Lionel (radio personality)

Michael William Lebron (born August 26, 1958), popularly known as Lionel, is an American nationally syndicated radio talk show host based in New York City. Since May 2007 he's hosted a daily three-hour radio talk show on Air America Radio. Moved aside from the 9am to noon (ET) slot when well known TV personality Montel Williams joined the network, his show resumes on May 26, 2009 from 6am - 9am.

Prior to the Air America show, he hosted a nationally-syndicated show on the WOR Radio Network six days a week (9 pm-midnight ET weekdays, and 5-8 pm ET Saturdays), from the studios of WOR 710 AM in New York. The final show for WOR aired May 3, 2007.

Career

After graduating magna cum laude from the University of South Florida in 1980, Lionel worked as a District Aide for Florida United States Senator Richard "Dick" Stone and in his unsuccessful campaign for reelection.

Lionel graduated from the Stetson University College of Law, and as trial lawyer worked as both prosecutor for the Hillsborough County Florida State Attorney's Office (13th Judicial Circuit) and criminal defense trial lawyer thereafter.

He began his radio career as a host at WFLA 970 AM in his hometown of Tampa, Florida from 1988 to 1993.

For years, Lionel had been a frequent caller to local shows, eventually becoming a "chronic", which is industry vernacular for frequent callers. His notoriety was such that he began using aliases and different personas to get on the air. His most enduring moniker is in honor of Francis Lionel "Lion" Delbuchi, the character played by Al Pacino in the movie Scarecrow. His calls were so entertaining that WPLP, WFLA's rival station across Tampa Bay, offered him a talk show; Lionel declined, both because WPLP paid very little and because he was afraid it would affect his law career. In October 1988, however, WFLA management called and gave him an unbeatable offer to move behind the microphone as a Sunday afternoon host. Then in January 1989, he moved to middays (nine to noon) Monday through Friday. Seven months later, he took the afternoon drive position where he remained until 1993. When he did, he quickly became a ratings success, using a lively mix of humor and current events.

He was hired away by WABC 770 AM, a news-talk station in New York City when a former ABC network president, Jim Arcara, heard Lionel's show during vacations in Florida and lured him to the Big Apple. He set ratings records for WABC as its morning-drive host during the mid-1990s. During one period, Lionel did both morning drive and afternoon drive for a period immediately following talk radio legend Bob Grant's departure from WABC.

In the late 1990s, toward the end of his tenure at WABC, Lionel also hosted the CourtTV law show, Snap Judgment. He also provided a daily update on WCBS 880 AM during the Clinton impeachment process.

In 2000, Lionel began his national radio show, The Lionel Show, originally syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks through 2001. His show was then syndicated by independent Rex Broadcasting until 2003, when it was picked up by the WOR Radio Network in New York City.

In 2000 and 2001, in addition to his radio work, Lionel was a morning host on an Internet-based talk radio site, eYada.com until 2001.

In both 2007 and 2009, Talkers Magazine included Lionel on their list of "The 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in America" at number 23, and tied for 13th place on their "Top Talk Radio Audiences]" list. The magazine described him as "a uniquely witty and intellectual personality" and "defying categorization".

He has released a comedy album titled You Don't Look Like You Sound and fronted a bluegrass band called Lock 'n' Load. Lebron has authored a book entitled "Everyone's Crazy Except You and Me . . . And I'm Not So Sure About You: America's Favorite Contrarian Cuts Loose." It is published by Hyperion and was released on August 5, 2008.

On March 17, 2009 Air America began advertising that "Montel" would be doing its 9 a.m. show beginning April 6, 2009. This has brought great consternation for his loyal listeners. According to the Air America website, Lionel remains active online at www.airamerica.com, and program director Bill Hess says Air America and Lionel are formulating a new broadcast show that will be announced soon.

Philosophy

Originally espousing a largely libertarian political philosophy, Lionel has arguably adopted a more progressive stance, and his show has become increasingly heard on stations of a left-leaning nature. However, he personally eschews such labels and repeatedly criticizes those who hold opinions simply out of allegiance to a word like "conservative" or "liberal." Many of his stances, such as opposition to some forms of gun control, are not shared by most liberals. He opposes the death penalty on the grounds that the justice system is far too unreliable to be entrusted with that power, and favors decriminalization of drug use and of prostitution. He strongly opposed the Iraq War since around 2004. He asks callers to take the Lionel Challenge: Try explicating or describing a political philosophy or point without using a label. Some, he contends, find it impossible.

He frequently targets his fellow talk show hosts, attacking conservatives for reading talking points as part of a "playbook mentality" and some fellow liberal hosts for boring audiences with excessive political dialog. Among his most frequent targets:

• Michael Savage: Routinely pronounced "Sauvage" by Lionel, the show that preceded his at WOR meant Lionel was frequently exposed to Savage's program. His current favorite is pointing out that Savage told his listeners that the sun was the smallest star in our solar system.

• Glenn Beck: Usually described as "the stupidest conservative on television" and "late to the party," Lionel usually dissects Beck's views and questions the logic of them. However, Lionel applauds Beck's ostensible channeling Howard Beale in his (Beck's) latest incarnation.

