Alex Bennett

Bennett Gordon Schwarzmann (born December 18, 1939), better known by his on-air name, Alex Bennett, is an American talk radio host, known for his mix of left-wing politics and humor.

Bennett was born on December 18, 1939, in San Francisco and attended Drake High School in San Anselmo, California.

He adopted his on-air name as a tribute to his late father, Alexander Schwarzmann.

During the 1960s, Bennett worked at several radio stations around the country, including KILT in Houston, where he used the on-air moniker James Bond and did his show using an English accent, and WLOL in Minneapolis before moving on to other large markets.

In Chicago, he hosted a nightly music program on 560 WIND where his newscaster was Don Cornelius (who later hosted television's Soul Train).

It was in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots that he became radicalized.

In 1969 he was recruited by Top 40 station AM 570 WMCA in New York City, where he worked with Murray the K, Barry Gray (who became a mentor) and where one of his engineers was comedian Jimmie Walker.

Bennett was an overnight talk show host during the station's transition from its Top 40 "Good Guys" music format to the pioneering "Dial-Log" all-talk era.

Bennett brought a progressive rock radio sensibility to the teenage-oriented station, still playing album cuts of music as his talk show evolved, and openly discussing topics ranging from his love life to his participation in various countercultural events, before giving his yogic sign-off "Namaste" (sometimes rendered in English as "the God within me sees the God within you").

In 1969, Bennett flew to London to investigate the rumor of Paul McCartney's death.

In the 1970s he made his mark in New York City where he was dubbed "The Youth Guru" by the press for his work on WMCA and WPLJ.

He later became friends with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who in 1970 heard Bennett introduce her debut album on the air by saying, "I think in 1980 music will probably sound like this."

Lennon and Ono subsequently appeared on Bennett's show.

In 1970, Bennett was fired when WMCA signed the New York Yankees.

With baseball games running in Bennett's evening time slot, the station felt there was no place for him.

The dismissal was protested by over a thousand people in front of the radio station.

The story made headlines in the New York newspapers.

It was featured in Variety with four articles on the same page, and Bennett was described in The New Yorker as "martyr of the cultural revolution."

Bennett and his wife-producer Ronni moved their show to New York FM station 95.5 WABC-FM (which soon became WPLJ) with the station at first recruiting him for morning drive time.

He later switched to a free-wheeling overnight show.

By late 1971 the couple had split.

Guests on Bennett's WPLJ show included rock stars such as John Lennon, comedians like George Carlin and left-wing, anti-war activists such as Timothy Leary, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman who would call him from the "Chicago Seven" trial.

While at WPLJ as an early video pioneer (a lifelong hobby), Bennett created and produced Midnight Blue with Bruce David (who went on to be the editor for "Hustler Magazine").

The show was seen on a New York public-access cable TV channel.

Bennett was let go from WPLJ in 1974.

Afterward, Bennett continued to appear on New York broadcast outlets, including WMCA.

Bennett was asked to do a tryout week at a radio station in his native San Francisco.

With the tryout a success, he was signed to host a morning show for album-oriented rock (AOR) station 106.1 KMEL, teaming up with newsman Joe Regelski.

Susan Finesilver, whom Bennett married in November 1976, was a regular contributor, interviewer, and guest on the show.

In the 1980s and 1990s he moved back to his home town of San Francisco where this time the press dubbed him "The King of Comedy" for his influence on the local comedy scene first at KMEL, then on KQAK ("The Quake") and ultimately at Live 105.

He then went on to create a live Internet TV network with Play Inc. called "PlayTV", and later a one-year stint as the host of a technology show on CNET Radio.

While at KMEL, Bennett's mother, Ruth, achieved fame as the world's oldest AOR disk jockey when she hosted a Sunday night countdown show on KMEL from 1982 to 1983.

After Bennett's departure, Ruth continued at KMEL for a year.

The couple divorced in 1992.

Ruth died in 2005 at the age of 100.

The Alex Bennett Show left KMEL when he was offered a lucrative deal and unprecedented creative freedom at a competitor station.

Bennett and Regelski signed to do the morning show on 98.9 KQAK "The Quake" (now KSOL) where they remained for two years.

Bennett left KQAK for modern rock outlet 105.3 KITS ("Live 105"), where he did two stints.

Eventually he moved back to New York City where he hosted a weekday radio show on SiriusXM channel "SIRIUS Left" until June 28, 2013.

He now hosts a live podcast GABNet.net Tues-Fri from 10:00 until midnight Eastern.