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Michael A. Smerconish is an American radio and television personality, newspaper columnist, author and MSNBC Political Analyst. His talk radio show is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at The Big Talker 1210 AM WPHT. He began his full time radio career in 2002. Since January 2009, Smerconish's two daily nationally syndicated radio programs have been heard on 70 stations in the United States, including WOR News Talk Radio 710 in New York City and KFWB News Talk 980 in Los Angeles.

On August 20, 2009, Smerconish became the first talk radio host to broadcast live from the Obama White House, a show which included an interview with the President himself. The interview was held in the Diplomatic Reception Room, where President Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats were held. The President took questions from Smerconish and his listeners on a variety of subjects including the recent debates on the pending Healthcare Reform Bill.

Smerconish has substituted for Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor, Glenn Beck on his CNN Headline News television program, Chris Matthews on Hardball, and for Joe Scarborough on his former MSNBC show Scarborough Country. He is a regular contributor with MSNBC, and has appeared as a guest on NBC's Today Show, Larry King Live, The View, the Colbert Report and Real Time With Bill Maher, among others. He writes separate weekly columns in the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a regular contributor to The Daily Beast.

Talkers Magazine has consistently named him one of America's most important talk show hosts, and Radio & Records named him the nation's Local Personality of the Year in 2009. The Pennsylvania Report named him to the 2003 "The Pennsylvania Report Power 75" list of influential figures in Pennsylvania politics.

A simulcast of Smerconish's show aired on WPHT and MSNBC during the week of April 23 — April 27, 2007. The program was broadcast live from the MSNBC studios in Secaucus, New Jersey as a replacement for Imus in the Morning on a trial basis. The program was originally intended to be a three-day trial from April 23 to 25 but was extended for the full week after the April 23 broadcast. In-studio guests included Jon Anderson of the musical group Yes and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Smerconish stated during his stint that he would stay on MSNBC "as long as they will have me." He said several days after the simulcast that he "wanted the call" to get the position permanently, but he wasn't expecting to land the position (he predicted David Gregory would get the job). If an offer had come, he stated he wasn't sure he would accept it, given he would have to travel to MSNBC's studios outside New York City. The MSNBC job instead went to Joe Scarborough, whose evening program Scarborough Country was retooled for the morning as Morning Joe.

On November 10, 2009 Smerconish's Philadelphia-based morning program was introduced to a Washington, D.C. area audience via simulcasting on The Big Talker 1580 AM WHFS. On February 2, 2009, WOR-AM became the first station to pick up Smerconish's midday program. Both shows — the original morning drive program as well as an additional three hour broadcast from noon to 3 p.m. eastern time — are syndicated by Dial Global in a partnership with CBS RADIO.

Born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Smerconish is a graduate of Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. At age 29, he served as a federal housing coordinator in the Office of Housing and Urban Development of the administration of President George H.W. Bush. He is of Yugoslav descent and married to Realtor Lavinia Smerconish.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Michael Smerconish", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0