Mike Webb
Encyclopedia
Mike Webb was an American
radio personality
. Originally a radio news reporter
, he later became a liberal talk show
host and activist
. Webb was murder
ed in 2007.
. He had an early interest in radio. As a teenager, he was a street reporter broadcasting observations of civil rights
, anti-Vietnam war protests
, and youth issues for San Francisco radio stations KMPX, KQED
and KCBS
. KMPX was the nation's first progressive rock
station, started by Top 40 disc jockey Tom Donahue
, and practiced advocacy journalism
.
One of Webb's most notable on-air experiences was reporting the murders of San Francisco City Supervisor
Harvey Milk
and Mayor George Moscone
by ex-City Supervisor Dan White
. Working at KGO
, just blocks away from the City Hall
tragedy, Webb climbed to the station's rooftop, giving live reports of a city in great shock and grief. Later, when a jury found White guilty of voluntary manslaughter
rather than first-degree murder, outraged citizens took over City Hall, bashed in the doors, overturned police car
s and started fires in what came to be known as the White Night Riots
. Reporters from every major television network
joined Webb on the same rooftop reporting all the activity.
Webb went on to other Bay Area radio stations, working as an on-air personality for KIOI
, KFRC
and KSFX
.
, KEZX, and KZOK
. He served intermittent terms as program director of KVI between 1984 & 1991, and KIXI
until 1994.
Webb was best known for his work at KIRO
, where he started in 1996. Webb was also an activist, lobbying for hate crimes legislation and Senator
Ted Kennedy's
Employment Non-Discrimination Act
(ENDA). In the late 1990s, Webb worked for John McMullen
on his Internet radio
project, GayBC Radio Network. On GayBC, Webb hosted a talk show, but also handled live broadcasts of breaking news events such as gay pride
events and the protest activity
surrounding the World Trade Organization's
1999 Ministerial Conference in Seattle
.
Outside of his radio show, Webb produced audio and did voiceover
work on documentaries
, industrial videos, Internet
and commercial work at his studio.
Webb remembered his interviews with attorney Gerry Spence
, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore
, Norman Solomon
, United Nations Weapons Inspector
Scott Ritter
, and Serving in Silence
author Grethe Cammermeyer as among his favorites.
Webb was fired from KIRO in December 2005 after he was charged with making a fraudulent insurance
claim after an automobile accident the previous June, when his Lexus
was struck by an uninsured driver
. He was found guilty in February 2007, fined, and sentenced to perform community service.
ed talk show, with the last show being recorded on April 13, 2007. Subsequently, he was reported missing by his sister, who stated she hadn't talked to him since April 13. Webb's sister told Seattle's KOMO
4 News that she thought he might be in danger.
On June 28, 2007, the Seattle Police Department
reported that a decomposed body had been found at Webb's Queen Anne
home. Discovered by the property manager, the body was located in a crawl space underneath a blue plastic tarp and several storage boxes.
Following identification on June 29, the body was confirmed to be that of Mike Webb. The King County Medical Examiner's Office further determined Webb's death to be a homicide
due to stabbing
("multiple sharp force trauma"). On July 19, 2007, it was announced that Scott White was arrested for the murder. According to Seattle police, White allegedly killed Webb with an axe
as he slept. White was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radio personality
Radio personality
A radio personality is a person with an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality can be someone who introduces and discusses various genres of music, hosts a talk radio show that may take calls from listeners, or someone whose primary responsibility is to give news, weather,...
. Originally a radio news reporter
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, he later became a liberal talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
host and activist
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. Webb was murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed in 2007.
Early life and career in San Francisco
Webb was born and raised in San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. He had an early interest in radio. As a teenager, he was a street reporter broadcasting observations of civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, anti-Vietnam war protests
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
, and youth issues for San Francisco radio stations KMPX, KQED
KQED-FM
KQED-FM is an NPR-member radio station owned by Northern California Public Broadcasting in San Francisco, California.KQED-FM was founded by James Day in 1969 as the radio arm of KQED Television. The founding manager was Bernard Mayes who later went on to be Executive Vice-President of KQED TV and...
and KCBS
KCBS (AM)
KCBS is an all-news radio station in San Francisco, California, that is a key West Coast flagship radio station of the CBS Radio Network and Westwood One. Its transmitter is located in Novato, California. KCBS currently has studios on Battery Street, where it shares the location with co-owned KPIX...
