Bonus： The Sean Hannity Show - Neil Boortz and Sean Hannity Remember When
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
187.41272
Summary
In Part 2 of my interview with J.D. Vance, we have part two of my conversation with him. We talk about the early days of his radio career, how he got his start, and how he went from a radio station in Alabama to becoming a radio host in Atlanta.
Transcript
00:00:04.380
All right, News Roundup and Information Overload Hour.
00:00:13.220
So we had Matt Towery joining us in Washington, D.C. yesterday.
00:00:18.300
And by the way, we have part two of my interview with J.D. Vance.
00:00:24.320
Linda, did you see all the social media pick up on it?
00:00:42.820
I did other things that I can't talk about yet.
00:00:52.180
I have another trip planned for reasons that I can't disclose either.
00:00:56.320
Boy, I'm really sharing a lot with the audience today.
00:00:59.460
But anyway, so we had our friend Matt Towery in studio.
00:01:03.040
And I was a local radio host in Huntsville, Alabama.
00:01:07.740
And I got a call one day from Eric Seidel, better known as Sluggo on this program.
00:01:15.020
Still friends with the owner of the radio station at the time when I worked in Huntsville.
00:01:19.720
As a matter of fact, I'm friends with everybody I've ever worked for.
00:01:32.000
Because the star radio host in the market at the time for somewhat 30 years
00:01:40.020
And he had jumped ship from Seidel's station, the news monster we called it back in the day,
00:01:48.480
to what he referred to affectionately as the ex-wife to another station.
00:01:59.440
Little did I know I was going up against a monster in the market.
00:02:08.020
This is like old school, old-fashioned, hardcore, deep in the paint, you know, radio war days.
00:02:18.900
And I have to give him credit because I'm better as if I'm any good at talk radio,
00:02:28.240
And I knew that my career was being threatened every day.
00:02:31.720
Long story short, he initially went over to the news station
00:02:40.800
And then one day, my first day, I'm going on vacation.
00:02:47.340
And I listen to him tell me, Sean, I know you're listening to this program.
00:02:50.740
And I'm like, how the hell does this man know I'm listening to his program?
00:02:58.080
And he's like, well, your phone's about to ring.
00:03:01.260
And Sluggo is going to tell you to come back and not go on vacation.
00:03:05.600
Because starting Monday morning, I was on 9 to noon.
00:03:09.300
At 8.45, he was going to get a 15-minute jump on me.
00:03:34.940
Because I was, you know, still new, fresh to the market.
00:03:48.760
And I tuned into Neil's station just to see what they're talking about.
00:03:52.360
At 6.15, not only was Neil there, he telegraphed his entire show.
00:03:57.580
And he had read every newspaper, knew every news story.
00:04:12.200
And he would telegraph his show every day at 6.15.
00:04:16.640
And if he was going to be talking about a topic, he didn't do many guests.
00:04:20.880
I'd find the guests that he would be talking about at the beginning of his show.
00:04:27.260
Or you could listen to Neil talk about the people that were in my studio.
00:04:35.340
The irony of all of this is we became really close friends.
00:04:42.580
But he swears he ran me out of town to the Fox News channel.
00:04:59.780
And if I didn't learn that I had to work harder, I don't think I'd be here today.
00:05:06.460
And it's a pleasure to welcome back my dear friend, Neil Bortz.
00:05:19.160
How did you know I was listening on my way on my first vacation ever since I had taken that job six months into that job?
00:05:33.420
If you go back and I have the history books, Arbitron used to do ratings in three-month intervals.
00:05:41.640
And I told this to Matt Towery yesterday, where between the two of us, we had 25% of the market in men 2554, which for those that don't understand ratings, that is a massive number in the key demographic.
00:05:59.380
And we both had, and it's almost impossible mathematically for it to work out this way.
00:06:08.680
So, but I think, I think actually it was higher than that.
00:06:15.940
I mean, I don't even know if I can go back and find those old books, but you did not know the story of that day that I tuned in and heard you at 615 in the morning.
00:06:29.940
Well, I usually got there about four, 430 in the morning.
00:06:33.320
So I realized I'm never going to be late again.
