Larry King’s 9 lessons for becoming a master communicator

How has the television and radio icon reached such a high level of success? By following these nine rules that any communicator can—and should—implement.

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“You’ve got to tell the Oprah story,” John Dickey, CEO of Ora TV, told Larry King as we all sat together in King’s trophy room in Beverly Hills.

King shared that Oprah Winfrey told him that, while on safari in Africa, she asked a local about various celebrities. She wanted to see who they knew, since they didn’t recognize her. The local finally stopped her and asked, “Do you know Larry King?”

That is the kind of reach King has achieved in his 60-year communications career.

His story is the American dream: A Jewish kid from Brooklyn dreams of being on the radio, so he starts cleaning floors at a local station. A disc jockey calls in sick one day, and King changes his name and jumps on the air. Since then, King has conducted more than 60,000 interviews, received a Peabody award and multiple Cable ACE awards, and earned numerous Emmy nominations. He’s been inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame and the Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame, and he has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. King has also written for multiple newspapers and magazines, and he is a New York Times bestselling author.

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