Radio Career
Pierre Robert (pronounced "row-BEAR") began his radio career at 94.9 KSAN-FM, one of the country's first progressive rock stations, in his hometown of San Francisco. When KSAN changed its format to an Urban Country & Western style in the early 1980s Robert assumed the on-air name "Will Robertson" for a brief period of time because he was morally opposed to the new format.
Not long after, Robert joined a friend destined for school and moved to Philadelphia in Robert's 1970 Volkswagen van with bald tires named Minerva. He sent 93.3 WMMR a demo tape but was initially turned down. Pierre took a job at Essene (a health food store and vegetarian restaurant) until a fateful day at a palm reader's table on South Street in Philadelphia, PA where he was told "you're gonna get a letter very soon". This letter was waiting for him at home and was from Joe Bonnadonna (then WMMR's station manager) indicating there was an opening. Robert joined WMMR in 1981.
Robert has had many positions at WMMR, which include mornings, overnights and middays. His current time slot is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. though his program frequently runs longer (an anomaly explained as "Pierre Standard Time.")
Features of his show include the "Coffee Break Music Marathon", "Pierre's Planner" and the Work Force Blocks where he plays 3 to 4 song blocks of a particular artist based on listener requests.
Robert also features the "Vinyl Cut", where he plays a track from one of the many vinyl records in the WMMR archive.
He is also known to play all 18 minutes and 20 seconds of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" multiple times during his annual Thanksgiving Day broadcast.
Robert has admitted that he does not follow Philadelphia sports. He typically refers to all Philadelphia sports teams as "The Boys in Blue" regardless of the actual team colors.
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