Aaron
Harber’s first stint in broadcasting was in 1992 as the host
of the "The WatchDog" — a
political issues, consumer affairs, and citizens' rights program
on the Talk of the Rockies Network. In 1994, he
became host of “Against The Rush” — a
humorous but cogent response to Rush Limbaugh. The show was produced
by USA Talk Network and broadcast on 51 stations
by the Talk America Radio Network. Aaron gained
national notoriety when he was sued frivolously for $20
million by Limbaugh, et al, for using the word “Rush” in
the title of his show. With broad-based support across the entire
political spectrum, Aaron won the First Amendment case in
Federal Court. The talk industry’s leading publication — “TALKERS
MAGAZINE”— selected Aaron out of 5,000 hosts across
the country as one of America’s 100 “Most Important
Talk Show Hosts In 1997" (along with such luminaries
as Don Imus, Gordon Liddy, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlesinger, Howard
Stern, and Bruce Williams). In 1997, he moved from Talk Radio into
the television arena.
Aaron
is the host of “The Aaron Harber Show” (previously
known as “Spontaneous Combustion TM” – see
www.HarberTV.com) -- an irreverent look at the issues of the day
-- and has been selected as the host for “Blind
Justice TM,” a critical examination of America ’s
legal system. He serves as the on-camera Political Analyst for Tribune
Broadcasting station KWGN ( Denver ’s “WB2" – part
of the Warner Brothers Network) and as a Columnist
for the State’s major political publication, “The
Colorado Statesman ” He is a regular weekly
columnist for the Denver Daily News.
In 2000, he hosted the historic nonpartisan campaign series, “Election
2000" which was broadcast on over-the-air television
(via Colorado Public Television KBDI/TV-12) as
well as on the Internet, thanks to funding from the John
S. and James L Knight Foundation and a partnership with The
Denver Post Two years later, he hosted the “Election
2002” series on Colorado Public Television
as a demonstration of how to promote nonpartisan election information
broadcasting by PBS stations nationally as well as to provide citizens
with extensive candidate access and election coverage. He serves
as WB2’s Political Analyst for the 2004
Primary and General Election seasons and also is a panelist and
co-host in KBDI Channel 12’s “ Colorado
Decides 2004 ” series He is the founder and
Executive Director of the campaign monitoring Truth In
Political Advertising Project.
Although
it is true the highlight of Aaron’s life was being a Bat
Boy for the Chicago White Sox at age 15 (he won a Chicago
newspaper essay-writing contest), it has not been completely downhill
from there. Aaron began his business career days after being graduated
from college, at the age of 22, when he started the Colorado
Accounting & Tax Service with $1,500 he had saved
from college jobs he performed while working his way through school.
Since then, he has been involved in numerous businesses ranging
from survey research to high technology (where
he organized software companies) to venture capital to Talk
Radio to movie and television production,
among many others. A committed environmentalist and a staunch feminist, Aaron
also is a strong pro-business, free-market proponent Unlike
many other talk show hosts who give opinions about subjects they
know little about, Aaron has extraordinary firsthand experience
and knowledge about business, government, education, politics,
the law, entertainment, and the Press. His media activities
are widely recognized for their consistent fairness, objectivity,
accessibility and nonpartisan nature.
As
co-founder and chairman of the Women's Equity Fund,
a nationally-recognized, venture capital firm helping women and
men start new businesses and expand existing ones, Aaron promoted
the concept of changing the access women had to business capital.
He was chairman of Centre Entertainment, Inc. --
a film and video production and distribution company (“A
Norman Rockwell Christmas” and “Legend Of
The Spirit Dog”). He served as president of Wild
Horse Productions, Inc. -- a company originally formed
to make the feature film, “Wild Horses” for Animal
Planet and Discovery Communications.
Aaron
pioneered the concept of the Golden Run community
in Erie, Colorado, as an example of a modified New Urbanism development
imaginatively designed to create a walkable, economically sustainable,
environmentally-friendly community for a wide range of citizens
(see www.GoldenRun.com). Golden Run focuses on the needs of senior
citizens as well as young families, the disabled, and people requiring
special kinds and levels of care. The concept of Golden Run is
the creation of a community where people can live, work, play,
recreate, shop, and enjoy life -- all in an ecologically sound
manner. Aaron also was a co-founder and served as president and
chairman of Silicon Valley software company TeamOne Systems (in
the Apollo, Digital, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems
markets) which tackled the national need to automate the writing
of computer software. He also was elected as chairman of the innovative
fiber-optic large-display company Mall TV, Inc.
Additionally, he served as chairman of one of the nation’s
original retail virtual reality companies, V-Space, Inc.
