Nashville Talk Radio Host Phil Valentine Has Died

  WWTN radio announced on Saturday that Nashville talk radio host Phil Valentine has died. He was 61 years old. The news came in a tweet from the official Twitter account of WWTN radio shortly after 4 p.m. Central Time on Saturday. “We are saddened to report that our host and friend Phil Valentine has passed away. Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and prayers,” the station tweeted. We are saddened to report that our host and friend Phil Valentine has passed away. Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and prayers. pic.twitter.com/vhXpE7x0oX — SuperTalk 99.7 WTN (@997wtn) August 21, 2021 Valentine announced on his Facebook page on July 11, 2021 that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He was hospitalized several days later, and was subsequently placed on a ventilator. Former State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mount Juliet) said Valentine was instrumental in the state income tax fight from 1999 to 2001. “If it had not been for his voice and others on the radio, people would not have had the information they needed to come and protest the income tax,” Beavers told The Tennessee Star. “The people showed up, made noise, and we defeated the state income tax.…

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Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief to Guest Host the Dan Mandis Show on WTN Today and Interview Carol Swain About Moral Leadership

Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy will guest host The Dan Mandis Show from noon to 3 p.m. central time on Supertalk 99.7 WTN today, President’s Day, Monday, February 19. The first hour will address the turbulent recent events in Tennessee politics, including Sen. Bob Corker’s (R-TN) potential re-entry into the U.S. Senate race and the controversy surrounding Nashville Mayor Megan Barry. At 12:30 former Vanderbilt professor Carol Swain will offer her commentary on Megan Barry’s lack of moral leadership and its impact on Nashville, the hypocrisy of the #metoo movement with regards to Barry’s extramarital affair with her Metro Nashville Police bodyguard, and the Megan Barry Must Resign rally Tuesday. In the 1 p.m. hour, conservative icon Richard Viguerie, president of ConservativeHQ.com, will discuss the status of 2018 midterm elections. In the second half of that hour, author and Reagan biographer Craig Shirley will offer his reflections on Ronald Reagan on President’s Day, discuss his most recent books, Reagan Rising: The Decisive Years, 1976-1980 and Citizen Newt:The Making of a Reagan Conservative, and will let us in on his future book projects. The final hour of the program will focus on civic education and instruction of elementary and secondary school…

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Marsha Blackburn Tells WTN’s Brian Wilson She’s In It to Win It

GOP Senate candidate and current Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) told Brian Wilson on WTN SuperTalk 99.7 Thursday that she is in it to win it when he asked about the possibility of Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) ‘un-retiring’ and running for re-election this year in the Republican primary. Brian Wilson set up the phone interview, saying: “Yesterday, there was a bit of news about Bob Corker, who said he might ‘un-retire,’ and I was on record saying that I didn’t think that was right. If you say you’re going to retire, then you’re going to retire, because other people are then going to jump in the race. “This effected, of course, the Senate campaign of one Marsha Blackburn,” Wilson continued, “who joins us on the line right now.” After he graciously welcomed Blackburn on the air, and the niceties were exchanged, Wilson got right down to business. “Here’s the thing – what was your reaction when you – after you’ve jumped into the race, started spending money on a campaign, and started doing everything that you should do to run for the office, that was going to be vacated. What was your reaction when you learned that Bob corker was now, all of a sudden,…

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Ralph Bristol Out at Cumulus Media’s SuperTalk 99.7 WTN

After an 11-year run as the host of  Nashville’s Morning News, broadcast giant Cumulus Media and Ralph Bristol have parted ways. Bristol posted a lengthy statement on his Facebook page: GOOD MORNING NASHVILLE, IT’S….OVER Cumulus Media terminated my employment today due to irreconcilable editorial differences. We cannot agree on what information and communications should be kept private and which should be hashed out publicly. Since I won’t abide by their rules, they will not abide by my continued employment. Please know first, I am not sad or angry. And I have nothing to fear, financially or otherwise. I’m free, happy and as blessed as ever. As I leave the radio, I want to thank a bunch of people, including, but not first, those who fired me, and it’s probably best that I didn’t do this on the air because you’ve heard enough of this particular grown man cry, and I tend to get emotional when I say nice things about people. I’d like to start by thanking my “Gang of Four,” Doogie Vance, Ken Weaver and Chris Weber, who along with me, have solved all of mankind’s important problems during a daily segment that started many years ago as a traffic…

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Councilman Robert Swope Speaks Out Against ‘Sanctuary City’ Ordinance

Tennessee Star

  Councilman Robert Swope told WTN 99.7 FM talk show host Dan Mandis this week that the proposed “sanctuary city” ordinance would create a new class of citizens that would conflict with existing laws. The measure, which would restrict local cooperation with federal immigration officials, was passed on a second reading Tuesday and is up for a final vote next month. Swope has been against the measure from the start, being the only Metro Council member to vote against it on the first reading June 6. Seven other council members joined him this week in voting against it, but 25 voted for it. “If you are breaking the law, then you need to be punished, not be put into a separate class of citizens that says, OK, well, you can break the law but nobody else can,” Swope said in his interview Wednesday with Mandis. Swope spoke of the dangers involved in obstructing the sheriff’s ability to detain criminal illegal immigrants for deportation. Opposition to the ordinance is not about “rounding up” Davidson County’s estimated 33,000 illegal immigrants and “throwing them back across any single single border,” Swope said. In a recent week, 19 illegal immigrants were detained for deportation by the Metro Nashville…

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Mark Green Tells WWTN’s Pamela Furr He ‘Will Be Making an Announcement in the Next Day or So’ About Possible Campaign

State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) told WWTN 99.7 FM’s Pamela Furr, sitting in as host of the Dan Mandis Show on Thursday, that he will “be making an announcement in the next day or so” about his political future. Furr also asked Green about his plans after his announcement last month that he was withdrawing as a candidate for the Secretary of the Army. Green has been widely mentioned as a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor of Tennessee in 2018. Furr also noted that there were rumors that he might instead challenge Senator Bob Corker, who is also up for re-election in 2018. “Now what are you going to do?” Furr asked. “We have pretty much settled on a decision and are looking to probably make an announcement in the next day or so on what’s next for us. There are lots of options out there. We’ll be making an announcement in the next day or so,” Green said. Furr pressed Green to respond to some of his critics. “There are those that think you backed down pretty quickly. What would you say to those who would be critical of you?” Furr asked. “The issue of pulling my…

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