Joe Pyne
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Joe Pyne (December 22, 1925 – March 23, 1970) was an American radio and television talk show host, who pioneered the confrontational style of hosting in which the host advocates a viewpoint and argues with guests and audience members. He didn't invent talk broadcasting. Yet Pyne, during his heyday in the '60s probably more than anyone else, modernized the style of the contemporary talk show performer—echoes of which can still be heard today in hundreds of radio and television markets across the country. He was acerbic, witty, controversial, sentimental, bombastic—sometimes all in the same breath. He was loved and hated with equal fervor by his listeners.
Joseph Pyne was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. He earned three service stars but lost a leg while serving in the Marine Corps during World War II.
Pyne began working in radio in Camden, New Jersey, while still a student studying drama. He debuted as a talk show host in 1949 on the show It's Your Nickel, broadcast by radio station WILM-AM in Wilmington, Delaware. The format of the show was for Pyne to offer his opinions on various topics. Listeners would then call in to ask questions, offer their own opinions, or raise new topics. Pyne would often argue with or insult listeners he disagreed with. One of his most famous trademark insults was to "go gargle with razor blades."
In 1950, Pyne moved his family to Kenosha, Wisconsin where he had been offered a position at WLIP. After six months of hosting such innocuous programs as "Meet Your Neighbor" from various Kenosha neighborhood grocery stores, he quit during a confrontation with WLIP management after throwing the station owner's typewriter into the wall.
At the time television was replacing radio as America's primary medium. In 1954, Pyne moved to television with The Joe Pyne Show broadcast by WDEL-TV in Wilmington. In 1957, he moved to Los Angeles and hosted a radio and then television show there. In 1965, he began broadcasting a nationally syndicated show which was broadcast by approximately 85 television stations and 250 radio stations at its peak.
Pyne was generally a conservative and supported the Vietnam War and ridiculed hippies (a favorite target) and the women's movement. But Pyne also spoke out against racial discrimination and in favor of labor unions.
Pyne was confrontational with guests on his show and often attempted to throw them off-balance by opening the conversation with an insult. One occasion when this backfired was when he began a dialogue with Frank Zappa by saying, "So I guess your long hair makes you a woman." Zappa responded with "So I guess your wooden leg makes you a table."
His show was verbally aggressive and at times even physically violent, with chairs being thrown at him by a guest being interviewed. If the "discussion" got too heated, the guest would often walk off or Pyne would throw the guest off the show. Pyne once described himself as an "overly compensating introvert."
Pyne had a phobia of never shaking anyone's hand. His line was "don't touch me unless you love me". Other famous quotes of Pyne:
He suggested a caller "take your false teeth out, put them in backwards and bite yourself in the neck."
"Look, lady, every time you call this program and open your mouth to speak...nothing but garbage falls out...get OFF THE LINE, YOU CREEP."
“I could make a monkey out of you but why should I take the credit?”
Ron Karenga, an African American author, Marxist political activist, and founder of Kwanzaa was a frequent guest on the show.
In 1966, NBC gave him a daytime game show, Showdown. It lasted only three months, and was replaced by The Hollywood Squares, which would run for nearly fourteen years.
A chain-smoker who on-air referred to his cigarettes as "coffin nails", Pyne developed lung cancer near the peak of his career and died in Los Angeles on March 23, 1970. He was 44 years old.
