Westwood One has signed Doug Urbanski, theatre impresario, film producer, raconteur and guest host for Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Dennis Miller, Laura Ingraham, Fred Thompson, Michael Savage and others, to host a live, three-hour daily talker Monday-Friday beginning in January. Westwood One founder and Chairman Emeritus Norm Pattiz tells RBR-TVBR why they approached him for the show (dubbed simply “Urbanski”) and a bit about what listeners can expect (listen to the audio clip, below).
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Norm Pattiz on Doug Urbanski: |
Urbanski will air from Westwood One’s studio in LA. Wearing many hats, he has gained wide acclaim in talk radio and entertainment where he’s won awards for his theatrical productions on Broadway and London’s West End, took home a British Academy Award for Best Picture, has produced Academy Award nominated films, and as a talent manager, represented major artists associated with three of the biggest franchise pictures in history: the Harry Potter series, the Batman series, and the Crocodile Dundee series. The Washington Post singled him out for his “dead-on impression” of President Obama’s former Director of the White House National Economic Council, Larry Summers, in the country’s hottest movie, The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher.
Currently, Urbanski is in London serving as Executive Producer of the film version of John LeCarre’s cold war spy thriller, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth, to be released in 2011.
Commenting from London, Urbanski said, “I am fortunate to have known everyone, been everyplace and done everything. My entire life people have said I should be on radio. These past five years speaking to millions of people for Rush, Savage, O’Reilly, Ingraham and others, combined with my own brand of humor, my love of telling ‘the story’, and my conviction that I am actually one thousand pundits rolled into one, it seemed to make sense to give me my own microphone.”
“Doug is already known as AGH, ‘America’s Guest Host,’ so we knew it was time he had his own show,” said Bart Tessler, SVP News and Talk for Westwood One. “He combines politics, entertainment and humor like nobody else in talk radio.”
