Howard Hoffman
Encyclopedia
Howard Hoffman is a voice actor and a radio imaging producer in Los Angeles, CA. He also operates the internet radio
station Great Big Radio. He was previously a host of Top 40 radio shows in New York City
, Chicago
, San Francisco, Providence
, Phoenix
and Houston.
Howard was the creative/production director at KABC Radio from 1994 until 2011 Before that, he was the co-host of the Hot 97
Morning Show, sharing hosting duties with Stephanie Miller
. He also was one of the last music disk jockeys at WABC Radio before they switched to an all-talk format.
. An English Teacher (and faculty adviser of the school radio station WSHS), Hank Gross, was working at WTBQ Radio in Warwick, NY on weekends and brought in Howard to do odd jobs like news gathering, music filing and an occasional newscast. The station hired him fulltime shortly thereafter and he did the 2pm-to-signoff shift. While finishing his final year in high school, Howard also took on the role of music director, and the station made a transition from a "beautiful music" format to a more adult contemporary sound.
After a brief stint in Spring Valley, NY, Howard landed his first Top 40 job doing evenings on WALL in Middletown, NY in 1973. It was here where Howard found his voice, relying heavily on listener phone participation. What set the show apart was the inclusion of local and national pop culture topics as well as humorously touching on the news as part of the show's fabric, along with the hits and oldies. Hoffman said, "...that's where I first started doing stuff like putting callers on the air, clowning around with them, hanging up on them...and they loved it." Howard also included pre-recorded parodies and sketches which was mostly unheard of at the time, especially for nighttime radio. This did not go unnoticed, and in 1974, he was hired at WDRQ in Detroit for his production and on-air skills.
This drew him to WPRO-FM
in Providence, RI which gave him free rein to do an evening show with even more irreverent humor and poking fun at the music he had to play. This sparked some hilarious conversations with listeners who gleefully took on Howard - either in agreement or rage. A highlight of Hoffman's tenure happened on February 5th, 1978 during the Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978
. He and several other WPRO AM and FM staffers were stranded at the radio station for three days. With the FM off the air and its transmitter unreachable, WPRO's AM and FM staff double-teamed on the AM and brought non-stop news and information to the area. Howard calls this his "first true radio moment" - in how the medium can be a galvanizing force in bringing a community together in an emergency.
, vice president in charge of programming for ABC Radio, sought out and hired Howard to take over the evening show at their Houston FM station, KAUM. The station had just switched formats to CHR (contemporary hit radio - the new moniker for "Top 40") and despite his New York upbringing, Howard was a hit at KAUM, bringing the station to within striking distance of the long-established CHR leader, KRBE.
In late 1979, Howard got what everyone in the radio business refers to as "THE call" when WABC, New York, program director Al Brady Law offered him the coveted evening slot as part of a major restructuring of WABC's lineup. As it turned out, it was while Howard was in Providence that Law listened to his show while Law was programming WHDH-AM in Boston. Howard jumped at the chance and became one of the last on-air hires of WABC's MusicRadio era.
To accomodate his phone-intensive act, WABC installed an extra mixing board and a telephone hybrid system - something the station never used previously. Ten minutes into his very first night, he showed his self-deprecating side when he said "hello" to his parents listening in Suffern - then said, "Who am I kidding? They tuned out of this mess five minutes ago."
Howard's high-energy delivery was a shock for many WABC listeners who were accustomed to the station's more "adult" approach. Critics weren't kind to this sudden shift and wondered what WABC was thinking. However, everyone involved was aware that FM was beginning to dominate the radio landscape, and Howard's arrival was designed to be part of a game-changer for the station. Long time afternoon fixture Dan Ingram
was moved to mornings, Ingram sound-alike Bob Cruz was placed in afternoons and Sturgis Griffin was brought in for overnights.
Hoffman's tenure at WABC was marked by two diverse events. First was his now notorious 1979 New Year's Eve show, just two weeks into his job. It was a huge in-studio party with WABC and WPLJ engineers, staffers and announcers while Hoffman counted down the top 100 of the year. That show continued almost two hours into 1980 before he finally reached number one. The second was the night of the killing of John Lennon
, shortly after Howard took the helm of the overnight show. WABC became a mix of all-news and all-Beatles throughout that night with Hoffman anchoring the event.
