Turn on a news/talk radio station in the overnight hours, and there’s a good chance you’ll hear Red Eye Radio hosts Gary McNamara and Eric Harley.
Earlier this month, the duo celebrated 20 years working together. And, believe it or not, that anniversary didn’t sneak up on the pair due to the memorable news events that transpired just after they took the air partnered together.
“Some big stories were hitting,” McNamara said. “There was a lot going on during that time.”
Just over a month after their debut, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The following month saw Hurricane Rita hit the Gulf again.
McNamara pointed out that the duo has been on the air in the 1-6 AM ET timeslot when several major news events took place.
“The Las Vegas shooting — I think we were probably one of the first radio stations to play the gunshot sounds,” he shared. “We didn’t know what it was at first. It sounded like automatic fire, and it sounded like a lot of weapons. That was a moment I won’t forget, though not in a good way. I’ll also always remember the Tsarnaev brothers. After the Boston bombing, when the police were following them, that all unfolded overnight. The ship hitting the bridge in Baltimore—that happened while we were on the air. That’s why we remember the past 20 years. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita both hit that year, and it was incredibly memorable for us.”
Nearly 14 years of the duo’s partnership have been spent in national syndication with Westwood One. They had nothing but praise for their bosses at the company. They noted that they’ve never been instructed what to talk about or what to steer away from. The partners believe that it has helped their relationship and the show immensely. The ability to talk about what interests them isn’t lost on the duo.
Some of the best partnerships in radio history have admitted that working together for long stretches of time can test a friendship. But after 20 years together, Eric Harley and Gary McNamara are still having a blast with one another.
“Working with Eric has been the absolute most fun that I’ve ever had in radio,” McNamara said. “I can’t wait to get to work with Eric. One time, Eric asked me — because I’m 10 years older than Eric, and I’m into retirement age — ‘Why do you want to continue doing this?’ And I said, ‘This right here.’ As we’re walking out, we walk out after five hours, and you would think we’re dragging. But we’re just having the most fun, laughing and joking the 30 seconds it takes to get from the studio out to our vehicles. That’s why we continue to do it.”
“There is nothing more enjoyable — more fun — than what we’re doing here,” Harley added. “The complete experience of what Gary and I have is really unmatched, because we get to call over all the important stuff that’s going on. In fact, sometimes we’ll get listener feedback when they say ‘You guys laugh a lot.’ Our motto that we have is ‘There are certain things we can’t control about the government, but we’re not gonna let them steal our joy.'”
The 1-6 AM ET timeslot isn’t viewed as primetime real estate by most radio leaders. But the Red Eye Radio hosts take the job of putting on a quality program during the overnight hours incredibly seriously.
“The work is important. We believe that the listener must be served. The stations that were on must be served. Those programmers and station managers need to know that things are being covered when they’re asleep,” Harley said. “When a story comes across, we’re going to work hard to get it out there. So we do take great pride in the work. There is something about coming away from something like that, knowing that you put the work in during those hours, and it’s everything.”
While working in the overnight hours isn’t ideal for hardly anyone, Harley noted that the schedule originally worked in his favor, before joking that the last time he slept was in 1973, and it was overrated.
“Quite frankly, I’m the one in the family that gets less sleep,” he shared. “One of the biggest appeals for the job, not just being a part of a national broadcast … was the schedule, because my kids were little. They’re all adults now and have their own kids. But back then, I could be home by 6 AM, get them off to school, and be there during the day if the school needed a parent to come up there. And then be there for them when they got home to do homework and everything. So that kind of set the tone.”
There’s an additional element to the wee hours of the morning that the pair finds enticing.
“When you’re on overnight, we can make it sound more of a podcast, more conversational,” McNamara said. “You don’t have all the elements. You don’t hear the commercials. When we’re done, it’s silent. You don’t have a bunch of formatics that you have to do, for example. You can concentrate on what you’re doing.”
Gary McNamara concluded that he’s proud of the work he and Eric Harley have done on together during the past 20 years, including on Red Eye Radio. He added that the audience’s acceptance of the pair certainly helps make the job easier.
“We just feel so blessed,” he said. “Our audience gets us. For doing talk radio, we really don’t get many complaints. You think that we would, but we really don’t get many complaints.”
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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.
