Can Al Franken save talk radio

Jewsweek ^ | 2-26-03 | Benyamin Cohen

[snooker]

gonna-hue is available.

What's wrong with talk radio? Sounds good to me.

Who the hell would ever think this clown is a serious journalist? Who would believe what he has to say?

snooker

[jpl]

Yep, every day I look forward to shuffling home, cranking up the ol' phonograph, and listening to my Barry Manilow collection. He has us conservatives pegged!

[PokeyJoe]

uhm, gotta point out. Talk Radio was a dead format until Rush Limbaugh. Rush saved AM radio, and the talk radio format - with a talk program in the middle of the day, aimed at the lunch crowd.

If Al Franken tries the same format at the same time slot - he is likely to fail for the simple facts that everybody likes Rush. He's funny. Nobody likes Al, he's a condescending jacka$$.

But what do I know.

[Mr. K]

I guess CNN-NBC-CBS-ABC-MSNBC aren't enough liberal outlets.

[bmwcyle]

When a Hollywood type takes themselves to seriously, they fail. Al thinks he is the end all.

[Katya]

"do resent being characterized as an old white guy with Manilow on my turntable,"

Especially considering Manilow is an old lefty white guy....I mean jeez, at least they could have said we listen to a right winger.

[MadelineZapeezda]

Rush will run over him like a tank...back up and spin the tracks.

In a Clara Harris fashion???????

[Migraine]

It hopes to enlist other well-known entertainers with a liberal point of view

Why be redundant?

[MayflowerMadam]

No way lib radio will catch on. Their audience will be too busy stealing hubcaps, spawning illegitimate children and watching cartoons. Paying attention to a talk radio program would require focusing and thinking; libs generally have no depth. Anyhow, don't they have enough already with NPR, 95% of Hollywood people, and 98% of the media? They just don't get it. Their causes are losing popularity so, instead of figuring out why (requires thinking), they do with libs always do: Blame somebody else.

[far sider]

I give it six months.

Yeah, that's about right. If they really program 14 hours a day, it'll take about six months for half the hosts to be revealed as closet gays, pedophiles, cokeheads, or peewee herman's. If Alan Colmes is smart he'll stay away from this catastrophe-about-to-happen. (Even though he definitely has a face for radio.)

[way-right-of-center]

I am sure his radio show will have an audience similar to the number of people that turned out in the theater to see "Stuart Saves His Family" Didn't know it was a movie? Heh Heh...Thats the point. Al Franken will be the best thing to happen to conservative talk radio in years.

Maybe he can get Eddie Murphy, Tim Meadows, Jim Breuer, etc, etc to do some cameos and they can have the "Washed-up SNL Comedian Segment"

Give me 4 months on the Dead pool, by the way.

[this_ol_patriot]

Calling Captain Janks..calling Captain Janks...

[goodnesswins]

They (people who think conservatives "tend to be men with Manilow in their turntable" are the same people who think there is something WRONG with Talk Radio. (Just because liberals can't talk and tell the truth at the same time.) They are soooo 60's.....LOL....TURNTABLE?????????

[Nowhere Man]

Man, from the picture, this guy looks like he ain't firing on all 8 cylinders, let alone "save talk radio." If this is the liberal's "Great White Hope," forget it. I seem to remember past ones like Tom Leykis and Jim Hightower's "Choke & Puke" that were going to change the world, but I think Frankin is going to end up with them. Let's face it although the liberal media dominates network TV and newspapers, at least we have AM/shortwave radio and the internet.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Conservatives don't listen to Manilow, he's very gay. We listen to country.

[way-right-of-center]

Barry Manilow? Turntable? How would you like to have just signed a $10 million check and the messiah of liberal radio you just hired is that far out of touch. Thats got to make you sleep well. Barkeep, better make that noe a double...

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I just read the article again and I found this gem:

However, more than just the man and the message, the medium itself may present a problem. It's a fact: College kids do not listen to talk radio. Old white men do.

That doesn't seem to stop the Drobnys from channeling their fund to this project.

The Drobnys may be rich, but evidently they're dumb as a bag of hammers. Proof yet again that $$$$ and brains don't go hand-in-hand.

[I still care]

"... Think of it as NPR on steroids. While conservatives tend to be men with Manilow in their turntable, the new network will hope to plug into the liberal leaning college co-ed crowd ..."

Total fantasy. I remember being a nonaware college student. It is not a natural state of life. If you are the serious type, all you think about are your grades and preparing for your future. During your lunchtime you either study or seek a few moments relief by listening to some music.

If you are the party type, politics is the furthest thing from your mind - beer, clubbing, and drugs are where your thoughts are.

There will be a few sincere leftists who will think such a network is the greatest thing since sliced bread. But as Donahue found, they can't float a network.