Are there left of center hosts on WBZ?

[raccoonradio]

Steve Leveille calls himself a liberal and from what I've heard of his politics on-air he doesn't
sound conservative, but I noticed a post on save prog. radio Boston yahoo group calling for
WBZ to put on talk hosts who "discuss(es) things progressives want to discuss." Is Steverino
not left enough for the progressives? (Maybe he's a more centrist type of guy...)

( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/save_progressive_radio_boston )

The same group had a post by someone who said, "“Ever since Romney gave us liberals the finger as he left the governorship by buying the 2 AAR stations in Boston, we have had a great hole." Uh, question? Is this
the same Romney who left Bain Capital YEARS ago and thus has no hand in buying Cheap Channel?

Oh, I must have missed it!
>>Station: WXKS (AM)
Owner: Willard Mitt Romney, Belmont, MA
Format: Anything but progressive talk, baby!

(// just kidding! //)
(Ironically enough, the church Mr. Romney belongs to runs a station in Washington DC that has
a blend of talk hosts including some on the left--Stephanie Miller, Randi Rhodes. Imagine!

http://www.3wtradio.com
Bonneville Broadcasting, part of Church of Latter Day Saints

 

[D. R. Tucker]

I don't think anyone would confuse Lovell Dyett with a right-wing Republican...

 

[katzradio]

Yeah, I consider Steve a "Lefty"; Too far out there for my tastes, anyway. I especially get tired of his rants of "I'm right - you're wrong" when he is on the political topics, although he usually doesn't come right out & say that. He is quite fond of calling people "morons" and "stupid". :

 

[raccoonradio]

Yeah it was said on that group that Pat Desmarais (fill in?) was on and admitted he was a "hardcore
conservative Republican and a kook". Well maybe we can just wait for the Fairness Doctrine to come back
and knock all the conservative talkers off the air (stations wouldn't want to have to provide an
equal viewpoint by law--ratings would suffer) and we'll all have Gardening Talk ("now, the problem
you have is an animal called a vole").As I've said before the UNfairness doctrine is actually an infringement
of freedom of the press. Who is the government to tell a radio station what to air, politically? (Would there
be a show featuring the KKK on a black oriented station? Hey, equal time...) The fact that libtalkers
have been about as successful as the Mass. Republican Party doesn't mean it should be forced on us...
what works, works and what sells, sells...and it's not like Cheap Channel didn't try to give Air America a foothold.

 

[SonicOverload]

Steve LaVeille is a liberal--a pretty mainstream one. I wouldn't characterize him as a leftist. I'd categorize Lovell as liberal, as well. Bradley Jay seems to be more liberal than conservative.

 

[katzradio]

I'd categorize Lovell as liberal,

I haven't listened to him enough to know for myself, but a friend tells me he is republican in his views. Go figure... 'course, my friend may be considered an "unreliable" source! ;D

what works, works and what sells, sells...

follow the money...whatever brings in the bucks or "moves the needle" is what they will have on. :

 

[webcastboy]

FWIW, Steve used to do late-night board-op shifts at WBUR pretty regularly. I assume he doesn't really anymore. Admittedly, this doesn't really mean much since the late-night shifts don't really "talk" the way Steve does on WBZ...they just babysit the BBC feed and do weather & spots twice an hour for about 60 seconds each.

Based on the handful of times I've chatted with him, I would characterize Steve more as a "professional" than a particular ideology; meaning if he needed to do so, he could probably do a left-wing rant or a right-wing rant quite convincingly. But ultimately I'd guess he's more a centrist-liberal than anything else. I can say without a doubt that he's a pleasant person to talk to while at an informal gathering.

It's hard to characterize anyone based on their on-air persona, though. Most on-air folks I know are not really "themselves" when they're behind the mic; they're playing a part. An alter-ego, if you will.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

FWIW, Steve used to do late-night board-op shifts at WBUR pretty regularly. I assume he doesn't really anymore.

Steve no longer works at WBUR.

I can say without a doubt that he's a pleasant person to talk to while at an informal gathering.

Yes, I've briefly met him. Seems like a real nice guy. Coincidentally, I'm one of the people currently doing his old overnight BBC board-op/local break announcing shifts at WBUR, so we had something in common to talk about.

It's hard to characterize anyone based on their on-air persona, though. Most on-air folks I know are not really "themselves" when they're behind the mic; they're playing a part. An alter-ego, if you will.

