Can Al Franken save talk radio

Jewsweek ^ | 2-26-03 | Benyamin Cohen

[katana]

I haven't heard how they plan to set up the network of stations needed to have their 14 hours of programming actually reach the airwaves. There are a limited number of FCC licenses available and what exactly is the plan to persuade (or coerce) station owners to carry their crap?

Maybe they think dozens or hundreds of stations are waiting breathlessly to carry hours and hours of programming which it appears very few people want to listen to. Do they expect NPR is going to carry it? If so, that network and its stations can kiss their federal funding goodbye.

If they have thought this through (a real stretch, I admit) the radio network or independent stations that will carry it had better prepare for a barrage from conservatives that will make the London Blitz look like a light rain.

[AmishDude]

Jewsweek?!?

I checked the website, it's not a joke.

I now wonder if there really is a "Jew-liard" like in South Park.

[dix]

I never have gotten the liberal Jewish thing. If there ever were a people who have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and accomplished more by sheer hard work, I don’t know who it would be. BTW I am a gentile.

[N. Theknow]

Is Franken the man for the job? For those in the know, the resounding answer is yes Nope!

From one who is N. Theknow.

Funniest part of this is the line:

a former Saturday Night Live star with some mediocre films to his credit

Al Franken on talk radio? Once again liberals attempt to thread a needle with an anchor chain.

[way-right-of-center]

Good point...they'll have to subsidize every station that carries it (except maybe in Minnesota) because the ratings will be so bad, it will kill advertising revenues. If you have ever had any dealings with that industry, you know that when one time slot hits the pooper, it affects all time slots, particularly in a talk format.

[G.Mason]

"Well, Janeane Garofalo proved a lefty could smoke and take a dump without pulling down their pants."

Nice one. I'm impressed.

[schaketo]

First guest? .... Phil Donahue?

[TC Rider]

Try six weeks.

Put me down for 6 weeks in the pool.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

While conservatives tend to be men with Manilow on their turntable

My @ss! Just last night, I had Sinatra, The Tubes and Chet Baker on my turntable (and I mean TURNTABLE!)

[way-right-of-center]

I think his first guest will be Janeane Garafalo. Al can shift into Stuart Smally mode while JG whines about Brian Killmeade from Fox breaking his foot off in her a-- yesterday morning. She can tell how she was abused be the evil conservative media.

[KarlInOhio]

Can Al Franken save talk radio

Too late. Rush already did that.

I think the author means "Can Al Franken save talk radio from the conservatives".

[N. Theknow]

My @ss! Just last night, I had Sinatra, The Tubes and Chet Baker on my turntable (and I mean TURNTABLE!)

How did you get them to work? I bought a CD the other day and had to cut out the extra plastic in the middle to make it fit on the 45 rpm thingy and it sound like crap!

[Media Insurgent]

"I never have gotten the liberal Jewish thing."

It's really a holdover from the past, sort of like Irish Catholics who insist on voting Democrat even though they are fairly conservative. Voting habits get established early in life and they don't change easily. I think many Jews see the GOP as the party of anti-semitic WASPs. I'd like to say that's completely false, but frankly it was often the case decades ago.

Now the Dems are the anti-Israel party and the home of black anti-semitism. Some Jews are starting to catch on to that, but it's very hard for them to embrace the Republican alternative. I think the current situation in the Middle East is speeding the process of change, but it will take a while. I do expect Bush will get a lot more of the Jewish vote in 2004 than he got last time around.

BTW, I am also a gentile. I'm basing my opinions on my conversations with various friends and acquaintences who are Jewish. It's purely speculation based on annecdotes of a very small sample of people. Take it for what it's worth.

[TomSmedley]

Nobody likes Al, he's a condescending jacka$$.

When he guested on Prairie Home Companion, Franken impressed me as a bitter, cynical, hateful, sneer towards all I cherish.

[VRWC_minion]

6 months, tops.

[machman]

Anybody remember Bob Lassiter? I first heard him when I lived in Chicago in the late 80s/early 90s. Quite obnoxious, but he probably would fit in well with a liberal talk radio audience. I guess he left Chicago in the mid 90's, went back to Tampa, where he came from, but quite/retired in some sort of contract dispute with his managment.

I just remember listening to him first when WLS went talk in 1989, he had the afternoon drive time.

It wasn't until a year or two later that I then heard Rush for the first time over the lunch hour. Things were never the same after that.

[CyberCowboy777]

While conservatives tend to be men with Manilow on their turntable..

This is why they will fail... They don't know who they are fighting or who their real audience is.

I have recently read and seen multiple news pieces on the growing number of young conservative. While our party is growing younger and more diverse, their party will be represented by an old white guy, growing older and more wacky.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

LOL! I wonder how many people have tried to do that!

[VRWC_minion]

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.

Its not all that dumb. Its a way to make an otherwise political contribution tax deductible< And if its still on during the next election, its a way to circumvent CFR.