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Some Thoughts on Pierre Robert’s Passing, as Tributes Pour in from the World’s Biggest Artists
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Crappy Wednesday in Philadelphia. We lost broadcast legends Harry Donahue and Pierre Robert, who spent the better part of four decades each behind their respective microphones at KYW NewsRadio and 93.3 WMMR.
There are a lot of nice tributes coming in for both, which is great to see. In Pierre’s case, all of the connections he made in the music world are reflected in assorted social media posts and statements being issued by some of the biggest bands in the world:
Brian Adams dedicated his smash hit power ballad “Heaven” to Pierre during Wednesday’s performance in South Philly:
Beyond all of this, you look through the comments on the WMMR and Preston and Steve posts and see responses from people like Chris Jericho and Daughtry, just casually chiming in like anybody else despite having hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
It’s really an incredible snapshot of how much respect there was for Pierre across the industry, not just among the artists, but in the broadcasting world as well. Pierre had been on the air longer than most Millennials have been alive. When you say you “grew up” with someone, it’s oftentimes exaggerated, but not in this case. When the oldest Millennial was 1, he was just getting started on a career that would last for more than four decades.
One of the things that should be remembered about Pierre is that he never participated in any kind of musical gatekeeping, at least not on the air. If he secretly hated some of these songs or bands, that would be news to most of us. He always played a variety of stuff and always seemed to have an interesting factoid or tidbit to share along with it. Sometimes he had a unique vinyl cut or acoustic or live version you hadn’t heard before. But not once did you ever hear him sort of grumble his way through something. He went through the mandatory radio hits and deep cuts all the same, leaning heavily into requests because you play what the people want to hear, and that builds longevity and loyalty, especially in a parochial market like ours, where people like what they like and aren’t necessarily eager for change.
Case in point, there was a comfort level in tuning in and hearing a Pink Floyd workforce block, or listening to Pierre read a letter on the air. It created this interesting connectivity of sorts, because Pierre was the soundtrack for everyone working a shitty day job, be it installing shingles on a roof or sitting in a cubicle. You might have been wearing a hard hat, or a dress shirt, but both individuals were listening to Zeppelin on WMMR.
If you think about it from afar, that was really the whole point, to connect with the audience, because if you took the human element out of it and asked Pierre to just spin records (figuratively), then you’d just be listening to an MP3 player. It would defeat the purpose. You would turn off WMMR and put on Spotify instead.
Pierre was the whole reason you turned on the radio instead of firing up a music app. There weren’t a lot of people like him even 20 years ago, and there are fewer now. RIP.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com