Let's Be Heard

by Bob Grant

Let's Be Heard is a tour de force of Bob Grant's savvy, forthright thinking on what's right and what's wrong with America. With unfailing aim and ever-present wit, he unflinchingly takes on liberalism's sacred cows - among them "Slick Willie" Clinton, Teddy "The Swimmer" Kennedy, wheelchair radicals, academia nuts, Columbus bashers, feminist emasculators, welfare swindlers, and third world "governments." "I don't mind if others call me a conservative, but I'm just me." In fact, Bob Grant has never been predictable - how many conservative icons have successfully raised the hackles of both fans and foes? Most of his listeners love him, many others love to hate him, but for all who tune in each afternoon to his heady and engaging mix of old-fashioned storytelling and withering social commentary, Bob Grant is more than anything else a supreme entertainer - and the tops in American talk radio.

241 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

The Inventor of Controversial Talk Radio

Probably no one in the history of New York talk radio is more associated with controversy than Bob Grant.

No station is more associated with a wide variety of opinions than WABC. It's a perfect match.

Bob Grant brought a history of more than 25 years of exciting talk to WABC. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride! Life's more interesting that way!

Controversial, opinionated and wildly popular, Bob Grant continued his long run as the "King of Talk Radio" in New York on WABC Radio. Bob was in the radio business for more than 50 years, and ruled the airwaves in New York for several decades.

Bob graduated from the University of Illinois and landed his first radio job at WAOK in Oak Park, Illinois. He Moved on to WBBM in 1949 in Chicago as a newsman, and as an actor in the early days of television. Ten years later Bob moved to Los Angeles to work at KNX as a radio personality and television talk show host. In 1962 Bob was hired by KABC as Sports Director where he met the legendary Joe Pine, who pioneered controversial talk on radio. After substituting for Pine on several occasions, Grant was chosen to take over The Joe Pine Show at KABC in 1964. For Bob Grant and his loyal listeners, the rest would be history.

Bob moved to New York in 1970 to host a talk show on WMCA-AM, where he spent seven years steadily building his audience. Leaving WMCA in 1977, Grant worked his first stint at WOR, and later moved to WWDB in Philadelphia before returning to New York as the cornerstone of WABC's new talk format in 1984. He remained at WABC until his much-publicized firing in 1996. Ten days later, Bob Grant was hired by WOR.

Bob Grant is the author of the best-selling book, "Lets Be Heard". He was honored by the National Association of Radio Talk Show Hosts (NARTSH) in 1996 with The Freedom of Speech Award.

Let your voice be heard!

Source: http://bobgrantonline.com/bio.cfm [edited]

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

for somewhat overbearing loud conservative talk radio guys with cookie-cutter positions, he's actually somewhat interesting....

[and i'll cringe at the Reagan or Limbaugh reviews on the back of his book]


"The big cry in the animal rights movement is this: "A rat is a big is a dog is a boy." In other words, a rate has the same rights as a person. Touching. But why stop there? Why isn't a cabbage a rat? Why isn't seaweed? Alage? Moss? They're all living things too. What about equal rights for bacteria?"

"This republic was founded to escape to brutality of King George, who would brook no disagreement. And now we're right back to that - living amoung tyrants who allow no alternative viewpoint. People can no longer express a true sentiment if it runs counter to the world view of teh PC Police."

"I may 'already' have made you mad, and I haven't even gotten warmed up. But let's not allow 'that' to get in the way of a good time."

"As they say, the truth hurts, and so I consider every wound I've inflicted to be a badge of honor."

"Once white males finally got angry, too, anger suddenly became a nasty, destructive force. But it's 'fun' to get angry once in a while, especially when it seems so deserved. It keeps your blood flowing and your heart kicking. It brings a glow to your complexion. It feels so good. Let's rock."

---

"The fune started bright and early Monday morning, the day the magazine hit the stands. I turned in the famed radio sleazeball Howard Stern, figuring he'd feast on my misfortune. Sure enough, Howard was talking and laughing about it, making racial comments far harsher and meaner than anything I was guilty of. His sidekick, Robin, was reading a news story about a woman who had been attacked, and in doing the story she said the police identified the assailant as an African-American. And Howard laughed and said, "An African-American! I can't believ it!! Surprise, surprise!!! A black guy committed a crime? What do you know?" then he got back to picking on me a little bit, but it was good-natured and funny."

