Glenn Beck on the Edge

[raccoonradio]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/zito/s_489422.html

The article starts out talking about his TV show but also gets into his radio show, so I'm putting this into
news/talk though I guess it could go into TV too...it really applies to both his shows though the TV one
is really getting some attention/ratings (as is the radio one...think he's #3 nationally now after Rush
and Hannity? or #4?)

"While his show is chock-full of politics, it is not political. Riddled with attention deficit disorder, he can begin one sentence with his struggles with alcoholism, parenthood and marriage, and end with how that parallels the sectarian violence in Iraq. Beck might be a conservative, but he is no lockstep, water-carrying Republican. Like most Americans, he is center-right."

Daily Kos wants him removed from CNN. Thanks for supporting free speech, DK. One comment on the DK
blog: "on his (bleep) show, all "moderate 9/11 Republican" and (bleep). He will last about 30 more seconds. The show bleeping bleeps."

As long as he has ratings, these folks will have plenty of chances to complain about him.

 

[robbbc]

And they say only AAR gets fluff peices in newspapers. Talk about your liberal media bias: Most Americans are center-right?? What the hell is center right and how do they figure that- no details I am sure and Glenn Beck is not getting "most listeners" or viewers to listen to his or any other program. Anything I have ever seen, that was at all credible, puts a plurality (not most) Americans as describing themselves as moderates (akin to the labour party in the UK), but as conservatives won't stand for that these folks are branded as center-right. I'd call them left of center but that's just me.

An anonymous poster said someting on DailyKos?! It had bleepable words?! omygosh- thank graciousness you have quoted him or her. What are his/r credentials? What are mine? I bet this poster represents all the commie fascists in the liberal elitist suburbs of Boston or something. Oh well, thanks anyway.

DailyKos doesn't like a TV show; so what? I don't like a lot of TV shows and wish they were off the air playing something I would prefer instead. I guess I hate free speech too. Oh wait, I am using it. Come on racoon- you can do better than this post.

 

[Radio_Realist]

Talk about your liberal media bias: Most Americans are center-right?? What the hell is center right and how do they figure that-

By reading the entrails of a chicken. There's no other method that makes sense. The center is, by definition, the middle point at which the majority of people are located. If the overall mood of the nations moves right, then the automatically center moves with it. Likewise if the overall mood of the nation moves left.

The center might not always be in the same place, but it's ALWAYS in the center.

 

[raccoonradio]

Can't think of too many examples of conservatives using pressure campaigns to take liberal talkers off
the air (they're already doing that themselves, with poor ratings, etc., of libtalk hosts in comparison
to conservatalkers).

>>Glenn Beck is not getting "most listeners" or viewers to listen to his or any other program

Well, of the talk shows, I mean, not of all shows...but of cable TV news/talk shows, most of the ones
on Fox, and now Beck on CNN-HN, do well.

 

[Gnarlodious]

Glenn Blech seems to exist on continual promotion, marginally right-wing rhetoric and self aggrandizement. He doesn't have a good voice, and its delivered at maximum amplitude. He meanders around the same topic for 20 minutes groping for the next association. He seems to not understand the issues while mostly resorting to filler material. Maybe he should consider being the next great white rap star.

 

[robbbc]

Can't think of too many examples of conservatives using pressure campaigns to take liberal talkers off
the air (they're already doing that themselves, with poor ratings, etc., of libtalk hosts in comparison
to conservatalkers).

What? I think there are plenty of boycotts against advertisers on AAR programs and libtalk- I am sure Clear Channel has a boatload of letters deploring them for playing libtalk and asking them to bring back the zero ratings product it replaced ("Oh, how I miss getting legal advice from 9-12 M-Fri"). Is that not "pressure"? I am sure if you look through the blogosphere you can find examples of campaigns against libtalkers, conservative talkers and maybe even sportstalkers. I'll let someone else Google it up. And as for poor ratings, we could go on and on about that (and I think we have...). It's money, not ratings that keep radio stations going, ask Mayor Bloomberg and any AM station playing radio Disney. Compared to those 50kW big apple ratings flops, WWRL is burning up the airwaves.

 

[chuckydoll]

Glenn Beck got where he is for one reason: He was an MC for pro-war rallies in the runup to the 2nd US invasion of Iraq. Who sponsored those pro-war rallies? Clear Channel -- who also happen to own 105.9 The Edge.

Of course the Trib would be soft on Beck because the Trib is owned by Richard Mellon Scaife.

 

[Ultimajock]

Glenn Beck got where he is for one reason: He was an MC for pro-war rallies in the runup to the 2nd US invasion of Iraq. Who sponsored those pro-war rallies? Clear Channel -- who also happen to own 105.9 The Edge.

