Vamp: Style 1
Seen on FOX-TV by more than 2.2 million viewers weekly

Before he was Glenn Beck, the influential and popular conservative talk-show host, he was Glenn Beck, one half of the zany “morning zoo” duo on Y-95 Radio in Phoenix. 

“I'm surprised to see him as such a national figure,” said Tim Hattrick, the other half of the Y-95 duo in the late 1980s. “But I'm not surprised, remembering how ambitious he was when we were both just baby DJs.”

Today Beck is the third-most-popular talk-show host in the country. He has a show on the Fox News Channel.

But 20 years ago, when Beck was hired at Y-95, he replaced an Arizona broadcasting legend: Bill Heywood, whose mellow voice and calm demeanor didn't fit the “zoo” feel the station wanted.

In came Beck, who had more of the flashy personality the station needed.

“In many ways, he was just so great at being a grandstanding, pompous idiot,” Hattrick said.

Beck and Hattrick hoaxed listeners into believing that Michael Jackson was filming a commercial in Sun City. Then they had Scottsdale police join them in a prank involving the city's beloved Christmas decorations being sold to a city in Mexico.

“He was the guy who could shout the loudest,” Hattrick said. “You have to make people care about what you were saying. He had a way of doing that.”

– excerpted from a 2008 story by Richard Ruelas
published in the Arizona Republic