This morning was a bittersweet one for fans of News/Talk 750 WSB Atlanta talk radio host Neal Boortz, who just signed off on the last show of his 43 year career. The last twenty plus of those years were spent with WSB; The Neal Boortz Show was carried by some 230 radio stations nationwide.
Boortz, known by such monikers as “The Talkmaster,” "The Mouth of the South," “Mighty Whitey,” and “High Priest of the Church of the Painful Truth,” has been hailing his retirement. He declares this main purpose being that he wants to give the current administration no more of his hard earned money than he absolutely has to.
In 2009, Boortz was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.
Fortunately Boortz isn’t leaving radio entirely. He’ll still be filling in for his friend and successor Herman Cain, who ran for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. It’s an amusing role reversal, as for years Cain was the only substitute Boortz would allow to fill in for him.
Over the years Boortz has drawn both adoration and ire for his plain spoken disdain for big government and left wing irrationality. A long time libertarian, Boortz has held the view that Texas Governor Rick Perry espoused when running for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination: that government should be as inconsequential as possible in people’s lives.
A signature of Boortz’s philosophy is his grouping society into three different categories: producers, moochers and looters. Boortz explains how the producers are the workers who create, innovate and keep this capitalist system that he loves going for the progress and betterment of all. The moochers he describes as parasites that vote [Democrat] for a living and would rather leech off the producers than make their own way. He links the two by the looters, unscrupulous opportunists using the police power of government essentially to bribe the moochers with the producers’ money, via taxation, in exchange for the moocher vote.
A personal favorite exchange dealt with Boortz taking a call from a liberal trying to justify the barbarism of Somali pirates, stating that they commit such acts of terror because they’re poor and hungry. After lampooning the pathos of this description, Boortz essentially asked the caller, “When was the last time these pirates boarded a boat and asked for a grilled cheese sandwich?”
His last show Boortz gave arguably the most significant shout out to his listeners, who have engaged and enraged him over the years. He mused how of six million listeners per week, it’s only something like one and a half percent that call in.
This particular Examiner has had the pleasure of being a caller on Boortz’s show three times; those exchanges were a lot of fun. Admittedly there’s an unfair advantage in play. His beloved daughter and only child’s name is Laura; so it’s likely that name gets preferential treatment when calling the show.
In addition to his radio and previous career as a lawyer, Boortz is also a bestselling author whose works include “The Fair Tax Book,” co-written with former Georgia Congressman John Linder; “Somebody’s Gotta Say It” and most recently “Maybe I Should Just Shut Up and Go Away!”
Boortz’s extensive citizenship quiz, here, is a worthwhile study for anyone seeking true in depth knowledge of this constitutional republic he loves so much for its freedom and opportunity. Toward the end of his talk radio career Boortz frequently lamented the significant decline of both at the hands of big government and its ambassadors, believing America’s best days are behind her.
Boortz calls himself truly blessed as an anomaly in talk radio, a host who gets to leave on his own terms.
Notable guests in this final show include WSB personalities Scott Slade, Sean Hannity, Jamie Dupree, Cain, as well as Linder, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and a remarkable caller named Tiffany, whose original call to Boortz can be heard here. It’s worth a listen.
Signature parting advice Boortz gave for parents is to “get your kids out of government school.” Boortz is highly critical of the public school system, which he refers to as government school. He holds that the purpose of government school is not to educate the kids, but to indoctrinate them into being good little government subjects, not too smart, who don’t ask too many questions. A virulent critic of the current president, Boortz made it a rule that on his last show that name will not be allowed. Boortz would only call him “The Destroyer.” Keeping in that theme, the president won’t be named here either.
Boortz gave a touching tribute to his staff Belinda Skelton and Cristina Gonzalez. He reflected how the show tragically lost its board operator turned engineer Royal Marshall to a heart attack two years ago this month. Boortz regretted how he had never told Marshall that he loved him, so he took that opportunity to tell that to Skelton and Gonzalez.
The long anticipated last call was from – spoiler alert – the woman he calls “The Queen,” his beloved wife of four decades, Donna. She declared herself, without irony, to be a “long time listener, first time caller.” Boortz came through on his previous promise that he wouldn’t be able to take this call without choking up with tears. In his retirement the Boortz’s plan to travel, see the landscape in their Mooney or luxury RV otherwise known as the Boortz Bus.
Adios my friend, or AMF. You and your acerbic yet pithy take on this world will be missed.
As an aside, this article’s title is a reference to the former motto of the “Atlanta Journal” before it merged into the “Atlanta Journal-Constitution.” “Covers Dixie like the Dew” is personal opinion only, the best newspaper motto ever. It had to be eliminated because “Dixie” is not politically correct. That is one of the beauties of Neal Boortz; he has no use for political correctness.