Of course the Trib would be soft on Beck because the Trib is owned by Richard Mellon Scaife.

...hunh? The Edge in Pittsburgh is AM 1550 WURP. 105.9 in Pittsburgh is The X, WXDX, a rock station. Beck's station in Pittsburgh is WPGB 104.7, as the article linked to at the top of this thread clearly states. Get up to speed with the facts before you post again, pally...

 

[AussieRadioMan]

As an outsider visiting for 9 months last year to the states I must so I was quite impressed by Glenn Beck. His creative style that he applied to what can be a bland/serious format which is NT was brilliant. Sure he labors a point now and again but his creative style is fantastic (assuming he writes his own material). I think of when he was talking about some type of criminal act (pedophilia I think it was) and mentioned that a person convicted should serve 120 years in prison and to make sure they serve 120 years that is keep them there even after they dead...to which he said, "That would freak you out of prison, just imagine if you had a pile of bones as your cellmate".

For a talk host to take a such a serious topic and deliver a well written script that nearly made me go off the road in laughter, whilst not overall losing the seriousness of the topic is a great credit and probably the reason this guy has been so successful.

 

[jimwalsh2001]

Let's face it - Beck is not really that good. He's not original, nor is he particularly entertaining to listen to. He doesn't have to be. He just has to hold the proper opinions. This has nothing to do with politics (Believe me, I'm so conservative on some issues I make Beck look like a New Dealer); it has to do with the lemming-like mentality of the empty suits that run the business - and their notions of what "talk radio' is supposed to sound like.

 

[ajhenderson]

Glenn Beck got where he is for one reason: He was an MC for pro-war rallies in the runup to the 2nd US invasion of Iraq. Who sponsored those pro-war rallies? Clear Channel -- who also happen to own 105.9 The Edge.

Yeah, he was only on 150 stations at that time. A real nobody.

Let's face it - Beck is not really that good. He's not original, nor is he particularly entertaining to listen to. He doesn't have to be. He just has to hold the proper opinions. This has nothing to do with politics (Believe me, I'm so conservative on some issues I make Beck look like a New Dealer); it has to do with the lemming-like mentality of the empty suits that run the business - and their notions of what "talk radio' is supposed to sound like.

And who is more creative? Sean Hannity? You're a great American - very fresh! Mike Gallagher and his silly ratings ploys that never work? Beck gets the medium, just many/most of the other talkers who are seasoned pros in the business. Unfortunately, from Hannity, Ingraham, and on down, a large number of the yakkers on air were flying hot air balloons, pouring concrete, and kissing judges' rear ends, rather than playing music and learning how to increase TSL.

 

[jcolletta275]

I can agree somewhat with Jim's originality statement... there are a few things I hear Beck do that are direct ripoffs from Phil Hendrie (e.g. the "old guy" character who calls in from time to time [I believe Beck calls him Frank] is Lloyd Bonafide to a T). Otherwise, and even in those cases, I find Beck to be very original and highly entertaining. Only a comedic genius could do what Phil Hendrie did, but it still takes a lot of talent to take what he did and make it work elsewhere, and Beck should definitely get credit for that.

 

[jimwalsh2001]

And who is more creative? Sean Hannity? You're a great American - very fresh! Mike Gallagher and his silly ratings ploys that never work? Beck gets the medium, just many/most of the other talkers who are seasoned pros in the business. Unfortunately, from Hannity, Ingraham, and on down, a large number of the yakkers on air were flying hot air balloons, pouring concrete, and kissing judges' rear ends, rather than playing music and learning how to increase TSL.

Well, for the record, I don't much care for Hannity or Gallagher either (or Lars Larson or Ingraham or Gibson) pretty much for the same reason.

 

[ajhenderson]

And who is more creative? Sean Hannity? You're a great American - very fresh! Mike Gallagher and his silly ratings ploys that never work? Beck gets the medium, just many/most of the other talkers who are seasoned pros in the business. Unfortunately, from Hannity, Ingraham, and on down, a large number of the yakkers on air were flying hot air balloons, pouring concrete, and kissing judges' rear ends, rather than playing music and learning how to increase TSL.

Well, for the record, I don't much care for Hannity or Gallagher either (or Lars Larson or Ingraham or Gibson) pretty much for the same reason.

Well, OK... John Gibson is a nobody, Fox News Talk is basically a nothing operation, and while Lars Larson might "get it", he's just a voice, who happens to be stuck in the pre-Jacor community forum type of talk radio, where he peppers his opinions into slow-moving teases and same-old listener calls from Sticksville, USA.