December 22, 2025 • 14 mins
Former Republican candidate for Mayor of NYC and radio host Curtis Sliwa makes his return to the radio airwaves on 710 WOR, starting today, filling in for Mark Simone until January 2, 2026! Curtis discusses how he is spending his time after losing the mayoral race to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. The Guardian Angels, Sliwa’s organization that helps the homeless, fights crime, and more, continues to be active in NYC and beyond. Curtis also breaks down recent events at his former radio station, which happens to be 710 WOR’s direct competitor.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Now the Guardian Angel of talk radio is here.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Curtis Leewah guest host the Mark Simone Show on seven
to ten.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Woor foul.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is an early Christmas present for me to be
back on talk radio and the station that I listened
to all the time now war and to be substituting
for the best talk show hosts in all of New
York City, March Simon. Nobody's been doing it longer, and
nobody's been doing it better. I worked with March Simon
(00:44):
over at WABC, and then he was a competitor against me.
So is nobody who knows talk radio better than March Simon.
So it's a real honor to be able to come
in and substitute for this life. And having met with
Tom Cutty, who's the program director who I knew at WPLJ.
(01:07):
I remember what happened when Cumulus, who owned a cluster
of stations, they had decided that they wanted to get
out of the business in New York. That made no
sense to me, and they turned off the lights on
the most iconic FM.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Station with the call letters WPLJ.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Couldn't believe that, and Tom then obviously was picked up
by wor has been a great program director here and
I've had an opportunity to sample all of the hosts
and presenters here at WOOR from Larry Menty in the
Morning was so kind to me during the election cycle
(01:45):
to obviously mark them all my biggest fan. Both in
twenty twenty one when I ran from mayor against Eric Adams,
and I did warn you, didn't I say, is he
that he would be a crook and there would be chaos,
But nobody wanted to listen. Everybody said to me, you
were right, we should have listened. Yeah, you should have listened.
And we suffered, and as a result of his massive failure,
(02:09):
we ended up with Johann Mondami. We're gonna get into
all of that and a lot of the background that
went into clearly what is the most historic press I said,
president setting election that has ever taken place in the
City of New York for mayor. It took on international, national, regional,
and local ramifications for a number of reasons. We're going
(02:31):
to explore all of that, and I'm going to dig
up the bones, because nobody knows where the bones are
buried more than courteously, and I will dig them up
and I will expose a lot of folks and what
they did during this election cycle to prevent a fair
square election in which people could go into the voting
(02:54):
booths and choose candidates based on the issues. On this
desire to have you constantly play dropout, dropout, drop out,
drop out.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
We're going to get into all of that.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And as you heard at the top of the news hour,
iHeart again this powerful owner of so many radio stations
in the nation to be able to broadcast here as
I have from many of the different programs both on
FM and AM over the years as a guest, and
to hear Larry the news Guy talk about where I
will be at two o'clock this afternoon. It is a
(03:31):
story that the local officials in New York City want
to go away.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It is the.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Most horrific case that has ever occurred, a tragedy, a crime,
an act of.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Barbaric proportion.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And in all my years of writing, the subways, and
I've been riding the subway since I was five years
old by myself nineteen fifty nine, took my first ride
on the L train. L stood for Lousey Line, Rockaway Parkway,
last stop in Kenarsi, where I was raised and I've
been riding ever since. It'll be forty seven years in
February since I started the Guardian Angels to protect people
(04:15):
both in the subways and streets here, across the nation
and in thirteen countries around the world, and increasingly having
to come to the aid of women like the brin
and Kowam. Yeah, the Brina Kowam was homeless, emotionally disturbed,
like so many who live in the subways, and she
(04:35):
was sent on fire by that illegal alien, Sebastian Zepeta
that we were housing in a homeless shelter at great
expense in East New York Samaritan House. I thought they
took care of people with drug issues, but they were
making a lot of money at our taxpayer's expense. And
he was a pyromaniac. We're going to go into all
of those details, but this is what I.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Do on a race basis.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Since the moment that I lost the election, I haven't
missed the beat. I've been down in the subways and
in the streets and taking care of those poor lost souls,
the homeless, the emotionally disturbed, who shouldn't be there, and
yet they live there. They reside there, no matter who
the mayor was, whether it was Comrade Bildeblasio, the part
(05:21):
time mayor of the Dope from Park Slope, along with
his grift of wife Charline. We'll talk about that later on,
because he owes US one and a half billion dollars
money that was taken for a program called Thrive that
was supposed to help the emotionally disturb. I don't ever
remember one person having been helped, and then by Eric
(05:44):
Adams Swagerman.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
With no plan.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
By the way, where is he? What country is Eric Adams?
