Exit the Cackler

Katherine Lanpher is leaving MPR, apparently (so say Fraters) to go to New York to join Al Franken on the new Liberal Titanic talkradio network.

More on that - and I do mean "more on" - later.

This is from MPR's press release:

[MPR's News Veep] Bill Buzenberg praised Lanpher's performance as Midmorning host. "I can say that from the very start, whether listeners agreed or disagreed with her, they listened to her," he said. "The audience was engaged, and every guest had to be on his or her toes to share the microphone with Katherine.

Oh, Bill. Some guests had to be more "on their toes" than others. If you were presenting an opinion anywhere to the right of, say, Ellen Anderson, you had to be dancing en point, ready to field any permutation of out-of-context data, slur and innuendo.

She made compelling radio and was a fabulous host.

Compared to the somnolent fossils that host the crushing majority of public radio programs? I'll give that one to Buzenberg. Lanpher was more "compelling", in the same way that getting a root canal is "more compelling" than eating vanilla yogurt.

We will miss her laugh, her energy, her hard work, her vast intelligence and her indomitable spirit."

Contacts inside MPR tell me they won't miss her prima donna attitude - which should be a perfect fit on a liberal talk network...

Her wide-ranging knowledge and engaging conversational style are credited with significantly boosting listenership.

Quick - without looking it up, who hosted the mid-morning show before Lanpher?

Any guesses?

Anyone?

For that matter, who hosted "All Things Considered" before David "Audibly Volvo-owning" Molpus? Before that?

Lanpher is a powerful MPR personality because she has a personality. Irritating as it is was, it existed in a personality vacuum.

Now, about her future plans; do you hear that scratching sound? It's the sound of the ground below the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

You can tell a lot about the future of the supposed liberal talk radio network from Lanpher's hiring. If this is how far afield Leftnet has to go to find "talent", then it's a fair guess their "bench" behind Franken (himself a dismal choice for a marquee name) is as weak as the Milwaukee Brewers'.

Al Franken isn't as smart as Michael Medved, as charismatic as Rush Limbaugh, as much a train-wreck controversy magnet at Michael Savage, as connected with Fraters Libertas as Hewitt - and yet in all those areas, he stands head, shoulders and ankles above Lanpher.

In other words - don't take her label off her mail slot, Vice President Buzenberg. She may be back before you can dust it out.

Posted by Mitch at January 21, 2004 03:04 AM