WOBM's 'Topic A' Radio Show Ends After 39 Years

TOMS RIVER, NJ — For nearly 40 years, residents of Ocean County have had a date every Sunday morning: Bob Levy's "Topic A" on WOBM.

From 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., listeners could call in and share their thoughts on everything from beach fees and the schools to local politics.

On Sunday, that era came to an end: Jeremy Grunin, the Toms River philanthropist, decided to step down as host of the program and Townsquare Media decided to not seek a replacement for him but to instead end the program.

"The idea was to give listeners a place to get things off their chest and the subject matter was up to them," Kevin Williams, the longtime sports director for WOBM, said in the WOBM announcement that the show was ending. " 'Topic A' made a huge impact for many years." Read more: Bob Levy, Beloved WOBM Radio Icon, Dies At 86

The station's report noted that the ultra-local nature of the show, which first aired in September 1979 at Levy's urging after he was inspired by a similar show in Florida, had changed in more recent years to where it was less about local issues "and more about divisive agendas, which altered the tone of the program."

Grunin, the executive director of the Jay & Linda Grunin Foundation who began co-hosting the program with Levy in January 2017 and continued to do so after Levy's death on March 1, 2018, addressed that divisiveness in his final comments at the end of Sunday's show, urging listeners to be more kind and more willing to listen to each other.

"Try to listen to each other. You don't have to agree but listen to their perspective. Perspective is a powerful tool," Grunin said. "If we could all do that, we could get back to where we used to be."

"When we started working with Jeremy, it became obvious to us that if anyone could continue ‘Topic A’s’ legacy, it would be Jeremy because of his involvement in the local political and economic scene," said Steve Ardolina, the station's operations manager. "We cannot thank him enough for his dedication to the show."

Updated to clarify Jeremy Grunin's quote from Sunday's show.

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