Dave McConnell Capitol Hill Reporter WTOP

Published: Nov. 27, 2018, 4:35 p.m.

b'Dave McConnell on women in politics ~\\n\\n"They have gotten a raw deal in politics, in the Senate, in the House, for a long, long time and I\'m glad to see things are changing."\\n\\nDave McConnell, Capitol Hill Reporter for WTOP and host Andy Ockershausen in studio interview\\n\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tI\'m Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town and I\'m getting a wonderful, wonderful, opportunity to talk to an old friend. He\'s really not old but he\'s been around longer\\nthan I, almost as long as I have, Dave, which is pretty spectacular. Dave McConnell, the star of WTOP, the number one reporter on the Hill. You\'ve been there longer than anybody.\\nDave McConnell:\\tI probably have by now on the radio television side. I think there are a couple of print guys that have longer times in than me.\\nHill Reporting | Joe McCaffrey\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tYou have ingrained yourself so much into that Hill, and I have been a fan of yours since. Thank God you got that good WMAL training before you went out on the street and work with a lot of professionals. And all these years you work with a lot of pros. It helps you, David.\\nDave McConnell:\\tIt does.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tIt keeps you on your toes.\\nDave McConnell:\\tAbsolutely.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tI\'m sure you remember it was our friend, Joe McCaffrey.\\nDave McConnell:\\tI do indeed.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tHe got into the newspaper business and we lost track of him. I don\'t know. He died or whatever. He was down in Virginia somewhere.\\nDave McConnell:\\tWhen I first came to the Hill I used to see Joe, yeah. He was still there.\\nEddie Gallagher | Mark Evans\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tYeah. Well, I think he got out of the army here and didn\'t leave. WTOP, one of my favorite sounds. I remember when it was WJSV. I remember the lineup was Eddie Gallagher. Who was following them? The morning man was, oh God. Well Eddie did that moonlight show. What was it called? Dreams or something?\\nDave McConnell:\\tWell, there was-\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tMark Evans!\\nDave McConnell:\\tYeah, that\'s right. Mark Evans. Housewives protectively.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tHPL, right? \\nDave McConnell:\\tYeah.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tI was a CBS guy and I was at his funeral and had a chance to talk about him a little bit. Jim Gibbons, who had been working for us along with. But WTOP was such a powerhouse with that 1,500 signal and nobody could compete with that. Then FM came along. Then FM was made by WTOP-FM, by switching at FM station. They bought the station, right?\\nDave McConnell:\\tYes.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tWGMS.\\nDave McConnell:\\tOur original FM station, we gave away to Howard University.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tAnd Mrs. Graham?\\nDave McConnell:\\tWell, Katherine Graham, Larry Israel, was running the station then I\'m thinking.\\nLarry Israel | WTOP Went All News and WMAL Made Deal for Games\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tYeah. I was talking about Larry, paying him a compliment because I got to know Larry quite well because it was a small town then, Dave. Ain\'t that way anymore.\\nDave McConnell:\\tNo.\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tYou knew everybody, everybody knew you. Management, talent, whatever. We were all together, you know the hangouts were the same; the Dancing Crab, or Duke\'s Restaurant, or whatever it was. It doesn\'t exist anymore, the camaraderie. But Larry Israel called me one day and said that they were broadcasting Maryland football, and he said, this is like 1968-70, said, "We\'re going all news and I\'m not gonna be able to do any more play-by-play because you can\'t do both. You can\'t be all news and do play-by-play." It was his theory.\\nDave McConnell:\\tMm-hmm (affirmative)\\nAndy Ockershausen:\\tAnd I supported that because he\'s right, you can\'t have a baseball game on and say you\'re doing all news. And he couldn\'t have a football game. So, he tipped us and we called over there and made a deal to take the games off of WTOP. And that\'s when people were close, I don\'t think that exists in radio anymore. Lot of competitiveness, but work together.\\nDave McConnell:\\tWell, yeah,'