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Mark Larsen...the best local talk host I've heard in a while

N

newhampshiredude

I was down in Tampa a few weeks ago and I was listening to Mark Larsen when a black woman called in. Mark had been discussing the statistics about how many black children were born out of wedlock and how many blacks were in prison. When she said she was trying to help by going back to school and making a good life for her children, he asked if she was married. She replied no, and that she had been with the same guy for 7 years. Mark asked why she hadn't and she said because then she couldn't collect welfare. He called her a whore and said she was stealing money from the government.

Of course, Mark said one of the most politically incorrect things in the world, but it is what many Americans are feeling and what he truely believes. I know he is on the rimshot WWBA, but what kind of ratings does he get? I listened to this guy for like 45 minutes and I was convinced he is one of the best talk radio hosts I've ever heard. Anyone agree?
 
Mark is a good guy. I've listened to him for years. He used to be on WFLA 970. He also has been a top disc jockey on some of the highest rated stations in the area over the years. He is a good talk show host. I dont know what ratings he gets but the 12+ for the station are not that good. Part of that could be their lousy signal. The transmitter is on a lake off Park Blvd in Pinellas Park, but the site has been bastardized by one tower falling down, the ground system all screwed up because they built houses and retention ponds right in the ground system. I havent checked their FCC record, but I suspect they are using their full power days ND and some very low power ND nights because the DA is all screwed up. Another low ratings issue is that they carry too many talk show programs but never carry the entire program. Only a few hours of each. To me, listening to Dave Ramsey is like listening to an infomercial.
 
Mark is one of the best I've ever heard and IMO is as talented as some of the other WFLAers who have gone national like Glenn Beck, Lionel, and now Todd Schnitt. He's more truthful and blunt than those others and that's the difference. Doesn't make for shiny, happy (or in Mark's words, "warm and fuzzy") radio. But I do believe he's top notch and that's saying a lot as I grew up listening to WFLA and their list of established talent. When he was doing a current events type show rather than his current news format, it was three hours of what you hear only touches of now.
 
In addition to great ability, Mark is one of the real good people in the business.
 
Mad Magazine artist/writer Don "Duck" Edwing was a big fan of Mark's during the WFLA heyday. One time in his "Tribune Toon" (remember that one?) he showed a guy listening to the radio and when Mark came on the radio melted down into a slag heap. The character said "Now THAT's what I call a good talk host!"

I'm not a talk radio fan, and hearing a host calling someone a whore is not my idea of entertainment, but that doesn't change the fact that Mark is a real talent and a good guy.
 
When he was doing a current events type show rather than his current news format, it was three hours of what you hear only touches of now.
Click to expand...

Mark has no doubt been forced to pull in his horns because of the station owner's idiosyncratic desire to have "family friendly" talk radio (no damns, hells or 'hump days').
 
The Larsen Show sounds like the kind of refreshing right-wing talk radio we need-one that directly insults welfare cheats, mothers of bastard children, and
the people in the highest crime demographic. Instead of constantly attacking Hillary and Obama, attack the people who vote for liberal Democrats. Now
that's an interesting stategy.
 
newhampshiredude said:
I was down in Tampa a few weeks ago and I was listening to Mark Larsen when a black woman called in. Mark had been discussing the statistics about how many black children were born out of wedlock and how many blacks were in prison. When she said she was trying to help by going back to school and making a good life for her children, he asked if she was married. She replied no, and that she had been with the same guy for 7 years. Mark asked why she hadn't and she said because then she couldn't collect welfare. He called her a whore and said she was stealing money from the government.

Of course, Mark said one of the most politically incorrect things in the world, but it is what many Americans are feeling and what he truely believes. I know he is on the rimshot WWBA, but what kind of ratings does he get? I listened to this guy for like 45 minutes and I was convinced he is one of the best talk radio hosts I've ever heard. Anyone agree?
Click to expand...

I heard that show too and was stunned.

You'd never hear anyone at 'FLA even remotely say anything could be considered controversial.
They're all pretty much muzzled there, just giving news and interviews, but taking zero local callers.
Their promo, which repeats ad nauseum, "hello, hello, thanks for taking my call... I've always wanted to call you... Your station is like the greatest that ever breathed... falsely advertises the fat and smug leader as some kind of talk radio station... Not.

