More than 300 Friends of Radio America, led by Sen. George Allen (R.-Va.) and Rep. Dan Lungren (R.-Calif.), celebrated the conservative network’s 20th anniversary last night at a gala reception at the Grand Ballroom of the Willard Inter-Continental Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Among the many guests at the event sponsored by Pfizer Inc. were the Washington Times’ Wes Pruden, Human Events’ Terry Jeffrey, Tom Winter and John Gizzi, the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes, Special Assistant to the President Tim Goeglein, Ken Miniter, Doug Stephans, Alan Nathan, and commentator G. Gordon Liddy. Radio host Michael Reagan broadcast live throughout the reception.
In his opening remarks, Radio America President James C. Roberts said: “Even though we are turning our thoughts to Christmas, it is the spirit of Thanksgiving which we just celebrated which is most relevant to me on this evening. Because I owe a debt of gratitude to tens, hundreds, no thousands of people who have sustained Radio America over the past 20 years and enabled me to stand here today.”
As a long-standing champion of limited government, the free market and traditional American values producing an array of news, talk and documentary programs, Radio America has matured into a network producing live programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week for more than 550 affiliate stations.
Roberts used the occasion to announce a $20-million campaign to establish the Ronald Reagan Broadcast Center in Washington, D.C. This project, Roberts said, “will provide a permanent home for Radio America and will enable us to make a major contribution to the conservative cause in news programming and broadcast training - two areas conservative presence is needed desperately.”
