Blowhard Ed is actually putting up some of the money for this loser of a project. Of course Blowhard Ed knows he hasn't got a chance against Rush. Blowhard Ed's whole purpose to to attract publicity for his REAL goal---to become an NFL commentator.
I don't think these fools realize the reason talk radio is so conservative. You can listen to the radio at work. Most people who wake up everyday without fail and go to work day after day after day, really care where there tax dollars go, where there kids are at night and if they get a good education. Real working people as a rule are overwhelmingly conservative. The other half has way more important things to do than listen to the radio. It's a huge task to spread their brand of freedom on the unwilling and uneducated .masses
You're kidding. He wacked Fido and he is the darling of the Left? These people shock me sometimes.
Evidently. I saw him on Scarborough Country and I thought he was a jerk. The Left doesn't get why Rush is popular. Schultz isn't anything like him, other than being "husky" and white. Schultz comes off Angry, Limbaugh is optimistic. Even when he demonizes Dasshole and others, he has a smile on his face.
The Left just plain doesn't get it.
I wonder if the Jones radio network is in any way affiliated with Great American Country channel. I liked that station, but if Mr. Jones is a Left wingnut, I might like it a lot less.
Ed just resigned from being the University's play by play announcer after several years.
Siting he needs to spend more time following his son who is in college in Texas and plays golf in the fall.
That is a big move for him and KFGO as they are tied in with a big contract with North Dakota U.
One would think that a good portion of his income with KFGO would be paid for his involvement in sports and football. Already he has begun his moves.
His new job is January 5. The studio's are being built in Fargo now and equipment to be installed this month.
As has been reported by others in here already Ed takes a ton of free time off. Hunting. Fishing.Trips all over.
Washington DC trips. He took a month off for private time in July.
And he is the operation manager at KFGO and does his news and views show.
He does this show alot from his pad
in Mott where he hunts. Calls it his western Studios. So the man came to KFGO and went on the talk show 6 years ago and he has had high ratings, alot, inherited from the station its self.
He took advantage of that and used those high ratings to do what he wants, when he wants and he answers to no one. This is what all other employees dont like about him. On his own little island.
But, now he has competition and his ratings are slipping. And no wonder, as he left his conservative position, as host of his news and views and now has become a liberal host. In the Fargo market that has bothered alot of his former listners. Most were conservative. Why would they listen to him now ,when he cuts down the President and the Governor and is a known now as a liberal wacko.
Surely the ratings will drop more and more.
With that in mind than, here he is
taking on a new full time project as a talk show host for this liberal small
network set up by Senator's Dorgan,
Conrad , Daschle and Stabenow of Michigan and her husband Tom Athens.
Tom and Ed met a year ago to start
this as Tom liked Ed and his track record and those fat ratings.
So they formed a 4 way partnership and Ed is one of the partners along with Tom who is President of newly formed Democracy Radio which wants Ed to be their entertaining liberal host for a network so far that has 11 small stations signed up. And they have raised 1.8 million. Its very tiny
compared to the big one, that the Drobnys startd and than sold. That one is called Progress Media and they are going to raise 200 million from wealthy democrats. They are building
a huge studio in the middle of Manhattan and hope to get started by Spring 2004. They ar very close to buying 5 major radio stations in the top 10 market to kick off their network. Boston, Chicago, New York, Philly, LA...all heavy liberal cities.
These stations will probaly cost them about $30 million each. Than they will sign up other stations and markets and will have Al Franken and Jane Garofale
as their two main talk show hosts.
Both are comedians and that is their
plan to have real entertainment, funny, wacky, off the wall stuff to gain listners Talk liberal but be funny. Like what we see on Sat Night Live, or Comedy Central.
They have a couple of sharp radio veterans in charge, Mark Walsh and Jon Sinton.
