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KGO Talk Host Brian Copeland Genuinely on the Way to National Fame
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After my Karel columns this week, Brian Copeland dropped me a note saying that he, not Karel, was the youngest guy at KGO-AM (by a couple of years).
OK. I'll give him that, even if he won't tell me his exact age. (Karel is 46).
Copie, who does a Sunday morning show from 9 to 11 a.m., is well on his way to bigger fame, although he still loves radio and would consider a fulltime job at the station, if one were offered.
His play, "Not a Genuine Black Man," details his family's move to the largely white suburb of San Leandro in 1972, when it was named the most racist city in America. He was stopped by police for walking to a baseball field with a bat; he was turned away by barbers who said 'we don't cut that kind of hair;" and was a suspect when he was shopping at the mall.
Later, he had a different kind of wake-up call when a radio listener wrote him a letter claiming that he didn't like his show because "you are not a genuine black man..."
It's a poignant, ironic, sadly funny look at race relations in a place that likes to herald itself as the heart of the liberal world.
He is doing the one-man show Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Hollywood and Thursdays through Sundays at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek.
For more info on tickets check here.
But bigger news: his book of the show is a hit on Amazon and he's talking to producers about a series. Rob Reiner is introducing his live show next week in Hollywood.
And the book is a 2009 pick for Silicon Valley Reads, and will be read and discussed by people throughout the Valley from January to March. During that time he will do 30 speaking engagements. (Bri, like you have time for a daily radio show?) It's also being read in high schools and colleges across America.
I once called him the black Howard Stern. Forget it. He may end up bigger. Or at least, more credible.
Funny, because like Stern and the rest of us radio junkies, he got turned onto the medium young. At 12 he was a guest on Al Collins's KGO radio show to talk about comic book collecting. He would appear every few months. Then, when he was 14, Collins had a coughing fit and left the studio for 15 minutes. That was when Copeland hosted and took calls for the first time.
"Of all my professional associations, KGO is the one I'm most proud of," he says. "My plans were to be a lawyer, not a comic, actor and broadcaster."
But-- case closed-- he got bitten by the bug....and is succeeding in a big way.
If you have any questions for Copie, put them here in the comments section. He's a regular reader.