For
over quarter of a century, Aaron has served as president of American
Research Corporation, where his work included strategic
research, business advisory services, organizational consulting,
public opinion polling, and computer software. He has managed complex
software development projects, served private and public sector
clients domestically and internationally, and participated in many
state and federal government projects. A sample of his customers
include Bank of America, Motorola Corporation, the U.S.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Atari, Inc., Memorex, SPRINT,
Case Western Reserve University, Environment Canada, Rockwell International,
Knight-Ridder’s VIEWDATA Corporation, Unisys, Public Service
Company, Hughes Aircraft, the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Energy Information Administration, Tandem Computers, and Security
Pacific National Bank, among many others. Aaron is the
founder of the Democracy & Media Education Foundation --
a national effort to change American politics by encouraging Public
Broadcasting System stations to provide extensive nonpartisan coverage
of election races and ballot issue contests to mitigate the effect
of paid commercial political television advertising. His innovative
theory “to use television to fight television” is
the basis of the Foundation’s potentially radical change
in the USA ’s political system. Aaron won election to the Princeton
University Board of Trustees. He also worked internationally
after being elected Vice-President and then President of the 3,000-member International
Tandem [Computers] Users' Group, and led the group to
its independence as an autonomous and self-sufficient organization
via a committee structure he designed. While registered as an Investment
Adviser with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission,
he donated his financial and tax advisory services to men and women
starting businesses as well as to charitable organizations on a pro
bono basis.
Aaron's
extensive community involvement also has included doing fundraising
for the University of Colorado, (including the
Mackey Auditorium Renovation Campaign Cabinet) serving as the first
president and chairman of the Nancy Spanier Dance Theatre
of Colorado, working as a Volunteer Probation Counselor
for the City and County Court of Denver, and serving
on the board of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra.
He was co-director and treasurer of the Chicano Film Project,
which produced the heralded film, "Los Inmigrantes" He
worked as a volunteer for ECO-CYCLE and as a Relief
House Parent for Attention Homes (an alternative
to jail for young offenders). Almost three decades ago, he was
the first (and then only) male ever elected to the Board of Directors
of the Boulder County Women's Resource Center.
He has served as the moderator and facilitator of numerous panels
as well as a keynote speaker at various national events.
Aaron
was elected Secretary of the Colorado Democratic Party in
1983. He was elected as a Presidential Delegate to
the 1984 National Convention in San Francisco and also was elected
to the Convention’s original Credentials Committee. He was
a candidate for Secretary of State in 1982 and
later won his party's nomination in 1990. In both 1996 and 2000
he won election in a statewide party race to the Electoral
College In addition to his original election in 1984,
he was elected as a Presidential Delegate to the
Democratic National Conventions in Chicago (1996) and Los Angeles
(2000). Aaron has served as parliamentarian and secretary
of numerous political assemblies and conventions, at the
county, congressional, and state level. He was elected as chair
of State Senate District 17 and as Vice Chair of House District
31, and has held many other elected party positions -- ranging
from Precinct Committeeperson to Caucus Chair and Secretary to
County, Congressional, State and National delegate. He currently
holds no partisan positions due his work in the Media and is committed
to being seen as an objective, non-partisan, albeit entertaining,
member of the Press.
Despite
his history of political activism, Aaron is known for his fairness
and the equal access he has provided Republicans to all his radio
and TV shows (including his unique broadcasts from the
Republican National Convention in 1996). He has broadcast
his show “live” from places as disparate as the Democratic
Leadership Council to the White House Press Room to
the conservative Heritage Foundation. His
political views include elements from both major parties and from
some minority parties. His philosophy is to consider as
many views as possible and come to rational, thoughtful positions
not bound by any particular partisan, “blind-faith” ideology.
He believes in offering people a “helping hand” and
assisting them in becoming independent – not dependent.
He is a strong believer in protecting the Environment.
A
staunch supporter of the concept of public disclosure, “sunshine” laws,
and Open Records Acts, Aaron fought a precedent-setting
battle against the State of Colorado in 1982 in
which the Secretary of State ultimately was required to release
public information in its most usable form (i.e., electronic).
A decade later, in 1993, he won a case against another government
entity (the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District) which
had tried to use the law and the cost of litigation to
hide important public information. And in 1994, at the
request of the Sierra Club, he agreed to intervene
in a case against the NCWCD filed by the Sierra Club by supporting
the Club’s position as a co-plaintiff.
Colorado
Governor Roy Romer appointed Aaron to the Colorado Department
of Law's Collection Agency Board (“CAB”) in
the Office of the Attorney General in 1988. Aaron
served there under both Democratic and Republican Attorneys General
and promoted many improvements on behalf of consumers. He was elected
in 1989 as the first public member ever to serve
as chairman of the CAB. In 1990, he was appointed by the Governor
to serve as a business representative on the State's Complete
Count Committee for the 1990 U.S. Census .
He current also serves as a member of the national Prostate
Cancer Education Council. Additionally, Aaron has chaired
numerous domestic and international events and is known as an extraordinary
public speaker, moderator, and facilitator. He also mediates crises
and advises numerous organizations. His favorite activity is problem-solving
in a “win/win” mode.
Aaron
was born in Chicago, Illinois , and was graduated first in his
class from Fairview High School in Boulder,
Colorado, where he gave the valedictory address. He received his
undergraduate degree (A.B.) from Princeton University's
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (concentrating
in Economics) and received a master's
degree in Public Administration (M.P.A.) from Harvard
University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (concentrating
in Ethics), where he also examined campaign
finance laws and election practices in all 50 states.
Aaron
is a Single Parent who is totally devoted to caring for his young
daughter, Holly. They live on a 320-acre farm, which Aaron has
farmed and managed for the better part of two decades, and have
created a special home for their four dogs, each who was retired
for medical reasons from Guide Dogs for the Blind --
for whom Aaron was a volunteer Puppy Raiser for
many years. The real boss of the house, however, is “Herrmann,” the
cat. Aaron’s hobbies are running, playing basketball and
tennis, and eating.