"My general manager, Don Boloukos - a good guy, a fair guy, but nevertheless, a guy with the responsibility of running a radio station - brought a tape of the spot with him to a meeting at ABC corporate headquarters. Now, most people who run broadcasting outlets, radio or television, are scared stiff. They're afraid of negative mail and of negative phone calls and of the FCC and of the other media. They're afraid of 'everything', except money and ratings. I think if I had had a typically feckless, pusillanimous program director, I would have been fired in a second."

"The upper echelon of ABC, naturally, wanted to know what the hell was going on and why was a United States senator campaigning against a talk-show host who happens to work for them"

"Soon I knew I had really arrived - Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton held a press conference outside the station. Their point, they claimed, was not to get me off the air or abridge my free speech. Oh, no, they insisted, they only wanted to get my sponsors to drop me. Well, well - is 'that' all?"

"We sent a reporter down to Seventh Avenue, and ofered them an opportunity to talk to me. They refused to talk."

"Everybody I work with was magnificent during my crisis. I will never forget that. Thta's why I made a vow that I would never never publicly criticize any of them. And that includes that diehard liberal Lynn Samuels. I've told the audience, "Don't ever expect me to criticize her, because she stood up for me when I was under siege." "

---

"Can you imagine the president of France being afraid to support the idea that all his fellow countrymen should speak French?"

"Bob Dole is the front-runner at this writing and will probably continue to be right up to the convention. He is basically a good man, I believe, and if he's the candidate I'll be behind him all the way. But i get the feeling that there's something contrived about him. I'm never convinced that he comes out in fanour of this or against that because it's what he truly believes. Sometimes I think he says only what he judges will help his candidacy. I wonder if he believs deeply in anything. But he's got at least one great strength - he can win...."

"Steve Forbes's other great strength is that, unlike the rest of the candidates, he actually speaks his mind. I've never met Steve Forbes face-to-face, but I've interviewed him on the telephone ore than once. What I hate most about the phone interviews is when I ask a question and hear a long pause wile the politician thinks, "Now, what should I say here that'll make me sound good?" With Forbes o the phone, there is no hesitation - he says what he thinks. Even Dole is a weasel in this regard - he checks the wind before he even opens his mouth. People say Forbes has no experience, but so what? Look at the mess the experienced professional class of politicians has gotten us into."

"Newt Gingrich probably won't be a candidate, but I think he'd be a good president. He's one of the few leaders who actually tries to advance 'ideas', rather than tired old platitudes. I think he has genuine poise: he enjoys a debate and can take it as well as he can dish it out."

"The name Pat Robertson is going to come up in this election, but he has no business in this discussion, in my opinion. He is a huckster who is completely off the wall in his vies. No true conservative wants a theocrat like him in the White House."

"But that other Pat, Mr. Buchanan, is good for the party. He's one of the few serious candidates for the presidency who doesn't feel the need to couch his views in order to gain votes. He's a good barometer: Pat's always ahead of the pack, as history has shown. But I feel he's too rigid on some issues. When it comes to immigration and affirmative action and taxes, we see eye to eye. But he's in over his head in opposing abortion, for instance. Finally, even if he got the nomination, he could never win the election itself."

"Do you know whom I'd love to vote for? P.J. O'Rourke. The author of Republican Party Reptile and other gutsy journalis is a smart, funny young guy. His presidency would definately be entertaining, and he actually has good ideas."

"I don't want you to think I'm a knee-jerk Republican, though."

"Four years ago, Paul Tsongas was my favortie Democrat."
"I'm not sure how I would have voted in a Bush-Tsongas race."

---

A strange chapter is

Ten Great Black America Heroes
1 Roy Innis
2. Thomas Sowell [ack!]
3. Clarence Thomas
4. Michael Myers
5. Joe Clark
6. Emanuel McLittle
7. Colin Powell
8. Muhammed Ali

"I interviewed him once and found him to be a genuine, intelligent, independent guy. I caller tried to bait him into bad-mouthing America, but Ali said, "No, no - I love this country. This is 'my' country."

9. James Meredith
10. Nelson Mandela

"He's not an American, I know, but I can't list my heroes and not include him. Of all the heads of state in the world today, he is the only one who deserves to be called a 'statesman'. His conduct since he was released from prison and elected president of South Africa made the white pro-apartheid leaders there look shabby and small. His dignified, generous spirit is what brought justice and international respect to his country. A true hero."

---

"I'm an individual. Maybe you are, too."
[and he said it all in caps to start off a chapter]

"Because I'm of Italian ancestry, I could decided to take pride in the fact that Antonin Scalia is doing such a great job on the Supreme Court. I could feel better about myself because Joe DiMaggio was such a magnificent athlete. I could even reach back all the way to Leonardo da Vinci and take some second-hand credit for his greatness. But if I do so, Then don't I also have to bask in the blame owed Italians who were not so wonderful? Shouldn't I also invoke the names of Al Capone and Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler, and even perish the thought, Mario Cuomo? I should indeed - 'if' I'm going to be honest. But the current view of ethnic pride has noting to do with honesty or integrity."

