Pierre Robert, the voice of Philadelphia rock radio for 44 years as a DJ on 93.3 WMMR, died Wednesday. His agent confirmed his death to Rolling Stone. Robert was 70.
On the air from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Monday through Friday, Robert — pronounced Ro-bear — was part of the fabric of Philadelphia. He was a colorful, ubiquitous figure, known for his long hair and gray beard and the welcoming way he saluted callers: “Great day in the morning!” His daily time on the air was punctuated by hearty laughs, self-deprecating jokes about his disregard for time (he was perpetually late, on “Pierre Standard Time”) and wafer-thin sports knowledge (to Robert, every Philly team was “the boys in blue”), and a playlist that, even in the era of corporate radio, took musical risks.
Born William Pierre Robert in California in 1955, he cut his teeth on a San Francisco progressive rock station before ultimately heading east. In 1981, he joined WMMR in Philadelphia, where he worked until his death. Robert, true to his roots, was a passionate fan of the Grateful Dead, but he was an especially unwavering champion of hometown bands in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and the surrounding area, regardless of their level of fame. His playlists included locally grown artists like Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Hall & Oates, the Hooters, and his beloved Beru Revue.
“He didn’t care if you were the fad or the fashion of the moment. He just cared,” Jon Bon Jovi wrote in tribute to Robert on Instagram.
“What made him so great is that he truly cared about the music,” the band the Offspring wrote about Robert on social media. “He was first and foremost a music fan, and his listeners knew it, because they saw him in the pit with them. Just as we were honored to see him in the pit at our shows.”
Along with his noon “workforce blocks” — a cluster of songs by the same artist — Robert also schooled listeners on rock & roll history, especially of the local kind, in his “On This Day” segment. Deep diving into the concert calendar, he’d list off who was playing where in Philly on that particular date. It was a way of preserving the past and honoring those who came before, a hallmark of Robert’s broadcasting style.
The centerpiece of Robert’s on-air year came every December, with his annual Christmas Eve show. It was an hours-long marathon of holiday songs, both traditional and rock-based, peppered with copious amounts of Christmas-themed audio snippets. Jackie Gleason’s monologue in the yuletide episode of The Honeymooners was played regularly, along with Cheech & Chong’s “Santa Clause and His Old Lady,” and a corny bit known to loyal listeners as “The Jaguar.”
The throughline for Robert, however, was yet again the local. He played Beru Revue’s live Christmas medley; Philly songwriter Alan Mann’s “Christmas on the Block,” about blind children who decorate their home; and a montage of heartwarming lyrics welcoming former Delaware Valley residents back home.
For Philly listeners, Robert’s voice was just that: home.
“His voice helped the hungry and the homeless, and he did it because he cared. About you, about me, about making the world a little kinder wonder filled place to live,” Bon Jovi wrote. “His memory will live with us as it will with all of the people he touched. That man is Pierre Robert. The legendary DJ.”
