Sean Hannity is an American radio and television host, well-known for his shows ‘The Sean Hannity Show’ and ‘Hannity and Colmes’. This writeup highlights many more accomplishments of his life…
Sean Patrick Hannity was born on December 30, 1961 in New York City, USA. Born to Hugh and Lillian Hannity, he has three elder sisters. In 1980, he graduated from St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary high school, in Uniondale, New York. After dropping out of New York and Adelphi Universities, Hannity decided to pursue a career in radio.
Career
In 1989, Hannity began his radio career at the volunteer college station at UC Santa Barbara, KCSB FM, as a talk show host in Terrible. After working for less than a year, he started to advertize himself in most radio publications as ‘the most talked about college radio host in America’. Soon after that, he was hired by the radio station WVNN in Athens, Alabama, as an afternoon talk show host. In 2004, he signed a contract worth USD 25 million with ABC Radio to continue the show for the next 5 years.
In 1996, Roger Ailes, co-founder of Fox News, hired Hannity along with Alan Colmes to host a television show named as Hannity and Colmes, an American television show based on politics. There he represented the conservative point of view on different political issues opposite the relative more liberally inclined Colmes. In January 2007, Hannity started a Sunday night television show called Hannity’s America, and on January 9, 2009, after the final broadcast of Hannity and Colmes, he started his own new show, Hannity, with a format similar to Hannity’s America.
He has also written two books, Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Ideas in Politics, Media, and Life and Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism. Both these books appeared in the nonfiction New York Times bestseller list.
Awards and Honors
He was honored twice with the ‘Marconi Award’ (first in 2003, and again in 2007) as the Network Syndicated Personality of the Year from the National Association of Broadcasters. In 2005, he was awarded with an honorary degree by the Chancellor of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell. He was given the Freedom of Speech Award in 2003 by the Talkers Magazine and he was honored with the National Talk Show Host of the Year Award by the Radio and Records magazine for three consecutive years.
Trivia
- During his early years, he worked as a general contractor in Santa Barbara, California, and even as a bartender for a period of time.
- Hannity married Jill Rhodes, a columnist for The Huntsville Times; the couple have two children.
- He hosts the freedom concert series for the welfare of children who have lost their parents in service since 9-11.
- In 2005, Hannity was included in an article 25 People We Envy Most (Lucky Hall of Fame Getting Paid to Mouth Off).
- He debuted in the movie The Siege in 1998, in a small role of a newscaster.
Hannity has hosted many country music themed Freedom Concerts to help orphans by providing them with the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund. Also popular as an author and a conservative political commentator, Hannity has been described in the book Common Ground as a leader of the pack among broadcasting political polarizers.