I’m not even sure where to start with this guy. Career-wise, he’s a three-pound sausage in a one-pound casing.
Chip Franklin is perhaps best known as a News/Talker, but he’s so much more than that. After speaking with him last week I realized the on-air Chip Franklin is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. He’s a former stand-up comic, he owned several comedy clubs. The man is a screenwriter, playwright, author, film buff, and musician. The only thing missing from the guy is a pair of cymbals on his knees, a kazoo, and he’d be the full orchestra.
“My mother was an opera singer,” Franklin said. “I got my first guitar when I was eight, and I was always liked political songs with meaning. I was into songs like Cloud Nine or Ball of Confusion by The Temptations. I liked War by Edwin Starr. That’s kind of where I was and still am. The downside is had I liked love songs, I certainly would’ve been laid more frequently.”
Franklin has been a professional musician since he was just 13 years old. His childhood friend is Jon Carroll, from the Starland Vocal Band. The group is best known for the sweet harmonies of “Afternoon Delight.” Franklin and Carroll are still friends.
“I met Jon two summers before high school,’ Franklin said. “He was into rhythm and blues, and I think I was into Glen Campbell. But it goes to show how you can learn to like different music, develop choices. I grew into it, and now I love rhythm and blues.”
Franklin’s part renaissance man and part Peck’s Bad Boy. “I come from a household with a single mom and five kids,” Franklin said. “My dad died when I was young. I got caught twice for stealing cars and I talked my way out of it.”
That must be how he honed his skills as a news-talker. In addition, to sweet-talking his way out of prison, Franklin hosted radio talk shows for more than 25 years from Washington D.C. to San Francisco, on WMAL, WBAL, and KOGO.
While he was on the air on WBAL, the casting director of the HBO series, The Wire, took notice of the man. “The storyline was taking place right outside our doors,” Franklin said. “Pat Moran was the casting director on The Wire, and I must have bugged the shit out of her. Here I was, arguably the whitest guy in the world, and she put me on a show that was predominantly Black. They used my real voice, on-air bits in a couple of the shows.”
What is it about a show like The Wire that clicked with people? “They were killers,” Franklin said. “We knew these drug dealers as one-dimensional characters. In the show, we saw their lives, not just on the corner selling crack.” Franklin said they weren’t all good people, but the people in that dark world were family. “Families kill each other. A lot of Shakespeare in that show.”
“I’m almost 100-percent drawn to films about redemption,” Franklin said. “Take a film like The Verdict. Paul Newman’s character was always in it for the easy money. He had to take it. But for the first time in his life he did something that wasn’t about money.”
As a screenwriter, Shawshank Redemption holds a special spot in his pantheon of films. “I’m always intrigued about how an adapted film differentiates from the book,” Franklin said. “In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the protagonist in the film is R.P. McMurphy, the character played by Jack Nicholson. In Ken Kesey’s book, it was all from the Chief Bromdon’s perspective.” The producers wanted to make it a star vehicle for Nicholson, so the story was changed.
Throughout his varied career, Franklin was a stand-up comic, speaker, and featured guest. He has over a dozen appearances on national television under his belt, including Evening at The Improv, Comic Strip Live, VH-1 Standup Spotlight, MTV, Comedy Central.
I don’t recall Rush Limbaugh doing any standup comedy.
Aside from all of these creative pursuits, Franklin is still deeply involved in politics and news of the day–warts and all. “You can blame a lot of the ills of the press and media with the advent of social media,” Franklin said. “There used to be trusted sources. Now all you need is an iPhone or computer to get your news.”
Franklin said he’s not one of those people who believes everything new is bad. “When I was a kid we had two daily newspapers and three television stations. News could be made to go away back then.” Franklin said it was newspapers that ended the Vietnam War. “I think the hardest thing for us today is to have conversations without going off the rails.”
Franklin said he spends as much time on the golf course as he can. “It’s kind of a neutral space,” he said. “People bring their clubs and not necessarily their viewpoints or politics. There’s a shared sense of frustration about the game, an intensity, and commonality.”
Franklin has been known to dish out his opinion as freely as corn dogs at a state fair. In one of his recent videos, he refers to Marjorie Taylor Greene as an ‘untreated bladder infection.’
Without addressing the veracity of that comment, Franklin said there are two ways to look at that observation. “In some cases, there is evil lurking right below the ground,” he said. “Kind of like the Beverly Hillbillies when Jed Clampett shoots into the ground and the oil spurts out. I think we’re all equally at fault.”
Franklin takes the ‘blame us’ stance. “I’m as responsible as anyone for Donald Trump,” he said. “I’ve made mistakes. I didn’t vote for Obama the first time. I went with McCain and Palin. It was a stupid thing to do. I voted for Clinton twice. That was kind of ignorant.”
Overall, Franklin thinks both sides can find some common ground. “I think progressive politics at their heart are conservative,” Franklin said. “If you want business to work, you have to fix the floor. Something that helps people. There are deep-seated fears in this country. Then we have people like Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz who got elected probably because the Democrats got lazy. We’re a scared bunch of people.”
What makes Franklin interesting is he gets that there are three sides to every story–his, hers, and the truth.
“We always think we’re involved in the worst thing ever,” Franklin explained. “I look at it this way– a cynic is a skeptic with all the facts. An optimist is a cynic with children. I have kids so I have skin in the game now. I’ve got to look on the bright side. They’re angry about what they see. Things that defy logic and reason, but I tell them we have to find a way–together.”
Sometimes in life, we have to take a less-traveled road to make things right. Take chances.
“Karl Wallenda said the only time he fell off the wire was when he had a net below him,” Franklin said.
Ponder that for a while.
Jim Cryns writes features for Barrett News Media. He has spent time in radio as a reporter for WTMJ, and has served as an author and former writer for the Milwaukee Brewers. To touch base or pick up a copy of his new book: Talk To Me – Profiles on News Talkers and Media Leaders From Top 50 Markets, log on to Amazon or shoot Jim an email at jimcryns3_zhd@indeedemail.com.
