You Might Also Like: The Oprah Podcast

**Oprah Winfrey** (0:01)
This episode of the Oprah Podcast is presented by our partner, Geico.
I'm Oprah Winfrey, and welcome to the very first National Oprah Winfrey Show. And I have to say, my life changed in ways I couldn't even imagine. Here's a look at how it all started.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:26)
Hi there.

**Oprah Winfrey** (0:27)
My name is Oprah Winfrey. Oprah spelled O-P-R-A-H, and if you noticed, it's Harpo spelled backwards. I bet on myself. This was almost unheard of at the time.
Hi there, and welcome to the Oprah Podcast.
This is a momentous moment of true gratitude for me. First of all, I live with gratitude in my spirit all the time, but this marks a different kind because it was 40 years ago, September 8th, 1986, to be exact, that the very first Oprah Winfrey Show aired on national television. And at the time I was 32 years old, which is unbelievable to me now that I got to live another 40 years. I'd been working in television since I was 19 I started in radio when I was 16 and moved to television first as a weekend anchor in Nashville, Tennessee, and then as a regular news anchor in Baltimore before I finally co-hosted my first talk show. Started that in 1978 It's called People Are Talking with Richard Scherr.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:48)
People Are Talking with a couple of friends of yours, Richard Scherr and Oprah Winfrey and a lot of heart. Weekday mornings at 9 on Channel 13
That's what friends are for.

**Oprah Winfrey** (2:02)
Richard and I were co-hosts together on that show. And then I left Baltimore, moved to Chicago, which was the big leagues. It was the number three, still is, number three market in the country after Los Angeles. It was in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. And if you worked in television, you wanted to be in one of the top three markets. And the country was a different kind of country then. And I have to say, I was so excited about hosting AM Chicago. And everybody had told me, you know, what a racist city Chicago was or what a hard time I was going to have.
And it was not true for me. I was embraced by the city and the people of the city. And most importantly, embraced by my boss, Dennis Swanson. My boss, Dennis Swanson, who believed and trusted that in spite of whatever racial feelings people might have, that I would be able to be successful on that show, hosting that show myself in the morning in Chicago.
Good morning.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:23)
Hi, everybody.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:23)
I'm Oprah Winfrey, and of course, this is AM Chicago. Our topic this morning will probably shock most of you in and out of the medical field. According to two statistics, one out of ten doctors are addicted to drugs or to alcohol.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:37)
And without further ado, let's meet Tad and his women.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:43)
Good morning, everybody. I'm Oprah Winfrey, and this morning on AM Chicago, we're getting right down to it. Can a woman be accepted as vice president? Okay, so this is the man who put the curve in Morgan Fairchild and Linda Gray and all those wonderful people.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:56)
Tell me all the other people you do.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:57)
Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg.

**Oprah Winfrey** (3:59)
Steven! Steven Spielberg. I love him.

**Barbara Walters** (4:02)
You do?

**Oprah Winfrey** (4:03)
I love him.

**Barbara Walters** (4:04)
Want to meet him?

**Oprah Winfrey** (4:04)
Next time you talk to him, I hear he's doing this wonderful movie and mentioned my name.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:08)
There's a great role for you.

**Oprah Winfrey** (4:09)
Oprah Winfrey. OK. What do you turn to when you are just a child and your mommy and daddy are drunk all the time? Good morning. I'm Oprah Winfrey. And this is AM Chicago. Over 22 million adults, 22 million in this country, are children of alcoholics. My first guests say that she grew up with an alcoholic mother who still has a drinking problem. Here is a shocking statistic. At least 60% of married men, 60% of married men, and 40% of married women report that they have had extramarital affairs.

**Oprah Winfrey** (4:42)
Good morning, everybody. I'm Oprah Winfrey.

**Oprah Winfrey** (4:44)
I want to tell you that 11 years ago, I was 19 years old and was offered a job in broadcasting. I went to the CBS affiliate in Nashville and they said, I know you've never done television before, but would you do an audition for us?

**Oprah Winfrey** (4:56)
I said, my God, I don't know what to do.

**Oprah Winfrey** (4:58)
I thought, I guess I'll just pretend to be Barbara Walters. And so here I am today, I think, because I pretended to be Barbara Walters for that first year of my broadcasting career in television, and look where it got me. Ladies and gentlemen, I am so thrilled to introduce my guest this morning, the Barbara Walters, AM Chicago.