Alan Colmes was an American radio and television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger.
Let’s see some intriguing facts about him!
1. Alan Samuel Colmes was born September 24, 1950, in New York City.
2. He was Jewish and his grandparents were Ukrainian immigrants.
3. He attended local public schools and went to Hofstra University, where he graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree from its School of Communications.
4. While at Hofstra, he worked at its radio station WRHU.
5. Colmes began his career in stand-up comedy.
6. He developed his radio career in the Northeast, eventually working at stations such as WABC, WNBC, WHN, WMCA and WEVD in New York, WNHC in New Haven, and WEZE and WZLX in Boston.
7. His radio career took off when WABC hired him for the morning drive time slot.
8. He was billed as “W. Alan B. Colmes,” as in the station’s call sign. He moved to WNBC in 1987, but his tenure there would be short when NBC announced in 1988 it would close its radio division.
9. When WNBC went off the air for the last time on October 7, 1988, Colmes’ was the last voice heard. He has been syndicated nationally, starting with his involvement with Daynet, a venture created by Colmes and other regional radio hosts. Daynet was sold to Major Networks, Inc. in 1994. Colmes kept his own show, which is distributed by Fox News Radio.
10. He was hired by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes in 1996.
11. He was the co-host of Hannity & Colmes, beginning with the Fox News Channel launch on October 6, 1996, and ending on January 9, 2009. He also appeared live on Shovio.com’s new broadcasting technology, TalkBackTV.
12. Colmes’ debut non-fiction book, Red, White & Liberal: How Left is Right and Right is Wrong, was published in October 2003. It tackles issues such as civil rights, the war on terror, and the perceived liberal media bias. Interspersed throughout are actual emails from Hannity & Colmes viewers, reprinted verbatim.
13. Colmes left Hannity & Colmes at the end of 2008. Fox replaced it with Hannity, premiering in January 2009.
14. Colmes continued as a commentator on Fox News, most often on The O’Reilly Factor where he frequently appeared with his conservative sister-in-law, Monica Crowley. He was also an occasional guest-panelist on Fox News’ late-night satire program Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.
15. Post–Hannity & Colmes, Colmes was a frequent panelist on the news analysis program Fox News Watch alongside Cal Thomas, Judith Miller, and other pundits.
16. Colmes was married to Dr. Jocelyn Elise Crowley, a professor of public policy at Rutgers University, whose sister is Monica Crowley, the conservative radio commentator, pundit and television personality.
17. Colmes died on February 23, 2017 at the age of 66 after suffering a “brief illness,” which Stuart Varney disclosed to be cancer.
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