For Liberals, It's Morning in America: Shock jocks are the progressive answer to Rush Limbaugh

Slate.com ^ | 02/21/2003 | Marc Fisher

[exile]

Does anyone know what kind of ratings NPR gets?

[Nucluside]

10 million bucks from the Drobnys to the Demorats to beat Rush?! Wow!!!. Hey Drobnys, pay me 10K a month and I'll listen to Lenin!, 'Course, I'll donate the cash to the NRA and any Conservative Republican who needs it!!!
By the way, if you agree, can I listen to Rush with one ear?

[Alberta's Child]

I'm now convinced that Imus is a radio genius. He and Rush Limbaugh are in a league of their own.

[Alberta's Child]

Rush Limbaugh is a modern satirist, and is head and shoulders above everyone else.

What I find most interesting about this whole discussion is that liberals are trying to do what conservatives have not been able to do, either -- find another Rush Limbaugh.

There are a lot of other conservative radio hosts out there, but when you really listen to them you find that they are often nothing more than lame Rush Limbaugh imitations. And the ones that aren't are unique in their own way, but they don't come close to matching his combination of talent, entertainment, and satire.

[jpl]

I am unfamiliar with Tom Joyner and Don and Mike.

Don and Mike are local here in D.C. on the flagship WJFK. They're in a bunch of different markets, not sure how many total stations. They're basically cheap Howard Stern imitators. If you listen enough you can often catch them doing the exact same skits that Stern did that morning or the day before. They don't like discussing politics much, but on the rare occasions that they do it's obvious that they're hard core liberal Democrats (especially Mike). Ironically, this also used to be the home station for G. Gordon Liddy until they dumped him for those two losers Opie and Anthony.

[dead]

Does anyone know what kind of ratings NPR gets?

NPR doesn’t need ratings. When they need money, they just steal it from us.

[Huck]

I'm now convinced that Imus is a radio genius. He and Rush Limbaugh are in a league of their own.

Bernard is a radio genius. Seriously, I enjoy Imus' show. I wonder what the ratio is of ads/program on Imus vs. Rush. I like Rush a lot. I listen to him whenever I can. But man, it seems like commercial, commerical, commercial. One call. Commericial. Be right back. Two sentences. Quick break. Be right back.

It seems like there are less ads on Imus, but I am not sure.

[CyberAnt]

"liberal ideas are just too complex for the simplistic medium"

ROTFLOL!! I cannot believe they said that!

But it does show you how they think. They really do believe that their ideas are so elite, that us simpletons cannot possibly understand it.

I hope they keep saying that - because it's so grossly insulting to most of America.

[Alberta's Child]

I noticed that myself once, but WFAN in New York is notorious for having less "airtime" per hour than any other station.

I think the big difference is that on the Imus show, they run through all of their scheduled commercial breaks and then string a whole bunch of them into large, infrequent blocks.

I'm looking for some serious radio fans to help organize an effort to push these stations to cut back on their advertising (and make up the difference by charging more for the fewer advertisements they run). I've given up on most of these stations -- I can't even listen to Hannity anymore.

[marron]

They really do believe that their ideas are so elite, that us simpletons cannot possibly understand it.

And yet, as you read the article, he says that the way to attract Dem listeners is to talk only about "...movies, TV, personal relationships, your strong personal feelings, stuff about the workplace..."

So, in order to compete, Dem radio should avoid the discussion of issues and ideas. He is right, this will work, but it is hardly the answer to conservative talk radio.

[dfwgator]

Other than being pro-abortion, Howard Stern is pretty much conservative or libertarian on everything else. He is no liberal.

[Huck]

Yeah, on Rush there seem to be a lot of little breaks. Dribs and drabs. But a LOT of them. Plus on Imus they have a schedule, so I know when to tune in to hear Laura Ingaram or Orrin Hatch or whatever. I dunno. If anything, the commercials on Rush are an incentive to become a 24/7 member of his website and listen online.

[Paulus Invictus]

Two more examples of leftist Jews with major money for the cause of world socialism and Clintinoid politics.

[brownie]

I love how they are trying to change the language from liberal and/or socialist into "progressive." I guess they finally realized that most Americans don't agree with the liberal philosophy and don't trust liberals. So they want to come up with a new term and try to trick people (i.e., I'm not a liberal / socialist, I'm a "progressive").

It seems to me if you have to trick people to get elected or get your agenda enacted, then your agenda is wrong.

[brownie]

I know what you mean. Out of a three hour show, about 45 minutes is actual content and the rest is commercials and news breaks.

[DeweyCA]

Good analysis of Rush's ratings. it was SOOO great to have soembody finally tell the truth and validate my opinions. Before him, I had to settle for a few minutes of Paul Harvey occasionally echoing my sentiments.

[rattrap]

Right, and you don't hear "The Regular Guys" on Atlanta's 96 rock crying and sniffling about lib issues (do they actually even have issues?)

[Freedom4US]

How can it be that in this great land where Lincoln and Douglas debated the future of the Union, the radio emits only the right-wing ravings of conservative loudmouths such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and on and on?

Oh, probably because so-called "liberals" have a near monopoly on Academia to include the NEA, kindergarten all the way to higher institutions, nearly all of Hollywood's movies, television programming, nearly all of network television, the judiciary, etc. etc and of course public funded National Public Radio. And these people are complaining about AM radio?

[Alberta's Child]

His 24/7 shows have no breaks in them?

[Freedom4US]

Walter's great, isn't he? Homeland security needs to install him in a bunker somewhere deep underground, so we have a few smart guys left to rebuild civilization..