Radio Daze - Limbaugh, Beck use actors to call-in

Tablet Magazine ^ | 11 Feb 2011 | Liel Leibovitz

[Erik Latranyi]

Last year, a young man called in to a radio station with a problem. He’d recently attended a bachelor party, he said, and a friend of the groom-to-be, clueless of the unwritten etiquette of maledom, brought his girlfriend along, derailing what was supposed to be a weekend of gambling, girls, and general debauchery. The caller told his story with passion and verve, and then asked the station’s listeners for their advice on how to treat his clueless pal.

Or at least he would have, had this been a real conversation. The young man—who asked to remain nameless in order to protect his chances for future employment—was an actor, and the staged call an audition. A short while later, he received the following email: “Thank you for auditioning for Premiere On Call,” it said. “Your audition was great! We’d like to invite you to join our official roster of ‘ready-to-work’ actors.” The job, the email indicated, paid $40 an hour, with one hour guaranteed per day.

But what exactly was the work? The question popped up during the audition and was explained, the actor said, clearly and simply: If he passed the audition, he would be invited periodically to call in to various talk shows and recite various scenarios that made for interesting radio. He would never be identified as an actor, and his scenarios would never be identified as fabricated—which they always were.

Curious, the actor did some snooping and learned that Premiere On Call was a service offered by Premiere Radio Networks, the largest syndication company in the United States and a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, the entertainment and advertising giant. Premiere syndicates some of the more sterling names in radio, including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Radio Daze - Limbaugh, Beck use actors to call-in"

Your title is misleading. In the article, the only thing it says in regards to Rush and Beck is that Clear Channel uses this service and that Rush and Beck are on Clear Channel. Now, there may be an inference there, but the article does not come out and say that Rush and Beck use actors to call into their shows and there is absolutely no proof that they do, other than guilty by association.

[re_nortex]

I’m with you... I was just pointing out the actual web page that may be the source of the controversy.

Thanks much. Readers of this thread might enjoy seeing and hearing Rush Limbaugh as he was in the early 70's. Here he is as Jeff Christie at WIXZ in McKeesport, PA:

And this KQV aircheck reveals that his distinctive style of today was even then before formed back in the early 1970's. Given the tight constraints imposed upon top 40 jocks, Limbaugh (Christie) was able to bend the format, allowing his personality to shine through.

[Sir_Ed]

He looks like Dwight Schrute!

Ed

[adorno]

They want to believe so BADLY that people don’t really believe in conservative values. A person would have to be a paid actor to actually believe that stuff, right?!

Well, aren't you being paid to post your totally unbelievable "right-wing nut job" comments in here? Doesn't Mr Robinson pay each and every one of us $10 for each post in which we sound very clueless about democrats and Obama and all things political? Same with Rush.

The people over at HuffPew and at DU and at MoveOn.org certainly do know what the truth is about everything and they wouldn't lie to us, would they? And their consciences wouldn't allow them to get paid for serving the public good.

[re_nortex]

Doesn't Mr. Robinson pay each and every one of us $10 for each post...

NOW YOU TELL ME!

I'm going to have to check my bank statements again. When I participate in the quarterly FReepathons, I always thought the money was going the other way. /S

[Billthedrill]

Doesn't Mr Robinson pay each and every one of us $10 for each post...

I got a baggie full of dead bugs one time.

[jimfree]

What did Rush say?

The actors are calling into or being called by shock jocks. Rush says that 20 years ago the FCC prohibited prank calls where the callee has not been informed in advance and consented. He gave examples of his prank calls from his early non-EIB days.

[adorno]

I'm going to have to check my bank statements again. When I participate in the quarterly FReepathons, I always thought the money was going the other way.

Sounds like you're doing it all wrong.

Instead of sending FR money, you're supposed to bill them for your services. /s

[momtothree]

Dang, ten dollars?! By now, we would be pretty wealthy, huh? I agree that the liberals know the truth, they are just very comfortable with lying. IMHO.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

So he didn’t say that he had actors posing as callers or knew that his syndicate was employing them. There would be enormous temptation for the suits to hire actors to ask provocative questions, especially El Rushbo knew they were coming and could swat them out of the ballpark.

[Cacique]

btt