I agree and that's the role public radio should take...presenting alternative views not covered in commercial radio. I also think it's interesting to see who are the people calling for defunding of public radio.
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I agree and that's the role public radio should take...presenting alternative views not covered in commercial radio. I also think it's interesting to see who are the people calling for defunding of public radio.
Nobody likes wishy washy. Flip-flopping has been ruled a capital offense. We like people who stick to their guns.
There it is AGAIN: This idiotic notion that judging every issue on it's own merits and coming up with a passionate opinion on it, is somehow wishy-washy. Really? Let me get this straight, somebody who aggressively defends the 2nd amendment and fiercely defends a woman's right to chose, is wishy-washy? LOL
How about eliminating this asinine idea that ALL of someone's opinions need to fit in a tidy little box, because in reality, almost NOBODY really thinks that way, including many of these ideologues on the radio and the buffoons who hang on their every word.
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Let me get this straight, somebody who aggressively defends the 2nd amendment and fiercely defends a woman's right to chose, is wishy-washy? LOL
How would you describe Dennis Miller? He calls himself pro-choice. He's friends with Bill O'Reilly. He calls himself a conservative. And he's got a very popular radio talk show. Maybe you haven't heard it.
My comment was in response to being on one side or the other. A talk show host needs to define himself, not try to be all things to all people. That's why we have politicians.
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How would you describe Dennis Miller? He calls himself pro-choice. He's friends with Bill O'Reilly. He calls himself a conservative. And he's got a very popular radio talk show. Maybe you haven't heard it.
My comment was in response to being on one side or the other. A talk show host needs to define himself, not try to be all things to all people. That's why we have politicians.
Who's suggesting being all things to all people? You keep going back to this idea that soemone who isn't an ideologue is somehow trying to be neutral, or wishy-washy, or all things to all people. How about just being an honest person with a variety of opinions---just like MOST of the population?
I know plenty of people who have passionate opinions that DO NOT align neatly into a right or left litany of opinions. Many hosts and listeners even fudge that anyway, just to appear doctrinaire, when in reality, many are full of it and have plenty of contradictions in the way they live their lives. It's a big charade.
Here's an idea: Be an engaging person on-air. Entertain your audience with dynamic conversation. Inventorying and tallying of left vs. right opinion be damned. Talkradio's journey down this road was unnecessary.
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Here's an idea: Be an engaging person on-air. Entertain your audience with dynamic conversation. Inventorying and tallying of left vs. right opinion be damned. Talkradio's journey down this road was unnecessary.
Once again, I bring up an example of someone who fits your description, and you ignore it. Dennis Miller is entertaining. He's not a single issue ideologue. He's nationally syndicated and on a lot of radio stations. The big question is how's he doing in the ratings?
Once again, I bring up an example of someone who fits your description, and you ignore it. Dennis Miller is entertaining. He's not a single issue ideologue. He's nationally syndicated and on a lot of radio stations. The big question is how's he doing in the ratings?
I will usually listen to Miller whenever I come across his show.
He tends to get a little too doctrinaire at times, but he is far more listenable than many others.
I would suggest Dick Morris, whose name is on this thread, is another talk host who's not a single issue guy. He has his own personal agenda, which is not always the same as the usual suspects. That's how he got Bill Clinton's attention. His latest controversy is that the right should give up on abortion. He calls it as he sees it, which means he's wrong a lot. But he accepts his mistakes, as he did on CNN after he predicted an Obama loss on Fox. When was the last time Rush admitted he was wrong?
I think what hurts him the most is he's a policy wonk and an insider, which isn't as entertaining as someone who just says what he thinks. He's harder to argue against because he throws around numbers. But he gives another perspective on how decisions are sometimes made.
I think what hurts him the most is he's a policy wonk and an insider, which isn't as entertaining as someone who just says what he thinks. He's harder to argue against because he throws around numbers. But he gives another perspective on how decisions are sometimes made.
It most certainly isn't true. Again, you perceive something to be a fact and keep repeating it with no evidence.
