AC Radio Pioneer Calls It A Career After Almost 60 Years On The Air
By David Madden
ATLANTIC CITY (CBS) -- Radio is not the business you want to get into if you're looking for job stability, at most stations anyway.
But there are exceptions. Sid Mark comes to mind in Philadelphia with his legendary Sinatra show airing Sundays for over 55 years, the last almost 15 years on 1210 WPHT. A few of us at KYW Newsradio have 30 years plus under our belts at the station.
In Atlantic City, though, a broadcaster who has worked for almost six decades at the same station called it a career this week.
Eighty-eight-year old Pinky Kravitz began his radio career in Atlantic City in 1956. Two years later, he moved to WOND where he remained doing a five day a week talk show until this past May.
It was then that Longport Media President Dave Coskey says Kravitz took his first ever sick day, followed by heart surgery the following day.
Kravitz has not returned to his broadcast since. This week, after consultation with his family, Kravitz announced his retirement. "I think that this allows him to concentrate 100 percent on his recuperation," Coskey said in an interview with KYW Newsradio.
Kravitz's show, known as "Pinky's Corner," has proven to be an almost required stop for entertainers and politicians alike pushing one thing or another. But what Coskey remembers about Kravitz, from listening to him and working with him, is the man's on-air demeanor.
"He always had time for whoever called in, regardless of why they were calling in," Coskey said. "There was never a caller who was a waste of his time."
Coskey said Kravitz not only served as host of the program at WOND, he also booked his own guests and even sold most of the commercial time. Kravitz also made it a point to attend many news conferences in Atlantic City, not as a reporter per se, but to keep up on issues important to his listeners, and sometimes advocate for them.
A summer replacement program has filled Kravitz's 4 to 6 p.m. time slot since he took ill. Coskey says he'll announce plans for the time slot in a week or so, but he insists there's no way to replace Pinky Kravitz himself.
