Learned Poster;
This is an excellent topic. Well done.
I think we are living in scary times when one person can get anyone fired because that person, who is known to be offensive to some listeners, says something (wait for it...) Offensive! Power 105.1 in NYC fired "comedian" Donnell (Ashy) Rawlings last week after he was suspended for making an anti-Semitic remark - reportedly saying "a cheap black guy" should be better known as "a Jewish black guy." The key here is comedian - not community leader, state senator or Pope.
In this PC world people need to get tougher skin. If you think you may be offended, don't listen. I can't stand Sean Hannity, guess what, I don't listen to him. Therefore, when he gets on his "I hate Hillary" jag, I can't hear it.
My fear is where it goes next? Will someone get offended when 99X's Sean calls Leslie's husband old coz he is pushing 70 years-old? Will a religious leader demand that DAVE-FM's Reverend Andy stop using that moniker coz he's not a Reverend (I guess my marriage isn't real either. Can I get the 40 buck back, hello, Andy?) Will the black community activists ask Kiss 104.1's Youngblood to change his name because no one claiming to be "young" could have sung back-up in: The Delfonics, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, The Spinners, The Three Degrees, The Impressions, The Blendells, Brothers of Soul, The Chi-Lites and The Dells?
The amazing thing about radio is that you can tune to a different station. I still don't get why people don't exercise that option. I guess it's easier to complain about it than listen to something else?
To get back to your original point, I think FM Talk died years ago. Talk moved to AM where the clarity of the signal has no bearing on the topic at hand (bash all Dems!) With the advent of iPods, FM talk could have made a comeback. Since music is now accessible in so many forms, FM music will soon be extinct. Then we will only have right-wing AM radio. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
