Phil Hendrie

Philip Stephen Hendrie (born September 1, 1952) is an American radio personality. He is best known as the host of The Phil Hendrie Show, a comedy talk radio program that is syndicated throughout North America on Talk Radio Network. While The Phil Hendrie Show became renowned for its unique and controversial guests, those guests are not real people at all. They are fictional characters created and voiced by Hendrie himself.

Hendrie has performed voices on the animated FOX sitcoms King of the Hill and Futurama, and as I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. and the Terrorist in Team America: World Police. In Spring of 2006, he had a supporting role in the live-action NBC sitcom Teachers.

Hendrie moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota and then to Miami, Florida where he further developed his show. The show then moved to KFI in Los Angeles, California and was nationally syndicated to approximately 100 radio stations. Hendrie was married in 1997 to radio talk show host Maria Sanchez. Their wedding was held at the Queen Mary and was broadcast live on KFI. In February 2005, Hendrie was moved from his flagship station, KFI, to XTRA Sports 570 AM, a sports talk radio station also centered in Los Angeles.

In early 2006, Hendrie announced that he was retiring from radio; yet the retirement proved to be temporary. He said that he felt he had reached the limits of what he could do in “terrestrial talk radio” and expressing a desire to shift his career focus toward acting. On June 4, 2007, it was announced that Phil Hendrie would return to radio June 25, 2007 from 10 PM to 1 AM PST on Talk Radio Network, with shows airing weeknightly. The new incarnation of Hendrie’s program is a combination of character voices from his old show and lighthearted political commentary.

Views and blog
Hendrie considers his views unique for modern talk radio: on one hand, he is a registered Democrat who vocally supported Bill Clinton, voted for Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000, both Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and Michael Dukakis over George H.W. Bush (although Hendrie claims “I had to hold my nose when voting for Dukakis”). Hendrie is also adamantly pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and pro-amnesty for illegal immigrants. At the same time, he is extremely supportive of the Iraq War as well as the War on Terror. He voted for and supported President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, chiding Democrat John Kerry as trying to be “all things to all people” and cautioning listeners that Bush would in time be viewed as one of the greatest American presidents. These views caused a stir among some of his fans and tended to dominate his show throughout 2002 and 2003. Hendrie eventually started a blog titled "George W. Bush is God," seemingly to incite those who felt he was moving too far to the right. The blog came down after a few weeks, partly because Hendrie was tired of squabbling with readers. He supported Barack Obama in 2008, as noted on his September 11, 2008 broadcast.

Phil Hendrie Show has also taken to Twitter, a social networking site, offering behind-the-scenes details of every show with posts by Phil's executive producer Jason Rantz and occasional posts by show character Bud Dickman. Phil posts under the moniker "PH".

Acting career
During his short retirement, Hendrie had several acting jobs.

Hendrie is the voice of I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. on South Park creators' Trey Parker and Matt Stone's feature film Team America.

Hendrie played a starring role in NBC’s short-lived midseason replacement sitcom, Teachers, in the spring of 2006. He has also completed pilots for Three Strikes and Giants of Talk Radio.

Hendrie has also completed a role as the NY Nets coach in the Will Ferrell film, Semi-Pro.

Hendrie also guest starred in two episodes of The Unit that originally aired October 10 and October 31, 2006. He played the part of a radio talk show host on a military base.

Hendrie has also guest starred in several episodes of Matt Groening’s cartoon show Futurama, voicing different members of a hippie family known as the Waterfalls, all of whom have been killed trying to defend what they protested for. He has also frequently done voice work on King of the Hill.