6 Questions: Tara Granahan on what makes a good talk show host, her career path, and Buddy Cianci

April 14, 2017 10:13 am

By: John DeLuca

Email: news@abc6.com

Twitter: @ABC6

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Tara Granahan was recently named to the permanent 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. spot on WPRO-AM.

She’s the only woman currently on talk radio in Rhode Island, and one of only four on the air here over the last thirty-plus years.

J: Off the top of my head, I was trying to think: there’s you, Arlene, Mary Ann Sorrentino and Helen Glover?

T: That’s pretty much all I can think of.

J: Do you feel any extra burden or sense of responsibility because there are so few women?

T: Yeah, there’s a sense of responsibility. I don’t think I get treated any differently. Our audience loves you, sometimes they hate you, and then they love to hate and they’re very passionate. And if they want to give it to you, they’ll give it to you, and you give a little bit back that but it took me a little while to get used to.

J: Did Arlene give you any advice? Did she say “Tara…you know’.

T: You know, she just said, she calls me Doll, and she just said, enjoy the ride. She was incredibly supportive and she and Mary Ann have both said, you know, boy, a female in this business, it’s tough to do and hang on to and any longevity is tough to hang on to.

J: Is this something you saw yourself doing? You’re back in high school or college or whatever: ‘I’m gonna be a radio talk show host on WPRO’, did you ever see this coming?

T: Did I see myself? Definitely in college I saw myself in broadcasting, sure. And I did the years at Channel 6 and I did a little stint at a radio station when I first got out of college.

I actually went in there and did morning rip and read at that little radio station. The disc jockey didn’t show up a couple of times. I had to run in and play the music, call my Dad at like 5 in the morning, ‘how do I do this?’So it kinda has all come full circle.

J: What makes a good talk show host? You don’t know who these people are, what they’re getting back. Why are they donating all of this money?

T: Oh, my gosh…ahh sincerity I think. I think you need to give people what they want. I don’t think you have to beat them up and be true to who you are.

J: Are there parts of your day when you think of, I think of Buddy or I miss Buddy. I miss him all the time.

T: I always think he’s gonna walk in the door in the studio and say ‘move over.’ I get a lot of lovely sentiment from our WPRO audience about Buddy, all the time. He is not forgotten for sure.