Hundreds flood Rittenhouse Square to remember beloved WMMR host Pierre Robert
“Each and every one of you are Pierre Robert!” Ryan Shuttleworth, Robert’s producer at WMMR, told the crowd of music lovers Sunday.
The sudden loss of longtime 93.3 WMMR host Pierre Robert continues to be felt throughout the Philadelphia region and across the globe.
Hundreds of fans and admirers flocked to Rittenhouse Square — one of Robert’s favorite spots in Philadelphia — to remember the radio icon Sunday.
Among the fans and followers who showed up to honor Robert were some who knew him best, including WXPN host Jim McGuinn, current B101 host and former Preston & Steve cohost Kathy Romano, WMGK’s Matt Cord, and WMMR staffers Sara Parker, Nick McIlwain, and Marisa Magnatta.
Casey Fosbenner, the longtime executive producer of Preston & Steve known to listeners as “Casey Boy,” took the microphone reluctantly — “My plan was to sit on a park bench and have a cup of coffee” — and offered a touching tribute to his former colleague.
“What we can do to honor Pierre Robert is live your lives the way he would want you live your life,” Fosbenner told the crowd. “Pay it forward, every single day.”
“Each and every one of you are Pierre Robert!” said Ryan Shuttleworth, Robert’s producer at WMMR. “We continue forward with love, and kindness, and rock, and don’t forget the roll!”
Mostly (and appropriately) it was music flowing through the speakers in Rittenhouse Square on Sunday, including tunes from U2, John Lennon, the Grateful Dead, and The Hooters, who were onstage at the long-gone Chestnut Cabaret back in 1981 when Robert had his first interview with WMMR.
Just days before he died, Robert introduced The Hooters at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, which remembered him as “a great friend and ally” to Philadelphia and the music world.
“He was truly irreplaceable and his passing will leave a big hole especially in the local music community,” Hooters singer and cofounder Rob Hyman told The Inquirer. “Pierre was that ‘good citizen’ who will be missed by all.”
Robert, 70, was found dead in his Gladwyne home Wednesday after a producer went to check on the beloved host after missing his show. While the details of what happened have not been released, no foul play is suspected, according to Caroline Beasley, the CEO of WMMR’s parent company, Beasley Media Group.
“It just appears he passed overnight,” Preston & Steve cohost Preston Elliot said on the air Thursday.
Tributes have continued to pour in. Robert was featured on CBS Sunday Morning’s “in memoriam” segment, along with former KYW Newsradio anchor Harry Donahue, who also passed away last week.
Across the music world, everyone from Jon Bon Jovi to Alice Cooper to Billy Idol shared touching messages and funny stories involving Robert.
The rock band The Offspring recalled a bus ride from Philadelphia to New York where they “drank into the wee hours” with the former WMMR host, while Collective Soul’s Ed Roland choked up as he called Robert “the truest gentleman I or the band” ever met, adding he was “just that dude.”
“He’s seen it all, he’s done it all, and yet here he’s interested in you. And you feel that,” Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan said of Robert during an interview on Preston & Steve last week. “I’ve done thousands of interviews. I could have sat with him all day.”
Correction: The radio station Matt Cord works has been updated. He works at WMGK-FM.