Wrong.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffber...-uses-fuzzy-math-to-fight-liberal-bias-claim/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/03/16/earth-tax-dollars-npr/
They're ADMITTED liberal bias in their talk programming. And yes, the shows I listed count. Among others.
There it is AGAIN: This idiotic notion that judging every issue on it's own merits and coming up with a passionate opinion on it, is somehow wishy-washy. Really? Let me get this straight, somebody who aggressively defends the 2nd amendment and fiercely defends a woman's right to chose, is wishy-washy? LOL
Assuming you're talking about Smerconish, he spent the first part of his career as a cookie cutter conservative host, then all of a sudden announces he's going to vote for Obama in 2008. You can't tell me that this was a choice based on anything but career triangulation. He thought he could be the new "moderate" superstar and he tanked in that attempt. Mainly because he's just not good. SiriusXM needs to populate a channel with "moderate" voices, and they have a habit of paying very well, so he jumped off the Titanic right after he steered it right into the 'berg.
P
PhillyWatch
Guest
Smerconish blows and is irrelevant in the market anymore. He may be, as some see it, "wishy-washy" but he was "wishy-washy" enough for SiriusXM to throw money at him to jump aboard as they try to build a "wishy-washy" talk channel. Meanwhile, back on earth, where have all those mega-ultra-talk programmers gotten with pushing the one-side-or-the-other meme? Talk radio has been driven into the ground and lost headway to sports talk and music formats, meanwhile programmers still sit there in the rubble, behind the wheel with their foot to the floor hoping they'll magically undo the wreck by... staying the course (read: WPHT, the IQ debacle). We need to break the meme that the only way to tackle a social issue is by sticking to talking (and thinking) points cooked up by some overpaid thinktank instead of assessing the situation based on personal rationality while looking out for your fellow citizens.
Populating a talk station with varying hosts isn't breaking any sort of format. You can't break a format that doesn't exist. NPR skews liberal. AM Talk bathes in conservatism. Dennis Miller puts on a great show. Dennis Miller is (relatively) young and has an entertainment background. Dick Morris is about a billion years old. Who's gonna look better on the station website (and sound better on-air)?
Again, you would think putting together an attention grabbing younger-skewing (read- younger than, say, 50) news/current events-based talk station would be a task even a moderately sized radio company could tackle using a local AND syndicated combo (ahem, Merlin, ahem)...
Populating a talk station with varying hosts isn't breaking any sort of format. You can't break a format that doesn't exist. NPR skews liberal. AM Talk bathes in conservatism. Dennis Miller puts on a great show. Dennis Miller is (relatively) young and has an entertainment background. Dick Morris is about a billion years old. Who's gonna look better on the station website (and sound better on-air)?
Again, you would think putting together an attention grabbing younger-skewing (read- younger than, say, 50) news/current events-based talk station would be a task even a moderately sized radio company could tackle using a local AND syndicated combo (ahem, Merlin, ahem)...
Again, you would think putting together an attention grabbing younger-skewing (read- younger than, say, 50) news/current events-based talk station would be a task even a moderately sized radio company could tackle using a local AND syndicated combo (ahem, Merlin, ahem)...
As I've said earlier in this thread, that's exactly what Townsquare (previously Millennium) has done across the river with NJ 101.5. Sounds great, it's top rated in NJ, and it's being copies in lots of other places. Just not Philly, and usually not on an AM station. And they don't use ANY syndication. All local.
S
stevensonair
Guest
Lots of places?
Not being sarcastic, seriously wonder how many other FMs are trying this.
For frame of reference - I listened to a lot of major market talk. WLS. WSB. Many of the major, successful talk stations that you claim would be "breaking format" had conservative, liberal and libertarian hosts. And they were successful from a ratings and revenue standpoint. The talk format used to be "talk." Not necessarily conservative talk.
Something changed.
NJ 101.5 is well formatted. But it's still at it's core a conservative talk station. The only non conservative show I'm familiar with is Deminski & Doyle - who also had a run in Detroit. Maybe the issue is that talk radio primarily appeals to an audience who feels out of power (NJ being a blue state, I would imagine that's mostly conservatives.)
