Many people dream of having their own radio talk show. Few make it a reality. Yet freshman Cole McNeely began running his own political talk radio while still in high school.
“The Cole McNeely Show” airs live on We Are America Radio Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. It is a political commentary show featuring interviews with prominent conservatives. The program grapples with big issues of the Republican Party in both a witty and pragmatic way, seeking to elucidate topics while offering fresh viewpoints.
For a show run by an undergraduate, McNeely is able to interview relatively big names. He’s conversed with guests such as former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Mark Everson, and Fox News contributor and Townhall.com editor Guy Benson. He often conducts these interviews while sitting atop his dorm mini-fridge.
On Oct. 27, he conducted an interview with GOP presidential candidate former Gov. Mike Huckabee.
“The greatest thing about the show is that you learn,” McNeely said. “Listening to other people, you can learn a lot more than talking, and I think that’s the truth, which is rich coming from a guy with his own talk show.”
Freshman Dylan Lottinville occasionally co-hosts with McNeely.
“I have seen Cole in action many a time,” Lottinville said. “I think it’s great that he has such a platform to spread his ideals and keep those who are interested informed.”
McNeely broke into the broadcast industry through social media. During his sophomore year of high school, he created a Twitter account using the handle @YoungRepubs. It caught the eyes of both politically interested teens and political figures.
“My friends always got annoyed by my sarcastic political posts on my own page, so I decided to create another page and just kind of tried to get in contact with people,” McNeely said. “We are up to about 18,000 followers now.”
Well-known conservative blogger and radio host Wayne Dupree, the founder of WAARadio, reached out to Cole after noticing his growing popularity.
“He emailed me and asked me if I would be interested in having my own show, and I said, ‘Sure,’” McNeely said.
To test his on-the-air talents, Dupree asked McNeely to do a 15-minute segment on a show called “Vito & Vito.” After performing well, Dupree gave him his own time slot.
“Cole is one of the brightest young millennials I have on my radio network,” Dupree said. “You would think, being a radio show host rookie, he would be nervous, but what really gets me smiling about Cole is the maturity aspect. He’s got ‘IT,’ and he’s going to go a very long way.”
Dupree has plans to take McNeely to the Conservative Political Action Conference in March right outside of Washington, D.C. There, McNeely said, Dupree hopes the college freshman will win Blogger of the Year.
McNeeley said he wants to continue broadcasting in the future but is open to whatever opportunities come his way as a result of the show.
“I’m going to let this go wherever it takes me,” McNeely said. “A lot of this is about exposure. If CPAC goes well that will be big for me.”
The Cole McNeely show airs live WAARadio on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. WAA broadcasts on Tune-In and Live365 apps or online 24/7.
