Joe Pyne was an American radio and television talk show host, who pioneered the confrontational style in which the host advocates a viewpoint and argues with guests and audience members.
29 Facts About Joe Pyne
2.
Joe Pyne was an influence on other major talk show hosts such as Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Wally George, Alan Burke, Chris Matthews, Morton Downey Jr.
3.
Joe Pyne's father, Edward Pyne, was a bricklayer; his mother, Catherine, was a housewife.
4.
Joe Pyne saw combat in the South Pacific, where he earned three battle stars.
5.
Joe Pyne worked briefly in Lumberton, North Carolina, before he was hired at a new station, WPWA, in Brookhaven, Pennsylvania.
6.
Joe Pyne moved to WVCH, a new station in Chester, which went on the air in March 1948.
7.
Joe Pyne moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he was hired at WLIP, owned by local station owner William Lipman.
8.
Joe Pyne worked at several stations in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and began to change his style of broadcasting.
9.
Joe Pyne developed his on-air persona as an opinionated host who knew something about everything.
10.
Joe Pyne returned to WILM, where he debuted as a talk show host in 1950.
11.
Joe Pyne named it It's Your Nickel, a popular idiomatic phrase when a call from a pay phone cost five cents.
12.
The format was Joe Pyne expressing his opinions on various topics.
13.
At first, Joe Pyne didn't put callers on the air; he paraphrased for the audience what they had said.
14.
Joe Pyne became famous for arguing with or insulting those with whom he disagreed.
15.
In 1954, Pyne moved to television with The Joe Pyne Show, broadcast by WDEL-TV in Wilmington.
16.
Joe Pyne's initial show was unsuccessful, and he returned to Wilmington.
17.
Joe Pyne hosted a TV talk show on WVUE, which was seen in Philadelphia, and received positive reviews from critics.
18.
Joe Pyne continued this program until late 1959, when he returned to Los Angeles.
19.
The acerbic Bob Grant took over Joe Pyne's show in 1964, and Joe Pyne continued on KLAC.
20.
In 1965, during the Watts Riots in Los Angeles, Joe Pyne was interviewing a black militant on his TV show.
21.
At one point, Joe Pyne opened his coat to reveal that he was carrying a handgun.
22.
Later that year, "The Joe Pyne Show" went into wide syndication, carried by as many as 85 television stations at its peak.
23.
Joe Pyne spoke out against racial discrimination and supported the Vietnam War.
24.
Joe Pyne ridiculed hippies, homosexuals, and feminists.
25.
Joe Pyne preferred controversial guests such as Anton Szandor Lavey, Sam Sloan and invited members of the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, and followers of murderer Charles Manson.
26.
Joe Pyne argued this was educational, since it exposed these violent groups to the public eye.
27.
The Joe Pyne Show was not only verbally confrontational: at times the conflict became physical, with chairs being thrown at Pyne by the interviewee.
28.
Joe Pyne was bewildered, so he sought comments from his audience, which, at this point in his career, was made up of whomever KTTV could bring in from Hollywood Boulevard.
29.
Joe Pyne developed lung cancer from his smoking habit, and died in Los Angeles on March 23,1970, at age 45 and was cremated.