Despite an improvement in listenership, the handwriting was on the wall for AM's future, and WABC began the switch to talk in 1981 with the addition of the New York Yankees
, which moved Howard to the all-night shift. Howard made an attempt to do an all-night talk show called "The Phonebooth" which was produced and co-written by his friend Tom Leykis
. The show went unnoticed by WABC management, however, and Howard exited the station when he was replaced by WABC's first full-time talk show, Dr. Judith Kuriansky.
's new CHR format as their afternoon drive host. His three years at KMEL had several high points, including an appearance on NBC's Miami Vice, a charity auction of Madonna's "Like A Virgin" wedding dress, a stint as a WWE wrestling manager and an ongoing war with fans of Duran Duran
(which was ended by a surprise in-studio visit by the group).
Following a short morning stint at KKFR in Phoenix, Howard returned to New York to co-host the "Howard and Stephanie" morning show on dance-oriented CHR Hot 97
(WQHT). He and Stephanie Miller occupied that slot for the better part of four years before the station went toward a more hardcore hip-hop format. During this time, he landed in the "Top 40 DJs of All Time" list compiled by Decalcomania.
. It was there where he signed with Look Talent and began pursuing his voiceover career. Leykis then let him know that KABC/KMPC in Los Angeles needed a production director (KMPC carried Leykis' syndicated show at the time). The program director was none other than Al Brady Law who hired Howard at WABC. Law was convinced that Howard would not stand for a behind-the-scenes job for more than three months, but they reached a deal nonetheless in 1994. Howard's tenure at KABC would last 17-1/2 years. Among the awards for creative radio promotions he received were two first place RAP awards in 2008 for two parody spots: "Obama/McCain Season" in which Hoffman did the voices of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck for the 2008 presidential campaign; and "KABC vs TV," a sendup of Apple's "Mac vs PC" spots.
His voice acting credits include all the characters in the Academy Award nominated animated short "The Chicken from Outer Space" - the pilot for Courage the Cowardly Dog
. He also worked on the series Jackie Chan Adventures
and on several projects for Warner Bros.
and Toon Disney
. His commercial credits include REI
, Hostess, Kraft
, the Los Angeles Dodgers
, Ford, Anheuser-Busch
, Audi, Post Cereals
, Wawa Markets, Mattel
and many more.
He signed with the talent agency ICM (now DPN Talent) and continues a successful voice acting career, along with creating radio imaging as a freelancer from his home studio.
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
station Great Big Radio. He was previously a host of Top 40 radio shows in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, San Francisco, Providence
Providence
Providence may refer to:* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island* Divine providence, the idea of divinely ordained events and outcomes- Entertainment :* Providence , a French/Swiss film directed by Alain Resnais...
, Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:* Phoenix , a mythical bird* Phoenix, Arizona, a United States cityPhoenix or The Phoenix may also refer to:- Mythology :* Fenghuang, the Asian phoenix...
and Houston.
Howard was the creative/production director at KABC Radio from 1994 until 2011 Before that, he was the co-host of the Hot 97
Hot 97
Hot 97 could refer to:* KBCQ-FM, a radio station licensed to Roswell, New Mexico* WQHT, a radio station licensed to New York, New York...
Morning Show, sharing hosting duties with Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Catherine Miller is an American comedienne and host of The Stephanie Miller Show, a progressive talk radio program produced in Los Angeles and syndicated nationally by Dial Global. Talkers magazine ranked her as the 24th most important radio talk show host in America for 2010.-Early...
. He also was one of the last music disk jockeys at WABC Radio before they switched to an all-talk format.
Early Career
Howard's first radio job came in 1971 during his senior year in Suffern High SchoolSuffern High School
Suffern High School is located in the Ramapo Central School District in Suffern, New York. Students participate in classes from 7:30 – 14:05 EST. The school's mascot is a Mountain Lion and its newspaper is the Mountain Echo. Its news program is SHS News...
. An English Teacher (and faculty adviser of the school radio station WSHS), Hank Gross, was working at WTBQ Radio in Warwick, NY on weekends and brought in Howard to do odd jobs like news gathering, music filing and an occasional newscast. The station hired him fulltime shortly thereafter and he did the 2pm-to-signoff shift. While finishing his final year in high school, Howard also took on the role of music director, and the station made a transition from a "beautiful music" format to a more adult contemporary sound.
