Sally Jessy Raphaël
Encyclopedia
Sally Lowenthal better known as Sally Jessy Raphael, is an American
talk show
host, known for the eponymous Sally talk show she hosted for two decades.
and graduated from Easton Area High School in the city. She was raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico
where her father, Jesse Lowenthal, was in the rum
exporting business and her mother, Dede Lowry (née Raphael), an artist
, ran an art gallery. She also spent part of her teenage years in Scarsdale, New York
, where one of her first media jobs was at the local AM
radio
station, WFAS. The station did a program by and for junior high school students and Raphael read the news. She attended Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
, and the University of Puerto Rico
in Puerto Rico
. Raphael studied Acting under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner
at New York City's prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse
.
She earned a BFA
from Columbia University
in New York City
, although some sources say her degree was in journalism. She also told an interviewer for CBS Marketwatch.com in 2001 that she had a master's degree from the University of Puerto Rico. At one point, she thought about becoming an actress but ultimately decided to go into broadcasting.
and United Press International
, thanks in large part to her ability to speak both English and Spanish fluently. She also got considerable experience in the media in Puerto Rico, where she worked in both radio and television—one of her jobs was doing a TV cooking show. It was while working in radio that she met the man who became her second husband, Karl Soderlund, who was the general manager of a radio station that hired her. After he was fired, the two left Puerto Rico to work in Miami, Florida. It was while Raphael was on the air as a radio announcer in Miami that she met and became friends with talk show host Larry King
.
By her own admission, Raphael's broadcasting career was not an immediate success. She told numerous reporters over the years that she bounced around from station to station in both Puerto Rico and the United States, working as a disc jockey, news reporter, and the host of a show where she interviewed celebrities. It seemed none of her jobs lasted very long, often through no fault of her own: in radio, stations often changed owners, and when that happened, staff changes resulted. But no matter how many jobs she lost, she refused to give up, even though at one point, she had worked at 24 stations, and was fired from 18 of them. For a brief period of time, her financial situation was so dire that she was on food stamps. But fortunately, in the early 1980s, she would finally get the right opportunity when she was asked to do a call-in advice show on radio. In the late 1980s, she guest starred as herself in
The Equalizer
episode "Making of a Martyr".
which ran from Monday November 2, 1981 to 1987, but is most famous for hosting the television talk show, The Sally Jessy Raphael Show (later shortened to simply Sally), which ran in first-run syndication from October 17, 1983 to 2002. "Talknet" was brand new when she came to the attention of producer Maurice Tunick. According to David Richards of The Washington Post
, Tunick had auditioned a number of potential hosts, but hadn't yet found the right one. Tunick gave Raphael a one-hour trial run on NBC
's Washington, D.C.
affiliate, WRC
, in August 1981. Before going on the air, she decided that rather than doing a political show, she would give advice and discuss subjects she knew a lot about, such as relationship problems. Soon, her advice show was being heard on over 200 radio stations, and she developed a loyal group of fans.
One of those fans turned out to be talk show legend Phil Donahue
who happened to hear her show one night and liked how she related to the audience. His encouragement led to a tryout on television, where producer Burt Dubrow gave her a chance to be a guest host on a talk show of his. She was not very polished, but people who had loved her radio show were very positive about her being on TV. Her non-threatening and common-sense manner appealed to Dubrow, who believed she would gain more confidence as she got some TV experience. By mid-October 1983, she was given her own show on KSDK-TV in St. Louis. The Sally Jessy Raphael Show was only a half-hour, but it was the beginning of her successful career as a talk show host.
Raphael became known to TV viewers for her oversized red-framed glasses, a trademark that began entirely by accident. In 1983, she began having trouble seeing the Teleprompter
clearly, and she went to buy some reading glasses at a nearby store. All they had was a pair with red frames, and being in a hurry, she bought them. While her bosses disliked them, the audience seemed to think they looked good, so she kept wearing that style from then on. In 1989, Raphael won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show
.
