Great Moments in Blather: wherein we gots what we wished for. o shit.

March 17, 2007

Is talk radio as we know it, finished? we hope so.

After years of a healthy (yet deliciously unhealthy) addiction to talk radio, we're frankly bored with it, these days.

After years of a healthy (yet deliciously unhealthy) addiction to talk radio, we're frankly bored with it, these days.

 

And we're not the only ones- we hear about it all the time from readers... and ratings are down all over the country.

The right-wing talkers, who were the meat & potatoes of talk, are now just the potatoes.

They once challenged the status quo, dared mention unmentionables; identified and brought left and right into sharp focus for people who never knew the difference.

They politicized people by poking sacred cattle; and that political potential was exciting to us- even though we utterly disagreed with them.

George Bush's presidency corrupted them: They tucked their testicles carefully away. They've become moralistic scolds; and/or ears-covered la-la-la administration shills. They just spout the old crap- in the face of everything that obviously contradicts it.

The ratings decline of talk radio roughly follows the precipitous dip in Bush's numbers.

That's why we postulate that the loss of credibility of talk hosts who insist on playing defense for this utterly destitute administration is partially responsible for talk radio's slide.

To listen to the likes of Sytman & Boze, (KTTH m-f, 5-9a) Dori Monson (KIRO m-f, 12-3p) Kirby Wilbur  (KVI m-f, 5-9a) Laura Ingraham, KKOL m-f, 6-9a) Michael Medved, (KTTH m-f, 12-3p); Big Pants (KTTH m-f, 9a-12p) or Lars Larson (KTTH m-f, 11p-2a) plucking ponies out of the shit pile day after day, is just excruciatingly predictable and unbelievable after a while.

The choir they were preaching to have left the church, and now they're just boring.

The Bush White House has spat in the face of such bedrock conservative principles as small government, fiscal prudence, and habeas corpus. They've embraced such conservative anathemae as executive branch power-grabbing; government secrecy, and nation-building, just to name a few.

These talk hosts don't have the integrity to call bullshit on this stuff- and the conservatives who do- are routinely scorned and shredded as per instructions or example from the Rovian White House. It's shameful for them as humans- but even worse for radio- it's boring.

Opportunistic self-promoters like Billo Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck; use the decaying corpse of the "explaining industry" to climb higher on their media career ladder, sell their books, or create a political base.

They're playing to a dying demographic that they, themselves, are killing.

But it's not all just reaction to the Bush deconstruction that accounts for the radio downturn- it's also risk-averse radio execs and programmers who've been stuck in the hypermanic, cynical, over-opinionated mire of the Rush Limbaugh era.

The let-us-reason together crowd like Dave Ross (KIRO m-f, 9a-12p) Ron Reagan, KIRO m-f, 12-1p) Thom Hartmann (KPTK m-f, 9-12p) or The Commentators (KVI m-f, 9a-12p) aren't doing much better at attracting the ear balls to the genre.

What's needed now is a return to integrity; a little innovation, too- we're not seeing much of that- and what we see can be disturbing.

Frinstance: the Ron & Don Show (KIRO m-f, 4-7p) is a 'new" concept modeled after cable TV's admix of politics, celebrity gossip, crime," TV culture with adenoidal wrangling by its studiously adolescent hosts.

Whether Britney Spears should stay in rehab is as important in this raucous 80-mile-a-minute world as whether the U.S. should stay in Iraq. 

It's only incidentally political or about public issues, not particularly partisan; and though it's well produced, uses tried and true pop elements, and is unlistenable to such as we who are looking for mainly political pith and passion.

This tabloid radio may win the day by attracting a new audience, one with women included, but we wouldn't make book on it.

If it succeeded by any large measure- we'd definitely be outa here. But then again BlatherWatch wouldn't be needed- tabloid radio would end the political bully pulpit talk radio gives the right.

Rachel Maddow (KPTK m-f, 3-5p) has a unique new model: a fast-paced, witty news cast with few callers, lots of information, and a smart, ironic view. The show depends a lot on the mind and wit of the host who's a Rhodes scholar and possesses a bright and easy-going sense of the absurd. Not just anyone could bring what she does to the radio. (Can you imagine Sean Hannity doing a pith and wit schtick?)

As liberal talk slowly spreads across the airwaves, it may provide a little relief from the meta-yada of the conservative Bushland über alles crowd who have lost so much audience with their loss of credibility.

