We talked on the telephone last Thursday night for nearly two hours. There were two things I knew for certain; I was keeping Ken Matthews from taking out the garbage, and his wife was going to blame me.
Matthews has a passion for people, politics, pop culture, piano, and pistols. And believe me, we talked about it all. His energy bursts through the phone and microphone, and in conversation, it seems everything interests him, including meeting new people.
The man makes his living as host of the newly syndicated Ken Matthews Show, airing weekdays from 12-3 p.m. ET on Talk Media Network. He was a regular guest host for Rush Limbaugh and is still on WHP 580 Harrisburg, now Matthew’s flagship station, where he’s been heard for more than eight years.
He was born in New Jersey in the early 60s. The family realized nobody was forcing them to stay in New Jersey and moved to Florida to live among the alligators and manatees. They lived in Fort Pierce, Florida, about an hour north of West Palm Beach. Matthews later attended North Carolina State University and studied political science. “I wasn’t able to finish as I was doing too much broadcasting,” he jokes.
A down-to-earth guy, Matthews recently welcomed some new neighbors, and they naturally struck up a conversation. “I don’t know their politics, but they’re young, health-conscious, and have two beautiful kids,” Matthews said the couple complimented him and his wife for their two sons driving carefully around the neighborhood. “What they didn’t know was I told my boys our new neighbors had little kids, and they had to ‘crawl’ down the street.”
Like Kenny Rogers, a good parent knows when to tell their kids to crawl and when to run. Matthews is also extemporaneous and funny as heck, probably why he was a successful morning-jock for as long as he was.
“In front of the new neighbors, I was even wearing a tee-shirt that reads, November 3rd, 2020. Never Forget. It didn’t even phase them.”
The man clearly loves his kids; his sons are a source of pride, even if they do use an inordinate amount of household items like toilet paper. “When you’re 18 and 20 years old, you shouldn’t need to use an entire roll in one sitting (Pardon the pun).”
Matthews’ younger son will soon graduate from high school and started cooking in a restaurant when he was just 14 years old. “He really likes it. Something about the trade appeals to him, and he’s making good money. He shows up for work, which is a rarity these days.”
Today, showing up for work qualifies you for a promotion.
“My other son graduated from high school three years ago and has held a few jobs; the grocery, dairy, and landscaping businesses.”
He said he’s in no hurry to push them out into the world. “It’s so unpredictable these days,” Matthews said. “I’m not a negative person at heart; these are just strange times.”
Matthews loves America, too (apologies to Tom Petty.) Whenever his sons get down or complain, which apparently isn’t often, he reminds them of how good we have it here.
“I tell them they’ve already surpassed what most kids will never have,” Matthews said. “I tell them they have air conditioning, heat, a car, and parents that love them. I tell them living in this country is a blessing.”
He’s in the Lehigh Valley, so I figured he’d be a regular at the Iron Pigs’ games. The Iron Pigs are the Triple-A affiliate of the Phillies.
“I haven’t been to an Iron Pigs game in five years,” Matthews said. “It’s touch and go for me. I enjoy a good game, the camaraderie that comes with it if the weather is perfect. Everything has to align. I prefer watching in a sweatshirt in the fall, crisp air. I don’t like it when I’m sweating more than the players.”
Matthews said neither of his parents went to college, yet he’s never known anyone who has read more, self-educated more than they have.
“From as far back as I can remember, they were reading everything,” Matthews said. “They read newspapers, manuals, and books. They told me if I wanted to get ahead in the world, I should learn and read about everything.”
He consumes books voraciously. “I read four books a month, and I’ve read almost every book in my library.”
And that includes the thesaurus.
Growing up in Florida, Matthews showed interest in diving. “My father said I could do it, but I was going to take scuba classes. If I wanted to sail, I had to go to the Coast Guard auxiliary and train.”
Matthews lived in Fort Pierce, not far from Fort Lauderdale. “That’s where I learned to love the water,” he said. “I’ve always been leery of getting too far away from water. It’s a mental thing.”
He’s a lifetime supporter of the NRA. His father was okay with that, as long as he did what was necessary. “My dad was one of those guys that said you had to learn about whatever you chose to do. If you wanted a gun, you were going to learn to shoot, get trained.”
He met his wife in Maine and got engaged. “Then I got fired,” Matthews said. “We started planning a wedding, and I got fired from another job.” They’re coming up on 32 years of wedded bliss, and Matthews has picked out the perfect gift.
