Free Republic

In the words of my mentor, the late great radio talk show host Jerry Williams, "It's all over!" For the first time in four years, perhaps the first time in his life, President Barack Obama stepped into a situation in which he was not protected by a phalanx of adoring syncopates, yes men and women, and by a solid column of lap-dog media figures. Barack Obama stood alone without his tele-prompter and with a weak and inept moderator Tom Lehrer, who was supposed to run interference but who was shunted aside early on. Obama was forced to stride out onto...

(1989) Bang! The gavel sounds and three of Massachusetts' fastest political mouths are off and running. It's the self-styled "governors of the commonwealth" -- starring Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation; Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr and talk-radio host Jerry Williams -- live on WRKO every Tuesday for two hours of hacks, hokum and hyperbole. In one recent episode, WRKO's $200,000-plus-a-year talkmaster and the Herald's six-figure multimedia man were decrying the temerity of the state Division of Capital Planning and Operations for wanting to pay a civil engineer between $36,072 and $47,000. The point, Williams said later,...

Today's Howie Carr column follows. Howie's last show of this year is today--I believe he's taking all of next week off to go to Florida (including a Christmas Day gig on Fox and Friends, IIRC). Maybe fill-ins and best ofs next week. WRKO listeners: I've heard Mo Lauzier is scheduled to play Jerry Williams' reading of A Child's Christmas in Wales tomorrow (Sat 23rd) between 9 and 10 am. I don't know if Howie would play it though he may have in the past. (It's 22 minutes long)

I don't know exactly when the conventional wisdom changed to create all-conservative talk stations and all-liberal talk stations, but that's the way things are now, for the most part. Maybe it's a sign of the increasing polarization of American political discourse. Or maybe PDs just got tired of hearing complaints from one host's fans about the other host's show. It's kind of a shame, actually. I was talking about this with a host who lands on the liberal end of the political spectrum who's worked at some conservative stations. And the reaction he got as a left-winger on a right-wing...

Have some liberals finally had enough of Al Franken & Friends? While Stuart Smalley's defenders continue to pound your Radio Equalizer for relentlessly exposing the truth about this partisan talk network, some of its harshest critics actually come from the left! In the past week alone, "progressive" mega-blog Daily Kos has featured two anti-Air America Radio rants, the latest with reader comments similar to these sentiments: An earlier diary here has a lot of comments I agree with, including especially that Air America is too much top-down. Trying to build an instant radio network from a studio in New York...

BOSTON - As the vote on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants approached this week, state Rep. Jeffrey Perry figured his side didn't have the votes. Since 2002, state Rep. Jeffrey Perry has represented Sandwich, the only Cape town that voted for President Bush in 2004. Perry helped defeat tuition breaks for illegal immigrants this week. Which, of course, isn't unusual for Perry, a Sandwich Republican and opponent of the bill. As one of just 20 GOP members in a House of Representatives with 140 Democrats, he's used to being outnumbered. So Perry, 42, one of a circle of emerging Republican...

An interview the late Jerry Williams (WRKO Boston) did with Ted Kennedy in 1990. Ted keeps referring to the Boston Herald's publisher as "Rudolph" Murdoch. A year earlier, the FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine (the libs love it) and there was also talk of changing rules to prevent cross- ownership. Ted pushed to change the cross ownership rules with "sneaky means" in the "dead of night". Was it a way of punishing an enemy? TK:"Mr Murdoch thinks he should be the only publisher..." JW: "Senator, you're filibustering" If the Fairness Doctrine were not repealed, talk radio as we know...

Jerry Williams: Not a bad guy, as legends go by Howie Carr Wednesday, April 30, 2003 Jerry Williams invented talk radio in Boston, although he'd have probably told you he just invented it, period. Not a bad guy, Jerry Williams, but they'll never have a dinner for him now. After the show he's getting on a big old bus . . . One fact I certainly can't argue with: Jerry Williams invented me, at least my talk-radio persona. When Jerry started reading my columns on the air, I lived in Somerville, and now I live in Wellesley. What can I...

<p>BOSTON — Longtime Boston radio talk show host Jerry Williams, considered one of the pioneers of the talk radio format, died Tuesday.</p> <p>Williams died early Tuesday at the age of 79 after a long illness, according to Boston's WRKO-AM, where he hosted a popular afternoon drivetime program in the 1980s.</p>