While I'm rambling - one of my favorite talkers ever was Real Radio 104.1 prior to Clear Channel's ownership. It had Stern, and other "comedy" talk shows but also had Jim Phillips (still there) who is by no means right wing, and Ed Tyll, and others who were issue oriented at times. It was a very well programmed station. The common theme was PERSONALITY.
Not being sarcastic, seriously wonder how many other FMs are trying this.
For frame of reference - I listened to a lot of major market talk. WLS. WSB. Many of the major, successful talk stations that you claim would be "breaking format" had conservative, liberal and libertarian hosts. And they were successful from a ratings and revenue standpoint. The talk format used to be "talk." Not necessarily conservative talk.
Something changed.
NJ 101.5 is well formatted. But it's still at it's core a conservative talk station. The only non conservative show I'm familiar with is Deminski & Doyle - who also had a run in Detroit. Maybe the issue is that talk radio primarily appeals to an audience who feels out of power (NJ being a blue state, I would imagine that's mostly conservatives.)
While I'm rambling - one of my favorite talkers ever was Real Radio 104.1 prior to Clear Channel's ownership. It had Stern, and other "comedy" talk shows but also had Jim Phillips (still there) who is by no means right wing, and Ed Tyll, and others who were issue oriented at times. It was a very well programmed station. The common theme was PERSONALITY.
The talk format used to be "talk." Not necessarily conservative talk.
Something changed.
Of course! Lots of things changed. Shall we go through the list? The AM demo got older. An entire generation of talk hosts retired or died. The popularity of advice talk hosts went away. A lot of it began in 1994 when Larry King left radio. Four years later Michael Jackson left KABC. Those two were among the best at that kind of civilized talk. Once they were gone, there really was no one else doing that kind of personality/guest/talk. That opened the door for the rise of political talk. The polarization of the political audience made it impossible to do talk that didn't cater to one side or the other. It's been a long process. The sound of talk radio parallels the changes in this country. Used to be people could talk politics at parties. Today, it's a bad subject unless everyone agrees. No one discusses. It turns into a yelling match. Just like on discussion boards. I believe the political talk fad has run its course, and now it's time for something else. It's going to take time for that to emerge.
J
Jul
Guest
Guys, can we go back to the topic of this thread, please?
Assuming you're talking about Smerconish, he spent the first part of his career as a cookie cutter conservative host, then all of a sudden announces he's going to vote for Obama in 2008. You can't tell me that this was a choice based on anything but career triangulation. He thought he could be the new "moderate" superstar and he tanked in that attempt. Mainly because he's just not good. SiriusXM needs to populate a channel with "moderate" voices, and they have a habit of paying very well, so he jumped off the Titanic right after he steered it right into the 'berg.
No, I wasn't talking about Smerconish.
I have known lots of people who have deep-rooted, passionately-held opinions on many issues and those positions don't all fit into one, tidy ideological list of talking points.
As I said, this talkradio host/caller rigidity is a charade, because many of these on-air ideologues either exaggerate or fudge their doctrinaire act, while many of the callers, cloaked in anonymity, are far more disciplined in their self-righteous conversation than they are in their day-to-day life.
The sound of talk radio parallels the changes in this country. Used to be people could talk politics at parties. Today, it's a bad subject unless everyone agrees. No one discusses. It turns into a yelling match. Just like on discussion boards.
It has a lot more to do with Fox news and talkradio turning this nations political discourse into the shallow, superficial dialogue expected between football fans. It's that irrational, hyper-partisan, take-no-prisoners mentality typically expected of homer sports fans. Think about the timeline of the evolution of cable news and talkradio. Now think about the degree to which the nation's discourse has deteriorated, and exactly when that deterioration really accelerated.
I noticed it happening 10-15 years ago and it only got worse. If you are a reasonably normal, rational person, you'll likely find talkradio unlistenable. That did NOT have to happen.
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U
Unregistered
Guest
I hate to say it, but I agree. It hasn't been the same since WCAU died 23 years ago.
That's the truth.
I am amazed they are still in business.
J
Jul
Guest
Me too. 1210 has been a cheaply run station since 8/15/1990.That's the truth.
I am amazed they are still in business.
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