Michael Smerconish
Encyclopedia
Michael A. Smerconish is an American radio and television personality, newspaper columnist, author and MSNBC Political Analyst. His talk radio
show is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
at The Big Talker 1210 AM WPHT
. He began his full time radio career in 2002. Since January 2009, Smerconish's two daily nationally syndicated radio programs have been heard on 70 stations in the United States, including WOR News Talk Radio 710 in New York City and KFWB News Talk 980 in Los Angeles. Smerconish canceled the morning show in November 2010.
On August 20, 2009, Smerconish became the first talk radio host to broadcast live from the Obama White House
, a show which included an interview with the President himself. The interview was held in the Diplomatic Reception Room, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt
's fireside chats
were held. The President took questions from Smerconish and his listeners on a variety of subjects including the recent debates on the pending Healthcare Reform Bill.
Smerconish has substituted for Bill O'Reilly
on The O'Reilly Factor
, Glenn Beck
on his CNN Headline News
television program, Chris Matthews
on Hardball
, and for Joe Scarborough
on his former MSNBC
show Scarborough Country
. He is a regular contributor with MSNBC, and has appeared as a guest on NBC's Today Show, Larry King Live, The View, the Colbert Report and Real Time With Bill Maher, among others. He writes separate weekly columns in the Philadelphia Daily News
and the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a regular contributor to The Daily Beast
.
Talkers Magazine has consistently named him one of America's most important talk show hosts, and Radio & Records named him the nation's Local Personality of the Year in 2009. The Pennsylvania Report
named him to the 2003 "The Pennsylvania Report Power 75" list of influential figures in Pennsylvania politics.
A simulcast of Smerconish's show aired on WPHT
and MSNBC during the week of April 23–27, 2007. The program was broadcast live from the MSNBC studios in Secaucus, New Jersey
as a replacement for Imus in the Morning
on a trial basis. The program was originally intended to be a three-day trial from April 23 to 25 but was extended for the full week after the April 23 broadcast. In-studio guests included Jon Anderson
of the musical group Yes
and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
. Smerconish stated during his stint that he would stay on MSNBC "as long as they will have me." He said several days after the simulcast that he "wanted the call" to get the position permanently, but he wasn't expecting to land the position (he predicted David Gregory
would get the job). If an offer had come, he stated he wasn't sure he would accept it, given he would have to travel to MSNBC's studios outside New York City. The MSNBC job instead went to Joe Scarborough
, whose evening program Scarborough Country
was retooled for the morning as Morning Joe
.
On November 10, 2009 Smerconish's Philadelphia-based morning program was introduced to a Washington, D.C.
area audience via simulcasting on The Big Talker 1580 AM WHFS. On February 2, 2009, WOR-AM
became the first station to pick up Smerconish's midday program. Both shows – the original morning drive program as well as an additional three hour broadcast from noon to 3 p.m. eastern time – are syndicated by Dial Global
in a partnership with CBS RADIO.
Born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania
, Smerconish is a graduate of Lehigh University
and the University of Pennsylvania Law School
. At age 29, he served as a federal housing coordinator in the Office of Housing and Urban Development of the administration of President George H.W. Bush. He is of Yugoslav
descent and married to realtor Lavinia Smerconish.
candidates for president all his life, Smerconish endorsed Barack Obama
for president
on October 17, 2008.
He has urged the Republican Party to pursue "moderation on social issues in order to advance a suburban agenda for the GOP."
On February 21, 2010, he announced that he had left the Republican Party.
Smerconish supports the use of torture
as a "last resort."
He is an outspoken critic of political correctness
, and has written two books on the subject:
His other three books include:
Both Muzzled and Murdered By Mumia were New York Times bestsellers.
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
show is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
at The Big Talker 1210 AM WPHT
WPHT
WPHT is a CBS Radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting on 1210 kHz. A 50,000-watt clear-channel station, it broadcasts in an omnidirectional pattern that allows it to cover most of the eastern half of North America at night. It uses the nickname "Talk Radio 1210 WPHT." The...
