Posted on 06/04/2012 6:02:54 AM PDT by TomServo
Neil Boortz will announce on his program this morning that he will be retiring in January. He will pass his seat over to longtime friend Herman Cain who thinks “they” think you’re stupid.
WSB appears to have accidentally released the announcment on their website, where a cached version of the announcement says it is set to post at 10:07 am this morning. Of Boortz’s news, it says:
Today national radio talk show host Neal Boortz announced live on his program that he’s retiring from his daily show and passing the torch to his friend and colleague, Herman Cain. His last day hosting The Neal Boortz Show, which premiered on News/Talk WSB in 1993 and now airs on more than 200 radio stations with six million weekly listeners, will be January 18, 2013.
“It’s time for me and my wife, Donna, to hit the road and travel in ways that we have not been able to through most of our 42 years together,” said Boortz – also known as “The Talkmaster” and “The High Priest of the Church of the Painful Truth.”
I figured it only a matter of time once Royal Marshall passed.
He could be a real jerk, but I will miss him.
>>returns to radio full time inauguration day – January 21, 2013 at 9:00 a.m.
So, “tune in at 9-9-9...”
I will miss Neal and his tales about flying airplanes.
Isn’t Herman older than Boortz?
Thank God. Boortz had an opportunity to really move the fundamental tax reform issue but refused to play hardball for fear of jeopardizing book sales. Good riddence to this intellectually unimpressive prima donna.
I formed the same impression after listening to him only a few times.
This speech was so penetrating, so astute, so no-holds-barred, so American that it should be read by every American of any age.
When you read it, your admiration for Boortz will know no bounds and he'll remain in your memory as a true patriot.
If anyone can find a link to the speech, please post it here. After Neal was done speaking, he received a lengthy standing O from the students.
There was only deathly silence from the faculty section.
This says it all.
Leni
Hope Rush keeps taking vacations and so does not get too restless - or just tired of it all. No question this programming demands a great deal.
These voices keep me going in the 'worst of times'. And so many more, listening, as well/sigh. . .
WSB Programming Director Pete Spriggs said that Boortz will continue to broadcast to his loyal listeners via the “Boortz Blast” daily rant “whenever he can deliver it.”
Yup. I used to like Neal, but he’s really slid in the past year.
Militantly pro-abortion and anti-christian. I won’t miss him.
I don’t remember how old Herman is but Neal went to Pensacola High School with my husband and he says Neal is about 68.
First started listening to him in the 80’s when he was local in Atlanta. Over the years, his attitudes became less and less bearable. Too impressed with is own intelligence and wit for me.
That being said, the few minutes I have listened to Cain have not whetted my appetite for more of him.
No matter what anyone may think of Neal personally, he was entertaining, informative, provocative and sincere. He will be missed by those who knew him...............
I hate to break it to you but he never gave that "commencement" address at an actual college commencement. He created it as an alternative commencement for the radio when (I think I have this right) he heard that one year even Kermit the Frog was giving an address. Many years later he did give it as a speech at some Atlanta college, but it still wasn't for a commencement.
Here's a link to one of the versions of the speech: http://www.boortz.com/news/news/local-education/commencement-speech/nCG7H/
I will miss Boortz when he's gone. He could be a real jerk to some callers, but many of them more than deserved it. My only major point of disagreement with him was on abortion and his complete refusal to discuss it on the radio. Herman Cain is a nice guy, but he just doesn't have the bite to keep my interest. I might have to track down where Glenn Beck is broadcasting for my morning radio addiction.
Now I just want to find a copy of the Cat Chasing Championship hoax. He set up a radio gimmick of a sporting event with a group of parachutists and a cat. The cat was thrown out of a plane and the parachutist who came down with it was the winner. They had weeks to set it up with pre-event interviews, advertisements, sound effects of the plane, parachutists, howling cat and a chainsaw afterward. Unfortunately the rights are owned by the station he used to work for so he can't sell the recordings. Maybe once he's off the air they will let him sell them.
