10 Questions with ... Cenk Uygur

NAME:Cenk Uygur TITLE:Host NETWORK:Air America Radio MARKET:National- 30 local affiliates and XM Satellite Radio COMPANY:Air America BORN:Istanbul, Turkey RAISED:East Brunswick, NJ

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Started out as a corporate lawyer in Washington, DC. Then got weekend gigs at WWRC in Washington and WRKO in Boston. Worked for a television station in Miami (WAMI-TV, USA Broadcasting) for several years as head writer and on-air commentator. Wrote for several USA Network shows in Los Angeles. Started The Young Turks on Sirius Satellite Radio. We were their first ever original talk show and were the afternoon drive across the country on Sirius Left. Then we moved to Air America, where we are their morning drive show on local affiliates throughout the country and XM Satellite Radio.

1. You're a lawyer who moved into radio- why? What drew you to radio?

Two reasons. Law was incredibly boring. And there is nothing better than doing your own talk show. Nothing. The minute I did my first show, I knew that was what I was going to do for the rest of my life.

I started in broadcasting on a lark, partly because I knew I didn't want to be a lawyer and partly because I knew I loved sharing my opinions with people. It was always my passion. I just didn't know how to channel it before.

I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression. I might have tried it on a lark, but I didn't get a job that way. After I made the decision to get into broadcasting, I worked really hard to find my first set of jobs. At one point, I had sent over 400 tapes to different radio stations across the country.

2. About what are you most passionate these days?

I used to be a Republican, but now I can't stand them. This administration gets me so fired up every day. Every time I see a new law they've broken, I get so angry. Republicans used to tout themselves as the party of "rule of law." Silly me, for me believing them all those years.

I'm passionate about my job. I love it. Every day that I get in front of the mic, I can't wait to tell people about the good news, the bad news, the funny and the outrageous. If I see an interesting story, I'm bubbling over until I tell people about it on the radio.

I also love football. That's the only other thing I get as mad or as happy about.

3. Your show was ahead of the curve, a liberal show nationally distributed (on Sirius and in limited independent syndication) before joining the Air America lineup. What sets "The Young Turks" apart from the other liberal shows that have since cropped up?

We rock, and they're okay. No, all the other hosts are lovely people who do equally lovely shows (except Bill Press, who's really boring and happens to do a show at the same time slot as us, but I wouldn't let that affect my judgment).

Seriously, we are a high energy show. I think a lot of the other hosts are very good with keeping up with the news. We are completely on top of the details of the news and politics, but with few exceptions I think the other shows are as well. What separates us is that we come in guns blazing. When I get worked up about something, you're not going to be unclear about my position.

And we have a ton of fun, and you can tell. When a Republican gets caught with his pants down - as happens almost on a weekly basis these days - we love it. We have a party on the show. We're not above rubbing their nose in it. We fight back and we do it with a smile on our face.

Plus, we cover pop culture stories. Everybody says they do, but they don't really. They put it in as a throwaway at the end of something else. We actually care. When Pacman Jones of the Titans tried to take the money back that he had poured over a stripper's head, we were pissed. She earned that money. You gotta respect the Bing.

4. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the nation's prospects for the next decade? Are you inspired by any of the candidates for president so far?

I am always optimistic, even in the face of the greatest evil this country has ever faced - Dick Cheney. He is worse than our foreign enemies because they can't change our constitution. They can only kill us and as Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death."

These days conservative talk show hosts say, "Please don't kill us, we'll give you our liberty. We promise." But they're all chickenhawks anyway. Didn't Rush Limbaugh avoid Vietnam because he had a cyst on his ass? Maybe that's what he took all that "medication" for, but I digress.

I am optimistic because no one can be as bad as this administration. No one will be as evil as Cheney and no one will be as stupid as George W. Bush. We just have to move beyond these guys and I hope it gets better. One of my concerns is that they have changed the Republican Party permanently. So, I'm afraid a guy like Giuliani or Gingrich will come in and keep the madness going.

But if we get a Democrat, then we should begin to right the ship. It'll take a while to undo the damage, but I think we'll be headed in the right direction. If we could go back to reasonable Republicans like George H.W. Bush or even Ronald Reagan, I think that would be for the better as well.

We have a relatively strong economy (it's weighed down by our massive debt, but buoyed by international economic well-being we helped to bring about). We have the right principles, if we just apply them. We can still lead the world into the light if we can just crawl out of Dick Cheney's bunker.

Out of the Republican candidates, ironically, I like Fred Thompson the most right now (ironic because he seems to be the favorite of the hard right-wing right now). When I talked to him, he emphasized fiscal responsibility, which is why I was a Republican in the first place. In conversation, he doesn't sound like an extreme guy or a neo-con. But time will tell.

