Benjamin Grant Ferguson (born August 28, 1981) is an American
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
talk show host and a radio talk show host on 600WREC/Memphis, TN. His radio show originates from his home in Texas. His
nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Ben Ferguson Show'', airs throughout the United States Sunday nights on
Radio America and is syndicated by ICON Radio Network. Since 2018, his show ''The Ferguson File'' has aired middays on
CRTV, which in December 2018 merged with BlazeTV to form
Blaze Media
Blaze Media is an American conservative media company. It was founded in 2018 as a result of a merger between TheBlaze and CRTV LLC. The company's leadership consists of Chief executive officer, CEO Tyler Cardon and president Gaston Mooney. It ...
.
He is also a regular political commentator on CNN.
Early life and education
Ben Ferguson was born to Bruce and Karen Ferguson on August 28, 1981. He has an older sister, Holly. Ferguson was
homeschooled
Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...
by his mother in Memphis, TN through the tenth grade. Ben has Scottish ancestry. A local talk-radio host throughout his teens, Ferguson attended
Tusculum College
Tusculum University is a private Presbyterian university with its main campus in Tusculum, Tennessee. It is Tennessee's first university and the 28th-oldest operating college in the United States.
In addition to its main campus, the institution ...
, but later, graduated from
Westminster Academy. He went on to the
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment ...
,
[Local, International Journalists Intrigued with Debate and University](_blank)
Ole Miss (accessed April 23, 2010) intending to play tennis; he became a member of
Kappa Alpha Order
Kappa Alpha Order (), commonly known as Kappa Alpha or simply KA, is a social fraternity and a fraternal order founded in 1865 at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia. As of December 2015, the Kappa Alph ...
fraternity. He graduated from Ole Miss in 2004. Ben married Anna Bradley Ferguson in March 2010.
Political activities
Ferguson is a member of
Students for Saving Social Security (S4). In July 2005, as S4's political director, Ferguson was selected by the White House to join
President Bush and
Ben Stein for a town hall meeting in an effort to educate the public on the issue of social security reform. Ferguson also spends several weeks a year on the road speaking at youth leadership conferences, high schools and college campuses nationwide. He has become a regular keynote speaker for several groups, including Congressional Youth Leadership and Lead America.
Ferguson is an avid critic of former Memphis Mayor
W. W. Herenton. When Herenton resigned and then decided to run again for mayor not two weeks later, Ferguson entered the political scene and pulled a petition to run for Memphis City Mayor. He withdrew from the election when Herenton also withdrew.
Broadcasting career
At 13, Ben Ferguson became the youngest radio talk show host in the country, and the youngest nationally syndicated host at 20. Ferguson published his first book, a political work, “It’s My America Too,” published by William Morris/Harper Collins in 2004 which USA Today named a “top choice read.”
In August 2007, Ferguson joined 600 WREC in Memphis as its morning radio host. He was then moved to the afternoon drive show from 4 to 7pm CT.
On April 20, 2010, Ferguson resigned from WREC. In a statement he said, "I have left the station, effective today. I’m looking forward to a new market and a new show, in addition to my national show and my continuing appearances on such networks as CNBC, CNN and MSNBC."
Later, it was stated that Ferguson left WREC after an impasse in contract negotiations. It was then announced that Ben Ferguson would take over the 4–7pm slot on another local radio station, KWAM. Controversial radio host Thaddeus Matthews was fired to make room for Ferguson.
On April 1, 2012, Ferguson became the regular fill-in for Mark Davis on WBAP in Texas, as Davis was involved in contract disputes with the new owners of WBAP, Cumulus Media. When a new contract could not be reached between Mark Davis and Cumulus, Ferguson became the permanent host of the 9–11am CT time slot. Ben currently lives in Dallas, Texas.
Ferguson's national talk-radio show focuses on current events from a conservative point of view. The Ben Ferguson Show can be heard over ICON Radio Network weekly on Sunday evenings from 7 to 10pm ET.
Ferguson hosted a local radio show in Memphis during evening drive time slot (from 4 to 7pm) weekdays on
WREC (600 AM) in Memphis until April 20, 2010. On May 3, 2010,
KWAM 990 announced that he would be their new evening drive time host. On April 25, 2011, Ben moved to
WKIM 98.9 FM, coinciding with a format change in the station to an all-talk network.
In late 2018, Ferguson moved to CRTV, the channel founded by
Mark Levin
Mark Reed Levin (; born September 21, 1957) is an American lawyer, author, and radio personality. He is the host of syndicated radio show '' The Mark Levin Show'', as well as '' Life, Liberty & Levin'' on Fox News. Levin worked in the admin ...
's
Conservative Review
The ''Conservative Review'' is an American website and brand owned and operated by Blaze Media. It was founded in 2014 by a group of conservative political operatives. The site's stated goal is to "cut through the talking points and the smoke ...
, to host a midday talk show called 'The Ferguson File'. In December of that year, CRTV merged with
Glenn Beck's BlazeTV to form Blaze Media, and Ferguson's show moved to the new combined channel, which is carried by numerous cable systems across the country as well as streamed online.
In January 2021, Ferguson announced a podcast deal with
Premiere Networks
Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. ...
that allowed his show to be part of the
iHeartRadio podcast network.
He also appears frequently on
Fox News Channel,
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
,
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
,
Fox Business, CNN, and
CNN Headline News.
Republican National Convention appearance
Ferguson addressed the 2004
Republican National Convention. His speech was quoted in various news outlets, including the
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
,
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
and
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Alle ...
.
Bibliography
*''It's My America Too: A Leading Young Conservative Shares His Views on Politics and Other Matters of Importance'', 2004,
William Morrow ()
References
External links
Ferguson's Network Talk Show WebsiteTalk Shows USA AnnouncementNews Article on His Departure from WREC*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Ben
American talk radio hosts
1981 births
Living people
University of Mississippi alumni