I bet youve got a lot better stuff to do than read this, but Im going to say it anyway. Theres a morning talk show on a local radio station that has to be the absolute worst program ever. Once upon a time it was a pretty bright, informative bit of business with good hosts and lots of good guests and plenty of interesting callers. Then, somehow, it degenerated into a forum for ultra-right-wing hatemongers and fearmongers, and the result was a near-constant parade of miserably unhappy old men callers who had nothing to offer but ranting and raving about how horrible everything is because of liberals and our awful socialist/muslim president. And to make matters worse, many of these callers, Im sorry to say, were so abysmally ignorant as to be almost totally inarticulate. And within a fairly short time the show became unlistenable. I give the show a quick listen about once a month because I have a real affection for radio as a medium and am curious to see whats happening with this strangely screwed-up presentation. Ive also been confounded that the station hasnt fixed it long before now because of its incredibly bad ratings. On the Arbitron surveys, which I check now and then, the station consistently ranks third or fourth from the bottom among all stations in the market. Over the last few months the show has had several hosts, some of them guests, at least a couple of them hirees who ostensibly were going to make it better. Two did put it on a more positive track. One of them was so promising that I called some friends who, like me, once listened to the show regularly. Hey, you might want to give it a listen again, I told them. It sounds like theyre trying to get it back to being worthwhile. But none of them was willing to give it a shot. So now the show has a new host who says hes going to put it on a more positive track. Hes clearly a media pro, quick, sharp, glib, and self-assured. Whether he can turn the show around and restore it to its one-time character and prominence, and, presumably, higher ratings, is questionable. However good he might himself prove to be, his existing audience is made up mostly of the same miserably unhappy, hateful morons whose calls made it unlistenable in the first place and which are more far more likely to drive listeners away than win them over. I dont know how, without a great deal of promotion, theyre going to draw the more thoughtful audience that might make it work. Its a real challenge for Mr. New Guy. Itll be interesting to see if he can pull it off.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 10:49:05 +0000
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