Mayor Giuliani and his estranged wife took to the airwaves yesterday at the same time on different stations – but only listeners switching between the two stations would have known it.
Giuliani, on his weekly 11-11:45 a.m. WABC Radio gig, never mentioned Donna Hanover’s stint on WOR from 10 a.m. to noon.
Hanover, sitting in for host Joan Hamburg, never referred to the competition from her husband a turn of the dial away.
As usual, the mayor fielded a variety of calls from constituents on topics as diverse as gun control and tree stumps.
But there were none of the tense exchanges over super-charged issues that have transformed some of the mayor’s previous shows into full-scale dramas.
Perhaps the most unusual call came from “Bridget in Richmond Hill,” who recalled how she enlisted Giuliani’s help to get a large tree removed near her parents’ home 2 ½ years ago.
Bridget asked if the mayor could now please help her get rid of the 3- to 4-foot-high stump that was left behind.
“The person who takes out the tree doesn’t take out the stump?” asked the mayor in disbelief.
“You realize we’re out of our minds in New York. I’ve been the mayor almost seven years now and it never ceases to amaze me what bureaucracy can do.”
He promised to get the issue resolved for Bridget and other stump-stuck homeowners.
Hanover dealt with weightier matters, including breast cancer and a new film, “Children of Chabbannes,” about a tiny French village that shielded 400 Jewish children during World War II.
“I saw this film when it was in development two years ago,” said Hanover, a journalist-actress. “It’s almost hard to give it enough majesty.”
Talk-show fans not sated by the observations of the current mayor or his wife didn’t have long to wait for another set of opinions: former Mayor Ed Koch was on WEVD-AM at 4 p.m.
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TALE OF THE RADIO TAPE: Rudy vs. DONNA
OPENING MONOLOGUE
RUDY: Uplifting start, gloomy ending. Talked up city’s July 4th celebration; announced new city Web site name (nyc.gov); complained rent hikes were too high; predicted “winter disaster” because Clinton is “napping” over oil prices. GRADE: B
DONNA: Didn’t do one, except to wish WOR’s regular host, Joan Hamburg, “a great vacation” and promise listeners an “absolutely, fabulously interesting” show. GRADE: D
TOPICS
RUDY: Dictated by phone callers. Was asked about gun-control, Corrections officers, a dilapidated Queens housing project, getting flags to vets, toys-for-guns, aid for crime victims and a 3-foot stump left after a tree was cut down. GRADE: B-
DONNA: Very safe and P.C.-certified. Her three topics were breast-cancer awareness, the Boys’ Choir of Harlem (“And the Girls’ Choir of Harlem. Sorry, I had to get that in”) and the documentary film “The Children of Chabannes” — about a French town in World War II that saved hundreds of Jewish children. GRADE: C
HUMOR
RUDY: Feigning a Brooklyn accent: “So da tree poison said, I don’t do stumps.” GRADE: B-
DONNA: “And the Girls’ Choir of Harlem. Sorry, I had to get that in.” GRADE: D-
DICTION
RUDY: Some lisping and sibilance, slightly nasal. GRADE: D+.–
DONNA: GRADE: A.
RATINGS
RUDY: Time-shares his hour with Dr. Laura and Paul Harvey and they average a 2.2% audience share.
DONNA: Subbed for Joan Hamburg, who also gets a 2.2% audience share.
— John Mainelli