Radio Daze - It's wierd

Radio Daze - It's wierd to remember that in 1986, when the Mitch Berg Show was on KSTP-AM (weekend graveyard shift), Talk Radio was not yet a conservative playground. Conservatives were a strong minority, slugging it out against an equal number of liberals and a larger crew of non-political talking heads. I'm not being in the least bit hyperbolic when I say I was the first conservative the Twin Cities had seen on the air.

How things have changed in 16 years.

OK. Nobody asked me. But I'm going to do it anyway; my reviews of the major Twin Cities talkradio shows, sorted by daypart and station.

Mornings

• KSTP - Woedele and O'Connell - This show is like a throwback to the old days of talk radio; two talking heads of indeterminate political orientation talking about...er, stuff. Lots of it. John Woedele - Jesse Ventura's former press secretary - is as connected as he is bland. O'Connell is a great guy (I met him once) who brings some personality to the proceedings; the big question is "Why?"
  
• WWTC - Savage In The Morning - Back in 1987, when I watched Oliver Stone's film version of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, I figured "No. No way anyone could be this insanely dystopic. Nobody could be this depressing and earn a living. Voila Michael Weiner Savage. Listening to him for five minutes wrecks the next hour. I try not to.
  
• FM107 - Luka. - "Radio for women and the men who love them". Haven't heard it yet.
  
• WCCO - Garrison Keillor's Material On Parade - No, not really, it's actually Dave Lee. But close.
  
• MPR - Morning Edition - Edwards intones, Wurzer declaims.

Late Mornings

• KSTP - Ron Rosenbaum - There are talk show hosts out there where you can tune in any day, even years apart, and feel like you're listening to the same show every time. With the good ones, you don't notice. Rosenbaum hasn't gotten to that point yet.
  
• WWTC - Mike Gallagher - Another throwback to old-fashioned talk radio - a reminder of the days when "conservative talk" meant interchangeable voices like Bob Grant and...er, a bunch of others, with interchangeable views. Gallagher sounds like everybland, interchangeable network talk host from the seventies or eighties.
  
• FM107 - Ian Punnett - Every time I listen to Ian Punnett, he's tackling some key, life-or-death existential moral issue. I love key live or death existential moral issues. I could listen for hours. And then I reach my destination, and get out of the car. It's frustrating; key moral issues should be discussed in the living room over a glass of something or other, not interrupted by commercials and turned off when you get to work.
  
• WCCO - Tim Russell - OK, this one really is Keillor-fodder - although Russell's a great guy (and one of the highlights of Keillor's actual show...)
  
• MPR - Cacklin' Katherine Lanpher - She's a prima donna, she has call-handling skills that would have gotten her fired in Bismark, and the whole "Diva" thing that's sprung up around her (thanks, City Pages) is totally misplaced - but if you want to stay in touch with what the Volvo-driving Highland Park "No War With Iraq" set is thinking, this is the place.

Middays

• KSTP - Limbaugh - The guy who invented conservative talk as we know it. I don't listen much, but when I do, I love it if only for the carefully-calculated pomposity; I can practically hear fuses blowing in Mac-Groveland.
  
• WWTC - Dennis Prager - Also a throwback - but in a better way. There was a time when talk radio hosts could be intelligent on a broad variety fo topics without leading with their political agenda (not that Prager's is any big mystery). Prager's great at that kind of show. Unfortunately, I rarely have the patience to sit through that kind of show.
• FM107 - Dr. Laura - Part of me really wants to like this show - I really do. There's a place in this world for no-nonsense moral absolutism. But that voice...aaagh. And while I don't mind moral absolutism, it'd be nice if she actually heard what callers said before pronouncing snap judgements. The show gives me at least one cringe moment each time I listen.
  
• WCCO - Kim Jeffries - Ever seen "The Usual Suspects"? Keyser Söze is a Turkish arch-villain that nobody's every seen, but everyone knows. Kim Jeffries is like that on local radio. She's always existed. If Kim Jeffries didn't exist, mankind would have to make her up. Unfortunately, I have no idea what her show is like.
  
• MPR - Midday with Gary Eichten - The best show that's ever been pieced together from random interviews and taped segments. Word has it that Eichten is MPR's token Republican. Indeed.

Early Afternoons

• KSTP - Garage Logic - Soucheray's social observations are dead-on (when they're not maddeningly off). "The Rookie" is an excellent side-kick and a gifted impressionist; word has it his "moron" schtick is an act. But the show has not changed one iota since Bill Clinton's first term, which is a long time to hear that @#%@^ foghorn. If I hear another engine starting up on the air, I'm going to haul off...
  
• WWTC - Michael Medved - Ooozes smart. So smart, he has to carry his extra brain in a backpack. Like Jason Lewis, he's the kind of host I always wanted to be back when I was doing talk - a conservative who doesn't live to just punch liberal buttons.
  
• FM107 - Kevyn Burger - Former TV reporter. Bob Yates' ex-wife. Very funny woman. I haven't heard the show, but I met Burger years ago, and I figure she's as promising as anyone on FM107
  
• MPR - All Edition Things Almanac Talk Of The Nation - Impeccably produced talk, guaranteed to offend nobody. Neil Conan replaced the unlistenable Juan Williams, thankfully.

Afternoon Drive

• KSTP - Jason Lewis - This is the host I wanted to be when I grew up. Only I'd have better bumper music...
  
• WWTC - Hugh Hewitt - Eclectic, conservative, Christian...I should totally dig Hewitt. I'm still waiting for the blinding flash of Hewitt epiphany. UPDATE: I'm told that the flash of epiphany is inevitable. OK, I'll hang in there...
  
• FM107 - Lori and Julia - Like chippendale night at a suburban bowling-alley bar. In hell.
  
• WCCO - Don Shelby - On a station built around throwbacks, Shelby may be the throwbackiest of all.
  
• MPR - All Things Considered - Usually when you hear women on the radio, you picture some gorgeous vision. Then you meet them - and they're pretty much regular women. Lorna Benson is the opposite; she sounds like one of those flinty, Volvo-driving, fiftysomething Mac-Groveland crones. She's not - emphatically not. Corey Flintoff (or, spelled phonetically the way he pronounces it, "Corey FLYNN toff") intones gravely and precisely - I'd like to hear him do voiceovers for WWF. Oh, yeah - they cover the news.

Evenings

• KSTP - Mischke - I've never dropped acid in my life. With Mischke on the air, what'd be the point? No, I mean that as a compliment. Tom and I go way back - he got his "start" doing hilarious, anonymous "Phantom Caller" call-in bits when I was producing Don Vogel. Through tireless investigative work (his brother told me), I uncovered his identity a year before he went public with it, and I've been a fan ever since. And by "fan", I mean in the "what's going to happen next" sense of the term...
  
• WWTC - Savage Nation - Three MORE hours of depressing dyspepsia. I'm serious - every time I hear Weiner Savage, I feel like I've eaten too much slightly-bad ham. Savage is in real life what every liberal thinks of when they caricature conservative talk radio.
  
• FM107 - Dr. Joy Browne - There are glaciers younger than Browne. Before Doctor Laura, before Sally Jesse, there was Joy.
  
• WCCO - Some sports show that I've never listened to.

Notify the media.

By the way, Medved mentioned a "Peter Teel", at a station in Spartanburg, NC yesterday on his show. I'm wondering - could it be "Peter Thiele", former would-be conservative host, board operator and gadfly-without-portfolio from KSTP-AM? The world wonders anxiously.

Posted by Mitch at May 19, 2003 10:20 PM