Inside Radio Interview with Glenn Beck

Personalities Inside Radio
The Mike Kinosian Interview

Medium's Magic Through The Green Eye

From a broadcaster's perspective, one thing that immediately stands out when listening to Glenn Beck is that he clearly knows his way around a microphone and production studio.

That's not intended to cast aspersions on newcomers who've assimilated themselves quite well in the business, but Beck began honing his radio craft as a teenager in Washington State.

Too young to hold a driver's license, he had to be driven by his father to work at legendary CHR KUBE/Seattle, where he had the honor of studying under no less than Michael O'Shea. "I learned so much and still apply lessons I learned there," remarks Beck, who is heard 9am-12 Noon (ET) on approximately 160 Premiere Radio Network affiliates. "As successful as Michael has been, he's still very humble and quiet."

Artful Soul

Confirming an image that Seattle can be especially gloomy, Beck points out, "There are 310 cloudy days a year there."

It was therefore odd that on an uncharacteristically sunny day, the then-seven-year-old Beck was inside watching television. "My mother wanted me to go outside and play," he recalls. "I snapped off the television and mumbled, `You watched TV when you were a kid.'"

But actually, she informed her son she didn't and instructed him about radio. "Her father had a large radio with a big green eye in the center. They'd turn off all the lights and listen to radio with the family."

Later that year for his eighth birthday, Beck's mother gave him a collection of the Golden Age Of Radio and as he excitedly remembers, "I listened to those tapes relentlessly. That's when I knew I wanted to do radio. It's such a powerful medium and was being so grossly misused. Lawyers and politicians are given shows, but I don't want to listen to them. There's a real art to this, but there's no art in their soul. That microphone is a paintbrush and the colors come from your mouth and [they] paint on the canvas of a listener's mind."

Powerful Medium

Such vivid imagery inescapably conjures up Paul Harvey's name and, as it turns out, the veteran ABC Radio commentator helped teach Beck almost everything he needed to learn. "When I was about 10," Beck recalls, "I remember hearing him put a picture in my head about an airline crash. He said, `Chicago O'Hare. Eastern Airlines. Two hundred dead.' That's all I needed. He's such a minimalist. It's beautiful."

Notwithstanding his solid music radio roots, Beck doesn't envision returning to those beginnings. "I love the power to be able to drive customers into people's businesses," he remarks. "Not only are you free to create any feeling you want without music or demographic restrictions, people come to listen to you. If you stink, your ratings are gone. [Contemporary music group] Everclear isn't going to save you - it's all about you. The ability to move those masses to feel something emotionally and then connect them to like-minded advertisers is tremendous."

Father And Son Reunion

In displaying his flair for production prowess, Beck used Everclear's "Father Of Mine" for a Father's Day piece he aired last month. "It's actually a very anti-father song," he explains. "We re-structured the music and used pieces of it. At the end, it revealed my father didn't go anywhere - I did."

For quite a while, Beck thought family was unimportant and admits, "I was a horrible son; wasn't the best spouse; and not the best dad. Once you go through a few trials in life, you either die or put things into perspective. My dad was always working when I was a kid and we never really communicated."

When Beck mentioned that reality to a female friend about 14 years ago, she said it was one of the most tragic stories she'd heard and suggested that things didn't have to be that way. "About a week later, I called my father and said I didn't know how to be his son, but I wanted to be. He said he didn't know how to be my father, but promised we'd get through awkward silences. We've been best friends ever since and now talk on the phone every day."

Feeling The News

Described as having a tender heart, Beck isn't afraid to be demonstrative with his emotions. "Sometimes I feel like Tammy Faye Baker [now Messner]," he jests. "I feel things probably more than I intellectually understand them. That's one of the differences in my show. I try to make our listeners `feel' the news as opposed to `hear' it."

Following the horrific events of 9/11, Beck went to Israel and remarks, "It only took walking in the streets for me to feel it. I can read something a million times, but it's not the same as feeling it. Once it connects inside me, it crystallizes. I try bringing that to listeners. I don't think enough Talk radio brings the feelings of events to them."