We for one believe that most liberals lack the AM talk radio gene, and hordes of them won't start listening to it just because it's progressive.

No, the real hope of liberal talk is not to recruit progressives as new listeners but to attract the old ones with better radio.

It's obvious to us that the old format is a goner- the Millennials are staying away from radio in droves. 

Our advice: listen to the kids, watch where the Internets go and go there; cut loose the fat old conservatives and those who imitate them.

And we're not the only ones- we hear about it all the time from readers... and ratings are down all over the country.

The right-wing talkers, who were the meat & potatoes of talk, are now just the potatoes.

They once challenged the status quo, dared mention unmentionables; identified and brought left and right into sharp focus for people who never knew the difference.

They politicized people by poking sacred cattle; and that political potential was exciting to us- even though we utterly disagreed with them.

George Bush's presidency corrupted them: They tucked their testicles carefully away. They've become moralistic scolds; and/or ears-covered la-la-la administration shills. They just spout the old crap- in the face of everything that obviously contradicts it.

The ratings decline of talk radio roughly follows the precipitous dip in Bush's numbers.

That's why we postulate that the loss of credibility of talk hosts who insist on playing defense for this utterly destitute administration is partially responsible for talk radio's slide.

To listen to the likes of Sytman & Boze, (KTTH m-f, 5-9a) Dori Monson (KIRO m-f, 12-3p) Kirby Wilbur  (KVI m-f, 5-9a) Laura Ingraham, KKOL m-f, 6-9a) Michael Medved, (KTTH m-f, 12-3p); Big Pants (KTTH m-f, 9a-12p) or Lars Larson (KTTH m-f, 11p-2a) plucking ponies out of the shit pile day after day, is just excruciatingly predictable and unbelievable after a while.

The choir they were preaching to have left the church, and now they're just boring.

The Bush White House has spat in the face of such bedrock conservative principles as small government, fiscal prudence, and habeas corpus. They've embraced such conservative anathemae as executive branch power-grabbing; government secrecy, and nation-building, just to name a few.

These talk hosts don't have the integrity to call bullshit on this stuff- and the conservatives who do- are routinely scorned and shredded as per instructions or example from the Rovian White House. It's shameful for them as humans- but even worse for radio- it's boring.

Opportunistic self-promoters like Billo Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck; use the decaying corpse of the "explaining industry" to climb higher on their media career ladder, sell their books, or create a political base.

They're playing to a dying demographic that they, themselves, are killing.

But it's not all just reaction to the Bush deconstruction that accounts for the radio downturn- it's also risk-averse radio execs and programmers who've been stuck in the hypermanic, cynical, over-opinionated mire of the Rush Limbaugh era.

The let-us-reason together crowd like Dave Ross (KIRO m-f, 9a-12p) Ron Reagan, KIRO m-f, 12-1p) Thom Hartmann (KPTK m-f, 9-12p) or The Commentators (KVI m-f, 9a-12p) aren't doing much better at attracting the ear balls to the genre.

What's needed now is a return to integrity; a little innovation, too- we're not seeing much of that- and what we see can be disturbing.

Frinstance: the Ron & Don Show (KIRO m-f, 4-7p) is a 'new" concept modeled after cable TV's admix of politics, celebrity gossip, crime," TV culture with adenoidal wrangling by its studiously adolescent hosts.

Whether Britney Spears should stay in rehab is as important in this raucous 80-mile-a-minute world as whether the U.S. should stay in Iraq. 

It's only incidentally political or about public issues, not particularly partisan; and though it's well produced, uses tried and true pop elements, and is unlistenable to such as we who are looking for mainly political pith and passion.

This tabloid radio may win the day by attracting a new audience, one with women included, but we wouldn't make book on it.

If it succeeded by any large measure- we'd definitely be outa here. But then again BlatherWatch wouldn't be needed- tabloid radio would end the political bully pulpit talk radio gives the right.

Rachel Maddow (KPTK m-f, 3-5p) has a unique new model: a fast-paced, witty news cast with few callers, lots of information, and a smart, ironic view. The show depends a lot on the mind and wit of the host who's a Rhodes scholar and possesses a bright and easy-going sense of the absurd. Not just anyone could bring what she does to the radio. (Can you imagine Sean Hannity doing a pith and wit schtick?)

As liberal talk slowly spreads across the airwaves, it may provide a little relief from the meta-yada of the conservative Bushland über alles crowd who have lost so much audience with their loss of credibility.

