Iron Man Thom Hartmann at it again...

[clbuck]

Today, he'll be filling in for Randi Rhodes, which means he'll be doing 10 hours straight of talk radio; 3 hours of his local KPOJ show, 3 hours of his national show, and 4 hours of Randi's show, all without a break.

 

[fred flintstone]

Are your sure he's doing the other two shows? No "best of." No subs.

 

[tbetz]

Are your sure he's doing the other two shows? No "best of." No subs.

Homey don't usually play dat, but anything's possible.I'll check when I get home. I should have the KPOJ show and his syndicated show waiting for me on my PC.

 

[tombetz]

Are your sure he's doing the other two shows? No "best of." No subs.

Homey don't usually play dat, but anything's possible.I'll check when I get home. I should have the KPOJ show and his syndicated show waiting for me on my PC.

I just checked. Hartmann did all ten hours live, no break, no best-ofs. Yikes!

 

[fred flintstone]

Impressive. Maybe NLP works miracles after all. Wouldn't have blamed him if he had taken off for one or both of his regular shows.Thanks for checking.

 

[dampier]

Today, he'll be filling in for Randi Rhodes, which means he'll be doing 10 hours straight of talk radio; 3 hours of his local KPOJ show, 3 hours of his national show, and 4 hours of Randi's show, all without a break.

This reminds me of Sam Seder's marathon shows. I suspect Randi will be out all week. She was sounding a bit off earlier. Randi has been off a lot, either with the one day "not feeling well" or her marathon vacations. But Randi is one show host who definitely does burn out after long stints. You can really hear when she is running on low fuel. The stock phrases she always uses start coming even more often: "this is amazing to me," "this is the most crazy/disgusting thing..." "oh man," "what is going on there," etc. She also starts reading more articles and that is -not- good radio when they go on for 12 minutes.I was listening to Thom Hartmann briefly last night. He takes a lot more calls than most AAR show hosts do, and he was arguing with a right-winger without yelling over them, which was a plus. I always feel when a talk show host brings up a red herring issue to counter a hostile caller and then demand they talk about THAT issue instead of what they were calling about, it means the show host has no facts to counter the hostile caller. When the caller gets dumped a.s.a.p., it's not satisfying because you know the host has nothing. Hartmann seemed to be able to handle himself better.I hope he'll look for added humor and entertainment to make him stand out a bit more than a generic talk show host.Stephanie Miller, on a side note, had been a real mess after the passing of her dog Chester (her dogs are frequently mentioned on the show) -and- a nasty sinus infection. But she quickly has been getting back to normal.

 

[fred flintstone]

I was listening to Thom Hartmann briefly last night. He takes a lot more calls than most AAR show hosts do, and he was arguing with a right-winger without yelling over them, which was a plus. I always feel when a talk show host brings up a red herring issue to counter a hostile caller and then demand they talk about THAT issue instead of what they were calling about, it means the show host has no facts to counter the hostile caller. When the caller gets dumped a.s.a.p., it's not satisfying because you know the host has nothing. Hartmann seemed to be able to handle himself better.I hope he'll look for added humor and entertainment to make him stand out a bit more than a generic talk show host.

Phil, glad to see Thom is growing on. And I wouldn't mind seeing him lighten the show up at times, as well. Mostly, I appreciate that he seems to do his homework (although when he finds time with these "marathons," I don't know) and is always a gentleman with guests and callers. We've talked from time to time about AAR's shabby treatment of Randi. Maybe that could be contributing to her being indisposed. (Remember Johnny Carson's "15 minute virus?") :

 

[tbetz]

I see Thom's filling in for Randi again today.Go, Hartmann!

 

[drtylawndre]

George Noory was doing 7 or eight hour for a while I believe....Frankin is boring..writes good talks boring not funny he should let Hartman fill the void

 

[dampier]

Phil, glad to see Thom is growing on. And I wouldn't mind seeing him lighten the show up at times, as well. Mostly, I appreciate that he seems to do his homework (although when he finds time with these "marathons," I don't know) and is always a gentleman with guests and callers.

I wish him all the best. He needs to find something that makes his show absolutely unique or that it stands out. I don't want to see him become another nationally syndicated Michael Jackson who was a real nice guy but couldn't draw flies for ratings outside of LA.

We've talked from time to time about AAR's shabby treatment of Randi. Maybe that could be contributing to her being indisposed. (Remember Johnny Carson's "15 minute virus?")

