talk radio

WEKZ (93.7 FM) Coverage Map

A lot of you probably don't know this, but Sly is actually the love child of Mike Royko and John Candy: He uses his crude--but funny--sense of humor to fearlessly and incisively defend the little guy and really get under the skin of the powers that be.

"I find Rush Limbaugh obnoxious, but I’ve been able to coexist comfortably with him for 20 years by using this simple method: I never listen to his program. The only time I hear him is when I’m at a stoplight next to a pickup truck." -- Bill Maher in NY Times.

It's the same technique i've used for at least 10 years with Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling. 

For months now in Wisconsin we've heard some continual memes that will not die. I want to look at one simple example, not because it's the worst example, but because it's about a friend. Indulge me.

A lot of you know Capper over at Cognitive Dissidence. We're not close friends, but in the Cheddarsphere we're all brothers and sisters, even when we disagree. We all know that the others want the best for our state and the nation. Capper's been under attack, and I'm taking it personally.

The right-wing story on this is that Capper is one of those lazy public employee union thugs who is wasting our tax dollars. He's been sitting at his desk at work, writing his thuggy, anti-American drivel while the taxpayers have been footing the bill. He's just one more leech on society, just like all the others. 

David Carr, who writes about media for the NY Times, commenting on Jon Stewart's rally to shift the blame to cable news for America's current political nightmare:

Most Americans don’t watch or pay attention to cable television. In even a good news night, about five million people take a seat on the cable wars, which is less than 2 percent of all Americans. People are scared of what they see in their pay envelopes and neighborhoods, not because of what Keith Olbermann said last night or how Bill O’Reilly came back at him.

The same is true of talk radio, which will be quick to take credit for any electoral success on Tuesday, with Ron Johnson the first to say that's how he won (if he wins).

What radio talker Jerry Bader said on the air about Barbara Lawton is indefensible.

Lawton is correct. A two-week suspension is not adequate punishment for Bader's reckless disregard of the truth or the wild claims he described as factual. He should lose his job.

Maybe Lawton thinks that will be the end of the story, that the news media will move on and leave her in peace. If that's what happens, she should thank Bader for overstepping so far that it frightens off others who would explore her reasons for abandoning the governor's race. But that's not likely.

Before we shed too many tears for Lawton and deplore how her privacy is being invaded, let's consider how her bizarre handling of the announcement precipitated the media inquiries.

When someone who was, by all accounts, running full-tilt for governor on Saturday pulls out of the race on Monday -- and does it in an email of fewer than 100 words, citing only "very personal reasons" -- it is not surprising that it would prompt some speculation and questions.

She says no one in her family is ill. Her marriage is intact.

Update: Complaints prompt The Mic 92.1 to bring back 'Thom Hartmann'

I listened for the Lee Rayburn show on 92.1 (Madison)  today, and asked around and found out that Rayburn quit.

Rayburn had the best local show pretty much in the history of Madison, excluding WORT Radio.

There are lots of programming changes going on for the worst at Madison's progressive radio station, for example, there's some religious-financial guru where Thom Hartmann used to be. 

Emily Mills has the story a Lost Albatross:

"I am thoroughly bummed. Madison's only progressive talk radio station, the Mic 92.1FM, is undergoing some sort of strange programming flip. This change has already resulted in two terrible casualties of the airwaves: the loss of Thom Hartmann's show, and more recently, that of Madison's own Lee Rayburn."

Meeting tonight:

Marquette Prof. John McAdams, taking a brief respite from defending policies that lock up 10 times as many black people, per capita, as white, has taken offense at my recent post about Charlie Sykes's bullying of former we energies exec Dick Abdoo.

I'll have to thank Illusory Tenant for pointing that out.  Can't say I'm a regular reader of McAdams's drivel. (If you're attacked and don't know it, does it make a sound?)

He was so taken with the comment of one Sykes fan who responded to my post on this blog that he reprinted it in its entirety.  He didn't however, bother to reprint my responses, so I'll do that here:

There's a name for what Sykes did.

It's called bullying.

It is one thing to disagree with someone. It's quite another to try to silence them.

That's what Sykes did.

Why, for example, would I want to read someone blogging about a speech on television, and get their fragmented report, when I could be watching it myself?

Likewise live-blogging meetings and conventions. There's no reason to report everything that happens, like you're the secretary taking minutes. How about writing a newsy or critical item, even a brief one, when something actually happens?

Which brings us to the "live blogging" of Marquette Prof. John McAdams, making sure we get every inane comment from an appearance by rightwing radio talker Charlie Sykes at Marquette University.

WARNING: BORING MATERIAL AHEAD

Mike Gousha does the introduction, mentioning that Sykes has written six books.

Gousha mentions that Sykes also has a talk radio show, and writes a newspaper column. Sykes replies that it all fits together -- when you start thinking about things, you can talk about it, and write about it too. Particularly, talking about it requires conciseness... (HOLD PAGE ONE!) ..