- Alex Bennett
:"For the Scottish footballer, see
Alex Bennett (footballer) . For theHome and Away character, seeAlex Bennett (Home and Away) "Alex Bennett (a.k.a. Bennett Gordon Schwarzmann), (
December 18 ,1939 ) is an Americanradio personality and talk show host, known for his mix of left-wing politics and humor. He currently hosts a weekday radio show onSirius Satellite Radio channel "SIRIUS Left 146"Bennett was born in
San Francisco and attendedDrake High School in San Anselmo, CA. He adopted his on-air name as a tribute to his late father, Alexander Schwarzmann.Broadcasting career
During the 1960s, Bennett worked at radio stations around the country, including KILT in Houston, where he used the on-air moniker
James Bond and did his show using an English accent, and WLOL in Minneapolis, before gaining major market attention in 1969 atWMCA in New York. He initially started as adisk jockey , later evolving into atalk show host during the station's transition from itsTop 40 "Good Guys" music format to the pioneering "Dial-Log" all-talk era. Bennett brought a progressive rock radio sensibility to the teenage-oriented station, still playing album cuts of music as his talk show evolved, and openly discussing topics ranging from his love life to his participation in variouscountercultural events, such as "Consciousness III", before giving hisYogic sign-off "Namaste " ("The God within me sees the God within you"). In 1969, Bennett flew to London to investigate the rumor of Paul McCartney’s death. He later became friends withJohn Lennon , who appeared on his show.In 1970, Bennett and his wife-producer Ronni moved their show to
WPLJ , still in New York. By late 1971 the couple split. Ronni went on to produce for ABC’s20/20 andBarbara Walters . Today, she writes a blog on aging and what it's really like to get old, "Time Goes By". [http://timegoesby.net/] Guests on Bennett's WPLJ show included rock stars, comedians andleft-wing ,anti-war activists.An early video pioneer, Bennett produced "Midnight Blue" with (
Al Goldstein of "Screw" magazine) for a New Yorkpublic access cable channel.In 1980, Bennett returned to his
native San Francisco to host a morning show foralbum-oriented rock stationKMEL . Bennett found success by featuring standup comedians as his guests. Before they became famous, performersBob Goldthwait ,Whoopi Goldberg ,Dana Carvey ,Ray Romano , andJay Leno were guests on Bennett's program. The popular show aired on three San Francisco area radio stations throughout the 1980s and 1990s: KMEL,KQAK , andKITS . "The Alex Bennett Show" changed stations due to management/consultant conflicts (KMEL), a format flip (KQAK), and, finally, a station ownership change (at KITS, where he did two stints). Bennett also briefly hosted talk shows onKNBR in San Francisco andWIOD inMiami, Florida (the latter, a very sour experience), in between his Bay Area morning show gigs. During the 1980s, Bennett was the original host of public television’s Comedy Tonight.While at KMEL, Bennett’s mother, Ruth, achieved fame as the world’s oldest
album-oriented rock disk jockey when she hosted a Sunday night countdown show onKMEL from 1982 to 1983. Bennett hosted the station’s morning show, and Ruth continued at KMEL for a year after his departure for KQAK. Ruth died in 2005 at the age of 100.Bennett's eponymous radio show was unique in that it featured a live in-studio audience consisting of listeners who were invited to just walk in off the street. In addition to featuring comedians on his San Francisco radio shows, Bennett produced a number of live comedy shows. The earliest ones included his KMEL/KQAK newsman Joe Regelski and were called "Alex and Joe Shows". He also did remote broadcasts of his morning show, known as "Breakfast with Bennett."
A technology aficionado, Bennett took advantage of the early growth of the
World Wide Web . After leaving FM rock radio in the late 1990s, Bennett created an Internet radio show for Play TV that ended when the company went out of business. He also developed an early website, "The Surfing Monkey" (along with Chuck Farnham, David Biedny and Jesse Montrose), which featured, among other things, a series of articles written by an inmate on Death Row at San Quentin. The prisoner, identified by the pseudonym Dean, reported on daily prison life in a series called “Dead Man Talking”. Bennett is personally opposed to the death penalty. He also voiced the Starbase Commander character in the 1992 release ofStar Control 2 by3DO .Bennett briefly returned to radio in 2001 to host a technology-oriented midday talk show for
CNET Radio at its San Francisco flagship affiliate, KNEW). Bennett's attempt to return to general AM talk radio was hampered by his outspoken left-leaning political views (though he temporarily hosted a morning show on KNEW when they changed their format to a talk format in 2003). Station managers at the time only wanted to hireright-wing talk show hosts.In 2003, Bennett returned to New York, and started his current 9-noon ET show on
Sirius Left on April 19, 2004. On his weekday show, he talks about politics, entertainment, and personal matters. He has also served as a substitute for syndicated talk show host Lionel on several occasions.Trivia
*Alex recently served jury duty in a jury pool that included film director
Steven Soderbergh . Alex was excused from serving because he opposes the laws against the sale and use of drugs. Soderbergh was excused so he could fly to Cuba to make a film onChe Guevara .*Bennett was the first American DJ to play the song "No Matter What" by
Badfinger .*On April 5, 1985, at the time when many U.S.
radio stations were to play the charity single, "We Are the World ", simultaneously, Alex Bennett played "Will the Wolf Survive?" byLos Lobos .*During his days at Live 105 Alex would have stuntman Chuck Farnham cover himself with food to feed the homeless. This allowed Alex to get around the San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan's ban on feeding the homeless without a permit.
*One of Bennett's greatest achievements in radio was the invention of "quickies", in which callers have fifteen seconds or less to say anything. The idea was later "borrowed" by both
Alan Colmes and SeanHannity on their radio shows. Bennett recently brought the feature back for his show on Sirius.*Bennett had a very bitter rivalry with Howard Stern, whom Bennett claims ripped off his style from the days of Bennett's early New York program. This rivalry intensified when Stern entered the Bay Area market on San Jose’s
KOME and eventually replaced Bennett as morning host onKITS in 1998, whenCBS took control of the station, fired the on-air staff and movedKOME ’s air staff to KITS. Ironically, when Stern signed withSirius Satellite Radio (where Bennett currently works) in 2004, Bennett praised the move.*Bennett has also appeared as a pundit on "Tucker" on
MSNBC and is a frequent contributor toHustler magazine in a non naked role.References
External links
* [http://www.radiofreejack.com/ Alex Bennett's official site, featuring audio archives of past interviews]
* [http://sirius.com/bennettpoll Bennett's page at Sirius Left]
* [http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kqak/kqak_alex-bennett_aug-23-1982.shtml Alex Bennett on KQAK FM 99 (The Quake), 1982]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNC_6yz0PyU A video from a "Breakfast with Bennett" live broadcast on KQAK]
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