Longtime broadcaster Joe Franklin dead at 88

[Cooley Hurd]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/25/us/joe-franklin-obit/index.html

(CNN)Longtime New York City radio and television personality Joe Franklin has died. He was 88.

"Joe went unexpectedly and passed away Saturday night," friend and former producer Steve Garrin said.

Franklin was a fixture on late-night radio and TV in New York, working at WJZ and WOR, and recently at the Bloomberg Radio Network.

"The last two weeks were the first time he ever missed a broadcast in over 60 years" Garrin said.

Though he never broke onto the national scene, Franklin was "in many ways, the pioneer of the modern TV talk show format," according to his website, which says he interviewed more than 300,000 guests.
</snip>

He's interviewed many famous guests. From his Wikipedia page:

Franklin's guests included (sometimes on the same panel) Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe (with whom Franklin co-authored "The Marilyn Monroe Story" in 1953), Jayne Mansfield, Cary Grant, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Rudy Vallee, Jimmy Durante, Madonna, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Bing Crosby, The Ramones, Captain Lou Albano, and five U.S. Presidents juxtaposed with countless unknown local performers, fringe bands, balloon-folders, self-published authors, celebrity impersonators and lounge singers, all of whom gave the show a surreal atmosphere.

Franklin never employed a co-host however his producer, Richie Ornstein, worked side-by-side with Franklin for decades and was a standard feature on the Joe Franklin Show to interact with guests and to discuss trivia.

Many well known talents such as Woody Allen, Andy Kaufman, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Julia Roberts, Bruce Springsteen, Robin Williams, John Belushi and Richard Pryor got their first television exposure on The Joe Franklin Show. Others, notoriously shy of live interviews, made frequent appearances on Franklin's programs: Frank Sinatra, for instance, appeared four times.

In 1999, Joe Franklin partnered with Riese Restaurants to open "Joe Franklin's Memory Lane Restaurant" in Manhattan's Theater District, where Franklin appeared frequently and even conducted live, in-person interviews with entertainers such as Billy Crystal, who famously impersonated Franklin on Saturday Night Live.

Cross gently, Joe...

[shenmue]

1. "It's nice to be important,

but it's more important to be nice."

I liked his show.

Rest in peace.

[sabbat hunter]

2. he was only 88

I remember seeing him on TV in the 90's and I thought he was in his 80's THEN! RIP Joe!

[PCIntern]

3. He was on WOR from 9-10 and Jean Shepherd was on 10:15-11

and that RWer Barry Farber was all night.

[winstars]

4. I listen to Jean everyday in the car or at the gym link below for 1.000's of his shows!!!

https://archive.org/search.php?query=Jean%20Shepherd%20AND%20mediatype%3Aaudio