. He began his full time radio career in 2002. Since January 2009, Smerconish's two daily nationally syndicated radio programs have been heard on 70 stations in the United States, including WOR News Talk Radio 710 in New York City and KFWB News Talk 980 in Los Angeles. Smerconish canceled the morning show in November 2010.
On August 20, 2009, Smerconish became the first talk radio host to broadcast live from the Obama White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, a show which included an interview with the President himself. The interview was held in the Diplomatic Reception Room, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's fireside chats
Fireside chats
The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.-Origin of radio address:...
were held. The President took questions from Smerconish and his listeners on a variety of subjects including the recent debates on the pending Healthcare Reform Bill.
Smerconish has substituted for Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (commentator)
William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...
on The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor, originally titled The O'Reilly Report from 1996 to 1998 and often called The Factor, is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who often discusses current controversial political issues with guests.The program was the most watched...
, Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck
Glenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
on his CNN Headline News
CNN Headline News
HLN, formerly known as CNN Headline News and CNN2, is a cable television news channel based in the United States and a spinoff of the cable news television channel, CNN. Initially airing tightly-formatted 30-minute newscasts around the clock, since 2005, the channel has increasingly aired long-form...
television program, Chris Matthews
Chris Matthews
Christopher John "Chris" Matthews is an American news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC...
on Hardball
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
, and for Joe Scarborough
Joe Scarborough
Charles Joseph "Joe" Scarborough is an American cable news and talk radio host, lawyer, author, and former politician. He is currently the host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, and previously hosted Scarborough Country on the same channel...
on his former MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
show Scarborough Country
Scarborough Country
Scarborough Country was an opinion/analysis show broadcast on MSNBC Monday - Thursday at 9 P.M. ET. It was hosted by former congressman Joe Scarborough....
. He is a regular contributor with MSNBC, and has appeared as a guest on NBC's Today Show, Larry King Live, The View, the Colbert Report and Real Time With Bill Maher, among others. He writes separate weekly columns in the Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...
and the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a regular contributor to The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
.
Talkers Magazine has consistently named him one of America's most important talk show hosts, and Radio & Records named him the nation's Local Personality of the Year in 2009. The Pennsylvania Report
Pennsylvania Report
The Pennsylvania Report is an independent bi-weekly subscription-based political newspaper published in Pennsylvania. It is "widely read by the state's political junkies." It was founded in 1985 by David Buffington, a former public relations worker for the Pennsylvania Government.It provides...
named him to the 2003 "The Pennsylvania Report Power 75" list of influential figures in Pennsylvania politics.
A simulcast of Smerconish's show aired on WPHT
WPHT
WPHT is a CBS Radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting on 1210 kHz. A 50,000-watt clear-channel station, it broadcasts in an omnidirectional pattern that allows it to cover most of the eastern half of North America at night. It uses the nickname "Talk Radio 1210 WPHT." The...
and MSNBC during the week of April 23–27, 2007. The program was broadcast live from the MSNBC studios in Secaucus, New Jersey
Secaucus, New Jersey
Secaucus is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 16,264. Located within the New Jersey Meadowlands, it is the most suburban of the county's municipalities, though large parts of the town are dedicated to light manufacturing, retail, and...
as a replacement for Imus in the Morning
Imus in the Morning
Imus in the Morning is an American radio show hosted by Don Imus on Cumulus Media Networks , and simulcast for television on Fox Business Network....
on a trial basis. The program was originally intended to be a three-day trial from April 23 to 25 but was extended for the full week after the April 23 broadcast. In-studio guests included Jon Anderson
Jon Anderson
Jon Anderson is an English singer-songwriter and musician best known as the former lead vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes...
of the musical group Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
. Smerconish stated during his stint that he would stay on MSNBC "as long as they will have me." He said several days after the simulcast that he "wanted the call" to get the position permanently, but he wasn't expecting to land the position (he predicted David Gregory
David Gregory (journalist)
David Michael Gregory is an American television journalist, and moderator of NBC News' Sunday morning talk show Meet the Press.-Early life:...
would get the job). If an offer had come, he stated he wasn't sure he would accept it, given he would have to travel to MSNBC's studios outside New York City. The MSNBC job instead went to Joe Scarborough
Joe Scarborough
Charles Joseph "Joe" Scarborough is an American cable news and talk radio host, lawyer, author, and former politician. He is currently the host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, and previously hosted Scarborough Country on the same channel...