The cor up one in today? Sort of like when
Matt Lower used to do the morning show at NBC.
You know what country is Matt Lwer in?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Today?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
This guy is, I mean, a grifter like you can't believe,
and oo far soon he will be gone. But I
also want to talk about what happened behind the scenes,
and I'm doing it on a radio station Wor of
which I made my very first appearance back in nineteen
(06:21):
seventy one, having been named the newspaper Boy of the Year,
having delivered the daily news like so many people did,
and growing up saved five people in a burning building
at that time that got the attention of then President
Richard Nixon, got an award in the White House, and
then my very first interview upon my return to New
(06:42):
York City was at fourteen forty Broadway, the mid morning
show hosted by Arlene Francis. Boy, I've had the bug
ever since talking on radio. So actually WOOR provided me
my baptism.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
In radio with my very first interview.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
As they escorted me around, I look at all the
various studios, the news room that had many men and
women that were processing the news back then, and it's
one of the most iconic symbols of talk radio in
the nation. With only three call letters WR everybody else right,
(07:21):
it's four like where I was from where I spent
most of my life in talk radio WABC close to
thirty years. There were some other stations in between. You
know how long you've been in talk radio by the
number of radio stations that you've worked at. But WABC
was the bulk of my time there. In all different
(07:42):
time slots. Morning Drive, it was Angels in the Morning
with my wife Lisa at that time. Then there was
a spot morning Drive with Ron Koby, whose Mommy was
a comedy for many years. I did mid mornings, I
did overnights, I did weekends. I was always available twenty
four to seven, three sixty five, so that the acronym
(08:04):
stood for WABC, always broadcasting Curtis and so going into
this election cycle, early on, I made it very clear
that I would seek the Republican nomination a run for
mayor again, as I did in twenty twenty one. By
the way, with no help from WABC back then. None
people should know that the orders came from management and
(08:28):
ownership that you were not to talk about Curtis Leewel
when he was running for mayor. In fact, you were
not to interview Curtis Lee were back in twenty twenty one,
there was a.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Big sign in the newsroom.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I mean, let's just say. There was no excuse for that.
And I wasn't supported by anybody. They were at WABC
running for mayor. Although they weren't insulting, they weren't personally
attacking me. The owner and operator John Katchamatidis was supporting
Eric Adams. Everyone was under the IMPRESSI that he was
(09:00):
supporting me, because he would say, oh, with family here, Curtis,
he knows more about the city than everyone else.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
And let's face it, that's true.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Whether you like my politics or not, whether you like
my style or not, there's nobody who knows more about
the City of New York to me. But as it
goes from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty five, the
drum beat for me to drop out, and boy was
a steady drum beat from June. Excuse me, make that
(09:32):
just about July fourth, on.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Our nation's birthday.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I remember, I was in Travis Staten Island, as I
am every year with the Guardian Angels, the longest running
Fourth of July parade in the nation. Eric Adams was
out there because he had been reborn, resurrected with the
failure of Andrew Cuomo, who threw in the tow when
(09:57):
losing convincingly to Zorhan Mondami. Just give you an idea.
On March first, when Andrew cmo announced that he was
running for Maya for the Democratic nomination, he was clocking
at forty percent in the polls. Zorhan Mandami was dead
last in the Democratic primary at one percent. By June
twenty fourth, Zoron Mondami had beat him by thirteen percent
(10:19):
because Andrew Cuomo mailed it in didn't run any kind
of a campaign, and so they resurrected Eric Adams, who
chose not to run. And this guy, right out of
the box, brought all the crooks back into the house
of Eric Adams and they were getting wind dined in
pocket lined by.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
The real estate interests.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And he crashed and burned and dropped out in September
and then boy died. They ratchet it up the masters
of the universe, the billionaires. John Casimatidis, owner and operator
who was the the maestro of the orchestra that was
constantly banging a drum that critically had to drop out,
(11:00):
drop out for the good of the city.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
And I remember he.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Was saying, Oh, I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna sell my businesses.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I'm down in Florida.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
The moment Zohan Mandami was announced the winner on November fourth,
all of a sudden he would saying, oh, we got
to work with the mayor.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Oh for the good of the city.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Because these billionaires, along with Ackman and others, made it
seem like they would be fear fright, hysteria, and all
they did was hype that every day.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
But you see, they always back channel. They always have
a backdoor.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
They always have a way to survive, whereas the working
class people that I represented in this election, because of
the fear in the fright, they had no options. So
it was an election cycle dominated by the masters of
the universe. Donald Trump, the President, was no friend of mine.
