John Batchelor biography
Date of birth : -
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Nationality : American
Category : Arts and Entertainment
Last modified : 2011-05-23
Credited as : Author, radio host The John Batchelor Show,
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Based at WABC radio in New York for five years from early 2001 to September, 2006; the show was syndicated nationally on the ABC radio network. On October 7, 2007, Batchelor returned to radio on WABC New York, and later to other large market stations on a weekly basis. As of Nov. 30, 2009, Batchelor was once again hosting a daily show on WABC, airing seven days a week in New York City between 9 PM and 1 AM EST, and in many major markets across the country.
John Batchelor and his original co-host, Paul Alexander, broadcast Batchelor and Alexander on WABC in New York. On September 8, 2001, John Batchelor and Paul Alexander presented a four-hour WABC show that was devoted to multiple guest interviews on the USS Cole bombing in October 2000 by the major suspect, the Saudi renegade Osama bin Laden and his gang, al Qaeda. For two years, in the show, Batchelor performed the role of Republican; Alexander took the role of Democrat. They focused on international issues with a focus on Middle East-based terrorism. He described their approach as, Our model is the BBC World Service, with music and live interviews, but without English accents. Alexander quipped: We're not NPR, where they do setups to things on tape. Well, we could be NPR on drugs.
Paul Alexander left the show in December 2003 to pursue work as a playwright.
Batchelor's show featured multiple guests, and shows were preceded by and interspersed with news clips and music. The show focussed on myriad topics, including politics, the war on terror, nuclear proliferation, the U.N., African civil wars, American history, space exploration and even Hollywood scandals. The Jerusalem Post has an audio archive of "Batchelor and Alexander" segments from 2002 and 2003 that deal with Israel and the Middle East.
To report on breaking news, Batchelor and a small staff traveled to Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Taiwan, landing in Taipei to broadcast for the week leading up to the 2004 elections, when, on the last day of electioneering, both the president and the vice-president were shot and wounded by an unknown assailant.
