Regardless of how much experience someone has in an industry, you’re taking on a whole new world when you replace a legend. Rich Valdes has always been cognizant of that.
Jim Bohannon passed away last November after decades on top of the radio industry. Bohannon was the primary fill-in host for Larry King’s national radio show and Bohannon’s show aired on 300 stations across the country at the time of his death.
“I filled in for Jim for a few months while he was in treatment for cancer,” Valdes said.
When he got his own nationally syndicated show, Valdes recognized how the slot had only two hosts in 45 years; Larry King and Jim Bohannon. Bohannon’s show was one of the most coveted slots, number 15 out of 20 when Valdes took over.
“I just said, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’ I was ready to become an old man in that seat. To become a cantankerous conservative curmudgeon for the rest of my days.”
Bohannon told Valdes before he took over his slot, ‘You have a track record, people have heard you and you’ve got the goods and the talent,” Bohannon said. “You have the ability to do the job’.”
Filling in for Bohannon allowed Valdes to better understand what made Bohannon so great. Valdes shared that doing talk radio has been one of the greatest challenges of his life. Valdes studied Bohannon and his on-air presence.
“When they told me I was going to be filling in for Jim, I started listening to hours and hours and hours of his tapes to hear his style and his cadence, just to make sure that I delivered the show the way the audience was looking for and expected.”
Westwood One has rebranded Bohannon’s show as Rich Valdes’ America at Night, airing Monday through Friday from 10:00 PM – 1:00 AM ET.
Valdes started as an associate producer on Mark Levin’s show, which at the time was the second largest nationally syndicated live daily conservative talk radio program in the US.
It was Levin who enthusiastically endorsed Valdés for his new hosting role. Bohannon called Valdes “a very bright, vibrant young man. Levin once said of Valdes that he was an “unapologetic patriot.”
“What I think he was saying was a lot of people are willing to go along to get along,” Valdes explained. “For example, standing for the pledge of allegiance. I don’t care who is looking or doing what. We’re standing for that. For love of our country. For entertaining and informing others.”
Levin also coined Valdes as “Your liberty-loving Latino amigo.”
“That’s a nickname Mark Levin gave me when I filled in as a guest host on his show,” Valdes explained. “One of the first things Mark taught me was to be genuine. He told me you can’t go on the air and be someone you’re not comfortable with. ‘Richie, always be yourself,’ he’d tell me. You’re funny, smart and you’re good at being you. Nobody else can be you. Some hosts try to emulate other hosts, but listeners can detect that.”
On his show Valdes takes calls throughout the night. However, the final hour of the night is dedicated to calls from across the country covering all the hot topics from the day.
A couple of Valdes’favorite radio hosts and influences include Mark Levin, Curtis Sliwa, John Batchelor, and Spanish-language broadcaster Luis Jimenez.
“Curtis is very good and has always been a radio geek,” Valdes said. “He’s a protegee of Bob Grant. Grant used to say things like, ‘Get off my phone you skunk.’ He gave pushback but was funny at the same time. Both treated a topic or conversation in their own way. Curtis brings his Brooklyn upbringing onto the show.”
Valdes said Sliwa is a product from his neighborhood. That’s his whole thing.
“He’s a very local sounding New York host, with all the slang, sayings, and a whole lot of humor,” Valdes said. “Curtis has a lot of contrarian points. He routinely attacked whichever mayor was in office, except the ones who were tough on crime. He always told me, ‘Richie, it’s theater of the mind. Take them on a journey, paint them a picture.’”
When Valdes was 33, he was working in government. His mother had passed away and his father died a few years after that.
“I guess I was a little depressed and had enough of working in government,” Valdes explained. “I’d taken some time off to take care of my dad, living off savings for a couple of years. A friend of mine told me I was always listening to talk radio, and I should get into the field. To me, that was like saying I wanted to be in the NFL. It just wasn’t realistic. Not on my radar.”
Valdes figured you needed a connection or hookup to make something like that happen.
“I’d never gone to school for broadcasting so it wasn’t in the cards.”
