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Weekday with Steve Scher's live performance with Stephen Tobolowsky Friday sounded pretty good.
Tobolowsky is the self-satisfied b-actor/a-grade storyteller who finally wormed his smarmy way into our collective Sunday afternoon (KUOW 1-2p) hearts with his tales of Hollywood and Texas.
KUOW said the tickets would be $4. That sounded great, so we went up to the Neptune's site, where we were more than off-put that a $4 ticket actually costs $9! The unexplained "convenience fee" ($2) plus the "order process fee" ($3) more than doubled the price of the ticket.
Continue reading "Why we aren't at the KUOW event at the neptune theater, today" »
This advice for candidates who want to get noticed and be successful on talk radio is from an East coast talker in a market (unlike Seattle's) where talk radio matters politically.
Take it from someone who spends five mornings a week in front of a microphone—talk radio listeners are among the most politically active, engaged and passionate voters you can reach as a candidate.
They also tend to be wealthier and more willing to make a political contribution, which makes them a great target audience for a campaign of any size.
Given that I’m based in Manchester, New Hampshire, Republican presidential hopefuls aren’t in short supply on my morning show. Most of them are eager guests (they tend to come to us, not the other way around).
After what seems like a non-stop round of bookings and interviews with 2012ers in recent weeks, we've got some tips to offer for campaigns of any size that are looking to score an interview with the local talk radio host. And it starts by remembering that even though the host you're courting may lean in your candidate's favor or share their ideology, it doesn't guarantee you a spot on the air.
Some tips to getting on and—more importantly—being invited back:
1. Don’t Drop In: It seems every cycle there are enterprising young campaign managers and communications directors who think dropping by or randomly calling a radio station is a good way to stand out. It isn't. When a candidate just appears, the host feels entitled to hit them with tough questions because they interrupted the show and the host likely felt pressured to put them on-air. The key is to work with the host and let them choose a time that works. (They have a show to plan, after all.) Most talk hosts want to fill the time with politics anyway and want to put your candidate on the air. Just let them make the decision.
2. Be a Story Teller: Radio listeners are going in and out and listening to one in every three words. That statistic gets worse if a candidate is listing the bullet points of their 20-point economic plan. You need to be engaging: tell anecdotes from the trail, talk about the station's home town and listening area. And never just launch into your stump speech immediately after the host says, "Thanks for joining us." It’s bad radio and the audience hates it. Listeners care about themselves and their town first, so make it about them and not just your talking points.
3. Respond Immediately and Don’t Spam: Local radio, like most media, has seen massive cuts to staffing over the past couple of years. Those once reliable news directors, reporters and producers don't really exist anymore. In many markets, it’s just the host who gets your candidate on the air and the truth is we don't read campaign press releases. So be direct, give specific times and dates you'd like to have your candidate on and thank the host profusely for making it happen. Like most things in politics, it's an ego game.
4. Don't Be Rush Limbaugh: Many candidates think the best way to do radio is to launch into a stream of consciousness and fill the entire interview. Local radio is all about building rapport with the audience and hosts don't want to seem pushy, especially in morning drive. Make sure you allow for breaks where the host can ask questions and doesn't feel bowled over. It may not seem like the best strategy politically, but remember, this isn’t a debate with your opponent. Very few local talk radio hosts are looking to railroad a candidate and risk losing access.
5. Match the Host and the Audience: Listen to the show you're going on and know the host's name! "It’s good being here, Paul" goes a long way. Determine the leaning of the host and station by listening and checking the station's schedule. This will give you a nice idea of how tough you can be when it comes to the rhetoric and a good sense of the pace and tone of the show.
Paul Westcott is the Host of the New Hampshire Insider heard weekdays on WGIR AM 610 and 96.7 the Wave.
(Gov. Christie looks down upon the ladies of The View)
Chris Christie knows the value of showing a little leg, but not enough to be called a slut. It's a lesson he's perhaps learned from the examples of such as Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich (though it may be argued that Newt has been long-established as a slut in this narrowband non-sexist use of that noble word of obscure Middle English origin).
Chrisie's teasing never-quite-say-never presser last night further muddles the muddly Republican race in which no one in the field who's electable is abided by the base.
Meanwhile, Christie's girth is being discussed as a deal breaker not only by the predictable Hollywood types, but also by conservatives like Dennis Miller ("he's North of 4, (hundred pounds) isn't he?") and alleged friends like Ann Coulter who calls him "the fat guy."
The too-fat-to-be president discussion goes two ways:
1. The conventional wisdom is that Americans don't like fat people and haven't elected fat president since Taft (1913). (On The View: Elisabeth Hasslebeck argued that Christie offered something that Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann didn’t. “Krispy Kremes!” Joy Behar shouted out).
2. An unconventional way to answer the second question is to picture someone running through the grueling Iowa caucuses and hilly New Hampshire carrying a 200 lb. person on their back or more anatomically accurate, their front.
