Celebrating five years in the Premiere Network lineup, host Jesse Kelly says it still feels surreal.
“Across the country, everyone dreams of that phone call from Julie Talbott, saying, ‘Hey, you want to come work for me?’ Everybody dreams about that phone call,” he said.
Now serving over 260 stations across the nation, Jesse Kelly went from construction worker to conservative radio host, a journey we covered in a 2024 interview. Now he has given us a surprising new feat, offering his new booklet, Jesse Kelly’s Little Red Book, for free.
“After I was done writing the anti-communist manifesto, which they had to talk me into, I swore I was never writing anything else again. Like, that’s it. It was a one-shot book,” Kelly insisted.
Kelly is open about his disdain for writing. “I actually hate writing. Like, I really, really hate it. I wish I liked it.” However, he was hit with a writer’s brain blast and felt there were still one or two more chapters left in him for the manifesto. “There was at least a chapter or two that I kind of wanted in that book, in the original book, and I thought, oh, I mean, maybe I should jot some of it down.”
Reaching out to his co-author, Nick Rizzuto, the pair decided to write just a little bit more. “And a little more turned into this booklet. But I never intended to sell it. I wasn’t trying to make a buck on it,” Kelly said. “It was just some random, stupid thoughts that go through my stupid head, and I decided, let’s just email it out to everybody. So there you go. I’m the worst businessman in the world, apparently.”
Despite the free price tag, Kelly assures his listeners he won’t be turning into a socialist any time soon. It is instead a sign of gratitude and goodwill for the listeners he’s gained over the last five years.
Show Prep Is His Whole Life
Kelly, who served as an infantry Marine during the Second Gulf War, keeps his show fresh for listeners by reminding himself, “[My] entire life is show prep. Every bit of it.”
The Marine went on to say, “You don’t sit down for two hours before the show and go through some news articles. But when you go to the gas station and help somebody with a flat tire, that’s show prep. When you get in a lighthearted argument with your wife, that’s show prep.”
It is one of the many lessons he learned from Michael Berry. “[Your audience] will genuinely enjoy it, because people go through all these same things,” Kelly said, paraphrasing an early-career conversation he had with Berry.
“So it’s easy to stay fresh if you just live life,” Kelly asserted. “If you hide yourself in a bubble or something like that, then you’re never gonna have anything new. But if you are out there living whatever life you happen to live…”
“Calls Are a Crutch”
His show structure has also evolved, as Kelly no longer takes live listener calls. “Calls suck,” Kelly said cheekily. “They’re just the worst thing in the world, and I always hated them. Calls are a crutch.”
Kelly vociferously opined, “Calls are when you run out of things to say. Let’s go to Bob in Sheboygan. Nobody tuned in to hear Bob in Sheboygan. Nobody, whatsoever.”
The radio host went on to say, “And then when you go to Bob in Sheboygan, you know what’s brutal for everyone in the United States of America? ‘Hi, how you doing? Hey, I’m good, how are you tonight? First time, long time.’ The guy who’s stuck in traffic needs some form of entertainment or infotainment, and now he wants to drive his car off a bridge. That is awful. And I won’t do it anymore.”
It is a sentiment he felt well before he was behind the mic and instead behind the wheel. “I was a radio listener a long time before I did it. The second it was, ‘Let’s go to the phones,’ I couldn’t change the channel fast enough. So I just don’t do it.”
Not taking calls is also something Michael Berry taught Kelly early on. “When I first got a show, it was a one-hour show, late at night in Houston. [Berry] basically banned me from taking calls. And he said, ‘You need to learn — it’s a skill you have to learn. You need to learn how to sit behind a microphone and entertain.'”
Connecting Through Letters and Emails
And entertaining is what Kelly, who also hosts a show on the TV network, The First, does best. His “average guy from the year 2000” mentality resonates with listeners from around the country. Although he won’t take their calls, he does have another way to connect with them — reading their emails on the air.
“It makes for a great jumping-off point for a segment or something like that, so I’ll read it and kind of just get the people’s voice out there,” Kelly stated. “Plus, I like being able to share, you know, to give someone else a platform. I don’t mind telling the country what that person had to say.” He went on to say, “All human beings, you know, we feel forgotten and ignored from time to time, and it’s nice to not be ignored every now and then.”
Some of the most meaningful listener notes Kelly receives are very personal. One example he gave was a letter from a World War II veteran. “I had a guy who had a World War II dagger, and he didn’t have any kids, and he sent it to me, because he wanted my kids to have it.”
Kelly has also received letters from people who are struggling with addiction. “They say stuff to me like, ‘Hey, your show is helping me stay clean,’ which I don’t have any idea why, but that’s awesome. I mean, to find out [I am] actually helping somebody by being an idiot on the radio, it’s awesome.”
“What blows me away [about receiving these letters] is that it’s all across the spectrum,” Kelly said.
While Kelly sometimes offers self-deprecating humor about his human capabilities, his passion for his radio, podcasting, and TV audience — whether intentionally or not — is always at the forefront of his mind. “I have a very limited brain, and I can’t focus on multiple things at once. I’m really serious. I can’t — like, you’ve never met anybody more incapable of focusing on multiple things, or multitasking, whatever,” he said.
“So, as far as ratings, and podcast numbers, and this, and all the other minutiae of it, I ignore all of that. I have no interest in it whatsoever.” Instead, Kelly puts his singular focus on this: “I sit down and try to make each segment as good as I can, because maybe that’s as long as I have [one of my listeners] for. And I assume that if I do that right, then everything else will work out in the end.”
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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.