Big time. He would mock Christians and banned his callers from bringing up the topic of abortion, but he would not resist using the pro-aborts arguments during the show.
I always had this suspicion that he facilitated an abortion in the past and had to justify his action as so many pro-aborts do. I think he probably paid for his daughter to abort his grandchild.
Sad though, on so many issues I agreed with him but couldn't listen because of these issues.
Leni
Up until about 4 years ago, I used to listen to him since his days at WRNG radio. I finally got tired of his petulant attitude along with his penchant for being a purile little man-boy when it comes to his off color remarks. I also came to think that many of the stories he tells about this and that from his past are extremely exaggerated. I think he’s a chicken who hides behind his mike and the the dump switch.
If any of you out there really want to know what he’s like, just think on this. Why is it that Boortz has NEVER been a substitute for Rush Limbaugh? I can tell you Rush likely met him and summed him up very quickly - weighed, measured, and found wanting as they say.
A legend in his own mind - won’t be missed around my household.
One phrase I first heard Neal use and I occasionally use, is the famous ‘Dirt Nap’ for executed criminals.
He’s a fiscal conservative, social liberal, anti-Christian shock jock. He’s basically Howard Stern without hair. I usually made a point of NOT listening to him on the way to work. I’m glad he’s off the air.
I remember hearing him on WRNG Talk Radio in the 70's when I lived in Smyrna, back in 1973-5. He never struck me as "all that", and a couple of times in the last 18 months when I've heard him, he struck me as boorish and bullying, as well as tendentious (Rush can be tendentious, too, but he has a purpose -- he's being didactic, so that even liberals from Rio Linda can understand and remember what he said).
That all said, nevertheless he broke ground for others and set up a new format, which an article I saw about Rush years ago called "non-guested confrontation". Despite the cheesy moniker, the format worked to bring out that the MSM doyens did not own the football, the field, the stadium, the broadcast rights, and the copyright to the game. He was the entering wedge that began to break the deathgrip the MSM cabal -- and we are now recognizing it as a cabal, run by weaselly little sob's like Ezra Klein and Jonathan Alter -- had on Americans for a very, very long time, and with which they did very great damage, damn their little Marxist hides, to a great ideal and a great country.
Boortz opened a door, and Rush and others walked right through. You have to give Boortz props for that. He wasn't the only guy in talk radio back then (it was usually a local show, one host, limited hours), but he was the guy who got it noticed and took it regional.
Boortz was boring but he was 1000 times better than Herman will ever be. Mr. Cain blew away any relevance he had when he let himself be blown out of the primaries by “alleged” ex mistresses
You and me both. His pro abortion ranting, as well as his ultra liberal take on most social issues, was just too much.
A shame really, as he was on the mark on other issues, esp. government indoctrination masquerading as education.
The "intellectually unimpressive prima donna" knew how to spell "riddance".
So what if the intelectualy unimmpresive primma dona new how to spel. Kolor mi unimprest.
Heh heh.
While some of the things you say about Boortz opening doors are true. IIRC, he did NOT syndicate until he took the stint at WSB, the station he used to deride (while at WGST - remember Sasha Futrin?) because of the “blue hairs”....He stopped calling them that when he came to WSB.
Lastly, Rush was syndicated nationally in 1988. Although I don’t know the exact date, my recollection is the Boortz’s syndication was much later. The only “ushering-in” that I’d give Boortz credit for personally is Sean Hannity, and in some respects Hermain Cain. Regardless, Rush didn’t ‘walk through’ a door Boortz opened; he did it on his own.
Boortz, for me, was an acquired taste, but I really grew to enjoy listening to him when I used to have to drive to work in the morning. I haven’t been listening as much since I’ve been working from home, even though I could stream his show here if I chose to do so. He hasn’t quite been the same since Royal Marshall died so unexpectedly. But I will definitely miss him. He could be highly entertaining.
