The Czar of Talk Radio
The Czar of Talk Radio:
(Houston, Texas) Michael Berry is not his brother’s keeper.
He’s an independent, libertarian, “shock-jock” on AM Radio, with the soul,
passion, and groove of an FM DJ; a maverick seeking truth above popularity,
charm, and even good taste. Laying his psyche open for 5 million listeners
twice-daily for 5-hours in Houston, his mercurial lifestyle and wide-ranging
interests seem more like a wealthy, reclusive, hi-tech, California loner. Nevertheless,
Berry grew up listening to Merle Haggard, in an average, working-class family
of plant workers, in Orange, Texas, which is 70% Anglo, near the oil & gas
refinery business on Texas’ Gulf Coast.
He is the rare talent getting paid doing what he was born
to do: talk; but his common-sense compassion for the “silent majority”
of his listeners, as well as his willingness to leap into action, doing
tangible things to help the others in times of need, show a softer side to his
personality. Like being married to a person of color and adopting two young Ethiopian
children, right when you hear him label criminals, “thugs”, or talk about an
“entitlement” culture in the black community, he’ll organize relief for the
poorest of Houston’s neighborhoods, support returning veterans with PTSD, or
take a whole segment on-air listening to the plight of a caller on the “black-line.”
Overreaction to his showmanship from progressive listeners, often couched in
criticism based in a culture of PC/woke ideology, shouts back at Berry for
promoting fear and subsequent false alarms, when he argues that he constantly
practices on a tightrope of restraint.
The key to the 51-year-old, Berry’s star-power is not his
actions, although for over 16-years, he’s built a lucrative and diverse
commercial base of over 75 show “sponsors”, now ranking as one of the top 15 “independent”
AM talk-shows in the entire nation, broadcast in over 20 markets by the large
corporate, iHeart Radio Network. His success derives from his point of
view, experience, brilliant mind, and rangy ability to go up-and-down the
spectrum of seriousness, political perspectives, cultural signals, foodie humor,
class, history, pop-music, and current events, in an intelligent but
approachable way. He is certainly not, as one bawdy caller refers to him
sardonically, an “ignunt ass!”
The maestro calls himself the “Czar”, but he is just as
much the quarterback: able to run, pass, call plays, punt, or even avoid the
sack when so many in the public arena get knocked out of the game. The
emotional, loving, pastoral, caring, friendly, sensitive moments are rare on
the Michael Berry Show, where he will often accuse, threaten, expose, rant,
lament, and scream for justice on the various ills of the dirty, urban,
liberal, Democratic, crime-ridden streets of Houston which he knows so well,
going back to the time in the 2000s when he was a city councilman for 6-years,
and also Mayor Pro-tem. He relates that he grew up admiring Ted Koppell, and
Charlie Rose; and today, thinks highly of podcaster Joe Rogan. Operating as a “commentator
based on observation,” he says; and whether you call him an influencer,
entertainer, nutty personality, sage leader, egomaniac, or casual observer,
just don’t refer to him as “Mike”.
A bucolic, optimistic persona endears him to the audience,
when Berry’s soft-hearted mindset drifts out periodically; during which his
homespun country wisdom, anti-woke, American exceptionalism, and blood-red
conservative values make sense to the audience as they drive to and from work
over dozens of massive, intertwined Houston highways. It’s like having a funny,
smart (but loudly opinionated), talkative, wild, drinking buddy who doesn’t make
stupid statements, sitting there with you on your ride home. Since this is not
a Howard Stern format on a monthly fee satellite radio network, the cost for joining
this community is being inundated with a relentless parade of 15+ commercials
every hour during the commute, beguiling a more blue-collar, old-school
audience in more than twenty conservative, AM Radio markets. This guy loves to
come to work in the morning, even though his small, non-descript office is
tucked away in a class-B building of Houston’s Galleria. Sensibly, and
consistently, his team consists of young, loyal, intelligent assistants Brad
& Chad, and one on-air foil, who “bell-dings” approval of Berry’s opinions
or cultural references. Keeping the “royal” theme, Ramon Robles, is lovingly
called the “king of ding”.
