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It’s almost impossible to pick a time when Gun Talk started. You could say it started when Grits Gresham started writing about hunting and guns in the 1940’s, because that led his son, Tom, to take up photography and writing. Tom became the editor of several outdoor magazines, and eventually joined Grits as co-host of “Shooting Sports America,” a shooting show on ESPN. From that, Tom began hosting and creating several television series, including the first TV show about self defense with firearms.
Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk, the first national radio talk show about guns and gun rights, first aired in March of 1995, and has grown 240+ radio stations and four million downloads of the show annually. It also was the first, to our knowledge, “podcast” about guns, since we started archiving each show online years before the invention of the iPod.
Ryan Gresham grew up in front of the camera, being pressed into service for Tom’s magazine articles. He worked in radio, cable TV, and was a sales representative for the Fox affiliate in New Orleans, right up until Hurricane Katrina blew in. Not long after his home washed away he teamed up with Tom to create videos about guns, shooting and hunting, distributing the videos through what may be the first online video site dedicated to those subjects. Before long cable TV called, and the two of them produced and hosted shows on NBC Sports, Outdoor Life TV, Versus, Outdoor Channel, Pursuit, Sportsman Channel, and Wild TV (Canada).
The list of “firsts” from the Gun Talk team includes: first national radio talk show about guns and gun rights, created the first television series about armed self defense, first television series about the newest guns on the market, first series featuring force-on-force defensive training, first smartphone app using geolocation technology to place directed messages before consumers at the right time and place.
There’s more coming. The Gun Talk team is limited only by time — not ideas!
Tom Gresham’s entire life has prepared him to be the host of Gun Talk®. He has been shooting since the age of six, deer hunting since 11, and at the age of 13 he was taking photographs for the best selling book The Complete Book of Bass Fishing, written by his father, Grits Gresham. By the time he was 18, Tom was co-author (with his famous father) of a syndicated newspaper column. At 23, he was the editor of Southern Outdoors Magazine. Other outdoor magazines he has edited include American Hunter, Alaska, Handloader, and Rifle. Tom also has written several books, including Weatherby: The Man, The Gun, The Legend.
Current
Gresham lives in South Louisiana, and from there he travels the country to tape television shows, visit gun factories, and venture out on great hunting trips, often flying his own plane. And, of course, there’s that little matter of a weekly talk radio show about guns. It’s a monster, carried on regular radio stations, on XM satellite radio (channel 165), through live streaming and available worldwide through podcasting and downloadable MP3 files.
Favorite Guns
Well, a strong dominant left eye means he shoots from the left shoulder, but shoots handguns right handed. The two cartridges he is enjoying tinkering with currently are the .300 Jarrett (created by South Carolina gunsmith Kenny Jarrett from a blown-out 8mm Remington Magnum case) and a delightful .257 Roberts. Why the Roberts? It was the first centerfire cartridge Tom ever fired (his mother’s custom rifle), and it’s always had a special place in his heart. Besides, it’s still a great hunting cartridge.