The Next Glenn Beck

One of his most (self-labeled) "bizarre shows" - "The Soundtrack of America" - was done just after 9/11. "I played sounds from the past week - not speeches or callers - just sounds," he recalls. "I rolled a music track underneath it. I think it was able to touch people in a different way."

This again underscored his uncanny ability to rely on hands-on radio insights and wisdom, yet Beck modestly states, "Without a shadow of a doubt, I have the best staff in America. I couldn't replace my crew. They're brilliant writers and producers. We look for different ways to present the same point and it often takes a long time. This isn't bragging, because I have nothing to do with it. I may come up with an idea, but my crew does it unlike anything I've ever heard."

Despite downplaying his own role, Beck seems to consistently think up and execute memorable bits - much like he did as a morning personality on contemporary music stations. "I was embarrassed to fill out a credit application and put down `morning show host,'" he confesses. "But that experience taught me how to entertain. I try to find ways to package things differently. Many Talk show hosts want to be the next Rush Limbaugh, but he's already the next Rush Limbaugh. He's not going to be duplicated, so I need to be the next Glenn Beck. That means I [should] do pretty much what he did in the 1990s and that's revolutionize the sound of Talk radio in the way I hear it."

Thank The Academy

While heralded with considerable hype, Roland Emmerich's "The Day After Tomorrow" proved to be a big letdown for Beck. "It's supposedly this important movie, but it's ridiculous," he states. "I realized it would be far better, if done with a running dialogue."

So he bought all the tickets one Thursday for the Dennis Quaid-starring thriller at a 400-seat Philadelphia movie theater and packed the place with his listeners. Beck comments, "Sela Ward [who played Dr. Lucy Hall turned in] one of the worst performances of all time, so when she came on the screen, people had to scream `Oscar.' When the Richard Cheney character came on, people had to scream `Dick' or `Look out for the wolves.' In addition, I made sarcastic comments throughout the movie. People had the time of their life. I then brought them across the street and we all had dinner."

Risk Taker

People either love or hate much of the stuff Beck does and he wasn't surprised with the reaction to quite possibly the most dangerous bit he's ever presented.

Less than a week after several hundred thousand pro-choice advocates assembled in the Nation's Capital, Beck announced he'd broadcast a live abortion.

But on April 30th, what he actually did was play a snippet of Air America Radio's "The O'Franken Factor," claiming it's "the biggest abortion on radio."

Clarifying The Point

As recently as a week before airing the bit, Beck admitted he might lose listeners because of it, yet still contends, "In many ways, it was the quintessential Glenn Beck bit. The best call I received was from a pro-choice person in Atlanta. He said his hands were shaking. I can lead people to water, but don't need to shove their heads in it. They need to drink. The bit made my listeners feel something. If I can get them to feel laughter, tears, fear or whatever - that's living. That's radio."

The actual point of the bit, Beck explains, was about adoption - not abortion. "My wife and I are trying to adopt. I was told it could be two years before I could adopt a baby. For every [available] baby, there are 25 people like me waiting. I didn't want people to look at this intellectually or spiritually. I wanted them to feel the answer they had come up with. It made no difference whether it was pro-choice or pro-life. When you feel it, it becomes internalized and you really know where you stand."

As far as Liberal-leaning Air America is concerned, Beck hopes it stays on the air, but questions whether it has a chance. "It's just a bad business. I listen to them quite often and they've made me a better broadcaster. In fact, it's the only Talk radio I listen to, since I know I'm not going to emulate them."

Top 40 Mentality

The individual responsible for giving Beck a critical shot several years ago at Clear Channel News/Talk powerhouse WFLA-AM/Tampa possesses 30+-years of radio expertise and is one of the industry's sharpest and shrewdest talents. "Thank God for Gabe Hobbs," Beck remarks, speaking of the Clear Channel News, Talk & Sports VP/Programming. "I told him I didn't want to talk about politics all the time. [Discussing] whatever's happening in the news would be more youthful and I wanted to present it in a Top 40 mentality. I wanted it highly produced and needed money for my production team."

