What Is Michael Savage's Net Worth and Salary?
Michael Savage is an American radio host, author, and political commentator who has a net worth of $80 million. Michael Savage is most widely recognized for his radio show, "Savage Nation," and the related series of books he has released promoting "conservative nationalism."
Early Life
Michael Savage was born Michael Alan Weiner in The Bronx, New York, on March 31, 1942. He is one of three children of Benjamin and Rae Weiner, Jewish emigrants from Russia. Savage has described his childhood as difficult with a "gruff, profane" father who would often criticize him. His younger brother Jerome was born unable to hear or speak and died in 1969. His father died of a heart attack at age 57 in 1970.
Michael graduated from Jamaica High School in 1958 and attended Queens College, earning a bachelor's degree in biology in 1963. After earning his B.S., he taught high school for several years in New York City. During this time, he worked for famous psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary as a keeper of the stone gatehouse on the Hitchcock Cattle Company estate, to which Leary had been given access. He hired him for the post specifically because Savage did not use LSD. Michael holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in nutritional ethnomedicine and master's degrees in medical botany and medical anthropology from the University of Hawaii.
Radio Career
In 1994, Savage's manuscript about illegal immigration was rejected by publishers. This prompted him to record a demo tape with a mock radio talk host about the contents of his work. He mailed the tape to 250 radio stations across the country in an attempt to change the course of his career and become a radio talk show host. In March 1994, Savage began his radio career on San Francisco's KGO as a fill-in host for liberal Ray Taliaferro's overnight show. At the time, Savage's slogan was "To the right of Rush and to the left of God." The show quickly became a local hit.
Later that year, KGO's parent company purchased the station and changed it to a conservative talk format. On January 2, 1995, Michael debuted as host of the afternoon drive-time show "The Savage Nation." In 1999, Talk Radio Network began syndicating the show nationally. In September 2000, "The Savage Nation" became an entirely national show. By mid-2006, Michael had 8-10 million listeners per week, making his show the third most widely heard broadcast in the country at that time. By 2009, the show was being played on 400 stations across the United States, making it the second most listened-to radio talk show in the nation.
In September 2009, Savage's home market of San Francisco announced it was dropping his program and replacing him with John and Ken from sister station KFI-AM in Los Angeles. John Scott, program director of KNEW, said in an email that the station was headed "… in a different philosophical and ideological direction, featuring more contemporary content and more local information." However, Savage filed a lawsuit in an attempt to break from his contract and won the lawsuit the morning of September 27, 2012, which led to the immediate cancellation of the show and forced Talk Radio Network to hire a replacement in short order. Michael also won the rights to his entire archive but was required to agree to a four-week non-compete clause, which prevented "The Savage Nation" from being picked up by another network in that time frame.
Via Michael Savage
The show was revived on Cumulus Media Networks on October 23, 2012. It aired a new time slot, 9:00 P.M. to Midnight ET. The following year, Savage changed back to afternoon drive hours, replacing Sean Hannity for Cumulus Media Networks, thus inciting a feud between the two talk show hosts. In 2016, Michael was widely credited with helping Donald Trump become the President of the United States. He is known as "The Godfather of Trumpmania."
In January 2019, "The Savage Nation" was cut to two hours, only one of which is carried on terrestrial radio, with the second hour exclusively carried as a podcast. In September 2020, Michael announced that he and Westwood One would be withdrawing the radio show from syndication at the end of the year, leaving only the podcast, and that Savage was under a gag order as to why the change was being made
At the peak of "The Savage Nation," his show had an audience of nearly 10 million per day and was broadcast on 400 radio stations in the United States. Michael Savage has written 40 books, including two #1 "New York Times" bestsellers. In March 2017, Savage released what he professed would be his last book in the political sphere: "Trump's War: His Battle For America."
Political Views
Michael characterizes his views as conservative nationalism and has said he can describe his political philosophy in three words: borders, language, and culture. He supports the English-only movement, opposes illegal immigration to the U.S., and says that progressivism and liberalism are degrading our American culture.
Controversies
In 2009, Savage was banned from entering the United Kingdom. In 2014, Savage aroused even further controversy by setting his sights on sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder, calling sufferers of that condition "weak" and drawing parallels between their plight and the Obama administration. In 2020, Savage vehemently opposed wearing masks in public to slow the spread of COVID-19 in both indoor and outdoor settings. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Michael subscribes to the white genocide conspiracy theory, a white nationalist belief. Throughout his career, he has often been under fire from LGBT groups for various insulting statements.
Personal Life
Michael's first marriage in 1964 to Carol Ely ended in divorce, and he remarried in 1967 after meeting his current wife, Janet. He and Janet have two children, a daughter and a son. Interestingly, Michael's son Russ Weiner is the billionaire founder of Rockstar Energy Drink. Janet was Russ' earliest investor and served as the company's CFO. When Pepsi acquired Rockstar for $3.85 billion in March 2020, Russ was left with a net worth of $4 billion, while Janet was left with a net worth of at least $200 million.
Real Estate
Michael owns several mansions around the country. In the Bay Area, he owns at least three properties, two in Marin County and a condo in San Francisco. He also owns homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and Beverly Hills, California.