I think part of the problem Mark's show isn't bigger is Crap Channel's near-monopolization of the market.
Jacor and later CC bought as much of the bigger AM signals that they could, or sold off to Hispanic or religious interests, thus keeping any "real" talk competition out of the market.

Nice going. Makes for great business and radio. "We own the equipment, the stations, and the airwaves. Who needs anyone else."

You Crap Ch. apologists ought to think about that one for a while. You wanting to make a bigger market career move will realize one day, the city you may want to work in will be controlled by CC or another similar group of suits who think that someone behind a microphone earning pay and drawing benefits is a distortion of the business of broadcasting...
 
Back around 1993, on a simulcast of WIOD and WSUN, I heard Neil Rogers rag on black people for choosing stupid names for their children. An angry black
woman called up and started bitching him out in her best ebonics, and he sliced, diced, blewed, screwed, and tattooed her. Here's an extremely liberal host saying to this woman what so many conservative Republican men would like to ask her. It was entertaining as hell. It certainly beat listening to Rush
beating up on the Clintons or Al Franken and the Air America people wail about Bush.
 
I used to intern at WWBA AM 1040 back in 2004, and met and got to talk to Mark a few times and he was always the nicest guys to talk to at the station. And, a great guy all around.
 
I can appreciate Mark's talent when I listen to his show, although I disagree with many of his opinions. One good thing about his show is he isn't a strict conservative - where his libertarian philosophies contradict his conservative ones, he goes with the libertarian view. It was great when he was one of the few radio voices that said legislative government should get out of the whole Terri Schaivo affair because it was a family matter and the courts had ruled.

But I prefer progressive talk. For that I have to subscribe to XM because there's absolutely nothing here in Tampa.
 
WWBA has a decent signal daytime throughout Tampa Bay. In fact they come in listenable up much of US 19 and are very audible along 98 around Panama City. Their crummy nighttime signal is, I think, because they need to yeild 1040 to WHO in Des Moines.

Mark Larsen is indeed a fine host and I think he could be a key to making a serious dent in Tampa Bay talk if WWBA could/would establish themselves as a LOCAL talk station. I am pretty sure Mark always wanted morning drive, which is one reason he left WFLA. However, if he could be enticed to stick around after 9AM, it could form a nice lead-in for another local host.

WFLA has one strictly local general talk show, Daniel Ruth on Saturday mornings (a liberal leaning program, by the way). Todd Schnitt is kind of local, come to think of it. If WWBA wants to improve ratings, if they can afford it, making their schtick being more local than the other guys might work.
 
TampaDan said:
But I prefer progressive talk. For that I have to subscribe to XM because there's absolutely nothing here in Tampa.
Click to expand...

I've asked this before and have never gotten a straight answer. Why is left-leaning talk called "progressive"? It isn't. It's the same name-calling, fact-twisting crap as right-leaning talk, only the ideology is different.
 
Oldbones said:
TampaDan said:
But I prefer progressive talk. For that I have to subscribe to XM because there's absolutely nothing here in Tampa.
Click to expand...

I've asked this before and have never gotten a straight answer. Why is left-leaning talk called "progressive"? It isn't. It's the same name-calling, fact-twisting crap as right-leaning talk, only the ideology is different.
Click to expand...

Actually, progressive is what liberals WANT to be called now. Just fyi.
 
TampaDan said:
But I prefer progressive talk. For that I have to subscribe to XM because there's absolutely nothing here in Tampa.
Click to expand...
There's very little other talk 'round here as well, unless you like the national satellite shows that are heard in most other markets.

Cedric said:
Don62 said:
Dittos, man.
Click to expand...

Well seriously, who else is there?

Let's make a game out of this... and don't say Schnitt or Daniel Ruth... brokered shows don't count either.

OK... GO.

Cedric
Click to expand...
Agreed. Amazing how a market this big can have like zero "live and local" shows outside of early a.m.
That tells you a lot about corporate radio these days.
 
newhampshiredude said:
I listened to this guy for like 45 minutes and I was convinced he is one of the best talk radio hosts I've ever heard. Anyone agree?
Click to expand...

not really, does racist banter entertain you?
 
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