“This is a tremendous opportunity for me,” said Paterson at Ben Benson’s Steak House on West 52nd Street, where the announcement was made Thursday afternoon. “I admire people in the media, and I love the profession, so I would like to add to it by not taking everything at face value and really digging to see what the facts are.”
Paterson has been a regular guest host on WOR. His new locally focused program will air in the evenings from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., replacing Steve Malzberg’s national show.
The Sept. 6 debut will feature former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Rep. Charles Rangel, and a debate between congressional candidates David Weprin and Bob Turner.
Paterson joked that upon hearing about his new position, Spitzer had told him, “It’s so great to see that you could get a job that I didn’t give you.”
Paterson, who is legally blind, is currently serving as a consultant for the National Federation of the Blind. He is also a visiting professor at the New York University.
“We simply looked at Gov. Paterson as a unique player, what I like to describe as a renaissance man—somebody who can talk about sports, culture, movies, Broadway, and, of course, the inner workings of Albany, if there are any inner workings,” said Jerry Crowley, vice president and general manager of WOR.
Paterson said that late WOR owner Rick Buckley had spoken with him multiple times about hosting a show starting last September. The former governor said he felt the “personal touch” behind the station and recently spoke with members of the Buckley family, cementing his decision. Stations like WABC and WWRL have also been in talks with him about hosting a show.
Paterson recalled that he “grew up listening to the radio.” Not learning Braille “took away from my ability to read and accumulate information,” he said, “so my information always came from the radio.”
According to the former governor, his program will strive to be educational, entertaining, and controversial, while not going the route he feels too many talk shows embark on—engaging in “a cacophony of bashing the same elected official over and over and over again.”
“I will bash people when I think they have been completely insensitive with the public,” Paterson quipped.
He added that when a major story surfaces, media are often “repeating themselves without really researching to see what’s at the bottom of it” and that he wants to avoid this mentality.
A Harlem resident, Paterson obtained a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University and a law degree from Hofstra Law School. He has served the public in various capacities over the years, beginning as a state senator in 1985.
Paterson first served as the lieutenant governor and became governor in March 2008, after then-Gov. Spitzer was forced to resign due to a prostitution-related scandal. He drew support for working hard on balancing the budget, but also faced several scandals of his own, including alleged witness tampering in an aide’s domestic dispute case.
