to 12:00 a.m.; this meant that his show was not audible during the summer months, when WLW broadcasted Cincinnati Reds baseball games. Cunningham's show was relocated to early afternoons in the late 1990s, directly against one of his favorite radio stars, Rush Limbaugh, whose show can be heard on sister station 550 WKRC.
Cunningham is a Republican (though he frequently distances himself from that name in response to what he sees as terrible Republican politics), and his political views are primarily conservative, with some libertarian leanings.
Cunningham frequently refers to guests or callers whose remarks or points of view he likes and values as "A Great American." While Cunningham will spend the most of his program criticizing liberal politics, he will frequently mention his dislike for Republicans who do not follow conservative ideals, referring to them as RINOs (Republican In Name Only).
Cunningham covers a wide range of issues, but his primary concentration is on national and local (Greater Cincinnati) news and politics. His efforts to explore conservative values frequently lead to edgy evaluations, which occasionally result in reaction.
Cunningham, on the other hand, would frequently try to defend (or at least clarify) his ideas as they pertain to local or national concerns, usually near the end of his on-air conversations.
In 2001, shortly after racial riots erupted in response to the police shooting of an African-American youth escaping their pursuit, Federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Nathaniel Jones slammed Cunningham in a speech at a local YMCA, calling the show "trash, filth, and obscenity." (Jones is a former civil rights lawyer who worked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Cunningham has been a vocal opponent of the organization and civil rights advocates in general, notably Rev.
Jesse Jackson, whom he dubs the Rhyming Reverend.) Cunningham was chastised again in December 2003 for making fun of Nathaniel Jones (not to be confused with the aforementioned judge), an African-American resident of Cincinnati who died after violently resisting police outside a White Castle restaurant; video of the incident enraged the local African-American community.
Jones, who weighed more than 350 pounds (159 kilograms), died of an enlarged heart, and different drugs were discovered in his body when he was aggressively fighting arrest at the time of his death, which may have contributed to his response to police efforts to control him.
Cunningham mocked Jones' weight and suspected drug use in a sketch on his show, prompting many local civil rights organizations to ask for his resignation or dismissal.
Cunningham sparked another controversy on February 26, 2008, when he spoke at a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate John McCain at Cincinnati's Memorial Hall, repeatedly referring to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, and calling him a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician.
Cunningham also assured the audience that the media will ultimately peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama, revealing his ties to accused donor Antoin Rezko and the good deals Obama obtained in Chicago. After the gathering, McCain rebuked Cunningham's statements and indicated that he wished to distance himself from any derogatory remarks made against Obama.
Cunningham subsequently, without remorse, referred to John McCain as John Juan Pablo McCain, accusing him of (throwing him under the bus), the Straight-Talk Express. Cunningham took over the Matt Drudge show on Sunday nights from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
on 320 radio stations, including his flagship station WLW, which occasionally preempts the show for special sports programming and does not broadcast the fourth hour (which is preempted for America's Trucking Network's local hour). The show is also available on XM Satellite Radio channel 165 in its entirety.
Cunningham's latest effort to host a first-run syndicated television talk program is titled The Bill Cunningham Show. Cunningham is a co-producer on the film. The show premiered on September 19, 2011, and is produced and distributed by Tribune Entertainment.
Prior to becoming national, it aired only on Tribune's O&Os, stations owned by Local TV, LLC, and Raycom Media-owned WXIX in Cunningham's hometown of Cincinnati. Cunningham's series has a tabloid-style structure, but he takes a no-nonsense conservative attitude.
Cunningham and the show's crew reportedly verbally attacked some kid beauty pageant competitors, as well as their mothers, during the program's trial run in 2010, and urged the crowd to do the same.
The event was one of five filmed episodes that were scheduled to be shown as a test run but were not because the guests sued the show and Tribune for physical abuse during the filming. Cunningham is the third syndicated daytime TV talk show presenter from Ohio, following Phil Donahue and Jerry Springer.
The show is produced in New York City, with assistance from ITV Studios America.
