This was posted Friday, July 14, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Nancy Grace's dedication to her nine-year-old twins is no secret. And her schedule hosting her HLN prime-time show was wearing on her and taking away from quality time with John and Lucy.
So the Atlanta-based former prosecutor called it quits last fall.
But that hardly means she's idle. She is working on her latest in a series of Hailey Dean books. Hallmark is working on another film based on one of those books with Grace planning a cameo appearance. And she just started a new daily noon-time crime show on SiriusXM Channel 132 Triumph, sandwiched between Glenn Beck and Dave Ramsey.
"I'm working like a dog but I like it. I love it. This radio show is like a dream come true," Grace said by phone Thursday. (She is, by the way, as upbeat and sweet off air as she is rough and tumble on air.) "I've always wanted to do radio and SiriusXM is as good as it gets."
And she has had warm feelings toward the satellite company for years, thanks to her father Mac, who passed away 18 months ago. He adored the Elvis Channel on SiriusXM, she said. "We'd go on summer trips together and that's all he'd play in the car," she said. "He was one of the first people to get Sirius when it came out."
Grace said she enjoys the flexibility of the radio show. "It's about crime fighting," he said. "We have a chance to be so agile with it. We can update it any time we want. And the content is whatever we decide it to be." She's been focused this week on the Bucks County murders of four boys in Pennsylvania.
Compared to her TV show, she said, 'it's more of a mean, lean fighting machine. I feel the reporters and guests are more open on radio. On TV, too many people are worried about their hair and makeup and whether they're sitting up straight. It's a more uninhibited environment on the radio where I feel people are more honest."
Once she left HLN, she began working on her website crimeonline.com.
She has staff who updates the site several times a day. She also started a podcast a few months ago using the studio in her house and that's what caught the attention of SiriusXM.
Grace, nine months removed from her HLN show she had for more than a decade, said she doesn't miss her old schedule. She just misses connecting with her viewers and working with her staff, many whom she hired from her CourtTV days and stuck with her the entire time at CNN Center.
She acknowledged guilt leaving her kids each day for her show. When they were younger, she'd put on the TV for them and crawl out barefoot through a window so they wouldn't hear her leave. She'd still be wet from giving them baths when she arrived at HLN. She'd find out later they'd cry when they figured out she was gone.
So yes, it's true. While Grace is the tough gal in public, she isn't so tough with her kids in private: "I'm the pushover. I have a hard time fussing at them." Besides, she noted, "they're so sweet and loving. They don't really do anything wrong!"
For instance, Lucy is on a ukulele kick while John likes to wear his clothes inside out. To her, that's adorable. "Unless they hurt each other or anybody else, I'll let it all slide," she said.
Now that it's summer, she tries to get as much work done before they awake and after they go to sleep.
"I feel I still have a mission to fight crime," she said, which she can with SiriusXM and her website.
She recently showed upon Tyler Henry's "Hollywood Medium." While she is often skeptical of psychics, she has been impressed with how some have managed to solve crime cases. She was also amazed by what Henry knew about her brother and his heart issues, something he has not told to anyone publicly.
At the same time, talking about her fiance's murder and her father's passing was upsetting. "It can throw me into a depression," she said. "I can't afford to have my children around a depressed mom. I try my best not to go there."
In this case, she did the show taping in Los Angeles. "Emotionally, I was a mess. Luckily, I was out in California and my twins were here. I had a nice long red eye to get myself together before I saw them."
Grace has not watched the episode, which aired last month. "I've recorded it and some day I'm going to watch him because I really like Tyler. I really like his mom. I see why he has the personality he does. The apple didn't fall far from the tree."
ON THE RADIO
"Crime Stories with Nancy Grace," noon weekdays, Channel 132, SiriusXM