00:06:35.740
And the interesting thing was you had read every newspaper.
00:06:40.720
You were fully prepared to do your show at 615.
00:06:43.920
What the heck did you do for the, for the next two hours, two and a half hours?
00:06:47.860
I spent that time bothering other people at the radio station.
00:06:55.780
The stories about you and especially about Monica Kaufman that if I told them in this day and age, I know you're dear friends with her, by the way.
00:07:04.760
Uh, yeah, Monica and I get along just great, but, uh, you know, well, I, I messed with you a good deal too, you know?
00:07:12.720
You, you, and every, everybody in the market, you couldn't stand the fact that I was younger and, and prettier than you.
00:07:24.640
You're mentioning on my ID card that I wore around the neck.
00:07:34.000
By the way, uh, I have a special guest to say hello to you.
00:07:37.320
Uh, the guy that hired me to replace you after you took the money and ran to the other station.
00:07:45.800
Uh, Sluggo, why did you not let me return when I called you from Hartsfield airport and Neil was going to, was moving from 12 to three back to his old time slot?
00:07:57.140
Well, I'm calling today to let you know you can go on vacation now.
00:08:04.420
Um, and, oh, you two for a while, by the way, hated each other.
00:08:17.160
Uh, after I left, Sluggo sent a picture of you hammering nails into my coffin.
00:08:29.520
And there was one rating book and you had never been beaten and you're never going to admit it.
00:08:35.640
And you did win one demographic, like 65 and older.
00:08:39.360
And so Sluggo in his genius and, and other people that we work with at the time decided to send you a gift package of like, you know, denture cream and depends and say, congratulations.
00:09:04.040
Now this may sound inside baseball, but there's a lot of lessons to be learned here.
00:09:08.740
Sluggo, did I even tell you about the first day that I was listening to Neil at 615 with Scott Slade?
00:09:15.980
And I heard them and I, it put panic in my heart at how prepared he was.
00:09:23.980
Who was the attorney you, uh, based him on who was going to be coming into his show from the, uh, from the, uh, no, that they, well, that's, well, it was right after the OJ Simpson case.
00:09:34.360
And Bob Shapiro, who's to, who to this day is still a dear friend of mine.
00:09:38.880
Um, I, I heard Neil telegraph that morning at 615 that he had Bob Shapiro on and Neil rarely had guests on.
00:09:46.440
So I, I looked at Eric Stenger who still works with me.
00:10:04.220
And then when the hour was ending and he was supposed to go over to Neil's show, I said, would you mind staying a little bit longer?
00:10:10.240
You know what happened from there when he finally got over to your place around 11?
00:10:15.500
I mean, we all became close and we all remain close.
00:10:18.560
Although Bortz, you never know where this guy is.
00:10:21.000
He's got this big bus that he travels around in.
00:10:23.460
Um, I've tried to convince you numerous times to go back on the air full time.
00:10:43.780
Um, Sluggo, do you want to tell the world how cold hearted?
00:10:48.560
Neil is and how he got his first radio job at ring radio.
00:10:55.780
But, um, but I, I will tell you that I've always felt Neil had some of the best radio
00:11:03.700
That's why you, you paid him a lot more money than you paid me.
00:11:06.400
You got me for like dirt cheap when you paid me and you hired me.
00:11:09.700
Uh, you were the diamond in the rough, you know, look, much, much, much like Moses.
00:11:16.220
And we plucked you out of the water and we gave you life.
00:11:21.220
All right, Neil, tell everybody how you started in talk radio, because this is the coldest hearted
00:11:26.960
story of all time, but it's actually brilliant on the other hand.
00:11:30.640
Well, it may be cold hearted, but somebody had to do it.
00:11:33.380
Uh, I was a big fan of a talk show host on what they called at that time, ring radio.
00:11:40.620
And I, I would go whenever he made a speech, I was there.
00:11:46.360
Then one time I'm sitting at home on Sunday and I hear on the news that evening that this
00:11:52.260
particular talk show host, his name was Herb Elfman, that he committed suicide.
00:12:00.180
And, uh, so I said, well, I wonder who's going to do the show in tomorrow.
