'Nutballs' no more, talk radio jocks bask in their recall role

SFGate.com ^ | 10/9/03 | Joe Garofoli - SF Chronicle

[NormsRevenge]

Conservative talk show host Melanie Morgan couldn't resist a little day-after gloating Wednesday, wallowing in the afterglow of a Republican measuring the drapes in the governor's mansion.

"Vindication is a powerful word," said Morgan, who helped birth the recall petition drive on the KSFO-AM 560 morning show she co-hosts. "Almost from the beginning, every liberal media outlet in the state referred to us as right- wing fanatics, a fringe political movement. We were derided as complete nutballs.

[VRW Conspirator]

Sometimes, I have on two radios and a show on the internet. Yes, I am certifiable.

But, we love you here at the Free Republic clinic...now, it's time finish your group therapy and go to your music class, Doug.

[CaRepub4life]

I've been a regular (every morning) listener to Hoge in the morning here in Sacramento on KTKZ (in the belly of the beast as he says) and thought that it was his effort to coordinate the original signing by the 100 "patriots" here that got the recall idea to actually become reality.

Prior to the recall, Eric Hoge used to have Tom McClintock on each Wed morning to do a piece called the "Waste Update" that exposed the most recent of the absurd activity that was happening in the Ca Legislature....that's what really hooked me into the over-the-top, in-your-face actions of the Democratic leadership here.

I HOPE he brings Tom back on to restart this very informative series.

[montomike]

Rick Roberts from San Diego 760 was great going to work in the morning. Him and J and K in the evening were all I needed. Rick really did a lot of the work helping get the people to where the petitions were available and finding the dirty tricks that the Rats were using to suppress the signing.

Kudos to all the talk show hosts who participated and they better stand by for flack from the RAT media machine. I think the RATMM really recognizes that Talk Radio is capable of keeping the real people informed.

[doug from upland]

THIS SHOULD KEEP YOU BUSY

[Final Authority]

I do not know about the hosts mentioned but I do listen to and just love Michael Savage out of SF. He was clearly for the recall but voted for McClintock. Is he a large voice in CA? He is on the East coast as every day I talk to more people who tune him in and are properly entertained and informed by his performance personna. Last night he called the recall the first step in the revolution of the people realizing they must act to have control over the government. Passivity just does not work, no matter what the Democrats want us to belive. The voters have spoken and I am impressed and proud of the decisions made.

[CaRepub4life]

Savage is on here in Sac.... just a bit too much bile for me...

[Grampa Dave]

They all helped in bring about what happened this Tuesday!

Reality strikes Herr Davis and other California Rats on 7 October 2003!

[Impeach98]

"Every talkshow host in California apparently takes credit for birthing the idea of the recall. Melanie Morgan at KSFO certainly thinks she came up with the idea, and as a result, seemed to assert a proprietary interest in how the whole thing turned out. Often, she seemed irked that Arnold Schwartzenegger was going to reap the benefit of "her recall." It was interesting to hear Kaloogian's and Ted Costa's diplomatic appeasing of Melanie in her delusion. Whenever she takes credit for being the Mother of the Recall in on-air conversations with them, they politely never confirm nor deny her claim. 11 posted on 10/09/2003 10:21 AM PDT by My2Cents (Well...there you go again.) "

Really - because Howard has introduced her as the "Mother of the Recall" at the recall rallies.

Melanie deserves complete credit for getting the recall started. She discussed the idea with Shawn Steel before anyone else was seriously considering it.

She and Steel both then went and did extensive research. They got a lot of their initial facts and conclusions wrong but eventually figured it all out.

Melanie was the real deal on this - before any of the other talk show hosts got on board - even before Hogue.

What is most amazing is that Costa is now downplaying the role of talk radio. I think that's more a result of the sore feelings that exist between some hosts and himself and not a true guage of reality.

At www.RecallGrayDavis.com - Howard Kaloogian's website - we found that talk radio was THE single best tool we had to make our website pop. And since our website logged by far the most traffic (you can go to www.Alexa.com to verify the website traffic figures) out of all the recall efforts, I can tell you - without talk radio this recall would not have gone far enough for Darrell Issa to have had enough confidence in its ultimate success to put his money into it.

Big kudos to Melanie, Eric Hogue, Roger Hedgecock, John & Ken, Al Rantel, Craig Roberts, Mark Williams, Tom Sullivan and others who helped us collect enough signatures and raise enough money to keep this thing moving along in the early days!!!

