Posted on 01/10/2013 12:48:35 PM PST by Kaslin
For my money, the single most talented voice in the modern history of talk radio is retiring later this month. Not "one of" the most talented -- the most talented.
Neal Boortz began his career in radio while in college at Texas A&M, but his long stint in commercial radio started as one of the many individuals he would, over the years to follow, continually cut off: opinionated callers. Boortz in the late 1960s was a frequent caller to a local Atlanta talk show, and when the host died unexpectedly, he went from brash caller to brash host.
But Boortz's rise to the Radio Hall of fame (he was inducted in 2009) was not a jump from one rising radio market to another. Nor was it, for a good many years, all that lucrative. The truth is that Boortz, who dubbed himself everything from "The Talkmaster" to "Mighty Whitey" is an extremely shy and introspective person. In large gatherings, unless forced to, he will cling to the perimeter of a room away from others. In private, he is known to be extremely polite and unassuming. So now Boortz's cover is blown.
And while Boortz's politics of Libertarian mixed in with a large dose of conservative Republican leanings can sometimes be interpreted more as harsh and tough than most who have such large stages on radio, the man who will soon retire from his top-10 position among talk radio hosts is quite the opposite.
Always a soft touch for those in tough spots, Neal Boortz often quietly put his money and time where his mouth was not. He raised funds for the hungry, gave private donations to kids needing toys for Christmas, helped out many a family who had lost a spouse and had children to feed and mortgages to pay. Boortz never let most folks know of this "softer side" because, on the air, he was truly what I would term the personification of "intelligent chaos."
It was chaos because over the many years leading to his syndication in 1999, and certainly thereafter, Boortz would utter just about whatever came into his mind. He constantly called public schools "government schools," deriding their quality and calling them "tax-funded child abuse." He put just about everyone and everything in his target, ranging from Islamic extremists to Southerners devoted to the Confederate flag. He was, as he proudly proclaimed, an equal opportunity offender.
But what made Neal Boortz the best to ever preside over the phenomenon America now identifies as "talk radio" was his razor-sharp mind and equally sharp wit.
Boortz was trained as a lawyer and spent many of his years prior to syndication working hours both as a practicing attorney and radio personality. And the skills he honed as an attorney helped him slice and dice issues and those who dared to challenge him on air like few others could. Like a good trial attorney, Boortz would present his case, always with facts. And one slip-up by a would-be opponent, one lack of "evidence" for their statement, even one mispronounced word could lead to sudden death invoked by what his critics considered the talk show equivalent of Seinfeld's famed "Soup Nazi."
Then there was the humor. Over the years, too many people, including some big names in the media, mistook Boortz's style of, as he called it, "stirring the pudding" as being "vicious." The truth was, to those who listened daily, it was clear that Boortz often had his tongue firmly implanted in his check, pushing the limits of what he could say and mock.
None was funnier than his homage to indecipherable "street talk," as Boortz and his late Associate Producer Royal Marshall played a news interview from the shooting of a man (who survived, I might note) by the name of "Boo." The witness's sentences are virtually impossible to understand, but Marshall provided a "street talk" interpretation with the same deadpan perfection of a U.N. interpreter.
A quick online search will find the bit all over the Web, and it is hilarious.
The brightest, brashest and best voice of our time leaves talk radio at the height of his game just before a second term for President Obama. Those who were his loyal listeners will miss his daily dose of "intelligent chaos." To put it in more personal terms, and snatching a theme from the late humorist Lewis Grizzard, "Boo got shot ... and I'm not so happy myself." Your fans will miss you, Mr. Boortz.
Correction: Punkin BAILED out.... cuz Boo got shot.
Boortz is saying what he really thinks these last few days on his radio program. He said today that he thinks this country is done. He said “there is a small glimmer of hope in the mid term elections but if the Republicans lose or just squesk by, it is time to look for another country to live in. The fact that Obama got voted in twice means they are voting for him to take your money and redistribute it and it should not take a baseball bat alongside our heads to see the handwriting on the wall.”
When he got going on those subjects I turned to another station. But loved listening to him otherwise.
He could dismember a liberal, hates Obama, pro-guns.
He may be libertarian but parts with them over foreign policy.
Gonna miss him.
“razor sharp mind”?
Please. The guy was as bright as a bag of hammers.
It’s like Sean Hannity. A reliable conservative, but not the brightest bulb on the tree.
I’ve listened to Bortz off and on down through the years. Disagree with a lot of his stands.
But two things he did made me change the station every time:
1. Repeat a point three or four times. It was as if he did not believe his audience was smart enough to get it after the second explanation.
2. His frequent five second mid-sentence pauses. It was like something else caught his attention. Maybe it did but your don’t do that as a radio host. Makes you sound stupid and disconnected.
Welcome Herman Cain.
Reading this thread has lifted my spirits—I thought I was the only one who found the guy to be an anti-Christian bigot.
Good Riddance.
He is an anti-God, pro-abortion Narcissist.
Farewell to one of the best.
Like many retired broadcasters, I suspect we hve not heard the last of Boortz.
Yes, absolutely. Libertarians whose prime directive is non aggression supporting the mass killing of those least able to defend against an aggressor are morally bankrupt.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Agreed, no real loss here.
I have never listened to him. Was you forced to listen to him?
It's Radio! He repeated things every few minutes because he got new listeners every few minutes. Hugh numbers of commuters locked their car doors and went into their businesses while large numbers left their house to start their morning drive.
That was one of the things I liked about Neal. He would change his mind when he felt he was wrong about a topic.
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