10 Questions with ... Michael Graham

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

I started as a night-time, part-time host at WBT in Charlotte, NC. When I got fired for a stupid on-air comment re: Columbine -- and it was stupid-- I immediately got three job offers, teaching me the valuable career lesson that, in radio, "stupid" = "job security." I knew I'd finally found my niche.

I ended up working for Clear Channel in Charleston, SC; Richmond, VA and Washington, DC, before my now-infamous stint at WMAL with ABC. Now I'm with the best radio company in America, bar none: Greater Media.

1. You've made a pretty big impact on Boston talk radio since your arrival; how did you approach becoming a strong local presence? What did you do to establish your Boston bona fides when you came into the market?

The first thing I did was to admit I had NO bone fides in Boston. Boston is one of that ever-shrinking number of American cities where it matters whether or not you're local. So many US communities are like Charlotte, NC -- a mall with a mayor. Nobody's from there, and few people are passionate about being there. Not Boston. Not only does it matter if you're from here, it matters what part of Boston you're from.

So instead of trying fake it, I asked my listeners to teach me about Boston and New England. Five years later, I'm still learning.

2. Your latest book talks about the Tea Parties and the reactions to it by the political establishment and other opponents. In brief, why do you think the tea party movement cropped up now as opposed to other times in the past when the disconnect between the government and the public was clear? Economy, social issues... why, at this stage, has a sizeable portion of the public finally had enough?

Economics and elitism. Typical Americans are scared that our prosperity is threatened in a meaningful, "your kids won't be able to afford a house" sort of way; and they're sick of having the same elitists who screwed most of it up tell us we're too dumb to understand their plans to fix it. People didn't need to understand Supply-Side Economics to grasp the Reagan economic plan. They got it.

On the other hand, nobody gets the Obama plan, which appears to be "Let's solve a global economic crisis caused by debt and unsustainable entitlement spending... by adding lots more debt and the biggest new entitlement program since Medicare."

3. Sticking with the tea party theme for the moment, what role do you think talk radio has had in the movement? Is talk radio leading or reflecting its listeners' discontent?

The subtitle of my book is "Team Obama's Assault on Tea Party, Talk Radio Americans." It's clunky, but I wrote it that way because the tea party movement is a subset of the talk radio universe. The values of the tea party tend to be the values promoted on talk radio: personal accountability, government incompetence, economic liberty, etc. I also don't think it's a coincidence the President Obama and his allies hate talk radio at an almost genetic level. He's been picking fights with us from his first days on the national stage. We are the political equivalent of Radio Free America.

4. You've made a lot of appearances on Newstalk in Dublin, Ireland, representing American conservative thought; what kind of reaction have you heard from the Irish? Do you think that the American Tea Party popular movement could happen in places like Ireland and elsewhere?

I'm actually going to Ireland this week to talk to some local citizens about how to organize an Irish version of the Tea Party movement. Americans who think our budget is screwed up just need to look at Ireland. They've probably lost an entire generation's worth of prosperity in the past two years.

As for the Irish reaction to me, I'm the radio version of a circus freak: "He walks, he talks, he defends waterboarding -- he's the incredible, dog-faced conservative! Come listen as he supports gun ownership and claims that Sarah Palin would make a better president than Barack Obama -- for real!"

I've been doing a regular gig on NewsTalk for five years now, and I used to be almost radioactive, because there is NO conservative media in Europe. None. What they call "right" -- Sky News, for example -- would be prime CBS content here. But two things have happened. One is I think they're getting used to me and understand that, while we might disagree, I'm offering arguments that are sincere and not completely nuts; and the Obama presidency has been such a disaster that even the Euro-weenies are starting to re-think their support.

5. Your drama with the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles -- you were cuffed and jailed in Massachusetts for an expired Virginia license despite having a valid Massachusetts license -- became a widely-reported saga of your battle with an obstinate bureaucracy. You've since had the incident in which a politician turned down an invitation to appear on the show with an expletive-laden response. Are you ever concerned that your outspokenness will cause you grief in the end? How do you deal with the hostility, especially from the powerful?

How do I deal with hostility from the powerful? I keep talking until somebody fires me.

As for causing grief, I'm in the "grief-causing" business. If I can't take it, I should get out. The Islamic Society of Boston tried to subpeona my show notes when I was critizing a taxpyer-subsidized mosque. Our governor, Deval Patrick, recently used the word "sedition" to describe the opposition to President Obama's politics. So this time, I guess I'll keep talking until someone arrests me.

6. What would surprise people most about you?

The photos of me from open-mic at the "Manhole" in Provincetown. Actually, I'm not sure anyone WOULD be surprised...

Let me tell you instead what surprises me about me: How much I truly like people. My strategy back when I did stand up, and early in my radio career, was to be "your favorite a**hole." I affected this attitude because I bought into H. L. Mencken's notion that "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." I still love Mencken, but I've found that most people I deal with and hear from are pretty sharp. No, they don't know European monetary policy and can't quote Article II of the Constitution, but my people--talk listeners--spend quite a bit of time thinking about their lives, try to live their values, and want from their hearts to do good.

In their honor, I've been trying to do a little better myself.

7. At this stage in your career and life, what's your greatest regret? Your proudest moment?

My biggest career regret--and it's a small one--is that I went to WTNT in Washington DC before I was ready. Jumping from market 100 to market 10 after just three years in radio was too soon for me. But it all worked out, so my REAL biggest regret is that I've never gotten laid from being on the radio--unless you count the time I spent as an employee of Clear Channel (just kidding, Mark!).

Proudest moment is easy: the money I've helped raise for the Fisher House foundation. It's like a Ronald McDonald house for wounded warriors and their families, and I don't know why every talk station with a Fisher House in their market isn't supporting it. It's a great cause that listeners love, as I found out when our $250,000 fundraising target at WMAL turned into $2 million. And this June, the very first Fisher House in New England will open, thanks in part to my very generous listeners. (www.fisherhouse.org).

8. Time for a prediction. Where do you expect the conservative movement to be in November, 2010? Will conservatives get control of one or both Houses in Washington? How about 2012 and the White House?

2010: Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts was the wave. November is going to be the tsunami. There will be the crushed and broken political careers of liberal Democrats scattered across the electoral beach.

The GOP will take the House, and the Senate will be so close that it won't matter who has the majority. 2012? No clue, except that if Mitt Romney doesn't repudiate RomneyCare and admit that his ObamaCare 1.0 was a mistake, he won't be the GOP nominee.

9. You've been a comedian yourself, but, nowadays, what, and who, makes you laugh?

My 17-year-old son cracks me up, and he's constantly exposing me to funny stuff I'd otherwise miss. Jeff Dunham, Code Monkeys, and of late he's discovered the Marx Brothers and we've had a blast watching virtually their entire library. (GROUCHO to MARGARET DUMONT: "Remember the night I drank champagne from your slipper? Two quarts!")

But the funniest man in America today--hands down: Joe Biden. Every time he speaks, a talk radio host gets his wings.

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

Randy Michaels said it all: "Have a take. Don't suck."