Zoren: Tributes to Pierre Robert, Harry Donahue at their passings

In all of the years I’ve covered local radio and its personalities, I never heard anyone utter even the slightest unpleasant word about Pierre Robert.

Quite the contrary. Robert was one of the most loved and respected people in a business that can be as capricious and catty as it is congenial and collegial.

Perhaps the verb in the last sentence should be “is.” “Is one of the most loved and respected …”

The sincere and universal outpouring of shock, grief, sadness, and, once again, pure unadulterated love that followed the news of Robert’s unexpected death on Wednesday is a testament to a career well-spent, a life well-lived, and affection that is as indelible as it is undeniable.

Facebook was filled with tributes to Pierre and his contribution to music and broadcasting.

Forget any modifiers like “local.” The response to Robert’s passing came from all over the world. It included obits in several major national and international newspapers, tributes from performers, top stars among them, remembering his support, knowledge, and winning way with interviews, accolades tinged with sadness, humor, and, one more time, love from colleagues and station mates, and caring and appreciative comments from fans of all kinds.

Pierre Robert is an institution. He may be gone, but his presence survives in the memories and solid regard of listeners, concertgoers, musicians, charities, and fellow broadcasters whose life he graced and affected so deeply.

He was a survivor is another way. Look at Philadelphia radio over the 44 years Robert spent at WMMR (93.3 FM), mostly as a mid-day fixture.

Roll through the names of major deejays, hosts, news folk, commentators, and the like, and show me one that did not face a layoff, a dip in popularity, a round robin of stations, or career crisis, weathered or not.

With all of the chaos as radio stations changed owners or formats and saw what were considered bona fide stars suddenly without airtime, Robert remained secure in his midday saddle at ‘MMR.

Morning hosts may come and go, even with “Preston & Steve” having a good run, but Robert was there to follow them for the last couple of decades.

His “Greetings, Citizens!” was a leitmotif of a broadcast day, now become a broadcast era.

Other features, such as “On This Day” were a welcome staple. Perhaps best of all was Pierre’s knowledge of popular music and his easy rapport with its biggest stars, not to mention newcomers and one-hit wonders who were treated with the same gregarity and respect.

People liked Pierre Robert. They enjoyed talking to him.

People enjoyed the range of his playlists, which could go from classics, including some that may have been forgotten but for Robert choosing to remind us of their places and value in the rock canon, to the newest, at times giving a song or artist the play needed to get some traction or recognition.

Glances at Facebook and other social media this week show how much legions of people appreciated Robert’s friendly style and gentle manner.

I have a a personal regret that I didn’t get to know him better. Paths crossed, the last time accidentally at an Abington Starbucks having nothing to do with anything professional.

Those occasions were breezy and cordial, but reading about Robert and taking in all that has been said and remembered about him, I wish I’d been more diligent about having more than a token acquaintance.

Not that Robert needed one more fan. Tens of thousands have responded to obits and reminiscences people have posted, or reporters have recalled.

It was impressive to review all that was already known about Pierre: his dedication to rock music, his relationship with so many fans and artists, and his unstinting support of causes, charities, and campaigns he found personally important.

Forty-four years is a long time to be an influential presence in any market or industry.

Heaven knows how many more years Robert would have presided over WMMR’s midday mic if his life hadn’t ended so surprisingly at age 70.

The suddenness of Robert’s passing, his relative youthfulness, and his being so present, even in the last week of his life — an appearance at a Hooters concert, a picture of him reading in his beloved Rittenhouse Square — add to the pain and sadness.

A colleague who was among WMMR personalities on Thursday spoke about the overwhelming grief Robert’s most recent and immediate workmates are facing.

Social media continues to be chocked with clips from Robert’s illustrious career and posts expressed sentiments that range from solemn to wistfully nostalgic.

Latest word says a report has been issued telling the circumstances of Robert’s death, but it has not been released to the public.

Police who responded to a requested wellness check have ruled out foul play.

One thing is certain. Neither Pierre Robert nor his contribution to this broadcast market or status as a worldwide champion of rock music will be forgotten.

Donahue a skilled newsman

Wednesday was a doubly sad day in local broadcasting.

Along with news of Pierre Robert’s death came word that Harry Donahue, a longtime morning anchor at KYW Newsradio (1060 AM and 103.9 FM) had passed at age 77.

Donahue was a voice of authority as he came to the airwaves weekday mornings from 1979 to 2014 to give a combination of news and weather.

He will certainly be remembered as the one who most familiarity rattled off a skein of numbers to let listeners know which schoolswould be closing during regional snowfalls.

Radio has changed since Donahue was the voice to which I woke up and kept with me on my commute to work.

During his 35 years at KYW’s anchor desk, one never had to worry about news being skewed in a particular direction, even when only by the inflection of one word in an intro.

