John Batchelor | |
|---|---|
 Batchelor in February 2018 | |
| Born | (1948-04-29)April 29, 1948 (age 76) |
| Education | Princeton University (AB) University of Edinburgh Union Theological Seminary (MDiv) |
| Occupation(s) | Author radio host |
| Notable work | Batchelor and Alexander The John Batchelor Show |
| Spouse | Bonnie Rosborough |
John Calvin Batchelor (born April 29, 1948) is an American author and the host ofEye on the World on theCBS Audio Network. His flagship station isWOR in New York City.[1] The show is a hard-news-analysis radio program on current events, world history, global politics and natural sciences.
For five years, from early 2001 to September 2006, based atWABC radio in New York, his radio programThe John Batchelor Show wassyndicated nationally on theABC Radio Network. On October 7, 2007, Batchelor returned to radio on WABC, and later to other largemarket stations on a weekly basis. As of November 30, 2009, Batchelor was once again hosting a nightly show on WABC, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.Eastern Time and heard in many major markets across the country through what eventually became theWestwood One network.
The program for a time was heard seven nights a week, using prerecorded material on weekends. Later, it aired Monday through Friday on WABC and many Westwood Onenetwork affiliates. Batchelor describes the show as a "news magazine" since he does not take phone calls from listeners but does a series of interviews with guests and reporters. The show's run on Westwood One ended in March 2021 as part of a reorganization at WABC, after which Batchelor almost immediately began his current show with CBS.
Batchelor was born inBryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to anAssyrian mother fromIran and a Midwestern American father.[2] He was raised primarily in the Lower Merion Township ofMontgomery County inPennsylvania's 13th congressional district. His mother and father both served in theUnited States Army duringWorld War II; his father also served in theKorean War. Batchelor is the eldest of five brothers. He is a 1970 graduate ofPrinceton University. He briefly studied at theUniversity of Edinburgh and is also a graduate ofUnion Theological Seminary in New York.[3]
John Batchelor co-hostedBatchelor and Alexander with writer Paul Alexander on WABC in New York for over two years. They focused on international issues with special attention to Middle East-basedterrorism. Batchelor described their approach: "Our model is theBBC World Service, with music and live interviews, but without English accents." Alexander quipped: "We're notNPR, where they do setups to things on tape. Well, we could be NPR on drugs."[3]
Three days before theSeptember 11 attacks, they presented a four-hour WABC show on theUSSCole bombing, interviewing several guests.[4]
Alexander left the show in December 2003 to pursue work as a playwright[5] and biographer.
The John Batchelor Show began its national syndication in April 2003. The program airs 20 hours a week on roughly 200 stations. Its focus is geopolitics, economics, war, history, hard sciences, literature, private space, whimsy, etc. Historically, it carried nightly (Mon-Fri) the "Loftus Report" featuring the intelligence commentatorJohn Loftus on current, war-related,open-source intelligence.Aaron Klein, at the time Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily, was also a regular and served as a co-host. Other regular contributors includedMalcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of theConference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations;[6] the New York attorney and taste-maker Ed Hayes;Larry Kudlow of CNBC'sKudlow & Company;Bill Whelan of theHoover Institution; John Fund, Bret Stephens, Dan Henninger, Rob Pollock and Kim Strassel of theWall Street Journal; Jim McTague ofBarron's Magazine;Chuck Todd, then ofThe Hotline, now NBC Political Director;Fiona Harvey and Martin Wolf of theFinancial Times; Jodi Schneider of theCongressional Quarterly;Matt Bai andA. O. Scott of theNew York Times;Katrina vanden Heuvel andStephen F. Cohen ofThe Nation; Victor Davis Hanson, Henry Miller, and Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institution; Adrian Wooldridge, Robert Guest, and John Parker ofthe Economist;Monica Crowley; David Grinspoon,[7] resident expert on the planet Mars and outer space, and Robert Zimmerman, award-winningNASA observer. The program daily featured reports from journalists who filed with the world's most respected press outlets, and the show was reliably a few days ahead of the news cycle.
When John Batchelor occasionally took a break for several evenings, the show was often hosted byJed Babbin, editor ofHuman Events in Washington, D.C.; sometimes by the former BBC journalist John Terrett, who now works forAl Jazeera; and byLarry Kudlow of CNBC'sKudlow & Company and WABC'sLarry Kudlow Show. In 2012, Simon Constable of Dow Jones; Chris Riback, author and researcher, and Francis Rose ofFederal News Radio in Washington, D.C., became primary fill-ins.