• Bill O'Reilly: Lionel typically questions O'Reilly's arguments and emphasis on political issues of the day and considers him part of the "playbook mentality."

Lionel also describes himself as a "Bright", meaning someone who holds a naturalistic rather than a supernatural world view.

During a discussion on his show about illegal immigration to the United States, Lionel stated his ancestry was Afro-Puerto Rican, Sicilian, Scots-Irish, German and French.

In-jokes and other miscellany

• Theme song: Lionel adopted "Nina Morena" by the Gipsy Kings as his theme song, and he plays it at the top of every hour after commercial breaks. The song's opening line, which sounds like "Lionel!" repeatedly, caused him to "fall out of his chair" the first time he heard it. The closing theme song is "Soul Makossa" by Manu Dibango.

• Lionel Show Crw: Lionel's Air America crew included "Juice," his producer and primary provider of tongue-in-cheek prose which accompanies various sound clips played on the show, "Dermott McCallscreener," or "Derm," who because of his status as a member of New York City band "Rich Girls" gets referred to occasionally as "bass player in a tranny band" and "Doobie," a partially aloof native of Skaneateles, New York. However, ever since January 2009 it appears as Derm and Doobie have left the show, to the great disappointment of many Lionel fans. Until mid 2008, Alex "Al B Damned" Goldmark was the show's executive producer.

• Retarded Algonquin Round Table: A sarcastic reference to the original Algonquin Round Table, the "Retarded Algonquin Round Table" is a perhaps partially fictional collection of Lionel's less intelligent friends and drinking companions. Their idea of intelligent discourse is to repeat whatever they hear from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and right-wing bumper stickers.

• Barstool Diplomacy: The type of diplomacy advocated by members of the Retarded Algonquin Round Table. Usually involves the use of overwhelming military force, not excepting nuclear weapons, as the first move.

• Archie Bunker: A pseudonym for one commonly referred-to member of the Retarded Algonquin Round Table.

• Ass Hat Alert: Producer Juice provides ridiculous audio from the day.

• Let's go back to the phones, back to the fun: A favorite phrase of Lionel's when returning from a commercial break and resuming the conversation with his callers.

• The monkey's dead, the show's over ... sue ya: Lionel's end-of-show catch phrase, used since the early 1990s. "Sue ya" is a reference to his former profession. "The monkey's dead, the show's over" was originally spoken by a defeated political candidate in Tampa when asked for an election-night comment about his failed campaign. Lionel saw the quote in the next day's newspaper and has used it since.

• Stephen Baldwin: A frequent caller and fan of Lionel, Baldwin appeared as a guest on Lionel's show to tout his youth ministry. Baldwin is frequently derided by Lionel, suggesting listeners consider Baldwin's sanity if they replace the word "God" in his book with the name "Bob." Despite the comic jabs, Baldwin continues to phone the show at least once a month.

• Time Cube, the discovery of Dr Gene Ray. Lionel interviewed Dr Ray about the Time Cube several times on eYada, and also interviewed him twice on Air America Radio during 2007.

The following were specific to particulars of the WOR show:

• Pete Conlin (Beverly Hills): Pete Conlin was Lionel's usual "producer" at WOR, which is to say, telephone screener. Lionel almost always referred to him as "Pete Conlin (Beverly Hills)". Lionel explains that in an early episode of The Mod Squad the rich kid of the trio was introduced as "Pete Cochran—Beverly Hills". Pete Conlin's name was similar enough to the Mod Squad character's to trigger this memory, so he became "Pete Conlin (Beverly Hills)" (much to Pete's initial bafflement). Occasionally, Lionel references Pete's wife, calling her "Mrs. Beverly Hills."

• For the benefit of our affiliates, if you suddenly hear a Valentine's Day show, you know what that means: Lionel's ongoing troubles dealing with WOR's listener call management software often meant "the phone lines have crashed." Lionel would abandon his WOR program with a "best of" rerun if the phone system could not be repaired within the hour. He regularly asked a producer to find the most dated show possible to run again.

• If You're Lucky: Lionel often ended the second hour of the WOR show by saying "More coming up in the next hour... if you're lucky!" This was to remind New York listeners that they would not hear the third hour of the show. The first two hours of the weekday show were carried live on WOR from 9 pm to 11 pm ET.

The weekday show on WOR originally started at 10 pm ET. WOR moved it to a 9 pm start in November 2006, still carrying only the first two hours on WOR's radio signal (due to conflict with another WOR Show, Health Talk with Dr. Ronald Hoffman).

External links

• Official Site
• Lionel's page and blog at the Air America website (same as the above link)
• The Lionel Show YouTube page
• Aircheck from Lionel's first-ever radio show - From BobLassiterAirchecks.com
• Lionel on CSPAN's Q&A with Brian Lamb"
• "The 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in America"
• "Lionel on the Iraq War May, 2005 on WOR"
• "Lionel in June, 2008"
• Dermott McCallscreener bio"

References

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