‘Light, rather than heat’ – for decades, this journalist championed community radio in Florida.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: August 20, 2025
Host: This weekend, Rob Lorei passed away at age 70. To us at WSLR, the most important role Rob played was that of co-founder of WMNF, our big sister in Tampa, and his role as a mentor and promoter of everything community radio—which included WSLR. But to me, his biggest legacy is that of Rob Lorei, the journalist. His secret sauce was the welcoming and respectful tone he set on Radioactivity, the call-in current affairs show he ran for many years at WMNF. As recently as five months ago, Rob the journalist was still running the Florida This Week show on WEDU, the PBS affiliate in Tampa. Here’s a little more on his life and time.
Rob Lorei
Rob Lorei: And now for my news. This will be my final episode moderating Florida This Week. For the past 23 years and seven months, I’ve had the good fortune of hosting this program every week. We brought together a group of panelists like no other—some of the smartest people from the Tampa Bay area and around the state and around the country. We featured elected officials, reporters, columnists, scholars, consultants, authors and community activists, all coming together for a civil conversation on the issues that matter. We’ve even opened the doors to bring in independents and third party guests, union members, religious leaders from many faiths, young people and advocates for senior citizens. We’ve had many debates on important topics. In all the years of doing the program, while there have been disagreements on the set over policy, no one has ever stormed off the program or left the set in anger. We’ve shown it’s possible to shed more light than heat in these divided times. I’m stepping down because I’m dealing with a serious health issue, cancer, and I can say that, for those of you going through the disease or with friends or family members in the same situation, my heart goes out to you. There are a lot of us out there.
Johannes Werner: That was Rob Lorei and his final seg-out from Florida This Week just five months ago, in March. On Florida This Week, he hosted powerful figures, some of them thriving on provocation. But he always managed to guide them towards the substance of their argument. In one of his last public appearances in May, on the podium at a Methodist church in St. Petersburg, he was asked why people should be hopeful. In his answer, he described his approach.
RL: Truth is on our side. Truth is on the side of peacemakers. I don’t think that we should be burning Teslas, by the way.
[Audience laughs]
RL: but I think that we should nonviolently show and witness that what is going on in Washington, what’s going on in Tallahassee, is wrong. I think we do that by promoting the truth. We do that by promoting love of one another. I had this rule on my radio show that you don’t call people names and you don’t denigrate people—that, if you have an argument against something, then make that argument based on facts and make it based on reason.
JW: More than anything, he always thrived to give voice to the voiceless, hosting “regular people”—union members, people facing health and environmental challenges, or discrimination. WMNF carried True Talk, the public affairs show on the Middle East and Muslim affairs, through difficult years, facing suspicion, fear and accusations. Here is co-host Samar Jarrah.
Samar Jarrah: He didn’t just give us a platform. He believed in us. He believed in True Talk. He believed in what Ahmed and I were doing. He stood beside us when it was very difficult. And some of you know and some of you don’t know that many people didn’t want our voices to be on the airwaves. When others turned away and when the odds seemed overwhelming. Rob was always there, courageous, principled and unwavering in his support.
JW: This soundbite is from a compilation put together by WMNF reporter Chris Young.
Then there’s his legacy of creating lasting institutions. First and foremost, that’s—of course—WMNF.
And then there’s WSLR, which he always supported. At the farewell party last year for station founders Arlene Sweeting and Dave Beaton, Rob Lorei described to the crowd at the Fogartyville his vision of community radio:
RL: The founders of community radio were peace activists; they were libertarians; they were left-wing activists; they were Quakers; they were intellectuals. They got together in Berkeley, California, and said, “Radio could be better than what it is today.” Today, I say that all media that we watch and listen to could be better and bring itself up to the standards of WSLR.
[Audience applauds]
RL: There’s so much repetition on places like—and I like to watch it, but there’s so much repetition on places like CNN and MSNBC. There’s so many questions that they don’t deal with. There’s so many voices that they keep out. There’s so many books that they don’t talk about. There’s so many discussions they never had. The founders of KPFA in Berkeley said, “We want to have debates, we want to have the best theater, we want to have the greatest classical music, and we want to have speeches, and we want to be thought leaders in what we do.” And I still think—and that goes back to 1948—I still think that’s our mission today. There’s a huge hole in the media, and that’s our job. We’ve got to fill that hole that’s out there.
JW: Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.