Radio Daze -- Comedian Al Franken is about to find out why Rush wasn't built in a day

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday, January, 2004

[TroutStalker]

Rush wasn't built in a day. That's Michael Harrison's take on this week's announcement by Progress Radio that it had signed comedian/author Al Franken for a daily show intended to provide a liberal challenge to the medium's 600-station gorilla, Rush Limbaugh. The founder and editor of Talkers magazine, the industry's lead trade journal, says that if Progress Radio fails it will be because of the impossibly high expectations it has set for itself.

[Walkingfeather]

what do you want to bet Fraken has not sat in a room by himself and talked for 3 hours and is interesting. He is a comedian by nature, one that demands the feedback from a live audience. ( even when he had this he sucked at it) What Rush, Dennis Prager and the others do to be successful is to be interesting without any feed back as they go. That is tough, and you will see Franken twisting in the wind, then they will pack the show with liberals to be interviewed, that will last several weeks, Then they will " revamp the show, growing pains, maybe some guest hosting...." Then, after about 3 months advertizers will begin to drop and after the election, maybe first of the year, announced on christmas eve about 8:00 pm the press release will say. Liberal mouth peice Franken talk show to fold after first of the year..... and that will be it.

[freebilly]

if they do beat the odds, maybe we could finally get Congress to stop using taxpayer dollars to subsidize NPR.

Gee, Franken or NPR...? This is like having to choose between Smallpox and Ebola....

[finnman69]

Not oo mention, talk radio is ahrd work and I doubt Franken is willing to make the time commitment.

[nutmeg]

ping!

[The_Victor]

According to Mr. Harrison, politics is a bad prism for measuring the prospects of radio success. Many of those who listen to radio conservatives, he says, listen because they hate the host.

This is a recipe for failure. They clearly do not comprehend talk radio as defined by Rush.

The only way Franken will succeed is if he takes only callers who trounce him as the idiot that he is.

[Petronski]

Ebola is over more quickly...and so is Franken.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

In most quarters the Franken news is being billed as one of the great matchups -- Ali vs. Frazier

More like Ali vs. Butterbean.

[lelio]

what do you want to bet Fraken has not sat in a room by himself and talked for 3 hours and is interesting.

I'll take that bet and win. Oh you mean "someone other than himself finds him interesting"? Maybe I won't take you up on it.

[agitator]

ping

[G.Mason]

"The founder and editor of Talkers magazine, the industry's lead trade journal, says that if Progress Radio fails it will be because of the impossibly high expectations it has set for itself."

Nothing defeatist here.

"According to Mr. Harrison, politics is a bad prism for measuring the prospects of radio success. Many of those who listen to radio conservatives, he says, listen because they hate the host."

They have no worries about succeeding on that point.

If I ever hear Al Franken again, it will be too soon.

After all, imagine being forced to read DU every day!

[Range Rover]

I think the WSJ is making an error (albeit an entirely understandable one)in assuming that the "success" of this Liberal-themed network and its programming will be measured by financial gain. We know it has little chance of success based upon how the business is almost universally understood but compare their most likely gameplan to the way Microsoft came in late to the game with Internet Explorer and gave it away for free to bury the competition. Only when you have another revenue stream to cover the loss can you take in less money than the product cost to produce and expect to survive for long.

There are people like Soros who are more than willing to throw wads of cash at this endeavor to keep it afloat and to channel funds to people like Franken. Like it or not, they are not playing the same "game" as Rush and Hannity who charge what they do for commercial spots based upon the number of listeners they attract. The same entities that fronted Hillary and Bill millions will pay what they are asked to pay for commercial spots on Franken's show despite the audience makeup. They will tell their Media Agencies that spots on this network are a "must buy". When Arbitron reports NPR-level listenership, the Network will try to discount Arbitron's methodology and will go looking for other sources to show how well they are doing.

[Land of the Free 04]

"The physics of the market tells us it takes years to build up radio programs, much less a network," says Mr. Harrison. And it's not an accident that America's two top talk-show hosts -- Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -- are longtime radio guys. "It's a maddening process if you don't have that in your blood."

Liberals think that if a conservative can do it, it must be easy. I'm looking forward to Franken's comeuppance---and his pathetic excuses.

[narby]

Every time I think about Al Franken, I remember the part he played in the movie "Trading Places" (I think that was the title - Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd on Wall Street), where Franken was one of the dumb guys taking care of the Gorilla on the train.

The original "Dumb and Dumber".

[Spok]

This just shows how far 'out there' the libs are...conservatives create a product to respond to a market demand, and liberals create a product to shove down people's throats, because the liberals know better than the market what people need! Franken either has massive guts or he is even a bigger fool that his rantings reveal. Now he can go toe-to-toe with a "big fat idiot" and prove how right he is, or fail miserably. My money is on the latter.

[SamAdams76]

I've been saying this for some time now. It takes an enormous amount of time to prepare oneself for a three-hour radio show every day - even if you are an interesting personality, have a good radio voice and have a quick wit (none of which I think Al Franken has).

Al Franken is simply not used to this kind of workload. I mean, this isn't like preparing for a 90-second SNL skit where you have a bunch of people sitting around in Rockefeller Center goofing around and barnstorming. The typical talk radio show host must spend countless hours poring over newspapers and articles every day to prepare for the show. Otherwise, you risk coming off as an uninformed boob. I can see this happening with Al Franken from Day One.

[I still care]

I am always amazed when I think Rush sits in front of a microphone for 3 hours, by himself, with no guests, and is consistantly entertaining for 5 days a week, 3 hours a day.

He was making me lol yesterday when he kept using the word "cauci" as a verb. (I don't think it is a word, but it is when Rush uses it.)

[Jinjelsnaps]

The FCC really shouldn't let Franken on the air - people have a hard enough time staying awake while driving without that boring, monotone blowhard on the air...dude's a road hazard...

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The idea that the show thrives by irritating the audience is much more true of the news than it is of talk radio.

The nominal distinction is between "objective" news and "conservative" talk radio. In fact the difference between the two is that journalists deny that journalists have an identifiable point of view, whereas "talk radio" hosts (certainly the conservative ones) admit to having an identifiable point of view. Since "Belief in your own objectivity is the essence of subjectivity," this implies that the talk show host is self-critical and therefore more able to criticize others objectively. And that journalists are not self-critical--and unable to criticize others objectively.

The upshot is that liberals listen to the news and hear their own point of view, positioned as being no POV at all. So they are convinced that they are "moderates" and the conservative is "extreme." In that melieu it is obvious that the conservative, hearing liberalism positioned as objectivity, will be a ready market for the conservative talk show--but not so obvious that the "moderate" has any wish to listen to his own ideas being promulgated from someone who is openly "liberal." That would position the "moderate" honestly as a liberal, thereby puncturing the bubble of self-satisfaction in which s/he has been living.

And positioning the customer uncomfortably is hardly the best way to gain market share . . .

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Rush has added a dozen or more new words to America's vocabulary.