Out of the Democrats, I also like the guy who is not yet in the race - Al Gore. He was right about Iraq; he was right about abuses of the constitution; he was right about global warming, etc., etc. But more important than that, he had the courage to speak out on those issues, even though he knew he was going to weather a storm for speaking out when he did (no global warming pun intended). So far, I like him because he doesn't seem to have Democrat Disease - backing away from a fight out of perpetual fear of what the right-wing is going to say.

5. You get one question to ask the candidates at the next debate. What would you ask the Republicans? What would you ask the Democrats?

There are so many questions I would love to ask the Republicans.

1. Do you care about the poor at all? If so, what is one program you are going to propose that would try to help the poor? It doesn't have to be a big government program, it can be empowerment zones, it can be anything. When's the last time a Republican even tried? (1996 - Jack Kemp)

2. Do you have a healthcare proposal or is that just for the soft-hearted Democrats? If you care about the well-being of the American people, why are you not even going to bother coming up with any solution for the healthcare problems in this country?

3. Knowing what you know now about the lack of weapons of mass destruction, the lack of Iraq-Al Qaeda connections and what you know now about how the Bush administration wound up handling the war, would you still vote the same way on the Iraq War?

For the Democrats:

1. Do you understand that the principal problem your party has is that you appear to be weak? If you understand this problem, why do you feed into that stereotype by continually backing down from political fights and appearing weak in front of the whole country? If you can't defend your own positions and principles, how can we trust you to defend the country?

6. Who are your heroes?

Martin Luther King, Jr. Nelson Mandela. Howard Stern. Oprah Winfrey (I don't really like her show because I'm not a woman, but I love what she's done with her life and her career).

7. The political discourse seems to be nastier and nastier every year- it seems like you can't just disagree with someone on a political issue without the ad hominem attacks coming out and people calling each other idiots or Nazis. So you're a liberal talk radio host and blogger- is the nation's discussion of political issues destined to get more argumentative? Is that a good or bad thing? (Especially for talk radio, that is...)

It's a good thing if it means liberals stand up for themselves for a change. I have no interest in being polite or deferential with Dick Cheney. He wins every time you make any concession toward him. The right-wing never concedes any ground. They attack viciously, personally and consistently. I believe in fighting back. If Vitter wants to run his mouth off about how Clinton has disgraced the office, then he better keep it in his pants. Otherwise, I'm coming to get him. You reap what you sow.

On the other hand, I would love to go back to the days where we had civil discourse (at least a lot more civil than it is now). I think Richard Lugar, John Danforth, Alan Simpson, Brent Scowcroft, George H. W, Bush etc. are good men. They were men I largely agreed with and had civil disagreements with when we parted ways. I spoke against Bill Clinton for six years but never thought he was malicious. There were good men in this country.

If we live in those times again, I would be ecstatic. Nothing better than James Baker and Madeleine Albright having interesting differences of opinion on diplomacy. I'd love to hear that debate. But today, the debate is whether we should even have diplomacy. In that world, I fight.

The same rules apply for politics as they do for foreign policy. I don't believe in unilateral disarmament. I believe in peace through strength.

8. What do you do for fun?

My job is fun. I even write about the news when on vacation. Because for me, that is fun.

Okay, other than that, I play basketball. I hang out with my friends. I drink enough to get a good buzz going. I watch football. I love playing fantasy football. Just thinking about my draft in six weeks gives me a buzz. And since I'm not a Republican anymore, I love sex. Even premarital, sinful sex. Celibacy is for suckers who can't get laid. Grow a pair and live life.

9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without____________.

...writing a blog. I know that's kind of pathetic. I make fun of myself all the time for it. But I really love sharing my opinions and if I'm not doing a show and I think I have a really good point to make (which is often, at least that I think that), I have to blog about it.

I understand this makes me a giant dork. And since "Star Trek" was my favorite TV show, I'm not doing too well in the dork category. Here's what a guy who never gets laid says: "I can't wait to write in my blog after 'Star Trek' is over."

10. What's the best advice you've ever gotten? The worst?

Worst Advice: "You are too high energy. Can you do a calmer show?" "Just keep on taking calls; it's only the callers that count" (I'm not kidding, someone actually said that). "Who do you think you are? There is only one Howard Stern- everyone else has to follow my rules" (that I charge this radio station a lot of money to give as a high-priced consultant). "Don't do it your way, do it my way."

Best Advice: When I was first trying to break into talk radio I asked legendary talk show host Bruce Williams for advice at a talk convention. He said you have to keep calling, keep sending tapes and keep hassling program directors until they give you the damn job. I said, "But I don't want to burn my bridges." He said, "Kid, what f___ing bridges do you have?"