Rolling Stone<\/em>. Robert was 70.<\/p>\n\n\tOn the air from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Monday through Friday, Robert \u2014\u00a0pronounced Ro-bear<\/em> \u2014\u00a0was part of the fabric of Philadelphia. He was a colorful, ubiquitous figure, known for his long hair and gray beard and the welcoming way he saluted callers: \u201cGreat day in the morning!\u201d His daily time on the air was punctuated by hearty laughs, self-deprecating jokes about his disregard for time (he was perpetually late, on \u201cPierre Standard Time\u201d) and wafer-thin sports knowledge (to Robert, every Philly team was \u201cthe boys in blue\u201d), and a playlist that, even in the era of corporate radio, took musical risks.<\/p>\n\n\tBorn William Pierre Robert in California in 1955, he cut his teeth on a San Francisco progressive rock station before ultimately heading east. In 1981, he joined WMMR in Philadelphia, where he worked until his death. Robert, true to his roots, was a passionate fan of the Grateful Dead, but he was an especially unwavering champion of hometown bands in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and the surrounding area, regardless of their level of fame. His playlists included locally grown artists like Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Hall & Oates, the Hooters, and his beloved Beru Revue.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe didn\u2019t care if you were the fad or the fashion of the moment. He just cared,\u201d Jon Bon Jovi wrote in tribute to Robert on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\n\tAlong with his noon \u201cworkforce blocks\u201d \u2014 a cluster of songs by the same artist \u2014 Robert also schooled listeners on rock & roll history, especially of the local kind, in his \u201cOn This Day\u201d segment. Deep diving into the concert calendar, he\u2019d list off who was playing where in Philly on that particular date. It was a way of preserving the past and honoring those who came before, a hallmark of Robert\u2019s broadcasting style.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tThe centerpiece of Robert\u2019s on-air year came every December, with his annual Christmas Eve show. It was an hours-long marathon of holiday songs, both traditional and rock-based, peppered with copious amounts of Christmas-themed audio snippets. Jackie Gleason\u2019s monologue in the yuletide episode of The Honeymooners<\/em> was played regularly, along with Cheech & Chong\u2019s \u201cSanta Clause and His Old Lady,\u201d and a corny bit known to loyal listeners as \u201cThe Jaguar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThe throughline for Robert, however, was yet again the local. He played Beru Revue\u2019s live Christmas medley; Philly songwriter Alan Mann\u2019s \u201cChristmas on the Block,\u201d about blind children who decorate their home; and a montage of heartwarming lyrics welcoming former Delaware Valley residents back home.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tFor Philly listeners, Robert\u2019s voice was just that: home.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHis voice helped the hungry and the homeless, and he did it because he cared. About you, about me, about making the world a little kinder wonder filled place to live,\u201d Bon Jovi wrote. \u201cHis memory will live with us as it will with all of the people he touched. That man is Pierre Robert. The legendary DJ.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pierre Robert, the voice of Philadelphia rock radio for 44 years as a DJ on 93.3 WMMR, died Wednesday. His agent confirmed his death…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":50417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}