Radio Host Will Talk About Real Life Stuff

Never heard of Bruce Williams? Then you haven’t been listening to AM radio in the last decade or so.

For many years in the mid-to-late 1980s, Bruce Williams was the No. 1 talk show host in America. Today, with Rush Limbaugh enthroned at No. 1, Bruce Williams has to settle for being America’s most-listened-to nighttime radio host, which doesn’t exactly make him a slouch.

“The Bruce Williams Show” is heard on nearly 400 stations coast to coast, including KJRB-AM 790 in Spokane, weeknights from 6 to 9. He’s coming to speak at the Spokane Opera House Saturday night, and he’ll deliver the same kind of nononsense, useful advice that has made his radio show so addictive to so many people.

His show is an oasis of hard, practical advice about everything from personal finances, to wills, to real estate, to insurance, to, well, just about everything. Everything except politics and O.J. and the things that every other talk show host is doing.

“On the balance, I do a show about the kind of stuff that most of us talk about,” he said in Radio Ink magazine. “I really don’t talk about very exciting stuff, but it’s the stuff that makes up our lives. How many of us are out there dealing with presidents, wife-killings, and that kind of stuff? It’s just not part of our real life.”

One recent interviewer summed up Williams’ advice this way: Earn interest on your money. Buy things on sale. Work hard. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. When in doubt, get a lawyer.

Williams, when asked to choose one word to describe himself, picks “entrepreneur.” He says he started hustling when he was about 10, making die-cast lead soldiers and selling them to toy stores. By the time he was 13, he had more than 200 kids working for him.

In his lifetime, he has run an insurance agency, a car rental business and a private school.

If you wonder why Williams’ Spokane appearance is sponsored by the Northwest Florists Association (his speech is part of their convention here this weekend), there’s a reason for that, too. He owns a chain of flower shops in New Jersey.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Bruce Williams Location and time: Spokane Opera House, Saturday, 8 p.m. Tickets: $15, $12.50 and $10