Shliach Hosts ‘Schmooze Radio’

Palm Beach Post

Dovid Vigler is a schmoozer. Oy, is he a schmoozer.

He can riff on war, explain how Alfred Nobel changed his image, discuss soccer or reincarnation and, hardly stopping for breath, read his own ads.

Vigler is the host of Schmooze Radio, a live one-hour talk show on Seaview Radio.

Seaview, a three-year-old station, broadcasts on 95.9 FM and 960 AM, and the Web, with a signal that can be heard from Boca Raton to Stuart and from the Gulf Coast of Florida to the Bahamas. Its fare is mellow music, Boston Red Sox games and a potpourri of talk shows.

About a year and a half ago, station management decided that this area also contains a ready-made congregation for a radio rabbi.

When he started looking, producer Harry Kaufman didn’t have any candidates in mind and did not know Vigler, who heads the Gardens Shul in Palm Beach Gardens.

“One of my friends said, ‘Talk to this young man‚’ and I said I would do it as a favor to him,” said Kaufman. “After an hour, I knew I had my rabbi.”

Kaufman taught Vigler a few basic radio techniques and started him off with a half-hour show and soon upgraded him to an hour. Seaview shows are supported by sponsors and sponsors showed up for Vigler.

On the air, Vigler is by turns folksy, encyclopedic, lighthearted or solemn, depending on the subject matter.

“I get a rush of adrenaline when somebody calls in,” said Vigler. “This is live radio. Thankfully, I haven’t been stumped yet.”

When Vigler returned to his home in South Africa in January for his sister’s wedding, the local Jewish radio station, Chai FM, interviewed him about his life and times in South Florida. On the spot, the owners wanted to add Schmooze Radio to their lineup and last month gave Vigler its prime noon-1 p.m. slot. Though the show has been airing overseas only three weeks, South African listeners have begun e-mailing Vigler.

A number of cities, as close as Orlando and as far away as New York City, have Jewish radio stations. Many more stations can be heard on the Internet. But Kaufman figures there is room for another personality and has begun talking syndication with radio stations throughout the country. He is so sure of Vigler’s talents that he declares he will be syndicated.

“He has that God-given unique ability to reach the listener,” Kaufman said. “You just feel that he’s only talking to you, and that he really cares about you.”

Vigler’s day job is leading the Gardens Shul, nicknamed the “firehouse shul” for the fire station from which it is recycled.

Vigler is part of the Chabad Lubavitch movement of Judaism, a worldwide movement that began after the Holocaust.

Vigler, who turns 30 today emigrated from South Africa in 2004 and became a citizen in 2008. He and his wife Chana, married since 2004, have three young children.

Already known as a ball of energy, Vigler makes it sound easy to add an hour of live radio to his schedule: “I speak about everything, the joys and the oys.”