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Randi Rhodes

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For the rock guitarist, see Randy Rhoads
Randi Rhodes
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Randi Rhodes

Randi Rhodes (born Randi Bueten on January 28, 1959, in Brooklyn, New York), is an American liberal talk radio personality featured on Air America Radio, where her eponymous program, The Randi Rhodes Show, is broadcast from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, with many Air America Radio affiliates recording the show for delayed broadcast in the evening. Her married name is Randi Robertson; Rhodes is a stage name chosen to honor Ozzy Osborne's guitar player Randy Rhoads, who Rhodes describes as "a consummate professional... who lived to be the best." [link]

Contents

Early Life

Rhodes was brought up in a Jewish household, but refuses to discuss her religious views openly. Her father was a mechanical engineer and WWII veteran and her mother worked in a dress shop. She grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, but her parents divorced when she was 15, and her father moved to California.

Military career

Rhodes enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1977 and worked stateside as a mechanic in Texas, achieving the rank of Airman First Class. She left the Air Force early and relocated to Ohio [link], where she participated in a program called Palace Chase to release her to the reserves and honorably discharge her. Although she left active duty before her contract was up, she still received an honorable discharge after completing the program.[link].

Early work in radio

Rhodes' radio career began in Seminole, Texas, where she also worked as a waitress in a Mexican restaurant to support herself as her radio career developed. Like many radio personalities, Rhodes worked at various radio stations for more than 10 years, moving from market to market throughout the country.

In 1991(?) Randi started on WIOD in Miami, sometimes filling in for Neil Rogers. No stranger to the area, she was a DJ in the 80's on WSHE (Ft. Lauderdale). In 1994, Rhodes began work at WJNO (1230/1330 AM) in Florida, serving Palm Beach. She was hired to replace the syndicated G. Gordon Liddy, whom she likes to call either "Mr. Giddy" or "The Felon." She helped provide expert commentary on the O.J. Simpson trial in 1994, catapulting her to fame and higher Arbitron ratings.

During the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, the location of Rhodes show allowed her to provide commentary that served as an alternative to the mainstream media coverage on the local proceedings. (Palm Beach was one of the major Florida counties disputed in the election)

Rhodes gained national attention soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States by being particularly critical of President Bush, and by closely monitoring questions surrounding the incidents of the World Trade Center's destruction, damage to The Pentagon, and related issues. She was, and remains, highly critical of those she sees as right-wingers, conservatives, or Neoconservatives, as well as Christian, Islamic and Jewish religious fundamentalists.

In 2004, she appeared on the cover of The New Republic in an article entitled "Talking Back - The coming rise of liberal talk radio."

Rhodes joins Air America Radio, 2004

In 2004, Rhodes joined the team at Air America Radio, bringing The Randi Rhodes Show to its largest audience to date. Rhodes' show features monologues, guest interviews, comedy, and listener calls, punctuated with musical interludes, including the show's unofficial theme song, "Pain" by Stereomud. On Fridays, Rhodes opens the show with the song "Bounce Your Boobies" by Rusty Warren. With her distinctive Brooklyn-Queens accent, she takes calls spanning the political spectrum, aggressively promoting her views.

Rhodes's journalistic standards

see main articles at journalism and journalism ethics and standards
Rhodes regularly asserts that she is not a journalist, but does comment on, and analyze, news reports with a journalistic eye. Rhodes proclaims herself to be a stickler for facts, and also claims to hold to many of the basic tenets of journalism and journalism ethics and standards such as corroboration, attribution and truthfulness. She offers citations to a wide array of newspapers, magazines, websites, government documents and electronic media (Radio/Television) reports. Rhodes takes on the roles of editorialist, satirist, comedian and news analyst. She is a leading activist for accountability and standards in the media, and has spoken at congressional hearings about creating a framework of national standards for what can be labelled news.

Rhodes's comedic style

Rhodes acts as a comedian and makes frequent use of sound effects, as do many on Air America Radio. Some of her trademark sounds are the cherry pop for new callers, the bong bubbles, various bells and buzzers for indications of how she feels about any particular subject, even explosions and gunfire are sometimes used with comedic intent. In addition to her own comedy, The Randi Rhodes show features other comedians such as [Barry Crimmins] and Randy Credico, and comedy produced by the Air America Radio staff.

Family

In 1994 Rhodes married Jim Robertson, an independent television producer and cameraman. Rhodes and Robertson divorced in April 2004 but have remained close friends. Rhodes took the name Robertson when she married, but continued to use her professionally known name, Randi Rhodes, on the air, a common practice amongst those in media and in business generally.

In 1996 Rhodes's sister, Ellen, died of breast cancer at age 44. Rhodes and Robertson raised Ellen's daughter Jessica as their own.

Trivia

Bibliography

The Big Encyclopedia of Republican Hypocrites, 2006, (ISBN 1401352480) (to be released August 30)

External links

Press

Rhodes' fans

Rhodes critics

Bounce your Boobies

 

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All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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