Salon.com: The Making Of Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck

SALON.COM has published a three-part story/expose on PREMIERE syndicated talker GLENN BECK, writing "Whether or not some of its details are reliable, the story of how GLENN BECK the teenage DJ became GLENN BECK the cultural phenomenon has both political and personal significance. But is BECK's journey conservatism's post-millennial crack-up writ small, complete with a preference for faith over fact? Is it simply a classic show biz success story?"

BECK got started as a Top 40 jock. writes SALON. "When GLENN BECK assumed morning-show duties at KZFM/CORPUS CHRISTI in 1983, the Zoo model was ascendant. It was the year SCOTT SHANNON moved to NEW YORK to found Z100, where SHANNON's 'Z Morning Zoo' made the station #1 in the market within three months of its birth. Closer to BECK's new home, JOHN LANDER had just launched what would be a long-running and heavily syndicated morning zoo on HOUSTON's KKBQ."

The story isn't kind, continuing "Whatever else it may be, the GLENN BECK Story is a radio story. It begins in the early 1980s, decades before BECK's famous televised breakdowns, when a talented young DJ turned a fascination with ORSON WELLES into a successful career in the high-rolling here-today-gone-tomorrow world of Top 40 morning radio. It continues into the 1990s, when BECK made a name in talk radio by identifying the sole unoccupied niche in the industry: confessional, lighthearted, 'independent' conservatism. Now, in the new century, BECK has taken his radio formula to TV, and with it his bipolar unpredictability and maudlin dramatics.

Read the full story here.

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