Yesterday Was a Devastating Day at WMMR’s Preston & Steve Show
"We feel absolutely gutted."
Preston & Steve cast members Preston Elliot, Kathy Romano, and Steve Morrison react to the news that Romano no longer works for WMMR (images via livestream embedded below)
I was just at WMMR’s Bala Cynwyd studio on Tuesday as a guest of the Preston & Steve show. It was just another day there. Lots of laughs. Crude jokes. Spirits were high as we discussed a certain crappy individual. But Thursday on the Preston & Steve show couldn’t have been more different.
All morning, co-host Preston Elliot had been teasing a big announcement. It was coming at 9 a.m. Listeners probably expected a ridiculous contest. Maybe a huge concert was coming to town. Sadly, there was nothing fun about this. Shortly after Kathy Romano completed her traffic report, Elliot announced that Romano, a 22-year veteran of the show, would no longer be working at WMMR.
“I’m gonna cry and I apologize,” said Elliot on the air as he did his best to fight back tears. “I’ve made some statements lately that things are difficult. In our professional lives, every single one of us has been going through difficult things recently, and it’s led to this announcement. We’ve been together in this show for more than 20 years, and we’re very sad to say that Kathy is no longer going to be an employee.”
Elliot paused, hung his head, adding, “It’s really hard, man … We are profoundly sad about this.”
When it was co-host Steve Morrison’s turn, he echoed Elliot’s “profoundly sad” characterization of Romano’s departure, and cried as he told Romano, “I love you so much.”
“I’m devastated, obviously,” Kathy Romano told listeners. “This was not my decision, and it wasn’t Preston or Steve’s either. It wasn’t really even WMMR. If you have ever been broken up with but didn’t want the relationship to end … I am heartbroken. There is anger in there. But heartbroken. This is obviously extremely emotional for me … I’ve been through a lot of things, but coming here every day and laughing got me through that. And it scares me: What if I don’t have that in my life, the laughter every day?”
The Preston and Steve cast poses like Queen on the cover of Queen II. Clockwise from bottom left: Casey Boy, Kathy Romano, Steve Morrison, Nick McIlwain, Marisa Magnatta and Preston Elliot. (Photo by Linette & Kyle Kielinski, courtesy of Preston and Steve)
Elliot announced that Romano would not be replaced, which aligns with the talk around the station that this decision was a cost-cutting measure on the part of WMMR’s corporate overlord, Beasley Broadcast Group, a.k.a. Beasley Media Group, the Florida-based publicly-traded corporate behemoth that acquired WMMR in 2016.
“We feel absolutely gutted,” one WMMR source tells me. “This is just the awful way that corporations do business. And now we have lost a true talent.”
When reached for comment on Friday, Romano declined to comment on company management. But she says that she found out about the decision two weeks ago and has been putting her resume together since. “And what I realized is that I have a ton of experience in so many different things, whether TV, radio, or event planning,” Romano says. “So I just need to find the perfect match the way that Preston & Steve has been the perfect match all these years.”
And she already has a new gig, albeit a temporary one: Fox 29 called her and she’ll be co-hosting during part of their morning programming all next week.
This isn’t the first time in recent years that there has been a corporate shakeup at WMMR. In 2022, WMMR fired several employees including popular DJ “Jaxon,” who held down the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. slot that followed station legend Pierre Robert. At the same time, the company did away with all live overnight broadcasts. In a 2021 interview, Robert praised WMMR for those overnight offerings: “And while most stations are fully automated overnight, ‘MMR has a real live DJ all night long. That’s very rare.”
And one year ago this week, in what one WMMR employee described as a “terrible fucking day,” the company fired at least three people who were working at WMMR including Robert’s producer, who was known on the air as Pancake.
“And believe me, we are all smart enough to understand that this is not the end of the bad news,” a WMMR insider says. “You just know that there is more coming.”
Watch the segment from the Preston & Steve Show below:
