Preston & Steve

Preston Elliot, Steve Morrison and Marilyn Russell were among a group of radio personalities introduced to the Philadelphia market through the now defunct radio station WDRE.[1] With several of their WDRE co-workers, they departed the station for Y100 in 1997 when WDRE changed format.[1] After four successful years of (then known as) The Y100 Morning Show with Preston, Marilyn, and Steve, Marilyn Russell left the morning show on March 1, 2002, for family reasons. She has worked part-time on many stations in the Philadelphia area since then, including WMGK, and SoJo 104.9, WYSP, and joined morning personality Dave Cruise as co-host on "The BENFM Morning Show on 95.7 in 2007.[2]

WPLY's owner, Dan Lerner, one of the last independent owners in the Philadelphia market, sold the station to Radio One, a national broadcasting corporation, in 2001. Coincidentally, Radio One was the same group that bought Preston, Marilyn & Steve's previous radio station 103.9 WDRE. Radio One and hosts Elliot and Morrison did not successfully negotiate a new contract, and the personalities agreed to a deal with local broadcasting group Greater Media. The hosts' contract with Radio One expired on February 24, 2005, and Y100 changed format and became WPHI "The Beat" at 11:50 p.m. EDT that same day.[3]

A legal battle between Radio One and the Elliot and Morrison team over the hosts' non-compete clause was resolved by a ruling that they were no longer in competition with WPLY. Their new show officially debuted on WMMR on Monday, May 23, 2005.[4]

In 2006, Elliot and Morrison received a long-term contract extension[5] and in 2008, the station gave them a new 1,800-square-foot (170 m²) studio with their own production equipment.[6] They continued to sign multi-year extensions in 2011,[7] in 2019 (with current owner of WMMR Beasley Broadcast Group),[8] and most recently in May 2022 that will keep them on WMMR through 2030.[9]

• 
  Preston Elliot
  Host
• 
  Steve Morrison
  Co-host
• 
  Casey Foster
  Executive Producer
• 
  Kathy Romano
  News, Sports, Traffic
• 
  Nick Mcilwain
  Executive Producer
• 
  Marisa Magnatta
  Executive Producer

The show has been named the "Best Morning Show" by Philadelphia Style magazine,[10] and "Personality/Show of the Year" in the active rock category by Radio & Records trade magazine.[11] Before switching to WMMR, the show won various Philadelphia A.I.R. Awards, including the "Best Weekday Morning Team" award for 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005,[12] and was voted best local morning show in the country in FMQB's Year End Leaders Poll for 2004 and 2005 in two different formats.[13]

In the Summer 2004 Arbitron ratings book, the show was rated fourth in market share for all people ages 18–34, and second for men in the same category.[14] The Preston & Steve show's ratings surpassed Howard Stern's during his last month on the air, and they outranked each of David Lee Roth's, Opie and Anthony's, and Kidd Chris's tenures at WYSP.[15] As of 2009, Preston & Steve was the top rated show in Philadelphia,[16] and over a four-year period, they had the #1 show in the Arbitron ratings for the 25–54 adult demographic a total of 42 times.[7]

In 2014, Elliot and Morrison were nominated by the National Association of Broadcasters as finalists for the NAB Marconi Radio Awards for Major Market Personality of the Year.[17]

On June 11, 2019, Elliot and Morrison were honored by The National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation, receiving the 2019 Service to Community Award in acknowledgement of the Camp Out for Hunger [18]

On November 22, 2019 The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted the duo into their Hall of Fame.[19]

In August 2021, it was announced that Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison will be inducted to the Radio Hall of Fame, being nominated under the “Spoken Word On-Air Personality” category. [20]

• Elliot and his wife Rachelle were featured in the first episode of Season Five on Trading Spaces.
• Morrison and his wife Claire were featured on an episode of the HGTV show Spice Up My Kitchen[35] where their kitchen was redone for a budget of $40,000.
• Producer Casey Foster and his wife Diane were featured on an episode of the HGTV show Bad, Bad Bath (later retitled Save My Bath)[36] which premiered on October 17, 2006.
• Reporter Kathy Romano had appeared on an episode of the third season of The Simple Life,[37] commenting that the producers present on a Greyhound bus had to "spoon-feed" every line of dialogue to Paris Hilton.
• Romano appeared in the 2009 film The Mighty Macs as a gate agent. The film is produced by Pat Croce and is about an all girl Catholic college basketball team.
• Foster signed a one-day contract with the Philadelphia Soul.[38]
• Foster and McIlwain[39] appeared in two episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Romano appeared in the season three episode "Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender." Both Elliot and Morrison appeared in season 4 episode 3, playing construction workers, alongside several Philadelphia Eagles. Steve's role was originally to include one line ("Uh, yeah... I guess?"), but was shortened ("What?"), Preston's role had no lines. They were also featured as themselves in the episode "Mac's Big Break".[40]
• Foster appeared in the 2010 documentary film Bazaar of All Nations about a unique and influential shopping center in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.[41]
• Morrison and Magnatta appear on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives in 2011, where host Guy Fieri visits the Memphis Taproom in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

• Philadelphia Media
• WMMR

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• Official site
• Preston & Steve Archive Site (Every podcast)