Examining women's radio silence

Boston Globe ^ | 6/4/2003 | Mark Jurkowitz

[nickcarraway]

When their bosses at WRKO-AM dropped ''Daytime Divas'' Doreen Vigue and Darlene McCarthy late last month, McCarthy recalls that the hosts had been told simply: ''This is a business decision.''

The move -- which at least for now has ended McCarthy's five-year talk career and dissolved her 2 1/2-year partnership with Vigue -- puts one more conservative male, Pat Whitley, in front of the microphone. And it leaves a grand total of one local woman handling a mainstream-issues talk show on a major Boston station: Margery Eagan, who is half of a WTKK-FM male/female team whose hours were slashed to make room for the radio career of Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. And it provides further evidence that being a woman is bad for business in the sweaty, angry, conservative world of talk radio.

[nickcarraway]

How can an article on women in talk radio have one parenthetical mention of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who is in the top five?

[Paleo Conservative]

How can an article on women in talk radio have one parenthetical mention of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who is in the top five?

Or Laura Ingraham?

Both their shows are carried in my city.

[7 x 77]

In Chicago we have Deborah Rowe, a black conservative, on weekday nights and some lawyer with an Irish name on Saturday afternoons. Dr. Laura, sadly was dropped about a year ago.

[nickcarraway]

Dr. Laura is not on at all in Chicago?

[FormerLib]

'Cause Dr. Laura is a conservative and doesn't really count.

But you knew that already!

[gcruse]

Women should be obscene and not heard.

[BenR2]

Or Kim Komando!

[Billthedrill]

How can an article on women in talk radio have one parenthetical mention of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who is in the top five?

You knew before you asked - it's because she's conservative, of course. I note a similar omission of such luminaries as Phyllis Schlafly and Ann Coulter. You have to decode liberal-speak here - what they mean by "woman" isn't a female human being, it's a stereotype, a "womyn," strident, liberal, exigent, feminist, and "progressive." Women who do not fit that description literally do not count as "women." These are, incidentally, the same folks who whine about "dehumanization." Go figure.

[nickcarraway]

Well, it does mention Laura Ingraham a bit. The thing I don't understand is the emphasis on anger and throbbing aggression. I listen to talk radio, but don't hear that much of that. Sometimes with Michael Savage. Rush Limbaugh is one of the top talk radio hosts, and I don't hear it there. Sean Hannity can be animated, but I would rarely describe it as an angry show, or one with throbbing aggression.

[gitmo]

I've noticed something about almost all man/woman teams in radio and television. The woman they choose is a real air-head. I've never understood why they do this.

Our talk-radio station in Charlotte recently brought in a woman for the morning show, and she is definitely an exception to this rule.

[sauropod]

Estrogen ping!

[Drango]

Savage sounds like a woman...

[7 x 77]

Sean Hannity can be animated, but I would rarely describe it as an angry show

Hannity is a MARSHMALLOW!!!

(Sorry, had to get that out of my system.)

[Kuksool]

Dr Laura was dropped from WLS AM 890 (Chicago) last year because the station management wanted more shows covering current events. Thus, the station dumped Dr Laura and acquired Sean Hannity.

[gcruse]

emphasis on anger and throbbing aggression.

Except in the case of a liberal, where it is ''fiery."

You know,

I'm fiery.
You're angry.
He's a psychopath.

[lepton]

If a female host bellowed like Michael Savage, she would most likely be burned at the stake in Salem.)

..by other women. Men boom, women (usually) get shrill. It's part of the way they were designed.

Not to mention that women aren't really allowed to stray from certain sets of beliefs - which willows down the numbers further - and therefore many are unable to explain their beliefs without nearly immediately sounding like a fool, which explaining is what talk radio is all about.

[jim35]

The whole tone of this article is not so much that women aren't a part of conservative radio, but that conservative radio in itself is angry, strident and vein bulging. As usual, the libs don't get it, and this article was obviously written by one who never listens to it.

[7 x 77]

Dr. Laura is not on at all in Chicago?

It started when her TV show overlapped with an hour of her radio show and WLS-AM retaliated by dropping that hour of the radio show. I don't know why they ended up dropping the show altogether, but I remember that she is her kids mom.

[Sloth]

I was listening to Laura Ingraham just tonight. I guess women named 'Laura' don't count.