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People can often be shaped by random encounters in their formative years. That’s what happened to 95.5 WSB afternoon host Eric Von Haessler.
Being taller than most, Von Haessler talked his way into a nightclub as a teenager when he noticed something striking on the dance floor. At the time, he didn’t know it would come to shape his thought process on several fronts.
It was the early 1980s. Disco, while falling out of style, was still around. Underneath the lights and the powerful speakers blaring up-tempo music was an older man, probably in his 70s, wearing a red jacket. He was surrounded by younger, attractive women as they danced to the no-longer-in-style beat.
In that man’s mind, the women were dancing with him because he was still desirable. A catch. Someone who oozed masculinity and could still fulfill whatever fantasies they could dream up.
But to Eric Von Haessler, it was clear that the women were mocking the elderly gentleman. Dancing with him because he was a novelty, not because he “still had it” at his advanced age. And he vowed to never be the butt of that joke.
“I made a mental note then to myself: ‘Never be the old man on the dance floor,'” he said.
A rock radio jock by trade for more than 20 years, Eric Von Haessler began his talk radio career at the Atlanta news/talk station in 2014 with the old man in the red jacket at the disco in mind.
“In my early 40s, it was just starting to feel like maybe I was kind of being the old man on the dance floor,” said Von Haessler. “Those active (rock) morning shows, it’s kind of a young man’s game. So I had thought about ‘What happens after this?’ And in some ways, maybe that wasn’t radio. But I always had (talk radio) in the back of my mind.
“It’s funny. Here I am now, and it’s WSB, it’s a political station, and I’m actually at this point, I’m less political as a person and my show is — I think — less political in nature than it’s ever been before.”
Eric Von Haessler admitted he was much more political when he was younger, so the transition to hosting a talk radio show wasn’t completely out of his comfort zone.
“I went through that phase where I just knew I was I was right and everybody else was wrong, and I had to convince them,” he said.
That, however, is no longer the case.
“Now I don’t care,” he stated, bluntly. “I don’t care to convince anybody to do anything or vote any particular way. I just think of the show now as a current events show. It may seem like not a big deal or big difference, but I don’t see it as a political show. I see it as current events.”
The Von Haessler Doctrine — which airs from 3-7 PM on 95.5 WSB — is completely improvised by the host, and “The Doctrinaires”, Jared Yamamoto, Autumn Fischer, and Tim Andrews. And he says the program, which finished second behind Tim Conway Jr. in the 2023 Barrett News Media Top 20 Major Market Afternoon Shows, has a simple goal in mind each day.
“For me now, the show is about rhythm. I just want to entertain the audience,” he shared.
Despite the “improvised” nature of the show, that doesn’t mean Eric Von Haessler doesn’t prepare. He shared that he’ll put as many as 30 potential stories in the show’s Slack channel. While the co-hosts add more, the total often rises up to more than 40. However, they often only get to five or six stories in the four-hour program. There’s a specific angle the 95.5 WSB host is looking to take, more often than not.
“I’m looking for the jokes in every headline,” he admitted. “Sometimes things are a little too tragic for that … I’ve learned that I need to know what I’m going to say first. It’s all about setting the nose. So 10 or 15 minutes into the show is really when I’ll settle in and say, ‘Ok, what’s the first thing I’m going to bring up? What am I going to put on the table?’ And then, after that, just see where it takes us and bounce off of the current events.
“That’s the only way I know to keep myself from getting bored. I have to be on a high wire. If I’m on a high wire without a net, and everybody else on the show is as well, it just keeps you awake,” said Von Haessler. “You’re not thinking, ‘This is the 3000th show that I’ve done.”
That high-wire act continues to excite the host 10 years into his talk radio career.
“I tell my bosses — and I tell the audience — to me, it’s like, I’m one of those guys that spin the big plates on a stick. They’re running around and they’re trying to keep them up there. And the thing is, if one didn’t crash every once in a while, you’d be like, ‘Well, this is probably some kind of trick. Like, it’s not even real.’
“It’s the same thing with improv. Every once in a while, it kind of goes wrong. And every once in a while, it’s got to lead to nowhere, and not work. That almost proves to the audience I’m not lying to you: 80% of this show every day is made up as we go along.”
While others may view his show as political, Von Haessler purposely doesn’t pitch the show that way, because he views the entire political sphere as a bit of a turn-off.
“I don’t care how the audience votes. I don’t vote anymore, I voted for 40 years, and I don’t do that anymore. Articles try to address people like me and convince me, ‘Oh, your vote does count.’ That’s my fear. That’s why I’m not voting anymore. I’m afraid my vote will count. I voted for 40 years and look at the country. I didn’t do a very good job.
“So, now it’s my job just to sort of observe. And try to entertain.”
Perhaps predictably, portions of the audience didn’t necessarily jive with the approach from Von Haessler.
“That I’m irresponsible,” Eric Von Haessler said when asked what the response from Atlanta listeners was when he revealed he no longer votes. “There’s a whole thing where ‘You can’t complain if you don’t (vote)’. You get a lot of loud people who are just condemning me for it … Honestly, I can’t do this job chasing something. Either the audience is going to dig my point of view and how I present things, or not. And it’s ok for them not to like the show. I just need to keep enough of them that I keep my job. And so far, I’ve done that.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
