Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
The sudden death of beloved Philly rock radio host Pierre Robert Wednesday stunned listeners in Philadelphia and across the country, including his colleagues and friends at 93.3 WMMR. “This was categorically the absolute last thing we thought we’d be planning for,” Steve Morrison, the longtime co-host of WMMR’s Preston & Steve, said to open their show Thursday. Robert, 70, found dead in his Gladwyne home Wednesday. The cause of his death remains unknown, but no foul play is suspected, according to Caroline Beasley, the CEO of WMMR’s parent company, Beasley Media Group. “We’re all still in shock,” said P&S co-host Nick McIlwain. “Nobody saw this coming. He wasn’t ill… It’s just devastating” Preston & Steve devoted their entire show Thursday morning to remembering Robert, who shared his love of rock ‘n’ roll to Philadelphia listeners every day for nearly 45 years, an almost unfathomable tenure in the current age of corporate ownership of radio. “The man has been an absolute constant in this city, for so many people,” Preston Elliot said. “We’re going to cry and laugh today.” Elliot said Robert didn’t show up Wednesday for their crossover show, something not that unusual for the perpetually late radio host (”We were students of Pierre standard time,” Morrison noted). But as the clock neared noon, the station sent a producer to Robert’s home, where his car was still parked in the driveway. A welfare check by police revealed the worst. “Everything seemed to be natural,” Elliot said. “It just appears he passed overnight.” Preston & Steve is live until 10:30 a.m. You can listen to the entire crew reminisce about Robert here: All across the music world, Robert was remembered as a gentle soul who had an infectious love of music, everything from Crosby, Stills & Nash to Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” to “Java” by trumpeter Al Hirt. “Pierre had nothing if not an eclectic taste in music,” Morrison said, “and that was the fabric of his broadcast style.” “He admired local artists and tomorrows rising stars,” Jon Bon Jovi wrote on social media Wednesday. “This man was as curious as he was clever, he was a real musicologist. He knew your influence and your influences.” Sometimes being a radio jockey can be an isolating experience, cutting a host off from the musical world they’re trying to share. Bon Jovi said that was’t the case with Robert, whom he descried as “a loyal friend” and someone who “just cared” about other people. “His voice helped the hungry and the homeless, and he did it because he cared,” Bon Jovi said. “The station was lucky to have him on the air. We were all lucky to have him as a guide to his musical galaxy. And I was lucky to have him as a friend.” Robert was also frequently spotted at local performances. Over the weekend, he attended a show at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside by the Philly rock band the Hooters, the band that was playing when he had his first interview with WMMR back in 1981. “My wife, Dallyn, and I, we’re like brother and sister with him,” Hooters drummer David Uosikkinen told The Inquirer. “It’s a tough one. He was a beautiful soul. I never met anyone like him.” During a performance at the Xfinity Mobile Arena Wednesday night, singer Bryan Adams dedicated his song “Heaven” to Robert. Adams told fans he was supposed to do an interview with Robert Wednesday afternoon over Zoom, only to find out later why he never showed. One of Robert’s final posts social media post came on Sunday, a simple photo of the radio host quietly reading a book outdoors while everyone else was watching the Eagles. Robert loved everything about his adopted city (he was a Northern California native and first came to Philly because of a relationship that didn’t work out), but he was never a sports fans and jokingly referred to every team as “The Boys in Blue.” “Sunday afternoon in Philly in my beloved Rittenhouse Square, with a great book, a cup of La Colombe, watching the world lazily drift by,” Robert wrote, “pretty close to perfection!”
