Radio talk-show host stresses appreciation of hard work as a prerequisite for success.

The problem with kids, radio talk-show host Bruce Williams says, is that they want to live like their parents.

"You got to go out and pay the dues first," says Williams, whose nightly show is broadcast locally from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on WIBC-AM (1070). Talknet is rebroadcast in the early morning hours.

"When my oldest son bought his first house, my friend Roy got all upset with me _ `A nice boy from a nice neighborhood living like this.'

Williams' son's house was "a slum," but it was the best he could afford.

"He had not earned the right to live in a good neighborhood and a nice house," Williams says.

Tough advice

If that sounds tough, well, it is. Williams dispenses that kind of advice on his show, which is broadcast to more than 325 stations. Callers ask about money, personal problems and anything that's on their mind. Kids listen and call, too.

"I never claimed to be an expert in anything, except my opinion," he says in a telephone interview from his home in New Port Richey, Fla. "I know more about my opinion that anything else.

"You probably observe that maybe I'm a little hard on people half the time. But you have to recognize that I am talking to one person directly and millions indirectly. So the responsibility is more to the millions than one."

Williams worked for years to get to the point where he could reach an audience of millions.

He started out in New Jersey at WCTC in 1975.

"When I began local radio, it took me over a year to talk the guy into a job, into an hour-a-week job," he says.

"What I finally did was, I sent this guy a package about 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon on a Friday."

Money talks

Inside the package was $10,000 in small bills.

"I said to him in a little note, `This is how much money you threw away in the last three months not talking to me. Can you afford to do this?'

"(I knew) full well that there was no way he was going to shove that (money) into his desk for the weekend. So I got in his office and walked out with the job."

Three months later, Williams asked for more air time. For Williams it was simple. He boss said if he wanted more air time he had to have an FCC engineer's license. So Williams memorized all the manuals in one night, took the test and got more time.

Now, every night, 100,000 calls are placed to try to reach Williams. Only 500 calls are answered, and only about 30 get on the air.

"It's tough to get started," Williams says. "It's easier getting to the top than it is to start at the bottom."

When he's not on Talknet, Williams is involved with several businesses _ everything from selling Christmas trees, to running nightclubs (his son produces the music for the club), to owning radio stations.

His five children are his associates.

"They are partners in the businesses that happily are profitable," he says. "They work with me, not for me."

Value of hard work

As a parent, Williams believes that his kids should work for everything so they appreciate its value.

"By the time they were 5 or 6, the rules were, `You have to work so many hours a night. . . . I was certainly able financially to give any or all of my kids whatever kind of car I chose to give them. And I chose to give them no cars _ and have them go out and earn the money."

When Williams' son Matthew was 7, the septic tank at their home became clogged. Williams remembers holding Matthew by the ankles and then lowering him into the septic tank to unclog the pipe.

When the clog broke loose, the contents of the septic tank "got it in his ears, in his mouth, in his eyes, everywhere _ he was just covered with you-know-what.

"I pulled him out and stood him up, and of course the only thing clear now is where the tears are coming down his face. I hosed him off."

The lesson, he says, is that dirt washed off, but hard work never does.

"My number two kid I sent into a crawl space when he was a similar age. And it was hot as the hinges of hell. I sent him in with only a pair of shorts. The crawl space was full of insulation. He was scratching for two weeks.

"I wanted these kids to realize that the reason that they went on cruises and to Puerto Rico in the wintertime and went to private school was because their mother and father were breaking their backs working," Williams says. The volume of stuff they got was because of all the hard work in their lives."

Resolving issues

Now on his Talknet radio show, callers frequently ask for advice about their financial problems. Off limits are questions about bond, stocks or how to invest $100,000. His show isn't just about managing finances, but many radio stations promote the money aspect.

And Williams says, "Money is the thread that ties things together" and would agree that most questions have a financial twist. People calling about buying a car that's a lemon aren't asking about money, but how to resolve an issue that concerns money.

Williams does not, however, see himself as an expert.

"It's not written in stone. I didn't come down off a mountain. I don't have any tablets under my arm. The world had one Moses, that was enough. . . . You have to realize that a significant number of callers reaffirm what they already know or already believe. They want me to say, `Yep, you're doing the right thing.'

"You also have to recognize that people are not hanging on your every word," he said. Williams is aware that listeners are preoccupied _ driving down the highway, doing laundry or working at their word processor _ and using only half an ear.

"Unless you are very, very direct. They are going to misinterpret what you are going to say.

"For example, two weeks ago I got a letter from a letter from a lady saying, `How could I possibly tell people not to vote?' She was infuriated. . . . I never said, `Don't vote,' just that I could not vote with any enthusiasm. . . . That's a lot different from saying, `I'm not going to vote.' "