Before Twitter gave the world 140 characters to express itself, there was Andrew Wilkow’s 90-second opinion on RADIO 104 WMRQ in Hartford, between music sets.
“I thought girls would like me if I became a rock radio DJ, and I naively thought that you had something to do with how music got on the radio,” the SiriusXM host said of how he got into the media industry.
It’s a love affair that started for Wilkow in third grade, but really launched with some blue humor in West Virginia. “I started doing a morning show at night,” Wilkow recalled of his early radio days. “We would have local pro wrestlers, we were running ads for one of the strip clubs, and sometimes I would have pro wrestlers and strippers in there doing all this crazy stuff. But I was also giving my political opinion.”
But the blue humor was not in his heart, so Wilkow moved on to Hartford, Connecticut, where he had just two minutes to express his political opinion. “I was saying things that were getting on the radar, but I wasn’t getting in trouble. I wasn’t getting FCC fines,” Wilkow remarked. “Then 9/11 happened, and that’s really where I was using the 45 to 90 seconds that I had to opine.”
That caught the attention of WABC Radio in New York City. “Next thing I know, I’m getting a call asking if I’d like to try out as a fill-in host, like a weekend fill-in host on WABC,” Wilkow said. “And I thought it was a joke. I actually hung up the phone. I thought it was a prank.”
It was not a prank. Wilkow soon found himself filling in for Mark Levin’s weekend show. “The program director, now my father-in-law, said, ‘If you can do for two hours what you’re doing for two minutes, maybe we can make you a talk show host.’ It really was a slow burn. I was working only one weekend show if the host was off.” Wilkow earned his own show at WABC before joining SiriusXM in 2006. Twenty years later, he is still hosting the same Monday through Friday 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT time slot.
Wilkow’s strong opinions are sure to get the left riled up. However, he welcomes well-informed dissenting calls. If you come armed with facts, Wilkow is more than happy to give “any Democrat caller on this program three minutes uninterrupted.”
However, the angry, descending-opinion callers are on the decline. “35 years ago,” Wilkow affirmed, “if you were on AM radio, you were out to the general audience, and you would get those kinds of calls. Now they pretty much relegate themselves to Patriot, Progress, POTUS, and other talk avenues.”
He added, “People tend to cloister in their tribe.”
This hasn’t stopped The Wilkow Majority from welcoming Democrats. “If I can get a civil-minded person who can stay off the personal insults and isn’t driven by emotion, I’ll have that debate all day,” Wilkow said. “We’ve exhausted ourselves inviting Democrats onto this program. They just won’t come anymore.”
Christine Pelosi, daughter of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, used to come on his show often. “She wouldn’t be afraid to give me insight from her mom or Democrats she was talking to, and it never got personal. It never got insulting.” More importantly, Wilkow believes the segments “made for really good radio.”
Over time, those segments have dissipated. Wilkow believes this is because “I don’t think Democrats want to get into the type of depth of questioning that someone like me and other hosts on this channel are going to put them through.” He added, “I will read a piece of legislation right back to them, and I do it on this program all the time. I just don’t think they want to be on record giving those types of answers.”
It’s this push for answers that helps propel his listeners to be MAGAtive about what is happening in government today.
Today, Wilkow loves what he does, but the childhood love for the music radio medium hasn’t left. “If the opportunity came along to do something fun and one-off, yeah, I would do it. Yeah, of course.”
But he couldn’t do it every day for one simple reason. “For about 10 years of my life, I couldn’t really appreciate a lot of the music that was coming out because it was my job to play it. It was work.”
It’s a perspective all aspiring and current members of the media should keep in mind. “If you work a concert, you’re not there enjoying it. You’re working. Whether you’re security, running the board, or a radio personality, that’s your job.”
Wilkow went on to add, “To the outside, it looks like fun, and it is. It can be fun. But it’s still the job for you, and it’s like you kind of miss that part the audience loves when you go from being in the audience to being a part of it.”
For those looking to follow in Wilkow’s footsteps in music or talk radio, he admits it is a very different world from when he started, but there is still one applicable lesson.
“I had gotten myself into the program at WRUF-FM. I don’t even know if I was fully on the air yet, and the program director said, ‘I need someone to work…’ Before he could finish the phrase ‘Saturday morning,’ which is SEC tailgating, I put my hand up.”
“I solved the program director’s problem right there. Nobody wanted to do it. He said, ‘I’m going to have to pick someone.’ And I learned very quickly that if you’re willing to solve the program director’s problem, you’re willing to give up a Friday night, an overnight, or work the holidays. The more time on the air you have,” Wilkow added, “the better you’re likely to get at it. So I took every single opportunity.”
“I don’t think you could ever go wrong with hard work, meaning if you’re on your own producing your own podcast and you can get enough traction, maybe somebody with a company that provides greater support and algorithm knowledge will say, ‘Okay, this person is really getting it done as an independent,’” Wilkow said. “That’s what I would say to a young person. If you can afford the time to do something independent, get it out there as best you can.”
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
