• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Activist talk radio hosts

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2005/12/blogs-hold-talk-hosts-accountable.html

"In my recent interview with industry trade publication All Access, I pointed to KFI's John & Ken in Los Angeles and KSFO/San Francisco's Lee & Melanie morning show as seamlessly blending entertainment with real activism... If a rally, recall election, road trip or initiative campaign is necessary, that's fine, but you don't see them stooping to two-bit rock-jock stunts.
Listeners have a reason to come back each day, feeling a sense of involvement in the latest campaign. For John & Ken, it was most recently a noisy public awareness campaign ahead of the Tookie Williams execution."

Boston's legendary Jerry Williams, seen originally as a liberal but he later
branded himself a populist, used to give out phone numbers of lawmakers (pre-
email!) to get listeners to pressure their legislators about a certain issue,
be it repeal of a seat belt law, stopping a prison from being placed in a town
that didn't want it, and stopping lawmakers from huge payraises. He'd often
play the "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!" clip from "Network".<P ID="signature">______________
raccoonradio5ap.gif
</P>
 
Activist hosts SUCK!

The most godawful statement I've ever heard from any so-called host was one made a few months ago by the execrable Lars Larson: "If you think talk radio is just about entertaining, you're not doing your job."

That is exactly what's wrong with "talk radio": self-important blowhards who think their job is to change the world. Left wing, right wing or middle-of-the-bird, everything that screwed up about the genre is summed up in that one idiotic statement.

It's about entertainment, guys. Period. If you can do your activist thing while *entertaining,* I suppose that's one thing. A lot of hosts think they can; only a blessed few (e.g. John & Ken, the late Jerry Williams) are actually capable of doing both.

Guys like Larson can do neither...
 
The next time you visit the Radio Equalizer Blog tell Mr. Maloney that he doesn't know what he is talking about. The so-called "public awareness campaign" that John and Ken provide is nothing more than politically motivated hate speech. For three weeks they dominated their four hour daily show with much information and biased reporting on Arnold Schwarzenegger's Propositions. They used probably 50 or 60 hours of airtime to promote the propositions calling the teachers and firefighters who opposed them nothing more than "union thugs" that were working in conjunction with the "socialist" California legislature and the "parasitic" illegal immigrants. They only interviewed proponents of the Propositions and misrepresented the opponents side. Eighty per cent of the callers were for the Propositions and John and Ken always shouted down the opponents. Despite this effort, the Propositions were turned down decisively by the California voters, who John and Ken called "stupid and mis-informed."

After losing on the propostions John and Ken switched to a safer subject i.e. the execution of Tookie Williams. They again devoted extensive coverage to Tookie execution -- probably 70 to 80 hours. They featured an hour of programming each day for weeks before his execution called "Tookie must die." They attended the execution day festivies at San Quenten Prison making fun of the 1,000's of Death Penalty opponents who had gathered there. Their sole argument was that Tookie was bad guy who killed four people and should be executed. They spent hours reading transcripts from Tookies trial over 25 years ago which contained graphic descriptions of the murder, they ridiculed his efforts to redeem himself by writing children's books discouraging gang involvement. At no point during their scores of hour covering Tookies execution did they discuss the issue of whether capital punishment should be used. Whether its works as deterrent (surevey says it doesn't), whether its cost effective. (it has cost $50 million for each of the 12 people executed in California over past 10 years.) etc. ect. Well, at least John and Ken were on the winning side on this one. Tookie was executed on Tuesday.

http://radioequalizer> .blogspot.com/2005/12/blogs-hold-talk-hosts-accountable.html
>
>
> "In my recent interview with industry trade publication All
> Access, I pointed to KFI's John & Ken in Los Angeles and
> KSFO/San Francisco's Lee & Melanie morning show as
> seamlessly blending entertainment with real activism... If a
> rally, recall election, road trip or initiative campaign is
> necessary, that's fine, but you don't see them stooping to
> two-bit rock-jock stunts.
> Listeners have a reason to come back each day, feeling a
> sense of involvement in the latest campaign. For John & Ken,
> it was most recently a noisy public awareness campaign ahead
> of the Tookie Williams execution."
>
> Boston's legendary Jerry Williams, seen originally as a
> liberal but he later
> branded himself a populist, used to give out phone numbers
> of lawmakers (pre-
> email!) to get listeners to pressure their legislators about
> a certain issue,
> be it repeal of a seat belt law, stopping a prison from
> being placed in a town
> that didn't want it, and stopping lawmakers from huge
> payraises. He'd often
> play the "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!"
> clip from "Network".
>
<P ID="signature">______________
http://talkingradio.blogspot.com/</P>
 
Re: Activist hosts SUCK!

> The most godawful statement I've ever heard from any
> so-called host was one made a few months ago by the
> execrable Lars Larson: "If you think talk radio is just
> about entertaining, you're not doing your job."
>
> That is exactly what's wrong with "talk radio":
> self-important blowhards who think their job is to change
> the world. Left wing, right wing or middle-of-the-bird,
> everything that screwed up about the genre is summed up in
> that one idiotic statement.
>
> It's about entertainment, guys. Period. If you can do your
> activist thing while *entertaining,* I suppose that's one
> thing. A lot of hosts think they can; only a blessed few
> (e.g. John & Ken, the late Jerry Williams) are actually
> capable of doing both.
>
> Guys like Larson can do neither...
>

His statement does reveal a sense of self-importance shared by most people in media. But it would be hard for most talk hosts to entertain without advocating anything. If they didn't advocate anything, wouldn't that be like listening to C-Span on radio? Even Kim Komando is an advocate.<P ID="signature">______________
"We've only been wealthy in this country for 70 years. Who said we ought to have all this? Is it ordained?" - Jack Welch, retired GE CEO

<a href="http://saltydog.5gigs.com">
The Salty Dog</a>
</P>
 
> The next time you visit the Radio Equalizer Blog tell Mr.
> Maloney that he doesn't know what he is talking about.

There's a real shocker.

> Despite this
> effort, the Propositions were turned down decisively by the
> California voters, who John and Ken called "stupid and
> mis-informed."

The majority of people who heard that line probably already agreed with it and there ends another edition of "Preaching to the Choir."
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom