5 celebrities who got their start in radio

Well, it turns out that video didn’t kill the radio star after all. As much as the beloved television still enchants with chimera for the eye, some of us are still choosing to close our eyes and listen, too.

Somehow, even though this is a generation that has always had radio, its climbing popularity feels counterintuitive; we exist in an age in which new technology is ferociously competing, and consistently evolving, to allow individuals to be as potent in their personal listening habits. Below are well-known personalities who started their livelihood with radio.

Talat Hussain



When he formally entered the industry in 1964 for a radio drama called Mohammad Bin Qasim, Hussain’s mother, who wanted him to join the civil services did all that she could to stop him. “She called up the producer of the show and asked him to make sure I fail the auditions. But the producer said that he would not do that and told my mother that if she wanted to stop me she had to prevent me from coming to the auditions. But somehow, I made it,” Hussain told The Express Tribune. Spending almost four decades in the entertainment industry, Hussain did not make it to the top easily. The work at Radio Pakistan was not enough to make ends meet, so Hussain got a job at Lyric cinema. “I started working as a gatekeeper for Lyric cinema and when the owner realised I could speak English I was promoted to the booking office. You can call that my first promotion,” he said with a hearty laugh.

Dick Clark



Most famously known for his popular television show, American Bandstand, Dick Clark began his career in radio. As a teenager, he got a job in the mailroom of a radio station in New York. He was soon promoted to weatherman and news announcer (probably because his uncle owned the station). After high school he went to Syracuse where he landed a part-time job as a disc jockey at a student run radio station; he also began working at the television station at Syracuse University. In the 1950s, he began hosting American Bandstand. Then, in the 70s he produced and hosted Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve that broadcasts on December 31 of each year. The late Dick Clark died in April 2012 but his legacy continues to live on, and so does Dick Clark productions, his production company.

Howard Stern



Recognise this guy? I’m positive you do! Howard Stern is most famous for his radio show The Howard Stern Show which was and still is extremely controversial. Starting his radio career at Boston University, Massachusetts, his debut show was immediately cancelled after a racially charged skit made the school administration very upset. Stern’s attitude and explicit show helped launch his career in other areas including acting in movies and creating his own franchise. While he may be a little eccentric, you cannot deny that he will forever be remembered in the history of radio broadcasting.

Oprah Winfrey



As a teenager growing up in Nashville, Oprah began working at the corner grocery store next to her father’s barber shop... and she hated every minute of it. “I wasn’t allowed to talk to the customers, can you imagine?” she says, according to Oprah.com. “That was very, very, very hard.” Then, at 16, she landed a job that paid her to talk. A Nashville radio station, WVOL, hired Oprah to read the news, which she says she loved. Oprah says she’ll never forget her first job. She worked as a radio newsperson during her senior year of high school, and first two years of college. This gig helped Oprah get her big break. In 1973, Oprah was a 19-year-old sophomore in college when she got a call that changed her life. “I remember leaving class to go take a phone call from Channel 5’s Chris Clark,” she says.

Ryan Seacrest



Last, but definitely not least, is the famous Georgia boy we know and love as Ryan Seacrest. The prominent TV personality began his radio career at the age of 16 as an intern at WSTR/Star 94 in Atlanta. He then went on to host two popular kids’ games shows and in 2002 he began co-hosting American Idol. In 2004, he went back to radio and became the new host of the well known American Top 40; a weekly countdown radio show of the top 40 songs in America. Mr. Seacrest has carried on Dick Clark’s legacy with Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve. He also co-hosts E! American Idol, his own radio shows, and now owns a multi-million dollar production company. Talk about beauty and brains.

Compiled By Umnia Shahid

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2014.

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