This time, the listeners were heard

WBZ Radio brings back laid-off late-night host after thousands air their grief

On his third night back, WBZ host Steve LeVeille couldn't get off the topic of his return because that's all listeners talked about. (John Bohn/Globe Staff)

'Lazarus, it's nice to meet you," says "Manny in the Car."

His greeting is for Steve LeVeille, a name and voice best known to those for whom midnight is the middle of the day. The switchboard at WBZ-AM (1030) in Allston lights up as Manny and scores of other fans call in from their semitractor-trailers, cars, and homes in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and beyond. They are celebrating LeVeille's all-but-miraculous return to broadcast life.

"You need a new name for the show," jokes Mike, another night owl. "Steve LeVeille: The Sequel!"

LeVeille, for almost a decade a fixture on the airwaves from midnight to 5 a.m., laughs heartily and embraces the happy avalanche. Five weeks ago, WBZ Radio laid him off because of budget cutbacks. Fans were bereft, and then they enraged. They mounted online petitions, organized a "Bring Back Steve" campaign on Facebook, and boycotted WBZ advertisers. In the first week LeVeille was off the air, the station was deluged with at least 8,000 e-mails. The station bowed to the public pressure, and now LeVeille is enjoying a rare gift in a staggering economy: a second chance.

He is among the last of a dying breed: the local overnight radio talk show host. His listeners - "Bob the bread man," "John the milk truck driver," nocturnal commuters, insomniacs, and early risers - say LeVeille remains a special part of their lives even though they've never met him.

"When you left, we lost a community, a community of people," said Brian, a caller from Pennsylvania. "It really felt like a loss in the family."

That sense of intimate connection is part of what can bind listeners to radio; it's also what can make it risky for a radio company to substitute, as WBZ briefly did, a syndicated voice for local talent.

"It's an amazing story," said Tom Taylor, editor of radio-info.com, a website that covers the radio industry. Locally, at least five stations have purged some of their on-air talent and administrative staffers because of shrinking ad revenues. That makes LeVeille's reinstatement all the more unusual, Taylor said.

"The reversal of WBZ's decision goes to the heart of the social contract a radio station has with its listeners," he said. "To many people, WBZ is a companion, a trusted friend, and you don't make changes there lightly."

On his third night back with WBZ, LeVeille can't get off the topic of his comeback. That's all his listeners want to talk about.

A familiar voice comes on line 2. It's Randy Price, longtime anchor at WHDH-TV (Channel 7).

"Hey, welcome back from exile," said Price, driving home to Maine after his late-night newscast. (Since that call, Price has left the station. See story on B1.)

"Some of my colleagues were rabidly in the movement to bring you back," Price said. "It's good to have a live voice in the night. I'll be listening."

"I am very appreciative," LeVeille said.

Forty years ago as a teenager in Burlington, LeVeille was one those radio callers. He listened to WBZ's Larry Glick host the overnight show. Glick held the job for 20 years.

"My grandparents gave me a little transistor radio, and I spun the dial, and somewhere in that, the radio bug bit," said LeVeille, who studied communications at Emerson College.

LeVeille launched his radio career at WEEI in 1977 as a news writer and producer, and he worked for ABC News in New York as a news writer and assignment editor in the 1980s. He was the morning man at WFTQ in Worcester before the station closed.

In 1991, LeVeille landed at WBZ, where he worked as a fill-in host and substituted for the late David Brudnoy. In 1999, when Bob Raleigh retired after 23 years of hosting the overnight show, LeVeille moved into that slot.

LeVeille chats with callers with his folksy humor. As the night deepens, he grows more animated, turning in his chair, hands flying in the air. He listens more than he talks. He treats his callers as his guests and tries to get as many on the air as he can. He averages about 40 a show.

"I like to interview the callers. This is the opportunity for them to have their say," he said. "We have five hours. I don't have to be in a rush. I like to give people a chance to open up a little bit."

Perhaps that's why they reacted so loudly when LeVeille was laid off Dec. 29. WBZ replaced him with a syndicated broadcast from St. Louis. Unemployed, LeVeille prepared to find an agent and a new job.

"I was prepared to move. I had made that transition to hit the ground running," said LeVeille, 53, who lives in Newton with his wife, Diane. As he embarked on his job search, LeVeille's loyal listeners relentlessly lobbied WBZ to bring him back. Station officials began negotiating a new contract. The announcement came Jan. 27.

"It goes to show you how unique Boston and New England is," said Peter Casey, director of news and programming at WBZ AM. He estimates that, in any given quarter-hour of LeVeille's show, about 17,000 listeners are tuned in. "Boston and New England holds WBZ to a higher standard than other radio stations and they are not shy about letting us know that."

The station had also laid off broadcaster Lovell Dyett, but, after an outcry, brought him back in a half-hour community affairs show at 4:30 a.m. Sundays.

LeVeille says he is humbled by the power of his loyal listeners.

"I'm still stunned. I didn't realize the extent of the passion they had for this program," he said. "You would hope that a few people would call and complain, but I never expected anything like that."

Almost halfway through this night's show, LeVeille appears energized by the incoming calls.

Carolyn from Pennsylvania is on the air. "He has risen. He has risen," she greeted LeVeille. "I'm really amazed that you returned."

LeVeille thanked her before cutting to a commercial.

"I did everything I wanted to do by 36," he said during a commercial break. "I've been enjoying the gravy all these years. I am going to keep doing this job. I wasn't finished with this show."

Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com.