The 6th Most Listened to Talk Show debuts on NewsTalk 1540, weekdays from 9 a.m. – Noon.
Mike Gallagher is one of America’s most entertaining conservatives, displaying a sense of humor and timing honed over three decades in the cauldron of local and national radio talk show experience. Mike connects with his audience in a very personal way by creating compelling programming targeted at the issues men and women all over America really care about. He has used his program to shine the white hot light of scrutiny on extremist groups and political charlatans. His regularly-scheduled one-on-one interviews with people like U.S. Senator John McCain, Vice- President Dick Cheney, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and other leading conservatives consistently generate national headlines. Mike continues to be a leading contributor to the top-rated FOX News Channel as well as a columnist at the leading conservative website Townhall.com. His weekly sparring with Chris Wallace of the FOX News Channel on his radio show is truly appointment radio. And listeners have shared the joys and sorrows of Mike’s family life, including his late wife Denise’s courageous public battle with cancer.
Mike Gallagher doesn’t just jawbone the issues. He regularly takes his audience wherever major stories are happening: from his live broadcast from the Empire State Building in New York City as jetliners were crashing into the World Trade Center on 9/11; broadcasting live outside Columbine High School the night of the horrific high school shootings in Littleton, Colorado; to his solid reporting from the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions; bringing his listeners to the site of vicious tornadoes in Kansas or originating his show from the aftermath of campus tragedy at Blacksburg, Virginia. The Mike Gallagher Show is second to none is bringing his radio audience live reports from the scene of major events wherever and whenever they happen.
Mike Gallagher’s road to being the 6th most listened-to radio talk show host in the country (Talkers Magazine) began in 1978 as a 17-year-old high school senior in Dayton, Ohio. Mike talked his way into an on-air shift at WAVI-AM in his Ohio hometown and has been talking on the radio and television ever since. Mike’s broadcasting career has taken him from Dayton to WFBC-AM in Greenville, South Carolina (now WORD-AM) where his ratings and revenue success led to his eventual promotion to station manager. From there, he became the afternoon drive-time leader in Albany, New York on upstate powerhouse WGY-AM.
From Albany, it was just a short drive south to the nation’s number one market, New York City, where Mike enjoyed a two year stint as morning drive host on WABC-AM, the nation’s most listened-to talk radio station. In 1998, The Mike Gallagher Show was launched nationally with 12 radio stations. Today, Talkers Magazine reports that he’s the sixth most listened-to talk radio host in America with over 3.75 million weekly listeners. According to the Benchmark Company, he is the 8th most-recognized talk radio personality in America. Mike has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, and Forbes.
Mike is also an accomplished public speaker, frequently being invited to speak on college campuses, civic organizations and businesses. Recently, he was one of 35 speakers who spoke to the annual conference of Young America’s Foundation in Washington, D.C. In a roster that included the great George Will, Mike was voted the single most popular speaker by the attendees.
Besides his talk radio duties, Mike is equally comfortable in front of television cameras, too. He’s a Fox News Channel Contributor making frequent appearances on all of the Fox News Channel programs as well as occasionally guest hosting one of the talk shows on the cable news giant. In addition to his busy broadcasting career, he’s also added “author” to his resume as he recently wrote his first book, which became a New York Times Bestseller, “Surrounded by Idiots — Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America”, published by William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins.
In addition to being wildly popular with listeners, Mike is enormously respected by his peers in the radio industry. At the start of 2006, he was chosen by the radio and music industry trade magazine Radio and Records as one of the nominees for “Nationally Syndicated Personality of the Year” in the talk radio category. In the same year, Talkers Magazine ranked Mike the 8th most influential talk host in America, from a field of some 4,500. For 11 consecutive years, Mike has been included in Talkers Magazine’s prestigious “Heavy Hundred” List, a compilation of the 100 most popular talk radio hosts in the country.
Mike’s proudest achievement is his family. On the morning of June 29, 2008, the love of his life, his wife Denise, died at home after a valiant and dignified year-long battle with endometrial cancer. She passed away the day before her 52nd birthday. Mike was holding her when she died, their four boys — Bryan, Trevor, Matthew, and Micah — all present as well, which is just how Denise wanted it. Two of the Gallagher sons live in South Carolina, and the other two live near Mike, which is a great comfort to him. As he promised to Denise, Mike is sleeping each night with beloved beagle Buster and puggle Rory, who constantly shadowed her every move but now seem quite content to take care of him.
Now in Mike’s 11th year of national syndication, the combination of solid conservative values, a fast-paced, fun delivery each day, and Mike’s first-name basis relationship with leading newsmakers from coast-to-coast make The Mike Gallagher Show one of the most consistently popular programs on national radio today.
