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PHIL HENDRIE

sdwulfdawg

sdwulfdawg

I'm really coming to believe that you can never come back and be the success you were before. A case in point is Phil Hendrie's second coming on Talk Radio Network.

He used to have the comedy bits (which were very good) interspersed with Phil's opinions on the news on the day. Now his three-hour show has become a rant fest with Phil yelling into the microphone, arguing with listeners, making fun of their accents and their viewpoints. The show is quickly becoming very unmemorable. Radio shows need to be produced with the concept of "Must Hear Radio." Hearing Phil ever night ranting and raving is NOT "must hear radio" unlike his original show.
 
sdwulfdawg said:
I'm really coming to believe that you can never come back and be the success you were before. A case in point is Phil Hendrie's second coming on Talk Radio Network.

He used to have the comedy bits (which were very good) interspersed with Phil's opinions on the news on the day. Now his three-hour show has become a rant fest with Phil yelling into the microphone, arguing with listeners, making fun of their accents and their viewpoints. The show is quickly becoming very unmemorable. Radio shows need to be produced with the concept of "Must Hear Radio." Hearing Phil ever night ranting and raving is NOT "must hear radio" unlike his original show.
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Phil used to be funny, until he joined the ranks of agenda-driven talkradio. Most agenda driven radio is not funny, it's just predictable.

Many listeners don't feel comfortable sucking their own thumb as an adult, so they enjoy the security of having their own opinion repeated back to them 100 different ways. THAT seems to be the base of today's talkradio audience. I do always wonder if any of them recognize how one-sided their favorite agenda-driven shows are---or if they are just comfortable with the ifea that their side is mysteriously always right, while the other side is just so wrong.

BORING.
 
Well he is syndicated by Talk Radio Network. The daily (M-F) talkers are agenda driven or spew incoherent hate fill rants. See Micheal "Wenier" Savage. I never hear Phil Hendrie old radio show. But the only good TRN shows is his and Science Fantastic. Plus most political talk radio shows are agenda driven. They have a base to please. Thom Hartmann is the only one that have opposing views on his show. Plus he doesn't yell and he doesn't rant.
 
That's why it's a blessing that there's a sprawling archive of podcasts from his old Premiere show, BTW.

Only one person I know of has come kinda close to broaching what Phil did: Shane "Rover" French out of WMMS/Cleveland uses his gaggle of four sidekicks to the same advantage. Channeling Phil's characters R.C. Collins, Ted Bell, Bobbie Dooley or Vernon Dozier, Rover's sidekicks will say outlandish things or take bizzare stances on issues that will infuriate callers to the show, even to the point of screaming matches between caller and sidekick, while Rover will play the straight man.

But unlike Phil, which the well-versed audience could tell that it was an outright ruse, and the joke was on the first-time callers that BELIEVED his characters... you can't tell that Rover's sidekicks are downright making it up. (I won't say scripted b/c of the heft of a daily four 1/2 hour long morning show.) In fact, the thought didn't occur to me until this past week.
 
I figured his new show wouldn't be like his old one long before I actually heard it.. The fact many "air america" affiliates carry it was a dead giveaway.. In any case, I still find him entertaining even though I disagree with his political ideology.
 
DaytonRadio said:
I figured his new show wouldn't be like his old one long before I actually heard it.. The fact many "air america" affiliates carry it was a dead giveaway.. In any case, I still find him entertaining even though I disagree with his political ideology.
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But that was the case with his Premiere show... there were a few liberal talk stations that carried it, usually displacing Mike Malloy (who ironically was a colleague of Phil's at WSB-AM/Atlanta in the mid-90s). The oddity was, at the time, he was very supportive of the War on Terror following 9/11, and of President Bush. Aside from that, he did hold a fair amount of liberal views at the time. I wouldn't know off the bat just how much his views have changed since then.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I liked those characters. I thought they were real for the longest time.
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Oh come on, you couldn't have. It sounded just like him.

I never thought playing the listeners for fools was funny.
 
Ah, Phil Hendrie, back in the day, was so funny. I used to laugh out loud while in the car listening to some of his bits on KFI. It was just so different from anything else on talk radio at the time.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
vchimpanzee said:
I liked those characters. I thought they were real for the longest time.
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Oh come on, you couldn't have. It sounded just like him.

I never thought playing the listeners for fools was funny.
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I didn't think so. I seriously thought Ted Bell and the black woman were real people. I didn't listen that often or for very long, and it was weeks before I heard him say these people aren't real.
 
Those shows on KFI were memorable. It's sad to hear him these days. He's morphed into something totally unrecognizable. I was captivated listening to his show hour after hour. He was so believable. Now, he's just another talk show host.
 
Phil's KFI days were the best. After the FCC cracked down (The Ted's of Beverly Hills them song, we just want to put our *bleep* in your mouth), Phil became disgruntled and angry.

I couldn't wait for his new show, but its not that good, Phil was theatre, it was unique, it was witty, funny and downright hysterical.

Now, its Phil collecting a paycheck and moaning all night.

Too bad.
 
elchupacabras said:
Those shows on KFI were memorable. It's sad to hear him these days. He's morphed into something totally unrecognizable. I was captivated listening to his show hour after hour. He was so believable. Now, he's just another talk show host.
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I am blown away with his anger on the air these days...yelling at listeners he doesn't agree with, dumping them mid-sentence, being argumentative. He is BORING and really doesn't sound any different than Michael Savage these days. At least Sean Hannity doesn't yell and scream.

Honestly if I was a program director, I'd savor the opportunity to let him know that he is about to lose a major affiliate if he continued with his attitude, etc. What made Phil Hendrie fun and "must listen radio" was when he was more relaxed and did his comedy bits.

He's toast as far as I'm concerned. KFMB-AM here in San Diego dumped his show "live" for a tape-delayed broadcast of Jerry Doyle and now starts up with the last hour at midnight, then from 1-3 a.m. plays the first two hours of the show.

I figure with being with TRN that Phil Hendrie pays them for distribution (kind of a brokered deal).
 
Hendrie has shown that he can be one of the funniest, sharpest talk talents in radio. I've heard only a few of his shows over the last month and it's nothing like what he did when he was on KFI years ago. It may be that he needs to get out of the syndication mode and back to a large or major market news-talk station in a good environment with a good PD who can massage him, kick his ass when needed, motivate and encourage him. Sorry, but with the ego, talent and background that Hendrie has, that kind of direction isn't going to come from a 28 year old wunderkind at a syndicator. Hendrie might take direction from somebody who has a few bruises and scars, but those people are becoming harder to find as the business thins out its ranks.
 
I am getting really bored of Hendrie and his whole "truth is somewhere in the middle" stance. That's not always true. And how come he never rails against TRN hosts? I hear him complain about Rush, Beck, Schultz etc every night, but he never mentions Savage and the ridiculous things Savage says.

Of course the answer is, despite his self-professed "quest for truth," he sold out to the far right / TRN / worldnetdaily etc.
 
Depending on the topic and on what day you listen he'll either lean left or right or basically do "a pox on both
their houses". He condemns strident, angry hosts who have an agenda...but is a strident, angry host who has
an agenda. Oh, and unlike hosts who claim only they speak the truth, he...claims he only speaks the truth.
Truth is our bitch, as the slogan goes.

Was listening a bit tonight and found myself thinking, he's ranting...angry. Yes, he needs to relax more.
 
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