Batchelor's show featured multiple guests, and shows were preceded by and interspersed with news clips and music. The show focused on myriad topics, including politics, thewar on terror,nuclear proliferation, the UN, African civil wars,American history,space exploration and even Hollywood scandals. TheJerusalem Post has an audio archive ofBatchelor and Alexander segments from 2002 and 2003 that deal with Israel and the Middle East.[8]
To report on breaking news, Batchelor and his executive producer have travelled domestically to hotspots, and to Azerbaijan, Qatar, Israel, Jordan,Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, France, Poland and Taiwan. They landed in Taipei to broadcast for the week leading up to the 2004 elections when, on the last day of electioneering, both the president and the vice-president were shot and wounded by an unknown assailant.
In 2006, Batchelor announced that his ABC show would be canceled, beginning with the show scheduled for Monday, September 4.[9]
Batchelor returned onWABC as the host of a weekly version of the previous show on October 7, 2007, from 7–10 pm Eastern Time. He then hosted a second show as a guest host onKFI in Los Angeles, filling the vacancy caused by the departure ofMatt Drudge, in the next three hours from 7–10 p.m. Pacific time. His first program featured an interview withNick Grace ofClandestineRadio.com that broke the name ofal Qaeda's extranet, Obelisk, and the news that the extranet's security tightened following a press leak in September 2007.[10]
In 2009, Batchelor expanded his show to Saturday and Sunday nights, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., on most of his affiliates. The Saturday show focused more on authors of history books, while the Sunday show focused on breaking news and a wider range of topics.
On November 24, 2009, WABC announced that the Batchelor show would be also airing weeknights from 9 pm to 1 am, effective November 30.[11]
Batchelor was a frequent guest on theGene Countryman Show, KNSS, Wichita, Kansas, Sundays at 8 pm Eastern. Batchelor on Tuesdays formerly featured an hour withLarry Kudlow on finance (until Kudlow became an advisor to President Trump), and then an hour with professor Stephen Cohen on Russia. Professor Cohen elected to take a break for a while and the Tuesday guest as of early 2020 is Gregory R. Copley, publisher of Defense and Foreign Affairs. On Wednesdays: an hour-plus withGordon Chang on China and East Asia, and one or two segments on private exploration of space with Dr. David Livingston; on Thursdays: an hour withMary Kissel on domestic U.S. politics, foreign policy, and matters Australian (until Kissel became a senior advisor to Secretary of StateMike Pompeo), then an hour and a half withMalcolm Hoenlein on the Middle East.
On March 5, 2021, Batchelor hosted his last episode ofThe John Batchelor Show on WABC and Westwood One, as WABC shuffled its format[12] and the show ended its affiliation with Westwood One in favor of syndication by CBS News.[13] Batchelor continued to produce show segments during March, styled as "The New John Batchelor Show". He noted during the segments that the show is "represented by CBS Audio Network." In April 2021, the show returned to stations across the country. The material is streamed onAudioBoom, linked from Batchelor's website;[14] specific segments are announced on Twitter as they are available. In May 2021, Batchelor began identifying the show asCBS Eye on the World. On Monday, November 1, 2021, the program debuted onWOR in New York, airing from 9 p.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday.[15]
Writing asJohn Calvin Batchelor
Writing asTommy "Tip" Paine
Regular segments include "Hotel California" (introduced by an instrumental version of theEagles song), which was a discussion of California's former fiscal discombobulation and its political environment, including the gubernatorial and Senatorial races.Devin Nunes generally is included in the roundtable; also, Hotel Mars, episoden.
Robert Zimmerman of behindtheblack frequently comes on to talk aboutNASA and thespace program, preceded by the music from theStar Trek end credits. The show's last segment (c.12:55 am EST) invariably featuresAl Bowlly's "Midnight, the Stars and You", ending in a brief (<30sec) valediction/good-night, sometimes with a few moments with a guest (time for one question). The singer is sometimes mistaken forAl Jolson, as Batchelor introduces the singer simply with "here's Al," and the song dates from the time of Bowlly's late career. From 2001 to 2006, Batchelor ended his show withKate Smith singing "God Bless America."
John Avlon, Jeff Bliss,Gordon Chang,Simon Constable,Taegan Goddard,Malcolm Hoenlein,Mary Kissel,Larry Kudlow, Francis Rose, and Chris Riback have frequentlyguest-hosted or co-hosted.
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