My last blog detailed the fall of Rochester radio legend Brother Wease's sidekick, Cindy Pierce, in August 1999 when she left the show acrimoniously amidst accusations, badmouthing, sleaze and lawsuits. The woman who was not only a familiar face on his morning, show, she had a prominent role in the 31-WUHF television Show, Brother Wease's Primetime Circus, for the first half of the 1990s. Having a tenure of nearly a decade on the morning program, she is still easily the best known of Brother Wease's many female sidekicks, yet the one who is spoken of in hushed tones due to the conflicted and irate passions she elicits from Rochester radio listeners.
The fact, that, over the last 30 years, both on 96.5 WCMF and 95.1 The Brew, Wease has had so many female co-hosts that it boggles the mind. So many have come and gone, in fact, that even his hardcore fans and devotees are hard-pressed to name the females who have held the title of cohost other than "Sister Sleaze" Stephanie Miller, Cindy Pierce, and the dullard known as Marianne Sierk, who is the present female cohost. But there have been others.
They say radio teams are like marriages, and if one looks at Brother Wease's real-life marriages, they are barely better than the radio sidekick marriages he had attempted to cultivate in his over 30 years in radio. Kimberly and Beck have worked as a radio team for over 15 years. Howard Stern and Robin Quivers has functioned as sidekicks for almost 38 years. Opie and Anthony also have had a decades-long relationship. So what is it about Brother Wease that he has been unsuccessful in keeping a female cohost? Is it his abrasive manner? I doubt it. I think anyone who works for Mr. Levin knows what his political views are, what his personal habits are, and what he smells like in the morning. I personally think he pretends to be a feminist, but deep down, Wease is no more a feminist than Vinnie Paulino is a comedian.
Here is a rundown of two of the little-known "also rans."
1. Stacy Carmichael. Guaranteed that you will not remember Stacy Carmichael, if only because her tenure was so brief and she replaced a high profile sidekick who sued Wease's ass off...twice. Stacy, of course, was hired in late 1999 to replace Cindy Pierce, and she apparently was another woman who could not hack co-hosting the morning show. WCMF, probably on the recommendation of Brother Wease, fired her ass from the show in September 2000 because of "poor chemistry." Poor chemistry is indeed a good reason to cut the cord of a radio team. But the issue is, why was she chosen? Because she has a liberal bent? I notice Wease has never had a truly conservative regular on his show...and it makes one realize why: he hates to be challenged, lest of all by a truly intelligent, conservative who can make mincemeat of his hippie dippy 60s worldview. But conflict makes great radio, but apparently "non conformist" Wease prefers conformity in the confines of the radio studio. Stacy was replaced by the left-wing America hating jackass known as Sally Carpenter, who I derisively re-named Sally Plumber, who survived until the end of Wease's run on WCMF.
WCMF had discussed syndication of the Brother Wease Show for a few years before Carmichael's arrival, but her exit stalled those plans. As it stands, Wease was briefly syndicated in Buffalo, and briefly syndicated in New York City, but eventually those deals fell through. Thus, Wease, despite his claims that his show is "known nation-wide" and is rated one of the most famous in America, never succeeded beyond the Monroe and tri-county territories. To find a gig, Stacy moved around after her canning by WCMF and is now a radio personality in St. Louis, Missouri, at 100.7 THE VIPER.
2. Lilly Hasenaj. I have to make a full disclosure: of all of his female cohosts, I liked her the most. She was young, cute, liberal but not too full tilt leftist moron like Marianne Sierk has become over the past couple of years. I met her when she was doing a celebrity bartending stint at what was known as J. J. Crummers in Penfield in 2010. I had just done a highly publicized Judge Mathis show where I had sued an ex girlfriend (wait for my blog on that show) and I discussed the show with her for a few minutes. She was nice, gracious and I really wanted to ask her out. I liked that little Armenian kitten.Lilly was offered a huge carrot and stick in 2008 to leave the top rated New Jersey morning radio show Rob & Fez to be the female cohost of Brother Wease's much ballyhooed return to the radio on 95.1 The Fox after his firing (or leaving, or quitting; I mean, seriously, you get a different story every week from him about what actually happened) from WCMF.
Only it was not a triumphant return at all.
It was Gugliemo Marconi's version of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
The ratings were awful, sixth in the morning books, even with the addition of comedian Jamie Lissow, who was much more entertaining than that raper face cretin Tommy Mule. The reformulated Wease show was getting their asses beaten not only by Kimberly & Beck, but shockingly, the morning WHAM Show (and that show is as boring as dog shit drying in a desert; if you cannot beat that banal snooze-fest known as WHAM Morning Show, you better leave radio and take up ditch-digging).
When a show's ratings are failing, the station doesn't blame the star, they blame the team built around the star. Lissow was canned, and so was Lilly.
What a shame. Lilly Hasenaj was a famous name in New Jersey, the entire goddamned state of New Jersey with Rob & Fez. THEN in the space of a couple of years, she became a nobody in a piss-ass measly radio market like Rochester. In 2010, her face was pulled off the Wease.com page, and she was history.
Those, my friends, were two of the women dumped like used condoms into the dust bin of Rochester radio, known as the Brother Wease female cohost stint.
Good luck, Marianne Sierk.
You will need it.
Personally, I think Mike Tyson and Ted Kennedy have had better luck with women seated next to them.
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