"It's Sick and Getting Sicker"

"Veteran New York radio personality Bob Grant — widely credited with inventing the conservative talk-radio format — has died at the age of 84."

Grant began his career as a controversial talk show host in 1970 when he joined WMCA in New York and quickly bucked the liberal slant of many of the other hosts.

The gravel-voiced talker's in-your-face opinions and regular telling off of callers often got him in hot water.

The day the notorious NY attorney William Kunstler died, I called the Bob Grant radio program and I got Bob worked up enough to yell at me. I went on praising Kunstler a little bit too much for Bob's taste. He made me laugh, while telling me off. I used to listen to him and Barry Farber. Before there was a Rush Limbaugh, there was Bob Grant. I credit Bob Grant and Barry Farber with opening my eyes politically.

Bob had a great ability to connect with people. I remember listening to a woman brake down crying over a problem Bob was having with the FCC. There was talk Bob might be fired. One of the several times Bob got in hot water for saying, essentially, what a lot of people were afraid to say.

Bob Grant will be missed.