Savage Nausea - Before we

Savage Nausea - Before we get to the beef of this post, here's a bit of radio trivia for you; when someone in the radio business really does something to cheese off listeners and management, they get fired. When management wants to use a controversy for pure publicity benefit, they "suspend" the personality. It's the oldest trick in the book. If you hear - ever - of a radio personality being "suspended" from the air, replace it with the phrase "given a couple days' paid vacation and priceless free publicity".

So far so good?

OK. So Michael "Weiner" Savage is back. Whoop di doo.

The story's all over the blogosphere, of course - the dyspeptic Savage was fired from MSNBC, and suspended from his radio gig, for an outburst on TV last week.

I won't repeat my past writings about Savage, who I think is the worst thing to happen to conservative talk radio; he's a throwback to the Joe Pine/Morton Downey/Tom Leykis era of talk radio - combative but never enlightening, strident but never funny. He's everything Limbaugh dragged conservative talk radio away from. I literally can't listen to his show; the first time I heard him, I figured he had to be a liberal ringer spoofing a conservative host, maybe Al Franken in red-state drag.

But this isn't about Savage. It's about WWTC (1280AM), "The Patriot", Savage's local outlet. WWTC is one of those little lower-power AM stations that has been casting about for a niche for decades, and it seems they've found it with "The Patriot"; talk radio for those who think Jason Lewis is too much a G-dless commie.

Don't get me wrong - the Patriot has some good programs: Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt are freqently brilliant, and Dennis Prager is often fascinating. Mike Gallagher merely bores me stiff.

But for whatever reason, they carry Savage twice a day; six hours of nauseous dyspepsia.

Here's the part that amazes me: I was listening to Hewitt as I was driving last night, and WWTC's General Manager came on with a promo - twice per hour, in fact. I'll paraphrase the promo:

We know Michael Savage has caused a lot of controversy, and we apologize to his fans for taking him off the air. Please be assured that "the Patriot" will never knuckle under to liberal pressure groups to keep a talk show host off the air. Now, with that out of the way, we're happy to announce Michael Savage is back!...

Now, it's not like the management at WWTC needs to worry about being perceived as every liberal's caricature of conservative talk radio - it's their stock in trade, and the first format idea that's worked for WWTC in recent memory.

The MSNBC flap has got to have Savage, the Salem Network, WWTC and everyone in between cackling with glee at the short-term publicity.

I'll bet dollars to Krispy Kremes that Savage's "one day suspension" coincided with a dentist appointment made six months ago.

Speaking of Irritating Conservatives - The Fraters have been carrying out a debate on the merits of Ann Coulter.

No, not those of her book, or her value as a political commentator. Many conservatives, even her staunchest defenders, have excoriated her latest book, "Treason", and Coulter's approach to rhetoric.

But the Fraters are carrying a wide range of opinion on the other big question - is Coulter a babe?

Well, duh. Even Andrew Sullivan, the gay conservative, knows this.

But in a world with Michelle Malkin, Virginia Postrel, Sabine Herold and Laura Ingraham, it should be clear that we have enough bootylicious, logically-impeccable conservative/libertarian female firebrands who are also not conservative versions of Michael Moore (if only rhetorically).

Posted by Mitch at July 10, 2003 10:21 AM