''Rambling with Gambling'' was a news and talk radio program that aired in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
from 1925 through 2016, almost uninterrupted, with one name change toward the end of its run. It was hosted by three generations of people named John Gambling throughout its entire 90+ year run.
The program was on
WOR for most of its time on air. The show aired on
WABC from 2000 to 2008, when it was renamed ''The John Gambling Show''. On its return to WOR in 2008, it kept the newer name. ''The John Gambling Show'' also aired for three years on
WNYM, from 2014 to 2016.
History
John B. Gambling
John Bradley Gambling (April 9, 1897 – November 21, 1974) was an American radio personality. He was a member of the Gambling family, 3 generations of whom—John B., John A. and John R.—were hosts of WOR Radio's (New York City, 710 AM) morn ...
started the show in March 1925, when WOR was a promotional arm of the
Bamberger's
Bamberger's was a department store chain with branches primarily in New Jersey and other locations in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. The chain was headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.
History 1892–1912
Newark was known for ma ...
department store in Newark. His son,
John A. Gambling John Alfred Gambling (February 5, 1930 – January 8, 2004) was an American radio personality. He was a member of the Gambling family, three generations of whom - John B. Gambling, John B., John A. and John R. Gambling, John R. - were hosts of WOR-A ...
became host in 1959. He brought his son,
John R. Gambling
John Raymond Gambling (born April 8, 1950) is an American radio personality. He is the son of John A. Gambling and the grandson of John B. Gambling, and as such is, the third-generation host of The Gambling family's very-long-running New York morn ...
, to the show as co-host in 1985.
John A. retired in 1991, leaving John R. as sole host until WOR cancelled the program in September 2000. At the time, it was the longest continually-running radio broadcast in America, a position now held by the
Grand Ole Opry
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...
. After a brief hiatus, WABC hired Gambling. WOR owned the rights to the name ''Rambling with Gambling'', so the revived show was renamed ''The John Gambling Show.'' In January 2008, WABC laid off Gambling in a cost-cutting measure.
On Wednesday, April 30, 2008, WOR and John R. Gambling announced the return of the show to its original station. They began broadcasting on Monday, May 5, 2008, from 6 AM to 10 AM. Despite the return to WOR, the new name continued.
Gambling retired at the end of 2013. From there, in an unannounced move, Gambling joined
Salem Media
Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher formerly based in Camarillo, California (moved most operations to I ...
's
WNYM, where he hosted his program from March 2014 to September 2016.
Gambling announced his intention to retire from broadcasting in September 2016, claiming that problems with his knees prevented him from continuing; with no sons named John to carry on the tradition, the show thus came to an end.
References
External links
Cruise Control
American radio programs
1925 radio programme debuts
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