But during the 1990s, as competition in the talk show arena intensified, her show moved toward more sensationalistic topics, as did many of the other talk show hosts who were her competition, including Jerry Springer
(who, at the time, was also distributed by Multimedia Entertainment
) and Maury Povich
.
By 2000, both Raphael and Springer were in decline. As one media critic observed, Springer's ratings were the lowest they had been in 3 years, but Raphael's ratings were now the lowest they had been in 12 years. Prior to the ratings declines, Raphael was already having problems with her syndicator: she believed that USA Networks Inc. (formerly Universal Television Enterprises) was more interested in doing promotion for Springer, whose show was at the peak of its popularity and Povich, who had recently left Paramount Television to join USA's syndication arm, than they ever were for her show. She celebrated the anniversary of her 3,500th episode in early 1998, but after that, as her ratings began to decrease and her dissatisfaction with her syndicator persisted, it seemed only a matter of time before her relationship with USA Networks would come to an end. By March 2002, it was announced that after an 18-year run, her show was being canceled. Ironically, in 2002 Raphael was named by Talkers magazine
to both their 25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of all time (she was #5), and the 25 Greatest Television Talk Show Hosts of all time (she was #11). She was one of only three talkers to make both the radio and the TV lists.
As of 2005, she still hosted a daily radio show, Sally Jessy Raphael on Talknet (previously called Sally JR's Open House), on the Internet
, and recently she began to transfer the format to local radio stations. At one time the show was heard on nearly 300 stations across the nation, including the top markets.
The show was eventually picked up by WVIE
, Baltimore
, Maryland, as the parent station, and is being syndicated among other AM stations in New England
, the Mid-Atlantic
and the Midwest, in addition to at least one station
in Arizona
. The show is still accessible on the internet (although WVIE has since dropped the program), and began coverage on XM Satellite Radio
's America's Talk
channel on November 19, 2007. The name "Talknet" is a revival of the name of NBC Talknet
, the now defunct radio network that carried her previous radio show from 1981 to 1987. July 4, 2008 was the last broadcast before a sudden vacation was announced. The show has not returned to the air since, but the website is still available.
On November 10, 2010, Raphael, along with former talk show hosts Phil Donahue
, Geraldo Rivera
, Ricki Lake
and Montel Williams
, were invited as guests on Oprah Winfrey
's show. This was the first time that Winfrey had fellow talkers appear together since their programs left the air.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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, known for the eponymous Sally talk show she hosted for two decades.
Early years
Raphael was born in Easton, PennsylvaniaEaston, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,800 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County....
and graduated from Easton Area High School in the city. She was raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
where her father, Jesse Lowenthal, was in the rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
exporting business and her mother, Dede Lowry (née Raphael), an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, ran an art gallery. She also spent part of her teenage years in Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the northern suburbs of New York City. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several villages...
, where one of her first media jobs was at the local AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
station, WFAS. The station did a program by and for junior high school students and Raphael read the news. She attended Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, and the University of Puerto Rico
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico is the state university system of Puerto Rico. The system consists of 11 campuses and has approximately 64,511 students and 5,300 faculty members...
in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
. Raphael studied Acting under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....
at New York City's prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse
Neighborhood Playhouse
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is an actor training school at 340 East 54th Street in New York City, generally associated with the Meisner technique of Sanford Meisner.-History:...
.
She earned a BFA
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
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...
, although some sources say her degree was in journalism. She also told an interviewer for CBS Marketwatch.com in 2001 that she had a master's degree from the University of Puerto Rico. At one point, she thought about becoming an actress but ultimately decided to go into broadcasting.
Journalism and broadcasting
Following her graduation from Columbia University, Raphael became a news correspondent, covering Central America for the Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
and United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, thanks in large part to her ability to speak both English and Spanish fluently. She also got considerable experience in the media in Puerto Rico, where she worked in both radio and television—one of her jobs was doing a TV cooking show. It was while working in radio that she met the man who became her second husband, Karl Soderlund, who was the general manager of a radio station that hired her. After he was fired, the two left Puerto Rico to work in Miami, Florida. It was while Raphael was on the air as a radio announcer in Miami that she met and became friends with talk show host Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
.
