Bleak House: Southern California talk show hosts hold sway over the GOP

San ^ | 6/6/11 | Bruce Newman

[SmithL]

They are the shock jocks of tax talk, the Howard (Incredibly) Stern and Don Imus (Tell You What's Wrong With Democratic "Dirtbags" and Republican "Traitors") of the California budget battle.

On the "John & Ken Show" -- the top-rated talk radio program in Southern California, with a reach extending deep into the state Legislature -- John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou issue fundamentalist fiscal fatwas and call for Republican "heads on a stick" when a GOP lawmaker goes rogue on the talkers' tax orthodoxy.

Those heads were spinning on their sticks Thursday, when a turning point may have been reached in this year's budget battle, right there in the studio of a 50,000-watt station in beautiful downtown Burbank. For months, John and Ken have held hostage a compromise between Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans with their threats to exact retribution on any Republican who supported Brown's call to let the voters have a say on his tax plan.

On Thursday, Kobylt turned to his partner and said, in effect, "Never mind."

[SmithL]

[Seruzawa]

I used to listen to them but it seems there is more air time dedicated to commercials than their “schtick”. It’s too annoying.

[pogo101]

John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou issue fundamentalist fiscal fatwas

Like "stop spending more than we take in -- and no more tax hikes"? Wow, such radical notions. Don't get me wrong. These guys are huge liberals on foreign policy and other matters, and their clownishness can be wearying. But I welcome their serving as a bulwark of sorts against further leftward movements by the state and county on fiscal and immigration-amnesty issues.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

As soon as a radio show becomes popular they start playing more commercials. The same thing happened with Rush.

It is really sad. Unfortunately, even after increasing the ad load lots of people keep tuning so.

So even the market is telling them it's OK to broadcast more ads.

[arthurus]

That is how the performers make money. The larger the audience i.e. the more popular the show, the more desirable it is for advertisers. The larger the audience the costlier the minutes for advertisers. That increases the income of the performers and the producers, the stations, etc. That’s how the market works. The alternative is a PBS setup.

[Yaelle]

I love John and Ken. They are entertaining, but they are NOT “shock jocks.” They deal with everything in clear terms, hate BS, love the actual truth. They aren’t partisan but they despise the lies inherent in politics.

They SHOULD be putting Republican wieners’ heads on sticks. They come on the show and swear 17x in one paragraph that they will NEVER vote for the libs’ tax package. THEN, LATER, THEY CAVE. So their heads deserve to be on pikes!!

John and Ken are the ONLY truthful media in CA about what really is going on in this filthy state.

[USARightSide]

We listen a lot - every day - to Salem radio which features the likes of Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Miller, etc.

While some ads have been helpful (AMAC), just hearing all the ads so often during an hour and interrupting one’s train of thought, can be crazy making. They can be such an intrusion on one’s sensabilities.
Occasionally the radio goes OFF - in anger - when one or both of us can’t take it any more.

Sometimes we use the Bose, which has a remote, so can lower the sound when ads comes on. But all the other radio locations in our house do not have this ability. rrrrrrrr

[who_would_fardels_bear]

And then eventually enough people get sick of the ads and turn to other stations.

That is also the way the market works, just like when people turn the station when PBS shows Suze Orman for the umpteenth time.

It's also really annoying when you're listening to someone as smart and substantial as Rush and the commercials are aimed at the dumbest and shallowest of people, i.e. commercials for male performance enhancement, hair growth, investment scams, etc.

In that case the market is telling me that corporate America, great companies like IBM/Proctor&Gamble/McDonald's/Walmart that I would otherwise respect, have the testicles of a two-year old girl.

[zerosix]

Try purchasing a once popular Better Homes & Gardens, for instance. I long ago cancelled my subscription - why, not because I could read them online but when I began to feel that there were more ads than articles.

I did some "consumer research" - I counted pages devoted to articles (ones that did NOT mention a product by name, for instance in a recipe) and pages, partial pages, etc. devoted to commercial ads.

Guess which category came up in the majority? You're right if you said those devoted to commercial ads.

I determined that I could get ads for FREE - TV, radio and flyers of junk mail in my mail box rather than pay money to read advertisements for products.

This reminds me of all of the wearable ads passing themselves off as clothing (I refuse to purchase anything that has names or logos visible as most cost more than the items without the manufacturer names or logos.)