Phil Valentine is a conservative talk radio show host in Nashville, Tennessee. He broadcasts daily on 99.7 WTN, a Cumulus Media Station, from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Central Time. His producer and sidekick, Johnny B. Valentine, is probably best known in Tennessee for leading protests against a state income tax. He is friends with talk show host Roger Hedgecock, and also with Sean Hannity. Website: PhilValentine.com [1]
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Valentine is the son of former six-term Democratic U.S. Representative Tim Valentine of North Carolina, but is nonetheless a self-described conservative. His mother is the late Betsy Valentine who was killed in an auto accident one month shy of Valentine's 22nd birthday. He grew up in Nashville, N.C. and graduated from Northern Nash High School. After attending East Carolina University, he decided on a career in radio. ECU did not offer a broadcast major so Valentine left the university and enrolled in Carolina School of Broadcasting in Charlotte, NC.
While attending Carolina School of Broadcasting, Valentine interned at WRET-TV in Charlotte which was owned by Ted Turner. Turner was in the process of selling the television station to raise money to launch CNN. After several months as an intern, Valentine was hired as the Chyron (electronic graphics) operator for the weekend news.
Valentine heard of a radio opening in Chester, S.C. when WRET-TV's weekend weathercaster's husband gave up the job. In March 1979, Valentine was hired for his first radio job pulling the 6pm-Midnight shift. Five months later he took at job doing middays at WAAK-AM in Dallas, NC. That's where he met Bill James, now of John Boy and Billy fame, who was doing afternoons. Valentine was fired from that job after five months over a "personality conflict" with the general manager. According to Valentine, the GM tried to destroy him as he sent him packing, telling him his on-air delivery and his commercial production both "sucked" and that he had made a grave mistake in getting into radio. Valentine tells the story on the air of how for years he sent the GM newspaper clippings of each promotion until they finally came back undelivered. The radio station that fired him had signed off the air.
From Dallas, NC Valentine landed a job within three days at WRMT-AM in Rocky Mount, NC. He was there over 3 years where he became the program director. In 1983, he took at job with soft rock station WYYD-FM in Raleigh doing 7pm-Midnight. Within a few months the company offered him the PD job at sister station WCOG-AM in Greensboro, NC to run their oldies station. After a year at the helm of WCOG management decided to go in a different direction and Valentine found himself back on the streets. He tried his hand at selling for an ad agency but made a grand total of $100 in three months. With nothing to lose, he packed up his car and moved to Nashville, TN where he had almost landed a job less than a year before. He was told then that the only reason the other guy got the job was because he flew in from Florida to meet with the decision-makers face-to-face. Valentine was determined to be there the next time a position came available.
Valentine arrived in Nashville in March 1985 without a job. Within a few days he had secured a full-time job selling health club memberships at Westside Athletic Club in Nashville and had a part-time gig doing weekends for Top-40 outlet WZKS-FM, 96KISS. Within three months the afternoon personality left to take a job in Atlanta. The 7p-Midnight guy (the same guy who got the job over Valentine) moved down to afternoons and Valentine was hired full-time for the 7p-Midnight position. Valentine survived a format change to soft rock and the station changed names to Magic 96. He was the only member of the air staff retained, becoming the production director. A few months later Valentine was lured away to cross-town ratings giant 106WLAC-FM, the dominant Adult Contemporary station in the market, to do 7pm-Midnight which included hosting their "Pillow Talk" feature from 10pm-Midnight. Within the year Valentine accepted an offer to return to Magic 96 to become a PD for the third time. The station was a ratings success and attracted new owners. When the new owners took over they brought in their own management team and Valentine was, once again, without a job. 106WLAC-FM quickly scooped him back up. Without an air shift available they made him producer of their popular morning show featuring Stephen Wesley Bridgewater and Ogden the Butler (played by Dan Butler). Bridgewater had been trying to break into Hollywood and, unbeknownst to management, had asked for Valentine to produce his show because he had hand-picked Valentine to take his place for a smooth transition. With Valentine in the wings, Bridgewater felt comfortable enough to leave after getting his first movie role in "Mississippi Burning" starring Gene Hackman. Valentine continued the show with Ogden the Butler later moving to afternoons in an air shift realignment under a new program director.
It was while working at 106WLAC-FM that Valentine got his first break in talk radio in 1991. The PD for sister station, 1510WLAC-AM, found himself in a jam on a Friday when a weekend host called in sick. Valentine offered to fill in. Having never done a talk show before the PD was skeptical but he was also desperate. Valentine filled in on a Saturday morning. When Valentine returned to work on Monday he learned the PD had fired the morning co-host with the intention of putting Valentine in that position. Valentine was hesitant to leave his afternoon show on WLAC-FM so he did both a morning talk show on WLAC-AM, co-hosting with British talk show host Victoria Jones, and an afternoon music show on WLAC-FM for several months until management decided they wanted him back on the FM exclusively.
By July 1995, Gaylord Entertainment had bought WWTN-FM out of bankruptcy and they hired Valentine to host the morning show as they launched SuperTalk 99.7WTN. Valentine's show was an immediate ratings success. The following February Valentine was hired to be a spokesman in television commercials for WWDB-FM in Philadelphia. The owner and general manager got wind that Valentine was actually in talk radio and they listened to him while in Nashville for the commercial shoot. Upon returning to Philadelphia they called and offered Valentine the job as morning host at WWDB in what was, at the time, the number five market in the country. Valentine turned them down. WWDB went on a nationwide search for a host of their morning show, auditioning dozens of hosts live on their station. Valentine refused an invitation to audition, not wanting to jeopardize his position at WTN. After five months of searching, station officials had decided they still wanted Valentine, the only host who refused to audition. They implored Valentine to at least visit the city and the station. Valentine agreed and had a change of heart once he had seen the station and Philadelphia. He agreed to take the position and began his stint as the new morning host of WWDB-FM in Philadelphia in August 1996.