We for one believe that most liberals lack the AM talk radio gene, and hordes of them won't start listening to it just because it's progressive.

No, the real hope of liberal talk is not to recruit progressives as new listeners but to attract the old ones with better radio.

It's obvious to us that the old format is a goner- the Millennials are staying away from radio in droves. 

Our advice: listen to the kids, watch where the Internets go and go there; cut loose the fat old conservatives and those who imitate them.

Comments

[Ryder]

Lets see, you got conservative radio telling you that you can make it on your own if government will just get out of the way. You got liberal radio telling you that you're selfish because you're against payng more taxes. Which message do you think is going to attract listeners?

We see what is happeniing in Europe by government trying to be a security blanket for everyone. We see what is happening over here with all the greed in the markets. Both ideas have turned into financial disasters. It appears to all be collapsing into a free-for-all mess.

Talk radio has become a place for listeners of all perspectives to have their ears tickled.

Its sunday morning. What am I doing up this early?

[YellowPup]

Sarah Palin has pulled out the dull-blunt "media bias" cudgel again, saying that Maddow was "prejudiced" in her interview of Rand Paul, for trying to get him to own his segregationists' rights views.

http://huff.to/d0mMFg

"One thing we can learn in this lesson that I have learned and Rand Paul is learning now is don't assume that you can engage in a hypothetical discussion about constitutional impacts with a reporter or a media personality who has an agenda, who may be prejudiced before they even get into the interview in regards to what your answer may be," Palin said. "You know, they are looking for the gotcha moment. And that evidently appears to be what they did with Rand Paul, and I'm thankful he clarified his answer about his support for the Civil Rights Act."

Here's to more "gotcha myoments."

[Bill]

Every time I see or hear Sarah Palin, she reminds me of Martin Sheen in "The Dead Zone".

[Duffman]

"gotcha myoments."

GOTCHA! :)

[Myrtle Mopup]

They're doing to Paul what they did to Sarah- kill him by asking serious, hard questions. They're both ideological dumb-downs. Not fit to govern.

[Duffman]

I think you're just jealous because she's so hot.

[Duffman]

'They're doing to Paul what they did to Sarah- kill him by asking serious, hard questions. They're both ideological dumb-downs. Not fit to govern.'

Yeah, we want more like Nancy Pelosi; strong 'governoring' leader.

[joanie]

Sorry, Yellowpup, but no forty year old gotchas for me. I want the here and now, thank you. Of course, the more these wacked conservatives win primaries, the more democrats - former republicans - will win in November. We truth-seekers, the real liberals aka progressives - will continue to advocate for real change.

Ryder: we are the problem. Our corrupt financial system poisoned the world. And we are only surviving because our government is printing money like it's graffiti. Our chickens will come home to roost. We can be Africa if we keep going the way we are.

Spent the last day and a half at BB. But my classroom is calling. Carry on.

[joanie]

Actually, that doesn't make sense! Democrats are now spouting the old republican positions. Democrats have become republicans and republicans are becoming democrats because democrats are where they are so they are all one now. Got it?

The old democrats - the party of education and labor - are now progressives!

Bill Clinton - the last great Republican President - except I didn't think he was great. Another talker like our current Prez.

[Tommy008]

,,,,,,,,,Helen Golay was the wealthier of the two, she owned apartments in Santa Monica and elsewhere in L.A......one of her tenants said she had an unreasoning contempt for them...Olga Rudderschmidt ,her fiend of over twenty years, was given the job of finding the homeless marks and the day-to-day overseeing of their human "investments", while Helen fronted the money for the apartment rents, the daily stipends, etc...... they kept the men alive, put up in shabby apartments, for at least two years, until the insurance policies the two elderly women had on them became virtually uncontestable by the companies per California law. At the start of their relationships with each of the two homeless men they had "fattened" them up like Christmas turkeys, frontloading dozens of life insurance policies on them...sometime during McDavid's tenure in the apartment he became a virtual prisoner, after the two harridans hired an armed guard to stay with him there and warn off any friends who might try to come back there.... and meddle in the women's plans for him... One of McDavid's friends who had been kicked out of the apartment by Rudderschmidt, came by to see him one day and was told by the armed guard through the cracked open door that "Mr. McDavid can't talk to you,"........Golay once, according to her hairdresser called the poor people made homeless by Katrina victims "worthless nothings, just useless to society...all on welfare".... One evening in June of 2005, detectives and prosecutors believe that McDavid was drugged and boozed up , loaded into Helen Golays 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon and driven to an alley behind the Westwood Village Mall, in West Los Angeles,,,,Helen Golay, driving the vehicle, pulled into the alley, dumped McDavid out of the car and then proceeded to back up and slowly run over the helpless man until he was dead..................my summary of the evildoings of Helen Golay and Olga Rudderschmidt, two people who share Dori Monson's viewpoint that homeless peopple are simply "human garbage"......

