Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and radio network TheBlaze. He hosts the Glenn Beck Radio Program, a talk-radio show nationally syndicated on Premiere Radio Networks. Beck also hosts the Glenn Beck television program, which ran from January 2006 to October 2008 on HLN, from January 2009 to June 2011 on Fox News and now airs on TheBlaze. Beck has authored six New York Times–bestselling books.
In April 2011, Beck announced that he would "transition off of his daily program" on Fox News, but would continue to team with Fox. His last daily show on Fox was June 30, 2011. In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter placed Beck on its Digital Power Fifty list. Beck launched TheBlaze in 2011 after leaving Fox News. He hosts an hour-long afternoon program, The Glenn Beck Program, on weekdays, and a three-hour morning radio show; both are broadcast on TheBlaze. Beck is also the producer of TheBlaze's For the Record.
Beck has received both praise and criticism, characterized by his supporters as a defender of traditional American values and by his detractors as a demagogue. During Barack Obama's presidency, Beck promoted conspiracy theories about Obama, his administration, George Soros, and others.
Early life and education
Beck was born in Everett, Washington, the son of Mary Clara (née Janssen) and William Beck, who lived in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, at the time of their son's birth. The family later moved to Mount Vernon, Washington, He is descended from German immigrants who came to the United States in the 19th century. Beck was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Mount Vernon.
Beck and his sister moved with their mother to Sumner, Washington, attending a Jesuit school in Puyallup. In 1979, when Beck was 15, his mother drowned in Puget Sound while fishing with a man in Commencement Bay west of Tacoma.
After their mother's death, Beck moved to his father's home in Bellingham, where Beck graduated from Sehome High School in 1982. Beck also regularly vacationed with his maternal grandparents, Ed and Clara Janssen, in Iowa. In the aftermath of his mother's death and his stepbrother's subsequent suicide, Beck has said he used "Dr. Jack Daniel's" to cope. At 18, after graduating from high school, he moved to Provo, Utah, and worked at radio station KAYK. Feeling he "didn't fit in", Beck left Utah after six months, taking a job at Washington, D.C.'s WPGC in February 1983. The couple divorced in 1994 amid Beck's struggles with substance abuse. He is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, and has said he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
By 1994, Beck was suicidal, and imagined shooting himself to the music of Kurt Cobain.<!--verified 2012-11-27--> Beck later said that he had gotten high every day for the previous 15 years, since the age of 16.
thumb|Israeli citizens holding banner at the Jerusalem Restoring Courage rally, in which Beck was the main speaker
Beck then began a "spiritual quest" in which he "sought out answers in churches and bookstores".
In 1999, Beck married his second wife, Tania. Beck was baptized by Pat Gray.
In July 2010, Beck announced that he had been diagnosed with macular dystrophy, saying, "A couple of weeks ago I went to the doctor because of my eyes. I can't focus my eyes. He did all kinds of tests and he said, 'you have macular dystrophy ... you could go blind in the next year. Or, you might not. The disorder can make it difficult to read, drive or recognize faces.
In July 2011, Beck leased a house in the Fort Worth suburb of Westlake, Texas. The Blaze has been based in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, since 2011.
On November 10, 2014, Beck announced on TheBlaze that he had been suffering from a severe neurological disorder for at least the last five years. He described many strong and debilitating symptoms that made it difficult for him to work, and also announced that he had "a string of health issues that quite honestly made me look crazy, and quite honestly, I have felt crazy because of them". Beck said that a chiropractor who specializes in "chiropractic neurology", Frederick Carrick, had "diagnosed [him] with several health issues, including an autoimmune disorder, which he didn't name, and adrenal fatigue." Over 10 months he had received a series of treatments and felt better. On January 13, 2022, Beck announced that his second case of COVID-19 was "getting into my lungs".
Career
In 2002, Beck created the media platform Mercury Radio Arts as the umbrella over his broadcast, publishing, Internet, and live show interests. Beck founded Mercury Radio Arts in 2002, naming it after the Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, which produced live radio broadcasts during the 1930s. The company produces all of Beck's productions, including his eponymous radio show, books, live stage shows, and his official website.
Radio
In 1983, Beck moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, to work at radio station KZFM. Beck had a reputation as a "young up-and-comer". The show was not political and included the genre's usual off-color antics: juvenile jokes, pranks, and impersonations.
Months later, Beck was hired by Phoenix Top-40 station KOY-FM, then known as Y-95. Beck was partnered with Arizona native Tim Hattrick to co-host a local "morning zoo" program. When Gray left the show to move to Salt Lake City, Beck continued with co-host Vinnie Penn. At the end of 1998, Beck was informed that his contract would not be renewed at the end of 1999. In January 2002, Premiere Radio Networks launched the show nationwide on 47 stations. The show then moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting from new flagship station WPHT. On November 5, 2007, The New York Times reported that Premiere Radio Networks was extending Beck's contract. By May 2008, it had reached over 280 terrestrial stations as well as XM Satellite. It was ranked fourth in the nation with over 6.5 million listeners. , Beck was tied for fourth in the ratings, behind Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Dave Ramsey.
Television
In January 2006, CNN's Headline News announced that Beck would host a nightly news-commentary show in its new prime-time block Headline Prime. The show, simply called Glenn Beck, aired weeknights. CNN Headline News called the show "an unconventional look at the news of the day featuring his often amusing perspective". At the end of his tenure at CNN-HLN, Beck had the second-largest audience, behind Nancy Grace. In 2008, he won the Marconi Radio Award for Network Syndicated Personality of the Year. After moving to Fox, Beck hosted Glenn Beck, beginning in January 2009, as well as a weekend version. One of his first guests was Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. He also had a regular segment on Fridays, "At Your Beck and Call", on the Fox News Channel program The O'Reilly Factor. , Beck's program drew more viewers than all three competing time-slot shows combined on CNN, MSNBC and HLN.
Beck's show's high ratings did not come without controversy. His last day at Fox was later announced as June 30. FNC and Beck announced that he would team with Fox to produce a slate of projects for Fox News and its digital properties. Beck hosted his last daily show on Fox on June 30, 2011, when he recounted the accomplishments of the show and said, "This show has become a movement. It's not a TV show, and that's why it doesn't belong on television anymore. It belongs in your homes. It belongs in your neighborhoods." and a new two-hour show began his television network, which started as a subscription-based internet TV network, TheBlaze TV, originally called GBTV, on September 12, 2011. Using a subscription model, it was estimated that Beck was on track to generate $27 million in his first year of operation. This was later upgraded to $40 million by The Wall Street Journal when subscriptions topped 300,000.
Books
Mercury Ink has a co-publishing deal with Simon & Schuster and was founded by Glenn Beck in 2011 as the publishing imprint of Mercury Radio Arts. Started in 2011, Mercury Ink publishes adult and young adult novels and non-fiction titles. Authors signed to Mercury Ink include Beck and New York Times best seller Richard Paul Evans.
Beck has reached No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller List in four separate categories : Hardcover Non-Fiction, Paperback Non-Fiction, and Children's Picture Books.
Beck has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss's book Tools of Titans.