Right for Radio

He’s covered a Northwestern national championship and a presidential election. He exchanges e-mails with conservative pundit Sean Hannity and New Jersey Devils play-by-play man “Doc” Emerick.

But this radio personality is no seasoned veteran. Don’t be fooled by his well-trained voice — Guy Benson’s career is just getting started.

In fourth grade, while listening to a New York Yankees game, Benson realized that he wanted to become a broadcaster.

“It occurred to me that someone was getting paid to go to every game and tell thousands of people what was happening,” says the Medill School of Journalism senior from Ridgewood, N.J.

To train his voice, Benson watched games without sound, broadcasting the entire contest into a recorder.

On his first day at Ridgewood High School, he and a friend petitioned the principal to start broadcasting school sporting events. By their senior year they were broadcasting to three counties in northern New Jersey.

But that’s only the nonpolitical side of Benson’s life. A self-proclaimed conservative by age 12, he started considering a political broadcasting career after Sept. 11.

“It was a political awakening,” Benson says. “I realized politics weren’t just theoretical but they actually mattered deeply regarding what policies we pursue as a nation.”

Benson eventually interned for three summers at Fox News while also broadcasting Cape Cod Baseball League games for the Chatham A’s.

At Northwestern, Benson immediately joined the campus radio station, WNUR. He hosted a political talk show for four years and became director of the sports department as a sophomore.

While Benson splits his time and passion between politics and sports, he is focusing on a career in political commentary. He is considering a number of graduate school, internship and job opportunities.

— Ryan Morton (J08)