He went out of his way to disparage me on
(11:53):
a regular basis. Talked about was Curtis a Republican? Is
he is he really? Is he ready for prime time?
And what about all those cats he and his wife
Nancy have rescued and kept from being euthanized in shelters.
So many people out there who do that for dogs
and cats. He disparaged really a nation of dog and
(12:16):
cat lovers, But he went out of his way to
disparage me, along with Elin Musk and Steve Miller and
so many of the other masters of the universe and
the billionaires that he came down in the last few
weeks with twenty million dollars spent in advertising, the word
was a vote for Sliwa is a vote for Joran Mandami,
(12:36):
vote for Andrew evilized Coomo, a guy responsible for the
deaths of fifteen thousand elderly people.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
At the height of the.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Pandemic and the lockdown, and a man was still paying
his victims for sexual harassment, thirteen of them who worked
for him, including a female state trooper, and the bill
will probably get up to sixty million dollars. And once again,
you know, whenever you speak to Eric Adams, I'm not guilty.
(13:06):
I didn't do anything wrong. Andrew Cuomo, I didn't do
anything wrong. Donald Trump, I didn't do anything wrong. Nobody
does anything wrong. I'm somebody who is a lot different
when I do things wrong. When I mess up, I
fess up. And I certainly had a lot of opportunities
in my life.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
To do that. But this is an opportunity for all
of you to be hurt. In the words my.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Great mentor Bob Grant, who actually was broadcasting here at
w OR on two separate occasions, which we'll get into.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Later on, feel free to give me a cause.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Welcome back to the airwaves of New York City and
the Tri state area and beyond one of the most
powerful radio stations that have ever been created in this nation.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
WOR.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Give a call to eight hundred three two one zero
seven ten. That's eight hundred three two one zero seven ten,
and there's so much more to tell you about all
my fairweather friends at WABC, which the acronym has become,
(14:12):
always blaming Curtis and always bashing Curtis. You don't want
to go anywhere, keep it right here at seven ten
wor
Now the Guardian Angel of talk radio is here.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Curtis Leewah guest host the Mark Simone Show on seven
to ten.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Woor foul.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is an early Christmas present for me to be
back on talk radio and the station that I listened
to all the time now war and to be substituting
for the best talk show hosts in all of New
York City, March Simon. Nobody's been doing it longer, and
nobody's been doing it better. I worked with March Simon
(00:44):
over at WABC, and then he was a competitor against me.
So is nobody who knows talk radio better than March Simon.
So it's a real honor to be able to come
in and substitute for this life. And having met with
Tom Cutty, who's the program director who I knew at WPLJ.
(01:07):
I remember what happened when Cumulus, who owned a cluster
of stations, they had decided that they wanted to get
out of the business in New York. That made no
sense to me, and they turned off the lights on
the most iconic FM.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Station with the call letters WPLJ.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Couldn't believe that, and Tom then obviously was picked up
by wor has been a great program director here and
I've had an opportunity to sample all of the hosts
and presenters here at WOOR from Larry Menty in the
Morning was so kind to me during the election cycle
(01:45):
to obviously mark them all my biggest fan. Both in
twenty twenty one when I ran from mayor against Eric Adams,
and I did warn you, didn't I say, is he
that he would be a crook and there would be chaos,
But nobody wanted to listen. Everybody said to me, you
were right, we should have listened. Yeah, you should have listened.
