Sean Patrick Hannity
(born December 30, 1961) is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. His nationally syndicated radio program, The Sean Hannity Show
, airs throughout the United States on Citadel Media. Hannity also hosts two television shows on Fox News Channel: Hannity
, which replaced the political debate program Hannity & Colmes
, and the weekend show Hannity's America
. Hannity has also written two New York Times
bestselling books, [1] [2] Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism
and Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism
.
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Early life
Hannity is the son of Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity. Both his paternal and maternal grandparents emigrated from
Ireland. He has two sisters, Joanne S. Hannity and Therese (Hannity) Grisham. He grew up in
Franklin Square, New York.
During the late 1980s, Hannity was a
general contractor [3] in
Santa Barbara, California and also a bartender.
[4] He has lived in
Roswell, Georgia;
Warren, Rhode Island;
Athens, Alabama;
Bayport, New York;
Lloyd Harbor, New York; and
Santa Barbara, California.
He married Jill Rhodes, a columnist for
The Huntsville Times
, on January 9, 1993. They have two children.
Education
Hannity graduated in 1980 from
St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary high school, located in
Uniondale, New York. Hannity dropped out of
New York University and
Adelphi University.
Professional life
thumb Dick Cheney
Hannity hosted his first talk radio show in 1989 at the volunteer college station at
UC Santa Barbara,
KCSB-FM, while working as a general contractor. The show aired for 40 hours of air time;
[5] Regarding his first show, Hannity has said, "I wasn't good at it. I was terrible."
[6] Hannity's weekly show on KCSB was canceled after less than a year by station managers upset with his remarks about gays and lesbians. This was after two shows featuring the book
The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS
by Gene Antonio; among other remarks, Hannity told a lesbian caller "I feel sorry for your child".
[7] The station later reversed its decision to dismiss Hannity due in part to a campaign conducted by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union. Hannity decided against returning to KCSB.
[8]
After leaving KCSB, Hannity placed an ad in radio publications presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America." Radio station
WVNN in
Athens, Alabama (part of the
Huntsville market) then hired him to be the afternoon talk show host.
From Huntsville, he moved to
WGST in
Atlanta in 1992, filling the slot vacated by
Neal Boortz, who had moved to competing station
WSB. In September 1996 Fox News co-founder
Roger Ailes hired the then relatively unknown Hannity to host a television program under the working title
Hannity and LTBD
("liberal to be determined").
[9] Alan Colmes was then hired to co-host and the show debuted as
Hannity & Colmes
.
Later that year Hannity left WGST for New York, where WABC had him substitute for their afternoon
drive time host during Christmas week. In January 1997, WABC put Hannity on the air full-time, giving him the late night time slot. WABC then moved Hannity to the same drive time slot he had filled temporarily a little more than a year earlier. Hannity has been on WABC's afternoon time slot since January 1998.
[10]
Since 2003, Hannity has hosted
country music-themed "Freedom Concerts" billed to help benefit the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, a charity created by
Oliver North to provide college scholarships to children with a parent severely disabled or killed in military action.
[11] Artists such as
Charlie Daniels,
Billy Ray Cyrus, and
Hank Williams, Jr. have headlined at Hannity's concerts.
Conservative
Cal Thomas and liberal
Bob Beckel, in their book
Common Ground
, describe Hannity as a leader of the pack among broadcasting political polarizers, which following
James Q. Wilson they define as those who have "an intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another, rival group."
[12]
Television
See Hannity & Colmes
, Hannity
, Hannity's America
Hannity was a co-host of
Hannity & Colmes
, an American political "point-counterpoint"-style television program on the Fox News Channel featuring Hannity and
Alan Colmes as co-hosts. Hannity presented the conservative point of view with Colmes providing the liberal viewpoint. Hannity had on air clashes with show guests such as
Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer of
Human Life International, who challenged Hannity on his public dissent from the
Catholic Church on the issue of
contraception.
[13] [14] Hannity stated that if the Catholic Church were to
excommunicate him over the issue, he would join
Jerry Falwell's
Thomas Road Baptist Church.
[15]
In January 2007, Hannity began a new Sunday night television show on Fox News,
Hannity's America
.
