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Randi Rhodes (born Randi Bueten on January 28,
1959, in Brooklyn, New York), is an American liberal talk radio personality
featured on Air America Radio, where her eponymous program, The Randi Rhodes
Show, is broadcast from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday,
with many Air America Radio affiliates recording the show for delayed broadcast
in the evening. Her married name is Randi Robertson; Rhodes is a stage name
chosen to honor Ozzy Osbourne's guitar player Randy Rhoads, who Rhodes describes
as "a consummate professional... who lived to be the best." [1]
****
Early life
Rhodes was brought up in a Jewish household, but
refuses to discuss her religious views openly. Her father was a mechanical
engineer and WWII veteran and her mother worked in a dress shop. She grew up in
Brooklyn and Queens, but her parents divorced when she was 15, and her father
moved to California.
Military career
Rhodes enlisted in the United States Air Force in
1977 and worked stateside as a mechanic in Texas, achieving the rank of Airman
First Class. She left the Air Force early and relocated to Ohio, where she
participated in a program called Palace Chase to release her to the reserves and
honorably discharge her. Although she left active duty before her contract was
up, she still received an honorable discharge after completing the program.[2].
Early work in radio
Rhodes' radio career began in Seminole, Texas,
where she also worked as a waitress in a Mexican restaurant to support herself
as her radio career developed. Like many radio personalities, Rhodes worked at
various radio stations for more than 10 years, moving from market to market
throughout the country. While at WQFM in Milwaukee in 1987, Rhodes, then
sidekick to Perry Stone, was suspended when their program offended the
homosexual community and led several businesses to cancel ads.[1]
In September, 1992 Randi started on WIOD in Miami,
modeling herself on and occasionally filling in for colleague Neil Rogers.[2]
The Miami Herald described her as "a chain-smoking bottle blond,...is part Joan
Rivers, part shock jock Howard Stern, part Saturday Night Live's "Coffee Talk"
lady. But mostly, she's her rude, crude, loud, brazen, gleefully scatological
self." Rhodes' sthick included saying to a caller "God, you're making me look so
damn crappy! I'll never forgive you for this as long as I live! Not in a
milliontrilliontwohundredthousand-eighthundredfortysevenyears!" No stranger to
the area, she was a DJ in the 1980s on WSHE in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. In 1994,
Rhodes began work at WJNO (1230/1330 AM) in West Palm Beach, Florida. She was
hired to replace the syndicated G. Gordon Liddy, whom she likes to call either
"Mr. Giddy" or "The Felon." She helped provide expert commentary on the O.J.
Simpson trial in 1994, catapulting her to fame and higher Arbitron ratings.
During the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, the
location of Rhodes show allowed her to provide commentary that served as an
alternative to the mainstream media coverage on the local proceedings. (Palm
Beach was one of the major Florida counties disputed in the election)
Rhodes gained national attention soon after the
September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States by being particularly critical
of President Bush, and by closely monitoring questions surrounding the incidents
of the World Trade Center's destruction, damage to The Pentagon, and related
issues. She was, and remains, highly critical of those she sees as
right-wingers, conservatives, or Neoconservatives, as well as Christian, Islamic
and Jewish religious fundamentalists.
In 2004, she appeared on the cover of The New
Republic in an article entitled "Talking Back - The coming rise of liberal talk
radio."
Rhodes joins Air America Radio, 2004
In 2004, Rhodes joined the team at Air America
Radio, bringing The Randi Rhodes Show to its largest audience to date. Rhodes'
show features monologues, guest interviews, comedy, and listener calls,
punctuated with musical interludes, including the show's unofficial theme song,
"Pain" by Stereomud. On Fridays, Rhodes opens the show with the song "Bounce
Your Boobies" by Rusty Warren. With her distinctive Brooklyn-Queens accent, she
takes calls spanning the political spectrum, aggressively promoting her views.
Rhodes's journalistic standards
see main articles at journalism and journalism
ethics and standards
Rhodes regularly asserts that she is not a
journalist, but does comment on, and analyze, news reports with a journalistic
eye. Rhodes proclaims herself to be a stickler for facts, and also claims to
hold to many of the basic tenets of journalism and journalism ethics and
standards such as corroboration, attribution and truthfulness. She offers
citations to a wide array of newspapers, magazines, websites, government
documents and electronic media (Radio/Television) reports. Rhodes takes on the
roles of editorialist, satirist, comedian and news analyst. She is a leading
activist for accountability and standards in the media, and has spoken at
congressional hearings about creating a framework of national standards for what
can be labelled news. She frequently tells her listeners to never trust anyone
they hear on the radio, not even herself. Randi instead wants people to do their
own research, after hearing supposed facts on the air.
Rhodes's comedic style
Rhodes acts as a comedian and makes frequent use of
sound effects, as do many on Air America Radio. Some of her trademark sounds are
the cherry pop for new callers, the bong bubbles, various bells and buzzers for
indications of how she feels about any particular subject, even explosions and
gunfire are sometimes used with comedic intent. In addition to her own comedy,
The Randi Rhodes show features other comedians such as Barry Crimmins and Randy
Credico, and comedy produced by the Air America Radio staff.
Criticism
Many consider Rhodes to have made comments which
have gone beyond the pale. The Anti-Defamation League sent Ms. Rhodes a letter
censuring her for comments relating to the evacuation of victims from Hurricane
Katrina. Rhodes compared the bungled evacuation to the intentional mass murder
of Jews at Auschwitz. The ADL believed that these comments showed great
insensitivity to the victims of the Holocaust. [3]
Family
In 1994 Rhodes married Jim Robertson, an
independent television producer and cameraman. Rhodes and Robertson divorced in
April 2004 but have remained close friends. Rhodes took the name Robertson when
she married, but continued to use her professionally known name, Randi Rhodes,
on the air, a common practice amongst those in media and in business generally.
In 1996 Rhodes's sister, Ellen, died of breast
cancer at age 44. Rhodes and Robertson raised Ellen's daughter Jessica as their
own.
Trivia
In the mid-1980's Ms. Rhodes was unable to afford
tuition for community college, so she informally audited classes for several
years, including legal courses, to improve her knowledge.
Rhodes's Florida home was damaged in 2005 by
Hurricane Wilma. However, Rhodes remained in New York to continue working on her
show, as she felt that her program was more important than her house.
Rhodes won the American Women in Radio and
Television award for Best Entertainment Programming.[4]
Rhodes claims her dog, Simon, barks at the TV when
someone from the Bush administration appears.
Former Air America Radio host Mike Malloy
broadcasted his last show for the network while filling in for Rhodes on August
29, 2006.
Bibliography
The Big Encyclopedia of Republican Hypocrites,
2006, (ISBN 1-4013-5248-0) (to be released August 30)
****
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URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randi_Rhodes
Date Article Copied:
September 2006
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