Alex Bennett
Encyclopedia : A : AL : ALE : Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett (born Bennett Gordon Schwarzmann on December 18, 1939 in San Francisco) is an American radio personality and talk show host, known for his mix of left-wing politics and humor. Bennett created his name as a tribute to his late father, Alexander Schwarzmann.
Alex Bennett first gained major market attention in 1969 with WMCA in New York, where he was first a disk jockey and then a talk show host during the station's transition from its Top 40 "Good Guys" music format to the pioneering "Dial-Log" all-talk era. Bennett brought a progressive rock radio sensibility to the teenage-oriented station, still playing album cuts of music as his talk show evolved, and openly discussing topics ranging from his love-life to his participation in various countercultural events such as Consciousness III before giving his Yogic sign-off "Namaste" ("The God within me sees the God within you"). In 1969 Bennett flew to London to investigate the rumor of Paul McCartney’s death. He later would become friends with John Lennon who appeared on his show.
In 1970 Bennett and his wife-producer Ronni moved their show to WPLJ, still in New York. By late 1971 the couple split.
Bennett hosted popular shows in New York in the 1970s and in San Francisco during the 1980s and 1990s. As an early video pioneer, he produced Midnight Blue for a New York cable public access channel. Guests on his New York radio show included rock stars and left wing, anti-war activists. Returning to his native San Francisco in 1980, Alex found success by featuring standup comedians on his morning show. Stars such as Bob Goldthwait, Whoopi Goldberg, and Dana Carvey were first heard on his FM morning show before achieving national fame. He was the original host of public television’s Comedy Tonight.
After leaving FM rock radio in the late 1990s, Alex created an Internet radio show for Play TV that ended when the company went out of business. His attempt to return to AM talk radio was hampered by his outspoken leftist political views. Station managers only wanted to hire right-wing talk show hosts.
After returning to New York in 2003, Bennett currently hosts The Alex Bennett Program on Sirius Satellite Radio channel SIRIUS Left 146. It premiered on April 19, 2004. Alex is on the air weekdays from 9am to 12pm EST, 6am to 9am PST and talks about politics, entertainment, and health issues of a personal nature.
Alex Bennett facts:
Alex's girlfriend is actually named "Girlfriend".
Bennett was the first American DJ to play the song "No Matter What" by Badfinger.
One of Alex's greatest achievements in radio was the invention of "quickies", in which callers have fifteen seconds or less to say anything. The idea was later "borrowed" by both Alan Colmes and Sean Hannity on their radio shows. Bennett recently brought the feature back for his show on Sirius.
His early web site, the Surfing Monkey, featured a series of articles written by an inmate on Death Row at San Quentin. The prisoner, identified by the pseudonym Dean, reported on daily life on Death Row in the series called “Dead Man Talking”. Alex is opposed to the death penalty.
Bennett never mentions his current website on the air: Radiofreejack.com. Some of his best interviews, including John Lennon and Sam Kinison are archived on the site.
While working for KILT in Houston, Alex used the name James Bond and did his show using an English accent.
While working at Live 105 in San Francisco, his co-host Lori Thompson called him by the nickname Ben. Since his first name is actually Bennett, Ben would be the appropriate nickname.
Alex’s mother Ruth achieved fame as the world’s oldest disk jockey when she hosted a Sunday night show on KMEL. Alex hosted the station’s morning show. Ruth died in 2005 at the age of 100.
In addition to bringing comedians on to his radio show, Alex produced a number of live comedy shows during his time in San Francisco. The earliest ones included his KMEL/KQAK newsman Joe Regelski and were called Alex and Joe Shows.
Alex’s second wife Ronni produced his shows on WMCA and WPLJ in New York. After their divorce, Ronni went to produce for ABC’s 20/20 and Barbara Walters. Today, she writes a blog on age discrimination, Time Goes By.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.