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Laura Schlessinger Filmography
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Laura Schlessinger: History
Born in 1947 in Brooklyn, New York to Monroe (Monty) Schlessinger and Yolanda Ceccovini Schlessinger, Laura Catherine Schlessinger grew up first in Brooklyn, then in Long Island, New York. She has described her childhood in a dysfunctional family as unpleasant, due to extended family rejection of her mixed-marriage parents (Monty was Jewish but an unbeliever, while Yolanda was an Italian Catholic war-bride) and due to what she has described as an unloving environment. She was an only child for eleven years until the birth of her sister, Cindy. An excellent student, Schlessinger received a bachelor degree from SUNY Stony Brook and a Ph.D. in Physiology from Columbia University. A brief marriage in her early twenties ended in divorce, and she moved to Los Angeles where her parents had resettled.
She received her certification in Marriage, Family and Child Counselling from University of Southern California (USC) and taught at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California, Irvine, USC, and Pepperdine University. While working at USC, she met Dr. Lewis G. Bishop, who was married with dependent children. According to the subsequent divorce filings, they began an affair. Schlessinger's contract with USC was not renewed, and Bishop chose to leave his tenured job at the same time. They married eight years later, in early 1985, and he became her business manager. After the reversal of a tubal ligation, and later suffering a tubal pregnancy, Schlessinger bore their only child Deryk in November, 1985 when she was 38.
Schlessinger's first radio engagement was as a guest on the Bill Ballance show in 1974. She did her own shows on a series of small radio stations before landing her current show at KFI in Los Angeles. The Dr. Laura Show was nationally syndicated in 1994. She sold ownership of the show to Jacor Communications, Inc. for $71 million, and at its peak, The Doctor Laura Show was heard on 471 radio stations. Jacor was then sold to Clear Channel Communications. Once the show joined the Clear Channel stable, Schlessinger's opinions appeared to move in a more politically conservative direction. KFI remains her flagship station but Schlessinger now broadcasts from her new home in Santa Barbara.
Schlessinger converted to Judaism in 1996, and she and her son Deryk joined the Conservative branch (it is unclear if her husband Lewis ever converted to Conservative Judaism). Then in 1998 the entire family converted to Orthodox Judaism under Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka of Ottawa, Ontario. Schlessinger often discussed religion on the show, giving examples from Judaism. She would clarify ethical and moral issues with her local Orthodox Rabbi, Moshe D. Bryski, before mentioning them on air. She was embraced by the politically conservative segment of Orthodox Judaism after bringing more awareness of Orthodoxy to her radio show. Schlessinger received a National Heritage award from the National Council of Young Israel in early 2001.
She has won awards from some media and many conservative organizations, including the National Religious Broadcasters' Chairman's Award. She also lectures on the national conservative circuit, and was the commencement speaker at Hillsdale College in June 2003. Her son matriculated there the following fall.
In July 2003, Schlessinger announced on her show that she was no longer an Orthodox Jew. This was a shock to both fans and detractors, given the effort she had put into identifying as an Orthodox Jew both on-air and off. In a series of monologues over the next month, she explained that she did not feel a connection with God and felt frustrated by the effort she had put into following the religion. She also mentioned envying the relationship with God described by her Christian fans. Her religious approach on the show lessened substantially after this announcement.
As of November 2003, her show is syndicated to 275 stations, down from a peak of 470.Stations lost include powerful ones such as WABC in New York.
http://www.radiotalk.org/news/drlaura.htmlAs of Fall 2004, her audience is estimated at eight million listeners.
http://www.talkers.com/talkaud.htmlCall volume has also declined, as can be observed by the number of callers invited to call back. At the show's peak, with 60,000 attempted calls per day, callers were told they only could appear once.
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