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With Frank and John’s combination of hard-hitting no-holds-barred honesty, a _{knowledge of current and historical events, passion, common sense, and facts,} liberal arguments dissolve like an aspirin under Niagara Falls. That is why it wasn’t long after the dawn of talk radio that Frank and John became the most well known callers to talk radio --  nationally as well as locally.

Today, Frank is known as “the greatest caller in the history of talk radio,”  and John has been dubbed “talk radio’s one-man swat team.” The empathy that  listeners had with Frank and John, that is, someone finally speaking the unspoken truth and expressing what they had been feeling for so long, had listeners asking hosts: “Did Frank of Queens or John of Staten Island call yet?”  Of course, some hosts didn’t like the fact that listeners would be more interested in a caller than the host, and they like it even less now that the best-known callers to talk radio have become hosts!

At first, Frank and John only knew of each other but had never spoken directly.  Eventually, they were invited to appear as guests on a number of shows, including one of the founders of talk radio, Barry Farber. On one of these occasions with John as Barry Farber’s in-studio guest, Frank called the show giving John his first opportunity to speak directly with him and tell Frank he had been a fan of his for years. They stayed in close contact and became best of friends.

During the glory days of  talk radio in the early ‘90s, there was no limit to the number of shows Frank and John could call, but after Bill Clinton blamed the Oklahoma City bombing on talk radio in an attempt to silence many of his critics, things changed. Talk station managers and producers actually let Clinton’s opportunistic drivel intimidate them. Outspoken callers, and especially the most popular regular ones, including Frank and John, were suddenly given less time to express their opinions, passed over by the call screeners, and eventually, it was made clear that they were not welcome and banned from many stations.  In fact, callers in general had become an after thought. Talk shows began, at least it seemed, to be just for the host or hosts. They continued to take calls but it seemed that every caller was told “You have thirty seconds.” or “We’re up on a break, make it quick... etc.” The “silent hang up” became the standard to shorten calls and dispense with any real give and take. Real conversation all but disappeared.