by Joseph Sheeley, FOP
I listened to the Phil Valentine Show from the time he started broadcasting at WTN in Nashville in 2004. When he started he replaced the G. Gordon Liddy show in midday. Later he transitioned to the afternoon drive time.
The Phil Valentine Show featured Phil Valentine (aka Uncle Phil) and his long-time producer, Johnny B. (Nee, John Bozeman). The show was primarily devoted to politics, but also featured comedy, imitations and paradies. There was also the sound engineer, the “Round Mound of Sound” and others Valentine referred to as his “vast staff.” The Round Mound was later replaced by Luther, but whether Luther ever existed and how many were actually in the vast staff was unknown.
Unlike other hosts who would talk over or cut off those who disagreed with him, Valentine would listen attentively then question and provide counter arguments. In general the only time Valentine became upset and raised his voice is when someone accused him of being racist, which he would vehemently deny. Some of the callers would raise their’s during a call, but Valentine would generally let them talk unless they became too belligerent. Several former liberals called during the show to let him know he had changed their minds and converted them over to conservatism with his logical approach. He referred to this as “healing a liberal” and created a theme song for such conversions.
Valentine had several “Philisms” that he would say during the show, including “Extry good,” “Tell them Phil Valentine said, ‘hey,'” “dirt people,” and “They might feel, uncomfortable. ” “Uncomfortable” in that last case would be said in unison with Johnny B.
A regular feature on the show was Dancing in the Booth, where Johnny B. would choose someone to be dancing while they played a song. This would happen several times on Fridays. The tradition started because an intern for the show started dancing during the bumper music for the show. Most people dancing in the booth were being mocked, but it could be a sign of honor.
One popular recurring bit on the show was Snowflake. Snowflake was a Vanderbilt student, played by and interviewed by Valentine, who was hiding in his dorm room because he couldn’t face the election of Donald Trump as President. The bit continued into Joe Biden’s Presidency and changed over time.
Another character on the show played by Valentine was the Asian dictator where Valentine would speak in a stereotypical Asian accent and call people “Yankee dog.” Valentine explained that the caricature wasn’t meant to represent all Asians, but just the Dictators like Chaiman Mau and Kim Jong-Il. He would also perform with an Antonio Banderas accent when talking about Alexandria Occasio-Cortez as a central American Socialist Dictator ala Venezuela. These bits also featured Spanish guitar music.
Global Warming or climate change was a frequent topic for the show. Valentine was a skeptic and frequently referred to the topic as “bovine skatology.” Valentine wrote, produced, and starred in a movie An Inconsistent Truth as a rebuttal to Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth. This movie featured Valentine’s car, Bennie the biodiesel for which Valentine was making his own fuel. Valentine frequently stated on the film that nothing Al Gore predicted in his movie such as the decline in polar bears or the complete loss of Artic ice happened. He also stated that he had interviews with climate scientists in his movie, where Al Gore had none. In the movie he attributed Gore’s push for climate change regulation to the large stake in carbon trading exchanges and green energy companies in which Valentine alleged Gore was an investor.
Valentine did several interviews during the show. Some of the most entertaining occurred during the Bush/Gore election where Hollywood stars were calling the show, trying to save Al Gore from losing his home state of Tennessee. Ron Reiner ended up hanging up on Valentine after being challenged on his views. Cher did complete the call. Valentine was cordial with both callers. He also interviewed Richard Dreyfuss at a DNC convention. During the Trump/Biden election Valentine claimed to know and have direct communications with Donald Trump Jr. and had him on for an interview one time.
Phil Valentine did a number of musical parodies. Some of his most popular were his Jessie Jackson “I Wanna Shake You Down,” Louis Farakan “Imagine” (there’s no white people), and “Elliot Spitzer.”
Valentine would sometimes create fake groups or singers. Around 2008 he created the group Chadwick Station, a British pop band that did beach music. Just before his death he created Roland Rivers, a country singer. Valentine created songs for the groups, websites, and even Twitter accounts. Before the Roland Rivers ” Time to Start Drinking” tour, Valentine did a set of fake interviews on the show with a gruff Rivers.
To see more of his work, visit philvalentine.com.
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