On the plus side, Herman Cain was always an able fill-in for Boortz — so much so, that WSB gave him his own evening show...until he gave it up to run for President. He has been filling in here and there ever since he suspended his campaign. It will be good to have him back on the air full time.
touche; my typo.
Amazing how this radio professional never took the trouble to learn how to pronounce gerunds. Or, as Boortz would say, “amazeen.”
Not so fast. That's a pretty broad brush you're painting with there.
I met him on more than one occasion and never came away smiling. In fact, in August 2005 I helped organize the biggest book sales event he ever had up to that point and possibly to date (for his 1st Fair Tax book). Boortz's business office charged us $10,000 for the privilege of hosting a remote broadcast event at which they sold every book they could deliver to the convention center that day in Marietta, GA. Meanwhile, our non-profit org barely broke even - but that's okay, the issue was served.
A year or so later Boortz participated in a TalkFest event in Austin, TX. I was nearby and went to see him, but he could not be bothered for five minutes to discuss serious background issue developments about Fair Tax marketing. Local radio execs and on-air talent I spoke with agreed that Boortz was a pain the the butt to work with.
You’re right. Below is a link to the ‘Commencement Speech.’
Happy Trails, Neal. I grew up in the Atlanta area. Listened to him when I was at Emory Univ.
Thanks for telling it like it is way before Rush. He is currently the 6th most listened to talk radio program.
Everyone should read his “The Commnencement Speech You Need to Hear.”
http://www.gotgoldreport.com/2012/05/the-commencement-speech-you-need-to-hear.html
No one has been more passionate about the Fair Tax or his diatribes against the public school system as “tax payer funded child abuse.” And you know the guy has to be good if he goaded O’Reilly into calling him a “vicious son of a bitch” oh The Factor.
Am glad he is still going to be on air when Obama goes down in a landslide. Wish you all the best and enjoy your travels. You’ve earned it. You’ve come a long way from writing speeches for Lester Maddox lol.
Boortz opened a door, and Rush and others walked right through.
I have lived in the ATL metro area all my life and listened to Boortz since the “Ring Radio” days (anyone else remember Ludlow Porch? ZZZZZZZZZ).
Boortz has been around a long time, and with the exception of the abortion and Christian issues discussed above overall I think he has been an asset to the conservative cause. No one is perfect. I have to admit than Neal helped me through some tough times as a conservative. He would say what others were afraid to.
But OMG I cant listen to Herman. Just can’t. Rusty Humphrey will become my ATL fave.
HI! Used to live in Smyrna myself.
The only lame part of Boortz’s show was the female airhead, Belinda, and his repartees with some vapid newscaster named Jamie Dupree who pretends to be an unbiased reporter but cannot never say a good word about any republican.
“I always had this suspicion that he facilitated an abortion in the past and had to justify his action as so many pro-aborts do. I think he probably paid for his daughter to abort his grandchild.”
Wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Also, he mocked Rick Santorum’s views on marriage and sexuality. Did Boortz ever realize Santorum’s views on these matters weren’t something he just thought up but they are in fact the classical Christian position for the last two millenia? Then again, libs/libertarians rarely have the courage and the intellectual integrity to admit to that.
Yes it is.
"Ludlow Porch" -- I remember the name from the dim past, was he one of those "alternative personalities" shock-jocks sometimes use (I think Mancow's alter ego on his show, his Charlie McCarthy, is Mancow himself doing a voice or "dialect" -- speaking of radio personalities who are a waste of brainpower -- I think people's IQ's actually decline actively while listening to Mancow: a National Merit Scholarship finalist with a 154 IQ at 6pm becomes a 119-IQ also-ran by 11 pm).
The old second-banana/butt-of-the-joke fall guy is an old act in radio/TV, and I think it's become stale. I remember the way Branford Marsalis got used on the Tonight show; I can understand why he left. Damn few people have the constitution for a long-running Ed McMahon/"Rochester" act.
