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WPHT-AM morning host Chris Stigall's connection to late-night TV host David Letterman

BEFORE HE entertained thoughts of doing talk radio for a living, WPHT-AM morning-drive DJ Chris Stigall spent the months after his junior year of college in New York City as an intern in the writing department of the "Late Show with David Letterman."

BEFORE HE entertained thoughts of doing talk radio for a living, WPHT-AM morning-drive DJ Chris Stigall spent the months after his junior year of college in New York City as an intern in the writing department of the "Late Show with David Letterman."

Sound glamorous and exciting? It isn't, suggested Philly's newest radio star. "Mostly, I did everything from coffee fetching to dry-cleaning running to script running," Stigall said.

Occasionally, the writers let Stigall, who by union fiat wasn't officially allowed to contribute material, to suggest ideas for Letterman's signature "Top 10" lists. Once he had an on-screen spot in a comedy vignette.

"It was during an economic downturn in '98," explained Stigall. "I was cast as a CBS page along with three gorgeous models. [The skit's premise was] they had to let one of us go."

Letterman, naturally gave the heave-ho to Stigall, who then delivered the bit's punch line: "But ['Letterman' bandleader] Paul Shaffer is my uncle!"

Although Stigall acknowledged the summer internship was a great experience, it wasn't a game-changer for him. He had fallen "madly in love" with his college sweetheart, now his wife, and wanted to return to Missouri to propose. And he'd seen enough of the TV industry to know it wasn't for him. "Television comedy is a big, bureaucratic operation," he said. "It's not as organic as radio. The more I learned about the workings of television, the less I liked it."

Still, his time at "Late Night" wasn't in vain. Stigall regularly writes comedy bits for his radio show. One recent effort was a skit that portrayed actress Sally Struthers doing a commercial for a charity called the Arlene Ackerman First Fund, a dig at the departed superintendent of the Philadelphia School District who left her post with a nearly $1 million buyout.

- Chuck Darrow