And we suffered, and as a result of his massive failure,
(02:09):
we ended up with Johann Mondami. We're gonna get into
all of that and a lot of the background that
went into clearly what is the most historic press I said,
president setting election that has ever taken place in the
City of New York for mayor. It took on international, national, regional,
and local ramifications for a number of reasons. We're going
(02:31):
to explore all of that, and I'm going to dig
up the bones, because nobody knows where the bones are
buried more than courteously, and I will dig them up
and I will expose a lot of folks and what
they did during this election cycle to prevent a fair
square election in which people could go into the voting
(02:54):
booths and choose candidates based on the issues. On this
desire to have you constantly play dropout, dropout, drop out,
drop out.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
We're going to get into all of that.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And as you heard at the top of the news hour,
iHeart again this powerful owner of so many radio stations
in the nation to be able to broadcast here as
I have from many of the different programs both on
FM and AM over the years as a guest, and
to hear Larry the news Guy talk about where I
will be at two o'clock this afternoon. It is a
(03:31):
story that the local officials in New York City want
to go away.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It is the.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Most horrific case that has ever occurred, a tragedy, a crime,
an act of.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Barbaric proportion.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And in all my years of writing, the subways, and
I've been riding the subway since I was five years
old by myself nineteen fifty nine, took my first ride
on the L train. L stood for Lousey Line, Rockaway Parkway,
last stop in Kenarsi, where I was raised and I've
been riding ever since. It'll be forty seven years in
February since I started the Guardian Angels to protect people
(04:15):
both in the subways and streets here, across the nation
and in thirteen countries around the world, and increasingly having
to come to the aid of women like the brin
and Kowam. Yeah, the Brina Kowam was homeless, emotionally disturbed,
like so many who live in the subways, and she
(04:35):
was sent on fire by that illegal alien, Sebastian Zepeta
that we were housing in a homeless shelter at great
expense in East New York Samaritan House. I thought they
took care of people with drug issues, but they were
making a lot of money at our taxpayer's expense. And
he was a pyromaniac. We're going to go into all
of those details, but this is what I.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Do on a race basis.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Since the moment that I lost the election, I haven't
missed the beat. I've been down in the subways and
in the streets and taking care of those poor lost souls,
the homeless, the emotionally disturbed, who shouldn't be there, and
yet they live there. They reside there, no matter who
the mayor was, whether it was Comrade Bildeblasio, the part
(05:21):
time mayor of the Dope from Park Slope, along with
his grift of wife Charline. We'll talk about that later on,
because he owes US one and a half billion dollars
money that was taken for a program called Thrive that
was supposed to help the emotionally disturb. I don't ever
remember one person having been helped, and then by Eric
(05:44):
Adams Swagerman.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
With no plan.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
By the way, where is he? What country is Eric Adams?
The cor up one in today? Sort of like when
Matt Lower used to do the morning show at NBC.
You know what country is Matt Lwer in?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Today?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
This guy is, I mean, a grifter like you can't believe,
and oo far soon he will be gone. But I
also want to talk about what happened behind the scenes,
and I'm doing it on a radio station Wor of
which I made my very first appearance back in nineteen
(06:21):
seventy one, having been named the newspaper Boy of the Year,
having delivered the daily news like so many people did,
and growing up saved five people in a burning building
at that time that got the attention of then President
Richard Nixon, got an award in the White House, and
then my very first interview upon my return to New
(06:42):
York City was at fourteen forty Broadway, the mid morning
show hosted by Arlene Francis. Boy, I've had the bug
ever since talking on radio. So actually WOOR provided me
my baptism.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
In radio with my very first interview.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
As they escorted me around, I look at all the
various studios, the news room that had many men and
women that were processing the news back then, and it's
one of the most iconic symbols of talk radio in
the nation. With only three call letters WR everybody else right,
(07:21):
it's four like where I was from where I spent
most of my life in talk radio WABC close to
thirty years. There were some other stations in between. You
know how long you've been in talk radio by the
number of radio stations that you've worked at. But WABC
was the bulk of my time there. In all different
(07:42):
time slots. Morning Drive, it was Angels in the Morning
with my wife Lisa at that time. Then there was
a spot morning Drive with Ron Koby, whose Mommy was
a comedy for many years. I did mid mornings, I
did overnights, I did weekends. I was always available twenty
four to seven, three sixty five, so that the acronym
(08:04):
stood for WABC, always broadcasting Curtis and so going into
this election cycle, early on, I made it very clear
that I would seek the Republican nomination a run for
mayor again, as I did in twenty twenty one. By
the way, with no help from WABC back then. None
people should know that the orders came from management and
(08:28):
ownership that you were not to talk about Curtis Leewel
when he was running for mayor. In fact, you were
not to interview Curtis Lee were back in twenty twenty one,
there was a.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Big sign in the newsroom.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I mean, let's just say. There was no excuse for that.