"The final dishonesty of our thinking about ethnicity is that while people will ascribe good qualities to members of their own group, they are mysteriously silent on the subject of bad qualities. Even mediocre ones. Truth is, for al their whining, the ethnic pride crowd has absolutely no problem with stereotypes - as long as they're feel-good and flattering. It's pathetic."

"Any yet I find Koreans very difficult to know. They are tough, I have no doubt. That's why they survive. Still, I wonder where they're going as a people. Whether they really want to become full-fledged Americans. Probably, they do. But for all their numbers and their success, they haven't really made the effort to gave something back to American life, either through public service or politics or any other visible endeavor. They remain outsiders."

"I find Italians exasperating. they have contributed so much and have so much more to offer, and yet they are cursed with an inferiority complex that holds them back. They are the most self-demeaning people, as a group, that I've ever known."

"I've known and loved Jews since I was a kid, but sometimes they can be vexing. If they're your friends, they're extremely loyal. But if they're out to get you, look out. With good historical reason, they're tenacious and tough. But they are far more skeptical and uneasy about Christians and Christianity than Christians are about Jews and Judiasm."

"I'm still of two mnds about the Japanese. When I was in Japan, I found the people to be polite and well-behaved. The teenagers there don't inflict graffiti on their cities, and they show respect to their elders. Japanese-Americans got a raw deal during World War II internment, but they bounced back and became hard-working achievers. But unlike Germans, the Japanese have yet to accept the blame for their monstrous actions at Pearl Harbor and during World War II. There's something frightening to me about a national character that allows for such evasiveness and dishonesty. And until they really come clean, I will have reservations abou Japan."

"Who gave Indians the right, for example, to operate gambling casinos? What kind of favor is that? Absurd?"

"Now, the one ethnic group with whom I've had more trouble than any of the other is the Irish."

"I was well aware even as a child that the Irish and the Scandinavians held Italians in low esteem."

"I have shoes that are older than most of the governments that run the Third World today."

"Now, you can make the argument that an immigrant is an immigrant, and it shouoldn't matter to us where they're from - that they're all created equal. To which I say: Nonsense. Just because our Declaration of Independence says that all men are created equal doesn't mean that, therefore, "all men" have an unalienable right to live in America. We reserve the right as every other national on the planet to control our borders and set sensible immigration guidelines."

"The wheelchair radicals must face the fact that they're going to have to adapt without forcing the rest of us into debt. We didn't disable them. As far as animal rights activists are concerned, I wish there were open season on them, just as we have open season on ducks, deer, bears and other creations. If they want to identify so softly with animals, that's what they deserve. I like leather shoes. I like steak. I love to see a beautiful woman in a fur coat. I think it's sexy. Sue me."

---

[even weirder]

Ten Great American Heroines

1. Phyllis Schlafly (!)
2. Jeanne Kirkpatrick
3. Myrtle Whitmore
4. Barbara Bush
5. Elizabeth McCaugey Ross
6. Marilyn Quayle
7. Midge Decter
8. Meryl Streep (not his mother)
9. Lally Weymouth
10. Mary Gigante (his mother)

---

"My father 'hated' Roosevelt. He thought the last good Democrat was Grover Cleveland. He believed the Democrats were a bunch of phonies, led by the biggest phony, FDR."

(oh boy)

---

"There Have Always Been Cheap, Easy, Effective Ways To Silence people who are saying things you don't want to hear. In the Middle Ages, Galileo made some surprising astronomical findings, and then Copernicus discovered that the earth moved around the sun. The Catholic church hierarchy didn't want anybody to hear or believe any of that, so it accused them of heresy. That shut them up in a hurry. You had to speak the party line even though you knew better. Science was not permitted to investigate and let the chips fall where they may. Opinions has to conform. It's the same way today."


"This, may I remind you, was in 1974, a year when a great many forbidden words went public in movies, plays, books, and ordinary human discourse. In that year, I was forbidden to use the word 'coward'....Well, two years later, a man named Abe Beame was mayor of New York...."

"Straus suspended me long-distance, because he was in Washington that day. His wife, Ellen, was involved in running the station, too, so I went to her office to protest. And here's what she said: "Well, why couldn't you have called him a scaredy-cat?"

"She'd rather have had a talk-show host who sounded like a five-year-old than someone who tells it like it is. I quit that station on the air not long after..."