Yes, I think I was listening to some of his repartee that time I was listening to him to scope his position on something, but I think it was a caller. I could be wrong. But I remember thinking that Boortz flunks "plays well with others". Bill Bennett, Hannity, and Dennis Miller are among the few who pass as being totally civil with guests. Rush doesn't have guests on his show -- that "nonguested confrontation" format that he shares with Levin and Doc Savage, and which Ed Schultz was paid to imitate.
Ludlow Porch died last year, he was a folksy sort of Wil Rogers kind of guy. The male version of Celestine Sibley. Older Atlantans would know both.
Agree with you all the way except Hannity. Hannity’s juvenile and repetitive format is unbelievably boring, and he doesn’t give his guests a chance to speak. He talks over them constantly, and doesn’t have the intellectual heft to engage in a stimulating conversation.
Hannity is kindergarten for conservatives. Rush is post-graduate.
I like Boortz because he is all over the place in his thinking, and like he says - “Somebody’s got to say it.” I like his niche and can separate his good from his bad.
I still think Mancow is the other guy, too, the stupid one. Something he does with ease.
I don’t know anything about Mancow, although I bet he caught hell in grade school with that last name.
About this time of year, Neal Boortz always laments that he has never been asked to give a commencement speech. He's written and delivered a couple of them over the airwaves.
He once gave a speech to a crowd of his supporters at Kennesaw State University, in the guise of what he would tell a graduating class if he had the chance. I think it was at a Fair Tax rally, but it clearly could have been at something else. That speech was replayed a week ago today on his show.
Somebody took the transcript and played a prank in an email circulating the transcript, suggesting that Boortz had delivered the speech at Texas A&M (Boortz's alma mater) and adding a bunch of details that were nonsense, including that detail about silence from the faculty section.
Hannity is kindergarten for conservatives. Rush is post-graduate.
I agree with your comments about Hannity, and part of the problem is that he is very demonstrative and declamatory, but he wears a RNC ring in his nose, like Michael Medved and a couple of other soft-conservative, more "Republican" talk-show talents, Mike Gallagher and Dennis Prager.
I think the intellectual heavyweights are Bill Bennett, Doc Savage, and, more because of their astuteness, Rush, Levin, and Glenn Beck, despite Beck's openness to being lured (IMHO, I just have an impression about it w/o having listened to his show a lot) into areas calculated to damage his credibility.
Rush is living proof that you don't need a master's from a liberal arts college or JFK or an Ivy, to have a good all-round political education and a public man. The snobs would like to change that, take politics private.
I lost the link when I lost my post, but here is a good whine from the Left about talk-radio, dating from 1/07.
Air America’s ideological course has often been unclear if not wishy-washy. Over all, while hosts have been good at belittling George Bush and other Republicans and conservatives, they have not been good at articulating a progressive agenda. This may stem in part from the way Air America hosts tend to cleave to a Democratic Party line that has itself often been hard to decipher in recent years.
This would not happen in conservative talk. For one thing, the Republicans with whom the conservative talkers ally themselves are virtually never at a loss as to exactly what their agenda is. But there’s also a spirit of independence in conservative talk that leads hosts to sometimes criticize the Republicans for not taking a principled right-wing stand. For instance, recently conservative hosts have widely criticized congressional Republicans and the White House for being soft on immigration and federal spending.
Right-wing radio’s role as a conservative vanguard may be irksome to GOP officials on occasion, but conservative talk, even when it’s critical, still benefits the GOP. That’s because conservative talk radio is not just a laboratory and echo chamber for testing and amplifying the party’s ideas and policies. More than that, its most influential hosts—e.g., Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage—are often ideologically situated on the far-right flank of the party, so conservative talk serves to widen the national political spectrum to the right, giving cover to Republican politicians by allowing them to appear more moderate by contrast.
(Emphases added)
Praise extorted from the mouths of your enemies is the sweetest whine of all.
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