New York radio veteran Lisa G among more WOR/710 AM staff cuts

Several prominent news anchors and reporters at WOR/710 AM have been let go as part of companywide layoffs at iHeartRadio, including Woodmere native Lisa Glasberg — best known by her radio name Lisa G — and Sara Lee Kessler, a TV anchor with WOR/9 from 1976 to 1994, who joined the radio station as an anchor in 2013. Jeff McKinney — the afternoon drive anchor who briefly achieved internet fame a decade ago as "Cubicle Guy" — was also part of the layoffs.

Both McKinney and Glasberg confirmed their departure from the station; Kessler could not be reached for comment.  

"I was laid off and told it's due to restructuring," McKinney said in a brief phone interview. "This was in the midst of a large group of [iHeart] layoffs so it was very broad. But they've been very good to me for the 11-and-three-quarter years I've been there. I simply accepted that and I'm moving on."

"They had layoffs throughout the entire company, but all I can speak to is my news division," Glasberg said, who added that all three were part of a small news unit at iHeart's West 55th Street studios which has a particularly large footprint.

Besides WOR, this unit — 24/7 News — serves nearly 900 of the company's owned stations around the country, filing news reports from New York City, New Jersey and Long Island. Glasberg worked days 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as a reporter and filled in as afternoon host. She said four on-air reporters and anchors were left at 24/7.

A pair of prominent morning hosts — Len Berman and Michael Riedel — were also let go last week.

Over a couple decades, Lisa G was one of New York radio's best-known personalities. Along with former MTV host Ed Lover and Westbury native Dr. Dre, she was host of New York's first hip-hop morning show on WQHT/97.1 FM — "Ed, Lisa and Dre" on "Hot 97" — during the '90s. In the mid-2000s she became a charter member of "Howard 100 News," before Howard Stern moved from terrestrial radio to Sirius in 2006. After a decade with Stern, she joined WOR in 2015. The Hewlett High School and Hofstra University graduate launched her career at WBAB.

"We'll see what the next chapter brings," she said, but "I still feel I have a lot more to give, and I'm proud of the blueprint I created, especially in hip-hop radio with the 'Hot 97' morning show. To this day, stations are still copying what we put into place — two guys and a girl talking not only about music, but community and what's happening on the streets, and bringing a sense of humor and having fun."

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, McKinney, 70, spent a long career in radio, including stops at top stations in Los Angeles and Chicago before joining WOR in 2012. Fame — admittedly fleeting — arrived on July 23, 2013, during an Anthony Weiner news conference to address new allegations of "sexting." During the conference, McKinney's head popped up from behind an office cubicle wall that Weiner was standing in front of.

A world-famous meme was born: "Cubicle Guy."

"I got to that news conference late and ended up sitting in the cubicle behind and to the left of Weiner and his wife, Huma Abedin," said McKinney. "I wanted to see her reaction to him, so periodically I'd stand up from behind the cubicle and had no idea I was being caught by cameras. It later became a 'my phone blew up' type of thing [but] both my sons were hugely in favor" of the meme.