Michael Edward Reagan (born March 18, 1945) is an American radio host and Republican strategist. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Michael Reagan Talk Show, airs on stations throughout the United States on Radio America. Despite his successful media career, Reagan is perhaps best known as the adopted son of the late President Ronald Reagan.
He was born in California to Irene Flaugher, a single woman from Kentucky who became pregnant through an affair with an army corporal named John Bourgholtzer (died 1993), and was adopted by Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman shortly after his birth.
Reagan grew up in Beverly Hills, California and later nearby Pacific Palisades. One childhood story he has told that introduced him to politics was how he at the age of eight asked his father for a raise in his allowance. At the time, around 1953, his allowance was $1.00 a week. The elder Reagan said that since 90 percent of his earnings were taxed by government, he wasn't able to increase Mike's allowance. His father further said that when the President of the United States would give him a tax cut, then he could give his son an increase in his allowance. This, according to Michael Reagan, was how he was introduced to the subject of tax cuts and how that affected people.
Sometime prior to September 1970, Michael Reagan had been working as a salesman for the clothing company Hart, Schaffner & Marx. He then became a director of special events catering at Michaelson Food Service Company in Los Angeles. It was while in this last job that he announced his engagement to Pamela Gail Putnam (born 1952), an aspiring dental assistant. Pamela was the daughter of Duane Putnam, who was then the Atlanta Falcons football line coach. The couple married later that year, but were divorced in 1971.
He married Colleen Sterns, an interior decorator, in 1975. Together, they have two children, son Cameron and daughter Ashley, and reside in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles.
As a young man, Reagan raced boats and later also sold them at a California boat dealership. He set world records in power boat racing and raised more than $1.5 million for charities like the United States Olympic Team, Cystic Fibrosis and Juvenile Diabetes Foundations and the Statue of Liberty Restoration Fund through his race team. His efforts were recognized when he became a recipient of the Victor Award for outstanding sports and humanitarian achievement.
Michael Reagan addresses sailors of the USS Ronald Reagan, 2002
His first entertainment broadcast job was as a game show host, in charge of the original syndicated version of Lingo, which was taped in Canada but broadcast in the United States. The show lasted only for the 1987-1988 season, and Reagan left the show before its demise in the wake of financial problems with the show's producers.
In 1988 he authored with Joe Hyams an autobiographical book Michael Reagan: On The Outside Looking In.
His talk radio career started in the Southern California local market as a guest host for Michael Jackson's talk radio show slot on KABC-AM in Los Angeles. After this beginning, he landed a talk show spot on KSDO radio in San Diego, California. Reagan's rating success in the San Diego market gave him the opportunity to take his talk show nationwide in 1992. Reagan continues to host his four-hour talk show, and also does public speaking to groups. He also delivers conservative commentary from time to time on cable television news programs such as the Fox News Channel as well as on the Internet for websites such as NewsMax. He also wrote a book titled Twice Adopted in 2004. Reagan's radio program, The Michael Reagan Talk Show, is carried on numerous terrestrial stations, as well as on both major satellite-radio services, by Radio America, a conservative-oriented radio network.
Reagan's frequently interjects his broadcasts with provocative and, at times, controversial statements. Reacting to the Mark Foley scandal in 2006, Reagan said, "Any member of Congress who was aware of the sexual emails and protected the congressman should also resign effective immediately." When he said that children named Hezbollah, after the Lebanese group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., would eventually become terrorists themselves and, hence, "he would like to stick grenades in their rear ends and make them explode", the religion writer for the Austin American-Statesman characterized his words as "vile", "hateful" and "outrageous". The liberal media watch dog group Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting characterized statements by Reagan as "death threats" when he criticized Mark Dice and other individuals who sent letters and DVDs to U.S. troops stationed in Iraq blaming the government for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Reagan said, for instance, "We ought to find the people who are doing this, take them out and shoot them. Really. You take them out, they are traitors to this country, and shoot them.... I'll pay for the bullets." Reagan later apologized for these statements, saying they were "stupid".
Reagan supported Mitt Romney until he dropped out of the race on February 7, 2008. Eight days later Reagan announced his support for Senator John McCain of Arizona, comparing the nomination battle between Romney and McCain to the 1976 battle between Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. Based on his father's actions after losing to Ford in 1976, Michael Reagan says that the elder Reagan would've supported McCain.
