Bryan Suits (born 1966) is an American
war veteran of three
military conflicts in Kuwait, Bosnia, and Iraq, and has been a talk radio host for more than 10 years. He has hosted talk-shows for radio stations in
Seattle, Washington:
KIRO (AM) and
KVI, and in
Los Angeles:
KFI AM 640. Suits was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and grew up in
Washington. He was heard weekday afternoons on
KOGO-AM/FM in
San Diego in 201112 and Saturday evenings on
KFI from 2009 to November 2013. Suits did a brief Monday - Friday stint on KABC, Los Angeles in the 9am12noon slot beginning in 2014. However, he ultimately was summoned back to KFI hosting Saturday evening program "Dark Secret Place", Sunday evening program "Super Hyper Local Sunday"a and served as the official military and tactical sounding board for other KFI shows for related news.
In July 2021, Suits announced that he would be leaving KFI. Six months later, he would return to Seattle to host morning show, "The Bryan Suits Show" on KTTH AM 770. Suits is also available through the subscription service Patreon for military and foreign affairs news.
Biography
After graduating from
Washington State University, Suits became a
broker-trainee at
Drexel Burnham Lambert
Drexel Burnham Lambert was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, it was a ...
.
Personal life
Suits has one son, with his ex-wife Rachel Suits, named Audie Dorian Suits. AKA his "Varmint."
Military service
Enlisting in the
United States Army Reserve in 1989, he served in
Operation Desert Storm as a
medic in HHT/2nd Squadron 2nd Armored Cavalry. In 1992, Suits was called up as a California Army National Guardsman in 4bn 160th Infantry in response to civil unrest following the "Rodney King" verdicts. In 1998 he deployed as a member of the
Oregon Army National Guard to
Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...
as part of
SFOR, the NATO mission to Bosnia. Suits was involved in the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia) investigation of the Croatian militia called "The Jokers." This work is still classified. In 2002, he attended
Officer Candidate School and received his commission. As a member of C Company, 1st Battalion,
161st Infantry Regiment,
Washington Army National Guard he deployed as part of
Operation Iraqi Freedom
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
. His infantry company's Area of Operational Responsibility included the Tuwaitha nuclear complex (bombed by Israel in May 1981). Due to delays in replacements, the battalion's deployment was extended to 19 months. Suits was awarded the
Bronze Star Medal
The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone.
Wh ...
and was wounded in action several times. He was subsequently awarded the
Purple Heart.
While serving in Iraq he met individuals who stated they were involved in the
transportation of Iraqi WMDs to Syria.
While in
Iraq he occasionally called into the
Kirby Wilbur Show and reported on his experiences. He was also a contributor to the Iraq election log on the
BBC news website.
Lieutenant Suits collected
rubber boots
The Wellington boot was originally a type of leather boot adapted from Hessian boots, a style of military riding boot. They were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The "Wellington" boot became a staple of pr ...
from his
radio show
A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode.
Radio networ ...
listeners and distributed them to Iraqi
children
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...
in what became known as "Boots for Suits". Upon his arrival back from his tour of duty in Iraq, he claimed that his ballot for the November 2004
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
, which he said was mailed to his wife from Iraq, was never counted. His claim became part of the public debate surrounding the contested
2004 Washington gubernatorial election
The 2004 Washington gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 2004. The race gained national attention for its legal twists and extremely close finish, among the closest political races in United States election history. Republican Dino Ros ...
. During the peak of the
Tea Party movement, Suits spoke to Tea Party rallies as both a radio host and a soldier with experience in the War on Terror.
Media career
The "Bryan Suits Show" first ran Monday to Friday from 9pm to 1am
PT on
KIRO (AM) from 1999 to 2002. Suits then moved to the prime drive time hours of 5am to 9am PT on
KVI, following
Sean Hannity. The topics on the show ranged from local news to kicker stories to the
War on Terror. Suits usually employed his
sense of humor on all topics. He referred to the last hour of his show as "The Iraq Block" and devoted it mostly to discussion on the war in Iraq. It is in this hour that his experience in Iraq helped put some news items in
perspective. Suits was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and returned to KVI in 2005 to continue his show. Suits reported on his KVI show that during his 2003 Iraq deployment, he received an injury to his groin area from a roadside IED and now suffers from BPS.
On March 6, 2003, an Iraqi caller named "Mohammed" confronted
United for Peace and Justice spokesperson Andrea Buffa on Suits' show. The clip was posted on the KVI website and quickly circulated around the Internet. However, some individuals noted that the individual did not have an Iraqi Arab accent.
Suits' show was canceled by KVI on November 9, 2007. Some listeners complained that November 9 was the Friday preceding the
Veterans Day holiday (observed on November 11, each year in the U.S.).
Suits' show was replaced by the KVI show ''The Commentators'' with
John Carlson and
Ken Schram
Kenneth George Schram (December 17, 1947 – May 29, 2014) was an American news and radio broadcaster. He was based in Seattle, Washington and was the former host of local-affairs show ''Town Meeting'' and KOMO 4’s evening news segments called " ...
