10 Questions with ... Chris Plante

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Prior to making my way to hosting a talk radio program, I worked as a journalist for CNN Washington for 17 years, briefly as a researcher, then as an assignment editor, producer and reporter. For the first seven years with CNN, I was on the Assignment Desk, several of those years as the senior assignment editor for weekend news. I was then happily assigned to the Pentagon, first with the title Pentagon Producer, then Producer for National Security Affairs, Senior Producer for National Security Affairs, and finally as an on-air Pentagon reporter for the 2003 Iraq invasion and war. I was responsible for covering the U.S. military as well as the U.S. Intelligence Community. I received the Edward R. Murrow Award in 2002 from the RTNDA for my reporting from the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001, and I received The Reed Irvine Award from media watchdog group, Accuracy in Media in 2016. I might be the only person to have received both of those awards. After leaving CNN in 2004, I stumbled into a weekend slot hosting a Sunday afternoon talk show on WMAL Washington. I fell in love with the job and the format, and I have never looked back.

1. Practically your entire family -- mom, dad, stepdad, granddad, brothers -- were and are prominent in the media. When did you first know that you wanted to go into the same business? Did you flirt with doing something totally non-news related or were you sold on it as a career from a young age?

The truth is, I never had any desire to go into the news business. I grew up thinking it was way too demanding and all-consuming, and I assumed that I would go into any business other than the news business. But I had left my home town of Chicago at the age of 18, and was living in Santa Barbara, California in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected president. In a twist of fate, my step father, Bill Plante, was made White House correspondent for CBS News and began traveling to Santa Barbara regularly with President Reagan. Since I knew the lay of the land, I was hired to work as a courier by CBS for those presidential trips. It paid $75 a day. One thing led to another. Several years later I moved to Washington, D.C. and all of the people I knew in Washington were in the news business. So, naturally I found some of those people, and next thing I knew, I had a job... as a courier. It was temporary. For the Iran-Contra hearings. Apparently, I had been pigeonholed.

2. You were a reporter and producer at CNN for a long time before becoming a talk show host. How did you make that transition to opinion from straight news?

Soon, I needed another job. I found one as a researcher, on a freelance basis, with CNN’s Washington bureau. It paid ... $75 a day.

3. There have been many hosts to come and go in syndication in the last decade, and few have really made an impact, but you've been one of the bright spots, with significant growth and traction where others haven't been able to make a dent. To what do you attribute that success -- what makes you and your show different?

I might be the wrong person to ask, but I do think that my 17 years with CNN and my family background gave me certain advantages. I had been eating and drinking the news for a whole lot of years and was ready to move on. I brought traditional journalistic ethics to my new role as talk show host. I came with a wealth of knowledge in a variety of areas that other hosts do not have. I had spent some time covering Capitol Hill as well as the executive branch departments and agencies. I was then assigned to the Pentagon by CNN and spent about ten years covering the military and the intelligence community. I think that all of this experience combined to give me a leg up on the competition. My experience and first hand exposure to the inner-workings of both the government and the news media help me immeasurably as a talk show host.

4. Social media can, of course, be a good and a bad thing in many ways, but as a talk show host, does the tendency of social media to amplify every comment into a major conflagration ever weigh on you when you're doing your show? Does the possibility that a remark will be taken out of (or in) context and used against you concern you -- and should that be a concern for talk hosts in general?

It certainly should be a concern for all of us. It’s rough out there, and not just for us talk show hosts or media people. We live in a crazy, sometimes zero-defect world. Unevenly applied, of course. It’s a line that everyone in the public eye walks. Just a part of the landscape. Be careful.

5. Partisan aspects aside, how do you think President Trump has affected talk radio -- has his continual headline-making and tweeting been a net positive for talk radio as content and as a business? Do you think that effect will continue or will fatigue set in over time?

May we live in interesting times. President Trump helps to make the news cycle a daily torrent. He is very engaged, very vocal, and he fights every fight. Everything he says or does causes a massive reaction from his opponents. So the fight is on, every day, all day. But it’s not just him. The very active opposition to him -- and pretty much everything he says or does does -- adds to the daily madness. And the mainstream news media is not everything I would like it to be. You know the old saying, “It’s like trying to take a drink from a fire hose.” Well, today, it’s like standing under a waterfall with your head tilted back. It can pound a normal person into the ground. I can tell you that I have four to five hours of radio content at my fingertips every day when I go in. But I only have three hours on the air. Hmmm.

6. Who's been the most memorable on-air guest you've had? Why?

I rarely have guests on my show. But, the top guests would have to include former president Bill Clinton and President Trump. Both of them made a metric ton of news. I’m not sure it was all my doing. It was their words that made the splash.

7. Who, to date, have been your influences, inspirations, and/or mentors in the industry?

In the world of talk radio, my former program director at WMAL, Paul Duckworth was a major influence, largely because I had no idea what I was doing when I started doing a radio show. Paul taught me a great deal. And my current program director, Bill Hess (not sucking up) has been very important to me and to my career path. Which is nice.

8. Of what are you most proud?

Oh, I don’t know. I feel like I’m working hard and making progress in my life and my career. And that is gratifying. I don’t think I spend a lot of time being proud. I try not to mess things up.

9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ____________.

...down time. Dialing out the mad universe of news for some period of time. That’s key to good living.

10. What's the most important lesson you've learned in your career?

Don’t be too impressed with yourself. No matter who you are, or how fancy your job is, you’re probably not that great. And there are a lot of people in this town that fail to observe this sensible rule for living. Lighten up. Be humble. No matter how cool you are.