00:12:05.520
So, uh, I, I got a lawn chair and a thermos of coffee and I went and sat on the sidewalk
00:12:10.720
outside the radio station, waited until everybody got there.
00:12:13.540
The station was only on the air during the daytime.
00:12:17.220
And I said, Oh, you haven't heard Herb is not going to come in today.
00:12:21.140
And so you basically jumped on the guy's grave and you got hired.
00:12:26.320
And 37 years later, you know, you were still a top rated host and one of the most well-known
00:12:35.120
And then you became nationally syndicated as well.
00:12:46.760
It is, it is Neil's story to tell, not mine, but it is cold.
00:12:55.080
You know, we did other things to mess with you too.
00:12:58.020
Did you know we used to feed you purposely stories so that you would talk about the same
00:13:05.040
If there was a gun topic, a plane topic, what else, what other stories did we always want
00:13:11.620
Because the research showed that people got bored when he talked about it, Sluggo.
00:13:15.120
There were a couple of other, we found ways to get that information to you or we'd, we'd
00:13:20.540
have somebody call in and set you off and then you'd, you'd go right down the, the, the
00:13:27.300
You also took some recordings of some uncomplimentary things I said about the owners of my new radio
00:13:41.000
You keep trying to absolve yourself of responsibility for those.
00:13:50.540
Well, I remember some of the acronyms for WSB that he developed.
00:13:58.940
So I got to be nice here, but I think they'll find it amusing.
00:14:03.780
That, that was, but at the time they were until you got there and then Greg Mosheri,
00:14:09.040
I'll tell you what, we'll pick it up a couple more minutes on the other side.
00:14:11.440
If you guys have nothing to do, you're both retired.
00:14:15.220
Um, and I mean that complimentary more with Neil Bortz, more of their excited
00:14:20.220
Del Sluggo, uh, on the other side, a little bit more of the radio war.
00:14:27.660
Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses,
00:14:32.200
their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:14:34.380
And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:14:40.520
And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:14:44.260
Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers,
00:14:50.000
So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:14:53.000
Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:15:01.360
And when I'd only been a professional radio host for two years, I had started in,
00:15:07.520
And I guess I, my first job was in 1990 in Huntsville, Alabama.
00:15:12.240
Then I'm Eric Seidel, who's with us, Sluggo, we call him, hired me in Atlanta.
00:15:17.140
And I went up against this, this unbelievable giant in the market, Neil Bortz.
00:15:23.780
And, and I realized that if I didn't work hard,
00:15:26.700
Neil Bortz was going to do to me what he did to so many others before me.
00:15:32.020
And I was not going to let that happen, or at least fight my hardest to do so.
00:15:37.120
After about the first year in Sluggo, this is a story for you to tell.
00:15:41.060
And it, it taught me something about research and you did a, you brought me in your office
00:15:53.180
First of all, let me give this some perspective.
00:15:56.320
Neil worked for a company that was doing research every five seconds in the market.
00:16:00.780
They were constantly aware of what was going on in the market.
00:16:04.000
I, you and I were working for a company that didn't have that, those pockets as deep.
00:16:09.140
And we, when we did our first major research, uh, about a year after you came to the radio
00:16:14.900
station and, um, before that research came in, we had been telling you, Sean, this is
00:16:26.220
We're in the deep South and you weren't listening.
00:16:29.280
And by that, just to give perspective, I grew up listening to the likes of Bob Grant, you
00:16:33.740
know, one of the great pioneers of talk radio, but also geniuses like Barry Farber and Barry
00:16:41.320
You some bag, you low life, you dirt bag, get off my phone.
00:16:47.360
You know, that was not Farber's technique, but it certainly was Bob.
00:16:51.840
Bob Grant, you know, eventually got fired in part because he was so controversial.
00:16:55.880
But anyway, so, uh, you came in and I'm, are you talking about after the research came
00:17:00.820
in or, uh, before the research came in, you didn't let me know you did research.
00:17:05.340
I figured out you did research, but you sat me down in your office.
00:17:09.440
Nancy Zentac was in the room and you leaned into me about this very issue that, you know,
00:17:15.780
you grew up, you grew up with one type of talk radio that you listened to.
