|  David
Brudnoy was more than just one of New England's top-rated radio personalities
for more than a quarter-century; he was widely hailed as one of America's
finest radio talk show hosts.
He sat behind the microphone on the "David Brudnoy Show" on
WBZ-AM (NewsRadio 1030), Monday through Friday from 7:00-10:00 pm. The
top-rated program, which first went on the air in 1986, featured a variety
of guests discussing current events and cultural issues. The show reached
2 million listeners in 38 states and in Canada.
As a host, Brudnoy was praised by the Associated Press for his "intellectual
thoughtfulness, his sense of humor, and his easygoing manner."
The Boston Globe said about him: "Brudnoy is the rare
talk show host who is neither mean nor moralistic." On the air,
Brudnoy said he always tried to be "less ideological and more empathic."
In 1997, Brudnoy won the Freedom of Speech Award from the National Association
of Radio Talk Show Hosts. In 1998, he was named one of the "100
Most Influential" radio talk show hosts by Talkers magazine.
In 2002, the same magazine named him #18 on the list of the "25
Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of All Time," and wrote: "Brudnoy's
libertarian bent gives his program a perspective that is neither truly
conservative nor liberal but covers a larger portion of the sociopolitical
landscape. This factor combined with his educated perspective makes
David Brudnoy one of the most consistently intriguing radio talk show
hosts in America."
Philosophically, Brudnoy said he was a conservative-leaning libertarian.
"If you take Murray Rothbard libertarians on the one hand and people
like Bill Buckley on the other, I fall somewhere in between," he
explained in an interview with Reason magazine (March 1997).
On February 21, 1998, Brudnoy joined the Libertarian Party at the Massachusetts
Libertarian Party's convention. In a speech at that event, Brudnoy said
that after years of arguing that the Republican Party was the best political
tool to achieve liberty, he finally decided that he had been wrong.
In 1994, Brudnoy shocked his listeners when he revealed that he was
gay and that he suffered from AIDS. Despite the controversy the announcement
generated, Brudnoy's "ratings did not suffer," reported the
Boston Herald. His 1997 memoir, Life is Not a Rehearsal
(Doubleday), discussed his nine-year battle with AIDS.
Brudnoy's talents weren't confined to the radio. He wrote movie reviews
for the TAB newspaper chain; was a guest lecturer on history,
philosophy, politics, and communications at Harvard University, Northeastern
University, Boston University, Boston College, and the University of
Rhode Island; and was a television commentator. His essays and articles
appeared in The New York Times, National Review, the New
Republic, The Japan Times, The Saturday Evening Post, TV Guide, Boston
Magazine, the Boston Phoenix, and many more.
Brudnoy had a Bachelor of Arts degree in Japanese studies from Yale
University; a master's degree in East Asian studies from Harvard University;
a master's degree and a Ph.D. in history from Brandeis University. He
was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Brudnoy died on December 9, 2004 from merkel cell carcinoma, a rare
form of skin cancer that spread to his lungs and kidneys. In an interview
conducted from his hospital bed one day earlier, Brudnoy said he was
prepared to die. "My head is completely accepting of this,"
he said. "I am absolutely ready.''
To remember him, Brudnoy asked his fans to contribute to a private fund
he established to raise money for AIDS research. Send donations to:
The Brudnoy Fund for AIDS Research, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Development Office, 100 Charles River Plaza, Suite 600, Boston, MA 02114-2792.
--
Bill Winter |
|
Quotable
"If
you take Murray Rothbard libertarians on the one hand and people like
Bill Buckley on the other, I fall somewhere in between. In general,
I'm for free minds and free markets." -- David Brudnoy
in Reason (March 1997)
Libertarians
Remember David Brudnoy
"David
Brudnoy will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. Brudnoy was a leader
in the freedom movement and shared these ideas with his listeners. He
continues to be a source of inspiration for me and many other libertarian
activists." -- Dan Belforti (Left, Right and Correct
Blog)
"He was one of the top voices for liberty in Massachusetts for
many years... He was the kind of person you could be proud to point
to and say, 'He's a libertarian.' " -- Michael Cloud
(LP News)
"David's work and life was marked by fiery tolerance, independent
thought, and a refusal to apologize for an alternative lifestyle and
contrarian views that ultimately earned him respect from both right-wing
conservatives appalled by his homosexuality and left-wing identity politics
mavens dismayed by his embrace of minimal government." -- Nick
Gillespie (Reason Online)
"He treated both guests and callers with good humor, great intellectual
curiosity, and utmost respect. I will miss him dearly." -- Michelle
Malkin (www.MichelleMalkin.com)
"David was a loyal champion of human liberty all his life, moving
gradually from attempting to educate Republicans and conservatives about
how they ought to be more principled in their defense of the Founders'
vision, to eventually embracing the libertarian alternative outright."
-- Tibor R. Machan (www.SoloHQ.com) |
