A Conversation with Gene Valicenti

Gene and I lived in adjoining towns in New Jersey but met here in Rhode Island decades ago. (He calls our origins “the old country.”) He’s won a ton of awards for local and national reporting, including being one of the first reporters inside the perimeter after 9/11 and covering Papal visits, presidential elections, and moderating election debates at state level. We talk here about the future of AM radio, where Gene has the most popular talk and news show in the surrounding part of the country every year. Some electric car makers claim the AM interference may preclude inclusion in their cars. Gene’s response to that might stun you. We chat candidly about the bias in the media and the need to ameliorate it, if that’s even possible. Gene discusses his interviewing style which often results in startling revelations from guests (including conservative decisions from liberal progressives, for example), and how and why he is so totally convincing in his advertising duties. (His entire ad space is totally sold out during his show, always.) Gene feels that we’re not about to emerge from the fact/opinion confusion, and that perhaps the icons like Walter Cronkite weren’t so objective and unbiased as we tend to remember. The onsite satellite truck with three crew members has given way to a lone reporter with a remote camera and mike reporting alone in the night, and the next step may well be no reporters at all but instead drones and AI. Gene controls his audio, video, and related weaponry from his home studio with his iPhone. When will he “bring down the curtain”? “Oh, in this business they let you know!” he says.