Glenn Beck @ B104 Radio
Comedian Albert Brooks once said that, in terms of being social outcasts, radio DJs occupied a place somewhere between curable and incurable lepers. No argument here…as the following anecdote no doubt testifies.
After getting fired for low ratings on his Power 104 “morning zoo” radio show in Houston, conservative talk radio and Fox News cable TV show host Glenn Beck moved on to Baltimore, Maryland in the early 1990s to partner with Pat Gray on the morning drive slot at Baltimore’s leading Top-40 radio station, WBSB – better known as B104. According to Wikipedia, during his time at B104, Beck was arrested for speeding in his DeLorean with one of the car’s gull-wing doors wide open. A former colleague characterized Beck, who had a history of drug and alcohol abuse in his pre-fame days (hmmmm…like another ultra conservative, George W. Bush!), as being “completely out of it” when a B104 manager went down to the station to bail him out. (This was nothing new for the station manager, as another morning drive DJ, “Willie B” Naftel, had surrendered to police in 1987 on sexual molestation charges involving a 16-year-old girl, later copping a plea to third- and fourth-degree sex offenses in exchange for a sentence of eight years probation.)
Glenn Beck (far left), Team Player Radio Jock.
Wikipedia continues: “After a year of struggling personally and professionally, Beck found himself working alone when Gray’s contract was canceled. When Beck was fired also, the two men spent six months in Baltimore living off of their severance, unemployed and planning their next move.” Yes, Baltimore: a place to be down and out.
