If you’re gonna be dumb, you better be tough.
That’s not only my personal mantra in life, it’s the title of Mike Broomhead’s book.
When I spoke with Broomhead, he was driving from Fort Myers, Florida to Daytona. He’d just cleared all the Disney traffic in the Orlando area, and it was 58 degrees in Orlando. But nothing keeps people away from Mickey.
Broomhead has been in morning drive for 15 years. You can hear him on weekday mornings, 8-Noon, on KTAR 92.3 FM, as a guest host on the nationally syndicated Glenn Beck Show.
He grew up in Florida. Not Miami, Palm Beach, or even Fort Lauderdale. Broomhead grew up in the murky and beautiful areas of the state. So pristine is the land you can still see God’s fingerprints.
“I’ve always loved Florida,” said Broomhead, who now lives in Phoenix. “I miss driving to the middle of the state. I don’t miss the ocean and beaches so much. I like the swamps. I like the redneck central Florida. There is so much agriculture. My best friend’s dad owned some produce packing houses. We’re talking about a very rural area. Florida at one point had more beef cattle than Texas. The grass is so lush. We had tomatoes growing and orange groves. It’s really something to see.
The recent devastation caused by Hurricane Ian was hard to look at wherever you lived. Up close and by a native of the area, it can be traumatic.
“My brother is a Captain in the Sheriff’s office,” Broomhead explained. “He drove me out to Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel. It’s really hard to fathom the devastation in the area.”
Broomhead said he’s confident the area will be rebuilt to its pre-hurricane condition. “It makes sense. Perhaps not everybody will rebuild who owned homes before the storm, but the area will see new people. There are so many big resorts that I know they’ll rebuild. The streets are cleared and work is already underway.”
A number of the big resorts are still closed, some had been flooded through the first and second floors. Immediately following the storm there was absolutely no power, no fresh water. The causeway connecting the island to the mainland was severely damaged and closed.
“When my brother was deployed to the search and rescue team right after the storm, his wife was home with the kids,” Broomhead said. “They had no internet or electricity, so from Arizona, I was telling them over the phone more information about their immediate area than they could find.”
The oldest of three brothers who were raised by a single mother, Broomhead got his first job by the time he was twelve. On his own by 16, he eventually earned his GED and, with dreams of being a cowboy, he moved to Arizona to become a bull rider.
Bull rider. Somehow I can’t see Hannity or Levin doing that.
“The first time you ride and you get to that eight-second whistle it doesn’t matter which bull or what your fear is, you feel 10 feet tall,” Broomhead explained. “It is the best feeling of accomplishment because it’s terrifying,”
Broomhead decided early to go into the trades. Becoming an electrician sounded appealing.
“I was just out of high school and knew I wasn’t going to college,” Broomhead said. “I worked since I was 12 and kind of fell into the trade. At 18, I knew absolutely nothing.” Broomhead went to school to study to become an electrician.
He began electrical work on Sanibel Island and Captiva, cutting his teeth.
“I did a lot of electrical estimation work and learned quickly,” he said. “I made decent money and had my own business, but I had to close it because of the economic crash of 2008.”
Even before his business went under, Broomhead had been voicing his opinions on a larger level. His brother Tom was killed in Iraq on Memorial Day in 2003, and Broomhead began to speak out at largest pro-troops rallies across the country. He was only two years older than Tom.
“We fought like crazy as brothers do,” he said. “But we stuck up for each other. Our parents divorced when I was 14 years old. It was mom and the boys against the world. We were very tight knit and I have absolutely no regrets.”
He was called upon to debate against the anti-war crowd on both television and radio and is still highly requested around the country to speak at events. Mike joined the George W. Bush campaign as a volunteer in 2004 and has had the privilege of being the master of ceremonies for two Presidential visits to Arizona.
For Broomhead, everything began around telling Tom’s story.
“I was traveling with veterans groups, telling what I thought was a unique story about my brother,” Broomhead explained. “Then you get around the other families and learn what their kids did, what their siblings did. The veterans have done so much and aren’t asking anything for it.”
Broomhead was a regular caller to radio shows, still discussing the troops.
Fate decided to turn Broomhead from an electrician into a radio talker. A friend was called upon to do a shift at a small radio station and asked Broomhead to co-host. He didn’t know what he was doing.
“She called me to co-host with her,” Broomhead said. “Apparently, I did well enough as I was asked to do a show on Saturdays for an hour. I had to learn to work the breaks, talk to people on the phone. It was so hectic I don’t recall what I said on the air.”
