Richard Bey
Richard Bey (born July 22, 1951) of Turkish descent, was popular in the 1990s as host of The Richard Bey Show, a daytime talk show that was arguably "groundbreaking" in its use of ordinary people's personal stories incorporated into entertaining competitive games, a premise commonly used in today's talk and reality shows. Prior to The Richard Bey Show, he hosted 'People Are Talking' (telecast in New York City and Philadelphia) and 'Two on the Town' for WCBS-TV. He grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens and is an alumnus of the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Yale School of Drama.
The Richard Bey Show, which began in 1990 and was produced from WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey, featured such competitive events as the 'Miss Big Butt' contest, 'The Mr. Puniverse Contest', 'Dysfunctional Family Feud' and 'Blacks who think OJ is guilty vs Whites who think he is innocent'. Bey's show made frequent use of sound effects like 'uh-Duh' for an inane response, 'I've been framed' for a guest proclaiming innocence and 'You're busted!' for one accused of wrongdoing. Bey would often exclaim "Where do they find these people?!" in the presence of unbelievable guests or audience members. During some shows, there would be a secret word, and if an audience member used it in a comment, he would receive $100. A joking suggestion was then made on how to spend it: "Lobster dinner tonight!" The show was a precursor to reality television, featuring a variety of games incorporating guests' stories, most notoriously "The Wheel of Torture", in which a guest would be strapped to a spinning wheel while a spouse or lover poured slime on them as punishment for a misdeed.
Richard would frequently make fun of Jerry Springer on his show, such as when he lost his contact lenses and was forced to wear eyeglasses, remarking, "Don't worry, you're not watching Jerry Springer" and showing Jerry in his "Bad Neighbors" segment, a reference to Springer's show airing on several American networks either before or after The Richard Bey Show in the 1990s. He would also make light of Ricki Lake and Oprah Winfrey's shows.
Richard Bey believes his TV show was canceled in December 1996 (despite the high ratings it maintained) as a direct result of doing a program with Gennifer Flowers, discussing her sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton [1].
After the TV show was canceled, Bey was an afternoon radio co-host along with Steve Malzberg on "The Buzz", which aired on New York's WABC until 2003.[2]
According to the New York Post, he was one of only two talk hosts at the time on commercial New York radio to openly oppose the Iraq War, accurately contesting the WMD evidence. He has since hosted on Sirius Satellite Radio, The Bill Press Show, and for the syndicated Wall Street Journal: This Morning.
Bey hosted for a week on WFNY 92.3 FM from February 5 to February 9, 2007 from 10:00 PM to midnight. He regularly fills in for Lynn Samuels and Alex Bennett on the Sirius Satellite Radio channel Talk Left when they go on vacation or take a day off.
In August 2007, Bey began hosting a new show on WWRL in New York City from 8-10 PM.[3] In November 2007, he was teamed up with Mark Riley and moved to the morning drive, replacing the team of Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams.[4]
In January 2008, Mark Riley left WWRL to return to WLIB, and Richard was teamed up with long time broadcaster Coz Carson.