After a brief stint in Spring Valley, NY, Howard landed his first Top 40 job doing evenings on WALL in Middletown, NY in 1973. It was here where Howard found his voice, relying heavily on listener phone participation. What set the show apart was the inclusion of local and national pop culture topics as well as humorously touching on the news as part of the show's fabric, along with the hits and oldies. Hoffman said, "...that's where I first started doing stuff like putting callers on the air, clowning around with them, hanging up on them...and they loved it." Howard also included pre-recorded parodies and sketches which was mostly unheard of at the time, especially for nighttime radio. This did not go unnoticed, and in 1974, he was hired at WDRQ in Detroit for his production and on-air skills.
New York City and Beyond
In 1975, Howard was picked up by WPIX-FM in New York City - originally as a fill-in host before taking the reins as WPIX's permanent evening host on the station's "Disco 102." After initial success, the disco craze eventually fizzled, so Howard set his sights on an area he always loved, New England.This drew him to WPRO-FM
WPRO-FM
WPRO-FM is a radio station in Providence, Rhode Island. The station broadcasts an adult top 40 format. It is the sister station to WPRO...
in Providence, RI which gave him free rein to do an evening show with even more irreverent humor and poking fun at the music he had to play. This sparked some hilarious conversations with listeners who gleefully took on Howard - either in agreement or rage. A highlight of Hoffman's tenure happened on February 5th, 1978 during the Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978
Northeastern United States Blizzard of 1978
The Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978 was a catastrophic and historic nor'easter that brought blizzard conditions to the New England region of the United States and the New York metropolitan area. The "Blizzard of '78" formed on February 5, 1978 and broke up on February 7, 1978...
. He and several other WPRO AM and FM staffers were stranded at the radio station for three days. With the FM off the air and its transmitter unreachable, WPRO's AM and FM staff double-teamed on the AM and brought non-stop news and information to the area. Howard calls this his "first true radio moment" - in how the medium can be a galvanizing force in bringing a community together in an emergency.
WABC
In 1979, Rick SklarRick Sklar
Rick Sklar was an American radio program director, who while at New York City's WABC was one of the originators of the Top 40 radio format....
, vice president in charge of programming for ABC Radio, sought out and hired Howard to take over the evening show at their Houston FM station, KAUM. The station had just switched formats to CHR (contemporary hit radio - the new moniker for "Top 40") and despite his New York upbringing, Howard was a hit at KAUM, bringing the station to within striking distance of the long-established CHR leader, KRBE.
In late 1979, Howard got what everyone in the radio business refers to as "THE call" when WABC, New York, program director Al Brady Law offered him the coveted evening slot as part of a major restructuring of WABC's lineup. As it turned out, it was while Howard was in Providence that Law listened to his show while Law was programming WHDH-AM in Boston. Howard jumped at the chance and became one of the last on-air hires of WABC's MusicRadio era.
To accomodate his phone-intensive act, WABC installed an extra mixing board and a telephone hybrid system - something the station never used previously. Ten minutes into his very first night, he showed his self-deprecating side when he said "hello" to his parents listening in Suffern - then said, "Who am I kidding? They tuned out of this mess five minutes ago."
Howard's high-energy delivery was a shock for many WABC listeners who were accustomed to the station's more "adult" approach. Critics weren't kind to this sudden shift and wondered what WABC was thinking. However, everyone involved was aware that FM was beginning to dominate the radio landscape, and Howard's arrival was designed to be part of a game-changer for the station. Long time afternoon fixture Dan Ingram
Dan Ingram
Daniel Trombley "Dan" Ingram is an American Top 40 radio disc jockey with a forty-year career on radio stations such as WABC and WCBS-FM in New York...
was moved to mornings, Ingram sound-alike Bob Cruz was placed in afternoons and Sturgis Griffin was brought in for overnights.
Hoffman's tenure at WABC was marked by two diverse events. First was his now notorious 1979 New Year's Eve show, just two weeks into his job. It was a huge in-studio party with WABC and WPLJ engineers, staffers and announcers while Hoffman counted down the top 100 of the year. That show continued almost two hours into 1980 before he finally reached number one. The second was the night of the killing of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, shortly after Howard took the helm of the overnight show. WABC became a mix of all-news and all-Beatles throughout that night with Hoffman anchoring the event.
Despite an improvement in listenership, the handwriting was on the wall for AM's future, and WABC began the switch to talk in 1981 with the addition of the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
, which moved Howard to the all-night shift. Howard made an attempt to do an all-night talk show called "The Phonebooth" which was produced and co-written by his friend Tom Leykis
Tom Leykis
Thomas Joseph Leykis is an American radio personality. He currently hosts The Tasting Room with Tom Leykis, a weekly lifestyle program dealing with fine food and drink, airing weekends mainly in West Coast markets...
