There Is No Other Talk Show Host Like Ric Oliveira!

A combination of unique life experiences, curious mind,  blue collar roots, cynical wit and a face for radio coagulate to deliver a view of modern life that has made him can't miss radio for news  junkies everywhere. And let's just say he knows how to accentuate headlines with 250 pound gorrilla like punchlines.

 Oliveira, a son of Azorean immigrants, born in Taunton, MA,  cut his teeth in the world of media while a student at Umass Amherst in 1987 working for the Daily Collegian and later as a disc jockey at WOZQ, Smith College, North Hampton, MA.

In 1990, his path turned to the unusual when he signed up for a college internship to teach at the Mohawk Survival School. A month after accepting the position, the Mohawks went to war with Canada after the natives objected to an effort to take contested Mohawk land for a 18 hole golf course. The Oka Crisis as it would be called found Ric being the only American journalist allowed to live in the reservation. He would lose most of his hair after witnessing the battle of Tekawitha Island when Mohawks repelled an advancing Army platoon which, despite firing 32 canisters of tear gas and being heavily armed, could not stop the unarmed Mohawk movement.

Upon returning to Umass he was named an editor at the Daily Collegian and given his own news radio show on WMUA. After college, he returned to his hometown of Taunton where he began working for the Taunton Daily Gazette where his reporting led to the removal of both the Conservation Commissioner and the Health Inspector. His tenure in Taunton was short-lived however, as he was hired by the Fall River Herald News where he was employed for two years. In 1993, he joined the staff of the New Bedford Standard Times where he won numerous AP and New England Press Association Awards. In 1997, his investigative work, which included the Aids on the Waterfront Series and a series on retroactive deportation earned him widespread acclaim among journalists. In the summer of 1997, he was hired by two time Emmy award winner Curt Worden to work on an international news report which aired on Nightline in November of 1997.

He also returned to radio, this time on WSAR during the late edition news segments.

In 1999, Ric, left the daily news business to take over a struggling ethnic newspaper called the O Jornal. Within two years, it became the first Portuguese newspaper in America to win a NEPA award and one of only handful of multilingual papers to win any American English newspaper contests. In 2000, he was given a half hour weekly news segment which, over the years, grew to a weekly one hour and then two hour show. In 2003, he openly questioned the logic for war in Iraq, coverage by the national media and whether any of the claims of weapons of mass destruction or ties to extremists were accurate or even vetted. While it was a controversial stance at the time and callers accused him of being a conspiracy theorist, he remained true to his questions. After a caller said his statements made him the most dangerous show on the radio, a legend was born.

  In 2008, he was given the chance to take over the 9 to 10 a.m. morning slot on WSAR where he continues to deliver underreported news with a twist and perception only Ric can offer.

Still don't understand Ric in action... See how other reporters described his style while interviewing  Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

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Check out Ric's book at: www.moccasinsandrazorwire.com