Radio Show with Tom Snyder on The CBS Radio Network.

 

In the 1980’’s he was Steve Allen’s co-host for 2 ½ years on The NBC Radio Network on a daily 3 hour comedy show that had as its regular guests Jay Leno, Mel Brooks, Bill Maher and just about every major name in the comedy world.

 

For years he was the host of a 4 hour afternoon show on the legendary WNEW AM which was both a music and talk show. WNEW AM was for decades the most prestigious, blue chip radio station in the world. It was the first station ever to play records, do an hourly newscast, introduced personality radio to the world and through the years had hosts that weren’t just legends, but were institutions – William B. Williams, Ted Brown, Gene Klavan, Jonathan Schwartz.

Mark Simone’s popular afternoon show from 3-7pm, played the classiest music from Sinatra to Buble, with appearances from every A-list guest you can name, a live audience on some days, many days there were live in studio performances by Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett and all the great performers of standards. An audience of regular listeners that included Frank Sinatra, Jackie Onassis, Cary Grant and - It was that kind of station.

In a 1992 NY Times profile, the great literary figure Wilfred Sheed wrote: “Mark Simone’s witty afternoon show has become the place to be heard these days, at least to judge from the celebrities (anyone from Donald Trump to the presidential candidates to God knows what next) who all seem to phone Simone and his listeners the minute they reach their hotels.”

 

Before WNEW, Mark was the youngest talk show host in New York.

 

It all started, when the day after graduating Emerson College, Mark was hired to host a nightly show on WPIX-FM, then a hot FM music station in NYC, known for its cutting edge playlist that first introduced to the world the Police, Blondie, Madonna, Elvis Costello. Mark’s show was much more than just the music, it was talk, comedy, phone call, interviews with music’s biggest artists. It started becoming more talk than music. The great newspaper critics of the day started writing rave reviews and the biggest talk radio station in America, at the time, WMCA called.

 

WMCA was not just America’s most listened to talk radio station, it was the Hall of Fame of talk radio, with talk radio legends like Barry Gray, Barry Farber, Bob Grant, Larry King, Long John Nebel. In his early 20’s Mark was the youngest host ever on a major talk station in New York. His daily show from 6-8pm became an instant hit.

 

In addition to radio, Mark has been all over television for years- with a weekly show on NY1 TV, NYC’s all news station, for 18 years.

He is a regular contributor on The FOX Business Network, before that CNBC, MSNBC and CNN.

He has hosted over 250 PBS specials on the arts.

He is a regular guest on Sean Hannity and Buck Sexton’s shows, among others.

 

He has been NYC’s most popular MC for years - Mark Simone’s quick wit has been honed on a thousand celebrity filled daises. He’s appeared many times on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, Broadway theatres, The Kennedy Center, The White House.

 

“…on the most star-studded daises, in the grandest ballrooms, you’ll often find Mark Simone at the microphone. Nobody’s quicker or smoother in front of those discerning audiences.”     - Liz Smith

 

“An outstanding Master of Ceremonies……he handles those affairs with the greatest skill and wonderful wit and humor” - Larry King

 

"A terrific master of ceremonies, who keeps everything moving at a great pace and has the audience entertained and amused throughout" - Donald Trump

 

“His fast wit and entertaining insight have had audiences laughing and thinking for years” - COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE

 

Here's an interview with Mark in Newsmax Magazine: https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/mark-simone-radio-host-q-a/2017/01/16/id/768828/