“I’m going to empty the dishwasher,” he jokes. “There’s a small chance I’ll clean the bathroom.”
Let’s hope his wife has a great sense of humor.
Matthews owes some of his talk radio success to the late Rush Limbaugh. He filled in for Limbaugh around 100 times. Matthews shocked me when he told me Limbaugh was a disc jockey before he became the behemoth of talk radio.
“He was a flame-throwing rock and roll god in Pittsburgh,” Matthews said. He even offered to send me a tape of Limbaugh’s disc jockey antics. “He reignited the AM radio dial.”
Limbaugh? A rock and roll god? It’s hard to imagine Rush in a Rush T-shirt. Matthews said Limbaugh was observant, commonsensical, and very respectful.
“He’d say things a lot of people were thinking but found it hard to say,” Matthews explained. “He was a showman, entertainer and told us about his trials and tribulations. I listened to Rush long before I ever filled in for him. He would say something, and 7 million listeners would say, ‘Hey, he’s exactly right.”
Matthews said if Stephen Colbert talked about getting on his private plane to go somewhere, people would think he was an ass. If Limbaugh said the same thing, people were comfortable with it. That’s who he was.
He said Limbaugh would take it further, explaining why they had to park the plane in a certain area of the airport. “When Rush said he went golfing with Trump last week, he was just talking, not dropping names.”
“I have this theory,” Matthews began. “People in charge of us, who want to control us, do not want us to have a conversation like you and I are having right now.”
His years as a morning jock were fruitful and fun. In fact, he said his preparedness between the seemingly different stages is remarkably similar.
“Those habits are the same,” Matthew said. “The pacing, the entertainment values, segmenting the shows. If you’re prepping for a music show, there are times when you find yourself saying, ‘I can’t say that on the air.’ When you’re in talk radio, you realize you can say anything you want.”
Matthews described his ‘Morning Show Ken’ as a sarcastic, fun, America-loving guy who enjoyed his job. As much as he loved being a morning jock, what he’s doing now is far more precious and enjoyable.
“Both then and now, I like to provide a ‘portal of common sense,’” Matthews explained. “Now I’m still that morning guy with a political science major; I’m a patriot, all mixed in a big blender. I’m still a smart-ass.”
He’s been in the business for more than 40 years, and he’s a self-described late bloomer.
“I get up and absolutely love going to work,” Matthews explained. “I’m excited. I get upset if I wake up in the middle of the night and see I still have four more hours to sleep. To feel this way for as long as it has been going on is pretty special.”
Matthews said what he learned from Limbaugh, and his team was like earning a master’s degree in radio.
On the air at noon, he begins full-bore prepping at 8:30 a.m. “I do some at night, too,” Matthews said. “It’s a great shift. I can stay out late and don’t have to get up at 3:00 in the morning. It’s good.”
Matthews pulls all his own cuts and sound bites. “I’m ready to rock by 11:00,” he said. “I’m able to grab a bite to eat, keep my eye on the televisions or wires for breaking news. I’m absolutely thrilled about my noon-to-three shift.”
When we talk about differences and opposing viewpoints, Matthews says he has the perfect story about what’s wrong with things.
Matthews told me a story about Van Jones, a correspondent on CNN. Van Jones went to a summit with Donald Trump about prison reform. Van Jones told Trump about some harrowing cases where people shouldn’t have been imprisoned.
“Van Jones said Trump got on the phone and wanted change immediately and demanded that some people be released,” Matthews said. “Van Jones was astonished and said he wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen the response with his own eyes. Someone was actually doing something rather than just talking about it.”
Matthews said Van Jones told the very story on CNN and how he’d never seen anything like that before.
“CNN crucified him for that,” Matthews explained.
One of the perks of a high-profile gig is the connections you have. Matthews had the opportunity to take one of his sons to the White House for his birthday. “He has always hated to get up early,” Matthews said of his son. “So, I told him this was how it was going to play. He was going to get a suit and not look like a baggy teenager when he’s going to the home of the leader of the free world. Some people show up in Eagles tee-shirts. Not my son.”
His son reluctantly obliged.
Matthews even took a photo of himself and his son in front of the JFK portrait in the White House. A woman who worked there said Matthews and his son were the best-dressed on tour that day.
They surely slipped on their Eagles tee-shirts as soon as they got home.
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.