The friend urged Valdes to reach out to connections he already had, people in his network. That was the way to open doors.
“I took his advice,” Valdes said. “Mark Levin was looking for a producer to handle the live call-in portion of the show, the screening, assisting with other stuff. They didn’t want anyone who lacked a background in politics and policy. I was a news junkie, so that fit in with what they were looking for.”
Valdes knew he loved radio, but as in anything else you may enjoy, but don’t know how to get into.
“It’s like when you’re looking at a Mustang,” Valdes explained. “You may love the car but that doesn’t mean you know how to be a grease monkey, jump right into the engine. Radio people are fascinating. I’ve always worn a suit to work. Radio people never wear a suit to work. I think that’s so cool.”
Valdes served a couple of years in Chris Christie’s administration in New Jersey, mostly in the department of children and families, family success centers and other program management.
“I went wherever the governor’s office wanted me to go,” Valdes said. “I was a liaison of cross-developmental functions. Whatever was in the administration’s best interest. I was at the forefront of a lot of significant cuts to state budgets.
I imagine they were looking for someone they felt could communicate.”
Valdes worked as director of communications for a small college in New Jersey.
“I studied communications, organizational behavior, and business. I was always a talker,” he said. “I’d analyze culture, trends, underperforming staff and areas, charting, finding people that were in the wrong places.”
That expertise led him to a TEDx Talk at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey.
“It was an education-focused forum regarding innovation,” Valdes said.
Someone had referred Valdes for this talk as he’d dealt with students, outreach and faith-based organizations. In his forum Valdes explained how people can use their own networks and political skills to navigate their own lives, the politics of education.
“It took me a couple of months to complete that presentation,” Valdes said. “I wanted it to be flawless. I had a quote from Einstein I memorized for the presentation, but I forgot it. It didn’t come out the way I’d intended. At the end of the day, there was great applause. The organizers said I did a great job. It taught me something about my radio career. You may think you have a monologue all set and you’re ready to knock people dead, only you forget a piece of it. The clock runs out and you have to rely on your instincts and experience.”
Faith is an important part of Valdes’ life. He said for many people faith can be overshadowed by popular culture.
“We have block parties in our neighborhood and it’s the church that makes things like that happen. It is the church that brings communities together.”
Relating to his show, Valdes said listeners can be confident they are listening to the genuine article every time they tune in.
“I could never perpetuate something I don’t believe in,” Valdes explained. “It goes back to always being authentic, the thing Mark Levin said to me. Some topics need to be covered whether you disagree with me or not. I’ll always stand by my opinions. People will call in angry, calling with a contrary point. I just thank them for their call and move on.”
Valdes said he’d rather lose his job than have listeners think he compromised his actual beliefs and views.
“Nobody at Westwood One has ever asked me to change my opinion for the company,” Valdes explained. “Personally, I feel the company’s goal is to weed those kinds of fakers out, ensuring they are authentic on the air.”
Valdes said he can recall many times he sat in his driveway just listening to the radio, unable to pull away.
“My wife would open the front door and see me sitting there, asking me why I was just sitting there. I told her I wanted to see what Levin was going to say to that guy on hold. Listening to Levin does that to me.”
He explained Air America was always crying, whining, moaning.
“You couldn’t laugh on the air. Oh, never. That would be horrible,” he said with sarcasm. “They were always relating how this was the worst place ever, despite having all the opportunities in front of them. For someone to trash the U.S. when I see people coming from all over to live here, just doesn’t make sense to me. Also, people don’t subscribe to their hard left ideology.”
Valdes believes he understands why there is a dearth of left-leaning shows on the air.
“I think the free market is responsible for the lack of left-leaning shows,” he said. “We had Air America, but that basically sucked. It just wasn’t good. Radio, above all else, should be entertaining and informative. You have to get people to want to stay in there during a commercial to see what you’re saying on the other side of what you started.”
Tim Rice
February 21, 2023 at 12:16 pm
Growing up in Chicago, I am familiar with many great radio hosts. Rich Valdes (With an S) belongs!