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Talk Radio Makeover
©2013 NTS MediaOnline™ — All rights reserved. To subscribe visit www.ntsmediaonline.com
with your mind a lot more than television does. It’s a much more intimate medium where you can have the time to really talk and explain things. I’ve had training as a talk show host for television, but radio is a whole new ball game for me and I find it really exciting. I’m up for the challenge. What is it that you think makes you stand out in a pretty crowded field of syndicated Talk radio shows? First of all, I have an unusual memory. Because of that I’m able to cross-connect information culled from decades of living and working in a way that I think I can honestly say nobody else can. I have this huge gene pool of information and content that I can’t wait to share with people. I like to call what I do on the show ‘life through the prism of health.’ I want listeners to say, ‘I never thought of it that way before,’ or ‘Wow, I didn’t know that.’ And would you say the show has more appeal to women vs. men? Let’s put it this way; Men are having problems with women and women are having problems with men, so this show is for everybody. Let’s talk about this unique memory thing you have going on. When I was six years old my family called me Miss Memory, the Memory Kid, etc. I knew I had the best memory in my family, and by high school I knew I had the best memory in my crowd. But it really wasn’t until I was older that I started to realize that nobody else I knew had this kind of memory. One day in 2006 -- September 20th to be exact, a Wednesday -- my friend Leslie Stahl from CBS News called and asked me to have lunch with her and her producer. She was asking me all sorts of questions like when we met, how we met -- things like that. At one point her producer told me she’d gotten married on June 15th, 1998 and I said, ‘Really? Why did you get married on a Monday?’ That initial conversation led to me being on a segment with Leslie on 60 Minutes, showing me going through a bunch of testing at UC Irvine, where they took 300 measurements of my brain and just about everything else you can imagine. At that time they’d only found
September 27, 2013
You often hear people inside and outside of the radio industry suggest that Talk radio needs a ‘makeover’ -- something that takes the format beyond simply talking about politics, both conservative and liberal. Enter Marilu Henner. Best known for a show biz career that has seen her star in more than 30 films, six Broadway shows and two mega-hit classic TV sitcoms, the five time Golden Globe nominee is also a New York Times bestselling author of nine books on health, parenting, memory and lifestyle improvement. She’s been a guest on practically every major TV and radio Talk show, competed twice on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice and continues to be a working actress, with recent roles on such shows as Two And A Half Men and The Glades. And if you’re wondering how she can remember all of the things she’s done in her career, we note that Marilu is one of only 12 people documented with ‘Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory,’ a trait that made her the subject of a two-part special on CBS Television’s 60 Minutes. Henner’s seemingly boundless energy recently led her to launch her own daily Talk radio show, which is now syndicated by Sun Broadcast Group. This week, we catch up with Marilu to talk about her life, her career and her hopes for being a host who can offer Talk radio a show that’s a whole lot more than just politics. With all that you’ve done and all that you do, what attracted you to the idea of hosting a daily radio show? I’ve always loved doing radio. Every time I’ve done a book tour, or anything else that needs promotion, I always ask, ‘Can we do more radio?’ It’s a medium where you don’t have to get your message out in four minutes or less, which I like. Radio is all in your mind -- it’s your own pictures and your not distracted by visuals. To me, radio plays
MARILU HENNER
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Doug Stephan’s Good Day -- now in its 25th year in national syndication -- has added a dozen new affiliates in recent weeks, including WTNT/Washington, DC; WVWI/San Juan, Puerto Rico; KLPW/St. Louis; KLO/Ogden, UT; WVOV/Chattanooga; WRHL/Rockford, IL; WCCM/Manchester, NH; KBTM/Jonesboro, AR; WRPW/Bloomington, IL; WRIK/Paducah; WATX/Algood, TN; and WFLN/Arcadia, FL … Envision Radio Networks syndicated America Weekend adds new affiliate WRIK/Paducah as the newest affiliate of the live Saturday and Sunday show anchored by Paul Harris, Turi Ryder and Rob Carson … Cumulus Media Networks new affiliates this week include KPSI/Palm Springs, KYYA/Billings and WWLZ/Elmira (The Mark Levin Show): KQEW/Pine Bluff, AR, KVBL/LaGrange, OR, WEZO/Augusta and WWRK/Myrtle Beach (The Mike Huckabee Show); KUJ/Yakima (CBS Sports Minute); and KIOL/Joplin, KYYA/Billings, KZBI/Salt Lake City and WRCG/Opelika, AL (Imus In The Morning) … Glenn Haege, “America’s Master Handyman” and host of the syndicated weekend program The Handyman Show, has released a newly revised and expanded version of his home improvement book, Fix it Fast and Easy, as an eBook. The eBook version can be downloaded from Amazon.com and through the Apple iTunes bookstore … The Cigar Dave Show, affiliated via Talk Shows USA, adds new affiliates WSKY/Gainesville, FL, KFIV/Modesto and KWSX/Stockton.
