The Rachel Maddow Show (radio) - History

History

The show began on April 14, 2005 and moved to 7AM–9AM EST on January 2, 2006. It now airs weekdays from 6PM–8PM EST on some Air America affiliates. Unlike most Air America programs, listener calls are not usually taken, in keeping with the show's more hard-news orientation and its format. The only exception to the rule is when either a guest or an issue's stance is important enough to warrant the calls (e.g., Maddow took calls from caucus voters in Iowa and primary voters in New Hampshire prior to those states' presidential nominating contests in early January 2008).

Until December 14, 2007, humorist Kent Jones served as The Rachel Maddow Show's co-host, contributing odd news stories as well as having his own segment, Kent Jones Now!, which aired at the end of each hour and focused on another odd news story. Jones also read the previous night's sports news during the second hour, substituting odd phrases for the word "beat" or "defeated" in the result depending on the city of the team that won — e.g. "the San Francisco Giants Violent Femmes'd the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2." Jones typically ended his segments by saying "Vigilance!" forcefully, although sometimes he'd say "Sacajawea" in the same tone. He announced his departure at the end of the Tuesday, December 11 show, saying it was a "business decision" at the network. Jones has since joined Maddow on the television version of The Rachel Maddow Show.

From March 10, 2008, until the debut of her television show, Maddow was a panelist on Race for the White House on MSNBC, simulcast as the first hour of the radio show, which expanded to three hours. Bender came on as co-host of the third hour and solo host for that hour when Maddow's television obligations on MSNBC conflicted with her ability to host the show.

With the debut of Maddow's nightly MSNBC program on September 8, 2008, the radio show returned to a two-hour format. The second hour is usually a rebroadcast of the previous night's television episode.

Early in 2009 The Rachel Maddow Show was moved a one-hour timeslot at 5AM Eastern Time. It now begins with a short introduction from Rachel followed by the audio from the previous night's MSNBC broadcast of The Rachel Maddow Show. Little explanation or warning was given for this shift except for Maddow's comments that doing two shows was far too taxing.