Poor reception

Talk radio helped energize Scott Brown's Senate campaign. Will it doom the Democrats in 2010? The right loves to rant against the "liberal-media elite," but there's one key media sector where the conservative id reigns supreme: talk radio. It's a format long marked by an abundance of influential red-staters (Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity) and precious few blue voices of comparable potency — an imbalance exacerbated when Air America folded last week. And this disparity could pose big problems for the Democrats in the 2010 elections, in which Republicans hope to emulate Scott Brown's recent Senate triumph.

Talk radio was huge for Brown. Yes, the dearth of exit polling in the Brown-Martha Coakley contest makes it hard to quantify its exact impact. But if you listened to Boston talk radio during the race — commercial talk, as opposed to the sedate stylings of NPR affiliates WBUR and WGBH — you know that this segment of the airwaves was, overwhelmingly, Brown country: a source of hope and good cheer when things looked grim, and a high-volume ally as the Brown juggernaut headed down the home stretch.

Consider, for example, the love lavished on Brown by WEEI, the sports-radio powerhouse that doubles as a source of conservative commentary. On primary day, Gerry Callahan, half of the duo behind its morning drive-time Dennis & Callahan, tossed Brown this softball: "Does it make any sense to you that people follow this far-left agenda, and want another far-left loon like [Senator John] Kerry, like [Congressman Barney] Frank, like [Congressman Edward] Markey, like the rest of them?" And shortly before the election, Glenn Ordway, host of the afternoon drive-time Big Show, and three Big Show associates (Pete Sheppard and former New England Patriots Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie) appeared in a video in which they gushingly endorsed the Republican. (Brown "believes in a country that's sovereign," Smerlas explained, sort of.)

The question now is: is there any way for other liberals to avoid the sort of total talk-radio drubbing that Coakley suffered? It's unlikely that any Democrat will win the messaging battle there outright. But with talk radio and the GOP poised to collaboratively whip the nation into an aggrieved-populist frenzy, liberals need to be thinking about how to play effective defense. And Coakley's loss offers some clues.

Phoning it in Amid Boston talk's unceasing pro-Brown drumbeat, Jim & Margery, Jim Braude and Margery Eagan's morning drive-time show on WTKK, was an anomaly: a broadcast that seemed more sympathetic to Coakley than her opponent. Even so, says Braude, Brown called in repeatedly out of the blue, just to say hello (and, presumably, to get some free exposure). This was Brown's strategy with a number of talk stations — and the antithesis of Coakley's aloof approach. (Among other things, she apparently spurned Dennis & Callahan.)

Harkening back to Braude's earlier career as a champion of liberal ballot initiatives, he claims the lesson is simple. "Democrats should start dialing," he says. "Most if not all conservative talk-show hosts are paper tigers. It's also hard for any human to completely eviscerate someone who talks to them, and most talk-show hosts are human. And in my experience, after I called a show, I'd get e-mails saying, 'You know, I hate everything you stand for — but I gotta give you credit for having the courage to come on.' "You don't cede territory to the opposition," adds Braude. "You can't eliminate [the criticism]. But you can mute the crap you have to take."

But is it really plausible that someone like Braude's conservative colleague Michael Graham — who authored the forthcoming Tea Party ode That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom: It's Time for a Conservative Revolt (Regnery) — would give even a semblance of a fair shake to a Democrat running against a Scott Brown imitator this fall?

"I have to do compelling talk radio — that's my job," answers Graham, who says he repeatedly invited Coakley on during the campaign's home stretch and received no response. "I can't get left-of-center people to come on my show, because they know they can go somewhere else and get softball questions. If Coakley had come on, I wouldn't have asked her, 'When did you get that swastika tattooed on your forehead?' I would have asked, 'Tell me how this Obamacare thing is supposed to work?' "

Braude and Graham have a vested interest here, since more guests means more listeners. But they're not the only ones urging Democrats to take a page out of Brown's phone-happy playbook.

"The Coakley campaign and the Democratic party allowed [talk radio] to get out of hand," says Democratic media consultant Michael Goldman, who made a late-game appearance on Dennis & Callahan to defend Coakley's positions. "They basically said, 'That audience is for Brown anyway — why waste our time?' That was a mistake. They should have been on there every day, pounding back.

"The lesson the Democrats have to have learned here," adds Goldman, "is never again to allow the reinforcement of a whole series of untruths or partial truths, without someone representing the other side."

Monitoring the medium Chastened hindsight is 20-20, of course, and it's comforting — if you're a frustrated liberal — to think that the solution might be as simple as more talk-radio assertiveness. But if Democrats are going to venture into innately unfriendly broadcast territory in hopes of blunting the GOP's advantage, they need to be sure that the candidates — or their on-air surrogates — are taking a prudent risk.

"It depends on the relationship they've developed with the host, and it depends on their ability to wing it in hostile situations," says Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine. "If a [politician] is charismatic, diplomatic, and smart — if they're good at debating and can do it without creating hostility — by every means, they should go out there. But if you don't have what it takes to stand up under that type of pressure, they should stay away."

