28 Facts About Bill Handel

William Wolf Handel was born on August 25,1951 and is a Brazilian-born American radio host and attorney.

Bill Handel's legal show is currently his longest running radio program to date.

In 2008, Bill Handel's shows were discontinued by XM Radio when it merged with Sirius Satellite Radio.

Bill Handel's father Leo was from Yugoslavia, and his mother Nechama was a Polish Jew who grew up in Brazil.

Bill Handel spent the remainder of his formative years growing up in the San Fernando Valley.

Bill Handel attended California State University, Northridge where he obtained his bachelor's degree in political science in 1976.

Bill Handel then started a construction company and attended the Whittier College School of Law at night, graduating with his JD from in 1979.

Around his graduation from law school, Bill Handel became addicted to cocaine.

In 1983, Bill Handel underwent rehabilitation at St John's Hospital in Santa Monica.

Bill Handel underwent bariatric surgery at Centinela Freeman Hospital to lose weight.

Bill Handel planned on having two white nationalist guests including John Metzger, but the two guests were deported from Germany before they could appear on the show.

Bill Handel often covers a single news story or item of interest for a half-hour, summarizing various other perspectives and offering his own opinion.

Bill Handel on the News: Late Edition airs at 8:30 am, is a condensed version of the 6 am hour, and includes stories not covered in the earlier version.

From September 8,2009 to February 12,2010, Bill Handel aired an additional show from noon to 2 pm on KFI after Dr Laura Schlessinger moved from KFI to another Los Angeles talk station, 980 KFWB.

Bill Handel's afternoon show was syndicated to a handful of affiliates, though Premiere Radio Networks did not aggressively market the show.

On September 11,2001, Bill Handel was on air live when the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center took place.

At that time, Rush Limbaugh's show normally would follow The Bill Handel Show on KFI.

Bill Handel continued to broadcast for another three hours, taking the place of The Rush Limbaugh Show on most stations in the country.

On September 23,2005, Bill Handel was named "Major Market Personality of the Year" at the 2005 NAB Marconi Radio Awards for his KFI show.

Bill Handel received the Distinguished Alumni Award from CSUN on April 26,2008.

Bill Handel says he has no idea why he was given this award.

Bill Handel was inducted into the "National Radio Hall of Fame" on November 2,2017, in a ceremony at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.

In March 2004, Bill Handel made jokes about Muslims not bathing, hating Jews, and practicing bestiality.

On January 12,2006, Bill Handel joked that Muslim pilgrims to Mecca should hire traffic reporters to reduce the possibility of deadly incidents during the Hajj.

Bill Handel offered to apologize on the condition that CAIR would denounce terrorism, agree that Israel is a sovereign country, and claim it does not have ties with terrorists.

Bill Handel refused to apologize to CAIR, but did apologize to the actual victims of the Hajj stampede.

Bill Handel later apologized, claiming he lost his temper and had overreacted without having all the facts.

Bill Handel has a brother, Mark Bill Handel, a real estate developer.