Rick Emerson

Rick Emerson (born March 7, 1973), formerly known as Rick Taylor, is a radio personality most known for The Rick Emerson Show, which was broadcast from Portland, Oregon, in one form or another, from 1997 to 2012.

Emerson also co-hosted Drive-By Radio as "Rick Taylor" in Salt Lake City.

He hosted the public affairs television show Outlook Portland.

And he co-authored the book Zombie Economics.

Rick Emerson was born March 7, 1973, in Kennewick, Washington.

He was interested in radio from a very young age.

He used a RadioShack tape recorder to interview his friends.

"I was like a Larry King in short pants."

At age 14 he began volunteering at a local radio station.

After graduating fourth-to-last in his high school class, he moved to Spokane, Washington, where he landed his first radio talk show.

He broadcast weeknights from midnight to 2 a.m from a bomb shelter in the basement of the station's building.

"It was just hours of me talking to NO ONE," he said.

"The only calls I got were wrong numbers."

During this time, he managed to earn a small but loyal following.

Listeners knew him by the stage name "Rick Taylor", the last name that he picked out of a phone-book.

During this time, Emerson was arrested when pulled over for a broken tail-light; a bench warrant had been issued after he forgot to pay the last $10 on a traffic ticket.

In January 1995, Emerson was hired by KCNR in Salt Lake City, where he co-hosted the afternoon drive show Drive-By Radio with Clyde Lewis.

In Salt Lake City, as in Spokane, Emerson worked under the stage name "Rick Taylor".

Salt Lake City Weekly described Rick Taylor as "everything a talk radio fan under 50 could ask for: Confrontational, funny, smart, vaguely liberal, pop-culture obsessed and driven to Get Your Attention! like no one before or since on SLC's airwaves."

He became program director of KCNR and helped create one of the most popular radio stations in Utah.

Journalist Bill Frost later wrote: "From January 1995 to November 1996, KCNR AM 1320 (later 860) brought the Salt Lake Valley the most in-your-face, vibrant, talk-radio format it had ever heard. Rick Taylor, Martin Davies, Todd Herman, and Clyde Lewis took back the airwaves from the old guard of creaky conspiratorialists and political pontificators and, at least in small part, introduced it to a younger, hipper audience. It was rock & roll radio without the music, and what they accomplished in such a short period of time is still talked about to this day."

In November 1996, KCNR was sold to Radio Disney, leaving Emerson without a microphone.

According to his semi-biography Bigger Than Jesus, he found out about KCNR's new programming when he tuned in one morning while getting ready for work and found it playing music followed by Radio Disney liners.

His former KCNR co-worker Todd Herman recalled the dire financial straits of this post-firing period: "We were literally, swear to God, asking for credit at the convenience store."

Emerson then moved to San Diego, where he worked as a convenience store clerk.

In November 1997, Emerson was offered a job at KOTK in Portland, Oregon, and The Rick Emerson Show was born.

The Rick Emerson Show was a conversational style radio talk show broadcast from Portland, Oregon from 1997 to 2012.

The show's most enduring lineup featured Rick, Sarah X Dylan and news reporter Tim Riley.

They were joined by regulars Matt "F Matt" Peterson, Kyle the Intern, Jolie from Corporate Accounts Payable, and Kristin from Accounting, as well as frequent guests like Aaron Geek in the City, film reviewer Dawn Taylor, Jen Lane of Barfly Magazine, Scott Dally of filmfever.org, and Ground Zero host Clyde Lewis (Rick's former Drive-By Radio co-host).

They would chat about (and skewer and dismantle) pop culture topics like music, movies, television, tech, celebrities, and news and politics.

They would also talk about their own social lives and the local Portland scene.

Emerson would at times launch into a rant against some particularly bothersome aspect of modern society; other times he would rant in favor of what he likes, as in his "PDX Rant" about why he loves the city of Portland.

In December 2007, the show presented the live radio play ''Ebenezer?

I Barely Knew Her!, a modern-day take-off on A Christmas Carol''.

The show hosted listener events such as a Halloween party where everyone dressed as a dead celebrity.

House band The Tim Riley Factor performed at live events.

The band included Emerson, Sarah X Dylan and Kristin from Accounting (but not Tim Riley).

The Rick Emerson Show attracted a loyal audience that journalist (and show guest) Peter Ames Carlin called "almost unnervingly enthusiastic."

Kristi Turnquist of The Oregonian described Emerson's style as a "distinctive blend of arcane references, multisyllabic vocabulary and mythic grasp of old TV shows."

On January 2, 2012, Emerson announced his retirement from the broadcasting industry.