Ed Schultz - The guy some people love to hate

High Plains Reader - Fargo, ND ^ | 12/25/03 | John Strand

[anonymous_user]

On his office desk at KFGO Radio Station in Fargo, a Clear Channel affiliate, is an ad promoting The Ed Schultz Show, which debuts nationally, Jan. 5. "The Debate Begins," is the ad's emboldened message. Pictured prominently is a face most of us know well. And, like his future audience, you either love him, or you hate him. "For 15 years talk radio has been dominated by one voice. Now, when America wants a fresh voice and real debate, Ed Schultz delivers straight talk from the heartland," the ad reads. "Ed Schultz goes toe-to-toe with conservatives to energize mainstream talk radio," the Jones Radio Network ad states. "Ed is a #1 rated talent with 15 years of 20+ shares. He cuts through the boring sameness with razor sharp views on life, politics and people in America." The Reader talked with the talk show guru last Thursday. Following is the bulk of that interview:

[anonymous_user]

Cutting through the boring "saneness" is more like it. Your comments are welcome.

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[OldFriend]

Having watched this guy on TV over the past few months I can say he will be a total failure.

[TheGeezer]

This show is going have to be picked up by its merits, and on its merits, and on its quality.

This baby will be stillborn. The market is not owned by conservatives, it is owned by programmers who will air anything that will make a buck (see major network TV eve3nings to see what they will air: gay comedies, "reality" TV, etc.). The reason liberal talk radio hasn't exploded is because liberals are unappealing and can't sell commercials.

Note: he said in his interview that one has to be Democrat in order to be human. This is a rage DemocRat, meaning he likely has short staying power. Only one Dean is possible at a time.

Regards.

[longtermmemmory]

Proof that the left/liberals/socialists think that form = substance.

Rush has a Radio show.
Rush has 20 million listeners
therefore a Radio show means 20 million listeners.

Eventually the dems will mandate listening to their program out of fairness. (remember 1984. The TV was watching you.)

[longtermmemmory]

Two "dr deans" will make the democrats even more the irrations party of deviants. Soon they will not even must 10% who will admit publicly to being in their party.

[freekitty]

"The guy some people love to hate." is pretty old boring stuff.

So what's new?

[Vigilanteman]

I grew up in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Ed is the type of guy who will do anything to make a buck, including pushing Liberalism. His radio station, KFGO, was the Country & Western channel with a fairly sizeable market share. Their major rival, WDAY, was the city channel with a news format. One of early talk radio's finest was WDAY's Viewpoint program with Bob Arntson, a McGovernick Leftist whom WDAY tolerated because of the novelty. Bob cut off callers, insulted conservatives and generally made an arse of himself. However, the format was a novelty in those days and he drew viewers to WDAY. One summer he took a vacation and a WDAY fill-in named ??? Miller took over the show. He was balanced, polite and, when Bob returned, a number of listeners said they liked the other guy better. Bob's diatribes had run its course and the ratings of the show actually improved when he went on vacation and all callers had a chance to air their viewpoints, not just the Kool-Aid drinkers who were Arntson's regulars.

WDAY never fired him, but shortly thereafter he found a job in Minneapolis and left the area. WDAY then begin to go after KFGO's listeners bigtime with more farm reports, rural news and even Country & Western music. KFGO was starting to go for a younger audience when I moved away-- more of a contemporary music format. Ed Schultz was their sports announcer with no particularly large following even with a few well-publicized loony-tunes moves like shooting his hunting dog. The guy does, however, have talent and know how to exploit a market. Bob Arntson is his role model and he will likely ride this bandwagon for as long as it lasts.

Ed would be a Conservative if someone paid him more to do a show. Trouble is, the competition and talent in conservative talk radio is considerably higher and more refined than Ed's talent.

[OldFriend]

Actually, the dems want to put Rush and FNC off the air.

Dean has already expressed such a sentiment and I heard Tim Robbins saying that the media is concert with the Bush administration because their corporate owners mandate that support.

Evidently he feels that Dan Rather is too much in love with Dubya!

[invoman]

Yep,

I'm aware of this guy as well as the fact that he'll do anything for a buck. He is a friend of a friend. He is actually a conservative....but he's hated because he's so arrogant.

He is a 'shock-jock'.

[invoman]

ooops-I should have added, I heard he was ready to shoot a Moose in Canada for a hunting photo-op. He had no license...the camera guys were shocked and begged him not to do it....he didn't.

This is what I've heard of this guy. Can't prove it, but he will do anything for a buck...

[lawdude]

No more than 180 days. Probably less and maybe under 90. Depends how much they are willing to spend.

[F.J. Mitchell]

The doodoo heads vs the ditto heads. Now Rush will have to tie his whole brain behind his back to make it fair.

[Dont Mention the War]

The Ed Schultz Show, which debuts nationally

To describe a talk show host as being "national" is almost always an extreme stretching of the truth. There are hundreds of talk show hosts that have their shows tossed up onto satellite feeds, but if only ten tiny stations scattered across the country are actually carrying the show, then the show is not "national." The number of talk show hosts that one can claim with any honesty to have a nationwide reach is only around a dozen or so. In fact, depending on how stringently you want to define "nationwide," you could go so far as to claim only about five people qualify.

Ed Schultz is not going to be one of that dozen (or five). From what I've seen so far, they are going out of their way to make sure nobody can get their hands on an affiliate list, so we can presume that he's going to launch on very few stations. And he'll never get beyond those few stations unless he gets ratings. Which is not likely given that his act is the same as that of all the other liberal talk show hosts that have no listeners.

However, it would be kind of funny if Clear Channel, a company despised by liberals, were to turn out to be the only company capable of airing a syndicated liberal talk show that manages to so much as hold its own.

[Vigilanteman]

Thanks for verifying.

Our own local talk show, Quinn and Rose are moving up to 104.7 starting tomorrow and running until 10 a.m. (they stopped at 9 a.m. on the old station) starting tomorrow. Ed Schultz won't amount to a pimple on Rose's rear end.

[longtermmemmory]

If he is really a conservative arguing the liberal line for a dollar, he will not succeed. Sincerity is paramount to longevity.

[Otto Krueger]

Just listened to most of the show. Not 100 percent awful.

Guests were Tom Daschle, Byron Dorgan, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, in that order.

Hillary accused the Bush Administration of supporting a right-wing, extremist agenda and wanting to revoke the 20th Century. Blah, blah, blah.

In the HPR piece, I spot several errors right off the bat.
Schultz calls Tony Snow the name of Tony Smith.
He refers to Jim Hightower as Congressman. He was Texas Ag Commissioner.
He says XM Satellite has 2 million subscribers. Nope, just over 1 million (new figures to be announced this month).