It`s 7:36 a.m. on a chilly April day at WGCI studios on South Michigan Avenue. Montel Williams, resplendent in a mocha-colored suit and tan silk tie, puts on headphones and sits next to the popular morning deejay Doug Banks.
Williams smiles as Banks introduces him to listeners as ”Hawk with an attitude,” alluding to Avery Brooks` bald, enigmatic character from the old
”Spenser: For Hire” TV series.
The Los-Angeles based talk show host flew in from New York to promote his syndicated ”The Montel Williams Show,” which made its debut Monday in Chicago and airs at 9 p.m. Monday through Friday on WPWR-Ch. 50. At 10 a.m. weekdays, episodes that already have aired in other cities, where the program has been broadcast for nine months, will be shown.
”We are the first station to air Montel in prime time,” said Neal Sabin, program director of WPWR. ”He`s a personality who`s going to be ours exclusively.” Sabin said he expects viewership to increase significantly from 9 to 10 p.m.
After Williams` hourlong radio-studio visit, he returned to the Fairmont Hotel for a breakfast interview from his suite overlooking the Loop skyline.
As imposing as he appears on the small screen, the former Marine, naval intelligence officer and motivational speaker comes across in person as sensitive and witty. A relative novice to the entertainment business, the well-spoken Williams, 35, parlayed a 1990 local Emmy Award in Denver-for hosting a program called ”The 4th R-Kids Rap About Racism”-into his becoming the first black male talk show host in daytime TV.
”It`s different in nighttime,” Williams said. ”Arsenio (Hall) was the first to break that ground. But because of my background and who I am, that`s what makes a difference. I spent 17 years in the military, with a long, storied history.
”I had an opportunity to travel not only all over the country but around the world. What I bring to the table different from all the other hosts is almost all of America`s perspective.”
After leaving the military, Williams said he spent the next three years speaking to kids in the morning and parents at night about staying in school, drugs, child abuse and other family issues: ”I think throughout that period, every issue that I`ve seen done on talk TV, I`ve addressed to someone in the community.”
”The Montel Williams Show,” syndicated by Viacom Enterprises, is comparable to issue-oriented ”The Oprah Winfrey Show” and ”Donahue,” with a touch of ”Maury Povich`s” tabloid TV instincts. A sampling of topics for this week`s shows includes ”When Gangs Terrorize Your Neighborhood,” ”Day Care Nightmare,” ”Fat and Happy,” ”Underaged and Over-Sexed” and
”Kidnapped by Aliens.”
”Some of those topics that are exploitative and voyeuristic need to be done because they affect society,” he said. ”When you talk about
homosexuality, there`s a rise in the country in that group. Every family in America can say it`s touched by that issue, so why not talk about it?”
Williams, a divorced father of two girls, added, ”We did a show on teen runaways and people who live on the streets. We`ve done shows on teen suicide. We`ve done things on the rise of hate crime and racism in the country.”
A recent program on the Aryan Nation sparked a considerable amount of mail and more than 1,200 phone calls. Williams received 15 death threats from its members in the Midwest.
”But surprisingly, 98 percent of the letters were positive,” said Williams, who blasted the assembled skinheads, neo-Nazis and Aryan Nation members for threatening to overthrow the U.S. government. ”Maybe 80 percent of the mail was from white people, all of whom said the show embarrassed them for being white and apologized that I had to go through that.”
Growing up in a stable two-parent, working-class environment in the Cherry Hill section of West Baltimore, Williams excelled in high school and served as class president. After a stint in the Marine Corps, he enrolled in the Naval Academy Prep School, graduated, and four years later got his commission from the Naval Academy. He`s now a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve.
”I`ve been around the world three times. And this country paid for that and my education,” said Williams, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Russian. ”I have taken and taken from this country.” He said some people will insist that ”this country doesn`t give to minorities.”
”But I`m here to tell you,” he said, ”the system is there and will work, not necessarily for you but to your advantage if you know how to utilize it.”
