Brian Kilmeade of Massapequa has the perfect job for someone who is the father of a 3-month-old. He wakes up at 2 a.m. and just keeps going.
Kilmeade is one of three hosts on the Fox News Channel's (FNC) Fox and Friends First, which is broadcast live between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. That program is followed immediately by the two-hour Fox and Friends.
Like their competitors, Fox and Friends is a mix of hard news and features. But unlike the other programs, it has little in the way of a script.
"This show demands, for better or worse, that you use your personality," Kilmeade said, during a recent interview.
The format and chemistry between the hosts paid dividends earlier this year as Fox and Friends beat CBS's Early Show in the ratings. This was an incredible accomplishment, given that FNC is available in only 75 percent of the homes that receive CBS. Today, about 1.5 million viewers tune into Fox and Friends at some point. It has been the top-rated morning cable broadcast for the last two years.
Prior to his 3:45 a.m. arrival at FNC's Manhattan headquarters, Kilmeade has already read through a number of major daily newspapers, he said, when asked about a typical day. A huge packet of additional press clips is given to him at 5 a.m., and then at 5:20 a.m. the show's producers circulate a list of topics that will be discussed during each of the three hours.
"It's like taking an open book test every day," Kilmeade said. "We have to know the story." His co-hosts are E.D. Hill and Steve Doocy.
The road to his current post should be an inspiration to any aspiring broadcaster. Indeed, Kilmeade's journey included a stint in the early 1990s as one of Malibu, California's poorest residents. (He was earning $30,000 a year and living in an illegal apartment while holding down two jobs.) One was as a weekend sports radio host and the other as an anchor at KHSC-TV in Ontario, California.
"I was determined to make it," Kilmeade stated. "I wasn't really open to suggestions from people saying I shouldn't do this."
Things turned around in 1997 when a former colleague suggested he submit a resume to FNC, which debuted that same year. The station's fortunes, and Kilmeade's, have soared since then.
The Associated Press writer who profiled Fox and Friends characterized Kilmeade as "the sturdy but boyish New York guy."
Yet he is more specifically a Nassau guy. His family owned Kilmeade's, a Manhasset tavern that operated until the 1980s. And Brian himself is a graduate of Long Island University's C.W. Post campus, where he was also a soccer player.
Moreover, his wife, Dawn, is a Massapequa native and they are raising their three children in their hometown: 6-year-old Bryan, 2-year-old Kirstyn, and 3-month-old Kaitlyn.
So long as Fox and Friends continues to ride high in the ratings, Kaitlyn Kilmeade can awaken whenever she wishes. Her father has little use for snooze alarms.
