You could argue Stephanie Miller should be viewed as Republican royalty. The daughter of William E. Miller, the former New York Republican Representative, RNC Chairman, and 1964 running mate of Barry Goldwater, Miller would be a shoo-in conservative. But, that’s not the way her cookie has crumbled.
Miller is an unabashed liberal talk show host, with The Stephanie Miller Show serving as one of the largest programs on the political left. And despite a career spanning acting, stand-up comedy, and television, among others, Miller continues to be fueled by her radio show.
“It really honestly is my passion. I feel so lucky…I can’t believe I’m an adult and this is my job,” she joked. “It’s still just a lot of fun and I’m really passionate about what’s going on in our country.”
Miller has been swimming upstream, so to speak, against a rushing current of conservative counterparts in the political talk radio realm. She’s proud of the show’s staying power on the national scene.
“Well, I mean my 20th year doing this show so I guess I must be doing something right,” she said with a laugh. “It’s a much bigger accomplishment in my mind to keep a progressive show viable for years because there are a zillion right-wing stations, there are only a handful of progressive radio stations. We’ve had to stay alive by diversifying,” she added before noting the program airs on a variety of platforms like SiriusXM, TuneIn, and FreeSpeech TV, among others.
“Whatever we’ve cobbled together, people get it. They support our sponsors. So, however we’ve cobbled it together, we’re still going strong after 20 years.”
As the daughter of one of the more prominent Republicans of the 1960s, Miller shared that it would be lucrative for her to return to her conservative roots, but that’s just not something she’s willing to compromise on.
“I can’t tell you how many times and how many radio executives have said to me, ‘If you would go back to your conservative roots, you’d have 500 stations tomorrow. You’d be a multi-millionaire.’ But, you know, that is not what I believe. I’m passionate about my beliefs and I’m passionate about this country we have,” stated Miller.
“I don’t know how else to put it. I’m very lucky that I have an incredibly loyal fan base. In fact, it’s something that a lot of people have commented on in the industry are just like, ‘Wow, you have a loyal, dedicated audience,’ but I think they get it. They get what it takes to support the very few progressive voices that are out there.”
“You can be a really not great radio host and get 500 stations tomorrow if you’re right-wing,” she added.
Stephanie Miller attempts to bring levity and humor to one of the more absurd political times in our country’s history.
“If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry, you know?,” Miller wryly joked. She noted that her father would be “spinning in his grave” at the current political climate, singling out lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Green in the process.
Despite the turmoil and oftentimes ridiculous nature of the news cycle, Miller insists she still enjoys talking about the topics every day, while still recognizing her political beliefs make that difficult at times.
“I really do have fun doing what I’m doing,” she shared. “I’m also really angry sometimes with what’s happening in the news cycle.”
Many news/talk radio hosts have seen their careers blossom under the rise of former President Donald Trump. Miller isn’t necessarily one of them, as her career spans more than a decade before the disruptor jumped into the political sphere.
Stephanie Miller isn’t shy about her criticism of the 45th President, equating him to a “stalker” that she’ll never get rid of. While admitting that covering and discussing Trump on a near-daily basis since 2015 is “exhausting,” she knows there’s a talk radio life someday, whether it’s in 2024 or not, when he exits the mainstream. And her career will still be fine without the All-You-Can-Trump-Buffet that has been featured on news/talk radio for nearly a decade.
“Everybody said, ‘Oh, what are you going to do when (George W.) Bush is gone? You’re not gonna have any material.’ And you know what? If you’re a good radio host or you’re a good comedian, of course you will. When Obama was in office, we were on defense about how ridiculous they were with their Obama Derangement Syndrome and ‘Oh my God, he’s wearing a tan suit! Oh my God, he is eating Grey Poupon mustard’ or, whatever their issue of the day was. We’ve found a lot of material before Trump and we’ll find a lot of material after that.”
Stephanie Miller will once again take her Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour on the road in 2024, this time calling it the Save the World Comedy Tour. Joining the radio host on the road are comedians Hal Sparks, Frangela, and fellow talk radio host John Fugelsang.
She joked that the name started as a joke, but said that the stage show tends to be a “little bit raunchier” than her radio show due to the unregulated nature of the performance. However, there’s a new wrinkle to the show in 2024 that she was excited to share.
“This version of the tour is actually produced by Live Nation, which is a really big deal because we’ve sold out theaters all over the country…A lot of people bring their right-wing loved one or whatever because it’s just a great comedy show. It’s just a really great comedy show,” Stephanie Miller reiterated. “We find that obviously there’s an audience for it because we’ve had the number one tour, the number one comedy album, the recording of the tour, and now Live Nation is producing it. We’re going to 15 cities, and that official tour kicks off in April in Minneapolis.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