MEanwhile back to Ed's network, his employer Clear Channel has a division
called Premiere Radio out of California which handles all talk shows etc for their 1250 radio stations. These include Rush, M Reagan, Dr Laura etc. Its President
is K Kitchen and he turned down Ed and that network saying, it will fail and if he could see it make money ,he would jump on it right away. He said,
liberal views are way too complex to be entertaining.
So here sits Ed going for his 15 minutes with the new small network.
But he will try to keep his high paying job at KFGO and try to get by with just doing his 3 hour morning
liberal show. This now ,features more and more Democrats led by his pal Senator Dorgan. Will KFGO allow him to work two jobs and be on two payrolls?
Will they continue to pay him even though he does ess and less at the station? And is gone more and more?
He says he is going to take his network show places like in Iowa in Ja nuary...and what? be gone from his regular job and other employees filling in? How long will that last?
Or is the plan for him to announce,
he is resigning all together at end of year? THis will be interesting to watch, espicially because he has such a big ego and huge temper.
Meanwhile what strikes me as odd is just exactly who Ed Schultz is.
He really isnt that good on his show.
He thinks he is because of those ratings from the past. But, in reality
he is a former jock and TV sports anchor. He is far from being "funny"
or moreso "entertaining". He usually
is very loud ,even hollers when he talks to people. His show comes across as mean and as if he is defending himself. Rarely is there laugher or amusing humor. He simply doesnt have the make up for that. He likes to come across as the boss and watch out what you say or he will call you a dirty name and attack you and even embarass
you. He is always rude and rarely makes the person he is talking to feel comfortable.And, finally, he is not liked. 95% of the folks who live in Fargo Moorhead ,dont like him. Mainly because of that personality and that behavior. And he has stepped on a lot of peoples feet over the years and has called alot of good people names and has ruined relationships.
So with that in mind...he now tells us he is going on that network and is
going to "entertain" people from coast to coast? And be a iron man and do two talk shows a day, which all good talk show hosts will tell you is to much and it will cause burn out, frustration and mistakes will be made.
This will be interesting and fun to watch!
Mr Schultz lies alot, everyday, in fact. Now, that he is going national
we shall see and hear these lies alot
more. Before he was on his local show,
he lied and attacked and basically got away with stuff. No more.
Isn't interesting already, what people
that post on Free Republic, have found
about the guy ,just since he announced, he is going national?
Many lies. Weird true happenings. Name calling. Going from conservative to liberal because Dorgan and Daschle asked him to.A traitor to all of us who listen to him for several years.
Makes one sick.
He is not a very well liked man that is for sure.
Remember, when he announced he was going national he acted like he was
the Liberal Rush? He contacted MSNBC,
networks, magazines and newspapers
and said so. But, we the posters here
have found the truth about the man. And its disgusting.
Most now, don't want to talk with him or about him.
He is far far from any kind of a RUSH.
Rush is very smart and entertaining and clever. Rush started his network,
day one with 64 station's(most large markets) signed up.
Ed has 11 tiny one's. Ed said yesterday, Rush started with 2. Lie, again. In fact, after three months, Rush had 153 stations signed up. He now has 605!
I called Premiere Company that handles Laura, Reagan, and Rush and other national talk show hosts. They said, they were not interested in Mr Schulktz.They feel, he will fail and no one, will make any money off his show. He is not national. He is not entertaining. He is not connected.
But, the plan that the BIG liberal network has, Progress Media of New york City does. THey plan on buying major stations. Spending $250 million of Democratic wealthy investors money.
They have a plan and they will come on the air in the Spring, with entertaining hosts.
Mr Schultz has tried to grab a hold of their coattails in his launch. Most now have him figured out.
Honesty is very important in any business and espicially this business.
Meet talk radio's 'gun-toting, meat-eating lefty
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/7897092.htm You probably know him better as Ed Schultz, former voice of Sioux and Bison
By Stephanie Simon
Los Angeles Times
FARGO - It may well have been the bologna sandwich that spun Big Eddie "the Redhead" Schultz down the path of self-enlightenment, transforming him from a bull-neck, bombastic conservative into a bull-neck, bombastic liberal just itching to grab his talk-radio mike and give Rush Limbaugh hell. But that story will have to wait.