[Impeach98]

Ooooh yeah - how could I forget Rick Roberts of KFMB 760 in San Diego. Also Michael Law on KPRZ and Mark Larson on KCBQ!

[My2Cents]

Big kudos to Melanie, Eric Hogue, Roger Hedgecock, John & Ken, Al Rantel, Craig Roberts, Mark Williams, Tom Sullivan

That I concur with. But regardless of Howard's kind comments regarding Melanie, who really came up with the idea? Whether she did or didn't come up with the recall idea, her attitude that her "Mother" status somehow gave her opinion more weight on the way the recall should go was pompous. Whenever she disagreed with someone's tactic or take on the recall, she was quick to remind them that she "originated" the idea of the recall, as if this somehow made the guest's views less valid. She deserves credit, but she could also stand to learn a bit more humility.

[Final Authority]

When I first tuned in Savage I may have had the same thoughts as you but at the time Laura Ingraham was on hiatus and there was little else to listen to on my hour commute so I stayed with Savage. The day he hooked me was a day when the SARS scare was in the news and he told stories of his travels and that led to a recent trip to Florida to visit his mother and that led to his mother and that led to his childhood. During the course of this 40 minute monologue I almost ran off the road laughing so hard. I saw the true Michael, not the 15 second sound bite that people often judge a person by. Over the last several months his scientific knowledge has shown and his human side shows when he talks of going out after shows and hanging out at the local tavern. He is a real guy and he is not afraid to expose himself. I like that.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Bump and radio talk show host dittos!

[Lizavetta]

Of all the people who got this recall going - John and Ken, Mark Williams, Roger Hedgecock, Melanie and Lee, Michael Savage, Armstrong and Getty, Darryl Issa, Ted Costa, prominent Republicans, and the petition circulators - of all these people who made this recall happen....

...how many did Arnold have up on the victory stage with him? It speaks volumes, doesn't it?

All I saw were a bunch of inbred buck-toothed Kennedys and a Hollywood comedian.

[NormsRevenge]

That is a fair comment to make although some might say this would not have been the appropriate time to acknowledge all those folks efforts. Maybe that will be addressed downstream. It is a certainty that without them the Recall would have never happened and Arnie would not have his golden opportunity.

Also, Arnie made claim that he wanted the best and brightest on his transition team. Where is Tom? :-\

Also, imo, The only reason Willie Brown is there is because he will be the one to help borrow massive amounts of money from CalPERS to bail the state out is what I suspect.

[Wait4Truth]

Early on the night of the election John and Ken were urging people that hadn't voted yet to get out there and make it a landslide for Arnold. I have been wondering just how many extra votes that created. They were so funny, especially with Gloria "the fraud" Allred!

[WilliamofCarmichael]

This is strictly of interest to people in Sacramento. But I am posting it regardless. Mark Williams is a hell of talk show host and I've been listening to talk shows since the 1950s.

But! I recall plenty of times when both he and KFBK's afternoon guy ridiculed the recall effort. Mark refused to let callers state where they'd be with petitions. Mark dismissed KSFO without naming it as that "little biddy" station in San Francisco.

I was so outraged that he'd disrespected so many citizens who where giving their time and resources to the recall that I emailed a strongly-worded denunciation of his behavior while he was on the air. Shortly after that he sounded a bit distracted. I like to think he read my email. I included by real name and email address. Never heard from him. I still like his show. Fact is, Eric Hogue's recall effort on another station (1380) was winning listeners away from Williams' station's morning show. Ditto Ms Morgan and KSFO.

On Ms Morgan. There is none better for activist radio IMO. I have attended several large demonstrations she put together dating back years.

BTW, a fellow host of Ms Morgan's who is now retired, Jim Eason, was in fact the very first to call for the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Clinton became president Wed., 20 Jan., 1993. By Thursday 21 Jan., 1993 Jim was calling for Clinton's impeachment. It attracted the attention of the White House and inquiries were made of the Clinton butt boys working at KSFO's deficient call letter companion station.

[Yardstick]

This is great. Talk radio's real impact on state taxing matters began here in Tennessee.

That was the first thing that jumped into my mind when I saw this thread. I was living in Murfreesboro during the tax crisis in TN -- man, it was intense. Phil Valentine and Steve Gill were positively heroic.

There ought to be an industry award of some sort -- like a Grammy but for conservative talk radio...they could call it the Paul Revere award or something -- to recognize the folks who made a difference.