Howie Carr list ping (see article above in this thread)
Special Sat column ping (latest on WTKK is apparently
Eagan and Braude do a farewell show on Wed 1/2 and the
format changes sometime after that)
Talk radio’s not dead, just moonbats’ radio
Saturday, December 29, 2012 by Howie Carr
WTKK wouldn’t be turning off the lights next week if I could have just gotten over there back in 2007. No brag, just fact. And by the way, I’m still damn sorry I didn’t make good my escape from the AM band.
But here in Massachusetts, in the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls. And you wonder why I dismember so many state judges. Payback is a bitch, you hacks.
Still, WTKK’s failure is not the end of talk radio in Boston. Nature abhors a vacuum, and having no talk station on FM is a gaping hole. Less than 20 percent of the radio audience ever listens to AM radio — and it’s a mighty old audience, too. They don’t call it “Ancient Modulation” for nothing.
Even without me, though, WTKK should have been able to survive, and thrive. All these new domain names that Greater Media is buying up — as a blog poster put it recently, the one GM should have grabbed was 969ToxicTalk.com.
Who the hell cares what the moonbats think of you? Do you think I care? Do you think Jerry Williams cared? Well, maybe a slight bit more than I do, but not much. Who the hell wants to go to their la-di-da cocktail parties anyway? I make enough money to buy my own beer if I want some.
Harry Truman used to say, “If you give people a choice between a Republican and a Republican, they’ll vote for the Republican every time.”
Here’s WTKK’s epitaph: “If you give listeners a choice between NPR and NPR, they’ll pick NPR every time.”
Sorry, Jim and Margery, nobody was giving up “All Things Considered” for you guys. Then there was Doug Meehan — again, I hate to brag, but there aren’t many local TV people who’ve made the transition from TV to commercial talk radio. Me and Dan Rea, and that’s about it.
Then there was Michael Smerconish — did you know that he once interviewed Obama? If you didn’t, just wait two minutes and he’ll tell you again. He’s a “moderate,” which is like being in the middle of the road, and we all know what’s in the middle of the road.
Road kill.
Last summer, Clear Channel pulled the plug on Rush Radio 1200, WXKS, the third talk station in town. Rush Limbaugh, the 800-pound gorilla of talk radio, was suddenly up for grabs. I’ll bet you anything he was shopped to WTKK first, because they have one of the best signals in the city, on FM, and WRKO’s signal is — well, please, don’t get me started on that. My head will explode. Again.
And yet GM chose to stick with Mr. I-once-interviewed-Obama.
Michael Graham’s a good guy, he’ll land on his feet. But I get the feeling management was always looking over his shoulder. You can’t operate like that. If you’re always worrying about a misstep, you turn into Mark Sanchez.
In retrospect, Jay Severin’s the one who caught a break. He’s working for Glenn Beck’s new Mercury radio network. They’re online. He’s getting a paycheck from Beck, from Clear Channel (he had a year’s contract left at WXKS) and maybe, just maybe, from Greater Media.
I don’t know about his listeners, but anybody collecting three paychecks for one job is among the best and the brightest.
In case you’re wondering, by the way, sports radio is not talk radio. It’s pom-pom, cheerleader radio. Sis-boom-bah, rah-rah-rah. Jocksniffing uber alles.
Sports host number one: “I want to have Tom Brady’s baby.”
Sports host number two: “I want to have two of Tom Brady’s babies.”
If he were alive today, Jerry Williams would be rolling over in his grave.
As for you moonbats, you’ve won. Temporarily. In two years, I’ll be on FM, one way or another, and Michael Graham and Jeff Katz and the Andelmans will be there, too. Don’t forget, according to the election returns, only 51 percent of the American public is brain dead.
One last thing: Gov. Patrick, come the new year, you’re going to need a new radio outlet, and guess what.
I’m the only game left in town.