Within one ratings period Valentine had taken the show from 9th place to 3rd where he continued to gain on Howard Stern, who was in 2nd place. Valentine won three Philadelphia AIR Awards in the Fall of 1997 - Best New Talent in the Market, Best Morning Show Host and Best Talk Show. He had taken the morning show to a 6.2 share with listeners 12+, an unheard of audience for talk radio in Philadelphia. In one year Valentine had become the most listened to local talk show personality in the city. At the time of the AIR awards WWDB had just been sold to Beasley Broadcasting. The new PD wanted Valentine to mimic Stern by doing more blue humor. Valentine refused. He was fired. A Stern wannabe was hired in his place. The show dropped from 3rd place, where Valentine had left it, to 10th place in the first ratings period. By the second ratings period it had dropped to 17th place. At that point the morning host and the PD who hired him were both shown the door. WWDB tried a "news wheel" morning show for a time but the damage done was irreparable. WWDB, the first FM talker in the country, switched formats to '80s music.
While contemplating his choices, Valentine accepted an offer to do some fill-in work at WABC in New York. That's where he met Sean Hannity who had just moved to afternoons from nights and was co-hosting the new Fox News show, Hannity & Colmes. Hannity confessed that he used to listen to Phil when Hannity was in Huntsville. They became fast friends.
There was no full-time opening at WABC and Valentine really wanted to return to Nashville as his oldest son would soon start kindergarten. As fate would have it, Valentine got a call from the PD of WLAC-AM in Nashville. He offered Valentine his choice of morning drive or afternoon drive. Valentine had grown tired of getting up at 3AM and he chose afternoons. In April 1998, some 13 years after he first arrived in Nashville, Valentine was back on the air in Nashville. His first day back was the very same day two tornados tore through downtown Nashville.
Valentine spent 6 years at WLAC and established himself as the top political talker in town. His ultimate goal was to take his show national. He became frustrated with the slow progress being made on that front at WLAC. In January 2004 he decided to leave his position at WLAC. Because of contractual obligations he had to sit out of radio for 6 months. In July 2004 Valentine returned to SuperTalk 99.7WTN, the station he helped launch 9 years prior. The Phil Valentine Show is now the most listened to talk show in Nashville.
On November 7, 2006, Westwood One announced that they would begin a national syndication of Valentine's WTN show. The national broadcasting, including a weekly "best of" show, began on January 2, 2007. The Phil Valentine Show currently airs on over 70 stations across the country.
Valentine is the author of three books, The Conservative's Handbook, Right from the Heart:The ABC's of Reality in America, and Tax Revolt, about the 1999-2002 protests against the proposed implementation of a state income tax in Tennessee; protests which he helped instigate. "The Conservative's Handbook" is a revision of "Right from the Heart" with new chapters and updated information. The foreword for both is written by Sean Hannity.
In August 2009 Valentine launched production of his documentary, "An Inconsistent Truth," an answer to Al Gore's movie. The movie is in final production and is currently in the process of finding theatrical distribution.
Valentine's other movie credits include a supporting role in Bret Michael's (of the rock group Poison) movie "A Letter From Death Row." The movie also featured Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen. He was also the voice of a radio talk show host in an episode of ABC-TV's "Threat Matrix" television series that starred James Denton who went on to star in "Desperate Housewives." Valentine has made numerous appearances on Fox News and MSNBC.
His newspaper column was carried by The Tennessean for over two years. Valentine was relieved of his column duties by The Tennessean after he wrote a piece blaming political correctness for allowing the Ft. Hood terrorist to kill 13 people. He drew parallels between that event and then-Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta's role in 9/11 by not allowing profiling at airports. Tennessean editors objected and the column never ran. Valentine stands behind the column arguing that the facts are indisputable. The only thing in dispute, he says, was someone having the guts to say it.
Valentine still has his syndicated newspaper column that has been running in various newspapers across the state of Tennessee since 2001. One newspaper publisher, pulled Valentine's column in March 2009 not for what was written in his paper but over what Valentine had written in his Tennessean column. Valentine had questioned whether or not he was getting his tax money's worth from the federal government. The editor found that notion repugnant and ordered Valentine's column dropped from his paper.
Valentine has received 19 AIR Awards (Achievement in Radio) in Philadelphia and Nashville Gold World Medal for Best Talk Show Host from the New York Festivals International Radio Awards Consistently listed in Talkers Magazines "Heavy Hundred" as one of the 100 most influential talk show hosts in America
In an Op-ed piece published on July 5, 2009 by The Tennessean, Valentine made a statement claiming the recession caused by the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. "should've lasted just a few months". Valentine went on to claim that government stimulus monies exacerbated not helped ease the recession, even though as he claimed, "In all fairness, most of the stimulus money is yet to be spent." Valentine places the amount of the stimulus package spent thus far at 6 percent. .Valentine's article concludes that the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was caused by Democrats and government programs such as the Community Reinvestment Act and the expansion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.[1]