"The Ed Schultz Show" is about to air.
Schultz swings into his seat as his producer counts down 10 seconds until the live broadcast opens. He clamps on his headphones as the taped introduction rolls: "From high above the North American continent, democracy has a new voice. Powerful. Passionate. Persistent."
Schultz lets out an enormous yawn, then swings the microphone toward himself. He's on.
"Lock and load, baby," he booms. "If it's got mad cow, I love beef so much I'll still eat it."
He's still chortling at his own quip as he introduces his first guest: conservative commentator Pat Buchanan.
Democrat mission
For this, Democratic politicians helped solicit $1.8 million from private donors, enough cash to keep the brand-new "Ed Schultz Show" on the air for at least two years. It's not a whim. It's a mission. Democrats are counting on Schultz - a one-time sportscaster who used to mock the homeless on the air - to anchor the AM dial nationwide as the provocative new voice of the left.
Well, maybe not exactly the left. Schultz, 49, has voted for only one Democrat that he can recall, a local congressman. He's opposed to abortion in all circumstances. He considers Buchanan a friend. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, he says, gives him "the willies."
He's prone to say such things as: "I'd like to see the president get all the illegals out of the country, so we can start all over again."
And yet, thanks to that bologna sandwich, Schultz considers himself "a gun-toting, meat-eating lefty."
The anti-Rush
While Limbaugh was calling former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill "childish" for criticizing President Bush in a new book, Schultz was gleefully trumpeting O'Neill's harshest comments. While Limbaugh was mocking O'Neill as deaf and blind to reality - "the Helen Keller of the Cabinet" - Schultz was dredging out clips of the president praising his Treasury secretary as a "straight shooter."
"By God, Ed, you're doing good stuff, trying to get the truth out," Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa told him on the air.
Limbaugh's comments, of course, commanded a much larger audience. He draws 15 million listeners a week, on 600 stations nationwide.
Schultz's show, which premiered Jan. 5, airs on just a dozen stations, mostly in small towns such as Steamboat Springs, Colo., Brownwood, Texas, and Needles, Calif. Its biggest market is Oklahoma City. (It's also broadcast live on XM satellite radio and online, although the server crashes often, at www.bigeddieradio.com.)
Ratings won't be available for several months. Still, Schultz's backers say they're confident his show will take off. "Democracy is best served," said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., "by having many voices on the air."
QB days
A much-loved (and much-hated) sportscaster famed for his raucous play-by-play of North Dakota college football, Schultz grew up in Virginia but moved to the Midwest to study - and play quarterback - at Minnesota State University Moorhead. His passing skills earned him tryouts with the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets. When he didn't make the cut, he switched to reporting on games from the sideline. He still has a football player's brawny build, but his red hair is thinning.
After two decades of sports reporting, Schultz launched a 2½-hour regional talk show in 1996.
The show, which he continues to host, blends interviews with local officials and sharp-edged banter with callers, spiced up with Big Eddie's rants about national affairs. He might report on a local school board meeting, break for the latest on pork-belly futures, then swerve into acid commentary on the presidential primaries. The broadcast area reaches into South Dakota and Minnesota; on any given morning, nearly 30 percent of radio listeners in the region are tuned in.
Conservative years
For years, Schultz's patter on the regional show was conservative. He scoffed at the homeless for complaining about the cold. "How about getting a job?" he'd say. He sneered at the three Democrats who represent him in Congress, nicknaming them the Three Stooges.
"I lined up with the Republicans because they were anti-tax, and I wanted to make a lot of money," Schultz said.
About two years ago, listeners began to hear a softer tone.
Schultz had once derided farmers for relying on government subsidies. Now, he was pounding Bush for not offering extra aid during a drought. He was calling for universal health insurance. And more services for homeless veterans.