Broomhead felt he’d found a new home. He liked the platform and said it was exhilarating to cover so many topics that were running through his mind.
“I was asked to speak at pro-troops rallies. I went on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox. Glenn Beck had me on.”
In just a few years, Broomhead went from calling into a local radio show to hosting the number one morning drive show in Phoenix, as well as being a popular public speaker, TV host, and frequent guest host for Glenn Beck.
“Somebody was looking out for me,” Broomhead said. “I love what I’m doing, but I’d trade this career for another ten minutes with my brother. It opened doors, but it was laid in front of me, presented to me. It’s amazing to see what has happened, how blessed I’ve been with it all.”
Broomhead said his approach to his show and radio is, to be honest.
“I wasn’t trying to get my own radio show, this was never anything I thought I’d do. I decided if I was going to do it, I had to take it seriously and I wanted to be honest. Glenn Beck became a good friend and I learned a lot from him. He was like a mentor. We’re very different in a lot of ways. He helped me learn the business side of things. He had a working man’s perspective.”
When Broomhead talks on the air, he said he envisions talking to some guy in a work truck. The way other announcers talked to him when he was on a job site.
“I always picture somebody listening while doing their job. We’d listen while we worked over lunch. Sometimes people get mad, sometimes they smile. My political leanings tend to come out. But I talk about issues people deal with. At the end of the day, people are just trying to feed their families. That’s the way I approach things on KTAR.”
His first radio station was very conservative and Broomhead said he was made to feel like a preacher.
“I would say things to the listener congregation. They all believed the same thing. I think now I’m more of a missionary and I have to win my audience over.”
He’s a conservative but not a whack-job.
“I try to be fair with people and I don’t try to take myself too seriously,” he said. “I want to understand people. I’m not saving the world. I’m not curing cancer. But I have to be compelling, have spirited conversations. I may not agree with some people but I’ll be respectful. I will ask them to come back if it has been a civil conversation. We are not going to agree on everything.”
His book, If you’re gonna be dumb, you better be tough, was written with writer and author Lisa De Pasquale. De Pasquale wrote for Townhall.com and wrote a piece on Broomhead.
“The publisher asked if I’d like to do a book; let me tell my story,” Broomhead explained. “I said yes, if Lisa was the person I’d work with. We talked on the phone for 45 minutes at a time. She’d tape me and transcribe my words. It was really cathartic. A lot of tears. We talked about my brother and I growing up together.”
In the recent elections, Broomhead was called upon to host a debate in the gubernatorial election. He explained there’s an agreement with public access television and Citizens Clean Election Commission. If one candidate doesn’t show, as in this case, Katie Hobbs chose not to, there would be an interview with the other candidate. Kari Lake was the other candidate so Broomhead hosted an interview with Lake.
Hobbs, governor-elect for Arizona, refused to debate Lake saying, ‘Debating a conspiracy theorist like Kari Lake — whose entire campaign platform is to cause enormous chaos and make Arizona the subject of national ridicule — would only lead to constant interruptions, pointless distractions, and childish name-calling.”
“That’s how that interview came about,” Broomhead said. “I’ve discussed some of the election controversies. I’ve said on the air, ‘If you have a problem with voting machines, take a look at the maintenance records.’”
Exactly. You want to check to make sure the pilot is sober before you take off.
“I’ve known Kari Lake for about 5 years,” Broomhead said. “I like her. We don’t agree on something. I don’t believe everybody cheated or was in on a conspiracy. At some point you have to say we’re moving on.”
Broomhead explained how John McCain always won by double-digits.
“The problems tend to come from party leadership here in Arizona, inside the Republican party,” Broomhead said. “McCain was hated. There was such a disconnect with party voters and leadership. If election fraud is your lead issue, you’ve got a very small pool to draw from.”
Broomhead would like to see more agreement, or at the least more conversation.
“It’s about right and wrong, not Right and Left. It doesn’t mean you call the other side out all the time. If you’re just chirping, it does no good.”
Broomhead loves doing his show, but he would also love to do a stand-alone podcast. Right now they package his show into a podcast.
“That kind of long-form platform would allow me to have conversations without constraints,” he said. “If I’m having a great conversation with someone I would love to stay with it. Extend the conversation.”
Looking back at his life, Broomhead said he finds he can become frustrated that he couldn’t do more.
“I see people on the radio who have done well, but they give generously. I give my time when I can. I write checks when I can. I want to make a difference in people’s lives.”
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.
