Scott Allen Miller (also known as Scotto) has worked in radio since 1992, doing stints as a disc jockey, a producer, and a talk radio host in such places as Kansas City, Tulsa, Los Angeles, and Albany, New York. He was most recently the morning drive host and program director at WROW in Albany.
In 2008, Miller earned a mention in Talkers Magazine. Although he did not make the cut for inclusion in the magazine's "Heavy Hundred" list, he was listed in the unranked 101 to 250 category.
The website VisitingNewEngland.com called him "for the most part, a fair and balanced talk show host with a deeply developed thought process and a slight chip-on-the-shoulder attitude." Politically, Miller reportedly leans libertarian but differs with some of the typical Libertarian Party positions on matters of criminal justice, and national defense.
Biography
Miller was born on October 9, 1970, in Muncie, Indiana. After his father died in 1986, he moved from Indiana to live with his mother in New Jersey. He attended Howell High School with future CBS sportscaster Bonnie Bernstein, who was featured on his radio show several times, as well as filmmaker Brian Jude.
Miller dropped out of Trenton State College, moved to western Kansas and began his radio career in March 1992 at 1420 AM KULY in Ulysses, Kansas. He worked at High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, Kansas before enrolling at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where he wrote columns for the school's daily newspaper, K-State Collegian.
Radio career
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in social science in 1996, Miller moved to Kansas City to work as a producer for then-sister stations AM 980 KMBZ and AM 810 KCMO. He moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to produce The John & Ken Show, which at the time was syndicated nationwide. He also worked as a phone screener for Stephanie Miller before moving back to Kansas City.
In 2000, Miller hosted his first talk radio show at AM 580 WIBW in Topeka, Kansas. The following year, Miller began hosting a weekend show and producing the weekday morning show on AM 710 KCMO. In the spring of 2002, Miller was named the host of a morning drive radio talk show in Tulsa, Oklahoma but, according to Miller, was fired after just a few weeks "for not being conservative enough." By the end of 2002, Miller was hosting The Scotto Show in afternoon drive on AM 810 WGY in Albany, New York. In the days after the start of the Iraq War, Miller promoted and spoke at a rally to show support for military servicemen and their families that drew 10,000 people to upstate New York, according to the Boston Globe.
Miller began airing on Boston's WRKO in September 2003, replacing morning show co-host John "Ozone" Osterlind. He shared hosting duties with Peter Blute, a Republican career politician who had represented Massachusetts' Third District in Congress and directed Massport before joining WRKO in 1999. In May 2004 Miller wrote an op-ed article in the Boston Globe critical of the Federal Communications Commission's crackdown on broadcast indecency.
After Blute departed WRKO in September 2005 to pursue other interests, WRKO launched Boston This Morning with Miller as its sole host. While Blute and Scotto discussed a few select issues of the day in depth with guests and callers, Boston This Morning covered a wider range of stories through newsmaker interviews and breaking news coverage but with less time devoted to Miller's commentaries and interaction with callers. According to the Boston Herald, WRKO designed Boston This Morning to be more competitive with all-news market leader AM 1030 WBZ, but Boston Phoenix media critic Mark Jurkowitz has lamented that WRKO has transformed the freewheeling and funny Scotto into the much more serious and sober—and newsmanly—Scott Allen Miller.
In the spring of 2006 the program was renamed The Scott Allen Miller Show and changed once again to a more relaxed, caller-friendly format without the frequent traffic and weather breaks, interviews with a variety of guests, and scarce audience participation of Boston This Morning. The Scott Allen Miller Show maintained a strong news presence through Miller's interviews with newsmakers and updates from WRKO's news anchors.
Miller was fired from WRKO in 2007, to be replaced by former Massachusetts Speaker of the House Tom Finneran. Miller's last day on the station was February 9.
Miller returned to Albany in October 2007 to replace Paul Vandenburgh on WROW, beginning on October 22. Miller departed WROW in 2008, hosting his final show on August 29.