Talk Radio Has a Very Deep Bench
Is Talk Radio passe? Genghis at AOSHQ thinks it is and it’s time for the talk show leaders to turn things over to the bloggers. Stacy McCain isn’t convinced. Neither am I.
Here in the DC area, I get a less-mainstream bunch of conservative radio hosts. Of the ones on Genghis’ list, I don’t get either Glenn Beck (WTNT 570 took him off a few months ago) or Lars Larson (Lars sent me a note to let me know that WTNT 570 carries his show late. I’m grateful for the correction and think that Lars needs to get himself a better slot so I can hear him! – J). I do get several good shows that he doesn’t list: Bill Bennett, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, Mark Levin, and Monica Crowley. Of those, only Crowley is as reliably partisan as Hannity (which is the one thing that drives me away from him). The rest of them are either solidly conservative or, in Miller’s case, Libertarian. All of them are entertaining. I don’t get several others who don’t make Genghis’ list, including Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, and Michael Medved. I’d say that the conservative radio talk show team has a very deep bench and isn’t ready to fade into irrelevance any time soon.
On Limbaugh and Hannity, McCain has the right of it. Rush really is so good that the “radio guys” he brings in when he takes a day off can’t even hope to compare. Given his skill right now, I don’t even think that the Rush Limbaugh of 1994 or 1995 could compete with the 2008 Limbaugh. He’s a Hall of Famer who is still very much in his prime and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who could bring in an audience like him. As Stacy says, “…it’s always a disappointment when you switch over at 12:06 p.m., get stoked by that Pretenders bass riff and then . . . Mark Belling? Click. Time to switch to the FM classic-rock station and hope they’re playing some tasty ZZ Top.”
I would much rather he line up some non-conventional hosts to handle the load when he takes a day off instead of bringing in a B-List host from somewhere else. I know that he’s had Mark Steyn in a time or two and Dr. Walter Williams always proves interesting when he gets behind the Golden EIB Microphone. More of them would be a huge improvement over Mark Davis, Mark Belling, or whatever regional host subs for him. I also don’t mind when Rush goes away from politics to talk about football or other sundry things that interest him. You can’t talk politics all the time. I think it was a mistake for ABC to dump him from Monday Night Football. Between Rush Limbaugh or the insipid Tony Kornheiser, which one do you think would be more entertaining and would work better with a group of broadcast professionals?
Aside from Michael Savage, who I think is one silly millimeter from wearing a tin foil hat on the show and becoming the next Art Bell, Hannity is the one “big host” I like the least. His constant cheer leading for Republicans just grates after a while and he’s not particularly good at hiding the blind spots in his partisan arguments. But, as McCain says, his show moves well and has superlative production values. It’s “listens” well.
I don’t see talk radio dying away anytime soon, especially not to blogs. The media are entirely different and, at risk of driving way readers, talk radio does a far better job of imparting information and mobilizing activism than any blog ever could at this point. Perhaps in a few years that will change. Right now, radio still rules the roost.
Other Posts of Interest:
- A Franchise Talent Gets Franchise Money
- Bristol, Bias, and Buying Beers
- Chambliss’ Win and the Myriad of Lessons
Category: Blogs and Blogging, It's Entertainment!, The Good Old US of A
>>Right now, radio still rules the roost.>>
Let's face it…you can't blog in a car. Until there's some way of doing something else on the way to somewhere else, talk radio will be a welcome phenomenon.
My concern is the Fairness Doctrine stuff. If that succeeds, the choice may be either subscription radio – if that is unaffected – or classical music radio for me. Since my drive to work is fairly short, probably either classical music stations (we have two available most of the time) or CDs.
I don't know why anyone would be pushing the idea that one could replace the other. We need both! And more of it.
And I don't know why you all don't like Mark Belling. He actually hasn't subbed for Rush in ages…its been over a year. I was actually thinking about writing & asking why he hasn't filled it. (You are thinking of Mark Davis & Jason Lewis. They are the two that have been filling in for him lately.) I actually download Belling's podcasts; he talks some politics, some sports…mostly covers local stuff. Local to MN that is…doesn't help me much in TX, but I still enjoy listening to him a lot. He talks funny & does this funny thing where he sort of heckles himself & then answers himself. It is entertaining.