Bob Grant, New York conservative talk show host, dies at 84

Bob Grant, a longtime conservative radio talk show host in New York, has died. He was 84-years-old.

Grant died on Tuesday at his Hilllsborough, New Jersey home after a short illness, WABC said, reports The Associated Press.

He was born in Chicago, where he began his radio career at WBBM. Grant worked in Los Angeles, then in New York, where his career launched in 1970 at WMCA. In 1984, he gained an even wider audience when he moved to WABC for its afternoon show, reports The New York Daily News.

WABC fired Grant in 1996 for comments about the death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and moved to WOR, where he stayed until 2007. WABC then hired him back and he worked there until he became ill recently.

Grant kept his listeners entertained, never shying away from controversial topics, and developed a style that has influenced many of today’s top conservative radio hosts.

“I tried to learn the ingredients of his 'secret sauce' and decided that Bob was a hit because he was brash, in-your-face, highly curious, truth-seeking, aggressively anti-PC and, best of all, unpredictable,” John Minnelli, who worked with Grant at WABC as his program director, told the Daily News. “He never obsessed with politics — and absolutely not with partisan politics.”

Grant is survived by his two sons and two daughters.