By her own admission, Raphael's broadcasting career was not an immediate success. She told numerous reporters over the years that she bounced around from station to station in both Puerto Rico and the United States, working as a disc jockey, news reporter, and the host of a show where she interviewed celebrities. It seemed none of her jobs lasted very long, often through no fault of her own: in radio, stations often changed owners, and when that happened, staff changes resulted. But no matter how many jobs she lost, she refused to give up, even though at one point, she had worked at 24 stations, and was fired from 18 of them. For a brief period of time, her financial situation was so dire that she was on food stamps. But fortunately, in the early 1980s, she would finally get the right opportunity when she was asked to do a call-in advice show on radio. In the late 1980s, she guest starred as herself in
The Equalizer
The Equalizer
The Equalizer is an American television series that ran for four seasons, initially on CBS, between 1985 and 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as an aging New York vigilante with a mysterious past...
episode "Making of a Martyr".
Talk show
Raphael's husband Karl Soderlund assumed the role of her manager, and was a partner in her two biggest successes. She hosted a radio call-in advice show distributed by NBC TalknetNBC Talknet
NBC Talknet was a nighttime programming block on the NBC Radio Network from the 1980s to the 1990s. It comprised several advice-oriented call-in talk shows, the most notable personalities being Bruce Williams and Sally Jessy Raphael...
which ran from Monday November 2, 1981 to 1987, but is most famous for hosting the television talk show, The Sally Jessy Raphael Show (later shortened to simply Sally), which ran in first-run syndication from October 17, 1983 to 2002. "Talknet" was brand new when she came to the attention of producer Maurice Tunick. According to David Richards of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Tunick had auditioned a number of potential hosts, but hadn't yet found the right one. Tunick gave Raphael a one-hour trial run on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
affiliate, WRC
WRC-TV
WRC-TV, channel 4, is an owned and operated television station of the NBC television network, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
, in August 1981. Before going on the air, she decided that rather than doing a political show, she would give advice and discuss subjects she knew a lot about, such as relationship problems. Soon, her advice show was being heard on over 200 radio stations, and she developed a loyal group of fans.
One of those fans turned out to be talk show legend Phil Donahue
Phil Donahue
Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...
who happened to hear her show one night and liked how she related to the audience. His encouragement led to a tryout on television, where producer Burt Dubrow gave her a chance to be a guest host on a talk show of his. She was not very polished, but people who had loved her radio show were very positive about her being on TV. Her non-threatening and common-sense manner appealed to Dubrow, who believed she would gain more confidence as she got some TV experience. By mid-October 1983, she was given her own show on KSDK-TV in St. Louis. The Sally Jessy Raphael Show was only a half-hour, but it was the beginning of her successful career as a talk show host.
Raphael became known to TV viewers for her oversized red-framed glasses, a trademark that began entirely by accident. In 1983, she began having trouble seeing the Teleprompter
Teleprompter
An autocue is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to the practice of using cue cards...
clearly, and she went to buy some reading glasses at a nearby store. All they had was a pair with red frames, and being in a hurry, she bought them. While her bosses disliked them, the audience seemed to think they looked good, so she kept wearing that style from then on. In 1989, Raphael won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show
The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show was an award presented annually from 1974–2007 at the Daytime Emmy Awards. In 2008, the award was discontinued and replaced by two new categories: Outstanding Talk Show—Informative and Outstanding Talk Show—Entertainment.-List of winners:* 1974: The...
.
But during the 1990s, as competition in the talk show arena intensified, her show moved toward more sensationalistic topics, as did many of the other talk show hosts who were her competition, including Jerry Springer
Jerry Springer
Gerald Norman "Jerry" Springer is a British-born American television presenter, best known as host of the tabloid talk show The Jerry Springer Show since its debut in 1991...
(who, at the time, was also distributed by Multimedia Entertainment
Multimedia Entertainment
Multimedia Entertainment was an American television production/distribution company originally formed in 1968.-History:...
) and Maury Povich
Maury Povich
Maurice Richard "Maury" Povich is an American TV talk show host who currently hosts his self-titled talk show Maury.-Personal background:...