00:17:19.880
And you now live in the South and the bottom line was people love my conservative positions.
00:17:27.620
It was the beginning of the rise of Newt Gingrich, but they didn't like stylistically
00:17:34.820
And that, you know, that you were perfect politically, you were perfect for our demographic,
00:17:39.680
Um, but you still had that edge of a New Yorker in you.
00:17:43.600
And I think I told, and you said you've lost confidence in me.
00:17:50.400
I said in that meeting, I looked at you and I said, you lost confidence in me.
00:17:54.060
And the fact is we had not, um, and if anything, we just wanted to help improve you, develop
00:18:03.460
And, uh, so the research, which you really weren't supposed to see until you stole it
00:18:22.580
I didn't even say, as a matter of fact, it never left Arnie Kutinsky's room because
00:18:28.360
I read it, you know, one night overnight and I didn't stop reading it till I read till
00:18:46.080
Anyway, um, you had seen the, one of the things that I, that struck me really wrong
00:18:52.820
was that the guy who analyzed the research said, you should think about replacing Sean.
00:18:58.000
The words were, you may want to rethink Sean Hannity at some point.
00:19:07.480
And you, um, but you read the transcripts of what people said to them, the verbatims.
00:19:22.140
That's, that's, that's what changed me on a dime.
00:19:26.020
Now, what I learned is they're called perceptual studies in radio.
00:19:29.720
Neil, you've read a ton of research over the years, or at least they've told you about it.
00:19:34.920
You were going to do what you were going to do.
00:19:40.880
Um, and it, what I learned is the audience was dead on honest and the audience was right.
00:19:48.240
And I needed to read it in black and white and let it absorb it and let it hit me in the face hard.
00:19:56.640
Sean, you're apologating what we have been saying to you.
00:19:59.420
It did, but you didn't, we weren't saying it in a way that just screamed at me.
00:20:06.700
He needs to stop hanging up on people and telling them to shut up.
00:20:13.040
We were just telling you maybe a little more graphically, but, but the fact is it was, it, uh, it affirmed and validated what we had been saying to you.
00:20:23.180
And you had to see that third party validation to really wake up.
00:20:36.700
Sean, first of all, you, you listened to Bob Grant and the others.
00:20:40.220
I never listened to anybody else on talk radio.
00:20:44.940
Uh, I didn't listen to you when we were head to head competing.
00:20:48.120
Other than that, I was never a Limbaugh listener.
00:20:51.200
Uh, you know, I didn't want them to affect the way I did my job.
00:21:00.740
If, if I, if I was in your head that much, that's a good thing.
00:21:05.620
But then you remember you and I would go to news breaks at the same time.
00:21:12.820
And, um, you know, sometimes I would just wait for you to break before I take my break.
00:21:17.260
And I, I've had my, I've had Eric Stanger monitoring when you went to a break.
00:21:22.600
We were having a great time, but now what you haven't told, and I, and I want you to
00:21:26.540
tell this story too, is that when I moved full time down to Florida, I had the best
00:21:39.840
Neil and I became best friends in the, while we were still competitors, I had deep respect
00:21:46.020
for Neil Sluggo and I have remained friends ever since I had to go to his house and say,
00:21:51.340
um, is it okay if I take this opportunity and work at Fox news at that point, nobody knew
00:21:56.840
what national cable news really was, but for CNN and Eric was very supportive and said,
00:22:09.520
Well, I was jealous, but then I know you are, you, but you're full of crap.
00:22:13.040
Cause you went on the air and said, I drove, I drove Hannity out of town.
00:22:16.620
Oh, well, I mean, look at the ratings at that point, you know, ratings at that point were
00:22:20.980
I was still kicking ass until you guys got the Braves back.
00:22:32.340
Um, I will tell you, I'm, I'm very grateful to both of you for very different.
00:22:36.660
Different reasons is, and the fact that we've all been able to stay friends all these years
00:22:42.860
Did you know that Greg Mosheri was sending out tapes of my show to stations around the
00:22:48.180
country to get me job offers, to get me away from you?
