Radio Career
His radio career began in New York City, working as the producer for the Tex and Jinx interview program from Peacock Alley in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, a live remote broadcast over WNBC AM in the mid-1950s at 10:30 PM to Midnight, Monday through Friday. William Safire hired Farber as a producer. Farber eventually hosted his own show on WINS. Begun in 1960, his first talk show was called "Barry Farber’s WINS Open Mike". It was the only talk show on what was then a rock n’ roll station. He left that job for an evening talk show on WOR AM in 1962, and then became an all-night host in 1967. In 1970 he ran for Congress in New York City's 19th district on the Republican ticket, but was defeated by Bella Abzug. Farber left his talk-radio career for a time in 1977 to delve into politics, running for mayor of New York City, but was defeated.
In November 1977, Kaiser Broadcasting debuted a weekly talk show hosted by Farber as a replacement to its program hosted by Lou Gordon, who died earlier that year; it was only short-lived.
Farber then joined WMCA for an afternoon drive time talk show, which lasted about 10 years. In 1990 he became a national talk-show host on the ABC Radio Network, which was trying to build a group of nationwide talk shows at the time. Lynn Samuels was forced to share her show with Farber, resulting in her departure from the station. ABC's project later was abandoned, and Farber, Michael Castello, and Alan Colmes got together and quickly formed their own independent network called Daynet. He is now on CRN Digital Talk Radio, weekdays, and on the Talk Radio Network, hosting a one-hour weekend show and filling in for TRN's weekday hosts, most commonly on The Laura Ingraham Show. Early in the 1970s, Farber was an adjunct professor of journalism at St. John's University, New York. Often his former students are heard calling his radio program with admiring words and memories.
On the radio, Farber became easily identifiable by his unique combination of drawn-out Southern drawl, intense delivery, verbose prose, and quick wit. Sponsors loved his ability to deliver a live commercial spot, often ad-libbed, and make whatever the particular product was sound tantalizing; he always sounded like he truly believed in the product.
In 1991 he was named "Talk Show Host of The Year" by the National Association of Radio Talk Show Hosts.
In 2008 Farber married Sara Pentz, a television news reporter and journalist.
Read more about this topic: Barry Farber
Famous quotes containing the words radio and/or career:
“A liberal is a socialist with a wife and two children.”
—Anonymous. BBC Radio 4 (April 8, 1990)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)