After providing his listeners with financial advice for more than 20 years, syndicated radio host Clark Howard is retiring. Howard, 65, discussed his career, his future, and his thoughts on Milwaukee during a two-hour WTMJ Conversations with Scott Warras.
Transcription provided by eCourt Reporters, Inc.
SCOTT WARRAS: Clark Howard, let’s not bury the lead, you announced a couple of weeks ago now that you’re stepping aside. First question I gotta ask is: Why are you doing this to us? Why are you leaving our radio, Clark Howard?
CLARK HOWARD: I guess because I’m old. I’m about to — I’ll be 66 soon, and I’ve been a third of a century on radio. I’ve actually been in syndication 23 years. So, the first 10, I was local radio; the next 23, syndicated radio, and it’s been a fantastic experience. And every time I’m on the microphone, I love being on the microphone. But I’ve got so many things going on, I’ve got the television product I do that’s on a bunch on TV stations around the country — unfortunately nobody picks up my TV in Milwaukee — and I’ve got a newspaper column that I have out there and we have the two websites that are booming, and I’ve got a podcast. And my family would actually like to know what I look like instead of looking at a picture of me to know what I look like.
SCOTT WARRAS: You mention your family, obviously, they’re a big, you know, a big factor in any decision, career life decision like this. How hard of a decision was this? And you mentioned you’re still very active and you’ve all these other successful ventures, but because, you know, radio was one of the first things you were involved in, did that make it any more difficult behind the scenes?
CLARK HOWARD: Yeah, because nothing is as much fun as radio.
SCOTT WARRAS: Agree.
CLARK HOWARD: You know, you think about what — the privilege we get to have in talk radio that we are, with this time, to share — you know, a lot of the talk radio is political talk, but in my case, where I get to reach out and connect with people and empower people with knowledge that hopefully will help them take more control of their own lives, I mean, who gets to do that? It is a privilege and a responsibility that is phenomenal, and I feel like one of the luckiest people on earth that I’ve been able to do this all these years.
SCOTT WARRAS: And the team around you as well, and we hear some of their voices every night here on WTMJ when the show airs from 9:00 to midnight, the people around you, it comes across like a real family atmosphere in the studio as well. They’ve been loyal to you, and I imagine by now they — they are like family.
CLARK HOWARD: Oh, really, I mean, we — we really are such a team. And the person who’s been with me the longest has been with me all 33 years. I have several people who have been with me more than 20. And in our off-air advice center, the Team Clark Consumer Action Center, we have a bunch of people who’ve been with me 20-plus years. And get this: They’re volunteers, and they’ve been with us more than 20 years. So, we have, you know, with a common purpose and a common joy about what we do, we have a team spirit and a family kind of thing that is magic