00:22:59.020
The first time I ran into that technique, that tactic, I was working in Philadelphia at a
00:23:03.920
CBS radio station, owned radio station in news.
00:23:07.480
And I got a call from a competing news director on another station who I've never met.
00:23:13.560
And he said, I've given your name to a former boss of mine in Atlanta.
00:23:29.340
I was shocked when, when Mosheri told me that I was absolutely shocked.
00:23:35.340
Now, this is the most interesting part about Neil to me and Slogo, tell me if I'm right
00:23:44.100
And by the way, when you had Belinda and Royal, God rest his soul.
00:23:49.900
And I, I don't think there was a better chemistry, although Linda's close.
00:23:57.100
And when you had that team around you and your ability to use that team to enhance the
00:24:06.360
show and create a family atmosphere that everybody wanted to be a part of, it was, it was very
00:24:19.160
I can tell you that her dog had an ACL surgery this morning.
00:24:27.100
That was, so I asked her, how many ACLs does a dog have?
00:24:38.920
We've been, uh, since 1999, we've been rescuing golden retrievers and they're incredible.
00:24:45.860
Well, I just want to say to both of you, I'm very grateful to both of you.
00:25:02.120
And ever since that day, I will periodically make sure that I read the audience comments
00:25:09.160
Not, not online because online is not a real world.
00:25:12.940
You, you, you have people naked in their parents' basement, uh, anonymous keyboard warriors.
00:25:18.500
They don't concern me, but research projects look for real listeners.
00:25:24.020
And if you listen to it, it will make you better at what you do.
00:25:29.100
When you go up against somebody as talented and gifted as Neil.
00:25:33.520
And I think in the history of talk radio, one of the best talk show hosts ever, um, it's
00:25:43.440
Well, Sean, I just thank God every day that I didn't have to make a living being a lawyer.
00:25:48.680
You remember what you said to me after nine 11?
00:25:52.140
Remember a conversation we had and you said, you had always said, um, I'm, I'm on the
00:25:59.040
I'm, I'm, I'm not, I don't take myself seriously.
00:26:03.780
And you said, Hannity, you, you believe all this and you, you're more serious than I am.
00:26:08.940
And then after nine 11, do you, you don't remember what you said to me?
00:26:16.380
And you weren't saying it in a way that was negative at all.
00:26:23.900
And I am, I am looking at my job entirely differently now.
00:26:30.820
Uh, I've always thought that a talk show host is first and foremost, an entertainer, and
00:26:38.500
But then, uh, later on after nine 11, uh, and the various ethnic invasions we've had of
00:26:45.940
this country, Minnesota, uh, it occurs to me that there's just a lot more to it than,
00:26:53.500
There's very important information to be, to be sent to the public out there.
00:27:00.440
Just try to do it in an entertaining way to keep them listening and hopefully make a
00:27:06.760
You know, now the difference I want to make is a water level in the hot tub when I'm sitting
00:27:18.940
And then of course, Rush took it to a whole new level and we're all grateful to him for
00:27:25.260
Um, if it wasn't for talk radio, we wouldn't have had an alternative point of view in this
00:27:30.100
If it wasn't for Fox news, we wouldn't have an alternative point of view in this country.
00:27:35.620
The fact that I've been blessed to do both in my life and career and have people like
00:27:48.500
Bill Donovan and in Alabama also gave me a shot.
00:27:51.840
They hired me over the phone there and I had no experience doing radio full time.
00:27:58.020
Uh, so I just want to say thanks to both of you.
00:28:00.660
And it's, it's kind of fun to rehash some crazy radio days, man.
00:28:08.500
The world were off because you fell off that roof.
00:28:13.240
Neil hit the ground and woke up a conservative.
00:28:19.100
You're both, uh, amazing people and dear friends.
00:28:29.600
Hannity tonight, nine Eastern on the Fox news channel part two.
00:28:34.540
My interview with JD Vance, the vice president also while in DC, I spend time with RFK junior
00:28:43.680
Uh, we have a lot on the nuttiness and insanity of the radical left.
00:28:48.160
They are cracking up and it's getting worse by the day and the news you'll never get from
00:28:53.000
the mainstream media mob nine Eastern tonight, Hannity Fox.