Laura Curran to host new WABC radio show

Laura Curran, the former Nassau County executive who launched a podcast after her time in office, will expand her media portfolio this Sunday with a radio show on WABC/770 AM, the station said Thursday. 

It will share the same name as the podcast — "Cut to the Chase with Laura Curran," which is distributed by WABC owner Red Apple Media — and many of the same topics, although there will be key differences, she said in an interview. Foremost, the 4 p.m. hourlong show will be live, and she'll also take listener questions.

"I'll take the same approach" as the podcast and "talk to people in different fields — politics, current affairs, culture, and the stuff going on in our culture right now." The two-guest format will be "a conversation," Curran said. "A lot of media is filled with people talking and opposing [one another] but I prefer unpacking things." 

Sunday's hour will focus on "this contretemps within the GOP and a little bit within the Democrats' [ranks] about the war in Ukraine." Among the first guests will be John "JP" Parise, co-host of WBAB/102.3 FM's long-running morning show, "Roger & JP.'' "I called in all the time over a couple of months during COVID and we built up a rapport. He's good at making people feel good on the radio."

On Sunday's show, he'll offer advice on how to host a radio show but "I want him to surprise me. I do have a feeling he'll say a little self-deprecation" goes a long way. 

Curran, 55 and a mother of three who lives in Baldwin, spent much of her career as a reporter for the Daily News and New York Post, and later ran for county executive, winning in 2017. She lost her race against Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman in 2021. 

WABC's talk show lineup tilts conservative, while "as a Democrat, I hope to bring a slightly different perspective but also common sense," which she calls "a natural for me." 

Meanwhile, the podcast — which began last June and now averages about 40,000 listeners, she says — will continue. "I'm enjoying getting back to my roots in journalism and media."