Unless he's really running, not sure what Christie is gaining by taking the oxygen out of the room for the declared candidates. But he's a politician, and a good one, so he's not doing it for nothing.
Continue reading "Chris christie still switching his butt in front of republicans" »
We are tired, threw our radio into the street, have been arrested, are really busy, so we'll ask this question: What ever happened to this phony poodle in a Port-a-Potty of a Dori Monson news story from last summer? We called Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Teresa Wippel again and she told us in an email that as far as the district is concerned, "It never happened."
Did the heads roll at KIRO news? Of course not. They're too busy with such as Dori's startling interview of the Puyallup Porn Dad's daughter-law's best friend.
Here's the story from April 19, 2011
Ruffled Christians from around the world bombarded Seattle Public Schools with ferocious emails last week.
They were furious about a teacher who refused to call them, "Easter eggs," in the classroom, and insisted they be called "spring spheres."
(photo: feckless talker, Dori Monson)
It was based on a call to The Dori Monson Show KIROFM m-f, 12-3p) from a 16-year-old allegedly named "Jessica," (last name mysterously withheld) who said she was corrected by the teacher when she'd tried to fill plastic Easter eggs with treats for 3rd graders at her volunteer job.
Of course this was red meat to the feck-free Monson, Seattle's last, red meat radio winger. Pious man that he is, he pumped it with a trumpet, heaping his normal ration of anti-Seattle scorn and "outrage" on the Board, the teacher, and all the rest of us unchurched, Seattle, latté-lapping, hippy scum.
Ho-hum, another day on the radio with The Master of the Puny-verse.
Problem is: there's no proof it ever happened. There's nothin' but the word of an alleged 16-year-old talking on the phone to Dori.
The Stranger News Editor Dominic Holden due diligenced the story and so far, no one can confirm it ever happened. Missing in the piece (and apparently to the "reporter" who wrote it for KIRO's mynorthwest.com) are the ID's of the school, the teacher, the 16-year-old, an the father of the 16-year-old.
Those are pretty big parts of the "news story," so where the hell are they? The reporter, KIRO website (mynorthwest.com) Editor Stephanie Klein, didn't have any sources (!) May we underscore that, please? She's not protecting sources... she doesn't fucking have any!
(photo: sourceless reporter, Stephanie Klein)
So she referred Holden to Dori, who's not answering emails.
Jesus.
"We haven’t been able to verify that it happened," says Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Teresa Wippel. She says district officials contacted all 88 schools in Seattle last week, asking if any employee could confirm or deny the "spring sphere" story. "Generally when we put out some question, we usually do get some kind of confirmation from people. But it has been silence so far."
News Chick (morning lady Linda Thomas) picked it up, but unlike the "news" story that went viral, was careful to write that the story couldn't be verified. She also added this:
Incidentally, I love Dori and his "outrage." [quotation marks Linda's(!)]: He finds some interesting stories to be outraged about on his show from noon to 3 p.m. every day.
Holden writes:
Not only an affront to fundies ignorant that decorated eggs predate Jesus by thousands of years, the politically-correct term also concerned liberals who thought educators couldn't distinguish a sphere from an ovoid."
"It’s a good story," insisted Klein to Holden, comparing it to the phony War on Xmas stories dragged out every year in the season. But, she said, she "'got a lot of flack' for not naming the school or the people involved." Indeed.
The School District is left with the bag of dogshit flaming on its doorstep.
Holden adds that school district policy from 1983 says that "no religious belief or non-belief should be promoted" by its employees. He adds:
In the district's defense, Wippel says people believed Seattle schools are "somehow to blame for denigrating Christianity in some way," adding, “We can't respond to that because we don’t even know if it happened. I would love to tell you I was able to verify it, because then we could put it to rest on way or the other."
Meanwhile Dori, the self-proclaimed watchdog of everybody he disagrees with is onto the next "outrage." Upcoming from the microwave: "The strange story of the girl who mutilated a cat so she could go to Lady Gaga concert."
(And whoon hell hired this so-called editor who wrote a news story with no sources? Does she edit herself?)
(Rare photo: from left, Dr. Edgar "Choch" "Mañana; Reince Priebus; Pat O'Day, Tony Miner, The King; bodyguard Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kirby Wilbur. Out of the picture: host Larry Lovebreath "The Eye of the Needle." credit, Garry O'Day).
Elvis spent a couple of days and nights kickin' it with Seattle radio party/hardies. His voracious appetites for hysterical women, Crab Louies & Oly brew were said to be matched only by the young Kirby Wilbur, who later became a hot right-wing talker and Washington State Republican Chairman.
We're now hearing that John Curley (KIROFM m-f. 7-10p) will step down (or be stepped down) at or before the end of the year. Is it about politics, or is it because he sucks on KIRO?
(photo: Curley uncharacteristically doing radio)
Continue reading "John curley: will he last the year at KIRO? " »
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