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b'Steven Portnoy, CBS News Correspondent covering the White House, on WMAL\'s influence in Our Town while under host Andy O\'s direction~\\n\\n"But it speaks to the influence that the radio station had in this marketplace. I mean this radio station was listened to inside the White House. Harden and Weaver were part of, I\\u2019m sure, Ronald Reagan\\u2019s morning."\\n\\nSteven Portnoy - CBS News Correspondent and host Andy Ockershausen in studio interview\\n\\nAndy Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town and I\'ve been ordered to do a great intro for this man, but he doesn\'t need a great intro because he\'s a great broadcaster and a great radio guy and I\'m so delighted that one of the WMAL graduates has made it big, big, big time is Steven Portnoy of ABC. That\'s the American Broadcasting Company, which is now Disney. Welcome to Our Town, Steve.\\nSteven Portnoy: Thank you sir. It\'s good to be with you. I should amend that. I was with ABC for many years and now I\'m with CBS.\\nAndy Ockershausen: What?\\nSteven Portnoy: So now I\'ve worked for two networks.\\nAndy Ockershausen: You dumped our network? We\'re still ABC people here. I don\'t know why, but we are. We go along with the flow of course, but Steven, you\'ve had a great, great career both, while you were here and why you left here and now you\'re with CBS. But you can look back and think of the great days of WMAL because you were at the tail end of it, but you were here never the less.\\nSteven Portnoy\'s Connection to WMAL and Other WMAL Alumni\\nSteven Portnoy: Well, I feel like I was saying earlier to the lovely Janice here. I feel like I\'ve come back to college because I spent my formative years in our business right here in these studios here at WMAL Radio. Actually, talking through these same Sennheiser microphones.\\n But I was here for about three and a half years for WMAL Radio news department and then, made the move to ABC network news and was on this radio station still for another 11 years or so. So I have a pretty long connection with this station, and it is-\\nAndy Ockershausen: You moved down to downtown with another WMAL graduate in charge of news.\\nJanice Iacona Ockershausen: Robin Vierbuchen Sproul\\nAndy Ockershausen: Robin Vierbuchen Sproul started right here in that news room right behind you.\\nSteven Portnoy: Robin Vierbuchen Sproul. Charles Gibson also another-\\nAndy Ockershausen: Oh yeah, Charlie.\\nSteven Portnoy: ... very famous voice who rose through the ranks from WMAL to ABC News.\\nAndy Ockershausen: Let me tell you how important I was. I\'ll fly in a red eye from Los Angeles and I needed somebody to give me a ride and pick me up. So the news director sent Charlie Gibson. Giving me a ride from the airport. He never forgot it. He loved it. He talks about it now and he remembers the good old days. People love to help each other.\\nSteven Portnoy: Sure. Well, I mean, very famous names have passed through these halls. I mean, we can talk about the legends of WMAL radio. We just lost one, Bill Mayhugh in the last couple of weeks.\\nAndy Ockershausen: I know, so sad. But Bill hadn\'t been well for a while and Shirley had died before him. But we were just talking with the chief of police at Montgomery County about Johnny Holliday. Another one of our guys out of this studio and working with Janice in the morning. They\'re still around, thank God.\\nSteven Portnoy: Well, Harden and Weaver. We had Trumbull and Core. Big names. Janice mentioned that I came in sort of at the tail end of that epic era of WMAL Radio.\\nAndy Ockershausen: Era, right.\\nPortnoy Begins His Career at WMAL at the Tail End of Station\'s Epic Era | From General Mass Appeal to Narrow Interest Level \\nSteven Portnoy: When I first joined,'