Bill O'Reilly to host talk show on WABC radio

WABC/770 AM talk show "Common Sense with Bill O'Reilly," featuring the former Fox News commentator, will debut Monday night. The new program, announced Sunday by WABC owner John Catsimatidis during an interview with O'Reilly on his show, "The Cats Roundtable," will air 10 p.m. weeknights.

"It's really a pleasure to be on WABC [and] in fact when I was growing up in Levittown I could never envision I'd be on WABC," O'Reilly, 71, told Catsimatidis. The show, O'Reilly said, will largely be New York-specific, and "will try to put into perspective what's happening in the metropolitan area and the city. I think I know the city as well as any human being on the planet."

"The Far Left," he added,"has seized control of the Democratic Party [and] it's horrifying what's happening on the streets of New York because of [Mayor Bill] de Blasio and [Gov. Andrew M.] Cuomo. I'll get into that."

CNBC.com — which first reported O'Reilly's return to broadcast radio after a decadelong absence, other than the syndicated daily "O'Reilly Updates" which are already carried by WABC — called the new show "the latest stage of O’Reilly’s attempted comeback since he left Fox News" in 2017 in the wake of sexual harassment accusations leveled by several former Fox News female employees.

One of those accusers, Juliet Huddy, who is co-host with Curtis Sliwa of the midday WABC show, "Curtis & Juliet," tweeted last month, "Company Christmas party should be a real zinger this year," according to the CNBC report.

O'Reilly returned to TV in early June when his website series, "No Spin News," began airing on a so-called over-the-top network called the First. ("OTT" means a service that goes directly to viewers over the internet).

WABC — purchased by Gristedes founder and conservative commentator Catsimatidis in 2019 for $12.5 million — transitioned from music to talk in 1982, and into conservative talk when Bob Grant joined the lineup in 1984.