Bill Handel
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William Wolf Handel is a Jewish-American lawyer and radio personality. He hosts the highest-rated morning program in Los Angeles, California on KFI AM 640,[1], The Bill Handel Show, a news-talk program which can be heard weekday mornings, 5:00 AM until 9:00 AM. He is considered "by far the most popular local talk show host in the country," with ratings surpassed only by nationally syndicated hosts.[citation needed] His ratings on KFI actually exceed those of several nationally syndicated hosts as well.
On weekends Handel dispenses "Marginal legal advice, where I tell you 'You have absolutely no case' " in Handel on the Law, syndicated nationally by Premiere Radio Networks.[2] On the show, Handel opens up every hour talking about a recent news story involving litigation, usually injecting his take on the situation. The rest of the hour is then dedicated to taking calls from listeners around America who want legal advice. The show airs on KFI from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday mornings, and the first three hours are syndicated to over 100 radio stations in the United States.[3] It is also played across the United States live on Extreme XM channel 152 on XM Radio, and replayed later the same day. As of the Fall 2006 Arbitron book, Handel on the Law has over 1.25 million listeners weekly.[4] Premiere provides a satellite re-feed of the show Sunday mornings from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Pacific.
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[edit] Biography
Bill Handel was born in Brazil, the son of Leo and Nahama Handel. Leo Handel was a Polish Jew who had hidden in a Jesuit monastary and lived as a priest during World War II. Much of the Handel family lost their lives in the Holocaust. Leo applied to enter the US, but was forced to wait for eleven years, during which time he lived in Brazil where he met and married his wife, Nahama, a dentist. Bill emigrated to the US with his family when he was six and was sworn in as a US citizen at the age of eleven.
Handel is an attorney by trade, a graduate of Cal State Northridge and obtained his J.D. from Whittier Law School. [5] Handel is married to Marjorie, and has twin daughters named Pamela and Barbara. [6]
For part of his college career, Handel attended Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he admits to sampling the potent local variety of cannabis throughout the duration of his studies. [7] In fact, Handel had an extensive drug problem which culminated in a self-admitted cocaine-and-alcohol binge. This was followed by a desperate call to his parents, who assisted him in entering rehab.
At one point extremely overweight, he underwent bariatric surgery at Centinela Freeman Hospital to lose weight. Handel's experiences with this surgical procedure have been thoroughly documented in a series of segments on his morning radio show. [8]
In addition to his work in radio, Handel is the director of the Center for Surrogate Parenting[9] , a company specializing in in vitro fertilization, egg donation, and surrogate parenting. Before beginning his talk radio career, he tried some of the ground breaking cases establishing the bounds of the field, including the writing of the second surrogate parenting contract ever written, and helping establish many of the legal precedents of surrogate parenting. He also briefly hosted a television show, Judge For Yourself, which was cancelled due to low ratings and the lack of time in Handel's schedule.
Handel used to wear glasses before he had LASIK surgery. His vision was corrected to 20/15. [7]
[edit] Radio work
The format of The Bill Handel Show is heavily news based. The first hour is primarily a general banter of topics Handel finds interesting, such as events in Handel's or the sidekicks' lives. The second hour is a more comprehensive look at the news entitled Handel on the News. Handel on the News is a summary of the news delivered with Handel's commentary while music appropriate to the subject being discussed plays in the background. In the third and fourth hour, Handel often has guests to discuss topics in the news. Frequent guests include other KFI hosts such as Leo Laporte and Dr. Dean Edell. Otherwise, Handel will cover a single news story or item of interest for a half hour, and take listener calls on that subject. Handel on the News: Late Edition airs at 8:30 a.m. and is a condensed version of the morning Handel on the News. Legal stories and stories of hoaxes often pique Handel's interest. Often, skits parodying events in the news are played during the show. All voices are done by Handel and his sidekicks: board op Paul T. Wall, newsman Gary Hoffmann, and sports anchor Rich Marotta. [10]
On Handel on the Law, he gives terse "marginal legal advice" designed to point callers in the right direction. He often makes fun of callers for getting themselves into their legal predicament. Still, the show is informative in that it deals with many common legal problems such as landlord-tenant, child custody, and divorce in an easy-to-understand way. [10]
Handel was born in Brazil to survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, a topic he occasionally brings up along with his referencing himself as a "Latino Jew". On his show, one memorable excursion involved taking white supremacist John Metzger to Auschwitz to view the concentration camps and the gas chamber where his grandfather was executed. The German government originally thought that KFI was a neo-Nazi radio station but finally relented after being presented with more information. In addition to his strong pro-Israel views, Handel generally expresses a center-right viewpoint, with support for civil liberties and scientific research and opposition to wasteful government spending. [10]
When breaking topical news stories occur, he is usually on air live giving commentary, often preempting syndicated programming.
On September 23, 2005, Bill Handel was named Major Market Personality of the Year at the 2005 NAB Marconi Radio Awards for his KFI show. During his acceptance speech, Handel said, “I haven’t been this affected since my circumcision. Seriously, I’m proud and honored to be singled out for this incredible award.” [11] On March 10, 2007 he was honored with Major Market Personality of the year for a second time by Radio and Records.