. The show went unnoticed by WABC management, however, and Howard exited the station when he was replaced by WABC's first full-time talk show, Dr. Judith Kuriansky.
The 80's
Howard left New York to host his first morning show at KOPA in Phoenix, then moved to San Francisco in 1984 to help launch KMELKMEL
KMEL is an Urban Contemporary-formatted radio station located in San Francisco, California, and owned by Clear Channel Communications....
's new CHR format as their afternoon drive host. His three years at KMEL had several high points, including an appearance on NBC's Miami Vice, a charity auction of Madonna's "Like A Virgin" wedding dress, a stint as a WWE wrestling manager and an ongoing war with fans of Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
(which was ended by a surprise in-studio visit by the group).
Following a short morning stint at KKFR in Phoenix, Howard returned to New York to co-host the "Howard and Stephanie" morning show on dance-oriented CHR Hot 97
Hot 97
Hot 97 could refer to:* KBCQ-FM, a radio station licensed to Roswell, New Mexico* WQHT, a radio station licensed to New York, New York...
(WQHT). He and Stephanie Miller occupied that slot for the better part of four years before the station went toward a more hardcore hip-hop format. During this time, he landed in the "Top 40 DJs of All Time" list compiled by Decalcomania.
Voiceover and Production Careers
Howard went back to San Francisco to sell the property he bought during his KMEL era and did a short stint at KFRCKFRC
KFRC may refer to:* KFRC-FM, a radio station carrying a simulcast of KCBS and licensed to San Francisco, California, United States* KZDG, a radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, which used the call sign KFRC from January 2009 to August 2011* KFRC , a radio station ...
. It was there where he signed with Look Talent and began pursuing his voiceover career. Leykis then let him know that KABC/KMPC in Los Angeles needed a production director (KMPC carried Leykis' syndicated show at the time). The program director was none other than Al Brady Law who hired Howard at WABC. Law was convinced that Howard would not stand for a behind-the-scenes job for more than three months, but they reached a deal nonetheless in 1994. Howard's tenure at KABC would last 17-1/2 years. Among the awards for creative radio promotions he received were two first place RAP awards in 2008 for two parody spots: "Obama/McCain Season" in which Hoffman did the voices of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck for the 2008 presidential campaign; and "KABC vs TV," a sendup of Apple's "Mac vs PC" spots.
His voice acting credits include all the characters in the Academy Award nominated animated short "The Chicken from Outer Space" - the pilot for Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. Its central plot revolves around a somewhat anthropomorphic dog named Courage who lives with his owners, Muriel and Eustace Bagge, an elderly, married farming couple in the "Middle of...
. He also worked on the series Jackie Chan Adventures
Jackie Chan Adventures
Jackie Chan Adventures is an animated television series chronicling the adventures of a fictionalized version of action film star Jackie Chan. Many of the episodes contain references to Chan's actual works. This series ran on Kids' WB! from September 9, 2000 to July 7, 2005 for a total of 95...
and on several projects for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and Toon Disney
Toon Disney
Toon Disney was an American cable television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company. A spinoff of Disney Channel, it mostly aired children's animated series and some live action programming. Its format had similarities to those of Cartoon Network and Nicktoons...
. His commercial credits include REI
Rei
-People:*Rei, the Biblical term for those who retained their allegiance to King David when Adonijah rebelled, as mentioned in 1 Kings 1:8*Rei Hiroe*Rei Igarashi*Rei Kawakubo*Rei Kikukawa*Rei Mikamoto*Rei Munakata*Rei Okamoto*Rei Omishi...
, Hostess, Kraft
Kraft
Kraft has more than one meaning:* Kraft Foods, the world's third largest food and beverage company by revenue* Kraft process, a paper pulp production method* Kraft paper, paper produced by the Kraft process* Kraft , a video game character...
, the Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
, Ford, Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...
, Audi, Post Cereals
Post Cereals
Post Foods, LLC, also known as Post Cereals is a food company that was founded by C.W. Post in 1895 with the first Postum, a "cereal beverage," developed by Post in Battle Creek, Michigan. The first cereal, Grape-Nuts, was developed in 1897. Post has its headquarters in the Bank of America Plaza...
, Wawa Markets, Mattel
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
and many more.
He signed with the talent agency ICM (now DPN Talent) and continues a successful voice acting career, along with creating radio imaging as a freelancer from his home studio.