Philly Radio: WMMR's Preston&Steve Mark 20 Years As A Team

Preston Elliott & Steve Morrison (philly.com photo)

Neither remembers the exact date they went on the air together, but this month marks 20 years of Philadelphia radio raunch for WMMR 93.3 FM hosts Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison. After two decades of live radio, maybe some memory loss is to be expected, writes Philly.com.

Known better collectively by the title of their show Preston & Steve, Elliot, 50, and Morrison, 58, officially began their careers together in May 1998 at Philly's Y100 as Preston, Marilyn & Steve alongside former co-host Marilyn Russell, who is now on mornings at WOGL 98.1 FM. By May 2005, the guys had taken their antics to WMMR, where they occupy the  5:30-10:30 a.m.  slot, joined by Casey Foster, Kathy Romano, Marisa Magnatta, and Nick McIlwain.

Today, Elliot and Morrison dominate the radio ratings. In the winter, Preston & Steve finished first in the market among men ages 25-54, beating out second-place WIP’s Angelo Cataldi by a wide margin. Their annual  Campout for Hunger charity event raised more than $270,000 and collected 839 tons of food last year. The pair made it through WMMR’s ownership change from Greater Media to current parent company Beasley Broadcast Group in 2016, and their 20th anniversary coincides with the station’s 50th.

“If you walk up and down the halls [of WMMR], you can see the history of the radio station,” Elliot, a native of St. Louis, Mo., says. “I see all these people I never met but have heard about. My name is up there too, and I think it’s pretty f— cool, man.”

None if it, however, would have happened without an on-air introduction in the mid-’90s at WDRE. Elliot was hosting an afternoon show, and Morrison, a New York native, would do live spots from Manayunk’s River Deck Cafe, as well as commercials. Every few hours on Fridays, Elliot would check in with Morrison, and the two developed a rapport a month before ever meeting in person. They were paired together as hosts and lasted until WDRE changed formats in 1996.