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CRIMEWAVE, Louisiana's #1 true crime show, which features victims of violent crime and law enforcement officials will return to the airwaves on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 from 10 AM to 12 PM (noon). Irv Magri's show will be aired on the "Rajun Cajun", 100.3 FM and 1600 AM KLRZ. Irv Magri currently serves as the State President of CRIMEFIGHTERS, Louisiana's largest victims' rights organization.
CRIMEFIGHTERS is a pro bono (free) statewide victims' rights organization that supplies free legal services and free medical services to victims of violent crime that so request it of the CRIMEFIGHTERS Executive Board. Please call in your questions on Louisiana's Criminal Justice System to Irv Magri at (985)798-7792 during his radio broadcast.
CRIMEWAVE and its predecessor "The Detectives" had been on the air since 1967 on radio stations WSMB, WTIX, WGSO, WLNO, and WJBO in Baton Rouge. It is an award winning true crime show.
Irv Magri began the first true crime show in the deep south in 1967 with then Lt. Van H. Flynn and legendary moderator Larry Regan on WSMB Radio 1350 AM. The show immediately attracted an extremely large audience throughout the Greater New Orleans area including the Parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Charles, St. Mary, Lafourche, Terrebonne, Ascension, Assumption, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Washington, Tangiphoa, St. Helena as well as the Mississippi Gulf Coast Counties of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson. "The Detectives" which the original show was named also attracted listeners as far away to the east as Mobile, Alabama. Unfortunately the only remaining member of the original show "The Detectives" that is alive today is Irv Magri.
"The Detectives" radio show won numerous awards over the years including a Special Award of Merit from the Police Association of New Orleans (PANO) on seven (7) different occasions as well as the American Federation of Police Commendation Award presented on May 15, 1970. The long running radio show featured Judges, Police Officers, Police Supervisors, Police Detectives, District Attorneys, Assistant District Attorneys, Probation and Parole Officers, Governors of Louisiana including the late Governor John J. McKeithen, the late Governor Jimmie Davis, and other former Governors. Governor Edwin W. Edwards also appeared on the show and then Governor Ronald W. Reagan of California who later would become our 40th President of the United States called into the radio show, as a special guest.
In 1974, "The Detectives" was transferred to WGSO radio with long time moderator Wayne Mack. Lt. Van Flynn and Sgt. Irvin L. Magri, Jr. continued as an award winning team featuring the actual victims of violent crime. Magri and Flynn with years of actual "street cop" experience understood very early that the unfortunate victims of violent crime were grossly under represented in the Criminal Justice System. As related in the soon to be published book, "Taking the Heat" Irv Magri was an eighteen years old Police Cadet when assigned to the "old" Bureau of Identification when he met the mother of a homicide victim. At that point in his New Orleans Police career, a young and extremely active Irv Magri vowed to make victims of violent crime a priority in his public life.
On July 28, 1969, Irv Magri founded the first Police Union in the history of the South, namely the Police Association of New Orleans (PANO). Then Police Officer Irv Magri and thirteen (13) other bold and brave souls founded this organization that went on to be one of the leading Police Associations in the United States today. Magri was twenty-two years of age when he founded PANO along with the original members: Vincent J. Bruno, August A. Palumbo, Jules Crovetto, Roland Foreman, Joseph Gallodoro, Addison R. Thompson, Lynn Schneider and Louis Munsch. The other members of the original Founding Fathers include the following deceased members: Justin "Skeeter" Favaloro, Tommy Leggett, Curt Lechler, Xavier Viola and Louis Jefferies. The late and great Father Peter V. Rogers, OMI served as the Spiritual Director of PANO during Irv Magri's presidence of PANO. The radio show "The Detectives" flourished with Magri and Flynn.
In 1991, the radio show was renamed, "CRIMEWAVE" and was aired on WSMB, WTIX, and WLNO in New Orleans and WJBO in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Some of the notable individuals that have appeared on Irv Magri's radio shows including "The Detectives" since 1967 are: (partial list only) Former Governor and Former President Ronald Wilson Reagan, Former Governor Jimmie Davis, Former Governor Edwin W. Edwards, Former Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Former Mayor of New Orleans Victor Schiro, Former U.S. Congressman and Governor David C. Treen, the late Judge David McHauer, Former Judge Alvin Oser, Former Attorney General Jack Gremillion, Former Attorney General Richard P. Ieyoub, now Major John Marie formerly of the New Orleans Police Department and host of his own radio show and now a Major with the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office, and many, many other notable individuals including the late District Attorney Jim Garrison and Former District Attorney of Orleans Parish Harry F. Connick.
Now "CRIMEWAVE" (including "The Detectives") is nearly 43 years old. It is one of the longest running radio shows in Louisiana and the deep south. Irv Magri the originator of this show is dedicated to continuing to build upon it's legacy. Long before cable television brought in "true crime shows" Magri, Flynn and Regan understood and promoted victims' rights. The legacy continues on "The Rajun Cajun" at 100.3 FM and at 1600 AM on your radio dial, beginning on Tuesday, September 22, 2009.
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