Your pulse quickens when you hear a passing siren. You sit through city council and school board meetings and you’re actually interested in what’s going on. You don’t care what time of day or night a major story breaks, as long as you’re the first one there. If this is you, Midwest Communications is currently accepting applications for their radio news operations. The company offers a competitive salary and benefits package, the tools to win, and the freedom to create in a company the still values locally originated broadcasting on-air and through its digital platforms. Email your resume and audio to National Director of News/Talk Programming Jerry Bader HERE (EOE) … Got a gig open? Looking for your next challenge? Email details and your contact info HERE and we’ll post it free of charge.
Lotus Communications/Tucson is “knee high” in socks, courtesy of the company’s recent Socks For Soldiers campaign promoted by KLPX. The promotion resulted in the collection of more than 2,000 pairs of socks -- an item always in high demand by America’s military men and women serving overseas. File this idea in your “steal this” folder.
When SockS Rock
Clear Channel/Tucson has named Debbie Wagner as Market Manager of the company’s seven-station southern Arizona cluster that includes News/Talk KNST. It’s a return to the market for Wagner, who previously served as VP/Market Manager for CC/Tucson from 2003-2008 … Stephanie Callahan is named Market Manager for Clear Channel’s four-station Wichita cluster. Callahan’s radio resume includes 13 years as Director of Sales for ABC Radio and Citadel Communications in Dallas, along with AE and sales management positions with Clear Channel in Austin and Los Angeles … Congrats to Glenn Serafin, who has been named President of the National Association of Media Brokers. Serafin, Director of Tampa-based media brokerage firm Serafin Bros., Inc., will serve a two-year term as the head of the group. NAMB is the founding underwriter of the Broadcasters Foundation’s Ward L. Quaal Pioneer Awards that are handed out every April during the annual NAB Show in Las Vegas.
RadioMD.com debuts The Dr. Holly Lucille Show, available live every Wednesday at 3pm (ET), with replays offered throughout the week. The show is also available on-demand, and via TuneIn and iHeartRadio. Dr. Lucille formerly co-hosted RadioMD’s It’s Your Health & It Ain’t Rocket Science … Get BREAKING NEWSalerts by following us on TWITTER, or “friend” us on FACEBOOK. Find one-click links to both HERE.
September 27, 2013 Page 3
Brooke Trissel 512.589.8568
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Al Peterson 858.486.7559
six people who have what they call ‘Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory’ and I was one of them. After that ran it changed my career and people saw me in a whole different light than what they knew of me from my television and film work. Now they understood why I’ve always said, ‘I’m not a know-it-all, I’m a remember-it-all.’ So was it helpful when doing things like learning a show script? No, actually people always ask me that. That’s more two-dimensional, that’s photographic memory. I’ll remember where I read the script, what the weather was like, what the day was, where I was sitting -- things like that.
Speaking of TV scripts, share with us some of your memories from your time on what were certainly two iconic television shows, Taxi and Evening Shade. Evening Shade was like being in a master class. How often do you get a cast of Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe winners all together in one place? Burt Reynolds, Hal Holbrook, Ossie Davis, Charles Durning -- it was just crazy. What a great group of people to work with. Certainly a show very different from Taxi, which was actually pretty dark. When you think about that Tuesday night lineup it was Happy Days, LaVerne and Shirley, Three’s Company and then Taxi. It was a very different show than anything else, but it was wonderful and I think the show really holds up over time. And all of us have kept working -- Tony Danza, Danny Devito, Judd Hirsch -- we all still stay in touch. In fact Tony was recently on my radio show on a segment we do called ‘Backstage Pass.’ Tell us what being on Celebrity Apprentice and being around Donald Trump was like. Everyone asks me what is Donald Trump really like. He is a guy who you expect to say, ‘I love the smell of business in the morning.’ He is crazy, but so much fun to work with on that show. He loves what he does. That show is high pressure and really crazed, and takes everything you’ve got. And I would do it again in a second. It’s a show and an experience that really suits my energy level. Finally, what is it you hope to achieve through your radio show? I want to connect with as many people as possible and connect them with all the great information I have learned over the years. Not only from some of my celebrity friends, but also from all the doctors, nutritionists and others who I’ve learned so much from -- people who want a better life and who want to share that information with others to help them create a better life. I’m not here to scream about politics. I like to say that if I have to drag you kicking and screaming to a better life, you’re going to have a damn good time getting there!
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‘‘ I’m not a know-it-all, I’m a remember-it-all. ’’
