Rebecca Pratt, a former radio host from New Orleans mentioned for her blunt on-air personality and robust connection to listeners passed away at age 55. According to a police report and WWL-AM, Pratt became discovered dead in her unit by way of setting up managers on Thursday within the 900 block of Poeyfarre Street. It is unknown what brought about and how the loss of existence occurred.
As part of a 2008 reorganization, Pratt, a transgender woman formerly called John Osterlind or with the help of the on-air moniker Ozone, turned into one of the vital out-of-town hosts hired with the help of the conservative talk station WRNO-FM.
Pratt delivered a “rock-and-roll mentality” to the relatively subdued airwaves of New Orleans, in keeping with Michael Castner, WRNO’s morning anchor at the time, drawing on previous residencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. “Why Today Doesn’t Suck,” a comic historical past lesson at the recent date, become one recurring feature.
Other hosts praised Pratt for her “non-forestall” wit, in line with Castner. Castner claimed that Pratt had “one thing beside the point as a moniker for pretty much each and every frame,” consisting of different radio station body of workers.
Rebecca Pratt phrases every so often were given her into problem. Rebecca Pratt become disregarded from a Boston discuss radio station for creating a derogatory statement within the direction of Palestinians. According to the station, she recommended a dialog player about suicide bombers that Palestinians “needed to move.”
Pratt now and again flouted what Castner referred to as the primary rule of radio by means of the usage of having drinks with listeners while off-air. Although Pratt become now not a local of New Orleans, Jim Fisher, a former program director for WRNO, mentioned that her at hand rapport with most people made it paintings.
In 2015, Pratt’s tenure at WRNO got here to an quit. The former report spinner at Boston’s WAAF-FM made a go back to her roots at her next space, the rock station WKBU-FM.
Pratt notified buddies roughly her gender transition a few 12 months previous, in keeping with Castner, even though she develop into now not on the air on the time of her loss of lifestyles. Pratt mentioned her transition throughout a May web radio interview with Parker.“I understand she would love for absolutely everyone to understand the fact,” Parker said.
Rebecca Pratt’s early life as John Osterlind John Osterlind used to be born on March 10, 1967, in Norwalk, Connecticut. In 1985, he received his stage from Roger Ludlowe High School in Fairfield, Connecticut. In 1987, he graduated from Dean Jr. College in Franklin, Massachusetts, the place he labored as a DJ for their campus radio station, 88.Three FM WGAO.
From 1987 to 1988, He broadcast overnights on 103.7 FM WWRX, a standard rock station in Providence, Rhode Island. He broadcast throughout the afternoons and evenings at the rock station WCCC-FM in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1989 to 1992.
Rebecca Pratt, New Orleans radio personality known as Ozone, dies at 55 https://t.co/kllzyUuUbY
— NOLA.com (@NOLAnews) January 2, 2023
He additionally broadcast in the evenings at the rock station WAAF FM in Boston, Massachusetts. From 1992 to 1994, and from 1994 to 2001. On WAAF, he turned into the noon jock and track director. From 2001 to 2003, he co-hosted the morning show on WRKO AM in Boston with former Massachusetts congressman Peter Blute.
He was the well-known middle of the night communicate host on WRNO FM in New Orleans, Louisiana. Until the night of January 7, 2015.
The bogus non-earnings “Pencils for Poor People,” which Osterlind and his manufacturer James Parker invented as one of the many strolling jokes on The John Osterlind Show. Served as the basis for the protest Osterlind’s New Orleans supporters staged against WRNO after his firing.
After leaving WGSO on November 2, 2015. Osterlind hosted the morning pressure-time show on 95.7 FM BAYOU prior to being eventually changed via a syndicated software The WISE Guys. Osterlind then started out broadcasting middays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans.
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