| Lee Habeeb | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 21, 1961 Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Radio show producer, political commentator, writer |
Lee Habeeb (born January 21, 1961 in Teaneck, New Jersey) is one of America's leading conservative talk radio producers.
He was the co-creator and Executive Producer of The Laura Ingraham Show (Westwood One, 2001) which cracked the Talkers Magazine Top 5 in America in five years, becoming the #1 show in its daily time slot 9:00 am–noon ET. His work with Ingraham brought the show national attention on many occasions, unearthing items like Dick Durbin's Pol Pot speech, which made news in The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.[1] According to Talkers magazine's Talk Radio Research Project in 2004, Ingraham was ranked in the top 10 in total audience among nationally heard talk show hosts, trailing only Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Howard Stern, Michael Savage and Laura Schlessinger. This ascent was at least partially attributed to the producer Lee Habeeb's adoptions of talk radio techniques of Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern, mixing hard core politics with pop culture.[2]
In 2007, Habeeb joined talk radio powerhouse Salem Radio Network's team of hosts as Network Director of Strategic Content. Salem's roster consists of Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, and Dennis Prager. Radio and Records reported the move this way: "SRN president Greg R. Anderson said that Habeeb was “at the very top of an elite cadre of incredibly talented talk radio producers who create powerful, compelling radio content.” Anderson added that, “Lee knows better than anyone in our industry how to stage-manage the resources of TV, radio, print and pop culture into a tour de force of tremendous depth and excitement day after day.”
Habeeb has spoken extensively at talk radio industry conventions and written columns for USA Today, The Washington Examiner[3] and the National Review.[4]
He is also a columnist for Townhall.com.[5]
Habeeb has also commissioned the creation of several hit YouTube videos, including a William F. Buckley video tribute just after the great conservative's death in February 2008. During the 2008 presidential primary season, one of Habeeb's videos on Barack Obama's relationship with Pastor Jeremiah Wright titled "Is Obama Wright?"[6]
As Vice President of Content Development at Salem Radio Network, Habeeb was instrumental in drafting and developing the FreeOurHealthCareNow.com[7] petition, which was delivered to Congress on September 9, 2009 and covered on CBS Evening News, Fox News, CNBC and CSPAN.[8] He and Salem's team worked closely with one of America's leading think tanks, The National Center for Policy Analysis, and free market intellectual and economists Dr. John Goodman, on the petition.[9]
Habeeb produced the video "Is Nationalized Health Care a Death Snare?" about the effects a government takeover of health care would have on both beginning of life and end of life issues. Habeeb was also instrumental in helping some prominent Atlanta doctors create and promote an alternative to the American Medical Association. The group, Docs4PatientCare is led by Dr. Hal Scherz, and now has over 4,000 private practice doctors organized to preserve the sanctity of the doctor patient relationship, and preserve private medicine in America. Habeeb has also worked closely with the promotion of an alternative to the AARP called the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), growing membership in this conservative group 10 fold in the past year, from 20,000 to over 160,000 and looking to reach 1,000,000 by the 2012 elections.
Habeeb is a University of Virginia School of Law Graduate (1991). He currently resides in Oxford, Mississippi with his wife, Valerie, and daughter, Reagan.