Radio
Hendrie made a demo tape and got his first DJ job at WBJW in Winter Park, Florida a city just outside Orlando, in May 1973. In 1978, he left WORJ in Orlando to do evenings at WNOE-FM in the French Quarter of New Orleans. He would go on from there to spin records up until 1988 in Miami.
In 1989, Phil debuted as a weekend talk show host on KFI, a news/talk station in Los Angeles.
After his show was cancelled on KFI, KVEN in Ventura, California, offered him a job in August 1990. In late September 1990, Hendrie introduced his first fictional on-air character on his radio talk show: Iraqi Raj Fahneen. The Gulf War had broken out and Fahneen vociferously defended Saddam Hussein. Listeners who believed Fahneen was real responded with outrage and called the show to express their feelings. An entire cast of characters evolved, and in 18 months Hendrie took the show to major market stations in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Miami and eventually back to Los Angeles.
In October 1996 Hendrie went back to KFI to host The Phil Hendrie Show daily. Hendrie's popularity resulted in the radio show going national in 1999 via Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications.
In February 2005, Hendrie's flagship station, KFI, moved him to sister station KLAC in an effort to help turn the all-sports talk radio station into a ratings winner with entertainment programming incorporated. The show remained nationally syndicated on 120 radio stations until 2006.
On April 27, 2006, Hendrie announced he was leaving radio to pursue his acting career on a full-time basis. At the time, Hendrie was working on NBC's sitcom Teachers as cynical history teacher Dick Green.
His last day on air was June 23, 2006.
On June 4, 2007, it was announced that Phil Hendrie would return to radio June 25, 2007, via national syndicator Talk Radio Network (TRN), with shows airing nationally Monday through Friday from 10 PM to 1 AM Pacific Time on 100 radio stations. The show was a straight talk show until September 14, 2009, when he welcomed back his cast of characters, bringing back his original brand of radio theater. "Radio needs alternative programming, like my show, now more than ever," said Hendrie. "Having the advantage of communicating compelling and outrageous points of view through these characters is an opportunity no other host has."
On Saturday, November 20, 2010, KFI in Los Angeles announced that Phil Hendrie and his cast of voices were joining the station's weekend lineup. Heard Saturdays on KFI, Hendrie did a local show for the station while doing his national show Monday through Friday.
On February 23, 2012, Hendrie announced to his fans via Twitter and the show's website that February 25, 2012, would be his last KFI show. Hendrie said, "This was not an easy decision because I'm going to miss everyone at KFI big time. However, doing a show like mine six days a week is murder."
In mid 2013, Hendrie announced he was leaving TRN. In 2014 Hendrie announced he would be leaving over-air broadcasting for good. He then switched to an all-digital format of his show that was listenable online, airing Monday-Friday at 9a.m. Pacific time, accessible from his website or via the smartphone application TuneIn. The show was then podcast for free within hours, available for a period of five days. Today, the show is available in podcast form on-demand seven days a week from Hendrie's website, PodCast One and various other internet and podcast platforms.
