RIP, Alan Colmes
Talkers Magazine has just announced that liberal radio talk show host and FoxNews contributor Alan Colmes has passed away. I was a huge fan of his noon-time radio show back in the 1990s — he was the first radio host to take recorded comments and play them back, on his “graffiti phone” feature, which was always hilarious. I listened to him and learned from him even if I didn’t always agree, which is the post of media anyway.
When he was on FoxNews on the “Hannity & Colmes” show, it was as good a back-and-forth as you would get in the post-“Crossfire” age of programming. He will be sorely missed. RIP
Here’s the information from Talkers that just went out this morning:
In what comes as shocking news to the world’s talk media community, longtime radio broadcaster, talk show host, and political pundit Alan Colmes passed away in New York City this morning after bravely battling an illness for the past several months. Colmes, who began his stellar radio career as a teenager on such Long Island stations as WGBB, Freeport and WGSM, Huntington went on to star on the legendary outlets WABC, WNBC, WHN, WMCA, WEVD in New York. His career also included stints at WNHC, New Haven as well as WZLX and WEZE in Boston. Colmes was a pioneer in the modern talk radio syndication industry launching the seminal Daynet with Barry Farber in the early 1990s. He also played a role in the developing NYC comedy scene as a successful stand-up comic during the 1980s. Colmes joined Fox News Channel in 1996 where he co-hosted the legendary program “Hannity & Colmes” with Sean Hannity until the end of 2008. He had continued on the channel since then as an in-house contributing commentator and hosted a nightly syndicated radio program on Fox News Radio. For the past two years he had also been in development with TalkersRadio of an experimental program titled “Healed Planet” that explores one of his personal passions, the subject of the human consciousness movement. Colmes was a graduate of Hofstra University and a charter inductee into its radio station, WRHU’s Hall of Fame. More information and details to come. TALKERS publisher Michael Harrison, who has known Colmes since their days together at Hofstra and Long Island stations, states, “Alan Colmes was one of the greatest radio performers and talk media personalities of our time. Yet, there is so much about his talent and personality that people don’t know. He was a man of impeccable character and generosity with talents that extended way beyond the frame of reference in which he was primarily cast in the public’s view. This is a devastating loss.”