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Bill Handel

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William Wolf Handel (born 25 August 1951 in Brazil) is a lawyer and AM radio personality in California. He hosts a morning program on KFI in Los Angeles, California during weekdays in which he comments on current events. The program is the top rated morning program in the Los Angeles market. ^[1] On weekends, Handel dispenses legal advice on Handel on the Law, syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks.^[2] As of the Fall 2006 Arbitron, Handel on the Law has over 1.25 million listeners weekly.^[3] It is also played across the United States live on America's Talk channel 158 on XM Radio, and replayed later the same day.

1 Biography
2 Radio work
3 Controversy
4 References

Biography

Bill Handel was born in Brazil, the son of Leo and Nahama Handel. Leo Handel was a Polish Jew who had hidden in a Jesuit monastery and lived as a priest during World War II. Much of the Handel family lost their lives in the Holocaust. Leo applied to enter the US, but was forced to wait for eleven years, during which time he lived in Brazil where he met and married his wife, Nahama, a dentist. Bill emigrated to the US with his family when he was six and was sworn in as a US citizen at the age of eleven. Handel is an attorney by trade, a graduate of Cal State Northridge and obtained his J.D. from Whittier Law School. ^[4] Handel is married to Marjorie, and has twin daughters named Pamela and Barbara. ^[5] At one point extremely overweight, he underwent bariatric surgery at Centinela Freeman Hospital to lose weight. Handel's experiences with this surgical procedure have been thoroughly documented in a series of segments on his morning radio show.^[6] Handel has also openly discussed his previous drug addiction.^[7] In addition to his work in radio, Handel is the director of the Center for Surrogate Parenting^[8] , a company specializing in in vitro fertilization, egg donation, and surrogate parenting. Before beginning his talk radio career, he provided legal counsel for some of the ground breaking cases establishing the bounds of the field, including the writing of the second surrogate parenting contract ever written, and helping establish many of the legal precedents of surrogate parenting. ^[9] He also briefly hosted a television show, Judge For Yourself, which was canceled due to low ratings and the lack of time in Handel's schedule. Judge For Yourself was unique in that it solicited comments from a 900 number, whose results would be broadcast on the next day's show. ^[10]

