This ink-stained wretch turned pixel pundit is branching out: Just did three hours on Glenn Beck’s online radio network, theblaze.com. Click on the link above and you’ll see a “play” button at top-right of screen; you can listen to all or any part of it. Main topic: Obama Bad. Capitalism Good.
Joking, but only sort of.
It’s been almost five months since leaving Fox Business Network, and it took me quite an obstacle course to get here: three separate one-hour tryouts at The Blaze, sitting alone in a booth with headphones on and a mike hooked to a digital recorder. (Free, in exchange for experience and training). That led to a couple of dead-on, devastating critiques: nice facts but where’s the humor and passion? More passion but now how do you feel and who are you?
My advisor, an ace, told me something really clutch: Radio isn’t “broad”-casting, it’s the most intimate form of mass communication there is, it’s one-to-one. The people have to feel like they know you. When you have three hours to fill and an obligation to get personal, unscripted surprises pop up. Including a glimpse of a spartan childhood, a hint of a family insurance scandal, how I’m feeling after my first unemployment in a too-long career, and the betrayal and disappointment I feel regarding a President who let us down.
Once at a cable network, I told an exec I wanted a talk radio show someday. “It would never work–you aren’t enough of an asshole,” he told me. He meant it as a compliment. I bristled comically: “Never underestimate how much of an asshole I can be.” This bit on The Blaze was so much fun, it was great to try something so new on a frontier so forward. I subbed for Jay Severin, a Blaze host with a spiky persona and spiky hair, which is awfully good casting on The Blaze’s part, gotta say. Here’s hoping I get another at-bat at the mike.