Fox News Radio and television personality Tony Snow was diagnosed with colon cancer on Feb. 11, despite surgery on Feb. 28, six months of chemotherapy and follow-up surgery in November, Snow called this the best year of his life.
"You find out what you’re made of and how many people love you,” said Snow, a Mount Vernon resident..
With enthusiasm and energy, Snow remains active in his work and home lives. While he was off the air for five weeks after his initial surgery, he worked through 11 of his 12 chemotherapy sessions and then took off a couple of weeks for his final surgery.
Snow has been given a clean bill of health, but will continue to have check-ups every three months.
After going through the regimen of cancer treatments, Snow is an advocate for cancer screening and for helping people get past their fears. He strongly believes that a positive attitude really helps.
Even though his blood tests and CAT scans look good, Snow said, “I never get cocky; this is a fiendish disease.”
Snow said that he feels good and is trying to eat well. As far as gaining weight, he said that he felt that he was overweight before and is now where he wants to be. He looks forward to returning to the gym in January.
IN THE MEANTIME, Snow has a full plate, serving as the host of the "The Tony Snow Show" weekdays on Fox News Radio as well as the "Weekend Live with Tony Snow" on the Fox News Channel. He has also started writing his newspaper column again. None of these are new challenges; the column was something that he did for many years and is glad to be doing again; he served as the host of "Fox News Sunday" from 1996 to 2003; and he was a guest host on the "Rush Limbaugh Show" for many years.
“It’s the best of all possible worlds,” Snow said.
He said that he is traveling a fair amount and continues to look for “thoughtful but tough discussion of today's issues with prominent guests.”
Though he is thought of as a conservative, Snow said that he looks forward to having Dick Durbin on in January.
“I like to get smart people on all sides,” Snow said. “I won’t be rude or nasty, but the right kind of conflict can be very interesting. Done the right way, it’s fun.”
Although Snow has a full-time booker for his program, he sometimes picks up the phone to make the connection himself. He doesn't have a favorite guest, but he did enjoy having the Vice-President and the Majority Leader on his show.
Snow hasn’t had any “bad” interviews, but occasionally a guest will get stage fright and clam up. In that case, he will shorten the interview and go onto something else.
“The host always has the ability to control the show,” Snow said. “If you do your homework right and know where you want to go with it [the interview], it’s usually fine.”
Snow is looking forward to a full-time Fox News Talk station on XM Satellite Radio; Fox is also negotiating with Sirius Satellite Radio.
“We have a lot of listeners on satellite and now they will be able to pull it [station] down and listen,” Snow said.
His show is currently being aired on 120 affiliate stations, and he predicts that number will double by the end of next year.