Cleveland Rocks

From Media Matters:

Cleveland radio station drops Michael Savage: ‘This guy’s a knucklehead.’
Last week, Media Matters caught right-wing radio talker Michael Savage claiming that autism is a “fraud” and “a racket” where “99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” But Savage’s controversial remarks about autistic children have gotten him booted off Cleveland’s airwaves, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports:
WHK AM/1420, the only Cleveland-area station carrying Savage’s radio talk show, is breaking its contract with Savage’s syndicator, Talk Radio Network, said Mark Jaycox, who manages the Cleveland stations under the Salem Communications corporate umbrella.
“This guy’s a knucklehead, and I want to get rid of him,” Jaycox said. The radio station Super Talk Mississippi announced recently that they were canceling Savage’s show because of the autism comments.

BTW: Fuck You Mikey.....

Maybe If The Product Didn't Suck So Bad........

From The NYT

June 9, 2008

DRILLING DOWN

Radio’s Popularity Declining Unevenly

By ALEX MINDLIN

Over the last 10 years, the average share of Americans listening to radio at any given time has shrunk about 14 percent, or 2.3 percentage points. Teenagers account for a well-recognized chunk of that decline. But Larry Rosin, a radio consultant with Edison Media Research in Somerville, N.J., points out that college graduates are also far less likely to listen to radio than nongraduates, a gap that has widened with time.

Over the last decade, college graduates ages 25-54, who make up an increasingly large portion of the population, have abandoned radio eight times faster than nongraduates. Today, they listen to 15 hours and 45 minutes of radio a week, while their peers without degrees listen to 21 hours and 15 minutes weekly.

“In part, it’s the nature of the work that people do,” Mr. Rosin said. “Nongraduates are more likely to have jobs that allow them to listen to the radio. If you think of teachers, for example, that’s a huge category of college-educated people in an environment where it’s entirely impossible to listen to the radio.” ALEX MINDLIN

And So Will The Size Of Your Fat Ass......

Limbaugh: 'My impact will increase'

By JONATHAN MARTIN 5/11/08 6:21 AM EST

Diverted for now by Operation Chaos and the Democratic primary, Rush looks ahead to a McCain presidency and says he "will thrive."

Conservatives are despondent, liberals are as enthused about a presidential candidate as they’ve been in 40 years, and the candidate he has long loathed won the Republican nomination. But never mind the pervasive sense of GOP malaise: Entering his 20th year on the national airwaves, Rush Limbaugh is having a dandy 2008 cycle. Regardless of how many votes Limbaugh actually pushed into Hillary Rodham Clinton’s column with his mischief-making “Operation Chaos” plan to encourage his listeners to keep the Democratic primary going, the endeavor was a success in another important way. It reminded the mainstream media and others outside the conservative orbit of the following he commands. And that the “drive-by media” he so delights in tweaking would recognize his influence enough to put his stunt on the front page, as The Washington Post did last week, underscored another essential fact about the right-wing talk show host: Limbaugh is one heck of a showman. Even as the Internet supersedes radio, Limbaugh’s skills as a political provocateur, as much P.T. Barnum as conservative ideologue, are such that he can fuel buzz in the political-media world like few others. In other words, Operation Chaos was good box office, and that may well have been the point.

Another Great Republican Moral Thinker Heard From

Here's a Taste of radio scumbag Niel Boortz on Jan 30 from Media Matters:

Summary: On his nationally syndicated radio show, Neal Boortz made disparaging remarks about Hurricane Katrina victims, stating, "When these Katrina so-called refugees were scattered about the country, it was just a glorified episode of putting out the garbage." Boortz also described New Orleans as "a city of parasites, a city of people who could not and had no desire to fend for themselves."

Boortz has previously made disparaging remarks about Katrina victims. For instance, on June 6, 2006, Boortz told his listeners: "I love talking to you about these Katrina refugees. I mean, so many of them have turned out to be complete bums, just debris. Debris that Hurricane Katrina washed across the country." In 2005, Boortz suggested that a victim of Hurricane Katrina housed in an Atlanta hotel consider prostitution: "I dare say she could walk out of that hotel and walk 100 yards in either direction on Fulton Industrial Boulevard [the street on which the hotel is located] here in Atlanta and have a job." After his show's then-former engineer warned, "Watch out, Neal. Those people who know Fulton Industrial Boulevard think you might be suggesting something a little risqué," Boortz replied: "If that's the only way she can take care of herself, it sure beats the hell out of sucking off the taxpayers.

Call Me Al

I think I can relate some these days to Al Gore when he calls himself a "recovering politician". I am a recovering DJ. I can't close the door on doing it ever again, but I'll be damned if I can see where or how. Oddly, I suspect I'd be better now than before for two main reasons; one of which I share with Al. It seems that neither the Gorester nor myself actually give a real big fuck anymore about pleasing the dweebs who run our former business. Caring about your customer more than your career usually results in a better product. It certainly resulted in a better Al Gore. The other thing that has made me better on the air has been doing 5 years of C-SPAN. It's kind of like having an egodectomy. No names, no ego, no jive, no bullshit, no cliches, just one on one, LIVE, to the point, right the first time, the audience is boss, air work. It's like the Brian Lamb School of Broadcasting . I am grateful to Brian for his leadership and example, and it has made me a much better broadcaster. So, do I stick with the Gore plan, or do I decide to run again someday. Hmmmm ... I hate what the biz has become, but I sure do love being on the air. Somehow I think Al knows what I mean.

Radio Nowhere Continued

Another example of Radio being part of its customers life: I always loved the Rock&Roll Overtone we used at 'Rif. It was a simple sounder of a ships low bass whistle, which reminded everyone of the old BobLo Boats out on the Detroit river when we were kids. Arthur P. would blast that horn, and rumble up a " it's 83 rock and roll over degrees Baby!" I don't think Art liked it, but the rest of us used that sounder too because it was so much fun to hit the donut and pretend to be pulling the horn. It worked because it used the medium (sound) and put it smack dab in the heart of the listeners inner emotional life: summer, a beach, hot sun, a boat ride to an amusement park when you were a kid, your hometown, rock and roll, and some Detroit Radio Snarl....all in one simple 5 second temp check. How many stations even think about doing something with time and temp checks? Rock on Arthur....

Radio Nowhere

One of the great examples of what radio ought to be: The day Nixon resigned I recall listening to WABX on my car radio hearing them playing " I Fought The Law" and blowing party horns like it was new years eve. The larger point is this: That's was a perfect example of a media source that was embedded in the culture it served. I didn't want to hear what the news station said about the news that day.. I had to hear what the guys on 'ABX were saying and playing, and doing about it. I sat in my car in a parking lot late for an appointment to hear more. I felt part of something, the music was about more than music, the cause was just, and we were all in it together.. much like the folks talked about in the recent Ken Burns War series... a sense of shared mission, and shared joy at victory.

I was looking at R&R today. Which one of those stupid sons of tricky dickey profiled in that rag are programing a station, or a channel as relevant to its customers as Station X was to me? I've asked the question before, but I'll ask it again..who the fuck dreams of growing up to program a "Jack" format? How fucking lame.........