O’Shaughnessy Still Making ‘Raves’

By Tom Deignan

NOT many people can say they have been praised by the staid Dan Rather and the raunchy Howard Stern, the liberal saint Mario Cuomo and Republican stalwarts such as ex-president George Bush.

But Westchester radio titan William O’Shaugh-nessy has made such diverse friends over his 40-plus years in the business.

“I was always attracted to broadcasting and politics,” O’Shaughnessy told the Irish Voice this week.

Most recently as president of Whitney Radio and editorial director of WVOX and WRTN in Westchester, O’Shaugh-nessy has brought those passions together, all the while rubbing elbows with the elite of East Coast politics, publishing and society.

That’s plainly evident in O’Shaughnessy’s fat new book More Riffs, Rants and Raves (Fordham University Press), his latest collection of editorials, interviews, speeches, remembrances and more.

To talk to O’Shaugh-nessy – or read Riffs, Rants and Raves – is to stroll through New York and America over the past 40 years, from the assassination of JFK to 9/11.

There are references along the way to Toots Shor and “21” and great old machine politicians.

There are profiles and elegies to memorable Irish New Yorkers, from Hugh Doyle to Francis Cardinal Spellman, and great interviews with Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, Mary Higgins Clark and more. 

This is all a long way from Elmira, New York, where O’Shaughnessy was born.

“My father was a black-haired Irishman, a good looking guy from Elmira, New York,” O’Shaugh-nessy says, adding that his uncles did hard railroad work in central New York state.

“My father always talked to me about Alfred Emanuel Smith and Jimmy Walker and James Farley,” he adds, recalling a trinity of famed New York Irish pols.

But O’Shaughnessy does not merely wallow in the past. He was active on the presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush, and counts himself a supporter of the current president.

“I’m voting for Bush, you can be sure about that,” O’Shaughnessy declares. Despite what some say are misgivings about the course of the conflict in Iraq, O’Shaughnessy says: “Bush is the right man for right now.”

And yet, O’Shaugh-nessy actually believes Bush should consider tapping Mario Cuomo as his running mate.

As many of his listeners know, O’Shaughnessy has a love for the former New York governor who was defeated by George Pataki in 1994.

All of this shows that O’Shaughnessy’s politics are, if nothing else, complicated. He is a proud Republican, but dislikes the drift away from the first amendment he sees in the land right now.

O’Shaughnessy, thus, identifies with what has always been called the “Rockefeller Repub-lican” wing of the GOP, a more moderate, East Coast version, distinct from what O’Shaugh-nessy calls the “yahoo” wing.

Nelson A. Rockefeller – former New York governor and U.S. Vice President – is perhaps more revered by O’Shaughnessy than even Cuomo. Rockefeller even once tried to convince O’Shaughnessy to run for Congress.

But instead O’Shaugh-nessy stayed in radio and raised a family of four children with his beloved wife Nancy Curry O’Shaugh-nessy.

These days, O’Shaugh-nessy fears that “Not enough men and women of quality will submit to the rigors of public service and public life.”

The political life is so costly and demanding that he worries future Cuomos and Rocke-fellers and Kennedys – O’Shaughnessy’s heroes – will be hard to come by.

But that does not dampen O’Shaughnessy’s enthusiasm for his work and his passionate opinions.

“I’m 66 years old with a pacemaker,” he says. But he’s in his office every day devouring stacks of newspapers and assessing the political scene. That is when he’s not passing on juicy tid bits of gossip to Page Six of The New York Post.

So, we can debate whether or not they make politicians like they used to. But they certainly don’t seem to make broadcasters with the vast tastes and intricate politics of William O’Shaughnessy. In these days of partisan bickering – make that bellowing – O’Shaughnessy remains as comfortable chatting with crooners like Tony Bennett and Bobby Short as he is dishing with ink-stained wretches and dedicated Republicans and Democrats.

Until someone similar comes along, O’Shaughnessy will remain in a class by himself.

Contact Sidewalks at tdeignan@irishvoice.com .