[Duffman]

You never seem to outSTUPID yourself. INfrickenCREDIBLE!
You need help!

[Tommy008]

is that my wee little monkey, my shadow, chiming in....?

[joanie]

Now don't you two start! Michael will have to change the blog title to "feudin'watch" - I'm done to a lot of people's relief I'm sure.

Energized and off REALLY to the classroom.

[Duffman]

You sure love to 'dish it out' (ala: Dori, Shires, etc, et al) but seem to have difficulty 'taking it'. You know some herein may feel obliged to give you a pass on this crap but I'm calling you out every time you post your bull crap and inequitable accusations. It's over the top and if you can't see that you're fricken stupid.

[AprilMayJune]

"Now don't you two start! Michael will have to change the blog title to "feudin'watch" -"

BickerWatch is more like it.

[Tommy008]

Monson would ever do what Olga and Helen did...for one thing he doesn't have the guts for it.. but he wouldn't do it anyway becaus he is not a sociopath like these two old hags....i've never said he was...however with the comments he makes about homeless people he is encouraging those who are likely to do violent, sinister or exploitative acts against them...it emboldens them when they here the likes of Monson mske his "human garbage" remarks and dehumanize homeless peo0ple...he needs to be confronted with what the ultimate end product of his remarks is.... depraved deviltry and sinister plots for profit such as described above....don't feel the least bit apologetic about what i posted....

[Tommy008]

and now, a grateful nation sits with mounting excitement in their tv rooms , waiting for the start of this week's episode of Breaking Bad on AMC AT 10P.M. PST....

[KS]

You know some herein may feel obliged to give you a pass on this crap but I'm calling you out every time you post your bull crap and inequitable accusations. It's over the top and if you can't see that you're fricken stupid.

Posted by: Duffman | May 23, 2010 at 03:48 PM

Well stated, duff. That could be said about several others who frequent this blog besides to whom your comment was intended.

[joanie]

You don't know who that is, do you, KS?

[sparky]

"As the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig continues to spill over 1 million gallons of oil into the Gulf every day, Republicans are demanding less regulation for companies like BP and Transocean while also looking for a taxpayer-funded bailout of BP.

After a month of oil spewing into the Gulf, the cost of cleaning up BP's mess is $542 million and counting. But a group of Republican senators led by Lisa Murkowski of Alaska want the company to pay for only the first five days of the cleanup and put taxpayers on the hook for everything else."

[Duffman]

Well...I think THEY should pay, totally. However they may try to game the system by declaring bankruptcy and going out of business (as BP) and then GUESS WHO PAYS...yet ANOTHER MASSIVE BAILOUT. :(

[KS]

You don't know who that is, do you, KS?

Posted by: joanie | May 24, 2010 at 01:01 AM

Wouldn't you like to know ?
Hint: the usual suspects...

[Tommy008]

Governer Jindal of Louisiana fuming over governement red tape preventing booms to be put in place before oil reached shoreline.....says there was plenty of time to keep it from reaching shore......hmmm governmental redtape must mean federal red tape....now it's a Repug governor claimind Dem admin. inc0mpetence....if true could be bad for Obama...... oh and just in... two American tourists kidnapped in Yemen.....uh folks let's plan our vacation a bit better next time....duh....

[Tommy008]

"I find her arguments incredulous", Bryan Suits caller just now.....note to caller- you just incorrectly used the word incredulous...you are "incredulous" of the guest's comments...incredulous means skeptical...disinclined to believe... you find the guest's arguments not credible or not believable is the correct phrasing...Suits preaches to an ignorant to ignoramus audience....

[Duffman]

And, successfully got one to respond.

[Tommy008]

OT " the fly" episode of Breaking Bad yesterday was beyond awesome....very bad things are coming soon for Walt and Jesse, very very bad things... especially for Jesse

[KS]

It would be entertaining to hear a phone exchange between Suits and caller Tommy008.

go for it, T008, we'll be listening.