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Howie Carr

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Howard Lawrence "Howie" Carr (born 1952) is an American broadcaster and award winning journalist, and a successful afternoon drive talk radio host in the greater Boston area and New England.

Carr is a native of Portland, Maine, a graduate of Deerfield Academy and of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He now lives in Wellesley, with his second wife and their five daughters.

Aside from broadcasting, he is an award-winning front-page columnist for the Boston Herald. Known for his scathing exposes of local politicians, he has raised lots of eyebrows and voices over the years. The day after President Clinton testified, C-SPAN broadcast Carr's entire show.

As well as being heard on WRKO AM 680, he is syndicated across the country and streamed on-line through his Web site. He has interviewed numerous politicians, authors, and celebrities. He has worked as a reporter and commentator for Boston television stations WGBH and WLVI. In 1980–81, Carr was the Boston City Hall bureau chief of the Boston Herald American, and he later worked as the paper's State House bureau chief. As a political reporter for WNEV (now WHDH), his coverage of then mayor Kevin White was so relentless that after the mayor announced he wasn't running again, he told the Boston Globe that one of the things he enjoyed most about his impending retirement was not having Carr chase him around the city.

In 1985, he won the National Magazine Award, the magazine industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, for Essays and Criticism. In television, he has been nominated for an Emmy Award. Carr starred as himself in the 1998 John Travolta film A Civil Action.

For years Carr has had an ongoing feud with former fellow Herald columnist Mike Barnicle, calling him a "hack" and saying he wanted to be the Herald's "nonfiction columnist" (concerning plagiarism allegations that forced Barnicle's resignation from the Globe). Barnicle called Carr "a pathetic figure" and asked "Can you imagine being as consumed with envy and jealousy toward me for as long as it has consumed him?" The Globe article also stated that Carr gave out Barnicle's home phone number, an allegation that Carr in a note which briefly appeared on his web page.

In 2002, the Herald reported Superior Court Judge Ernest Murphy said of a fourteen-year old rape victim: "Tell her to get over it." In the ensuing controversy, a February 20 column by Carr about the incident. Murphy testified that after reading Carr's column, he said "I wanted to kill Howie Carr." Murphy won a $2.09 million libel suit against the Herald and the reporter who covered the story.

The Howie Carr Show

For about the last twenty years, Carr has had a radio talk show on WRKO (AM 680), broadcasted out of Boston, Massachusetts. He took over the show from Jerry Williams, which Carr made weekly appearance. The show's producer is Nancy "Sandy" Shack who was Williams's producer, she went by Nancy on the Williams show. Doug "Virgin Boy" Goudy was Carr's former producer who left to work for the "Fox 25 Morning News."

Syndication

In September 1996 the show experimented with local syndication, sending the show out via ISDN connections to a handful of stations around New England. The local experiment was such a success thatin January 1998 ABC Radio Today started syndicating the show nationally. The show did not sustain a large nationwide following and syndication was handed over to SupeRadio. In 2005, Carr's show was syndicated to New England-only stations by Entercom, the corporate owner of WRKO.

"ChumpLine"

Listeners can call Carr's "ChumpLine" and leave an amusing message which might be played in the third hour of the show (5 pm) each day. Carr often remarks how others have copied his format, alluding to the The Whiner Line on WRKO's sister station, WEEI.

Other features

The show also features other contests in which free prizes, usually inexpensive ones, are given out to the winner. In the "Celebrity Death Pool" callers choose which celebrity they believe will die next. In the "Wizard of Uhz," Carr plays a clip, usually lasting 30 seconds or so, of the senior Senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy. Listeners have to guess how many "uhs" the Kennedy says.

James "Whitey" Bulger

Carr likes to follow the career of mobster James "Whitey" Bulger; he even has a section of his website called "Whitey Watch". His book The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century, which documents the crimes and actions of Bulger and his politically active brother Billy Bulger and their impact on Massachusetts, is due to be released on February 23 2006 by Warner Books.

"Hacks"

Although Carr equates Massachusetts low-digit license plates with political "hacks," he holds a low-digit plate as a winner of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles 2004 Low Number Plate Lottery .

Nicknames

  • Carr is known by the following nicknames:
    • "Captain" - Coined by a homeless man when Howie would go out and interview "bums." It is used affectionately by the listeners and Carr.
    • "El Cheapo" - Given to him for his propensity for being cheap.
    • "Eight-hundred Large" - Used by listeners to claim Howie makes that amount and is a "beautiful person."
    • "Paper Boy" - Given to him in honor of his job as a journalist.
    • "Baby-faced Assassin" - Given to him in his younger years.
    • "Fat Bastard" - Used by listeners ever since Fen-Phen appetite suppressants were banned and the host subsequently resumed shopping at the husky clothing section in Sears."
  • Doug "Virgin Boy" Goudy, Carr's former producer, received his nickname due to the fact he lived at home with his mother, did not have a driver's license; Carr surmised he was a virgin.
  • Boston Mayor Thomas M. "Mumbles Menino" received his nickname on the show for his poor diction. Carr often play clips of the mayor poking fun at him.
  • Senator John "Liveshot" Kerry received his nickname, coined by Carr, for his propensity for seeking out a news camera.
  • Senator Edward M. "Fat Boy" Kennedy received his nickname on the show due to his weight. Callers to the show often counter by poking fun at Carr's body mass.

External links

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