Lee Vogel

Lee Vogel...Airing Both Sides

From The Miami Herald

LEE VOGEL who has gone into Alan Courtney's old nightly 11 to 2 slot on WQAM with a discussion show of his own says both sides of any issue are going to be aired equally.

"Nobody is going to throw a saddle over me. I'm not going to be the darling of any group," the 35-year-old commentator declared over lunch the other day.

Vogel comes here from Minneapolis-St. Paul where he was formerly with KSTP and WDGY. During his seven months with the former station, he received the Peabody Award for an anti-Communist expose and crusade.

This activity which goes back to his earlier day on WHB in Kansas City, Mo., hasn't, however made him a fanatic professional about the business, he says. "I don't like extremists of any kind."

"There's been an odd switch for me in coming here," said Vogel who started his new job Monday night. "Up in the twin cities I was getting the abuse from the leftists. In the short time I've been here it's coming from the rightists"

His program philosophy, he says, will be to let any phone caller air his point of view "just as long as he sticks to the issues and doesn't abuse me or the other callers."

He will not have regular guests in the studio, he says, unless they seem pertinent to any issue that may he under discussion. He also intends to get away from political gab and into other areas of discussion as often as possible to change the program's pace.