Through his radio show, Mr. Handel regularly illustrates the absurdity of racial stereotypes but his satirical comments can often be misunderstood. In 1996, Asian-American leaders called for his resignation after mocking bigotry by making absurd comments about figure skaters Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan. Handel apologized for the comments. In March 2004, Handel made jokes about Muslims not bathing, hating Jews, and practicing bestiality. KFI was forced to apologize for those comments. [12]
In response to the Nobel Peace Prize nomination of convicted (and later executed) murderer Stanley Tookie Williams, Handel claims to have sought and received a nomination himself. [13] Handel also once joked on the air about having a boss tell him to "go fly a kike."
On January 12, 2006, Handel and his Morning Show crew conducted a skit joking that pilgrims in the hajj should hire traffic reporters to reduce the possibility of deadly incidents during the Hajj such as what happened on that day, killing 346 pilgrims. He then proceeded to conduct what a sample traffic report would sound like. The Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized Handel for joking about the event, demanded an apology by Handel, urged KFI to fire him, and asked advertisers to boycott the show. While distancing itself from the comments as an official representation of the opinions of KFI, KFI has stood by Handel. Handel has countered by offering to issue a formal apology upon the condition that CAIR denounces all individual acts of terrorism, that CAIR agrees that Israel is a sovereign country with a right to defend its borders, and that CAIR and its associates do not have and have never had ties with terrorist organizations or individual terrorists. In response to the challenge, a CAIR spokesman answered "yes, yes, and no", admitting that CAIR has had ties to terrorists either in the past or currently. KFI and Handel later did apologize for the comments on the air and personally to CAIR. [14]
The Spring 2006 Arbitron ratings show the Bill Handel show as the highest rated AM morning program in LA with a 6.1 share, and the Number 2 overall (after Renan Coello, aka "El Cucuy", a Spanish language host on KLAX-FM), which helped KFI tie for #1 with a 4.8 share of listeners over 12. This is the first time AM radio has gotten a #1 position in the Southern California area since 1987.
Due to his popularity, Bill himself, Marjorie, both girls and his "pool boy" do spots on the air for advertisers.
[edit] Bill Handel on 9/11
On September 11 2001, Bill Handel was on air live when the attacks took place. Rush Limbaugh normally follows The Bill Handel Show on KFI, but according to Handel, was not scheduled to broadcast himself because he had already been scheduled to take the day off. Because KFI is the West Coast flagship of the EIB Network, Bill Handel continued to broadcast for another 3 hours, and was carried in place of Rush Limbaugh on most stations in the country (as well as the taped broadcast for Armed Forces Radio overseas).[15]
This led Mr. Handel to guest host on two more occasions on the Rush Limbaugh show, and showed that he was capable of hosting a nationally syndicated show. This resulted in the conversion of Handel On The Law from a local show to a nationally syndicated show.
Due to the opposite stance he takes to many of the political philosophies of Rush Limbaugh, Handel has stated on numerous occasions that he would never be asked back to host for Rush.
[edit] On-air incident - December 15, 2006
On Friday December 15, 2006, KFI suspended Handel for one week after a live, on-air shouting match with morning DJ Jamie White on KYSR Star 98.7FM. White had asked Handel's two 12-year-old girls to stay out of the KYSR studios (in premises shared with Handel's KFI and other Clear Channel stations). In a tape of the exchange aired on KTLA-TV - with four sections 'bleeped' - Handel tells White "If you ever talk to my kids that way again, Jamie, I'm gonna kick your [bleep]", criticizes her "[bleep] losing numbers on this loser show" and shouts "Don't you touch me!" as he leaves the studio. The recording concludes with two more bleeps and White shouting "Get outta here, Bill. You're nuts!" Handel later apologized to the "Jamie, Jack and Stench Show", saying he lost his temper.
Bill's suspension, however, was not apparent to his listeners, who had been informed that he was leaving for a week-long vacation to Hawaii later that day.
[edit] Live streaming
His shows can be streamed live from the KFI website[16]. Podcasting is also available.
[edit] References
- ^ Bill Handel's page at KFI 640
- ^ Handel on the Law at Premiere Radio Networks
- ^ Schedule Information at HandelOnTheLaw.com
- ^ Talkers.com - Top Talk Radio Audiences
- ^ State Bar of CA for William Wolf Handel - #90971
- ^ Bill Handel Show, August 16, 2006.
- ^ a b Wells, Sandy. "Half a decade of Los Angeles radio." Pasadena Star News, February 20, 2003.
- ^ Centinela Freeman Memorial Hospital - includes MP3s of Bill Handel talking about his experience.
- ^ Center for Surrogate Parenting
- ^ a b c Carney, Steve. "Humor, issues and a cause; Bill Handel's talk show is tops with morning listeners, but he is most proud of his support of surrogate parenting." Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2003.
- ^ "NAB 2005 Marconi Radio Award Winners"
- ^ Pfefferman, Naomi. "Can’t ‘Handel’ the Heat?" The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, July 9, 2004.
- ^ Stewart, Jill. "The value of a Nobel nomination" San Francisco Chronicle, December 23, 2005.
- ^ "California Radio Station, Host Apologize to Muslims". U.S. Newswire, February 8, 2006
- ^ Audio recording of Handel explaining his replacing Limbaugh on the air. The Bill Handel Show, September 11, 2001
- ^ KFI website