. KMPX was the nation's first progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
station, started by Top 40 disc jockey Tom Donahue
Tom Donahue
Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue , was a pioneering rock and roll radio disc jockey, record producer and concert promoter....
, and practiced advocacy journalism
Advocacy journalism
Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that intentionally and transparently adopts a non-objective viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose. Because it is intended to be factual, it is distinguished from propaganda...
.
One of Webb's most notable on-air experiences was reporting the murders of San Francisco City Supervisor
County board of supervisors
The Board of Supervisors is the body that supervises the operation of county government in all counties in Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Sussex County, New Jersey as well as a handful of counties in New York...
Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
and Mayor George Moscone
George Moscone
George Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as...
by ex-City Supervisor Dan White
Dan White
Daniel James "Dan" White was a San Francisco supervisor who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall...
. Working at KGO
KGO (AM)
KGO is a news/talk-format radio station radio with offices and studios in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other American news/talk stations, KGO originates nearly all of its own programming locally. Since 1978, KGO radio has received Arbitron's number-one ranking in the Bay Area...
, just blocks away from the City Hall
San Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall, re-opened in 1915, in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is the fifth largest in the world...
tragedy, Webb climbed to the station's rooftop, giving live reports of a city in great shock and grief. Later, when a jury found White guilty of voluntary manslaughter
Voluntary Manslaughter
Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being in which the offender had no prior intent to kill and acted during "the heat of passion," under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed. In the Uniform Crime Reports prepared by the...
rather than first-degree murder, outraged citizens took over City Hall, bashed in the doors, overturned police car
Police car
A police car is a ground vehicle used by police, to assist with their duties in patrolling and responding to incidents. Typical uses of a police car include transportation for officers to reach the scene of an incident quickly, to transport criminal suspects, or to patrol an area, while providing a...
s and started fires in what came to be known as the White Night Riots
White Night Riots
The White Night riots were a series of violent events sparked by an announcement of the lenient sentencing of Dan White, for the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. The events took place on the night of May 21, 1979 in San Francisco...
. Reporters from every major television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
joined Webb on the same rooftop reporting all the activity.
Webb went on to other Bay Area radio stations, working as an on-air personality for KIOI
KIOI
KIOI FM is a radio station licensed to San Francisco, California. The Clear Channel Communications-owned station programs a Hot Adult Contemporary format.- KPEN :...
, KFRC
KFRC (defunct)
KFRC was a radio station in San Francisco, California in the United States, which made its first broadcast on Wednesday, September 24, 1924, from studios in the Hotel Whitcomb 1231 Market Street. KFRC originally broadcast with 50 watts on the 270 meter wavelength , then moved to 660 kHz. in...
and KSFX
KKSF
KKSF, known as "Oldies 103.7", is a classic hits radio station in San Francisco, California. The station is owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications.-History:...
.
Career in Seattle
In the 1980s, Webb moved to Seattle and hosted shows at KPLZKPLZ-FM
KPLZ-FM is a commercial radio station located in Seattle, Washington. KPLZ-FM airs an adult top 40 music format branded as "Star 101.5".-History:...
, KEZX, and KZOK
KZOK-FM
KZOK-FM is a commercial radio station located in Seattle, Washington, broadcasting on 102.5 FM. It is owned by CBS Radio and airs a classic rock music format.-History:KZOK signed on in 1964 as KTW-FM and simulcasted KTW-AM...
. He served intermittent terms as program director of KVI between 1984 & 1991, and KIXI
KIXI
KIXI is an AM radio station licensed to Mercer Island-Seattle, Washington on the frequency of 880 kHz. It operates 24 hours a day with a daytime power of 50,000 watts and a nighttime power of 10,000 watts.-Format:...
until 1994.
Webb was best known for his work at KIRO
KIRO (AM)
KIRO is a radio station based in Seattle, Washington on the shores of Lake Union with 2 towers on Maury Island, broadcasting on 710 kHz in the AM radio spectrum...
, where he started in 1996. Webb was also an activist, lobbying for hate crimes legislation and Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Ted Kennedy's
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Employment Non-Discrimination Act
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is a proposed bill in the United States Congress that would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, nonreligious employers with at least 15 employees.ENDA has been introduced in every...
