Beginning May 2, former local radio personality Tony Trupiano, a Dearborn Heights resident, will return to the airwaves weekday mornings from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. to host “First Shift,” a progressive talk show on WDTW-AM (1310), whose parent company is Clear Channel.
“This show will make news. We will be front and center in the conversation from Lansing to Detroit,” said Trupiano, a former Democratic congressional candidate. “We will work through complex issues to get to the truth. The show will offer everyone a voice, but we will hold them accountable with thorough fact-checking. ‘First Shift’ will present uncommon discussions rarely heard in today’s media.”
A 17-year radio veteran, Trupiano spent the majority of his broadcasting career as a syndicated radio show host, where his defense of progressive ideas, combined with his advocacy of organized labor, earned him a reputation in some circles as “The Voice of Labor.”
It is in that vein that “First Shift” will find its message and audience, according to the host.
The show will pre-empt Bill Press, a liberal commentator and CNN alum, who has held the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. time slot nationally on many progressive stations, including WDTW. Trupiano’s conservative competition on the Detroit area airwaves will be former Education Secretary Bill Bennett and Paul W. Smith, one of Michigan’s most popular radio hosts.
“My advocacy for working families, progressive leanings, and support of union values are well known, but the goal of ‘First Shift’ is to educate people on all sides of the issues,” Trupiano said in a press release. “Whether it’s the reality of the governor’s tax plan or the void created by the political shift in state government, ‘First Shift’ will present all sides of the issues impacting everyone in Michigan.”
One local labor leader, Roger Robinson, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 876, said he anticipates that Trupiano will counter the “focused political effort to destroy the middle class and the labor movement ” among conservative talk-radio commentators.
A Clear Channel executive said Trupiano’s return will bring an “entertaining and informative” program for southeast Michigan.
A lifelong resident of the Detroit area and a small business owner, Trupiano left radio in 2006 to launch an unsuccessful run against Republican Congressman Thad McCotter of Livonia in Michigan’s 11th District.
