Last Thursday, November 15, a snowy, traffic-snarled night in New York City, veteran talk show host Mark Levin was among eleven individuals inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame (NRHOF) on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the organization’s activities.

NRHOF Chairman Kraig Kitchin said, “It’s our mission to recognize the most impactful personalities and individuals to our medium and honor them. We’re proud to induct these individuals for their contributions to the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2018, our 30th year.” Levin’s award, in the Spoken Word Format On-Air Personality category, was decided by a vote of hundreds of thousands of radio listeners.

Mark Levin (photo courtesy of Fox News)

Mark Levin, 61, is an attorney who served in the Reagan administration as chief of staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese.  He got his start in radio two decades ago by appearing as a guest legal analyst on Rush Limbaugh’s and Sean Hannity’s radio shows.  In 2002, Levin was given a program of his own: weekends on WABC AM 770 in New York.  In 2003, he moved to the 6-9 P.M. M-F slot on WABC, Hannity’s flagship station at the time, immediately following Hannity’s show.  In 2006, The Mark Levin Show, which continues to air live at 6 P.M. ET, went into national syndication.

Levin, who can more than hold his own with callers who disagree with him, is a serious and articulate constitutional scholar, and his legal and political expertise is reflected on his program.  He is the author of over half a dozen New York Times bestseller nonfiction books.  The most successful one, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, was released in 2009 and became a #1 New York Times bestseller for eleven weeks and was rated #2 on Amazon.com’s list of the bestselling books of 2009.

In February 2018, Levin began hosting a weekly interview program on the Fox News channel, Life, Liberty & Levin, in which he interviews one or two guests at length. The program, Sundays at 10 P.M. ET/PT, consistently ranks as the number one show in total viewers in its time slot on the three major cable news channels. Levin also hosts a nightly program most weeknights on CRTV, a subscription conservative Internet streaming channel.

Mark Levin, speaking at the National Radio Hall of Fame award dinner in NYC (photo courtesy of Fox News)

Speaking at the induction ceremony at  New York City landmark Guastavino’s located in midtown Manhattan where he accepted his award, Levin, according to a transcript provided by Fox news, said:

Bill Corsair, where are you? When I was 15 years old, I would call WCAU, now WPHT, go up to the attic call, he was on midnight to five A.M. He had a program called The Rascals. I would call in, and it really kind of grabbed me. I have to say, even though I don’t agree with his politics, I used to listen to Larry King at night with his interviews and I really like those. And Dominic Quinn in Philadelphia. And the great Bob Graham, him and I became very good friends. And Tom Marr. These were all radio bigs. But Rush Limbaugh really kind of took me under his wing. When I would provide him legal advice and so forth, he would call me the director of his legal affairs and so forth. A great, decent, very nice man. When I was having heart problems he wanted to fly me to the Cleveland Clinic and take care of me many, many years ago. He does things like that. Sean Hannity is like a brother to me. For the longest time, many of you know him too, what a decent guy he is. Quickly, Phil Boyce formerly of WABC, program director there. He would hear me and say how would you like a Sunday show from 12-2PM, but we can’t pay you. I said on WABC? I’ll give it a shot. What the hell, that could be fun.

I want to thank you very much this is such a tremendous honor. This is such a tremendous business, they keep writing off radio. All I know is every time I get in the car, there’s a radio…I want to thank you all, God bless you.

Peter Barry Chowka writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications. Follow him on Twitter @pchowka.