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Phil Hendrie

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Phil Hendrie

Philip Stephen Hendrie (born September 1, 1952, Arcadia, California) was the host of The Phil Hendrie Show, a comedy talk radio program that was syndicated throughout North America on Premiere Radio Networks and on XM Satellite Radio. While The Phil Hendrie Show became renowned for its unique and controversial guests, those guests were not real people at all—they were fictional characters created and voiced by Hendrie himself.

Hendrie has performed voices on the animated FOX sitcoms King of the Hill and Futurama, and in Team America: World Police. In Spring of 2006, he had a supporting role in the live-action NBC sitcom Teachers.

Hendrie was married in 1997 to radio talk show host Maria Sanchez. Their wedding was held at the Queen Mary and was broadcast live on KFI. Hendrie moved from Minneapolis and then to Miami where he further developed his show. The show then moved to KFI in Los Angeles and has since been nationally syndicated to approximately 100 radio stations. In February 2005, Hendrie was moved from his flagship station, KFI, to XTRA Sports 570 AM, a sports talk radio station also centered in Los Angeles.

In early 2006, it was announced that he would be ending The Phil Hendrie Show, feeling he'd reached the limits of what he could do in "terrestrial talk radio". Barring an appropriate offer from either of the two satellite radio companies, Hendrie expects to shift his career focus to acting. His last radio broadcast was June 23, 2006. [1] On December 4, 2006, in a radio interview, he mentioned that he may soon be returning to radio, but the show will not include his character skits.

Views and Blog

While The Phil Hendrie Show focused on his style of comedy and satire, Hendrie has never shied away from talking about his influence from the Jerky Boys, specifically John L. Brennan.[citation needed]

Hendrie considers his views unique for modern talk radio: on one hand, he is a registered Democrat who vocally supported Bill Clinton, voted for Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000 and both Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Hendrie is also adamantly pro-choice and pro-gay marriage. At the same time, he is extremely supportive of the Iraq War as well as the War on Terror. He voted for and supported President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, chiding Democrat John Kerry as trying to be "all things to all people" and cautioning listeners that Bush would in time be viewed as one of the greatest American presidents. These views caused a stir among some of his fans and tended to dominate his show throughout 2002 and 2003. Hendrie eventually started a blog, titled and located at www.georgewbushisgod.com (seemingly to incite those who felt he was moving too far to the right). The blog came down after a few weeks, partly because Phil was tired of squabbling with readers.

Hendrie has since renounced using his radio program for political ranting, saying that he didn't want to be "another white man all mad and ready with the answers" in a 2006 live chat with fans.

vs. Tom Leykis

Phil Hendrie and fellow radio talk show host Tom Leykis have had a longstanding feud. Leykis has accused Hendrie of setting-up and paying callers, while Hendrie regularly mimics Leykis and brutally skewers his program. After Hendrie changed stations from top-rated KFI to KLAC, Leykis was quoted as saying "Why don't you imitate this one, Phil? 'You're fired!'" [2]. Hendrie's send-up of Leykis, a character named 'Combover Boy,' has in turn become a recurring character, who gives absurd romantic advice and nonsensical opinions on current events - frequently alluding to incestuous desires, homicidal tendencies, and closeted homosexuality.

New Direction

Phil Hendrie recently announced his retirement from radio in order to pursue an acting career. His last show aired on June 23, 2006, although his former flagship, KLAC in Los Angeles, continued to air reruns of Hendrie's programming in its original timeslot until November 2006. In addition, as of January 2007, News/Talk 610 CKTB (AM), in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, continues to air specially selected Hendrie bits from 6 PM to 10 PM EST on Saturday nights - a program known as 'Phil Hendrie On Demand'.

Hendrie played a starring role in NBC's short-lived midseason replacement sitcom, Teachers, in the spring of 2006.

Phil also guest starred in two episodes of The Unit that originally aired October 10th and October 31st, 2006. He played the part of a radio talk show host on a military base.

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