Jack W. Gravely is a radio broadcaster with more than 15 years of experience — and a history of outspokenness. Gravely headed the Virginia NAACP from 1976-84 and was the first director of diversity for the Federal Communications Commission. His latest talk show airs from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays on WLEE-AM.
We talked in the Lite 98 studios.
Q: How do you pick a topic for the Jack Gravely Show, because you’re there every day?
A: I pick more than one topic. My sources would be newspapers, magazines, people I talk to, the Internet, and live radio and television programs. … I read anywhere between five to seven newspapers a day.
Q: How much of your job is that of a teacher?
A: I think all of it, basically, is that of a teacher to some degree. Not only are you delivering facts and information to people, but you also, from your point of view — and I have a point of view — try to show the folk how you use this or what it’s all about. The times that you really teach is when people call in with a very controversial issue like women shouldn’t do this, or blacks shouldn’t do that, or white males are in control of this and that or the other. And that’s when you really dig deep with your history, your background, and you say to folk, “No, that’s not true,” or “That is true” or “Let me tell you why it is true” or “Let me tell you how I think about it.”
Q: I had somebody tell me recently that talk show hosts nowadays don’t educate, they just validate. If you listen to Rush Limbaugh, you’re getting the facts according to him or his take on it — OR Keith olbermann on the other end of the spectrum, you’re getting his facts. How much of your show is validating people’s views and how much is challenging them?
A: Having majored in history in college and having a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, I am a stickler for facts and information that can be verified. Facts — whether they agree with my point of view or not. President Barack Obama had a great line the other day when he told a story about late Senator [Daniel Patrick] Moynihanfrom New York City, [who] told a person who disagreed with him, “You are entitled to your point of view, but you are not entitled to your facts.” And I firmly believe that. Facts are very important to me. Facts are about truth and about being honest with people, and I’ll tell ’em in a heartbeat I don’t know something or I have to go look it up and I have to come back to you with it. But I think facts are very, very
important, even in talk radio, where we know part of talk radio is entertainment.
Q: Yeah, it’s entertaining definitely.
A: Just simply because a person has a different political slant, different political view from me, I can handle that ’cause I know what I believe and I know what I know. And so I feel comfortable with that, and it energizes me to be able to do verbal, intellectual combat, or gymnastics — not combat, gymnastics [LAUGHTER] — with someone on the show that has a different view from me. And I think that’s what’s really lacking in right-wing talk radio.
Q: I’m gonna give you some names now, and I want a description in three or four words from Jack Gravely’s point of view.
A: ’kay.
Q: GOVERNOR Bob McDonnell.
A: Cool, driven, freedom.
Q: former governor and FORMER RICHMOND mayor Doug Wilder.
A: Smart, smart, politically savvy and will pay you back.
Q: [LAUGHTER] Not combative, but maybe that’s the payback.
A: Yeah, yeah.
Q: Sarah Palin.
A: A little bit more than a pretty face. She’s gonna be around for a while. Get ready to get used to it — she’s gonna be around.
Q: Barack Obama.
A: Not as good as he’s goin’ to be. Needs to be just a little tougher with his friends and tougher with his enemies.
Q: FiNALLY, as you might say on the Jack Gravely Show, I want you to look into the future and predict the future for Richmond, Virginia.
A: I would like to think that Richmond is going be a growing city over the next five or 10 years. Downtown is going to continue to develop. One of the things I think you’re going to see changing in Richmond in the next five or 10 years, because it’s already changing, you’re gonna see a proliferation of young blacks going into business in Richmond. It’s already happening on a small scale — radio studios, recording studios, print companies, high-tech companies or consulting firms, PR firms, all like that. Richmond is quietly becoming a mecca city for young, educated, aggressive business and politically minded young African-Americans, and I’m talking about those 35 and 30-and-under. It really is happening.
