The following is an excerpt from our November issue. Subscribe now.

By: Richard Thompson

An hour had passed. The Mike Fleming Radio Program starts promptly at 4 p.m. on Newsradio 600WREC, and its conservative host was prepping himself and his audience with breathless monologue in anticipation of the late arrival of Mike Fleming’s prized and elusive guest, “King Willie,” a respectful (or discourteous?) moniker for Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton.

It’s a Thursday, one week after Herenton, 67, won his fifth consecutive term in office as historically, as easily and as contentiously as Fleming had predicted all along much to the chagrin of his listeners—mostly male, older, conservative and likely white who depend upon the 65-year-old, veteran journalist to be one of Herenton’s chief critics.

Fleming is like his core audience, he is their voice—arguably their conscience, having nagged them with the inevitable about the city’s first, and only, African American mayor. Herenton’s challengers had no chance, Fleming argued more than once. Whatever. It didn’t matter now with Herenton en-route to 2560 Thousand Oak Drive, where Clear Channel Radio Memphis houses WREC and its six other radio stations.

In Memphis, WREC is the dominant news/talk station; though its lineup boasts nationally syndicated talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, Mike Fleming clearly mans the station’s top locally-produced program, airing from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and one of the longest running in the city.
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