There is, of course, another option for liberals worried about talk radio's power this fall. They can try to battle against the medium rather than working with it — by monitoring on-air rhetoric, publicizing it when it gets especially nasty, even applying commercial pressure on the outlet in question. "Locker-room humor doesn't sound quite so funny outside the locker room," says Democratic media consultant Dan Payne. "Put that slightly off-color one-liner in print, maybe, and send it off to a show's sponsor." But this approach — which resembles that used by Media Matters for America — brings its own dangers, especially if it's used as a default rather than in extreme cases. After all, while complaints about indelicate language might shame a pundit or outlet, they could also end up reinforcing stock conservative caricatures of liberals (PC, effete, loony-left) and their elite-media allies — and increasing conservative wrath.

That's why, in the end, the Democrats' best hope may be a strategy of cautious engagement. Brown's cultivation of Eagan and Braude didn't win their support, exactly, but it earned their respect, and gave Brown a (free) chance to convince liberal voters that he wasn't a nut or a buffoon. Comparable Democratic efforts to cultivate the right will probably result in some awkward monkey-dance moments. But if worried liberal pols can balance the discomfort with self-deprecating grace — and offer forceful rebuttals to GOP talking points while they're at it — that's a sacrifice worth making.

It has nothing to do with radio.

It was exactly like this in 2006 with Coupe (D)eval running for governor.

The same three Boston stations (WEEI, WRKO, WTKK). All the same players (Dennis and Callahan, Howie Carr, Mike Graham, Jay Severin, Michelle McPhee, and all the syndiicates - Limbaugh, Ingraham, Savage).

And Coupe won by huge numbers.

This time it’s a revolution.

..... Your absolutely on to something here, sir. but I would take it one step further. The thrust of this dolt’s article is akin to Mike Tyson complaining about the waistline height of his opponent’s boxing shorts after being KO’ed by a midget.

It’s like Sauron complaining that Frodo snuck into Mordor via the back entrance without asking his permission.

It’s just a giant bunch of sour grapes.

Braude, Eagan, Finneran, and the NPR empire, which alone has at least a half-dozen FM stations carrying its distinctly liberal political programming in MA, provide plenty of airtime for liberal political programming. Their real problem, which they are petulantly unwilling to confront, is that they draw comparatively few listeners.

Indeed NPR is quite popular in Boston; WBUR has focused on news/talk for years even if it’s pretty unlistenable to us. Now WGBH has expanded their news/talk and launched shows with the likes of Emily Rooney, daughter of Andy, trying to get ratings/donations. No conservative talk there.

Acc to Howie Carr what’s the longest cab ride? One when the driver has NPR on the radio. “You might as well just open the door and flee, leaving whatever you have behind...”

So when libs complain about lack of balance, point out NPR and the fact that more liberal callers/hosts (Eagan and Braude) can be found on conserv talk radio than conservatives on libtalk or NPR

The audiences for WRKO, WTKK, WEEI, and even WBZ were the type of folks who found themselves agreeing with Brown—perhaps white, mostly male, mostly suburban (see the charts of which towns voted which way),
middle aged or older (more prone to get out and vote). The Obama election brought out many younger people who didn’t nec. vote this time or if they did, they may have been won over by Scott’s image and/or message

Who am I talking about:
—handsome well spoken man in late 40s or 50
—nice wife and daughters
—agent of change and hope, popular appeal
—5 letters in last name
—had been a state senator
—much of media (talk radio at least) on his side
—member of a minority group

Scott Brown...oh, that last one? He is. He’s...a Massachusetts Republican

Scott Philip Brown. Mmm Mmm Mmm

We were talking about this on a radio discussion board. Someone said the biggest factor was the candidate himself, making himself available to anyone...

My reply:

There is such as thing as playing to the choir, which he did, but he also brought people in who might not have even considered voting for him as well, a big plus (including conservatives and moderates of the
“he won’t win, I won’t bother voting” or “I only like him on some issues” varieties; his radio appearances helped seal the deal). Probably the biggest factor was the poll which had him only 9 points behind, and talk radio helped—helped, not created—to raise a buzz that, hey, it could happen, and similar buzz about the disaster that was Coakley and her campaign. Add to this a perfect storm of “maybe it is time for a change”... “we need to send a message”...the health care vote situation...
and get people doing water cooler talk, talk at the morning coffee joint, and so on. Word of mouth and some other media (including the ads, which were handled by Romney people) were part of it but talk
radio did play a part as well—the candidate himself being the most important part. Without him and
his personality, etc., it would not have worked.

Had Coakley done the same thing it may have saved her, maybe not. People might have also found themselves saying they liked her, but they also had to like her message. Ultimately enough doubt was
found in both situations.

When the Left loses they often claim it was because they just didn’t get their message out. This is another version of that. The truth is, as WE know, they lost because they DID get their message out and it was rejected.

The best poll in the world is talk radio. People voluntarily tune in or tune out. Liberal radio always dies, except NPR which we are forced to pay for, and conservative radio usually prospers. Conservative radio is successful simply because it is saying what most of the people think and the MSM is saying the opposite.

This country is conservative.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.