Several news junkies and other informed citizens have come to depend on the unique objectivity of Jamie Dupree's reports. whether you're a listener to any of the Cox Communications' network of local radio stations (like KRMG in Tulsa), or you listen to the Sean Hannity or Herman Cain radio shows....
Jamie Dupree posesses an amazing sense of objectivity about national politics. His reports help good citizens to remain grounded and see all sides of controversial political subjects.
Last Spring Jamie left the airwaves with no explanation. Only recently have we been enlightened on why we no longer hear from him. WFXT posted this interview...
Jamie Dupree posesses an amazing sense of objectivity about national politics. His reports help good citizens to remain grounded and see all sides of controversial political subjects.
Last Spring Jamie left the airwaves with no explanation. Only recently have we been enlightened on why we no longer hear from him. WFXT posted this interview...
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Jamie Dupree has served as the tether that connects Atlanta's WSB Radio and other Cox Media Group stations across the country to Washington, D.C. He has been the trusted voice of politics for millions — the soothing, evenhanded straight man to the station’s conservative barn-burners. First Neal Boortz, now Herman Cain and Sean Hannity.
In the middle of the most explosive presidential contest of our lifetime, Dupree’s voice abandoned him — and has yet to return. He has not been on the radio since the July conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia. He can speak only a few syllables before words begin shattering like broken glass. The cause may be unknown, but the condition has a name: muscle tension dysphonia.
“Basically, the muscles in my larynx aren’t working together right now. No one knows why. I had a Botox shot back in September, but it didn’t help,” Dupree, 52, wrote this week. “I’m going to try again after Thanksgiving. And yes, that needle is long. I just try to look away. My friends like to joke that my neck has no wrinkles now.” |
Dupree has seen doctors at Georgetown University in Washington, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Emory University in Atlanta.
“It’s sort of a medical mystery. My health is good, but my voice is not. I keep hoping a doctor somewhere will have seen something like this before,” he tapped out. “My bosses in Atlanta have been very supportive in recent months. But it is a bit stressful when the key to your employment — in my case, my voice — decides to go away.”
He still has a brood of kids, ages 8, 10 and 12, to see through college.
“Every day I get up in the morning, I hope that my voice will magically appear. It has not as yet, but I remain a relentlessly optimistic person,” he wrote. “The most frustrating part is not being able to speak to my wife, my kids, my father, and my friends.”
The situation is an odd one. If his mouth is full of food, Dupree can speak for perhaps five or 10 seconds. Or if he has some water in his mouth. Or a golf tee or toothpick between his teeth.
“My doctors say those actions interrupt the brain’s signals to the larynx just enough that things operate normally — for a few seconds,” he wrote.
Even speechless, the D.C.-based Dupree kept a full schedule during the campaign. “I do need someone else to ask the questions, though this morning I wrote questions down on my reporter’s notebook and used that to get interviews with a few lawmakers. I took a campaign trip to Pennsylvania in October with a colleague from our bureau. She did the talking,” Dupree wrote.
Fortunately for him, politics isn’t a business in which your subjects need much prompting.
“I remember interviewing U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., after one Clinton-Trump debate. I said, ‘Well?’ He took it from there,” Dupree tapped.
Dupree’s trying his hand at other venues that require fingers rather than vocal cords. He blogs, for instance. “I have a big audience on Twitter, so I have thrown my energy into my blog and social media,” he wrote. “Instead of being on WSB on Election Night, I did as much coverage as I could by tweeting — then my stations used that on the air instead of my voice.”
For 28 years, Dupree has kept a brutal weekday schedule. Atlantans think Dupree is theirs, but so do other communities. When his voice was still with him, Dupree was up at 6 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. conversation with WGAU in Athens. Fifteen minutes later, he would be on WSB with early morning host Scott Slade. Then Jacksonville, Florida, at 6:53 a.m.; Orlando, Florida, at 7:10 a.m.; Dayton, Ohio, at 7:23 a.m.; Tulsa, Oklahoma, at 7:53 a.m.; back to Orlando at 8:10 a.m., back to Atlanta at 8:15 a.m. and Jacksonville at 8:23 a.m.
“The Wheel” is what they call it.
“It’s sort of a medical mystery. My health is good, but my voice is not. I keep hoping a doctor somewhere will have seen something like this before,” he tapped out. “My bosses in Atlanta have been very supportive in recent months. But it is a bit stressful when the key to your employment — in my case, my voice — decides to go away.”
He still has a brood of kids, ages 8, 10 and 12, to see through college.
“Every day I get up in the morning, I hope that my voice will magically appear. It has not as yet, but I remain a relentlessly optimistic person,” he wrote. “The most frustrating part is not being able to speak to my wife, my kids, my father, and my friends.”
The situation is an odd one. If his mouth is full of food, Dupree can speak for perhaps five or 10 seconds. Or if he has some water in his mouth. Or a golf tee or toothpick between his teeth.
“My doctors say those actions interrupt the brain’s signals to the larynx just enough that things operate normally — for a few seconds,” he wrote.
Even speechless, the D.C.-based Dupree kept a full schedule during the campaign. “I do need someone else to ask the questions, though this morning I wrote questions down on my reporter’s notebook and used that to get interviews with a few lawmakers. I took a campaign trip to Pennsylvania in October with a colleague from our bureau. She did the talking,” Dupree wrote.
Fortunately for him, politics isn’t a business in which your subjects need much prompting.
“I remember interviewing U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., after one Clinton-Trump debate. I said, ‘Well?’ He took it from there,” Dupree tapped.
Dupree’s trying his hand at other venues that require fingers rather than vocal cords. He blogs, for instance. “I have a big audience on Twitter, so I have thrown my energy into my blog and social media,” he wrote. “Instead of being on WSB on Election Night, I did as much coverage as I could by tweeting — then my stations used that on the air instead of my voice.”
For 28 years, Dupree has kept a brutal weekday schedule. Atlantans think Dupree is theirs, but so do other communities. When his voice was still with him, Dupree was up at 6 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. conversation with WGAU in Athens. Fifteen minutes later, he would be on WSB with early morning host Scott Slade. Then Jacksonville, Florida, at 6:53 a.m.; Orlando, Florida, at 7:10 a.m.; Dayton, Ohio, at 7:23 a.m.; Tulsa, Oklahoma, at 7:53 a.m.; back to Orlando at 8:10 a.m., back to Atlanta at 8:15 a.m. and Jacksonville at 8:23 a.m.
“The Wheel” is what they call it.
The folks at Massachusetts' WFXT-TV conducted an email interview with Jamie Dupree. We've posted excerpts here. For the complete story, go to their site.
