Radio Active Hardcover -

"There was a big, broad range to the life of Nelson Rockefeller. He was a high roller as much at ease with the Emperor of Japan and the Shah as he was with Meade Esposito of Brooklyn or any Yonkers politician," nonpareil broadcaster William O'Shaughnessy said on January 27, 1979. It was a fairly mild day in New York City and Westchester, home to Rocky and O'Shaughnessy's influential radio stations, WVOX and WVIP. The deep, numbing cold came from another source; Rockefeller, the "Great Squire of Pocantico Hills," had died of a heart attack the night before.

O'Shaughnessy's tribute to the dazzling New York governor and vice president--in the admiring voice of a personal friend--is representative of what readers will encounter in this rich, generous trove of interviews, commentaries on the great issues of the day, eulogies, endorsements, recollections of an evening and other poetic enthusiasms. O'Shaughnessy's fifth anthology, Radio Active paints a vivid portrait of American life, politics, history, entertainment, and much more from the author's perch in Westchester, the heart of the Eastern Establishment--and through his exquisite lens of probing but compassionate observation.

You'll get an insider's perspective--and more than a few "classified" tales--through masterful chronicles of the passions, pronouncements, deeds, and amusements of O'Shaughnessy's power-broker acquaintances and famous friends--from Governor Mario Cuomo, the Bush family, writer Philip Roth, and that provocative but altogether generous titan of the airwaves Rush Limbaugh, to priests, bishops and cardinals, as well as beloved local characters, the "Townies" of Westchester, a/k/a the "Golden Apple."

O'Shaughnessy may be a Rockefeller Republican--and friend and fan of President Donald Trump--but his decades-long "love affair" with Mario Cuomo and the Cuomo family is an important counterbalance endowing the author with a unique voice that rises above divisions and distinctions in today's roiling politics to embrace not the hard-line ideologies or mean-spirited partisanship, but instead exalt a life-affirming willingness to listen, and let his subjects be heard uncensored, their faults and felicities in full view.

Radio Active notably opens with powerful voices ardently defending the First Amendment and Free Speech--and from there O'Shaughnessy's passion and Irish lyricism, rolls out copiously in piece after magnetic piece.

Ultimately what makes Radio Active so powerful is the author's insights borne of keen perception and impressive and unique access--as well as his own rarefied status in the world of fellow communicators. His praise of others is ultimately an exact portrait of his own salutary station. To paraphrase his paean to Rockefeller: "There is a big, broad range to the life of William O'Shaughnessy. He is a high roller ... as much at ease with President Trump, Governor Andrew Cuomo and the archbishop of New York Timothy Cardinal Dolan as he is with any swashbuckling and "colorful" Corona restaurateur or powerful Bronx politico."