Launch of Liberal Talk Radio

[jcx]

Hello all,

As you may know, Air America Radio launches next week with such talk show hosts as Al Franken and J. Garofalo who promise to bring the liberal point of view to talk radio. I will watch this with great interest as I expect the venture to crash and burn in a manner not seen since the Hindenburg. There are 3 main obstacles to success:

1. Most of the people who share these points of view have never even heard of the AM dial

2. The people hired to be the talk show hosts may be good entertainers and even quite intelligent. However, to fill a 3 hour radio show 5 days a week (And to be able to verbally spar with the listeners who call in) you need to be able to back your statements up with logic and facts, not just one liners and insults.

3. It is less than a week before launch and they have a total of 3 radio stations signed (Predictably LA, NY & Chicago)! Don't believe me? Check out their own website:

http://www.airamericaradio.com

I'm setting the over/under at about 120 days for Air America radio. They might find a small audience in the big coastal cities but they don't stand a chance in the heartland. I'm a little disappointed I won't be able to listen to it here, though. The carnage will be fun to watch.

[Boris]

Al Franken and Janine Garofolo won't cut it. They need people like Lewis Lapham and Jokerswild.

[sam h]

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However, to fill a 3 hour radio show 5 days a week (And to be able to verbally spar with the listeners who call in) you need to be able to back your statements up with logic and facts, not just one liners and insults.


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Have you ever listened to talk radio? Logic and facts have nothing to do with filling a three-hour block, which is much more about repeating the same simplistic ideas over and over in a variety of bombastic tones. They have even less to with verbally sparring with callers, which is all about not answering their arguments, shouting down those who disagree with you, and hanging up on those who make you look bad.

I do agree Franken and Garofolo are likely to be worse at this than most radio windbags.

[andyfox]

I understand Franken intends to call his show "The O'Franken Factor."

[snakehead]

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you need to be able to back your statements up with logic and facts, not just one liners and insults.


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if you had ever read any of franken's books, you'd realize how stupid that statement is.

[slavic]

Logic and facts have nothing to do with filling a three-hour block, which is much more about repeating the same simplistic ideas over and over in a variety of bombastic tones.

Wow you are listening to some bad talk Radio then. SOme of the best "talk" out there plays more to the informative side of talk than the "pundit" pumping that your describing.

[andyfox]

Which is some of the "best" talk out there? Here in L.A., we get the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Dennis Prager, Rush Limbaugh, Larry Elder, and Dr. Laura Schlesinger. Bombastic insult is their modus operandus.

[slavic]

andy - Here are my reviews of each host. This is quick and off the top of my head.

Bill O'Reilly - His TV show does a better job of focusing his opinion. He does try and acknowledge different viewpoints but the show tends to break down into a side conversation with the female "producer"/co-host.

Sean Hannity - Good lord what isn't cliche here? He is a friend of everyone, hits 1 maybe two topics and hasn't read a single book that he pushes. This is like a weak local show gone bad then pushed national.

Michael Savage - I just don't see the attraction here. I have a jewish step mother, if I wanted this type of abuse I'd call her. How can you have that much hate in your life? Really?

Dennis Prager - Sorry never listened to him.

Rush Limbaugh - He invented the current long format national political monologue show and well it's tired. Sometimes his views are insightfull but I can pretty well tell you what they are going to be before he comes on the air. I tend to pass on the show. Plus can 1 person name drop this much? and really trying to have a larger ego than I do, come on?

Larry Elder - I've only listened to him on my trips to LA. I liked him better as a libertarian but he presents an interesting view as an African American conservative. I did notice that he's a little quick on the attack but he's different enough that he likely will do well in the format.

Dr. Laura Schlesinger - Useless, see my "Savage" comments and multiply it ten fold. Why females call her just to be horsewhipped is beyond me. She doesn't take repeat callers, rarely listens to a full problem statement and goes from zero to Jerry Springer at the first mention of "feelings". Good lord who gave her a show?


Current hosts that I like.

The first has become a bit dated but his show started me off at a young age (5yrs) at creative problem solving.

http://www.brucewilliams.com/ It's not about politics, though sometimes it is, but more about handling those tricky day to day issues we all get stuck with. Taxes, assesments, you frikin neighbor won't stop parking on your lawn, ect ect.

http://www.michaelmedved.com/ He is quite possibly the most intelligent talk radio personality you will find. He is conservative, though formerly quite liberal in his views. He is very well read and his knowledge of world Histroy is sometimes amazing.

http://www.foxnews.com/tonysnow/index.html

Tony seems to attack things from a different way and he's excellent at aproaching and describing a problem from all sides. He also gives a nice background on the operational side of politics, something that most hosts would simply skip or frankly they just don't know.

This is his first shot at long format Radio though, and I wonder if he can keep up the grind?

Dr Dean

http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/...deansearch.cfm

I may not believe everything he brings to the table but the guy puts on a class show. With that said he has a face for radio.

"Here in L.A., we get the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Dennis Prager, Rush Limbaugh, Larry Elder, and Dr. Laura Schlesinger. Bombastic insult is their modus operandus."



How they rate on the Bombastic-Insult Scale (from 1 to 10):

Dennis Prager (1)

Dr. Laura Schlesinger (2)

Rush Limbaugh (3)

Larry Elder (4)

Michael Savage (?)

Bill O'Reilly (7)

Sean Hannity (8)

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Al Frankin, I'm guessing he'll rate around a 3 or 4.

I wanted to give Hannity a 10, but then I remembered how insulting/mean/cruel a host could be if he wanted, i.e., Tom Leykis (toward women).

[Wake up CALL]

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Bombastic insult is their modus operandus.

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Just additional proof that the truth does indeed hurt eh Andy? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]