And I wasn't supported by anybody. They were at WABC
running for mayor. Although they weren't insulting, they weren't personally
attacking me. The owner and operator John Katchamatidis was supporting
Eric Adams. Everyone was under the IMPRESSI that he was
(09:00):
supporting me, because he would say, oh, with family here, Curtis,
he knows more about the city than everyone else.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
And let's face it, that's true.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Whether you like my politics or not, whether you like
my style or not, there's nobody who knows more about
the City of New York to me. But as it
goes from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty five, the
drum beat for me to drop out, and boy was
a steady drum beat from June. Excuse me, make that
(09:32):
just about July fourth, on.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Our nation's birthday.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I remember, I was in Travis Staten Island, as I
am every year with the Guardian Angels, the longest running
Fourth of July parade in the nation. Eric Adams was
out there because he had been reborn, resurrected with the
failure of Andrew Cuomo, who threw in the tow when
(09:57):
losing convincingly to Zorhan Mondami. Just give you an idea.
On March first, when Andrew cmo announced that he was
running for Maya for the Democratic nomination, he was clocking
at forty percent in the polls. Zorhan Mandami was dead
last in the Democratic primary at one percent. By June
twenty fourth, Zoron Mondami had beat him by thirteen percent
(10:19):
because Andrew Cuomo mailed it in didn't run any kind
of a campaign, and so they resurrected Eric Adams, who
chose not to run. And this guy, right out of
the box, brought all the crooks back into the house
of Eric Adams and they were getting wind dined in
pocket lined by.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
The real estate interests.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And he crashed and burned and dropped out in September
and then boy died. They ratchet it up the masters
of the universe, the billionaires. John Casimatidis, owner and operator
who was the the maestro of the orchestra that was
constantly banging a drum that critically had to drop out,
(11:00):
drop out for the good of the city.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
And I remember he.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Was saying, Oh, I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna sell my businesses.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I'm down in Florida.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
The moment Zohan Mandami was announced the winner on November fourth,
all of a sudden he would saying, oh, we got
to work with the mayor.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Oh for the good of the city.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Because these billionaires, along with Ackman and others, made it
seem like they would be fear fright, hysteria, and all
they did was hype that every day.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
But you see, they always back channel. They always have
a backdoor.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
They always have a way to survive, whereas the working
class people that I represented in this election, because of
the fear in the fright, they had no options. So
it was an election cycle dominated by the masters of
the universe. Donald Trump, the President, was no friend of mine.
He went out of his way to disparage me on
(11:53):
a regular basis. Talked about was Curtis a Republican? Is
he is he really? Is he ready for prime time?
And what about all those cats he and his wife
Nancy have rescued and kept from being euthanized in shelters.
So many people out there who do that for dogs
and cats. He disparaged really a nation of dog and
(12:16):
cat lovers, But he went out of his way to
disparage me, along with Elin Musk and Steve Miller and
so many of the other masters of the universe and
the billionaires that he came down in the last few
weeks with twenty million dollars spent in advertising, the word
was a vote for Sliwa is a vote for Joran Mandami,
(12:36):
vote for Andrew evilized Coomo, a guy responsible for the
deaths of fifteen thousand elderly people.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
At the height of the.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Pandemic and the lockdown, and a man was still paying
his victims for sexual harassment, thirteen of them who worked
for him, including a female state trooper, and the bill
will probably get up to sixty million dollars. And once again,
you know, whenever you speak to Eric Adams, I'm not guilty.
(13:06):
I didn't do anything wrong. Andrew Cuomo, I didn't do
anything wrong. Donald Trump, I didn't do anything wrong. Nobody
does anything wrong. I'm somebody who is a lot different
when I do things wrong. When I mess up, I
fess up. And I certainly had a lot of opportunities
in my life.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
To do that. But this is an opportunity for all
of you to be hurt. In the words my.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Great mentor Bob Grant, who actually was broadcasting here at
w OR on two separate occasions, which we'll get into.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Later on, feel free to give me a cause.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Welcome back to the airwaves of New York City and
the Tri state area and beyond one of the most
powerful radio stations that have ever been created in this nation.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
WOR.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Give a call to eight hundred three two one zero
seven ten. That's eight hundred three two one zero seven ten,
and there's so much more to tell you about all
my fairweather friends at WABC, which the acronym has become,
(14:12):
always blaming Curtis and always bashing Curtis. You don't want
to go anywhere, keep it right here at seven ten
wor
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