Glenn Beck

Radio and Television Personality

• Born: February 10, 1964
• Place of Birth: Everett, Washington

Glenn Beck is a conservative television and radio personality who gained prominence in 2009 as a critic of the administration of United States President Barack Obama. A best-selling author, he has released sixteen nonfiction books since 2003. Beck is also responsible for initiating and promoting the 9-12 Project, which is an effort to return the US to the uniting principles and values that Beck claims defined the nation the day after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Early Life

Glenn Beck was born on February 10, 1964, in Everett, Washington, and grew up in Mt. Vernon, Washington. At the age of thirteen, Beck won a contest with a local radio station and won an hour of air time. He would later leverage that victory into a late night and weekend spot on Seattle's KUBE 93. At the age of fifteen, Beck's mother drowned in Puget Sound.

Beck graduated from Sehome High School and went to work in Provo, Utah, as a disc jockey. In a largely Mormon town, Beck had difficulty fitting in. He relocated to Corpus Christi, Texas, with his new wife, Claire, when he was offered his own morning show at KZFM. Beck, at the age of nineteen, was the youngest "morning zoo" host, and he soon became a success at this format.

Radio Career

Beginning in 1987, Beck worked as a DJ for radio stations in Houston, Texas, and Baltimore, Maryland. He eventually found work at KC101 in New Haven, Connecticut. During Beck's tenure at KC101, Clear Channel Communications, which was a young media venture at the time, purchased the station.

Beck began to pursue a career in talk radio, as he felt he had outgrown the morning zoo format. He was given a small gig at Clear Channel's other New Haven station in return for avoiding political conversations during the morning zoo show. This concession helped him hone his talk skills and gain some experience in a different format. By this time, Beck and his wife had divorced, and their two daughters lived with their mother.

Beck has admitted to being addicted to drugs and alcohol at various points in his career, and has suffered from bouts of depression. In 1994, Beck attended his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

By 1999, Beck had met and married Tania, with whom he has two children. The couple also joined the Church of Latter Day Saints that same year. Beck left New Haven for Tampa, Florida, where he finally landed his first talk radio spot, The Glenn Beck Program. In 2000, the show went national and relocated to WPHT in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2006, Beck was offered a spot as a nighttime commentator with CNN. The Fox News Channel offered him a job in January 2009.

Move to Fox News

Beck's Fox News program garnered a wide audience, as Beck struck a chord with conservatives who shared his concerned about the actions of the Obama administration. He leads the 9-12 Project, a movement seeking to recapture what Beck calls "American values" and principles such as honesty, reverence and hope, as well as Christianity, conservatism, and personal liberty. In the summer of 2009, Beck came under fire for claiming that President Obama was a racist. Beck also drew attention to poor practices at ACORN, a community activism organization that later lost congressional funding.

In September 2009, Beck made the cover of Time magazine. He is also an author of several books, including An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck (2008) and Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government (2009). In addition, he created Fusion Magazine and performs a one-man show that has toured the US. He leads his own media organization, Mercury Radio Arts, which handles his media pursuits. Beck delivered the 2010 commencement speak at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

In April 2011, Beck announced that he was ending his daily television show on Fox News. While Beck's critics stated the show was cancelled by the network because of lack of supporting advertisers, Beck himself stated that was going to continue to work with Fox in other projects.

After Fox News

After leaving Fox News, Beck founded TheBlaze, a news and entertainment network on cable television. He also launched a related internet radio network, website, and book publishing imprint. Beck hosts an hour-long afternoon show on the television channel and a three-hour morning show on the radio, and is credited as a writer and producer on several of the network's television and movie projects. Beck also founded a nonprofit organization, Mercury One, intended to sustain itself through entrepreneurship rather than donations. In October 2011, Mercury One began selling an exclusive upscale clothing line called 1791. Throughout the 2010s, Beck and Mercury One organized several rallies to support a variety of causes.

In March 2015, Beck announced that he had left the Republican Party, citing the party's failures to repeal Obamacare and stand against immigration reform as some of his reasons. Around the same time, he endorsed Texas senator Ted Cruz during the 2016 presidential election. He later voiced his support for President Donald Trump.

Beck continued to support President Trump both during the President's term and in his subsequent electoral races. In 2018, Beck stated that he inteded to vote for Trump during the 2020 election. In 2024, Beck stated on his program that if conservatives lose the 2024 election, then they had lost the country itself. That same year, Beck worked with Mikayla G. Hendrick to coauthor the book Chasing Embers.

Bibliography

Beck, Glenn. "Genn Beck: "If We Lose This Election, We've Lost the Country." WIOD, 14 Aug. 2024, wiod.iheart.com/featured/glenn-beck/content/glenn-beck-blog-glenn-beck-if-we-lose-this-election-weve-lost-the-country/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

"Glenn Beck." Forbes. Forbes.com, June 2014. Web. 6 Jan. 2015.

Mooney, Michael. "The New Glenn Beck." D Magazine. D Magazine, Nov. 2014. Web. 6 Jan. 2015.