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His fans revere him as the great libertarian wordsmith. Few talk show hosts speak so eloquently while making sense with every carefully chosen word as does Gene Burns.

After a foray into local politics in his hometown of Hornell, New York, he became news director of the town’s station, WWHG. He spent several years in various news departments before moving to WSBA, York. He auditioned for a talk host job at WCBM, Baltimore and there began his talk career. At WCBM, Burns did two international assignments for the station going to Vietnam in 1968 and the Middle East in 1969. He worked at WKIS, Orlando for 10 years and in 1985 began a long and noted career at WRKO, Boston among contemporaries like Jerry Williams and David Brudnoy. He left for WOR and the WOR Network in 1993 and after two years moved West to San Francisco and KGO where he remains to this day.

Over the years, Burns honed a style that can be described as thoughtful yet never dull. One of the great skills of a talk show host is to have clarity of thought and whenever Gene Burns is speaking, there’s never any doubt as to what he’s trying to say.