Local Note: WMMR’s Pierre Robert Found Dead at 70

Nick Vadala, reporting for the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Longtime WMMR-FM host Pierre Robert was found dead in his home Wednesday. He was 70.

Robert’s surname, I must point out, rhymes with Pierre (and with Colbert).

A native of Northern California, Robert joined WMMR as an on-air host in 1981. He arrived in the city after his previous station, San Francisco’s KSAN, switched to an Urban Cowboy format, prompting him to make the cross-country drive to Philadelphia in a Volkswagen van. “I came because of a relationship,” he told The Inquirer last year. “I was in love. The love part didn’t work out, but the job part did.”

As a newly minted Philadelphian, Robert began working at a local health food store as he interviewed for radio jobs around town, but found little luck initially. One day, while dining at Astral Plane, a long-closed restaurant formerly on Lombard Street, he introduced himself to WMMR program director Joe Bonnadonna and announcer Charlie Kendall, and despite getting on well with the pair, he learned there were no openings at the station.

But weeks later, he received a letter from Bonnadonna, and interviewed for a job at the station during a concert from Philly rock band The Hooters at the Chestnut Cabaret. He soon started working in the station’s music library and office making $3.50 an hour, and later began appearing on the air.

There’s no more Philadelphia a Philadelphia origin story than a radio host interviewing for his job during a Hooters concert at the Chestnut Cabaret — and then going on to stay at the same station for 44 years. Impossible for me to overstate just how much Robert’s voice was the voice of music for me and my entire friend group growing up and even through college. You tuned the dial to 93.3 FM and left it there.

My favorite bit of his was an obscure one, a character named Reginald the Butler. Robert always had Reginald on during the holidays, while spinning Christmas rock songs. But here’s a classic segment from 1988 with Robert and Reginald interviewing David Lee Roth, who was then on a solo tour and about to play the Spectrum.

Rest in peace, my fellow citizen.

★ Wednesday, 29 October 2025