Subscriber Services |

Inqlings: WHAT-AM's Missy Stein fired from her morning program

Sculptor Zenos Frudakis with his bust of Constantine Papadakis.

By Michael Klein, Inquirer Columnist

Posted: July 27, 2010

Talk-show host Missy Stein has publicly battled cancer, so she says a little thing like getting fired from her radio show after eight months is not a huge deal.

After her one-hour morning program Monday on WHAT-AM (1340), Stein was told that she was being let go.

Station management did not my return calls for explanation, and she said she was not sure of the reason. Stein's program, which followed Mike Bowe and Elaine Soncini's show (6 to 9 a.m.), was a curious interlude in the station's lineup of standards music.

WHAT's schedule lists music from 9 a.m. to noon. It's possible that management wants to hire one music personality for that block, as it never replaced Bill Webber, who hosted 10 a.m. to noon until his death in May.

"Onward and upward," said Stein.

Also in the radio world: Sports-talk station 97.5 The Fanatic has announced that it has picked up Rutgers football, joining WOR in New York City and WCTC in New Brunswick. The station previously had carried a few games here and there.

Papadakis honored in Greece

Constantine Papadakis, the Drexel president who died in April 2009, has been remembered in his birthplace, Meskla, on the Greek island of Crete. Philly sculptor Zenos Frudakis, who shares Papadakis' Cretan heritage, created a life-size bronze bust of the educator, and it was dedicated on Saturday in a ceremony attended by his widow, Eliana, and their daughter, Maria. The town square has been dedicated in his name.

" 'Taki' posed in his home for the bust up until about three weeks before he passed away," Frudakis says. "He in fact handed me a suit and said, 'Put me in this suit, and make sure you include the Drexel pin on my lapel.' "

And so it is.

Comedy honors

Philadelphia Improv Theater's three resident companies (Activity Book, Fletcher, and King Friday) all have prime-time bookings at this weekend's Del Close Marathon in New York, billed as the largest improv-comedy festival in the world. Executive director Greg Maughan will do a middle-of-the-night show (as the main venue runs 24 hours a day for the weekend) at 4:30 a.m. Sunday.

Briefly noted

Center City's Sylvia Kauders turns up at 11 p.m. Tuesday on the FX comedy Louie. Kauders, an actress of a certain age, uses a deadly weapon - her pocketbook - to chase two thugs seeking to rob a grocery.

Local sports bar Chickie's & Pete's is known to exercise legal diligence in protecting its trademark on the term Crab Fries. The Northern Liberties bar P.Y.T. serves spiced fries billed as Totally Not Crab Fries™, so there can be no confusion.

Foreign relations

The Alliance Française de Philadelphie is not prejudiced when it comes to its fall classes on the campus of Bryn Mawr College. They're held in English House.

Contact columnist Michael Klein at mklein@phillynews.com. Follow his blog at http://go.philly.com/insider and on Twitter @phillyinsider.