Not as intellectual as Mark Levin who authors books,
caustic as Phil Valentine who laughed at getting vaccinated and then died of Covid;
not as goofy as Art Bell, refined as Jim Bohannon, Berry doesn’t have the
trailblazing story of Alan Berg, or the ambition of Larry Elder, but he has the
education and background of a businessman, and the strategic mind of a trial
lawyer. Michael Berry does not try to be so smart as to try to reinvent broadcasting,
but instead adheres to the “precedent” handed down by the narrative “storytellers”
like Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey, his radio heroes. The “emulsifier” of his
operation, Berry says, “is the big, broad, audience, I’m so lucky to have!”
The show is innovative without being the radio version of
Tesla. He believes that problems cannot be solved by thinking the same way or
having the same consciousness that created the problems; therefore, he
criticizes both political parties and the swamp in Washington D.C. His outlook
is contrarian, without being a nerdy libertarian, conservative without being a
brain-washed Trumpian, and practical without being a naïve country-yokel. If
knowledge is power, the host’s love for trivia, dad-jokes, wild, eclectic interests,
and obscure conversations, beam out over the airwaves like a powerful 50,000-watt
boomer station we all clawed-to in our childhood, late on a summer night.
Renovating the airwaves like Chip and Joanna renovate old
Texas houses, Berry asks his audience to express periodically, “what they
truly believe” – a segment of the show where callers succinctly reiterate a
deeply held feeling bursting out of them enough to call in and wait on hold to
vent to the Czar. I truly believe that his intention is to “teach” his
listeners things they might not have learned, or maybe forgotten along the way;
at his core Michael Berry is a crotchety-old middle school teacher who just
happens to be conservative. His love for learning produces on-air his love for
teaching, and the drama is no better than when a fledgling caller gets the
“Socratic” cross-examination by the Czar upon going awry of logic, precedent,
reason, or the facts as Berry sees them. It’s too bad that he only occasionally
hears from younger listeners, as they eschew the analog AM band, although I
have not drilled down into the demographics of his audience in researching this
essay.
By his own account, the MBS is an outlaw mix between “Hee-haw,
the Actor’s Workshop, ABC’s Nightline, PBS’s Firing-line, or NBC’s Saturday
Night Live,” but all according to the demand of a dynamic audience base, where
having an influential role is difficult. He’ll interact with long-haul trucker
Allen, overweight Danny, fringe “cash-only” Covid-doctors, fledgling
entrepreneurs, or an aggressive opponent from the “black line” sometimes
drifting out into the high weeds; but having two drive-time shows daily requires
immense energy and an obvious blue collar work ethic. Not only does Berry
manage content but he also recites many of the “recommendations” (commercials)
live during each show, the realistic huckster who testifies about his friends,
who just happen to be “partners”. His tribal marketing style encapsulates his
stubbornness, fearlessness, and competitive fire, as well as his humor,
sincerity, and earnestness about business.
He likes to preach about winning the culture wars and
taking back America by the grass roots. As complicated as today’s political
landscape really is, he breaks through the ice cap, navigates the ship in
and out of thick fog, in the cancel culture, the wokeness of weaponized
gotchas, and the narrow bandwidth of AM radio, with the experience of a wizened
captain who doesn’t worry anymore about Obama or 2012. He represents
conservative faithful who need a voice, but it has been said that man is a
creature who does not know what to desire, and so they turn to others in order
to make up their mind. Almost inundated by clinging fans, Berry also knows that
“samplers” on the dial are as important as regular listeners, and he has to be
entertaining, funny, relevant, and “cool” as much as the next host, or the
audience moves on.
A recent example is writing a spoof rap song with friend
“Chingo Bling” called “Vamos Brandon!” after the viral chant “Let’s Go
Brandon!” He pumped-up the iTune ratings and sang it at his birthday party
(“bash”) on November 10, 2021, publishing a slick music video on his website.
Not the platform of Rogan, Candace Owens, Drudge, Chappelle, or Tucker, but how
many people do these hosts reach, and how many listeners actually tune into AM
Talk Radio? It’s a fair question that I’m sure Travis, Sexton, and Berry know
as they monetize each minute of airtime, with a mix of irony, luck, destiny,
power, and bandwidth; one listener at a time.
©Mark H. Pillsbury (2021)
Twitter: @markpills
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