Rick Emerson
Rick Emerson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rick Emerson |
| Career | |
| Show | The Rick Emerson Show |
| Station | KCMD-AM 970 Solid State Radio |
| Time slot | Weekdays 11:00am - 3:00pm PST |
| Style | Talk |
| Country | United States |
| Website | RickEmerson.com |
Rick Emerson is a radio personality most famous for The Rick Emerson Show, which was broadcast on a number of radio stations in Portland, Oregon and was nationally syndicated for a period from 1998-2001. The show began a new run on KCMD-AM 970 "Solid State Radio," on March 13th, 2006. Emerson is also program director for AM 970.
Personal History
Rick Emerson was born March 7, 1973 in Kennewick, Washington.
At age 14 he began volunteering at a local radio station. After graduating fourth-to-last in his high school class, he moved to Spokane, Washington, where he eventually landed his first talk-show, broadcasting from a bomb shelter in the basement of the station's building and managed to earn a small, but loyal following. For many years listeners knew him as Rick Taylor, a last name that he picked out of a phone-book at the beginning of his career.
He was promoted to a position broadcasting during the afternoon drive in Salt Lake City where he co-hosted a show with Clyde Lewis. He became Program Director of KCNR in Salt Lake and helped create one of the most popular radio stations in Utah. A change in the station's format in 1997 left Emerson without a microphone.
Emerson moved on to California where he worked in a number of formats and cities and sometimes got through lean times as a convenience store clerk. A Portland Program Director named Bruce Agler saw potential in the young Emerson and offered him a job in Portland, Oregon in 1997. Emerson was soon paired with Tim Riley, a veteran broadcaster who brought a unique style of news coverage to his show. Mixed with a series of producers, the show took off.
Emerson's program and cast has been subject to the fluctuations of the Portland radio market. There have been at least two significant periods where Emerson was off the air. First was the "unpleasantness" that occurred between Emerson's syndicated show and his transition to Hot Talk 1080, KOTK. A second gap occurred after the show was pulled off the air by corporate broadcaster Entercom, which spawned the "coffee cup crusade". The show's listeners, incensed that the last local general-content talk show had been taken off the air, deluged the Portland headquarters of the broadcasting corporation with coffee cups to show their support for Emerson.
CBS radio, reacting in part to the strength of support for Emerson throughout the metro area, decided to give Emerson an opportunity to re-tool Johnson 970, an all-comedy radio station. Broadcasting from "the plushly appointed but not overly ostentatious studios in the bottom of the top of the KOIN tower", Emerson was back on the air with producer Sarah X Dylan and Tim Riley. Within months, the station was retooled as "AM 970, Solid State Radio" and took on a line-up of syndicated broadcasts from around the country, including Tom Leykis and Phil Hendrie, both of whose programs had been previously paired with Emerson on other stations.
In February of 2007, Rick Emerson finally met his hero, Aaron Sorkin at the opening of Sorkin's new play The Farnsworth Invention. Having rehearsed how he would introduce himself to Mr. Sorkin, he carried his meeting off flawlessly by saying "Thank you for your love of language", to which Sorkin replied "What a beautiful thing to say". Rick Emerson celebrated this encounter by crossing out one more person on his MySpace People I'd Like To Meet list.
In 2004, Emerson surprised his audience by announcing that he and his long-time girlfriend had married over the prior weekend.
Bigger Than Jesus
During the 2005 hiatus of The Rick Emerson Show, Emerson turned his attention to a project he had begun during the show's seven year run, a one man play entitled "Bigger Than Jesus: The Diary of a Rock & Roll Fan". The show follows fifteen years of Emerson's rock fandom and "pays tribute to that time in everyone's life when music was all that mattered."
Emerson and creative partner Joni DeRouchie chose to release the previously successful stage show on DVD. The production, written and performed by Emerson and directed by DeRouchie, had been performed twice before, once in a one-night performance at Portland's Clinton Street Theatre, and during a two-week run at Portland's Imago theatre. The DVD performance was filmed before a live audience on June 26th, 2005 at Portland State University's Lincoln Performance Hall, backed by a live band. The DVD was released at a party at the Mount Tabor Theatre on December 3rd, 2005.
Remote Control
Filmed in the time gap between the Clinton Street and Imago runs of "Bigger than Jesus", "Remote Control" was the second collaboration between Emerson and DeRouchie (but the first to be released as a commercial film.) The 25-minute "Remote Control" is a distinct departure from the style of "Bigger than Jesus", and is considerably more disturbing, centering on a serial killer who demands the return of his favorite television show. In early 2006, fan demand prompted a re-release of "Remote Control", and the film was re-issued in a so-called "Ghetto Edition", featuring low-budget artwork and packaging.
The Wonderstrucks
In early 2007, Emerson began making occasional references to a new, upcoming project "from the creative team behind 'Bigger than Jesus.'" Joni DeRouchie's MySpace page made similar statements. The project has been revealed to be a band called The Wonderstrucks. With Emerson as vocalist and songwriter, The Wonderstrucks also features many members of the "Bigger than Jesus" house band. Their debut project is a five-song EP called "An American Education." Emerson is prevented from mentioning the band by name on the air during his show due to contractual limitations with CBS. However, his producer and callers often refer to "this band I heard, the Wonderstrucks" in successful attempts to promote the group on Emerson's show.
Filmography
- Remote Control (2004)
- Bigger Than Jesus: The Diary of a Rock & Roll Fan (2005)
- Rock Roundtable (2005)
External links
- Rick Emerson's Website The Official Site for The Rick Emerson Show, as well as Rick's Blog
- The Official Bigger Than Jesus Website
- Commercial-Free Podcasts of the new version of the Rick Emerson Show
- Episode Minutes
- Hanfordwatch: The hazards of growing up in Kennewick Washington
- Website for AM 970: Solid State Radio
- The Wonderstrucks Website