Radio’s Laurie Roth gives us something to believe in

They call her `Annie Oakley of the Airwaves’, but I think Conservative talk show host Dr. Laurie Roth is more like The Unsinkable Molly Brown, reputed to have rowed for seven and a half hours straight saving herself and her passengers in Lifeboat No. 6 escaping the sinking of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland. Some historians swear that Molly is more legend than real. Dr. Laurie Roth is a real legend, a legend of our times. Some radio talk show hosts get you thinking, some provoke you and make you angry. Roth gets you believing that nothing’s impossible if you only try. She gets you believing in yourself and proves the mighty power of one.

---

On those nights of your darkest doubts, Laurie Roth is there, Monday through Friday, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. EST, on her nationally syndicated radio show, over flagship KSBN-AM1230. That she returned to night airwaves in 2006 after an almost yearlong lapse following a horrific motorcycle accident is nothing short of a miracle. Patriots had come to count on Roth’s unique brand of radio vitality knowing how she sends wishy-washy Liberals diving for cover when she takes to the microphone. One thing to be riding high on the tide of radio success for nine years when all is going your way. Quite another when fate says you have to start all over again from rock bottom and somehow make it back up to where you once were. Imagine the setback for someone whose voice was broadcast over 45 stations across the nation having to make a comeback from a near fatal accident. First responders arriving on the accident scene gave her five to ten minutes to live when they saw the carnage. Roth was struck by a deer while riding her motorcycle on August 25, 2005. A coma lasting two weeks was followed by months of rehabilitation, surgeries and recovery. Her listeners must have seemed so far away when she was having to learn how to walk and talk again because of muscle and nerve damage in her mouth. “I couldn’t even close my lower lip for months, kiss my husband, smile at my children, and I drooled,” she recalled. But Laurie Roth fans do not recognize the word `faraway’. Against all odds, they counted on her return to the airwaves even when doctors said the prognosis did not look hopeful. Good wishes for her recovery flowed in from fellow broadcasters Lars Larsen, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity among many other media professionals. Some of those colleagues filled in on her radio show to keep hope alive. NewsMax, who Roth described as a “major daily site I depend on” and WorldNetDaily wrote about the severity of her accident. Conservative listeners and colleagues alike knew that the Liberals would celebrate when they heard that `Annie Oakley of the Airwaves’ was off the air. But Laurie Roth, who envisioned her own finish line even before she took from her bed to a wheelchair, was nowhere finished. From a wheelchair to her first wobbly walk, to a sure-footed stride was to become the stuff of goose bumps for everyone who loved her. They all somehow knew that in the end it would take more than a near fatal accident to take away her life’s passion. She never would have pulled through, she said, without the Good Lord. Who could have known back then that it would take almost a full year before Laurie Roth could come back to a job she lives for, her nightly radio show? During her time away, letters and cards of support and even financial gifts poured in from her many listeners. And their unwavering belief that someday she would be back kept her going during the most trying of times. Even in her darkest moments when those who knew her condition weren’t sure she would ever make it back on air again, Laurie Roth never swerved from her path to be there every night for listeners waiting for a message of hope. That message of hope is love of God, family and country. Perhaps the miracle of her return rests on her past, for almost everything she has ever tried, she made a success of. A singer and songwriter with five CD albums to her credit, including one track that hit Billboard’s top 40, Roth was host and co-producer for the popular PBS Show, CD Highway, broadcast on 155 stations nationwide. Roth, the mother of two adopted children, has a PhD in counseling and a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. From About.com: Radio: “She plays the piano, keyboard and has a voice that can penetrate your very soul.” In addition to her radio show, Laurie Roth has her own website (therothshow.com), does a column for NewsWithViews and most recently for Canada Free Press. On those nights of dark doubts, waiting for the radio voice of Laurie Roth is like watching through your kitchen window for the first night star to break through the darkness. But so much more than a voice that dispels the darkness, Laurie Roth is an inspiration that gives so many something to believe in.