Thursday, 4:30 PM
Battling cancer, Paul Sullivan signs off WBZ radio
(Evan Richman/Globe Staff file photo)
Paul Sullivan, shown above at the microphone in January 2005, was diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma in November 2004.
By Globe Staff
Longtime talk show host Paul Sullivan has decided to give up his evening show on WBZ-AM (1030) after a 2 1/2 year battle with brain cancer.
"It's become clear to me that it’s unfair of me to ask my support group, my wife Mary-Jo, my family, my friends, my WBZ colleagues, to continue to bear this burden," Sullivan said in a letter distributed today by the station. "The toll my surgeries and treatments have taken on me makes it unlikely that I will ever have the energy to return to a four-hour daily talk radio program."
Sullivan said his decision was not based on "any one medical fact" or the latest update of his condition, but the cumulative toll of his four brain surgeries and other treatments. His weeknight talk show is broadcast from 8 to midnight.
"On a day to day basis I feel fine," Sullivan wrote. "I am up and alert and going out for lunches and walks when I can. I don’t need constant care but what my illness and treatments have taken from me is the energy needed to do my show five nights a week."
Sullivan, who also works as a columnist and political editor at the Lowell Sun, was diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma in November 2004. He has five children. Sullivan said he still plans to write for WBZ's website and contribute occasional commentaries.
