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He is particularly proud of an interview he conducted with Father Paul Lostritto last December. O’Shaughnessy, who describes himself as a “struggling, faltering, weak, uncertain Roman Catholic,” conducted a wide-ranging discussion that traveled the gamut from politics, to the future of the priesthood to feeding New York’s poor through the St. Francis Breadline.
The secret to being a great radio inter- viewer, he says, is to never be afraid of silence. He recalls getting a phone call a long time ago from actor and lifelong Westchester resident Ossie Davis. “I had just interviewed Terry Anderson, who you may remember was a journalist that was held hostage for a long time in Iran,” he recalls. “I had asked him, `Do you ever get mad at God for what happened to you?’ There was a very, very long pause and he finally said, `No, I’m a Catholic, it goes with the territory.’ Well Ossie called me and said, `That was the best interview you have ever done.’ When I asked why, he said, `Because you didn’t rush in to fill the spaces.’ I have always remem- bered that.”
Though reports of radio's death have been eminent for years, the Westchester-born and -raised businessman says his industry is not on the decline.
“Radio is like Lazarus in the Bible,” he laughs. “You can’t kill it. It will always be the medium of the poor and lonely and the mis- understood. And radio is free. You don’t have to pay for cable or the Internet or expensive tools like an iPad to be able to use it.”
O’Shaughnessy has a reputation as a staunch defender of free speech and has been known to defend even the most out- spoken and sometimes outrageous radio colleagues like Don Imus and Howard Stern, whose styles are markedly different from his own low-key approach.
“I applaud the white-haired mogul’s intelligent editorials concerning free speech,” Stern once said. “So many remain silent and it is alarming. He has always been there for me.”
O’Shaughnessy has written that words “that are sweet, awkward, horrific, barely audible, obscene, political, clumsy, uncom- fortable, sexy, crude, inarticulate, cutting, insulting, serious, scintillating, disappoint- ing, discursive, provocative, disgusting, vul- gar, disjointed, unfair, dismissive, inappro- priate, stupid... are all part of the essential Language of America...all of it, needs to be protected. All of it. By all of us."
“The first amendment is aptly named,” he says. “It’s the bedrock on which all our potential, our privileges, and our preroga- tives all proceed.”
O’Shaughnessy is also extremely active with the Broadcasters Foundation of America. The organization has raised more than $700,000 a year to help down and out
former broadcasters and their families. “Our profession has provided a nice life for so many and we have never had a way to give back,” he says. “This helps people who have fallen through the cracks. Not every broadcaster makes a big salary like Oprah or Howard. I am on the executive committee and believe me I know who the generous
ones are and who are the cheap bastards!” As for himself, O’Shaughnessy quotes his former mentor Martin Stone, who once said WVIP was “his insurance policy
against boredom.”
He is also hard at work on his fifth book,
an anthology like his others, but highlighting interviews with townies and spotlighting neighborhood gems throughout Westchester.
“Bill is a true renaissance man,” says his longtime friend, former New York Inspector General Joseph Spinelli. “His literary genius is only exceeded by his kindness and gener- osity to his friends.”
These days O’Shaughnessy does admit to taking the occasional afternoon nap and feeling some of his three quarters of a century years. “I take my heart pills and blood pressure medicine and the pacemaker is cranking,” he laughs. “My friend Sirio Maccioni says that the Italians have a saying that if you wake up without an ache or pain, it means you’re dead.”
When he isn’t working or spending time with five grandchildren, O’Shaughnessy can be seen holding court at one of his regular haunts, The Four Seasons, Maestros, or Le Grenouille in Manhattan or Mario’s Restaurant in the Bronx, where he can have his favorite spaghetti and clam sauce. “In the midst of a painful divorce from his second wife, O’Shaughnessy finds solace in being with friends and wherever there’s a good story to be had.
O’Shaughnessy says he has always viewed radio as a medium that's “more than a jukebox.”
“I am lucky that my portfolio has been stamped Westchester,” he says. “It’s where anyone and everyone comes to promote an idea. I want to make people think and inspire them.”
Perhaps not the most corporate philoso- phy he could practice, O’Shaughnessy says that’s never been what he’s about.
“I would have not been successful in a corporate environment. I think of the late broadcaster Peter Bordes. He once said to me, `We both started at the same time and now I have 30 radio stations and you still have two.’ I just said to him, “That’s true, but how many more do I need to get a better table at Le Cirque?”
Lisa Arcella is a freelance writer and editor. Her work has appeared in the Daily News, the Vancouver Sun, Redbook, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications.
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