I've met some hosts who, in "real life", you would NEVER suspect to be the person they sound like on the radio, but I have also met some who are very much themselves on the air.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Steve Leveille calls himself a liberal and from what I've heard of his politics on-air he doesn't
sound conservative, but I noticed a post on save prog. radio Boston yahoo group calling for
WBZ to put on talk hosts who "discuss(es) things progressives want to discuss."

LeVeille disavows being a Democrat, much less a liberal. He calls himself an independent and bristles when listeners call him a Democrat. He has, however, stated that he has voted for a Democrat at least once and I could believe that he might have done so more than once. But voting for Democrats sometimes doesn't make one a Democrat any more than voting for Republicans sometimes makes one a Republican. Moreover, not all Democrats are liberals, just as not all Republicans are ultra-right-wing conservatives, although moderate Republicans appear to be a much rarer species than moderate Democrats.

You just LOVE to quote the left-wing whackos from the Save <whatever> list don't you? Setting them up as representative of Democrats in general rather than the extremists that they are helps you to make your points. But you would never admit to being ultra-conservative yourself, would you? I suppose you would say that you don't toe the ultra-conservative line 100% and some of your views are more Libertarian than conservative. Why then, can't you recognize that LeVeille is in a similar position with respect to the ultra left? You've got Limbaugh and Carr and Graham, and Savage and Ingraham and how many others? One talk host who isn't even a Democrst, much less a liberal, hardly balances the equation.

 

[JustinT]

what works, works and what sells, sells...and it's not like Cheap Channel didn't try to give Air America a foothold.

Well, they didn't really. They plugged a satellite feed into two AMs, both with terrible night signals, used unsold outdoor inventory to do some minimal advertising, and pretty much called it a day. To me, the failure of talk formats on WKOXKS, and WTTT for that matter, doesn't necessary mean that Bostonians do not enjoy liberal and ultra-conservative talk - rather, Bostonians do not tolerate crappy signals and satellite-delivered product in a market where other stations on good FM signals deliver local product.

 

[SonicOverload]

there is absolutely no reason why Stephanie Miller's show shouldn't be on in this market. There's an example of a liberal show that's also entertaining/funny... and Air America has tacked more to the right lately, anyway. The left/liberals have been purged and moved on to Nova M network... whose anchor station is in that bastion of liberalism, Phoenix, AZ.

 

[Blackroc]

No host on the station--unofficially-- has voted for a Dem president in a generation, going back to early Bruds. Most of the top newsies as well--Gary,Gil,Jay-- (I don't count LDyett).

Sull was a Dem who never voted Dem,and proclaimed fawning love for WBush in station promos. LaVellie insists on voting in primaries even though he's not a Dem, so he can not vote for them in November? Couldn't do it when he was living in NY, which is the way it should be.

 

[blamethemayo]

i dont listen to the broadcast often, but i do remember steve saying he would vote obama over mccain, but mccain over clinton.

 

[raccoonradio]

I have admitted that CC could have put on local hosts (daily) on WKOX/WXKS, which they didn't
do, and maybe promotion for AAR Boston could have been better, but the signals at least by day
weren't all that bad. Night signals horrible, but depending on where you are, WRKO's night signal
can also be a tough catch.
You can't do all syndie and expect miracles in this market. WTTT also went down (they did have
Feder briefly in a.m. drive, though) . Local needed!

Miller (Steph) prob could work. Some wonder why Savage is on, but I hear he does surprisingly well for
WRKO (even though he's usually bumped till after the Sox game). Not quite into him. The important thing is to have good local hosts on and some syndie to fill it out.

>>deliver local product.

Yes. In this market they couldn't find someone to do a daily show?

I thought I heard Steve call himself a liberal at least once.
My views might be more libertarian--as I've said before, a Dennis Miller conservative. In this town
being middle of the road may as well be far right wacko, maybe

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

"progressive talk"

I spoke to several people from the local, so-called "Save Progressive Talk" group
over a year ago. If they could ever get their act together, I told them I could have
them up and running in one hour, on WAZN, with a mix of local (hosts of their choice)
and national progressive talk. Their reaction, at that time, was that they would be
doing me a big favor, by allowing me to air this format! They also told me that it
had to be a major station, that blankets the entire metro area, or not at all.
I'm no math genius, but it seems to me that zero plus anything is more than zero!

If the intention was to get a "progressive" message out to the public before the election --
that ship has sailed... Jones Radio -- I spoke with them directly, "not our business model",
they said. Case closed. This all strikes me as a nutty way not to do business.
Whatever... If you believe in a format that much, put yourself out, and actually do something
to further that agenda. (supporters of illegal pirates, take special note!)

If you can't make "progressive talk" fly in Boston, of all places -- never gonna happen! :