Preston and Steve - History

History

Preston Elliot, Steve Morrison and Marilyn Russell were among a group of radio personalities introduced to the Philadelphia market through the now defunct radio station WDRE. With several of their WDRE co-workers, they departed the station for Y100 in 1997 when WDRE changed format. After four successful years of (then known as) The Y100 Morning Show with Preston, Marilyn, and Steve, Marilyn Russell left the morning show on March 1, 2002 for family reasons. She has worked part time on many stations in the Philadelphia area since then, including WMGK, and SoJo 104.9, WYSP, and joined morning personality Dave Cruise as co-host on "The BENFM Morning Show on 95.7 in 2007.

WPLY's owner, Dan Lerner, one of the last independent owners in the Philadelphia market, sold the station to Radio One, a national broadcasting corporation, in 2001. Coincidentally, Radio One was the same group that bought Preston, Marilyn & Steve's previous radio station 103.9 WDRE. Radio One and Preston and Steve did not successfully negotiate a new contract, and the personalities agreed to a deal with local broadcasting group Greater Media. Preston and Steve's contract with Radio One expired on February 24, 2005 and Y100 changed format and became WPHI "The Beat" at 11:50 p.m. EDT that same day.

A legal battle between Radio One and Preston and Steve over their non-compete clause was resolved by a ruling that they were no longer in competition with WPLY. Their new show officially debuted on the air on Monday, May 23, 2005.