Six months into the project, Hobbs was skeptical if anyone would understand the show. "He [got] it, but thought it might be too bizarre because it had such wide swings to it," Beck states. "Six months later, we were No. 1. It's because Gabe thought out-of-the-box and gave me the opportunity."

Wild Weekend

As his two-year WFLA contract was ready to expire, Beck was in a dilemma, having promised his daughters he'd move back to them in Philadelphia. "I wanted to give Talk radio a shot, but couldn't find a job in the Northeast to save my life," he explains. "I had an idea, but no real tapes. Gabe gave me the chance in Tampa."

An opportunity surfaced for Beck to do afternoons at Infinity Talk outlet WPHT-AM/Philadelphia. The two parties were in negotiations when Beck received a totally unexpected call from Premiere. "They wanted to fill a 9am-12 Noon slot by January 6, 2002 and said I was their guy," he notes. "They thought I was trying to hold out for more money when I said I wouldn't stay in Tampa. When the conversation got serious, I reminded them I hadn't asked for one extra dollar. I said I'd take what they were offering, but needed to live by my children, so they made studios available to me in Philadelphia."

The aforementioned infamous historic event several Septembers ago (9/11) accelerated plans for Beck's national start date. "I got an e-mail from [former Clear Channel Radio boss] Randy Michaels on [Friday] September 14, 2001, asking why our show hadn't launched. I e-mailed him back, `I think that's your decision.' He called and said we'd start on [Monday] September 17, 2001; it was a wild weekend."

Living The American Dream

Several years have passed since Beck debuted as a national personality and he humbly states, "I'm amazed and flabbergasted whenever I get sales or affiliate reports. We've had such tremendous success. It could be over and I could walk away in the next six months, but as far as I'm concerned, I've lived the American Dream."

Originally believing a national show would be easier to do than a local program, he remarks, "As someone who did local for 20 years, I thought you just talk about all the big things, without having to look for local stories. But by taking local stories off the table, you're losing [as much as] 40% of your material. There are so many great stories locally that would mean nothing to a national audience. Several of our affiliates send me their daily show prep, but there are so many local nuances you just can't use."

Reviving A Classic

About a year ago, Beck did "The War Of The Worlds" live on XM. "It was done exactly the way [Orson Welles] did it in 1939," he reports. "I did it as a `thank-you' to my mom for giving me `The War Of The Worlds' when I was eight."

While in an antique shop years ago, Beck spotted a big radio with a green eye in the center. "It was the radio my mother told me about," he says filling with emotion. "I have it in the family room of my house and look at it quite often. It reminds me of the magic I first understood this medium could be. Twenty-five years from now, I want people to talk about the bits we created and the things we did."

Art Of Radio

Regardless of one's political affiliation, Beck scored huge praise for his numerous "Rallies For America" and comments, "I never felt more blessed in my whole career. I'm not an activist like [Westwood One's] Tom Martino [please see Inside Radio, 4-15-2004] - I just try to do entertaining radio. [Especially] since 9/11, people on [both sides of the aisle] have felt their voice wasn't being heard. The system and our government is all about `the average Joe.' When we do our job right, radio is all about them."

Although occasionally seen on MSNBC, Beck emphatically states, "Radio is my art and my real love - I want to focus on the show. At least to this point, I haven't let success destroy me as it did when I was in my 20s and let ego and success get out of control. It was devastating to me and to my family."

Recently on the road for nearly three months promoting his book, Beck confesses that by doing so, "I shortchanged my audience. I have to get back to that `green eye.'"

WHO: Glenn Beck
WHAT: "The Glenn Beck Show"
WHERE: Premiere Radio Networks
WHEN: Monday - Friday 9am - 12 Noon (ET)
HOW MANY AFFILIATES: Approximately 160