.
By 2000, both Raphael and Springer were in decline. As one media critic observed, Springer's ratings were the lowest they had been in 3 years, but Raphael's ratings were now the lowest they had been in 12 years. Prior to the ratings declines, Raphael was already having problems with her syndicator: she believed that USA Networks Inc. (formerly Universal Television Enterprises) was more interested in doing promotion for Springer, whose show was at the peak of its popularity and Povich, who had recently left Paramount Television to join USA's syndication arm, than they ever were for her show. She celebrated the anniversary of her 3,500th episode in early 1998, but after that, as her ratings began to decrease and her dissatisfaction with her syndicator persisted, it seemed only a matter of time before her relationship with USA Networks would come to an end. By March 2002, it was announced that after an 18-year run, her show was being canceled. Ironically, in 2002 Raphael was named by Talkers magazine
Talkers magazine
Talkers Magazine is a trade industry publication related to talk radio in the United States. Its slogan is "The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media"...
to both their 25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of all time (she was #5), and the 25 Greatest Television Talk Show Hosts of all time (she was #11). She was one of only three talkers to make both the radio and the TV lists.
As of 2005, she still hosted a daily radio show, Sally Jessy Raphael on Talknet (previously called Sally JR's Open House), on the 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 recently she began to transfer the format to local radio stations. At one time the show was heard on nearly 300 stations across the nation, including the top markets.
The show was eventually picked up by WVIE
WVIE
WVIE is a radio station broadcasting a sports format. Licensed to Pikesville, Maryland, USA, it serves the Baltimore area....
, Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland, as the parent station, and is being syndicated among other AM stations in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, the Mid-Atlantic
Mid-Atlantic States
The Mid-Atlantic states, also called middle Atlantic states or simply the mid Atlantic, form a region of the United States generally located between New England and the South...
and the Midwest, in addition to at least one station
KJLL (AM)
KJLL is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format and is known as The Jolt. Licensed to South Tucson, Arizona, USA, the station serves the Tucson area. The station is currently owned by Hudson Communications, Inc and features programing from Air America Radio, AP Radio, CBS...
in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. The show is still accessible on the internet (although WVIE has since dropped the program), and began coverage on XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
's America's Talk
America's Talk
America's Talk is a news and talk radio channel on XM Satellite Radio, launched on 2007-11-19 on channel 158 and moved to 166 on 2011-05-04. Much like its sister talk channel XM Talk 168, it is a general news/talk focused channel. It was programmed by Sean Compton until 2008-04-01, in Cincinnati,...
channel on November 19, 2007. The name "Talknet" is a revival of the name of NBC Talknet
NBC Talknet
NBC Talknet was a nighttime programming block on the NBC Radio Network from the 1980s to the 1990s. It comprised several advice-oriented call-in talk shows, the most notable personalities being Bruce Williams and Sally Jessy Raphael...
, the now defunct radio network that carried her previous radio show from 1981 to 1987. July 4, 2008 was the last broadcast before a sudden vacation was announced. The show has not returned to the air since, but the website is still available.
On November 10, 2010, Raphael, along with former talk show hosts Phil Donahue
Phil Donahue
Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...
, Geraldo Rivera
Geraldo Rivera
Geraldo Rivera is an American attorney, journalist, author, reporter, and former talk show host...
, Ricki Lake
Ricki Lake
Ricki Pamela Lake is an American actress, producer, and television host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray, her ground-breaking documentary film The Business of Being Born, and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from...
and Montel Williams
Montel Williams
Montel Brian Anthony Williams is an American television personality, radio talk show host and actor. He is best known as host of the long-running The Montel Williams Show, and more recently as a spokesperson for the Partnership for Prescription Assistance...
, were invited as guests on Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
's show. This was the first time that Winfrey had fellow talkers appear together since their programs left the air.
Personal life
Sally Jessy Raphael was married for the first time in 1953, at age 18, to Andrew Vladimir, with whom she has two children. In 1962 she married Karl Soderlund. Together they have one child. Sally now resides in Dutchess County, New YorkDutchess County, New York
Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488...
.