Broadcasting legend and interviewer extraordinaire Larry King passed away Saturday, January 23rd at the age of 87. An emotional Frank Morano, host of The Other Side of Midnight on WABC, paid tribute to King during his opening monologue on Monday, saying King’s death “Marks the end of an era in broadcasting”.
Morano began his tribute by discussing King’s impact on the world of broadcasting.
“I don’t really have the vocabulary to express my deep sadness at the passing of Larry King,” Morano said. “I can’t begin to describe the impact that he has had on the world of radio, cable news and broadcasting in general. Watching his work, sometimes he would make you laugh, sometimes he would make you cry, sometimes he would surprise you and then sometimes he would make you scratch your head. But that was Larry. Because of that, it is a struggle to find what made Larry King so great. I have come to the conclusion that it wasn’t one thing, but a combination of many, many things.”
Morano adds that King had many similarities with another television icon, Alex Trebek.
“There are a lot of people in television or radio that can find success for a moment,” Morano said. “But to have longevity and be on the air for literal decades, you have to be relatable to audiences. You have to be ‘just a regular guy from the neighborhood’. You have to be curious and you have to be humble. Both Larry and Alex had those qualities and that’s why people loved them.”
While Morano does compare King to Trebek, he said it was King’s differences from other broadcasters that set him apart.
“Let’s be honest. Larry King was no Ken Doll,” he said. “He would wear those suspenders that nobody else would think about wearing. He didn’t look like the picture of somebody you thought was supposed to be on TV. He did not ask the same erudite questions that everyone else was asking. No, Larry King was different and that’s what made him so special.”
Morano closes his monologue by crediting King with shaping the modern news format, saying that his death leaves a void in the world of broadcasting,
“I didn’t know Larry personally aside from meeting him a couple of times for about ten seconds, but I feel like I lost a friend,” Morano said. “He was one of the people that helped define and create modern day cable news and call-in radio formats. That era has closed with his passing. That is really sad.”
Later in his program, Morano interviewed King’s producer Tammy Haddad. Morano also invited listeners to call in and share their memories of King throughout the program. In addition, Morano played some rare clips of King from his career, but stopped short of devoting the entire four hour show to him because, “I don’t think Larry would have wanted it that way”.
