Member Spotlight: Bruce Hooley—radio host, podcaster

Bruce Hooley spent the first part of his journalism career covering high-tier sporting events—Ohio State University football, the Super Bowl, the Olympics.

Now, however, he gets to discuss topics with more profound significance as host of a news-talk radio show and podcast on 98.9 FM-The Answer based in Columbus, Ohio. And he gets to do it from the vantage point of faith in Jesus.

“I don’t overwhelm people with overt references to the Bible, but everyone knows that that’s the prism through which I view life,” Bruce said. “That prism is viewing authority not as something that is restrictive, but that is freeing. No matter what I look at in our world right now, whether it’s protests on college campuses or other issues that befuddle us, it’s because we’ve gotten away from God’s sovereign authority and the failure of people to submit to that.”

Bruce enjoys freely expressing those biblical views on his show. Although the station isn’t explicitly Christian, it is owned by Salem Media Group, which focuses on conservative, faith-based, and family-oriented content.

There are issues that give Bruce great concern.

"The transgender issue is harmful to children," he said. "The LGBTQ movement is awful for families, for kids. Abortion is a heinous evil. So those are things that I talk about. I don’t make any bones about where I stand on those issues.”

‘Tell the truth’

Even though the first part of Bruce’s career focused on covering sports, the reporting experience set him up for his most recent efforts.

“My approach, first of all, is to tell the truth, and you can’t tell the truth unless you’re well-researched,” he said. “So I spend about 3½ hours preparing for a two-hour show.”

That research includes podcasts, local and national news websites, and conservative commentary sites.

He takes today’s secular journalism with a grain of salt, considering its bent toward left-wing politics.

“I’m ashamed of the profession that I entered,” Bruce said.

He graduated with a journalism degree from Ohio State in 1982 after putting himself through school working at a small local daily newspaper. He started writing sports at a paper in Troy, Ohio, eventually landing at the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1987, where he covered Ohio State football for 18 years.

“I loved this for about 16 of the 18 years, and then we started to get some different approaches to how we were doing things,” Bruce said. “I remember looking at the arc of my career and thinking that I couldn’t imagine working 20 more years at the paper, given the failing state of the newspaper industry at that time.”

Bruce left the Plain Dealer and went into sports radio, a job with less travel that was a better fit for his growing family. He had married Sheryl, and they had already had Katie, with Rachel and Lexee not far behind.

However, he had hesitated to enter radio due to its transient employment nature.

“Nobody stays at a radio station for 18 years,” he said.

But Sheryl told him he couldn’t pass up a job just because he feared it wouldn’t last.

Not that it’s been easy.

“We’ve had some job upheaval,” Bruce said. “Some stations have folded and there have been instances where a station got rid of me because I’ve said things they didn’t want me to say on the air.

“But I just vividly remember telling my daughter one time, ‘We tell the truth. Always. No matter what the consequences are.’”

Holding onto faith

While Bruce worries about the immediate future of the U.S. due to what is prioritized in politics, he also holds onto faith.

“No matter how wayward anyone is individually or collectively, God would gladly welcome us back if we come on His terms, which is to accept the forgiveness that His Son provided for us at the cross,” Bruce said. “It’s a free gift. And you can have a gift card in your pocket, but if you don’t cash it in, it doesn’t do you any good.

“Our God is a forgiving God and a loving God,” Bruce continued. “I believe that if we will turn our hearts back to Him and serve Him, we have a chance. But He has preordained the future, and none of us knows what that is. And I candidly wonder if we are on the cusp of some tougher times ahead.”

Unexpected illness

Bruce said he wasn’t aware of the size of his audience until he was off the air for five months following surgery for a brain tumor discovered in September.

“We were just overwhelmed with, you know, prayers and love and support, and I was happy to get back in February so I could re-engage with people,” he said.

The illness came out of nowhere.

“On September 12, on my 63rd birthday, I went to work like any other day after dropping my two younger daughters off at school,” Bruce said. “I don’t recall this, but I had a seizure at work, and I guess I fell.”

He was taken to a hospital emergency department, where a CT scan of his brain was performed.

“By 11 that morning, I was sitting in an ER stall with my wife, and I could tell that the doctor had something to tell me that he really didn’t want to tell me. I said, ‘Look, you don’t have to be nervous or scared to tell me whatever this is. My wife and I don’t have anything to fear. We know what our futures are. Just tell me.’”

The doctor told the Hooleys that Bruce had a tumor a little larger than a golf ball in his brain’s left frontal lobe. Three days later, it was removed. Bruce is still being treated with chemotherapy, but the prognosis is “great,” Bruce said.

“If you have to have brain cancer, this is the best kind to have,” he said. ”It doesn’t spread to other parts of your body.”

While it can still change to that type of tumor, Bruce said, “I’ve always said I’m not concerned with that.

“I’m more concerned with my life potency than my life expectancy. I do have complete and total confidence that, however this works out, it’s in God’s plan for my life and it’s the very best outcome that could possibly be.”