Ed Schultz

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Edward Andrew Schultz

Born January 27, 1954 (1954-01-27) (age 54)
Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation Commentator, Author, radio personality, and television personality
Spouse Wendy Schultz
Children six
This article is about commentator Ed Schultz. For his national radio show, see The Ed Schultz Show. For his radio show on KFGO, see News and Views

Edward Andrew Schultz (born January 27, 1954) is the host of The Ed Schultz Show, a nationally syndicated U.S. talk radio show promising "straight talk from the heartland" from a "gun-totin', red meat-eatin' lefty."

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[edit] Early life

Schultz was born in Norfolk, Virginia, the son of George (an engineer) and Mary (an English teacher). He graduated in 1972 from Maury High School in Norfolk.[1] (Schultz, 15) He moved to the state of Minnesota to play football on a scholarship from Moorhead State University, becoming the NAIA passing leader in 1977. He played football for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for a half-season, but was unable to adjust to the different rules of the Canadian league.

[edit] Radio/TV career

After his short football career ended, he went to work as a sportscaster in Fargo, North Dakota, near Moorhead. He worked as a sportscaster for 15 years with two local stations, predominantly WDAY-TV, the local ABC affiliate. Schultz anchored the nightly sports broadcasts for the station, and became well known across the state for his high-energy radio and TV play-by-play of North Dakota State University football and basketball games.

Schultz was married to his WDAY news co-anchor and producer Maureen Zimmerman during much of his on-air time with the station. The two got divorced in 1993. In mid-June 1998, Schultz remarried. Second wife Wendy Schultz is an active member of "Team Fargo," the group of people who produce, direct, publicize and book guests for the Ed Schultz Show.

In 1988, Schultz was involved in what has over time become known as the "Whiskey Bottle Incident" in Fargo. During the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Bison 55-21 season-opening football victory over Northern Michigan University, an empty whiskey bottle thrown from the student section of fans shattered a window near Schultz, who was broadcasting the game on WDAY radio, and struck color analyst Gary Barta in the stomach. Schultz, who was often the target of taunting from the NDSU students, blurted out several audible expletives over the air and left the broadcast booth to find the bottle thrower. He apologized later for his "colorful" language. Later that week, Schultz was asked by WDAY management to take a few days off to clear the air; while he said Schultz was not suspended, the vice president of WDAY indicated people could "draw their own conclusions" about Schultz's sudden removal from on-air broadcast duties.

Schultz, who was touted as the "Voice of the Bison" for many years at WDAY, left in 1996 and began broadcasting for KFGO in Fargo, now owned by James Ingstad (formerly Clear Channel). Schultz began doing play-by-play work on University of North Dakota (UND) Fighting Sioux football broadcasts in 1998. Schultz incurred the ire of fans when he began to disparage the Bison during rival Sioux broadcasts after his years of NDSU play by play. Schultz was also a finalist for the Minnesota Vikings radio play by play broadcast job in 2001, a job that eventually went to KFAN radio host Paul Allen.

During a substitute hosting stint on a Minneapolis-based sports show in January 2003, Schultz called Sioux hockey coach Dean Blais a "jerk" and "bush league." Blais called for Schultz's removal from UND athletic broadcasts.

Even after Schultz left as UND play by play man in 2003 to focus on his national radio show, his legacy as a controversial sports figure in North Dakota did not diminish. In a 2004 Sports Illustrated article on North Dakota, Schultz lost out to only Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre as North Dakota's #1 "Enemy of the State".

Schultz's News and Views radio show was very similar to his WDAY Viewpoint program and quickly grew into a regional broadcast dominating the North Dakota airwaves, with additional listeners in South Dakota, western Minnesota, Montana, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Schultz's political views leaned towards the right during the early years, and Schultz told the Los Angeles Times that he "lined up with the Republicans because they were anti-tax, and I wanted to make a lot of money...." Schultz pondered a run as a Republican for the U.S. House of Representatives against Democratic Rep. Earl Pomeroy in 1994, but decided against it after visiting with state Republican leaders.

In the late 90s, several events occurred which he said changed his attitude. One was his mother's illness. A former educator, she got Alzheimer's Disease and began a long, slow decline. Schultz found it frustrating trying to get her the services that she needed. The other was that he met a psychiatric nurse named Wendy who ran a homeless shelter in Fargo. He attributed much of his political change to her, and although he had frequently made fun of the homeless on his show, he said in his book that she helped to humanize them; to his surprise, he found some of the people he had insulted were veterans, and many were unable to get the psychiatric or medical services that might help them. He says that began to look at poverty differently. (Schultz, 9-10) In June 1998, they were married, the second marriage for each.