In November 2008, Colmes announced his departure from
Hannity & Colmes.
After the show's final broadcast on January 9, 2009, Hannity took over the time slot with his own new show,
Hannity
, which has a format similar to
Hannity's America
.
Radio
Hannity's radio program is a conservative political talk show that features Hannity's opinions and ideology related to current issues and politicians.
The Sean Hannity Show
began national syndication on September 10, 2001 on over 500 stations nationwide.
[16] As of spring 2008, the program is heard by over 13.25 million listeners a week.
[17] In 2004, Hannity signed a $25 million five-year contract extension with ABC Radio (now
Citadel Media) to continue the show through 2009.
[18] The program was made available via
Armed Forces Radio Network in 2006.
[19] In June 2007, ABC Radio was sold to
Citadel Communications.
[20]
In January 2007,
Clear Channel Communications signed a groupwide three-year extension with Hannity on over 80 stations.
[21] The largest stations in the group deal included
KTRH Houston,
KFYI Phoenix,
WPGB Pittsburgh,
WKRC Cincinnati,
WOOD Grand Rapids,
WFLA Tampa,
WOAI San Antonio,
WLAC Nashville, and
WREC Memphis.
The opening theme music for the
Sean Hannity Show
is "
Independence Day" by
Martina McBride followed by "
O Fortuna" (from
Carmina Burana) by
Carl Orff, followed by "
The Way It Is" by
Bruce Hornsby and the Range.
[22]
Books
Hannity is the author of two books,
Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Ideas in Politics, Media, and Life
and
Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism
published through
ReganBooks. Both books reached the nonfiction
New York Times
bestseller list, the second of which stayed there for five weeks.
[23] [24] Hannity has stated that he is too busy to read many books,
and dictated a lot of his own two books into a tape recorder while driving in to do his radio show.
[25]
Awards and honors
- Hannity received a Marconi Award in 2003 and 2007 as the Network Syndicated Personality of the Year from the National Association of Broadcasters. [26]
- In 2009, Talkers Magazine
listed Hannity as #2 on their list of the 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America. [27]
- Talkers Magazine
gave Hannity their Freedom of Speech Award in 2003. [28]
- In 2005, Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, awarded Hannity an honorary degree. [29]
- Radio and Records
magazine has honored Hannity with the National Talk Show Host of the Year Award for three consecutive years. [30]
Bibliography
- Hannity, Sean (2002). Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism
, ReganBooks, ISBN 0-06-051455-8.
- Hannity, Sean (2004). Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism
, ReganBooks, ISBN 0-06-058251-0.
References
- BEST SELLERS: September 22, 2002
- BEST SELLERS: April 4, 2004
- Sean Hannity bio
- Radio's New Right-Fielder
- Hannity Bio
- 'Hannitization' Of America
- Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media
- An Aggressive Conservative vs. a 'Liberal to be Determined'
- http://web.archive.org/web/20061109203543/http://www.alan.com/staff/alan.htm
- Sean Hannity is a multi-media superstar, spending four hours a day every day reaching out to millions of Americans on radio, television and internet
- HANNITY BRINGING 'FREEDOM' CONCERT BACK TO SIX FLAGS
- Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America
- YouTube - Hannity's Gospel
- Hannity at Odds with Catholic Doctrine
- Royal, Robert. "Sean and Rudy's excellent adventures in moral theology." ''National Catholic Reporter''; March 30, 2007, Vol. 43 Issue 22, p19-19, 2/3p.
- Canon Communications LLC: Home
- The Top Talk Radio Audiences
- Sean Hannity Profile
- Canon Communications LLC: Home
- Disney and Citadel Announce Completion of ABC Radio Merger
- Clear Channel Radio Renews Sean Hannity Through 2010
- The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby Songfacts
- ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Thomson Gale, 2005.
- http://web.archive.org/web/20070807124253/http://affiliates.abcradionetworks.com/abcradio/seanhannitybio.pdf
- 10 Questions for Sean Hannity
- Sean Hannity Wins 2007 Marconi Award
- Heavy Hundred
- Sean Hannity and Michael Medved Shows Come to News Talk 590 KTIE-AM
- Hannity to speak at Liberty
- Sean Hannity Re-Signs with FOX News Channel