In 1975, Williams entered broadcasting by hosting
At Your Service on
WCTC in
New Brunswick, New Jersey. This was soon followed by his second show,
Bruce Williams at Large. Williams then set his sights on reaching a larger audience, and his persistence paid off. In 1978, he was hired by
WMCA in
New York City. Williams made his debut on
NBC Talknet when the programming block began on November 2, 1981. His national reputation began to grow. He began each show by saying "Welcome my friends...welcome to my world." Williams flew airplanes and on December 5, 1982, while attempting to abort a landing, crashed into a few trees in
Princeton, New Jersey. Maurice Tunick, Talknet creator and executive producer, remembers the incident: Williams himself later said he was in a coma for 20 days before being able to broadcast about four weeks later. Williams was inducted into the
National Radio Hall of Fame in 1999 and has since been listed as the sixth greatest talk show host in radio history by
Talkers Magazine. Williams ran an advice show focused on personal business matters such as real estate transactions, career planning, entrepreneurship, and travel until the
September 11, 2001 attacks. At that time, the show became a mix of business and politics, and every show ended with the song
God Bless America. On February 22, 2010, Williams announced in an email to affiliates that he would end his show effective March 5, 2010. Not long after going off the air, Williams began posting occasional "newsletters" on his website that hinted he would like to get back on the air "in some fashion," including the possibility of "doing something with the internet." After being off the radio for just over two years, one of his newsletters announced that he would return to the airwaves via The American Entrepreneur, producing podcasts that would be available on iTunes and other platforms. The new show, which continued the same title "The Bruce Williams Show," debuted on Monday, April 16, 2012. The new program continued in the same format as his previous show, with less emphasis on politics. The show appeared "live" on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and three hours were recorded on Wednesdays for broadcast on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. During some of the initial programs of the new show, Williams hinted that he expected the show to eventually expand to two hours, and he also noted that he'd been contacted by several terrestrial radio stations interested in carrying the new program. The program ran until the mid-summer until the American Entrepreneur network was forced to shut down following the sudden death of its owner. Thus, Bruce Williams found himself without an outlet for his show. On July 9, 2012, Bruce Williams launched the Made In America Broadcast Network, an enterprise which sponsored the podcasts of his show and also promoted products that were made in America with "at least 90%" American-made materials, using U.S. labor. His show appeared live via podcast Monday to Friday from 2:00 to 3:00 Eastern time, with an additional live show appearing on Wednesday evenings for a few weeks. The show was also available via the iTunes, SoundCloud, TuneIn, and Stitcher internet platforms. To attract listener participation, he made answering machines available and announced that "we will call you back" and arrange for a time to put the listener on the air. Unfortunately this tactic was unsuccessful, with Williams doing most of his shows as monologues with just the occasional phone call. Bruce's goal with the Made In America Network was to only accept advertising from companies whose products and/or services were made in America with American labor. He eventually announced that many of the companies producing American-made items as required to advertise on his network were too small to have a national-sized advertising budget, which led to sponsors advertising for a very short period of time. By the beginning of 2013, the show was featuring only Jersey Boy Pork Roll, a Williams-owned company, in its advertising. On March 18, 2013, Williams announced on his podcast that the show and the network had not been financially viable, and planned to discontinue the podcasts and retire from broadcasting on March 29, 2013. During the announcement, he said "This will be the end of my broadcasting career, unless someone happens to offer me a job where I just show up and do the show and don't have to worry about the rest of it; but that's not likely to happen." His last podcast contained an emotional recap of his broadcasting career along with several phone calls from listeners. He stated that he planned to continue writing his newspaper column,
Smart Money, which appeared in American newspapers. Williams also wrote several financial and real estate advice books in addition to his broadcast career. == Miscellaneous ventures ==