(ENDA). In the late 1990s, Webb worked for John McMullen
John McMullen (broadcaster)
John McMullen is a radio host, producer, and broadcaster. He has worked for Internet radio broadcasters, founded the GayBC Radio Network, a service for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community, and operated Sirius Satellite Radio's LGBT radio offering, Sirius OutQ.McMullen produced...
on his Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
project, GayBC Radio Network. On GayBC, Webb hosted a talk show, but also handled live broadcasts of breaking news events such as gay pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
events and the protest activity
WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity
Protest activity surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations, occurred on November 30, 1999 , when the World Trade Organization convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington,...
surrounding the World Trade Organization's
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
1999 Ministerial Conference in Seattle
WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999
The WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 was a meeting of the World Trade Organization, convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, USA, over the course of three days, beginning November 30, 1999. A week before the meeting, delegates admitted failure to agree...
.
Outside of his radio show, Webb produced audio and did voiceover
VoiceOver
VoiceOver is a screen reader built into Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, iOS and iPod operating systems. By using VoiceOver, the user can access their Macintosh or iOS device based on spoken descriptions and, in the case of the Mac, the keyboard. The feature is designed to increase accessibility for blind...
work on documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, industrial videos, Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and commercial work at his studio.
Webb remembered his interviews with attorney Gerry Spence
Gerry Spence
Gerry Spence is a trial lawyer in the United States. In 2008, he announced he would retire, at age 79, at the end of the Geoffrey Fieger trial in Detroit, MI. Spence states that he "has never lost a criminal case either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney...
, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
, Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon is an American journalist, media critic, antiwar activist, and current candidate for the United States House of Representatives. Solomon is a longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting...
, United Nations Weapons Inspector
United Nations Special Commission
United Nations Special Commission was an inspection regime created by the United Nations to ensure Iraq's compliance with policies concerning Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War...
Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter
William Scott Ritter, Jr. was an important United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, and later a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Ritter stated that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass...
, and Serving in Silence
Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story
Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story is a 1995 American television film on NBC.-Plot:The film recounts the events in the life of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer which led to her retirement from the Washington National Guard under the U.S...
author Grethe Cammermeyer as among his favorites.
Webb was fired from KIRO in December 2005 after he was charged with making a fraudulent insurance
Insurance fraud
Insurance fraud is any act committed with the intent to fraudulently obtain payment from an insurer.Insurance fraud has existed ever since the beginning of insurance as a commercial enterprise. Fraudulent claims account for a significant portion of all claims received by insurers, and cost billions...
claim after an automobile accident the previous June, when his Lexus
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. First introduced in 1989 in the United States, Lexus is now sold globally and has become Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. The Lexus marque is marketed in over 70 countries and territories worldwide, and has...
was struck by an uninsured driver
Vehicle insurance
Vehicle insurance is insurance purchased for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage and/or bodily injury resulting from traffic collisions and against liability that could also arise therefrom...
. He was found guilty in February 2007, fined, and sentenced to perform community service.
Murder
Without explanation, Webb ceased producing his webcastWebcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
ed talk show, with the last show being recorded on April 13, 2007. Subsequently, he was reported missing by his sister, who stated she hadn't talked to him since April 13. Webb's sister told Seattle's KOMO
KOMO-TV
KOMO-TV, virtual channel 4, is a television station in Seattle, Washington. It is an affiliate of ABC and broadcasts on digital channel 38. KOMO-TV is the flagship station of Fisher Communications, and its studios and offices are co-located with sister radio stations KOMO , KVI , and KPLZ-FM ...
4 News that she thought he might be in danger.
On June 28, 2007, the Seattle Police Department
Seattle Police Department
The Seattle Police Department is the principal law enforcement agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, except for the campus of the University of Washington, for which responsibility falls to the University of Washington Police Department...
reported that a decomposed body had been found at Webb's Queen Anne
Queen Anne, Seattle, Washington
Queen Anne Hill is a neighborhood and geographic feature in Seattle, Washington, northwest of downtown. The neighborhood sits on the highest named hill in the city, with a maximum elevation of . It covers an area of , and has a population of about 28,000...
home. Discovered by the property manager, the body was located in a crawl space underneath a blue plastic tarp and several storage boxes.
Following identification on June 29, the body was confirmed to be that of Mike Webb. The King County Medical Examiner's Office further determined Webb's death to be a homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
due to stabbing
Stabbing
A stabbing is penetration with a sharp or pointed object at close range. Stab connotes purposeful action, as by an assassin or murderer, but it is also possible to accidentally stab oneself or others.Stabbing differs from slashing or cutting in that the motion of the object used in a stabbing...
("multiple sharp force trauma"). On July 19, 2007, it was announced that Scott White was arrested for the murder. According to Seattle police, White allegedly killed Webb with an axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
as he slept. White was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder.