{"id":1008,"date":"2014-01-06T14:10:50","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T19:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1008"},"modified":"2014-01-06T14:10:50","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T19:10:50","slug":"remembering-the-king-of-conservative-talk-radio-bob-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/01\/remembering-the-king-of-conservative-talk-radio-bob-grant.html","title":{"rendered":"Remembering “the King of Conservative Talk Radio,” Bob Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Grant, the one-time \u201cking of conservative talk radio,\u201d died this past New Year\u2019s Eve at the age of 84.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Born Robert Ciro Gigante, Grant had a storied career in radio spanning over six decades, and remained number one in the New York market even after <\/i>friend, colleague, and admirer of Grant\u2019s, Rush Limbaugh, took the talk radio world by storm. \u00a0As Rush once attested, there would be no \u201cconservative\u201d talk radio if not for Bob Grant. \u201cBob Grant is the king of talk radio in New York,\u201d \u201cone of the few talk show hosts who has lasted in combat radio. He defined it and spawned countless imitators all over the country,\u201d Rush noted.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Even President Reagan was among the legions of people who loved Grant\u2019s straight shooting, going so far as to personally \u201csalute\u201d him for his \u201cdedication.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, not everyone appreciated Grant\u2019s brutal honesty.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the mid-90\u2019s, New York <\/i>magazine did a hit piece on Grant, plastering his face on their cover with the words: \u201cWhy He Hates Blacks.\u201d\u00a0 Grant was devastated.\u00a0 In his book, Let\u2019s Be Heard, <\/i>Grant relays what actually transpired while being interviewed for the \u201crag\u201d that would besmirch him. Upon being asked as to whether he was a racist, Grant responded by saying that while he \u201ccould answer it by saying, \u2018No more than you <\/i>are,\u2019\u201d instead he will just say that \u201cif being against <\/i>affirmative action and busing, if being for civil rights for all <\/i>people\u2014including whites\u2014makes me a racist, then I plead guilty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Grant\u2019s remarks were a far cry from an expression of racial hatred, or any sort of hatred, his nemeses demanded his head on a platter.\u00a0 Later that year, they got it.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Clinton\u2019s Commerce Secretary Ron Brown\u2014a black man\u2014was on board a plane that crashed.\u00a0 Brown, along with everyone else, died.\u00a0 Initially, though, reports were vague\u2014and, as it turned out, incorrect, for the word was that there was a lone survivor.\u00a0 On the air, Grant said that his \u201chunch\u201d was that Brown was the survivor. Grant attributed this intuition of his to the fact that, \u201cat heart,\u201d he was a \u201cpessimist.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Under the pressure or race activists, WABC fired their most popular talk show host. Soon after, though, he was hired by WOR\u2014another New York mega-station. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Grant\u2019s opposition to leftist nonsense was second to none\u2014and he never hesitated to let this fact be known in no uncertain terms. Yet he also wasn\u2019t reluctant to criticize his colleagues on the right and in talk radio.<\/span><\/p>\n

He loved Rush Limbaugh (and years later, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin).\u00a0 But in his 1996 book, Grant includes the chapter, \u201cTen Conservatives We Can Live Without.\u201d Here he describes Bill Bennett as \u201ca smart man with a keen mind and the manners of a bull in a china shop.\u201d Bennett, along with Jack Kemp\u2014another \u201cconservative\u201d who \u201cwe can live without\u201d\u2014attempted to defeat Proposition 187, a California initiative designed to prevent illegal aliens from availing themselves of all state social services.\u00a0 Bennett, Grant writes, \u201churt the valid conservative cause of limiting immigration, and he brought aid and comfort to those twin hazards, Dianne Feinstein and Kathleen Brown.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pat Robertson, Ollie North, George Will, and G. Gordon Liddy are some others who Grant takes to task. <\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, the one person on the right for whom he reserved the harshest condemnation is none other than Dennis Prager.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

During the controversy that New York <\/i>magazine manufactured, Grant admits to feeling lower than any at other point in his life.\u00a0 He had refused to do any more interviews\u2014until Prager, who was not yet a syndicated talk radio host, invited Grant to appear on his Los Angeles television show. Because Prager was, as Grant understood him, \u201ca fairly conservative fellow,\u201d and because they even shared the same manager, Grant agreed to do the show.<\/span><\/p>\n

He writes: \u201cMy understanding was that we were going to discuss the thing as two colleagues\u2014you know, \u2018Hey Bob, how do you feel about all this ruckus?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Instead, Prager held up \u201cthe damned magazine cover and then proceed[ed] to recite the slanderous charges against me exactly as they were made: \u2018He\u2019s called blacks savages! He\u2019s done this! He\u2019s done that! Bob\u2014what do you say about it?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Even worse, Prager brought on a representative of the New Jersey chapter of the NAACP, a person who, according to Grant, had \u201cmore genuine hatred for me than any other human being in the world today.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Grant admitted that \u201cit\u2019s hard to imagine anything worse than being on that show that night.\u201d\u00a0 He called it \u201ca total and complete hatchet job,\u201d and referred to Prager as \u201ca son of a bitch and a snake.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With Grant\u2019s judgments, reasonable people can take exception.\u00a0 But no one can disagree with the verdict that he was one of a kind, and that the media are not likely to see the likes of his honesty, courage, and passion ever again. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Grant, the one-time \u201cking of conservative talk radio,\u201d died this past New Year\u2019s Eve at the age of 84.\u00a0 \u00a0 Born Robert Ciro Gigante, Grant had a storied career in radio spanning over six decades, and remained number one in the New York market even after friend, colleague, and admirer of Grant\u2019s, Rush Limbaugh,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRemembering "the King of Conservative Talk Radio," Bob Grant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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