Some dismayed fans suspected a cynical motive. "My own opinion is, he knew he would never go national if he stayed on the right or in the middle. I truly believe he moved to the left because he thought that's where his career would get the biggest boost," said Ron Gilmore, 42, who runs a cleaning business in Fargo. "You don't change your politics overnight like he did without a goal in mind."
That sandwich
Schultz insists his transformation was genuine. It all started, he says, with the bologna sandwich.
In 1998, Schultz met Wendy Noack, a psychiatric nurse, at a party. She agreed to a lunch date but told him they'd have to meet at the Salvation Army cafeteria next to the homeless shelter where she worked.
"You should have seen his face as he was moving along the line with his tray, getting his bologna sandwich and his cup of Campbell's soup. He was appalled," said Wendy, now his wife.
One of the homeless men eating there recognized Schultz from his TV sportscasts and called him over. Schultz had always written off the homeless as lazy. But as he talked to the man, he says, he started to realize that was too simplistic. On future dates - over better food - he and Wendy talked about the men in the shelter. Hearing their stories, he regretted dismissing them all as bums.
Those conversations started him thinking. But Schultz's political outlook did not swing fully around until 2001, when he took his regional show on the road. In their 38-foot Winnebago, Schultz traveled North Dakota with Wendy, broadcasting from small towns and ranches.
For the first time, he sat down to talk with farmers, with teachers, with mothers who couldn't afford to take their kids to the doctor.
"I saw suffering," he said. And he aired it, opening his mike to ordinary people and their stories of struggle. The more he listened, he said, the more he came to believe that Democrats were doing more for "the little guy."
Schultz knows his critics view him as an opportunist.
"I just ask 'em, 'Do you want me to go back to the other side?'" he said.
"Isn't it great, though," he added, serious now, "that people can change?"
Hillary's friend
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., agrees. Although his views may not line up with hers on every issue, the former first lady considers Schultz a friend of the Democratic Party because he takes on the Bush White House with gusto.
"I believe in redemption," said Clinton, who twice this month has made time for Schultz to interview her on air. In the national show's first few days, Schultz interviewed Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and a dozen other top politicians.
The market
Although Schultz has proved he can land interviews with big-name Democrats, skeptics wonder whether listeners want to hear them.
Conservative hosts say their fans turn to talk radio for views they can't find in the rest of the media. "Network TV and The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times axis is totally dominated by the left," said G. Gordon Liddy, whose talk show is broadcast on 178 stations.
"Now the left, never satisfied with nine-tenths of the pie, has gotten its knickers in a twist about talk radio. It's a free country. They're certainly welcome to try," Liddy said. "But I'm inclined to think ... listeners will say, 'Look, we can get all that stuff already.'"
Many station managers apparently agree. Nearly all the top national hosts are conservative: Limbaugh, Liddy, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham and others. Programmers are reluctant to tamper with that formula.
Even KFGO, the AM station out of Fargo that broadcasts Schultz's regional show, has not picked up the national program.
KTOX in Needles did take the risk. Station manager David Hayes bumped Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who's rated third in the nation, to run Schultz live. He's received close to 60 calls, he said, and they're running 2-to-1 in favor of Schultz.
Schultz plays up his man-of-the-people persona, calling himself the voice of the "working stiff."
"The average commercial radio listener in America is not looking for lofty, intellectual subjects," Schultz said. "This isn't brain surgery. It's about striking the passion of the people."
At the same time, Schultz makes clear that his goal is to win ratings, not woo converts to the liberal cause. He wants listeners to tune in because they enjoy his commentary and laugh along with his braying "heh heh heh heh!" If he convinces them that he's right, great. But his main motivation for doing the show, he said, is "to be successful, to go as far in my career as I can."
Later, he lets himself daydream about taking the Winnebago on the road for his national show, inviting fans in state after state to the mike.
"Do you know how cool it's going to be when we get on a bunch of stations and we can go do the show from a small town in Middle America?" he said. "People are going to think, 'This guy really cares.'"
Big Eddie grinned. "And I do."