Excerpt from Radio Ink, 10.22.07 interview

FROM THE EARLIEST DAYS OF HIS RADIO CAREER, Rusty Humphries was thrown into the lion's den. As a 16-year-old wannabe radio star, Humphries marched off to cover a basketball game at the behest of a frustrated newsman, with only the slightest bit of knowledge about the team. This fact was proved out when an ill-advised question posed to the team's coach led to a verbal beating for Humphries, but the experience also gave him his first lesson in facing down adversity in pursuit of a story. Now syndicated nationally on more than 200 stations, Humphries has honed his capability for chasing stories, moving from interviewing angry coaches to traveling to the danger zones of the Middle East to stand face to face with some of the world's most dangerous terrorists. "My goal is for people to understand what's happening in the world," he says. "What I have found is that our enemy tends to tell us what they're going to do, and we don't want to listen. This enemy will not stop if we leave Israel or if we leave Iraq; they are very, very clear. I want to bring that back. They are megalomaniacs, and I think they get points within the organization if they are interviewed. I wasn't threatening, and I let them spout their propaganda."

To balance out the gravity of that kind of programming, Humphries instills a healthy dose of humor in his show, including parody songs like those he used to write for Rush Limbaugh that deride the world's troubles, and those who cause it. "If you're just serious all the time, or just funny all the time, it doesn't give the audience a chance to take that rollercoaster ride with you," he says. "I like to give a very wide range of emotion: happy, sad, funny, serious, silly, and at the same time deliver deep political insight so that you're having a great time while learning something. It's just the way my mind works. I take my audience on that same journey. I probably have a high degree of ADD or ADHD or something. When I get bored, I'm figuring they are too."

RadioInk: You've put your life at risk in pursuit of stories about terrorism. What compels you to put yourself in harm's way to chase this story?

Rusty Humphries: On January 26, 1969, my father was killed in the line of action in Viet Nam; he was a Cobra helicopter pilot. For me, military stuff has always been real important. Even though he wasn't one of the guys who came home, the stories of people spitting on the soldiers has always really affected me.What if my dad did come home and had to live through that? That's always haunted me. I've always wanted to get the word out, so that when the soldiers come home, people treat them a little bit better.

RI: It's one thing to feel a sense of purpose, but you have interviewed terrorists, you've gone to Gitmo. Why go to such extremes?

RH: My goal is for people to understand what's happening in the world. What I have found is that
our enemy tends to tell us what they're going to do, and we don't want to listen. I want to bring that back. When you interview terrorists, they are very honest. "So what are you planning on doing? "Well, on Thursday, we have two bombs, and they will go off about 12:15." When you ask them enough questions, use the Socratic method, their argument falls apart: They're victims, it's not their fault, if it wasn't for the Jews, or America, they'd have no problems. I want people to hear what these folks have to say. The difference between what I do and what CNN does is that CNN will interview a terrorist, run it straight, then move onto something else. I'll run the interview and stop it, and say, "OK, here's where he's lying to you" or "Let me tell you what he's trying to say," or "Let me explain to you what's going on," so it makes sense.

RI: You weren't always a Talk host. Talk about your early days in radio.

RH: I was behind the scenes for long time; I produced some great people, and I had a company called the TM Century Comedy Network where I did bits and stuff. I was the guy that got Rush Limbaugh into doing parody songs. I was in New York at WPLJ doing the morning show, and one day we were talking about some of these parody songs I do. I said, "Rush, you should play one. Say it's the 'Rush Limbaugh Singers.'" He said, "Young man, what would I do with a goofy little song?" It was right before the first Gulf War, and I did a song to the tune of Barbara Ann that went, "Bomb, bomb, bomb...bomb, bomb Iraq." He plays the song, gets great feedback, and the next day says "What else can you do young man?" I let him hear my stupid Mike Tyson impression, and he sent me into another room to call his show. After he introduces "the former heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson," I launch into it: "Mr. Limbaugh, I'm very sorry I'm tardy. I was driving down the highway and I saw a sign that said clean restrooms ahead; I must have cleaned about 150 of them." He's laughing, and afterwards he pulls out nine one-hundred dollar bills and says,"Keep 'em coming young man. Keep 'em coming." I did stuff for Rush for a long time. But that was a long way from where I started. I got my first radio job at age 16 at KJR in Seattle, where I was hired to sweep the parking lot. I was told on my first day to never, ever, ever, ever talk to the DJs. Never. So, of course, on my first break I see that the news guy is mad about something, and I go over to find out what. He's throwing carts around the room, this is 1982, so he's throwing carts, and he's swearing up a storm. I go, "Jeez, is there anything I can do to help?" And he says, "Yeah I don't want to go to this f-ing Sonics game tomorrow, here's the tape recorder - go get me some tape." I have no idea what he's talking about, but the next night I go to the King Dome for the game. I show my pass, they let me in, there's free food, and my is name on the press bench right behind the visiting team! The Sonics won, but the other team had a lot of injuries. I know I'm supposed to get post-game interviews, so I walk down to the locker room. Everybody is interviewing the coach, Lenny Wilkins, so I figured I'm supposed to ask questions too. I said "Coach, do you think the reason the other team won is because they had a bunch of injuries?" And the locker room fell silent. I didn't know they'd lost like five in a row because of injuries, so he takes my microphone and starts yelling, "I don't give an f, mother f, get the f, out of here." He throws me out of the locker room on my first day. I leave in tears. I got back to the station, and didn't want to let anyone hear the tape.Well, it turns out they hated Lenny Wilkins, so they aired the tape, bleeped out everything, and from then on their new cub reporter, Rusty Humphries, was forced to go to every single game just to see if I could do something to tick off the players or the coaches.

RI: How do you feel about the state of Talk radio today?

RH: I believe Talk is the one format that will really continue to grow. The problem with music is it's too easy to get wherever you want it; Internet, iPod, whatever. Talk radio brings something unique to the audience. There's only one Rusty, one Michael Savage, one Laura Ingraham, one Mancow, one Rush. My show is very different than others; it's conservative like many, but I try to get a little bit deeper. I've found that when I travel to these places, I own the concept, I get them better. I do better traveling. I can read and understand, but by going to these places it becomes part of my DNA.That's why I go to these places and get to know the soldiers or the terrorists or the guy in the pizza parlor. And at the same time have fun.That's kinda hard for people to understand, but I just think it makes it more interesting to be able to have this great range of emotion.