"Oh, shut up, you scumbag!" Has a nice ring, doesn't it?

"Well, you'll never hear me utter that word on air again. Even though they use it on NYPD Blue, which is also on ABC. Even though lots of other radio shows feel free to toss "scumbag" around the airwaves."

"You need an extremely strong constitution to withstand the withering attacks the Thought Police can dish out today. I know that better than most. But I am a paid pariah, fully aware that if I state my honest opinions, I am going to be vilified. There are some of thosme who actually go out of their way to become pariahs. Just after the Oklahoma City bombing last year, G. Gordon Liddy showed that he is one of those."

---

Ten Conservatives We Can Live Without

1. George Bush

"When he ran on Reagan's coattails, he donned the cloak of a conservative. When he ran against Dukakis, he did likewise. But he had never been a 'true' conservative. He was born a rich WASP and decided that he's serve government, because that's what they do, out of their sense of noblesse oblige. But he revealed his lack of principles when he signed the tax increase of 1990 and when he pushed for teh Americans with Disabilities Act and the affirmative action guidelines. He's an elitist Ivy League Republican - not a conservative at all. And he cost us the White House."

2. Bill Bennett
3. Jack Kemp
4. Pat Robertson
5. Christine Whitman

"Another Republivcan who's not a conservative. No sooner did she get elected than she began going out of her way to attack Pat Buchanan and other right-wingers. She's devoid of any clear philosophical underpinning, and so she tries to appease the left-learning fringe of the Republican party. She's George Bush in a skirt."

6. Spiro T. Agnew

"For old times' sake. Because he could deliver Bill Safire's brilliant words so well, Agnew because the darling of the nation's conservaties during Nixon's first time. As the flames of Watergate became consuming Nixon, all our hopes flew to Agnew, bu he broke our hearts when, in 1973, he admitted that he was just another crooked, self-serving Maryland pol. Because he was more charismatic than Nixon, he damaged conservatism even more than his boss did."

7. Ollie North

"I supported the Contra cause, and at the time he became a controversial figure, I supported North's actions in the Iran-Contra affair. But I no longer blieve that he did the Contras 'or' his boss, Ronald Reagan, any favors. North broke the law, and no good can come of that, regardless of the rightness of the cause. I also have a problem with people using their notoriety to launch careers in talk radio, as North did."

8. George Will

"A brillian t guy who has articulated conservative beliefs also almost as well as William F. Buckley, the master. But Will keeps repeating the same inane mantra - that we Americans are actually 'undertaxed'. Doesn't he realize that his words encourage politicians to do the wrong thing? (Not that they need much encouragement.) If he finds himself with too much money after the tax man takes his bite, let George Will fund a few social programs out of his own pocket. But leave our dough alone."

9. G. Gordon Liddy

"He gives me credit for his presence in talk radio today, but I still include him here. He is a gentleman when you meet him, but he is also the man who tells his listeners that if ATF Agents enter their homes without warrants, it's okay to open fire on them. Under 'no' circumstances, is it okay to shoot a law officer, and Liddy knows that."

10. Rush Limbaugh

"I should say he's a conservative whom I can live without. Because without him on the scene, I like to think, then I would be the most popular conservative talk-radio personality in America. Why couldn't he have been born a liberal?"

---

"I was the Ragpicker in The Madwoman of Chaillot, for instance. Got some good reviews too. As a matter of fact, I never got anything but good reviews, too. As a matter of fact, I never got anything but good reviews in any plays I did."

"We did hoaxes, some that were so convincing, CBS News asked us to continually remind the listeners. Once we broke in with a news bulletin announcing that Fidel Castro's beard had accidently been shaved off. Another time, we turned the broadcast over to a "live transmission" from the floor of the United Nations General Assembly, where "Adlai Stevenson" (me, doing a very good impression) flipped out and began screaming at the Soviet ambassador." But not long after that, I fell into talk radio, and have been here pretty much ever since. I still regret that I didn't become a professional actor."

"A life in the theatre is an insecure living. It's a very demanding, very chancy existence."

"....the first opinions i ever uttered over the airwaves were on a subject that holds almost no interest at all for me - sports."

"Believe it or not, I was the sports director of KABC back in Los Angeles a thousand years ago."

"Every illegitimate, impoverished, state-dependent child in America today is the living legacy of the damned stupid and cruel vanity of LBJ..."

"...wackos go on allowing the decimation of the defenceless, law-abiding population."

"obsessive-compulsive behavior can only be ended by death"

---

as for his rants

some are predictable, others totally unpredicatable