When you run across Gene Burns on the radio dial, there's no mistaking him. At the beginning of each show, a solemn voice intones: "The Gene Burns program is brought to you by a grant from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution."

For more than 40 years, the First Amendment has been protecting Burn's right to broadcast his libertarian vision across the airwaves of America.

Burn's mellifluous voice was first heard on the radio in 1962, when he became news director at a Hornell, New York station. In 1967, he landed his first talk show host job on WCBM in Baltimore, where he honed his signature erudite style. In 1975, he moved to WKIS (Orlando), and in 1985 to WRKO (Boston). In 1993, he made the jump to national syndication on the WOR Network, before taking an afternoon job on KGO in San Francisco two years later.

Burns' libertarian convictions have occasionally spilled over into politics. In 1984, he flirted with running for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, and he has spoken at numerous Libertarian Party events over the years.

For example, in 1990, as part of his "Jubilee Year" (the year he turned 50), he delivered 15 speeches in New Hampshire to promote libertarianism. In his talks, Burns outlined his pro-liberty beliefs.

"Government no longer secures the rights of the people; government has become a massive, expensive, intensive income-redistribution machine," he said, according to Libertarian Lines, the N.H. Libertarian Party's newsletter. "It is time to return to that fundamental idea that people are first and the government second."

In September 2002, Burns was named one of the "25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of All Time" by Talkers Magazine, a trade publication of the talk radio industry. Talkers noted: "His fans revere him as the great libertarian wordsmith. Few talk show hosts speak so eloquently while making sense with every carefully chosen word as does Gene Burns."

To prepare for each radio broadcast, Burns reads seven newspapers a day. And to keep his listeners interested, Burns said he makes sure that his libertarian opinions don't overwhelm his show, or make him too predictable.

"Predictability is boring," he said an interview with the C. Crane Company (May 28, 2003). "If I become completely predicable, I'll become boring. And I don't think that's healthy in my line of work."

                                                                                                                                     -- Bill Winter

Quotable

"Gene is a longtime Libertarian. He understands libertarianism completely and explains it eloquently. In addition, he is one of the most able talk-show hosts in the world. He has a beautiful voice, beautiful articulation, and a beautiful command of the English language." -- Past Libertarian Party presidential candidate Harry Browne (August 11, 2000)

Books & Tapes

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