Sometimes that might be the case but she's had some health issues as well. Randi is THE best source for inside info about what is going on at AAR because she doesn't mind talking about the business of radio to her listeners. She's definitely more reliable than the Unequalizer. You can definitely tell she is not happy with her salary at AAR, even talking about having to put stuff back in a store last week because she didn't have enough money, and their health insurance plan is crud. She's running cold again on Al Franken, in part because he supports staying in Iraq, but also because he is still getting a lot of attention. She was tweaked at the rally last week on Darfur when she ended up being gladhanded and minced few words in trashing those responsible ("Al Sharpton is a slob," and some Catholic priest that literally shoved her off the front line of the banner so he could get camera time, and Cindy Sheehan being left to sit on some corner.)What is fascinating is the growing revelation that Sheehan herself is really not connecting well with the power elite. She's apparently too ordinary and is being given lip service by the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and other regular stars. Once the cameras are off, they vanish. She absolutely despises Michael Moore, never forgiving him for that incident documented by Left of the Dial.You can sense she feels isolated at AAR because she doesn't fit in with most of those people. In fact, the hosts she has never said a negative thing about are Jerry Springer, Mike Malloy, and Stephanie Miller (on Jones). None of them are in the AAR building.Rhodes has always been scrappy, so I suppose it is to be expected.BTW, she has been hinting the whole Randy Michaels thing is a lot of overblown speculation. As everyone knows by now, she hates Ed Schultz. She has been alluding to the ridiculousness of replacing her live stint on WLIB done by her, a homegrown NY'er, "by some farm reporter in Idaho or wherever." I can't imagine Schultz pulling better numbers in NYC than Randi myself.

 

[fred flintstone]

Different strokes: I have always been a fan of Michael Jackson (the talk show host and the guy who writes beer books - not the other one). Doing talk radio in LA (the most competitive talk radio market, and the number one market in revenue) for close to 40 years is nothing to sneeze at. There is something to be said for class.I've had a chance to listen to Al Sharpton's syndicated talk show. I covered him on the platform and in the pulpit in the primaries two years ago and I was impressed. I listened to his talk show and I was not. However, I was suprised at how good the morning guy, Michael Eric Dyson, was. Sharpton sounded like he was sleepwalking through the show. Dyson was informed, articulate and very good at drawing out guests and callers. Of course, that's me. You might find him too Jackson/Hartmann-esque.I would assume that should Randy Michaels take over WLIB he would keep Randi live and move Ed to early evening. The guy didn't get where he is by not knowing shows don't play the same in every market. And if I were Randi's agent, I'd be telling her to cool it about Big Ed and I'd be taking Randy Michaels out to lunch. Of course, could be Randi is taking a page from Howard's play book and bad mouthing the bosses in hopes she can get out of her contract (which as I recall has something like 11 months left).

 

[clbuck]

He's now hosting the Majority Report for the rest of this week; that's 9 hours of talk radio a day. Granted, unlike with Randi, he has a 4-hour break in between, so it's not quite as strenuous.

 

[doc9464]

He's now hosting the Majority Report for the rest of this week; that's 9 hours of talk radio a day. Granted, unlike with Randi, he has a 4-hour break in between, so it's not quite as strenuous.

Thom isi a wise man to get out and expose himself to others who may not have heard him. I think he is a solid host, a very smart man on Policy and wonkery-related issues, but tends to sound sometimes a little too "nerdy". While this is not a problem to me, some may find his "not as exciting". Personally I wish he could replace Ed Schultz as he does an excellent job dealing with the right-wingers (better than Springer as well). Maybe he will break out after doing these marathon appearances he takes on regularly. I think Maddow, Miller, Hartmann, Rhodes, and Malloy could make up a core for an "updated" offering to stations out in America who are looking for a different approach from AAR or wish to highlight progressive talkers without being an affiliate. Since all are distributed by the Jones/AAR partnership, why not offer the "package"?We know Franken is going to move on. Majority Report isn't working out. There are several other progressives out there to merge into this schedule or local people could sub where needed. Id like to see Michael Eric Dyson added to this lineup...if he was signable. Sam Seder (or others) could join the weekend offerings or late night to clear the repeats. The brokered shows along with Ring of Fire and Laura Flanders offers a great weekend slate as well. Its time to fade out the repeats in the schedule.

 

[fred flintstone]

Id like to see Michael Eric Dyson added to this lineup...if he was signable.

Dyson is being syndicated by Radio One and Reach Media, along with the Rev Al Sharpton, to Urban Talk stations. I've heard his show online a few times and was very impressed. The show airs from 10am to 1pm Eastern. So far, the show is only on stations targeting the Black audience. It would be interesting to see how it would play in a progressive talk format but I suspect some changes would have to made to broaden the show's appeal to White liberals which would weaken the show for its core Black listeners.Since Dyson started this gig three or four months ago, I doubt his contract is up anytime soon.http://www.reachmediainc.com/talknet/