Donahue worked in an era when objectivity and the news as news, and not as a rallying cry for one faction or another, was the rule.

Call it old school.

Whatever you call it, Donahue was a master at capturing and holding one’s attention. He made the news important and immediate in a way it rarely it these days.

I, for one, purposely avoid news on radio these days because it lacks the enterprise of the years when Harry Donahue worked and often smacks of current fashions in news broadcasting, i.e. bias.

He was a also quite the sportscaster.

While Donahue might reel off a score or two before handing 90 seconds to a KYW sports anchor, he was the play-by-play announcer of Temple University basketball and football games.

He was also the host of a show called “Inside Golf” that appeared on Comcast Sports stations, now NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Donahue came to KYW as a freelance correspondent in 1974. Within five years, he was a lead weekday anchor, delivering many breaking stories, and stayed in that post until he retired 11 years ago.

Asian American film fest this month

Few television programs received the acclaim and award recognition “Shōgun” did when it appeared for 10 episodes on FX and Hulu in 2024.

The mini-series swept through several production and acting categories at both the Golden Globes and Emmys.

It continued the success Asian works with Asian casts found at the Oscars with South Korea’s “Parasite” (2019), “Minari” (2020), and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (U.S. 2022) and “The Squid Game” (Netflix), also “South Korean” found on TV.

Appreciation for “Shōgun” and its contribution to Asian film continues on Nov. 16, when the series’s co-writer and executive producer, Rachel Kondo, a Hawaii native, receives the Storyteller Spotlight Award at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival(PAAFF), which begins Thursday and runs through Nov. 16.

Programmed by Joseph Carranza and Arzhang Zafar, and coordinated by Kierra Mateo, PAAFF, opens and closes with documentaries and presents work from throughout Asia and the Pacific Islands, one of its objectives being to bring more Asian stories and faces to the screen.

Kondo, who attracted a large television audience with a program that was mostly in Japanese and introduced several Japanese actors to international viewers, earned at least eight awards for her script and production.

She will accept her PAAFF accolade and speak at 2 p.m. next Sunday at the Perelman Building of the Philadelphia Art Museum, 26th and Pennsylvania Avenue, in Philadelphia.

PAAFF opens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, with “Third Act,” a documentary by Tadashi Nakamura that is a tribute to his father, Robert A. Nakamura, often considered the “godfather” of Asian American film.

It will screen at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia.

The elder Nakamura was a photographer who was drawn to storytelling by his family’s incarceration in an internment camp for Japanese Americans during WWII.

He went on to produce works that chronicled the lives and experiences of Japanese Americans.

Tadashi Nakamura’s work includes his father’s late-life bout with Parkinson’s disease.

The festival closes with “The Rose: Come Back to Me,” Eugene Yi’s documentary about the South Korean indie band, The Rose, and its ascendance from a humble local group to global stardom.

It plays at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at the Perelman Building.

In between are:

“Inspector Pooja,” Deepak Rauniyar’s narrative film about a Nepalese detective dispatched to help solve a case in Kathmandu, and facing discrimination and obstruction as she tries to do her job, 6:30 Friday, Nov. 7 at the Barnes Museum.

“Mouse,” about Japanese swindlers who think they hit paydirt when they receive pen pal letters from a Japanese American teen who brags about being wealthy, 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Broad and Lombard streets, Philadelphia.

“Shutter Bird,” about two teenagers, a photographer and a juvenile delinquent, who want to escape their California farm town and attend colleges of their choosing, 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Asian Arts Institute, 3rd floor, 1219 Vine St., Philadelphia.

“About Face,” a documentary by former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jennifer Lin about challenges Asian dancers face as they pursue careers in the ballet. It features choreographer Phil Chen and ballerina Georgiana Pazcoguin, 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16 at the Philadelphia Art Museum, preceded by a performance by the Sun Mi dancers.

Shows at former Wanamaker’s

Wanamaker’s, its central court, Eagle and all, and world-class organ are finding renewed life in an Opera Philadelphia initiative that will bring several concerts, as diverse as they are enticing, to the 13th and Market streets landmark this month.

At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who has given some stunning performances at the Academy of Music, comes to Wanamaker’s for an evening of arias.

A bit of Grand Guignol come to the Grand Court at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10 when Wanamaker’s organist Peter Richard Conte returns to his instrument to accompany a screening of Rupert Julian’s 1925 silent version of “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Conte returns to the Grand Court and its organ at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14 for a free concert, a throwback to the great afternoons of music at Wanamaker’s.

Youth choirs from Philadelphia and New York meet in the Grand Court for a concert at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15 in a program called “City to City.”

Nathalie Joachim, a Haitian-American performer and composer with Grammy nomination sings from her works at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19.