Radio work

The format of The Bill Handel Show is heavily news based. The first hour is primarily a general banter of topics Handel finds interesting, such as events in Handel's or the sidekicks' lives. The second hour is a more comprehensive look at the news entitled Handel on the News. Handel on the News is a summary of the news delivered with Handel's commentary while music appropriate to the subject being discussed plays in the background. In the third and fourth hour, Handel often has guests to discuss topics in the news. Otherwise, Handel will cover a single news story or item of interest for a half hour, summarizing various other perspectives and offering his own opinion. Handel on the News: Late Edition airs at 8:30 a.m. and is a condensed version of the morning Handel on the News, including stories not covered in the 6:00 a.m. version. Legal stories and stories of hoaxes often pique Handel's interest. Often, skits parodying events in the news are played during the show. All voices are done by Handel and his sidekicks: board op Paul T. Wall, newsman Gary Hoffmann, produce Michelle Kube, and sports anchor Rich Marotta. ^[11] On Handel on the Law, he gives terse "marginal legal advice" designed to point callers in the right direction. He often makes fun of callers for getting themselves into their legal predicament, stating bluntly "you have absolutely no case." Still, the show is informative in that it deals with many common legal problems such as landlord-tenant, child custody, and divorce in an easy-to-understand way. ^[11] Handel was born in Brazil to survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, a topic he occasionally brings up along with his referencing himself as a "Latino Jew". On his show, one memorable excursion involved taking white supremacist John Metzger to Auschwitz to view the concentration camps and the gas chamber where his grandfather was executed. The German government originally thought that KFI was a neo-Nazi radio station but finally relented after being presented with more information. In addition to his strong pro-Israel views, Handel generally expresses a center-right viewpoint, with support for civil liberties and scientific research and opposition to wasteful government spending. ^[11] On September 23, 2005, Bill Handel was named Major Market Personality of the Year at the 2005 NAB Marconi Radio Awards for his KFI show. During his acceptance speech, Handel said, “I haven’t been this affected since my circumcision. Seriously, I’m proud and honored to be singled out for this incredible award.” ^[12] On March 10, 2007 he was honored with Major Market Personality of the Year for a second time by Radio and Records. ^[13] On September 11, 2001, Bill Handel was on air live when the attacks took place. Most Clear Channel music stations switched over to a live feed of Handel's show as events unfolded. Rush Limbaugh's show normally follows The Bill Handel Show on KFI. Not only was Limbaugh on a plane heading to a golf tournament that day, but telecommunications systems were devastated in New York, where his show emanates. Because KFI is the West Coast flagship of the Limbaugh's EIB Network, Bill Handel continued to broadcast for another 3 hours, taking the place of the Rush Limbaugh show on most stations in the country (as well as the taped broadcast for Armed Forces Radio overseas).^[14] This led Mr. Handel to guest host on two more occasions on the Rush Limbaugh show, and showed that he was capable of hosting a nationally syndicated show. This also resulted in the syndication of Handel On The Law from a local show to a nationally syndicated show. In October 2007, KFI introduced "vodcasting," where the 6:00 am Handel on the News hour and the 8:30 am Handel on the News--Late Edition are combined without commercials and with added news clips and video of the Morning Team. This vodcast is not live, but is generally available after 10:00 am on the day of broadcast. The intent is humorous. For example, in mid-October, when Handel was not in studio, his voice was accompanied by an image of President George Bush sitting in the Oval Office, with Handel's head obviously grafted onto Bush's body. Handel's mouth was made to move as in low cost 1960's era animation. Specific reference was made to Clutch Cargo, which had been discussed earlier that week.

Controversy

In 1996, Asian-American leaders called for Handel's resignation after making comments about Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan. Handel was quoted as saying; "And when I look at a box of Wheaties, all right? I don't want to see eyes that are like all slanted and Oriental and almond shaped. I want American eyes looking at me."^[15] Handel apologized, claiming that he was mocking bigotry. In March 2004, Handel made jokes about Muslims not bathing, hating Jews, and practicing bestiality; KFI was forced to apologize. ^[16] On January 12, 2006, Handel joked that pilgrims should hire traffic reporters to reduce the possibility of deadly incidents during the Hajj. The Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded an apology. Handel offered to apologize if CAIR denounced terrorism, agreed that Israel is a sovereign country, and that it does not have ties with terrorists. Later, Handel dropped those demands and apologized directly to CAIR. ^[17] Handel had long joked that he should have a voice mail system for groups that called demanding an apology, with prompts such as "Press 1 if you are African-American. Press 2 if you are Muslim." Shortly after the Hajj incident, they implemented a similar in concept theme when producer Michelle Kube began to close each show with blanket and specific apologies to those who might have been offended during the broadcast. The apology is intended to be funny and to remove any special significance to any one person or group receiving an apology from Handel, and while it always uses at least the standard statement "any and all...groups that might possibly have been offended during the broadcast of this show," it includes references to specific groups, persons and individuals like "Radio Disney and God," "middle schools that give birth control to minors," and "Wisconsin prostitutes," when they were discussed during the day's show. Handel on the News, KFI OnDemand, October 18, 2007 On December 15, 2006, KFI suspended Handel for one week after a profanity-laden on-air shouting match with Jamie White on KYSR. White allegedly told one of Handel's daughters to "get out" of the studio. He later apologized, claiming he lost his temper. tape of the exchange In response to the Nobel Peace Prize nomination of Stanley Tookie Williams, Handel lobbied for and later claimed receipt of a Peace Prize nomination ^[18]. Handel has claimed that in the early days of his radio career, he once had a manager tell him to "go fly a kike."