As the astute ringleader of a band of loud talkers on Real Radio 104.1 FM’s Philips Phile, Jim Philips comes off as a no-nonsense, truth-seeking advocate and political observer. He knows of what he speaks in most cases – the man has been doing radio in Orlando since 1972 – but he also knows how to engage an audience without that Howard Stern condescension so common on talk radio. Better still, he knows and loves the LGBT community. When confronted with his WAVE victory, Philips doesn’t take it lightly.
“It’s a big deal,” he says. “Because I say and I believe it that I was the first person in this town media-wise – electronic and print, mainstream – that was in support of the LGBT community for years and years and years and years and years. I made no bones about it, and I took a lot of grief for it on the air. I didn’t give a shit. It didn’t bother me. I was proud of it. I was proud of it when they would call up and call me names or whatever, because I knew I was always right.”
Philips actually began his radio career back in 1968, four years before his Orlando arrival.
“I was a reporter and editor back when radio stations had news departments,” he says. “And then [current congressional candidate] Bob Poe, who was the general manager of the radio station I was working for, gave me an opportunity when I was 40 to do some talk. I’m not sure why. He just said, ‘You can’t be chasing ambulances and going to county commission meetings forever.’ Nor did I want to.”
But being a personality, unlike now, wasn’t in Philips wheelhouse. So he built a new house of wheels.
“I just went on the air did my thing,” he says. “My thing was a lot different from what normal talk radio was at that time. It was political for the most part. Everybody had their own political agenda. I figured, ‘I can’t do that; I’m not smart enough to do that.’ So, I just do my own thing and it works.”
It works across the board, really: conservative to liberal; gay to straight. Philips, who may be retiring soon if his contract isn’t renewed, is a bit of an unlikely gay icon. Well, likely in that he’s dashing, but likely because he sees beyond the divisiveness of inequality.
“I can’t stand the labels,” he says. “I don’t like labels ‘straight,’ I don’t like labels ‘gay.’ I hate to categorize people by their sexual orientation. I’m not sure where that came from. And we do that. Straights do it, gays do it, bisexual people do it, transgenders do it. I guess in some way it’s giving yourself some kind of definition.”
“There’s always like that (whispers) ‘he’s gay.’ Well, I don’t give a shit,” he adds. “One in 10: One, you’re super straight; 10, you’re super gay, all the way. But most people are somewhere in between. Whether they act it out, I don’t know. But I know their thought processes, and they’re all over the place. If they say they’re not, I believe they’re lying.”
