Ian Punnett
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Case Ian Punnett (aka The Watchman) (born March 3, 1960 in Wilmette, Illinois) is an American radio broadcaster.
As of August 2007, Punnett hosts a morning show on WFMP-FM in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and is the regular Saturday night host of the widely-syndicated paranormal-themed Coast to Coast AM, created by Art Bell.
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[edit] Biography
Punnett graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was a student columnist of the Daily Illini.
After college, under the pseudonym "Ian Case" (his first and middle names transposed), he co-hosted rock morning radio shows on WXLP in the Quad Cities called "Ian Case and the Coach" and then "Ian Case and The Duke" with Mike "The Duke" Donegan on then-rock music station WKDF in Nashville, Tennessee in the early-to-mid-1990s.
He went on to talk radio at WGN in Chicago in 1994, then went to Atlanta, Georgia in 1997 to host a nightly talk show on WGST under his real name, Ian Punnett. He returned to the WKDF morning show in 1998, though he remained in Atlanta and broadcast the show from his home studio (while co-host Mike "Duke" Donegan broadcast from the station's Nashville studio). Punnett would occasionally slip up and announce his real name instead of the pseudonym, which inadvertently became a running gag. That show's run came to an end in early 1999, shortly before WKDF switched to a country music format.
In Minneapolis-St. Paul, Punnett hosts the morning show (5-9 am) on WFMP-FM. The show is known as A Balanced Breakfast with Ian and Margery, and is co-hosted by his wife, Margery (a former TV producer who has worked for CNN as well as for The Oprah Winfrey Show) who does her part of the show from a studio in their home while getting their two teenage boys off to school. Punnett has a Masters of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, and is in the ordination process in the Episcopal Church.
Since 1998, Punnet has intermittently hosted Coast to Coast AM; see further details below.
On August 1, 2007, Punnett helped report the Minneapolis bridge collapse on CNN.
[edit] With Coast to Coast AM
In 1998[1], Punnett began occasionally hosting Coast to Coast AM.
In April 2000, Punnett became the regular Sunday-night host for Coast to Coast. He was the first person other than Art Bell to be "given" a night of the week in his or her name. In December, 2001, Punnett left Coast to Coast AM with Ian Punnett to do mornings in the Twin Cities for Hubbard Broadcasting and to concentrate on finishing seminary. His replacement for Sunday nights was George Noory who would eventually take over the entire show when Art Bell retired again a few years later.
Although Punnett occasionally acted as a guest host, he did not rejoin Coast to Coast AM on a full-time basis until June of 2005 when Art Bell, who had been doing the two weekend shifts again, announced that he wanted to host just one night a week in order to spend more time traveling with his wife, Ramona. Coast to Coast AM with Ian Punnett once again returned to the weekly line-up, this time on Saturdays.
On January 21, 2006, after the death of Ramona Bell, Punnett announced that Art Bell, the creator and original host of Coast to Coast AM would be returning from retirement to host each Saturday and Sunday night. Punnett then moved to Coast to Coast Live with Ian Punnett, a new, four hour program, on January 28, 2006. The new show occupied a slot (6 pm-10 pm PST/9 pm-1 am EST), the same period that previously broadcast repeats of older Coast to Coast AM episodes (Coast to Coast AM begins at 1 am EST/10 pm PST). Many existing Coast to Coast AM affiliates automatically carried Punnett's new program from its first night, and in subsequent months several new affiliates came on board. As of June 2007, its affiliate count stood around 200. Since his affiliation with C2CAM (especially during his tenure with Coast to Coast Live), Punnett developed a loyal following of his own. He always opened the show with the "reminder" of 'hostile invading aliens' hovering just beyond earth's atmosphere to 'Eat the Canadians first', saying they are 'much tastier' than Americans.
After the retirement of Art Bell in July 2007, Coast to Coast Live was discontinued, with Punnett once again becoming host of the Saturday night edition of C2CAM. Show episodes with themes pertaining to cryptozoology or government conspiracies (favorite subjects of Coast to Coast AM) are generally designated to Punnett and slotted for Saturday nights.