, whose evening program Scarborough Country
Scarborough Country
Scarborough Country was an opinion/analysis show broadcast on MSNBC Monday - Thursday at 9 P.M. ET. It was hosted by former congressman Joe Scarborough....
was retooled for the morning as Morning Joe
Morning Joe
Morning Joe is a weekday morning talk show on MSNBC, with Joe Scarborough discussing the news of the day in a panel format with co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. It was created as the replacement for Imus in the Morning, which was canceled in April 2007 after simulcasting on MSNBC since 1996...
.
On November 10, 2009 Smerconish's Philadelphia-based morning program was introduced to a Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
area audience via simulcasting on The Big Talker 1580 AM WHFS. On February 2, 2009, WOR-AM
WOR (AM)
WOR is a class A , AM radio station located in New York, New York, U.S., operating on 710 kHz. The station has a talk format and has been owned by Buckley Broadcasting since 1987, after the station was sold by RKO. The station has conservative, or right-of-center hosts.Its call letters have no...
became the first station to pick up Smerconish's midday program. Both shows – the original morning drive program as well as an additional three hour broadcast from noon to 3 p.m. eastern time – are syndicated by Dial Global
Dial Global
Dial Global is a radio syndication company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triton Media Group and is a sister company to Townsquare Media, both of which are owned by Oaktree Capital Management....
in a partnership with CBS RADIO.
Born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 8,380. The borough is the county seat of Bucks County.- History :...
, Smerconish is a graduate of Lehigh University
Lehigh University
Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. It was established in 1865 by Asa Packer as a four-year technical school, but has grown to include studies in a wide variety of disciplines...
and the University of Pennsylvania Law School
University of Pennsylvania Law School
The University of Pennsylvania Law School, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. A member of the Ivy League, it is among the oldest and most selective law schools in the nation. It is currently ranked 7th overall by U.S. News & World Report,...
. At age 29, he served as a federal housing coordinator in the Office of Housing and Urban Development of the administration of President George H.W. Bush. He is of Yugoslav
Yugoslavs
Yugoslavs is a national designation used by a minority of South Slavs across the countries of the former Yugoslavia and in the diaspora...
descent and married to realtor Lavinia Smerconish.
Political positions
Having voted for RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidates for president all his life, Smerconish endorsed Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
for president
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
on October 17, 2008.
He has urged the Republican Party to pursue "moderation on social issues in order to advance a suburban agenda for the GOP."
On February 21, 2010, he announced that he had left the Republican Party.
Smerconish supports the use of torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
as a "last resort."
He is an outspoken critic of political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
, and has written two books on the subject:
- Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11 (2004)
- Muzzled: From T-Ball to Terrorism – True Stories That Should Be Fiction (2006)
His other three books include:
- Murdered by Mumia – about slain Philadelphia police officer Daniel FaulknerDaniel FaulknerDaniel J. Faulkner was a police officer in the American city of Philadelphia who was shot and killed in the line of duty. Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of first-degree murder for the shooting and sentenced to death...
(co-written by Maureen Faulkner). - Morning Drive: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking, in which he discusses his political positions and his talk radio career. The book was released in April 2009.
- Instinct: The Man Who Stopped the Twentieth Hijacker (2009) about the story of Jose Melendez-PerezJose Melendez-PerezJosé Meléndez-Pérez is a Puerto Rican-born United States Customs and Border Protection Inspector at Orlando International Airport who became a key figure for the 9/11 Commission when he refused entry to an alleged terrorist prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks.- Actions on August 4, 2001 :A...
Both Muzzled and Murdered By Mumia were New York Times bestsellers.