While he claims to have become a Democrat in 2000, the political evolution seems to have been gradual. He went out to do radio promotions in rural parts of North Dakota, and told reporters about how he met farmers who were suffering and hard-working people who were going hungry, even though Republicans said the economy was doing fine. (Vowell, 2004) He began to hold benefits to raise money for people in the heartland who were going through tough times. (Winter, 2002) And he began questioning some of the assertions of George W. Bush; although he supported several Republican candidates in the 2000 election, he was becoming critical of other Republicans. For example, Schultz considered running for the Democratic-NPL party nomination for governor against incumbent Republican John Hoeven in 2004, but decided to continue his career in radio.

[edit] Political views

Schultz considers himself a "progressive liberal". As such, his talk show is generally considered to be a liberal-leaning program. He is pro-union and centers a large portion of his radio show on the "plight of working class Americans". He has also repeatedly stated that he is a liberal Democrat willing to change political parties upon necessity.

[edit] Schultz-Prager exchange

Schultz has engaged in a minor conflict with talk-show host Dennis Prager. Prager defended controversial comments made by William J. Bennett on the September 28, 2005 broadcast of his morning radio program, which Schultz characterized as being racist. Prager asserted that Schultz had quoted Bennett out of context and Schultz challenged Prager to a debate. Prager accepted the challenge but Schultz never responded. No debate has yet taken place and the issue appears to be dead.

[edit] Air America Feud

On February 13, 2007, Schultz dedicated the first hour of his show to a heated monologue against Air America Radio. Air America host Sam Seder suggested that the XM Air America channel should only have Air America hosts on it and reportedly asked his viewers to call XM to remove Schultz in favor of Air America host Thom Hartmann, who replaced Al Franken. Schultz interpreted this as an attack from the entire network. Other hosts on Air America have made negative comments about Schultz, saying he is not liberal or progressive enough.[citation needed] They've also made light of his rural accent and location in Fargo, North Dakota.[citation needed] Schultz responded by saying Air America "sucks" and "If you listen to Air America, I don't want you to listen to the Ed Schultz show cause I'm better than them!" Schultz also stated, "They're bankrupt ... they don't know how to run radio," alluding to Air America's chronic financial problems.

[edit] Radio show

The Ed Schultz Show is broadcast from Fargo via the Jones Radio Network to over 100 radio stations (as of October 2005), including nine of the 10 largest radio markets [1]. It can currently be heard nationwide on Sirius Satellite Radio's "Sirius Left" channel, and XM Radio's Air America Radio channel. The program can also be heard on Armed Forces Radio.

Schultz continued to experience audience growth throughout 2005 and into 2006. According to a 2007 survey done by Talkers magazine, he ranked #5 nationally, with a weekly audience of more than 3 million listeners. This is the highest ranking of any liberal talk radio host up to this point.

During the 2006 Congressional elections, Schultz provided opportunities for varying views on the candidates and politics in general. This included guests such as Michael Rogers of BlogActive, a blog that identifies gay politicians and staffers. Rogers discussed “outing” Republican staffers and elected officials he believed were gay. [2] Rogers was invited back to Schultz's show several times during the Fall 2006 elections to discuss outing Republican staffers and legislators Rogers believed they were hypocrites because of their legislative votes affecting homosexuals. [3] Rogers reported on US House member David Dreier (R-CA) and US Senator Larry "foot tapping" Craig (R-ID), both of whom he believes are anti-gay closeted gay men.

On November 30, 2006, Schultz announced he was moving to the "prime real estate" time slot from noon to 3p.m. ET, to directly compete with Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, whose shows are also broadcast in that time slot.

As the Ed Schultz Show has continued to attract listeners, Schultz has increasingly been called upon by national TV talk shows to be one of the guest pundits. To facilitate this, Schultz purchased an up-link so that he could broadcast live from the KFGO Studios in Fargo. During the past year, his TV appearances have included June 27, 2007, when he was on the Tucker Carlson Show on MSNBC; July 1, 2007, when he was on Larry King Live on CNN, and again with Larry King February 6, 2008; and on September 21, 2007 as well as January 23, 2008, Schultz was a guest on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.bigeddieradio.com/EdInTheNews/more.asp?ID=30
  2. ^ - http://www.blogactive.com/2006/10/busy-day.html
  3. ^ - http://www.wegoted.com/podcasting/archive.asp

[edit] Further reading

  • "Straight Talk From The Heartland: Tough Talk, Common Sense, and Hope from a Former Conservative", Regan Books, 2004 (ISBN 0-06-078457-1)
  • Darman, Jonathan. "A Red State radio talker tries to center the Democrats." Newsweek 14 February 2005
  • Kolpack, Dave. "Fargo broadcaster Ed Schultz begins national talk show." Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota), January 6, 2004, p. 1A.
  • Kurtz, Howard. "A Voice From Above, And to the Left; North Dakota Talker Ed Schultz Is Set to Blanket Washington." Washington Post, 10 January 2005, p. C1.
  • Winter, Deena. "Food drive for farmers lays in goods; Food pantries in Hettinger and Lemmon, S.D., will benefit from the generosity." Bismarck (ND) Tribune, 21 September 2002, p. 1A.

[edit] External links

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