The host of The Sam Greenfield Show, Sam Greenfield, has won Radio’s Comic Wonder Award as America’s Funniest Radio Personality with honors bestowed at the National Broadcasters Convention recently held in Austin, Texas. Sam broadcasts his morning talk show out of Oakland, NJ on WVNJ 1160 AM.
Comedy is no laughing matter. Universities and hospitals around the nation and the world are researching what common sense tells the rest of us, but it’s nice to see science confirm that laughter is good for your physical and mental health in significant ways. In an effort to advance the health of our readers, we interviewed the radio world’s new king of comedy with the intent of inspiring a few chuckles, lower some blood pressure, reduce stress hormones, increase antibodies, and possibly improve brain function. Those who want to learn a little more on the health benefits of laughter can check out this accompanying article, Laughing for Health.
Known for his wit and insight on a variety of topics, The Journal spoke with Mr. Greenfield from Texas on how it felt to win this award and inquired of his take on a variety of issues facing the country and the tri-state region. Leading with the most obvious question, we asked Sam Greenfield how winning this award qualifies him to be president of the United States. He stated firstly that humor is an important part of leadership; he also explained, “The last eight years have been a bad joke and the people are deserving of a good joke.” Displaying what appeared to be genuine modesty, he went on to say that the present field of candidates shows that anyone can be nominated. A final plug for his potential candidacy included a popular understanding of foreign policy,”I can also see the Russian Embassy from my apartment, so that helps.”
The financial crisis wreaking havoc across America has created great turmoil in the tri-state region. Mr. Greenfield was questioned as to whether the federal government should intervene so as to insure that the New York Yankees get into the playoffs. He did not respond directly to the question, but did offer that, “An act of God wouldn’t get the Yankees in the playoffs.” The varied investigations into the building of the new Yankee Stadium did elicit some thoughts from the cogitating commentator, “State financing of a baseball stadium is a joke on the public. You have to be a Rockefeller just to afford the tickets.”
The radio commentator has traveled and worked in towns and cities around the nation. His familiarity with the various regions of the country have provided him with broad exposure to situations shared by many Americans; Mr. Greenfield spoke in the interview to the concerns of America’s high school and college students. Specifically, he was asked to name two occupations, besides stand-up comedian and politician, which young Americans can be assured will never be outsourced to another country. “Spelling bee champion and grounds keeper at Shea Stadium.” He went on to clarify that, “Only an American knows the true value of freshly planted grass.”
Known to be critical of both political parties, Mr. Greenfield does display a liberal leaning. The Journal asked him to confront some harsh realities facing the Democratic nominee, specifically the long delayed acknowledgment that the military surge in Iraq, supported by the Republican nominee, was actually working. Mr. Greenfield was questioned as to whether John McCain’s stance on this issue proved that McCain was presumably right on all the issues. Refuting the argument, Mr. Greenfield stated definitively, “McCain is not infallible”. He expanded on the subject of infallibility by saying, “If you think you’re always right, you’re insane.” His contention is that people who are never wrong are fostering a mindset of us against them which is bad for the country.
It can be safely said that Mr. Greenfield lives by his words, and is readily prepared to flip-flop on his responses when necessary. Questioned about an article in the Huffington Post where he and his wife are described as, “ultra orthodox Jews, who funneled money and arms to extreme right wing militant groups in Israel”, the radio host readily denied the couple were ultra orthodox. When confronted with the fact that the quote was taken from his own article, of which he was the author, he corrected himself and admitted it was all true. The article Both Sides Now is still available online.
The subject of Sarah Palin’s qualifications was also a subject of discussion during the interview. Although Mr. Greenfield is confident that his scenic view of the Russian Embassy in NYC has provided him with valuable international experience, he did not agree that being able to see Russia itself was the same. He was also dismissive of the similarity between Palin’s name and the name of Russia’s Prime Minister, Putin. The question as to whether this obvious alliteration, Palin and Putin, could help improve Russian/American relations was met with a scoff. “Putin would fly here on his own dime to negotiate with Palin. It would end with them speaking Russian up in Alaska and that Bridge to Nowhere would be leading to Russia.”
America’s recently crowned Radio’s Comic Wonder has had a knack for comedy since childhood. In an age before iPods and cell phones, he conducted a one man show entertaining a train full of fellow fourth graders with impressions of every teacher on a ride between NYC and Washington, DC. He thinks kids that find an interest in something should be encouraged, and offered specific encouragement to Reporter Ryan Robinson of The Oakland Journal. As some of our readers may know, Ryan operates his own radio show, and Sam Greenfield volunteered that Willard Scott was known to have started his own broadcasting career in the same fashion as Ryan.
Sam’s career has allowed him to meet some fascinating and diverse people. When asked to name the three most memorable interviews, he delivered an eclectic selection. The actor Karl Malden, famous for movies such as Patton, Street Car Named Desire, and the TV show Streets of San Francisco, was first on the list. Second was Ted Sorenson who was Special Counsel & speech writer for President Kennedy who described Sorenson as his “intellectual blood bank.” The third most memorable interview was with Dick Smothers of The Smothers Brothers. Showing an obvious affection for a fellow comedian, Sam recounted the story of Dick Smothers trying to teach Lenny Bruce how to water ski. “First off, take the cigarette out of your mouth. You can’t smoke when you water ski.”
The award for Radio’s Comic Wonder was organized by ComicWonder and The National Broadcasters Association. The significant prize proffered at the ceremony in Austin was a brown bag originally worn by, and autographed by, The Unknown Comic. Sam was sincerely appreciative of the work Kelly & Jeff Fitzsimmons achieve through ComicWonder, and sees their endeavors as being very exciting for broadcasting and radio. His show is on Monday through Friday, 7am to 9am, on 1160 AM “The Voice“. He also is planning to devote more attention to his personal blog at SamGreenfield.Net
Sam has enjoyed a successful career in television dating back to NBC’s “America’s Talking.” He co-hosted “Pork,” an hour-long daily television show discussing government waste. He also appeared on the Fox News Channel’s weekend entertainment show “The Insiders” and has made dozens of appearances on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. From there, he became a host on News/Talk 1050 AM WEVD and “Drivetime Dialogue” on 1600 AM WWRL before manning the mornings on WVNJ in New Jersey.