, formerly aired from 9am to 12noon. KVI aired the Laura Ingram show from 3pm to 5pm. KVI put Peter Weissbach in for an hour of Bryan's old time slot (56pm), the host whom Suits had been brought in to replace.
Suits periodically filled in as a guest host from 7 to 10pm, following the contentious removal of
John Ziegler in December 2007 on
KFI, AM 640 of Los Angeles.
Suits announced December 31, 2007 that he had accepted a position from 7 to 10pm, following
John and Ken
''The John and Ken Show'' is an American talk radio show, hosted by ''John Chester Kobylt'' and ''Kenneth Robertson Chiampou''. The show airs Monday thru Friday, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time on KFI AM 640, a local Southern California talk ...
beginning January 2008 on
KFI AM 640 of Los Angeles. In April he was joined by long-time friend and fellow radio host
Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, and they performed the show together under the banner of "The Kennedy & Suits Show". Kennedy's final broadcast on "Kennedy & Suits" was September 30, 2009, with Suits going it solo again as the "Bryan Suits Show". In addition, Suits hosted ''The Dark Secret Place'' from 2pm to 4pm on Sundays, in the time slot formerly held by Kennedy before she moved to weekdays.
Suits announced, on his January 8, 2010 show, that his last day at his current 7pm KFI Los Angeles time slot would be on Friday, January 15, 2010. He planned to continue his Sunday show, ''Dark Secret Place'' on KFI. Citing family reasons, and not specific on his career move, he and his family were returning to the Seattle, Washington area. His replacement on KFI,
Tim Conway Jr.
''The Tim Conway Jr. Show'' is a weeknight talk radio program, currently web streaming and broadcasting throughout the Los Angeles County and Orange County, California metropolitan areas at KFI AM 640. The show runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Pacific ...
, would begin at the 7pm time slot on Monday, January 18, 2010.
KVI AM 570 in Seattle, announced the return of ''The Bryan Suits Show'' weekday mornings, from 5am to 9am, starting Monday morning, January 25, 2010. Some 10 months later,
KVI AM 570 in Seattle cancelled its conservative-talk lineup and switched to an Oldies format, on November 8, 2010.
While ''The Bryan Suits Show'' had been canceled, once again, by KVI in the days preceding
Veterans Day, the Bryan Suits Show Facebook page stated that he had a safety net in place when hired back by Fisher Radio. In addition, Suits continued to host ''The Dark Secret Place'', on Sundays from 2 to 4pm, on AM 640 KFI Los Angeles. Beginning early March 2012, the show was moved to Saturday evenings, following the end of the Saturday installment of the
Phil Hendrie show. The show has since also been picked up by
XM Radio's
America's Talk, airing Sundays at 5pm
pacific time.
In March 2011, Suits was subject to media ridicule after experiencing a bout of
Runner's diarrhea during the 2011
Los Angeles Marathon.
In November 2011, Suits became the mid-day host on KOGO in San Diego while continuing to host his weekend "The Dark Secret Place" program on KFI. Suits left KOGO in 2012.
Starting on Monday, December 16, 2013, Suits took over for Geraldo Rivera on
KABC Talk Radio AM 790 from 9-to-noon (Pacific time). He briefly revived his renowned "Dark Secret Place" program, in which he confines his topics of discussion to military-related matters and interviews with current or former members of the military. He abruptly ceased broadcasting the show, leaving listeners to find a note on his Facebook page stating that he would only continue doing the show in podcast form. His explanation declared in the post that the show had become "a pain in the ass" because he would have to give up personal time on the weekends to do it live, or have unspecified problems (possibly continuity errors related to developing stories) if he tried to pre-record it.
Bryan Suits' last 9-to-noon show on KABC was on 16 Jan 2015, resulting in KABC losing nearly all of the 9 to noon audience.
Brian Suits' Dark Secret Place returned to KFI AM-640 (Los Angeles) on Saturday April 4, 2015 and is heard from 8pm to 11pm (Pacific) Saturdays, as noted in their weekend program line-up.
In April 2017, Bryan Suits started a new show, Super Hyper Local Sunday, which aired Sunday nights on KFI, 8pm to 10pm. It focused on local news from the Los Angeles County area, though often tied into other national and military related news stories.
Suits left KFI in early July 2021 continuing to upload to his online subscription service podcast, "The Dark Secret Place". His departure was cited as being a shift in political ideology by KFI leading to the limiting of speech regarding the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, 2nd Amendment rights, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Additional reasoning claimed by Suits was issues regarding his ownership of "The Dark Secret Place" and its redistribution to media platform, iHeartMedia.
On February 7, 2022, it was announced that Bryan Suits would host his own "Bryan Suits Show" airing on AM 770 KTTH from 6 am till 9 am. He was a fill in host during December and January 2022. He covers both national news and Seattle news.
On July 7, 2022, Bryan Suits announced via hi
ConnectPalchannel that ConnectPal streaming service would be ceasing operations on July 31, 2022, and his "near daily" show would be moving t
Patreon He is offering 3 different levels of membership with increasing access to his exclusive paywall content.
Political Views
Suits was involved in a conflict between
Geraldo Rivera
Geraldo Rivera (born Gerald Riviera; July 4, 1943) is an American journalist, attorn