RINewsToday guest of “The Kassman” podcast

by Nancy Thomas

How wonderful it was to hear from local veteran media host, Steve Kass two weeks ago. Kass hosted a popular radio show on WPRO for decades. And had a leadership role in the Big Brothers organization. I first met Steve when it was my volunteer task to take bouquets of pink tulips into the Brine Communications Center – home of all the Cumulus, then Citadel radio stations. I had come up with a great promotion idea to visit all the morning radio shows with bouquets of tulips, in exchange for a few promotional minutes to talk about “Hearts in Bloom”, the annual Valentine’s Day fundraiser for the American Heart Association.

Each studio visit was as different as night and day – from hippy-bippy top-40s at WPRO-FM to all work demeanor, LITE-105 – but by far the favorite was Steve – his was the serious news program where all the unexciting, but so important details could be given out and conversation about heart disease, and research, and raising money flowed easily as Steve knew, second-nature, how important those pink tulips really were.

So it was with delight that I received an email asking me for an interview on his podcast – The Kassman. “I’ve love to!” He had only recently discovered RINewsToday and seemed to be “a fan” – another delightful moment. And a great compliment coming from Steve.

For those who might not know his history here in RI, I’ll quote from his Kassman website:

“Steve Kass is a 30 year veteran of talk radio and TV. He started his radio career in 1958 as one of the early rock and roll disc jockeys. He also was recorded by Bobby Day for Class Records. The group was called Steve Kass and the Love Larks. They performed on TV and toured for a while. Kass sired twin boys in 1961 and decided to change careers He was an entrepreneur at heart and started several successful businesses. After selling his stores in 1979 he was asked to start a new radio and TV career. He was inducted into the RI Radio Hall of Fame in 2010. Now in 2020 he decided to start a Podcast. So here we are with Buzzsprout. He has interviewed thousands of guests, authors, celebrities, and politicos. Kass was labeled a Radio Legend by the Providence Journal. He will continue to do interviews with newsmakers and lend his acerbic comments to the days events.”

We had a delightful conversation – here is the Podcast, in full: